Random sync problems with TMPEG

[gromit69]

This has been driving me mad for weeks now!

I have been editing my wedding video using premiere, and want to create a DVD quality mpeg for mastering to video, and also an SVCD version for giving to more technical friends. Through the great guides on this site, I've managed to get my final avi from Premiere (6.0) converted into something that TMPEG can read (using the Canopus converter), and then from there into the two mpeg files.

However, playing back the mpegs there are sync problems. About 5/10 minutes in to the video there is about a seconds delay on the sound (so the mouth finishes moving before the speech). I've been trying to work out if this was a fixed offset, or a drift getting worse later in the video.
I tried the trick of separating the audio from the video, fixing the lengths of them both with virtualdub, and then ecoding without a corrected frame-rate. This caused more problems rather than fixed it though.
I have just descovered, however, that the sound is perfectly in sync later in the video (about 20/30 minutes in).

The interesting points to make are that;
In the ATI file player, the sync is fine.
On a different machine with a Creative Encore card, the sound is out of sync (both MPEG files)
On my DVD player (Toshiba), the SVCD is out of sync (not checked later in the video yet).

If anyone can *please* help me with this, I'd be really greatful! Its driving me insane!

Cheers
Ian

[Tommyknocker]

Congratulations on your nuptials. Have you tried using VirtualDub on your AVI file to see if you have any bad frames?

[gromit69]

Thanks for the reply!

I double checked after your post, and no - there are no bad frames.

Also, scrap what I said about the audio being in sync in some places and not in others - it seems as though the whole thing is offset throughout the video (after it has been encoded).

At the moment I'm trying (by trial and error) different audio offsets to see which one works best.

Quite why PC mpeg players are fine with it, but 'proper' DVD players (the Encore card and my Toshiba player) have sync problems, I am mystified!

Thanks again!

[gromit69]

I finally fixed it!

If anyone cares, it was because the video audio was at 32k, the backing music at 44.1k and I was rendering the whole thing at 48k. Apparently premiere doesn't like mixing 44.1 with the other 2!

And now everything is perfectly in sync

[gromit69]

OK, the fix was a lie - it had broken the next time I watched the disc.

However, I did manage to fix it in the end.
There were two things wrong

1) It seems that TMPGEnc, as good as it is, doesn't mux very well. TO solve this, encode audio and video as elementary streams, and then use bbmpeg to mux them

2) Nero doesn't seem to burn SVCDs well either. I have a feeling this is just me and my set up in some way - I had to use VOB in the end which worked wonderfully!

Hope this helps someone else!

Ian