Audio sync problems - I need another MPEG2 editor or what?

[AnitaPeterson]

Hello everyone,

I'm making an effort to copy my laserdisc collection to DVD, but no matter what I do, the audio gets desynchronized in the final file. Is there a any particular editing program that could solve this?

Here is what I do:

1. I copy my LD to Digital Video tape.
2. I connect the DV player to USB InstantDVD 2.0.
3. I record the files as MPEG2, 48 KHz, 4.5 MB/s, VBR and tweaked color and sharpness.
4. The resulting files have perfect audio synch, BUT...
5. When I merge the captured files into a final one, then use DVD Movie Factory to author a nice DVD disc with menus, the audio will get out of synch in certain parts (it "drifts" away, then gets locked back on). It seems that even before authoring, the merged file has this synch problem no matter what editing program I use.

This only happens with VBR captures.

I tried CBR, but the video gets really pixelated at 4.5 MB/s and even at higher rates, such as 5 MB/s, and it's very inconvenient to put the resulting 117 minutes film on 2 DVD discs. So I MUST have VBR, because it is smaller and it also looks much better (no difference from the source DV that I can see on my 27" TV).

So far, I tried joining the files with TMPGEnc, Ulead VideoStudio 7 and another AVI RM MPEG Joiner. Every time, the sound gets desynchronized, although the files that I start with have no problem playing whatsoever.

Dropped frames, or inequal audio and video stream lengths? Not likely. TMPGEnc reports EXACTLY the same length for audio and video when I'm trying to paste two or three files together. So why aren't things coming out the way they should? And I know for sure that I'm not losing frames, because I've carefully watched several files, trying to determine what is going on.

What do you people use to join VBR files without desync?

[snafu099]

As on ADS forum:
Why don't you just cap striaght from ld to IDVD-2 at 4mb/s. No sync problems. I have done several 6 hr caps at CIF with no problems when played back on dvd-tv

4.5mb/s is not a pre set rate in any IDVD-2 software. If you created a custom one, you may have gotten it wrong

[AnitaPeterson]

Why don't you just cap striaght from ld to IDVD-2 at 4mb/s. No sync problems. I have done several 6 hr caps at CIF with no problems when played back on dvd-tv

4.5mb/s is not a pre set rate in any IDVD-2 software. If you created a custom one, you may have gotten it wrong

Hi there, I didn't know you're a member here as well

I assume you mean I should record @ 4 MB/s with CBR? The problem, like I said, is that the image gets really pixelated and/or blocky if I do that. In my first post, I mentioned that even at 5 MB/s I still gets blockiness...

I'm really upset about all these complications.

[snafu099]

Yes I understood what you posted. My reply to use 4mb/s is it is a pre-set templete and you may have made an error creating a 4.5mb/s custom setting. The other part of the reply deals with the logic of your method to begin with. The IDVD2 will accept any analog input and hardware encode to mpg1 or mpg2. Either the ld player has rca out which will connect direct ot IDVD unit or it has coax which can be passed thru a vcr with rca outputs to the IDVD. Either way the ld is NOT putting out digital signal. You are adding an extra step of encoding to the process which is not necessary and MAYBE causing some of your problems.

Most movies are around 2hr, so I use the 4mb/s bitrate and can't tell differance from source be it vhs, dvd or tv.

My IDVD2 has been very tolorent of poor vhs tapes, if the tape stutters, the cap stutters at that point also but audio sync is held (not using "split-stream)

[steptoe]

Try this link I found one day while browsing due to boredom, it might be exactly what you need, or might at least give you some tips :

Its a complete guide by somebody who transfered their laserdisc collection to DVD. Listing hardware, software, possible problems, etc, etc

http://geocities.com/mmelancholic/lddvd/guide_main.html

[steptoe]

Also found this thats on here :

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=191828