Why is audio sync such an issue?

[darren404]

Having read numerous posts on audio sync issues I still cannot get this right. Heres the situation:

Captured my own DV (PAL) and edited in Premier. Then output a DV AVI which plays fine. Then convert to MPEG2 with either TMPGEnc or Ulead Video Toolbox (also plays fine), then burn to SVCD using either VCDEasy or Nero5. Now when I play this on my home player the picture is excellent - no artifacts or skips, BUT the damn audio is about half a second out.

If I use the LSX MPEG plugin for Premiere to output the MPEG2 direct from the timeline I get the same problem but slightly worse. I even tried using the Nero plugin, but that was a complete disaster.

What is it that makes audio sync so difficult on SVCD.

For the record, I can output MPEG2 for DVD onto DVD-R or RW perfectly with audio in sync.

Any tips/help greatly appreciated as I have wasted weeks on this already.

[El Torro]

Have you scaned for Bad frames?

[fantomlord]

when you convert with TMPG, do you do audio at the same time, or do you do audio separate, and multiplex later (recommended--BBMpeg to mux)
did you downsample to 44.1khz?
I would recommend doing audio separately using BeSweet, and then video only with TMPG, then BBMpeg to mux--should work like a charm

[sterno]

If they play correctly on the computer but have sync problems on the set-top player, it might just not like your media. Computer CD readers are more tolerant than many set-top DVD players. Have you tried using a few different types?

Some DVD players just work better with CD-Rs from certain manufacturers, you might check the comments on your player in the compatibility list to see if anybody else has said that certain brands do or don't work correctly.