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  1. Hi
    I'm running a Mac G4 Powerbook, Toast Titanium 5 and have XRay, Cleaner 5, Quicktime Pro 7 etc.

    Basically, I'm trying to convert AVI files into MPEG for VCD. Now I've tried this a couple of times with various files and keep running into snyc problems as well as artificing. They play fine on my computer, but lose sync on my two DVD players.

    I've tried to re-encode them through Toast's VCD creation option with no improvement, and the same goes for Quicktime Pro 7 and XRay.

    I'm running out of patience as well as software. I see lots of discussion on various Win software which allows you to isolate audio etc., and I've looked at Cleaner with a view to doing that, but am utterly clueless and kind of baulk at the 19 hours it's going to take to process less than 30 minutes of video.

    Are there any Mac gurus out there? Can anyone help? I need an idiot's guide/walkthrough for the mentally challenged. I've tried re-encoding on the wife's PC using Nero, but suffer the same audio sync probs. And I can't keep using her machine because she gets cranky.

    Help!
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  2. Member terryj's Avatar
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    Hello Harry, and welcome to our corner of the world!


    First, I must ask, do you have or have you ever downloaded
    any codecs for 3ivx of Divx? most likely you are encountering a codec problem.

    Please try to open the file in Quicktime ( if possible)
    and perform a get info from the
    Movie--> Get movie Properties menu.

    If you can get it open in QT, then post back the results.

    If the file does not open in QT, then you will need to get a copy of VLC,
    and try to open the file there and
    post back the file properties from there.

    If you get stuck, let us know!
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  3. Hi Terryj,
    Thanks for getting back to me. And thanks to whoever for putting my question in the right place (sorry for misposting!).

    Attached is a screen grab of the AVI. Seems like all the stuff I want to convert is in the same format, but I'm jiggered if I know how to sort them!

    All suggestions are welcome.

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  4. Member terryj's Avatar
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    Ok, it looks like the .avi file
    opens in QT just fine,
    and it reads as a MPEG-4 (video)
    and a Mpeg-3 ( audio).

    Does the file have "sync" issues when playing it
    in QT? or does it behave normally?

    Try this:
    Save the files from Quicktime Pro as
    Self-Contained Quicktime Movie files,
    thereby creating a "flattened" file.

    Take the QT movie file, drag and drop that into
    Toast 6's VCD creation window. It should process
    fine to VCD.

    If you have tried this already, or if this doens't work,
    then post back please.
    "Everyone has to learn, so that they can one day teach."
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    When I'm not here, Where can I be found?
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  5. Hi,
    All the files play just fine on my laptop or the wife's PC. It's only when I convert and burn via Toast that I have sound-sync problems. I've also noticed some play/pause probs (the movie plays and then stutters slightly with minor pauses) on VCD.

    I'm burning via Toast Titanium 5.2.3, so don't know whether that's an issue.

    I'll try flattening them via QT Pro as suggested and let you know what happens. Well, since I'm working from home tomorrow, what with London's problems, I should have plenty of burning time to try them out.

    I'll let you know how it goes.
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  6. Well, tried the Save As in QT to create a flattened file and the went through Toast to create a VCD, but I'm still getting sound sync issues and this strange stuttered playback.

    Anything else I can try?
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  7. Member terryj's Avatar
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    Just curious...What type of media are you using?

    Ok, back to the file...let's try to recreate it
    and see if that fixes the problem.

    First, open the file in QT Pro.
    Now, go to File--> Export, and
    select the Option
    Sound to AIFF
    under the options button, select
    48khz, 16bit, Stereo, NO COMPRESSION.

    click ok to save.

    Once that is done now we have to do the video.

    Select File--> Export to QT mov.
    under the options button, select the following:

    check Video Button, Un check Sound button.
    Select the Video Settings button.
    Select Motion-Jpeg-A, a high quality codec
    that should (by default) be on your system.
    The slider should jump to Best Quality.
    Leave the "Frames Per Second" indicator blank.

    Click Ok, then Ok again to save the file.
    It will take a bit, but it will render out
    a HQ QT mov.

    Once that is done, close the open file.

    Now, go and open first the AIFF file in QT Pro.
    Next, open the HQ QT .mov file you just made.

    With the HQ QT movie file selected, go to
    Edit-->Select All
    then
    Edit--> Copy

    then go over and select the AIFF to make it
    the top most selection.

    Go to Edit--> Add Scaled.
    This will properly add the video to the audio.
    once that is done. Play it for a few minutes
    to make sure everything looks and sounds fine.

    once we are satisfied, go to
    File--> Save As

    and choose Self Contained QT .mov file.
    Name it, and then save it .

    Once this is done, since you have Toast 5.23,
    you should have also the Toast Video CD plug-in
    for QT pro. ( this is also known on this board commonly
    as the Toast VCD or Toast Video Legacy plug-in).

    It would have gotten installed by default
    when you got toast 5.23.

    with the file we just saved still open in QT pro,
    select File--Export to Toast Video CD
    in the options tab, select Normal, Fit, NTSC
    ( or in your case PAL?)

    Click OK.

    you should get (after a bit) a muxed .MPEG-1 file.

    Drag and drop THIS FILE into Toast's VIDEO CD tab,
    and burn.
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  8. I'm going to have to print that out Thanks, I'll give it a try (if my tiny brain will give me some help) and get back to you.

    Media-wise I've been using Sony CD-RW and also Maxell CD-RW, and have the same issues with both brands.

    Cheers
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  9. AVIs contain an index that helps them maintain sync despite frame drops and encoding errors. To test if your sync issue is due to a bad AVI, run your AVI through DivxDoctor to properly flatten the movie, and then check the sync of the resulting .MOV file. If the AVI is at fault the MOV DivxDoctor will have created will lose sync in the same way your VCD does, despite the original AVI playing properly in Quicktime.

    If this is the case you will have to use something like FFMPEGX to encode your VCD since it permits you to decode with something other than Quicktime. Once done you can use toast to burn your vcd.

    Alph

    P.S. IMHO, no amount of re-encoding in Quicktime can fix this type of sync issue unless you manually resync a DivxDoctor .mov with something like Sync Hole. Sync Hole has a feature called "Match Tracks" which does what is described above, but I've never seen that achieve a perfect result without a little manual tweaking.
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  10. After a brief holiday to bang my head against the wall and wonder if this was worth it, I've cured the problem.

    Thought I'd post the solution in case future generations of blah blah. Anyway, the way around it, fellow Mac users, is to buy yourselves a copy of Toast Titanium 6.

    I dropped the AVIs into it and it created VCDs that played with absolutely no problems at all. So the tip of the day is: upgrade your software!

    Thanks to everyone for the help.
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  11. Member
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    Im running toast 6.1.1 and still get this problem
    So go figure
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