Newbie frustrated with audio/synch problems

[Gplracer]

I am having audio/synch problems. I captured some tv with my leadtek expert card to mpeg2. I then used TMPEGen DVD Author to author it to a dvd. The file is fine but after authoring the audio and video are out of synch. I used the DVD NTSC format option on the leadtek. Here are my specs

Athlon 1700+ at 215x11=2365mhz
512mb Corsair DDR
Western Digital 120gb HD with 8 meg buffer
Pioneer 4x DVD writer
420 Watt PS
Epox 8RDA+ motherboard

[Barnabas]

The file is not actually fine, you were dropping video frames. The capturing software puts in padding to keep it in sync, but that's lost when you cut or author it for DVD.

Download PVAStrumento and run it on your file. It will show you if you droppped frames or not. If you did not drop too many frame, less than 25, it can fix it. If you dropped more frames, you are dead.

http://members.aon.at/cinch/pvas2030.zip

I would guess you are capturing from video tape? That can always be a problem. A TBC (time base corrector) will help. A decent one starts at $179.00

[Gplracer]

I am capturing from a Leadtek Expert tv card. It appears to have dropped frames as you stated? What is the reason for this my cpu at 215x11=2365mhz should be plenty fast enough. I also have a gf4 4200 and a western digital 120gb hard drive with the 8 meg buffer. All of this is on a new install of windows xp pro. Thanks!!!

[Barnabas]

Hi,

What is the source, video tape? Capping from video tape is a real bitch at times.

It does not matter how fast your box is, if the source has problems, you are going to drop frames.

You can get around some of this by capping to AVI with VirtualDub, then converting to mpeg2 with TMPGEnc. VirtualDub has an option to drop audio frames when video frames drop, so it stay in sync.

Your capture card does not have HARDWARE encoding, so your real-time capture is done via software. ANYTHING going on at that time with your computer can cause drop frames.

This sort of problem is quite common, even those of us like myself who convert stuff all the time run into it.

[scottvf]

My friend has the same problem (but it's not dropped frame problem). He has a TV LEADTEK/DELUXE TV2000XP TV/FM and Leadtek winfast FX5600 NV31 256M T/D/VIVO video card. The voices are not in sync when captured as dvd mpg2 but is when captured as uncompressed. It shows no dropped frames after capturing.

[Gplracer]

Thanks for the replies. I will try to capture uncompressed. How much space will I need per hour for tv capture on my tv card? I tried capturing vcd and it did not drop any frames.

[scottvf]

Takes up a little over 1gb per min. 1 hour might be 66 to 77 gigs. I've used vegas 4.0 to captured with my computer. I also have a leadtek video vivo card. But my friend has the tv card to record programs when he's not home. But vegas you can't program to record when your not home. You have to start it manually and stop it manually also I think vegas takes up little less space when capturing. 66gigs for 1 hour.

Also make sure your settings are right.
On the right side of the checked box "capture audio" Make sure Master stream is audio or you can have out of sync with uncompressed as well. I also have frame rate at 29.97 since I use ntsc format.

[scottvf]

I would also get another hard drive just for video. Like a 250gb. You will have less trouble if you use a seperate hd just for capturing video. I would suggest a sata drive since it's faster then an ata one

[Barnabas]

Thanks for the replies. I will try to capture uncompressed. How much space will I need per hour for tv capture on my tv card? I tried capturing vcd and it did not drop any frames.

The fact that VCD did not drop frames but mpeg2 did tells your computer is getting taxed too much.

I have tried many capture cards, and have done reviews on a few. What I use now for my work are the following:

1: Hauppauge PVR-250
2: Hauppauge WinTV AVI cap card.

I use the PVR-250, which does hardware real-time encoding for most work, but for troublesome tapes, like VHS tapes recorded at the slowest speed, I have to use the WinTV AVI card.

I have 2nd 80 gig drive, that's for capturing only.
From tape, you want to capture in VirtualDub at 352x480. That will take about 40 gigs for about 85 minutes of capturing via the Huffy compression codec. All of this is done on a slow Athlon 750 mhz cpu too! I run about 50% cpu usage while capping this way.

[MrMungus]

I am having audio/synch problems. I captured some tv with my leadtek expert card to mpeg2. I then used TMPEGen DVD Author to author it to a dvd. The file is fine but after authoring the audio and video are out of synch. I used the DVD NTSC format option on the leadtek.

I've had exactly the same problems with TMPGEnc DVD Author and dropped frames (whatever the cause).

What's strange is that Author loses synch on the resulting DVD (as does DVD Lab) but Ulead DVD MovieFactory produces a DVD with proper synch. I wish I knew why.

[Barnabas]

Movie Factory does not seem to make a 100% compliant properly authored DVD's, while the others do. Must have something to do with it.