Audio going out of synch... using Adobe Encore

[Joe Dude]

Hello

I've been reading up what I can find for audio/video synch problems and haven't come across (yet) anything that applies to my situation.

I've captured video from LD via my Sony DV Cam. The AVI files have no dropped frames. I then encoded to MPEG-2 (both capture and encoded done in Premiere Pro); I've tried both multiplexed and elementary streams. The multi-MPEG-2 plays back fine in Windows Media Player - no synch problems.

I create an project in Encore, drop my video and audio in. It previews fine from within Encore (again, I tried both multiplex and elementary streams).

I've gotten it to create a DVD Video folder on my PC to play back in PowerDVD, shows synch problems. I've made DVD images and burnt to DVD-RW, shows synch problems in stand-alone player and PowerDVD on the PC.

Any suggestions or pointers would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[jkapa]

Whatis the sound compressor in the AVI file?

[Joe Dude]

I used SurCode Dolby Digital that is bundled with Premiere Pro. Set to 192kbps, 2.0 (Dolby Surround flag on). Thanks.

[dcsos]

unless you purchase that SUR CODE encoder thing the ENCORE bundle will time out the next time you use it!(3 strikes and its out)
So why dpon't you try outputting a WAV file and see if the sync changes

[Joe Dude]

Hi

Unfortunately with PCM the final movie won't fit on one disc which is why I tried the SurCode encoder. Yep, realize only three tries... so I got two more before I need to track down an freeware audio encoder.

I'll see if I can squish the movie, temporarily, in order to use PCM.

But the thing is... the master DV AVI files play fine. The multiplexed MPEG file plays fine, even the elementary streams play fine (from within Encore using its Preview mode)... so I suspect Encore is doing something to the files before it builds the final DVD image that is buggering it up.

[n8wheel]

Just a thought...
I encountered the identical problem with one or two MPEGs from my capture card. The MPEGs play fine on the computer, but the authored files are out of synch.
Womble (free trial available) reports audio PTS errors on the MPEG. I was not able to figure out how to fix using Womble.
There is a free program called PVAStrumento that also says it will fix audio synch problems. Give it a try.

[learner1]

PCM itself will not fit on the disc, but Encore can
encode the PCM to AC3 which will fit. Therefore
export audio from Premiere or Premiere Pro as
PCM and have Encore handle the rest.

[dcsos]

and Encore's AC3 encoder is good for the DURATION!

also there's some difference to ENCORE between TYPE 1 DV and TYPE 2 DV

I didn't even know there were two types of capture till I bought Premier Pro..This beast cannot use type 1 files (or is it type 2?)

ANY WAY..this is not your problem cause you captured using Premiere Pro but I'm willing to bet ENCORE HATES one type of DV capture file

[learner1]

Another thing to check is your AVI audio setting to
make sure it is 48KHz and 16bits. Sometimes
resampling audio from 44.1KHz to 48KHz causes
audio sync problem.

[wwaag]

joe dude

You may have an audio sync problem, but you won't know for sure until you create your DVD and play it back on your TV. In my system at least (similar in specs to yours), I've found that use of PowerDVD, Windows Media player, or the Moonlight Elecard player are not good predictors whatsoever of how the final video will look/sound when played in a regular DVD player. Suggest you write your video folder to a RW DVD and test it on your home system first. Then you'll know for sure. Just a suggestion.

wwaag

[Joe Dude]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

The audio is captured as 16-bit, 48kHz just verified to make sure.

I also burned to DVD-RW and it is going out of synch on me when playing back on a stand-alone player as well as from PowerDVD.

Master AVI files and even the encoded MPEG-2 with muxed audio (and demuxed) plays back fine in Encore's Preview mode, but once a DVD image has been built it is buggered.

Still trying to determine the cause. Checking out womble and PVAStrumento as well right now to see if MPEG-2 files have any issues.

Thanks!

[Joe Dude]

Hi

I read another posting in another forum here and a guy reported a lot of problems using the bundled encoder (MainConcept) in Premiere Pro and in particular he mentioned audio synch problems.

Encore uses the same one which might explain why I still got that when I used an AVI and WAV as assets and let it do the encoding.

I'm trying out some other encoders to see if that is the issue.

[character12345]

I got this info from Sonic MyDVD after similar audio/video synch problems. Basically, the preview and MPEG2 are fine, its when the file is transcoded to DVD MPEG2 that problems arise. As far as I can tell, this is due to the separation of audio and video during the process. Each is transcoded separately and then put back together. If anyone else has info on this topic, I'd love to hear it.

One solution is to record MPEG2 files in "DVD-Ready" format. You can find more info on "DVD-Ready" on the sonic web site. Wish I knew beforehand as I no longer have the source video...

Title
Audio is out of synch on final DVD/cDVD

Description
Playback Issues

Symptom
When I play back my DVD/VCD the audio doesn't match the picture OR it speeds up a few minutes in OR slowly goes of synch.

Solution
This is usually caused by video frames being dropped either while the file is being digitized into the computer or when the file is converted into the Mpeg format. This happens outside of the DVDit! software and is not necessarily a bug with DVDit! By following the DVD-Specification for the most compatibility with DVD players, Sonic’s software “demuxes” the interleaved Audio and Video files. Demuxing is basically pulling the files apart and putting them back together into a .VOB file.

It is common for these files to preview in sync with Windows Media Player but are out of sync on the final dvd. The longer the file, the more progressively the file falls out sync. This is because the video is following the audio timestamp for playback. When the audio and video are separated, the video is shorter than the audio due to the dropped video frames.

1) The audio from your original files are the wrong sample rate. This usually happens when audio files are exported from an editor or camera at 32k or various other sample rates that are non-DVD compliant. Audio for DVD must be at 48k/16 bit. For more information on this please refer to "Preparing Files" .pdf link below.

2) We advise you use Constant Bit Rate (CBR) instead of Variable Bit Rate (VBR) to encode the files into Mpeg. Many encoders drop frames when using VBR to encode files. They are treating the VBR encode as more of a Variable Frame Rate then Variable Bit Rate.

3) System performance is too slow. This can be caused by a Hard Drive which is fragmented, has a slow RPM, lack of adequate memory and/or the CPU speed is too slow for video capture. Please refer to your Sonic software's Help File for system requirements and ways to improve system performance.

4) Some capture devices drop frames upon capture and there is no workaround but to use a supported capture device.

5) It could be as simple as the media. DVD-/+RW's have a lower reflectivity than -/+R's. This makes it harder for the laser in the set top player (or any player) to reflect back into the reader to replay your data/video. It also make sit more difficult for the player to play consistently and continuously and can possibly throw the audio out of synch.