Yet Another Video/Audio Sync problem

[knights89]

Hello Everyone,

I am a newbie. I thought I had this DVD video thing licked, but I am at the end of my rope. I have scoured through the forums for the past couple of days, but I can not find an answer to my issue. So far, until about 2 weeks ago, I was using my setup(see below) to record tv shows & movies to watch later, or burn onto dvd. No problems. I decided to transfer some home movies from VHS . First, I copied the videos (5 of them) onto my hard drive, approximately 1.5 hours each using the Leadtek WinFast PVR (see below). When I viewed (after the problem) sections of the videos in WinFast PVR, PowerDVD, or Windows Media Player, they all are synced correctly. I then used TMPGEnc DVD Author (a friend turned me on to the quick author time) to make small edits (black screen at the beginning and end), convert to DVD compliant files and burn to DVD-R. Upon viewing the first DVD-R, I noticed that the sound started out of sync about 2 seconds, gradually increasing to 12-13 seconds. This is on all 5 DVD-R's. I thought maybe I was not capturing correctly, and tried again using the Direct DVD setting (MPEG-2 setting gives you 1 large MPEG-2, the DVD setting gives you .99GB MPEG-2's, of which I notice the files do not transition well), with the same results. I contacted TMPGEnc, and received an e-mail response of 3 words - "Change your settings.". ??????(To What?)

Looking through the forums, I found a thread that said to "Try loading the MPEG file into VirtualDubModb and check the frame rate to see if the video and audio match...both should be 29.970fps". I downloaded VirtualDubMod, and opened the file with it. I received a message
"[!] MPEG: Anachronistic or discontinuous timestamp found in video stream 0 at byte position 2755141650, from 315788827 to 315851893. This may indicate an improper join."
There are 4 entries similar to this. I scanned the instructions, but I could not find out how to check the Video/Audio sync or to correct the synchronization. I played with the program for a few hours, but the instructions are lacking. I gave up on it when the conversion I tried said there was over 13 hours remaining - seems kinda long.

I tried Nero 6, but the encoding took about 15 hours, and then popped up an error message "Your Media is not large enough for this file" something like that.

This is what I am looking for:
1) What is the problem.
2) How do I correct it?
(Please do not say something like "Use blankprogram". Most video programs I have found to be very bad with instructions especially if you have problems. I would like a detailed explanation of what the problem is and what steps to take to correct it. Remember - I'm a newbie - I can follow directions, but I do not have a degree in video engineering to figure out the intricacies of these programs)
I do the video stuff with with almost nothing running in the background (only a firewall).

My Box:
OS Windows XP
CPU AMD Athlon XP2200+
Memory 512 MB
Video Cap Leadtek WinFast TV2000XP Expert
Video Card ATI Raedon 7000
Audio (OB) SoundMAX
DVD writer Pioneer DVR-106D
DVD Media TDK, Princo, Matrix, Lonestar

Programs:
Winfast PVR - The capture settings are: Video Codec - MPEG-2 Codec, Capture Size - 720 x 480, Bitrate 6000Kbps, Mpeg-2 Bitrate Mode - Variable, Video Quality - 700, Target Data Rate (Kbps) - 4000, Frame Rate - 29.970 fps, Audio Codec - MPEG-1 Audio-Layer II , Bitrate - 224 kbps.
TMPGEnc DVD Author
VirtualDubMod
ULead DVD Video Studio
ULead DVD MovieFactory
CloneDVD
DVD Decrypter
Nero6
PowerDVD

Winfast PVR, ULead & PowerDVD came with my DVR-106D, the others (obviously you know this) TMPGEnc, CloneDVD & Nero I paid for. I do not feel it is money well spent.

Sorry I made this such a long post, I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Thanks for your help.

[sanjayk]

knights89,

Try to capture with mpeg2 bitrate mode set to constant bitrate (CBR) instead of VBR.

[snafu099]

Myself trying to use the winfast pvr software was that it was NOT captureing dvd compliant files and when I tried to author(no edits) then with Ulead MF2 it insisted on re-rendering

With one ver of pvr the mpg properties showed compliant resolution but the audio was 44100 which is not dvd compliant

While it works fine for viewing on pc, I got a Compro usb VideoMate LIve to replace it. My time, frustration, hair were not woth the extra money I spent

The problem with the winfast seemed to be that when I created a profile using a lower bitrate, it only did the audio at 44100. This seemed to be the case with all the pre-sets that I used as basis to modify

[knights89]

Thanks guys, I will try and let you know.

[knights89]

UPDATE

Hi, its been a while (DUH!).

Well, I ended up still having this problem. All along I have been recording to my hard drives (I ended up purchasing a few (3 Seagates that fell off the truck - shhhh!)). So last week, I figured I would try again, taking the mpeg2 files and converting them to dvd. Same results. I have only tried a baseball game. If I view the mpeg in any media program, it looks and sounds fine. I first tried TMPGEnc DVD Author to edit and create the dvd files. Upon viewing the finished product, the video is faster than the sound. Each half inning runs approximately 7 - 8 minutes. The sound is behind about 3-4 seconds for each clip. One interesting note about this try - in one of the clips, the video is so far ahead of the sound, the video does not stop where I placed the cut. So I have about 5 seconds of a commercial with the game announcers still talking. I then tried ULEAD DVD Movie Factory, and ULEAD Video Studio 7, both with the same sound result. Well now the big message - I had been back and forth with tech support for TMPGEnc and ULEAD. Both came down with the same answer - there is an encoding problem with the TV tuner card. So I called Leadtek tech support, and this is the answer I was given "There are many factors that effect the synchronization between video and audio. The speed of the processor, the RAM memory, the access time of your hard drive, the access time of your dvd writer. All of this things will create sync problems. Your card uses a software encoder. You are going to have sync issues. Unfortunately there is no fix for this." What? It didn't say anything about this on the box, or on their website. Have a look http://www.leadtek.com/multimedia/winfast_tv2000xp_expert_1.html There is a note at the very bottom that was not there before "Note The capture performance depends on the system configuration and video parameters setting"

OK - what to do?
Is there another program I can use to capture off television, where I will not have this problem?
Is there a way to correct the possible issue with the mpegs I have already made?
Thanks.

[didikai]

UPDATE


OK - what to do?
Is there another program I can use to capture off television, where I will not have this problem?
Is there a way to correct the possible issue with the mpegs I have already made?
Thanks.

Pinnacle Studio 9.4 fixed all my audio sync capture problems.
No other capture software likes my setup.

[knights89]

Thank you, didikai, but from what I am seeing in the reviews alot of people have trouble with the software.

Any other thoughts?

[Fairhope]

I can't give you a detailed description on how to do it (since I haven't had to try just yet), but there is a program called VideoRedo which claims to have an option to automatically check for audio/video sync errors and correct them as well as a manual option so that you can adjust the video or audio by micro seconds to bring both in sync.

The program does many other things as well and has gotten some very good reviews. You may want to research this tool to see if it is what you might need.

Ty

[Abond]

So let try:
Get ReJig. Start it, click on file mode. Click add, brouse to your unedited mpg. click done. On the right screen of the rejig you will see the streams of your mpg file. Upper is the video atream. Mark it with the mouse (click on it) and click demux. Save the file (you need to give only a name, not extension). It will save a file name.m2v.
Now mark the audio stream. Click demux. Save it. This is blah.mpa
Now download and install Cuttermaran. Load the video from rejig (m2v). Load the audio (if the audio has the same name, without the extension, Cuttermaran will load it automatically). Now look at the duration of both streams. If there is significant difference you are out of luck (in sense it is difficult to work it out)
Well here you can cut what you need (or what you do not need).

[didikai]

Thank you, didikai, but from what I am seeing in the reviews alot of people have trouble with the software.

Any other thoughts?

I went through nightmares when I first tried capture software. Each had it's own failing. Mainly audio sync. Pinnacle Studio 9.4 works flawlessly for me. I can capture, author, edit, add titles and effects, all with no problem. But If I try an earlier or later version of Studio they give me problems.

Another thing I found was that every user has their own preferences for software. One will sing the praise of a piece of software and another will tell you it's a piece of crap. But I believe it's because we are all looking for specific capabilities of a piece of software. Each software will excell in one field and fail in another.
After what I went through I'm just glad I found one that is simple to use and does the job. I think Pinnacle fills that need.

[knights89]

Thank you Fairhope, Abond & didikai. I will try each and let you know what happens.