Trim function and video/audio out of sync

HaroldC wrote on 4/22/2006, 1:48 PM

I'm using VMS 6 Platinum. I have been capturing my favourite shows between the commercial breaks. Then I'd remove the front and rear nonshow tags in the timeline itself. At that point each segment would be rendered. After all parts were rendered, I'd add each to the timeline and render again. Probably not the most efficient way, but that has been the way I've done it. The video quality is degraded by the double rendering but the video and audio have been well syncronised. Yesterday after reading more of the manual I used the trim function to place those segments of the show sans commercials into the timeline. However after rendering, in some of the segments the video and audio are out of sync. The video quality is much better than those that were double rendered. But I'd like very much to have the video/audio in sync along with the better video quality. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 4/22/2006, 3:08 PM

When i do this i capture the entire run as a single file and place it on the timeline. With ripple edits on i trim the unwanted material from the head and tail. Then i find the start of each commercial break, Split, find the end of the break, and drag (trim) from the split point to the cursor at the end of the break. Ripple mode automatically moves the next part after the break to the left to butt it up against the previous part. Continue to the next commercial break and repeat. Add a second of empty/black/silence at the beginning and a couple seconds at the end. Render.

When you mention a double render, what format are you using for the first render? If you're using DV .avi you shouldn't have any noticeable quality loss at all.

HaroldC wrote on 4/22/2006, 6:01 PM

For the present I can only capture into mpeg2. To tell the truth I just can't figure out how to put more than one split into the timeline. Any pointers on that?

Chienworks wrote on 4/22/2006, 6:32 PM

Well, with the method i outlined above you will only need to do one render, so that should help some.

I'm a bit confused about not being able to put in more than one split. You can get as many splits as you want by pressing the S key as often as you need it. Position the cursor where you want the next split and press S. Repeat until you have all the splits you want. How is this not working for you?

HaroldC wrote on 4/23/2006, 6:18 AM

It is just one of those things which if you don't know how to do it and you aren't familiar with the program then you aren't going to figure it out.

gmes29 wrote on 8/23/2006, 5:22 AM

using nothing but splits and auto-ripple, i'm finding that the more edits i make further into the entire video, the more out of sync the audio becomes with the video. this is the same problem i saw in Premier Elements which has a very similar Split option. coincidence? i'm not sure but something tells me its not either of the programs that are at fault but maybe something in my video/audio cards. or maybe i'm just doing something wrong. i do know one thing.. when i couldn't find where to set the All Track, Markers option for the auto-ripple (see other post), i did a rmb on the video track i wanted to delete (commercial segment), selected Group/Delete All and this seemed to work - it deleted everything in the same time frame as the selected track and the auto-ripple closed the gap. but it was doing it this way that i eventually noticed the audio was out of sync so maybe using Group just isn't the way to do this. i really can't see what difference it makes - a delete is a delete right??.

rustier wrote on 8/23/2006, 1:48 PM

audio sync can be tricky sometimes when you are dealing with anything other than DV-AVI. there are a number of things that can make it better or worse. The typical way of introducing audio sync issues is with the method you use to import the video i.e usb verses firewire - the later being the prefered method. There also seems to be a number of "mpeg" codecs out there and some appear to be better than others. It can be a little confusing, especially to someone new at this. So if you are ripping a show from your media center dvr, stripping out the mpeg, and then editing it you are gonna run into these sync issues. (I think the MS-dvr codec has a variable bit rate for the video and the audio is handled a little differently, so when you mess with the "cake" you can get "icing" in your face) The good news is that in most cases with a little practice and a little patience you can overcome it.

it has been my experience - real or perceived - that the trimmer seems to manage this better than other methods - I could be wrong, but it works for me.

the quick and dirty suggestion to you to fix sync issues is to ungroup your audio clip from the video, zoom in tight, and slide it back and forth till it sounds right, and then where the audio is short of the video, drag the edge back out (VMS will re-introduce a portion of the "original" when you do this) and then clip off the excess with an envelope (which ever side it is on). You might want to regroup it when you are done.

one other thing, you may want to render out a small section which appears to be pretty bad out of sync first - the reason - preview can be an ornery devil sometimes and what it looks like there may not be 100% accurate - depending on all those confusing factors as well as the computer you have.

have fun with it. dont get frustrated with it cause there are a lot of great people in these forums to help you out.

HaroldC wrote on 8/23/2006, 3:29 PM

Thanks, but my capturing is perfect now. I have a Canopus 110 converter.