Slow video playback, audio out of sync

[Daci Gutierrez]

Dave,
Thank you for the response.
To make things clear:
– audio plays at a normal rate
– Video plays slower ( around, but faster than half speed)
– The info panel displays:Real Time
– The audio is actually from the quicktime clip itself (DVcam footage I generally work with).
– Different resolutions or number of omitted frames do not have an influence on the outofsync outcome.
– It does it with other audio formats, it does it with any project that has worked before in this very machine.
– The same problem works OK inanother machine.

Puzzled…

[Eric Bintner]

I have nearly the same symptoms.

During RAM preview, I get 29.97 fps playback without audio, but 23fps with audio – says “NOT realtime”
fps playback is only affected by audio track (in my case a .wav)
audio cuts out before RAM preview is finished. (doesn’t get better w/ multiple playbacks)
resolution makes absolutely no difference (which I find ultimately perplexing)

all audio outputs & preferences set to 44.100khz – tried about every scenario…
all audio files on separate HDD specifically intended for audio playback.

I am using a 2008 Mac Pro, 2.8Ghz, 8GB RAM, nVidia 8800, Areca 1261ML — OSX 10.5.2 After Effects CS3 8.0.2, Nucleo Pro 2.0.2

I have posted a thread in Adobe’s user-to-user forum and they have [only] suggested it may be audio driver issues — which I have no control over since it is Apple’s core audio (apple updates should be on top of that)
https://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b4cdee/1?@610.4YKviSe0zgh@

I too am completely stumped.
Newer faster bigger better {except when audio is playing} is a BIG step backward for me as I built this machine for music video production…

[Wes Townsend]

I started getting audio/video sync issues on my newly built XP64 (AE CS3) box. I’m very proficient in AE, and tried all the usual culprits (restarting, updating AE, updating a/v drivers, preference tweaking). I started to think it was an XP64 issue. But it turns out is was a memory problem. 2 sticks of 2GB DDR3 memory caused sync problems, but 4 sticks of 1GB DDR3 memory did not!

Of course, the whole reason I’m XP64 is to use 8GB of memory, but when a deadline is looming, a functioning AE is better than no AE!

Wes Townsend
Garbanzo Grafix Inc.

[Troy Kruyer]

Hi there,

I was getting audio sync issues as well since I’ve just recently moved to AECS3.

After a lot of mucking around and changing things here and there, I finally got it working!

Firstly, machine specs are:
HP XW8200 / Dual Xeon 3.2GHz / 2GB Ram / NVIDIA Quadro FX3400 / Blackmagic Decklink.

In “Preferences / Video Preview”, I found that by simply changing the “Output Quality” to “Faster” (rather than “More Accurate”), it all works perfectly! Seems a bit too simple, but that’s what worked for me – might be worth a try.

I also set all the preferences back to how they were before tackling this problem, to isolate and make sure this was the crucial change – and it was. when I set it back to “More Accurate”, the audio is again out of sync.

Try the “Faster” setting and see how it goes.

Good luck & hope it helps, Troy.

[Eric Schlenker]

I just experienced the same problem. Ram preview was working fine all day and then suddenly A/V went out of sync. After tweaking every preference setting imaginable, I tried closing / re-opening the project, still off… I tried relaunching AAE, still off. Finally I just restarted my computer and that fixed the problem.

Funny how a restart was the last thing I thought to try–I don’t think I’ve had to restart my computer to fix a glitch ever since I switched to a Mac 5 years ago! Back in day when I was using a PC (a time I refer to as the pre-enlightenment, stone-age years of my life), restarting was common practice. Now it’s just annoying.

[Jon Merrifield]

Dave,
When you have time, could you please expound on the issues with audio and ram preview. I followed your comment and realized that each ram preview may move the audio out of sync or in sync. Discovered this the hard way. What I would like to wrap my brain around is why, so I may more quickly trouble shoot and solve the issue rather than render multiple ram previews. It seems to be in sync if I render FULL and not any other resolutions as I would like to for the testing of my timings etc.
Thanks for your expertise.

[Ole Jenssen]

Hi,

this is my first post here.

I just thought I should share my solution to the problem.

The exact same issues for me, audio preview is 2sec behind the audio waveform (where the audio should be).

Tried every tips I could find on the net, including in here, but nothing seem to fix the very annoying and frustrating problem.

Then I started to do some thinking on my own. I have overclocked my pc (i920 quad core from 2.66Ghz up to 3.8Gh), meaning the timing/settings of the RAM to cope with the rest of the system also was changed automatically. I have more or less the fastest and most expensive DDR3 RAM I could find, so this problem was really frustrating for me. (Corsair PC3-16000 C8). My GPU’s are two NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX260 in SLi (not overclocked).

I reset my overclocking settings (Gigabyte EX-58-UD5 motherboard fw/F13h) and rebooted the pc. VOILA !!! Problem permanently solved!

Now preview is 100% in sync with audio!! 🙂 🙂

So it seems like memory timings/overclocking was causing this issue for me.

Now I have a slower computer, but at least now I can work again!
I will look more into this in details, and I will overclock my computer again and find the correct timings, but that will have to wait!

Why this is an issue also for Mac users I do not know, as I don’t think there are many/any Mac users overclocking. But still, it could be that memory settings are not correct, even on a Mac, even if not overclocked! – Memory timings could be wrong on any computer, even if not overclocked

So for me there was actually an hardware issue with this.

Why this is affecting only After Effects, and not Premiere Pro, I do not know.

BR.
Ole

[Michael Kearney]

I figured it out … but It will take about 9 minutes to explain … heheh please check out my video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeahXw2XVo8

[Jayson Valencia]

Here’s one Dave, please help!

1080i footage with recorded CD playback for artist to play to.
Same CD track at 44khz to import into AE comps.

What is the comp frame rate and do I have to change the audio file sample rate?

Do I make a 29.97 comp or 30?
Do I use 44khz music file against the 30fps video in a 29.97 comp?

Thanks man, I’m dyin ovah here!

[Jayson Valencia]

I’ve been dumping my cache and purging from the Edit menu.
Just saved and restarted to refresh the computer.
Chopped my 5 GB HD video file with audio up into smaller bits
and put the 44khz CD track into the Comp/29.97 with the 30fps clips that are also going into the 29.97 Comp with the 44k audio track.

We shall see! Good luck.