Movies play on camcorder in full sync, but not when transferred to the comp

[shashgo]

I have a toshiba camilio hd30 camcorder. The movies I record with it can be played back perfectly on the camcorder and the audio video sync completely. But when I transfer these movie to my computer and try to play them back on the computer, there is huge lag between the audio and video. The audio tracks plays at normal speed but the video plays very slowly. I thought I could fix this with virtual dub but that doesnt work. I first got the 'Could not locate decompressor for H264' and the video clip would not load in virtualdub, so I downloaded and installed ffdshow.

After the ffdshow compressor was installed, I was able to load the clip into virtualdub, but then I got another error, the first was about the 'variable bitrate' but when I tried to play the video in virtualdub, I got 'No audio decompressor could be found to decompress the source audio format'

Why is this happening and how can I fix this sync problem, so I can begin burning the movies with complete sync

[hech54]

Load the clip into GSpot and let it tell you what codecs you need.

[poisondeathray]

Are your listed computer specs correct ?

500Mhz Pentium (?) won't be enough for h.264, even SD

[turk690]

500MHZ Pentium? Are u serious?

[shashgo]

the processor is a 2 GHz AMD turion

I ran Gspot, but it gave me no useful information. The problem is that the audio video is completely out of sync when I play a movie on my computer, but it plays properly on the camcorder. So I can hear audio and see video on the computer but its so much out of sync, the video plays very slowly while the audio plays normally.

GSpot says the codecs are installed but I get an error when I try to load the video into virtualdub. What do i do

[Ai Haibara]

You may have the audio codec installed, but only enabled as a DirectShow filter, which VirtualDub can't normally use. What codec does GSpot mention the video as using?

ffdshow will likely be able to handle it, but it'll probably need to be enabled, first. (ffdshow doesn't have all of its supported codecs enabled, by default.)

[shashgo]

This is what Gspot says
Audio Codec: 0x00ff (AAC)
Video codec: H264 Name: H264/MPEG-4/AAC

It says both codecs are installed already

[poisondeathray]

mediainfo (view=>text) copy & paste info back here

a single core 2GHz turion? it's probably too slow if this is HD footage. CPU can't keep up, so it drops frames, causing desync

[shashgo]

General
Complete name : C:\Users\CompUser\Videos\IMAG0005.AVI
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 486 MiB
Duration : 8mn 20s
Overall bit rate : 8 135 Kbps
Recorded date : 2009-02-15
Writing library : AMBA
ICRT : 21:31:02

Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=8
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 8mn 20s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 8 001 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.129
Stream size : 477 MiB (98%)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : FF
Duration : 8mn 20s
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 7.64 MiB (2%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 21 ms (0.64 video frame)

[Ai Haibara]

This is what Gspot says
Audio Codec: 0x00ff (AAC)
Video codec: H264 Name: H264/MPEG-4/AAC

It says both codecs are installed already

Yes, but as I mentioned, GSpot doesn't tell you (in the codec information lines) whether or not the codecs installed are DirectShow filters, which VirtualDub can't normally use (unless, perhaps, you install the DirectShow plugin, or frameserve via AviSynth). You can try enabling the AAC codec in ffdshow: open "Audio decoder configuration" from ffdshow's Start Menu folder, click on "Codecs" in the left pane of the window, then find the entry for AAC in the right-hand pane. Under the Decoder column, make sure AAC is not set to 'disabled.'



You can also try the AAC ACM Codec, but as I haven't tried it, I don't know how well it works.

[shashgo]

Ai Habara,

The codec AAC is present in the ffdshow audio configuration, and it is enabled and shows libfaad2 just like you have in your attachment. The video is still completely out of sync with the audio.

I think that since it is the video that is playing at a slower speed than normal, wouldnt it be something that would involve a video codec? The audio plays at a regular rate so do we need to check anything about an audio codec?

[poisondeathray]

you need at least a dual core to play back 1080p h.264 smoothly with cpu decoding (playback only), and at least a quad core for editing

enable ffmpeg-mt in the ffdshow video configuration under h264/avc (mt = multithread). If you are on a single core, you are out of luck

if you have a compatible gpu, you might get DXVA working with MPCHC (graphic card is used to decode)

none of this will affect conversion - ie. if you converted to something smaller resolution and less compressed that your computer can handle (or dvd-video) it will be in sync

[shashgo]

poison,

But when I took videos with my other camcorder, athey played fine on my computer. So is there a way of converding the high def video to regular non high def video, so that it will play okay?

[poisondeathray]

But when I took videos with my other camcorder, athey played fine on my computer. So is there a way of converding the high def video to regular non high def video, so that it will play okay?

But what were the characteristics of the other videos? I suspect it was different like a SD format . use mediainfo

HD and heavily compressed formats like h.264 are very CPU intensive



Yes, you can convert to SD video and it should play ok. Look in the tools section under video converters. The format and specs and settings you would choose depends on what you plan to do with it, or how you intend to play it (for compatiblity issues e.g. devices)

[shashgo]

poison, okay im looking for the converting tool, but what do i look for in that ist on the tools page

[poisondeathray]

Try something like xvid4psp

Under format, select "AVI Hardware" setting, this will automatically resize and make it compatible with DivX compatible DVD players

The quality will be very poor compared to the orignal file, you're going from HD => SD

I think you're better off upgrading your hardware

[shashgo]

poison, well what I eventually want to do is burn those movies to dvd, and with the way it is, without sync, will they burn properly?

[poisondeathray]

Try avstodvd

Yes, I think it's only your underpowered CPU causing studdery playback/frame drops . It can't keep up to realtime.
Converting it should be in sync, only the conversion will be slow

But DVD is a standard definition format as well - it will be very low quality compared to the original

[shashgo]

poison,

so should i first convert using the xvid4psp converter and then use the avs2dvd to burn the video

[poisondeathray]

no, directly into avs2dvd

each time you convert using a lossy format, you lose some quality

[shashgo]

so avs2dvd first converts it to a format where the sync is perfect and then i burn the video to dvd using diffent program right?

[davexnet]

I don't think the file is out of synch itself; rather, it's the playback experience because the computer (cpu) cannot
keep up with the realtime speed. Converting directly in AvstoDvd should be fine, since there is no realtime consideration -
it will take the time that's necessary.

[shashgo]

poison, I tried to do the avs2dvd but somehwere along the process I got an error. I forget what it said exactly but it had to with not being able to convert audio

[guns1inger]

Hard to fix without having the actual error message.

[shashgo]

poison

actually i got it to work. My videos are being converted properly. If I have several video clips how do I burn them all to one dvd disk, and how will i know how many clips will fit on one disk

[guns1inger]

You just add each as a title. AVStoDVD will adjust bitrates to make them fit. I suggest you keep the total running time to between 60 - 74 minutes for maximum quality

[shashgo]

Gun,

Thanks.

Also one other question I had was: avs2dvd converts all these h264 videos to dvd format. But what I want is to be able to edit them, is there a way I can do that

[guns1inger]

What sort of editing ? Editing should ideally be done prior to converting, especially when converting to lossy formats like H264/mpeg-2 etc.

If your editing needs are modest - simple trims and cuts, no transitions or effect - change the output of AVStoDVD so it outputs an mpg file instead of a DVD structure (If you already have a DVD structure, use VOB2MPG to extract the content to an MPG file without re-encoding). You can now use an mpg editor to trim the file. There are a couple of free ones - mpg2cut2, for example - and some low priced commercial options - Womble MPG VCR or Video Wizard, VideoRedo - that can edit MPG files without re-encoding. The commercial offerings have frame accurate cutting - not sure about the free versions.

Once you have edited the videos you can load them back into AVStoDVD, tick the preference that stops it re-encoding compliant video/audio, and have it author a finished disc. Or you can use something like GUIForDVDAuthor or DVD Styler to author you videos into a disc with more polished menus.

[shashgo]

Gunslinger,

What is the difference in the different type of output: Elementary mpeg2, muxed mpeg2, dvd folder structure and iso udf image? Also, the audio/video in my footage was synced properly when I set the output to dvd structure. However, when I chose elementary mpeg2 as the output, there was no audio.

anyway, my original file has extension vi and the converted to dvd tructure has extension vob. which would be easier to edit and if so how.