Problem trying to play mpg files audio goes out of synch.

[trueman]

Hello,

I seem to all of a sudden have trouble trying to play mpg files captured with my winfast 2000 tv card in WMP 10. They start of okay but then after about half way through I notice the audio starts to go out of synch and gets worse. ANy ideas as to what can cause this?

[Barnabas]

You are dropping video frames. Most likely, something else is running while you are capping.

[trueman]

Could that also explain why the other night I recorded the footy and half way through the audio just dissapears even though I still get video?

[trueman]

Also windows media player seems to be playing up too. Sometimes it will play a file other times you will double click the same file and nothign will happen or wmp will open but then lock up. I have P4 2.6ghz with 1gb of ram.
Is there a way to do a complete uninstall and then a re-install of wmp10? I cant find it in add/remove programs.

[Bjs]

Dont use media player ... instead download and use koolplaya .

This audio lag is caused by two major issue's .

1 : Video and audio where not kept aligned during capture phase ... please check current pc setup for problem's .
2 : Some program's are unable to keep video and audio in sync after a certain period ... so audio fall's behind ... please try another playback product other tham ms media player .

Sudden dropped audio can be caused by program's automatically starting up in the background ... avg , diskspace cleanup tool ... and other's cause this trigger .

Start - run , type MSCONFIG , hit ok .

Go to startup tab ... there can be many item's listed that should not by default be running when system start's .

Disable nero's incd ... any printer utility ... ms office ... itunes ... quicktime ... msmgs ... yahoo messenger ... ect ... anything that look's suspicious as not being system default required ... hit apply , then ok , restart pc .

These utilities will be called when system require's them ... so they should not be loaded from the start anyway .

Check antivirus for run time ... scheduled scan's ... disable for the duration of capture's .

======================

Unistalling media player : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/faq/installation.mspx

Version 10 appear's as an update in add / remove program's .

Version 9 ... default in xp require's system restore to roll back pc .

Use System Restore in Windows. Windows Media Player 9 Series will be removed and the previous version of the Player will be restored. Any CD tracks that you had ripped (copied) to your computer will remain and can be played in the previous version of Windows Media Player. For more information about System Restore, see Use System Restore to Undo Changes if Problems Occur.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/systemrestore.mspx

Warning : System restore will "NULL" all executable's to program's installed after "used restore point" .

Before doing this ... backup all data ... export registry (may have lisence key's) ... backup anything you consider important now .

=======================

Biggest issue relate's to registry ... your current registry will be replaced with the one found in the restore point ... this is why so many user's report video playback problem's ... you need to uninstall program's that had been installed after this "used" restore point ... reboot pc ... reinstall these program's to fix playback issue's ...

There is a lot to be said about certain function's provided within ms os ... some cannot be said here ...

=======================

Hopefully you now have some idea's as to locating the actual problem ...

[trueman]

Thanks for the help Bjs,

I dont have any programs running in the background apart from whats needed, however I know what caused my audio to stop. I opened wmp to listen to a live radio broadcast whilst recording the footy and it must have blanked out the audio to the capture card.

I will give koolplaya a try though.

Thanks again.

[trueman]

Hello,

I still seem to be having problems with my video and audio going out of synch the further into the recording I get. It starts off fine but then after about 15 mins starts to get out of synch. I dont have any programs starting up or anything running in the background that shouldnt be.
I have 1.5ghz of ram and 2.8GHZ CPU.

Ive tried playing the file back on Koolplaya but the audio is still out. Any ideas what I can do as this is driving me crazy.

[drewzor]

Me too I've got a leadtek dvt2000H and this is what i know so far..

Make sure your mpeg is CBR @ 4000 first (or 3000 or 6000 what ever you like really, but CBR).

It seems to rip to a mpeg in a vob container and has invalid stream end markers. This leads to the audio "jumping" ahead.

At the moment i have solved my problem by using virtualdubmod and demuxing the audio, cutting 20sec's of the start and muxing it back in saving it as an avi. it seems to be spot on there...

Remember divx is basically mpeg2 (very generally) but much easier to work with

Its driving me nuts too, hopefully someone will have a solution to this problem rather then a patch....PLEASE

ADDED EDIT*
is the progressive loss of sync in audio from your mpeg stream?

[guns1inger]

divx is mpeg4, and compresses quite differently to mpeg2. It is generally harder to work with, throws away more data than mpeg2, and should only be used for the final encode. At least there are dedicated (and quite good) mpeg2 editors available.

[drewzor]

Guns1inger knows what he talking about, he has helped me more then once here so I'm listening to what he says about mpeg2 throws away less infomation from the video file.

Our capture-cards are a nightmare with this audio sync issue and i would gladly traid quality for something usuable and in this case divx (mpeg4) saved me so far..

I notice that VirtualDubMod and my other editors for that matter do not have an option to save in mpeg2 ??? though my converters can... any insight into this would help me too

[trueman]

is the progressive loss of sync in audio from your mpeg stream?

yes it is, the audio is fine to start with but then 20 mins or so into the recording it starts to become out of synch. More than likely it gradually goes out of synch from the start but I only notice it at about 20 mins plus into the recording.

It seems ok if I capture with AVi using the PICVID codec but the files are huge and I dont need the quality anyway.

[drewzor]

Um.. just a shot in the dark, and sorry if this offens you but just to be sure.

When you choose mpeg2, in my setup it has a choice of "types" of mpeg2... I just noticed that there is 25fps and 29fps types, if you have chosen the wrong type you will get the gradual change in audio issue?

[trueman]

The problem is when I first got this card I could capture in mpeg no problems, and any other codec for that matter. I just dont know what has caused all of my problems now. Ive tried deleting all of my codecs and re-installing them as well as the most recent drivers for my capture card but no luck. My next option is to format the hdd and start again.

[trueman]

I dont have the choice of 25 or 29fps.