AE (2020) Audio is Out of Sync in Rendered file when using H264 Codec

[Josh Ramakers]

Adobe After Effects (version 2020) – Sound is out of Sync after Rendering (With H264 Codec).

(when using playback in After Effects the Sound stays in Sync; only the Rendered movie is Out of Sync).

Sound is about 5 second too Early (for the whole rendered movie) in comparisation to the original source file. This only happens when I select the H264 Codec as ‘target’ codec (tried several times).

FYI: I’m Not an experienced AE user and it is not due to a Hardware issue (Hardware is working fine, same is playback of video files; even a 200 Gb file playback’s just fine).

Anybody any solution?

This problem does Not occur when a lossless AVI codec is used instead (see second movie settings below) then the Sound stays In Sync.
Both Rendered files are using the same Audio codec.
Both Rendered files are using the same Source Movie with an Original Framerate of 23.976 FPS.

In the Rendered Movie with Sound IN Sync it uses the AVI Lossless codec and
the Sound Interleave, duration is changed to: 959 ms (23.00 video frames).
This is done automatically by Adobe After effects (not manually by me).
When using the Lossless AVI codec (default setting in Adobe After Effects) then Sound Stays IN Sync.

When I manually change the (target) codec to H264 (I want a lower bitrate; due to not enough HD space).
Then the Sound gets Out of Sync (the sound is about 5 second too early for the whole rendered movie).

FYI (see first movie settings below); In the Rendered ‘Out of Sync’ movie the Sound part still uses Interleave, duration of: 958 ms (22.97 video frames). But Interleave, preload duration is set to : 959 ms

Both values are not set by me; but by After Effects automatically.

Media Info output movie 1; Rendered target movie with Sound OUT of Sync; General:

Complete name : movie.1080p.H264-60Mbit-sec-PCM Sound Out of Sync
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 42.1 GiB
Duration : 1 h 38 min
Overall bit rate : 61.5 Mb/s
Recorded date : 2023-03-03T01:00:40.219358

 

Video:
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference : 5 frames
Codec ID : H264 <— H264 Codec
Duration : 1 h 38 min
Bit rate : 60.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1 <— Aspect ration as in Source (original) File
Frame rate : 23.976 (23976/1000) FPS <— Framerate as in Source (original) File
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.598
Time code of first frame : 0 / 0
Time code source : Adobe tc_A / Adobe tc_O
Stream size : 41.1 GiB (97%)
Writing library : x264 core 152 r2851bm ba24899
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=3.3 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Audio:
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 1 h 38 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 1.05 GiB (2%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 958 ms (22.97 video frames) < — ??? Check this strange difference; see next line)
Interleave, preload duratio : 959 ms

 

Media Info output movie 2: Sound IN Sync after Rendering (with LossLess codec); General:

Complete name : Movie.1080p.AVI Lossless Codec-PCM Sound in Sync-30minutes.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 184 GiB
Duration : 29 min 7 s
Overall bit rate : 903 Mb/s

Video:
ID : 0
Format : RGB
Codec ID : 0x00000000
Codec ID/Info : Basic Windows bitmap format. 1, 4 and 8 bpp versions are palettised.

16, 24 and 32bpp contain raw RGB samples
Duration : 29 min 7 s <— (after 200GB I ran out of space on my SSD; still playback runs OK)
Source duration : 29 min 7 s
Bit rate : 901 Mb/s <— Lossless AVI Codec (Extreme high bitrate)
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1 <— Aspect ratio as in Original File
Frame rate : 23.976 (23976/1000) FPS <— Framerate as in Original File
Color space : RGB
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 23.994
Stream size : 183 GiB (100%)

Audio:
ID : 1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : 1
Duration : 29 min 7 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 320 MiB (0%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 959 ms (23.00 video frames) <— ??? (Here Sound IN Sync from Original)
Interleave, preload duratio : 959 ms

Thanks,

Josh

[Walter Soyka]

I don’t think H.264 in AVI is well-supported.

If space is the issue, I think you have a few options:

1. Render to ProRes 422 from After Effects. It’s high quality, and compresses about 5:1 vs. lossless. You can always compress to H.264 in an MP4 container later with Media Encoder.

2. Click the “Queue in AME” button in the render queue instead of the “Render” button. Ae 2020 can’t render directly to H.264/MP4, but Media Encoder can. Use one of the H.264 presets in Media Encoder.

2. Stay on After Effects 2020 and get the third-party plugin AfterCodecs, which will allow you to render to H.264 in an MP4 container directly from the Ae render queue.

3. Upgrade to the current release of After Effects (2023), which supports rendering directly to H.264/MP4 natively.

[Josh Ramakers]

Thanks Walter; Very Helpfull 🙂

I agree it’s something within the AE 2020 H.264 codec causing the issue.

I updated to AE2023 & Adobe media encoder 2023. Now I do not have this issue that sound in out of sync from the start of the movie file.

Now I have the issue that I cannot change the FrameRate when using (Adobe’s) Default AE H.264 codec for export (output to an MP4 file). Although my input file is 23.97 fps.

When I select in AE the H.264 codec I can set a lot. Just not the Frame Rate. Which AE (‘due to meet format constrains’) automaticaly changes to 23.976) for which AE even gives me a warning). And that little change of 0.006 is enough to get the audio more and more out of sync (from 0 at the start of the movie to at the end about 6 seconds difference).

I tried to select another output format (AVI) and Codec (do not know which one anymore) and then AE crashed (*) when I started rendering… 🙁

ad (*): ‘Compressor format error’.

I will try your suggested ProRes 422 codec.

I really do not like Adobe tools. When working it gives fine results. But I think Adobe makes it a ‘sport’ to make easy and obvious things: very difficult. And I’m actually only using AE for (Maxon) Magic Bullit Denoiser III (which is excelent AND very easy to use ;-).

Cheers, Josh

Ps.

Sorry for my late reaction. There came something much more important in between.