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Audio out of sync with MPEG2
Hi, I work at a research lab coding data, and I am really hoping someone here can help me out with audio delays I am having.
I use Pinnacle (version 9 or 10?) here at work to capture old VHS tapes directly to MPEG-2. I then take the file home, cut it up on Premiere Pro on my Mac (each VHS has many trials on it so I create one movie per trial), and then take these 15 minute movies back to work to code them with some special software. The final videos MUST be MPEG-2 at 30fps to work with the coding software.
I am running into audio delay in THREE different places:
1. When capturing directly to MPEG-2 from VHS, the audio is sometimes delayed in the final MPEG-2 file. I can re-capture the same video and it will be fine.
2. In captured MPEG-2 files that have no delay in VLC that I put into Premier, the audio is delayed and Premier adds sporadic red frames, and the audio is delayed.
3. In captured MPEG-2 files that have no delay in VLC and no delay in Premier, when I export the individual chopped up files into MPEG-2 at 30fps, the final chopped up small file has slight audio delay. If I re-encode the same Premier file, it will work.In all 3 of the above, the audio delay gets worse as the video on, so I can’t simply ‘shift’ the audio over in Premiere.
So my questions are…
This version of Pinnacle lets you capture to AVI – will this solve any of the problems above?? Do you think the problem is a Premiere plus MPEG-2 problem? If I use Final Cut Express, will it work better than Premiere with MPEG-2 files?What I really need to know is what is the most reliable way to capture the VHS (AVI or MPEG-2), and what is the best software to use that will hopefully stop these issues I am having? It’s really crucial that the audio sync up with the video because we are coding data of look direction after a sound is played. Furthermore, most of these old VHS tapes do not show someone talking (you hear recorded sounds playing in the background), so it is impossible to know if the audio is off, so I need a really reliable method.
Thank you so much for your help – hopefully someone will be able to show me the light!
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3 Replies
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[Julia Moore] “This version of Pinnacle lets you capture to AVI – will this solve any of the problems above??”
Yes, it should, although it depends on the type of AVI it spits out.
[Julia Moore] “Do you think the problem is a Premiere plus MPEG-2 problem”
There is a good possibility that it is. Mpeg2 can also be encoded in many ways and Premiere does not support them all.
[Julia Moore] “If I use Final Cut Express, will it work better than Premiere with MPEG-2 files? “
Probably not without converting to Quicktime first.
[Julia Moore] “What I really need to know is what is the most reliable way to capture the VHS (AVI or MPEG-2), and what is the best software to use that will hopefully stop these issues I am having? It’s really crucial that the audio sync up with the video because we are coding data of look direction after a sound is played. Furthermore, most of these old VHS tapes do not show someone talking (you hear recorded sounds playing in the background), so it is impossible to know if the audio is off, so I need a really reliable method.
“There are cards like the Blackmagic Intensity (cheapest around for what it does) that will do a very good job at capturing from a VCR to uncompressed, or close to it.
You can also purchase an A/D converter like this one that will convert to DV. This one is full proof as long as the tapes are of good quality.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Unfortunately, I have no control over the type of capture card is used – I also have no control over the fact that the capture software is an old version of Pinnacle that can only capture to MPEG-2 or AVI.
Thank you for your response! I will try using AVI and see if the issues are resolved.
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Hi Vince,
I tried to re-capture my videos in AVI, and as soon as i put them into Premiere, they were in fast-motion!
The VHS is two hours long, with about 15 minutes of blue end-of-VHS. When I import the AVI file into Premiere, the video part only lasts 10 minutes (according to Premiere timeline), and there is about 2 hours of blue after that. I checked the framerate in Premiere, and it is 29.97 fps (same as the capture frame rate).
The avi file plays fine in windows media player and VLC. Do you have any idea what’s going on?
Also do you know anything about Premiere CS4 and Snow Leopard? I have another issue in the same forum about issues I have been having with Media Encoder since I have upgraded my OS…
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