-
Quicktime OK… Import to FCP Audio/Video Out of Sync! Any Ideas?
Howdy all… I’m new to the forum and I have a question on something that has been stumping me for 2 days now… I’m using an Apple Mac Pro (Nehalem) and cutting on Final Cut Pro 6.
What I’m trying to accomplish: I do demo reels for actors in Los Angeles. I often times will have to extract a few minutes from certain DVD’s so I can do a compilation of their scenes. I use Pro Res codec because of it’s good compromise of compression and quality. Recently I have been asked by several of my clients to future proof these reels by editing them using HD content. With the number of people using HD sets these days and online sites hosting HD, my clients are wanting high res versions of their compilations.
Using an MKV source file of HD content, I am able to convert that to a Pro Res FCP compliant file without problem. We are all good here so far. The resulting Final Cut Pro compliant file looks and sounds perfect and plays great with Quicktime Pro. Once I import this file into Final Cut Pro, both in the Source window and if it is cut in the timeline, the audio / video sync is WAY off. Not a few seconds off, but way off. All my clips are encoded Pro Res (regular not LT or HQ) and pass through audio which is 48Khz. Using an empty sequence I drag the file into the timeline for FCP to “automatically detect the timeline settings” and it does but everything is still out of sync. I’ve heard people on these forums talk about splitting the audio from the original quicktime, but due to the size of these files and the regularity with which I need to use them, there seems like there has to be a better way.
I tried encoding the audio as 44.1khz and that didn’t work either. I’m baffled that all the transcoding works perfectly and files play fine in Quicktime (and VLC etc) but they get messed up in FCP.
I would appreciate any help all of you could toss my way.
-
6 Replies
-
Hey Marc,
Not sure if you’ve figured this out or not, but I thought I’d drop a line.
I haven’t deduced the problem down to its definitive cause, but I will say that the problem you’re encountering isn’t bc of Final Cut. It’s the method from which you are extracting clips from the DVD’s. I am working on a project that requires footage from two instructional DVD’s and new footage that was shot digitally. The project requires me to use footage from all three. I had to rip/extract the footage from the two DVD’s (using Handbrake). One method I did created the same problem you’re having: audio and video way out of sync although on the timeline they appear the same.
For some reason the video seems to lag a couple seconds strangely.
After I extracted (ripped) the footage a couple ways, I found one that worked without causing the problem. My flow requires me to make it an MP4 (as opposed to MKV). Take it into Compressor and gave it the ol’ 422.
What do you use to extract?
-
I use Handbrake and also DVDxDV Pro to take content straight from DVD sources. I used Cinematize at one point but don’t like its lack of in/out point flexibility. Thanks for the .MP4 tip to 422.
-
I am having the same problem. Only I am capturing my HD clip using FCP 7 and the Matrox MXO2 using HDMI cable. FCP is incredibly out of sync. Quicktime Pro, VLC, MPEG Streamclip play the capture file clean as could be. Any other suggestions? Thanks.
Robert Martin
-
Marc and Thomas,
I was having the same audio/video sync problem as Marc, though I didn’t use handbrake to rip from a DVD. My file was a regular .mov file exported originally from FCP whose source was captured from a Beta SP tape via Blackmagic codec and burnt to a data DVD, from which I copied it onto my HD.
My file plays fine in quicktime, but once imported into FCP into a brand new timeline, I get the variable lag. I tried just moving the tracks to sync, but that did not fix other places in the video. I also tried messing with the audio rates and formats to no avail.
Once I threw my original file into Compressor and gave it the 422, the file was magically synced as Thomas suggested. Though, I did something interesting that might further help diagnose the original problem. I laid my new 422 file into a new timeline, which FCP asked to auto convert settings with my approval. Then I laid my original source file into a second track, directly on top of my 422. Then I muted the 422 video and the original source audio so that the 422 audio played with the original video. This created the same sync error. Next, I reversed the mute so that the 422 video played with the original audio and the sync error was gone!
This leads me to believe that for some reason the original source video was stretched/compressed in the process of importing into FCP and NOT the audio. I believe the video was compressed in time rather than stretched.
I have no idea whatsoever why this would occur as such, but I thought I would contribute my findings to the betterment of society, haha.
-
Hi, I’m new to this forum so please excuse any etiquette issues or technical issues with my posting…
I am a musician who posts videos on YouTube, mostly guitar covers. Usually I’ll put a backing track on my video during editing. Sometimes the Audio/Video drop out of sync, but most often either the backing track or the guitar track will be slightly faster than the other. I end up putting 1 millisecond breaks in the audio to compensate, which I dislike doing.
I know that I am not playing off because when I record I’m listening to the track as it plays. Also, if I put the video file in to QuickTime or a VLC and play it at the same time as the audio track, they run along together just fine.
Could this be an issue with my Sequence settings? I would really like to fix this because it would shorten my editing by a large amount and allow me to make more videos at a quicker pace.
-
Hello,
I am having the same problem of audio drift/ out of sync on files in FCP7. They play in sync with QT, MPEG, and VLC. I have tried the above mentioned fixes and converting the file into pro res, even though it is already a pro res file, does fix the problem. I was hoping someone has found another easier fix because I am working on shows that run anywhere from 30mins to 4 hours. Converting/transcoding time becomes heinous. Any help?
Thanks,
Terry
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up