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audio sync problem when authoring DVDs

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I am a noob at video authoring, and I'm having trouble getting the audio to sync in shows I've captured from my DVR. After encoding and authoring, the audio starts in sync on the DVD, but is badly out of sync (1/2 a sec) by the end of the disc.

I frequently hear people mention audio sync problems, so I just don't know if this is the nature of the beast, or if my computer is too slow, or if I'm using the wrong software or what.

Here are my details.

Equipment:
Time Warner DVR
Sony camcorder (about 3 1/2 years old)
Dell Inspiron Laptop: 1.6 GHZ Solo Core, 1 GB RAM, Pinnacle Studio 8 for capturing and encoding

Process:
The video goes from the DVR to the camcorder via the RCA jack, and audio via the red/white audio jacks. The audio/video stream then goes from the camcorder to my laptop via firewire. In Pinnacle, I capture the audio/video. I save about three 25-minute shows un-encoded. Then in Pinnacle I create a simple menu and add all three shows (with a chapter stop for each). I trim a few frames here and there to make things pretty, but I never separate the audio from the video in Pinnacle. I have to go with about 80% quality to get all three episodes to fit. Then I let the laptop encode overnight, and I burn the disc the next morning.

I've seen in some cases where a retail DVD will go out of sync on a DVD player. In my experience that can always be fixed with stopping the DVD and resuming from the same spot. However, that doesn't work with these audio sync problems.

Any ideas what's happening here?

Thanks!

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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Why don't you just use some sort of USB capture device on your laptop to bypass the camcorder. I'm thinking that is where your problem is occurring.
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I guess he uses the camcorder so he doesn't need a different capture device.

Erik, is the captured avi in sync?
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The camcorder just acts as a passthrough. I was under the impression that importing via USB would not capture at full video quality. Is there a USB capture device I can use?

Originally posted by: Arnie.d

Erik, is the captured avi in sync?


Actually, I'm not sure I ever checked the raw AVIs, and I've since deleted them. I'm pretty sure that I checked the preview in Pinnacle before encoding, and it synced ok iirc.

I suspect the culprit is either my laptop or my DVR. In the past I've sucessfully used the camcorder as a passthrough, going from a different DVR to a different computer.

I was hoping someone would easily solve my problem by saying, "Oh, the Pinnacle encoder is absolute crap. Use ____."

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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The camcorder is a bit more than a simple passthrough - it's actually digitising the analogue video/audio.

Here's your process:
Video stored digitally on the DVR.
DVR outputs analogue composite video.
Camera converts analogue video to DV format.
DV is edited.
Edited DV then encoded to MPEG-2 for DVD.

It would be much better to get a direct digital copy of the data directly off the DVR, and I believe this is what Zeromancer was referring to when he mentioned a USB connection. This may not be possible due to encryption, DRM, etc...

You should check the DV AVI files are OK, but I would be surprised if they are out of sync; my guess is that the sync error is introduced during the editing. You could try skipping the stage where you trim your AVI files, to see if a DVD encoded from the unedited AVIs is still in sync.

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