I have tried to search the forum, but I am sorry, I seem to be stuck.
Problem's simple:
TV Capture to Mpeg2 w/48khz Audio (DVD std)
When played back in a player is OK.
When previewed /or burned into a dvd with DVDA Audio is always out of sync.
Did it drop frames during your capture? Some MPEG2 capture software tries to handle drop frames by just adjusting timestamps, when actually they should be inserting duplicate frames. Files created this way violate the MPEG spec and this will cause the audio to be out of sync in DVDA and Vegas.
A/V sync problems in MPEG2 capture files are a nightmare for all NLE software vendors. It's particularly troublesome because many of these files are seemingly "OK", because they can be viewed in proper sync in software players, such as Windows Medial Player, yet exhibit out-of-sync symptoms after being rendered & burned to DVD.
I went batty trying to figure this all out using Pinnacle Studio 8 & 9, and, eventually DVDA2. I'm able to create perfectly-synced DVDs when the source video is DV AVI, but can only come up with satisfactory result when capturing to MPEG2 in Studio 9. And I now understand why this is. Back to that subject in a moment.
Pinnacle, in particular, takes a lot of heat from users who can't produce in-sync DVDs. There are several types of sync problems that cause it, but a big one is the simple fact that the captured files are bad, despite the fact that they appear to play correctly in Media Player and in the preview window of many NLE programs. I've suggested to Pinnacle that they add an FAQ answer that would explain this phenomenon, but it appears that they prefer to have their forums littered with irate customers slamming them and demanding refunds. Of course, Studio 8 & 9 have a lot of other problems, but A/V sync is a particularly troublesome one for some users.
I won't write at length here, but suffice to say, I can run a quick test and predict with a high degree of accuracy whether a given MPEG2 file will yield a correctly-synced end result. This illustrates that the situation is not particular to Pinnacle Studio or DVDA2, because I had virtually identical results from both products.
There's a free application called PVASTrumento, which will analyze MPEG2 files for sync problems. I'd suggest that those of you having trouble with MPEG2 & A/V sync do a Google search and download this helpful tool. It will scan your MPEG files and report the problems found. It will even allow you to separate the audio & video streams, or attempt to correct the sync, writing a new file. I haven't had any success writing a corrected file, but it is a reliable indicator that there's no point in trying to use the file in a video project. This was very helpful during my many experiments in finding an application and settings that would capture an MPEG2 file that would both play correctly in software players and be rendered and burned to DVD without losing sync.
>There's a free application called PVASTrumento, which will analyze
>MPEG2 files for sync problems.
I'm second to this. I use this little free program all the time to analyze Mpeg-2 files and fix sync problems (use [make PS] option). IMHO, any one working with Mpeg-2 should have this little program handy.
Thank you (all) for the input.
I am on my way to try PVAAtrumento.
...technically (please correct me if I'm wrong) all of this is happening because of mpeg2 format.
How about if I capture TV shows to AVI?
Then to Vegas/DVDA2 an so on.
Much larger disk space, but free from mpeg2 sync plague.
Yep, using AVI (the inevitable Sony "solution") will avoid the sync problems, but that's not an excuse. Sony has chosen to simply ignore this part of their product's advertised specifications; they claim that their product "imports [compliant] MPEG2" format, but that's simply not the case.
You can take a perfect, fully-compliant file (one that conforms in all respects to Sony's own published specifications) and still have these sync problems.
In fact, the only MPEG2 files that this software suite actually supports are those that it produces itself -- according to every related post I've seen in this forum, files from all other sources (such as those MPEG2s that I produce with my ATI capture card) will very likely have problems.
I think Sony has shamefully misrepresented what is otherwise a fine product. Their refusal to address and fix this major defect reflects poorly on their commitment to supporting their customers' requirements.
Sony Vegas has capturing built in.
Vegas is a great software to work with.
DVDA2 has come a long way.
I love this suit except that now it has become impossible to make a full documentary that it may contain certain analogue, specifically TV captures.
I am presently plagued by the sync issues. It would be a shame if Sony (as a total platform provider) has to blame mpeg2 capturing issues due to others.
I certainly hope that someone would come up with an easier way to accomplish such seemingly simple task.
Thier, I agree that working with AVI is much more desirable than in MPEG, but I think that you're being a little harsh on Sony in this instance. Through much experimentation, I've found that it is, indeed, possible to work with MPEG without running into sync problems. In the cases where sync was lost there were defects in the file, as detected with PVASTrumento.
It's not quite as simple as you've made it sound. It is very possible to have a file filled with problems that plays fine in Media Player or in the preview window, yet will produce sync issues upon burning to DVD. And if you look at the format of the file, it will appear to be DVD-compliant. In my case, I struggled for months trying to find an application that would capture MPEG from my TV tuner card without producing these defective files. In the end -- believe it or not -- the solution was Pinnacle Studio 9. (This is not to be taken as a recommendation -- Studio is not for the faint-of-heart or the easily-frustrated...)
Garbage in, garbage out -- very relevant to this discussion.
*shrug* Before I "saw the light," I edited many, many MPEG2 files in Vegas. Only had one that had sync issues, and that was due to me screwing up the original capture.
Precisely the point, Rob. Properly-written MPEG files can work -- with Vegas, with Studio, with many NLE programs, probably.
But t's far too easy to feed them MPEG files that have problems that result in A/V sync issues. And far too easy to blame the NLE software for creating out-of-sync DVDs.