Audio Sync Issues with Power VCR/Womble MpegVCR

[cgiesler83]

Hey Valnar/Or Anyone That Can Help!

I am a fond user of Virtual VCR v3.0
I love how it can clean up a television signal and make it look fantastic. I have been going through forum after forum trying to find out about synching problems but to no avail. I read Valnar's tips on the settings in Virtual VCR and I have tried that.

This is what i need:

I record eps of Degrassi High(a show up here in Canada) and want to take the commercials out so I can put it on DVD. Here is the problem: The main file is absolutely flawless! I mean in Windows Media Player, and especially Power DVD it plays the file with no sync problems. As soon as i use womble mpeg vcr to edit out the commercials and re save it(NO REENCODING) It slowly becomes out of sync. Is there a simple way to how I can fix this?

I have a P4
2.3 ghz
128mgram Dell
with a 80 gig hard drive.

Someone please help me ASAP!!

Craig Giesler
cgiesler@hotmail.com

[infotech]

I have exactly the same issues witht the same combinations and have been working on it myself. I did discover that running the Womble GOP fixer on the file before you edit it will allow you to produce clips that play correctly by themselves ( without the fixer even the single pieces were out of sync) but when you try to combine them back up with a merge or a dvd author the sound drifts.

Likewise taking a captured file and reencoding it produces a file that can be edited, but that degrades the video and also takes up too much time to be worth it.

Will post here if I find anything else.

-Charles

[infotech]

cgiesler83: Quick update to let you know I am still working on this.

I've been analyzing the Cyberlink video and audio streams ( looking at frames and headers and PTS data) and have determined that the video is actually encoded at 30.00 frames per second instead of 29.97 (even though the headers say 29.97 ). This difference is enough to produce a 2 second mis-sync by the end of an hour clip. The files play standalone because the PTS's (presentation time stamp) synchronize the streams. When you edit/cut a file the PTS's are thrown out by the editors (tmpenc and womble) and the sync is lost. I verified that this happens by writing a program to look at the streams before and after and by using a hex editor. The same thing happens when you de-multiplex a Cyberlink file and multiplex it back. I am making progress on a way to overcome this and will post when it is ready along with more detail.

Note: I also wrote a program to rewrite all the headers with the correct bit rate of 30 and the resulting file can be edited correctly. I need to spend some more time getting the exact steps down, because there is still the issue of tmpgenc dvd author not recognizing a GOP cut from womble and womble will not combine more than 3 clips without getting an error. It may be a glitch in my test source file - I have to experiment a little more. Also, dvd author won't let you encode a 30.00 frame per second file to dvd, so that neeeds to be addressed.

-Charles

[alandla]

I had the same problems wieh PowerVCRII or Womble and found that if I just edit out the commercials in the TMPGEnc DVD author program, the resulting DVD was great with no sync problems.

[infotech]

Alandla,

I tried to do that but it is still out of sync for me. There aren't many options in dvd author, did you have to do something special?

I've got a couple of forum members trying out a program I wrote that adjusts the audio to match the video stream so icapture can be cut with womble or tmpgenc merge and edit without sync problems.

Oh, and what profile settings do you use to capture in Power VCR?

thanks.

[SatStorm]

Latest verson (3.14) has less issues than the versions before.

There is a way to join lot's of files. Just copy all the parts you wish to include to your final file. Those parts gonna appear in the left vertical bar (the white one). Then drag & drop from there the wanted parts and join them to one new file.

Mpeg2VCR don't accept files from windvr and powervcr easy. But those two programs don't produce and totally compatibly mpeg 2 files, right?

Solution: Use latest mainconcept to capture and encode realtime to mpeg 2. Better quality with lower bitrate (2500kb/s @ 1/2D1 looks excellent), no lipsynch issues and files acceptable from mpeg2vcr and all the authoring applications (which allow mpeg 2 import with mp2 sound)

[alandla]

I tried to do that but it is still out of sync for me. There aren't many options in dvd author, did you have to do something special?

Oh, and what profile settings do you use to capture in Power VCR?

I didn't do anything special in TMPGEnc dvd author. It just seem to work the best out of the 3 programs to remove commercials. I think it is just because it gives a frame by frame edit so that the cuts are more precise but I don't really know.

My profile settings in PowerVCR II required a registry hack to add resolution of 352x480. Then I just selected a bitrate of 4000 (people here seem to say that any higher is waste for VHS/tv or 8mm captures which is all I do) and quality setting of 3 (I tried to set it higher but it doesn't seem to want to go any higher)

My only issue now is that after I have the mpeg2 converted to vob files for DVD, I can't seem to convert them back to mpeg2 if I wanted to re encode to a lower bitrate or edit them, etc. I guess I just have to get the capture right the first time.

[lordsmurf]

PowerVCR makes 44.1 audio with 48hz headers and then the PTS is all off. It's a bad program. I'm still trying to find ways around it.