VHS audio out of sync, but TV capture fine? huh?

[LashBot21x]

I tried searching the forums, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer for my question. I have an ATI AIW Radeon 9800.. and I tried capturing some video off of some VHS tapes. I've tried multiple programs, including VirtualDub, Virtual VCR and Pinaccle Studio 8. However, I notice that the sound gradually goes out of sync, and at about 4 minutes in, the sound is not at all sync'd up with the video.

I've read that dropped frames could be the cause of this, but this has even happened in which there were (according to the programs) NO dropped frames in the capture. I can't seem to figure out what's going on.

On capturing some home recorded tapes, I notice the sound goes out of sync right after, say, a commercial break.

Strangely enough, I tried capturing right off of the TV signal -- no tapes -- and there seems to be no problems with it.

[Tommyknocker]

Check for bad frames first. Then try to resynch your audio and video this guide.

[FulciLives]

You might also want to do some reading up on the LORDSMURF website.

Good Luck

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[bottle-necked]

I notice in your computer profile you are using only 1 hard drive. If you would check my profile you would find that I have at least 1 drive dedicated strictly for video capture. There's a reason for that. (actually a dual drive RAID-0 Array)

With only 1 hard drive you're taking a chance that Windows will not up and suddenly decide to 'Run Indexing Service', 'Create a Restore Point', 'Write to the Swapfile', etc right in the middle of your capture. You get the picture.

Capturing video requires at least a dedicated Hard Drive. It's not that 1 drive won't work, it's just that it won't work 'all the time'. That may be why some of your captures have sync problems and some don't.

Good luck.

[Nelson37]

Have you tried commercially-recorded tapes?

Your problem is a common one with VCR conversion. There is timebase information contained within the video stream, this is often lost/corrupted when played back thru a VCR, particularly a recording made with multiple segments. Bad frames can aggravate this but are not the exclusive cause.

Some suggestions - Sima Copymaster, $39.95. Device which replaces timebase info, also coincidently removes most Macrovision. DeMux/ReMux in any software, ReStream, or PVAStrumento might work for you. Also try a different VCR, some are more susceptible to this than others.

Also, if you could not find tons of useful information on audio synch problems under similar circumstances then you did not expend much effort on searching. Probably the number one problem posted.