AUDIO SYNC DISCUSSION

Author: Harmy
Date: 13-Jan-2011, 8:53 AM

Author: Harmy
Time: 13-Jan-2011 8:53 AM (Edited)
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A discussion started in another thread about audio delays.

I just uploaded this to YOUTUBE:

SOUND EXPERIMENT

You will see one clip from House 3x16

three times, one of which it will be in correct sync,

one will have a 4 frames audio delay

and in one the sound will be 1 frame ahead.

Can you tell which is which upon the first viewing?

Please comment.

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Author: Moth3r
Time: 13-Jan-2011 8:59 AM
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From first viewing:

Clip 1 definitely seems out of sync. I reckon it's the delayed one.

Clips 2 and 3 both seem in sync on first viewing, although I have a feeling that Clip 3 is the more natural. So I would guess that Clip 2 is the one where the audio is ahead.

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Author: Harmy
Time: 13-Jan-2011 9:16 AM
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Well, I'm not gonna say just yet. But I must say that even with the knowledge of which is which, I wasn't able to tell the difference at all.

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Author: lkjacc
Time: 13-Jan-2011 9:32 AM
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Clip 1 is out of sync but the other two seem fine. Beyond that I would be guessing.

Author: LexX
Time: 13-Jan-2011 9:42 AM
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Moth3r said:

From first viewing:

Clip 1 definitely seems out of sync. I reckon it's the delayed one.

Clips 2 and 3 both seem in sync on first viewing, although I have a feeling that Clip 3 is the more natural. So I would guess that Clip 2 is the one where the audio is ahead.

Agreed.

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Author: fishosaurus
Time: 16-Jan-2011 2:16 PM
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Hi Harmy, came here via hairy-hen's thread which you linked me to.

First clip has the audio lagging, second clip the audio is ahead, last one is in sync. :)

I used to do QA for DVDs, I'm VERY sensitive to things like this. It kind of sucks, actually. :p

Author: Harmy
Time: 16-Jan-2011 2:30 PM
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OK, I'm gonna tell now:

And the winner is...

NO ONE.

Clip one: Audio is delayed

Clip two: Audio is correct

Clip three: Audio is ahead.

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Author: Harmy
Time: 16-Jan-2011 2:32 PM
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And let me just add that while you all at lest recognised the first clip to be delayed, I couldn't even tell that and if I watched the whole episode with this kind of delay, I'm 99% sure it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

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Author: dark_jedi
Time: 16-Jan-2011 2:42 PM (Edited)
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I am glad you did this, it just proves what I always thought, MOST people cannot see a difference, and you just proved that with this test, again I am glad you did it.

OH, and for the record, I couldn't tell either.

Author: Chewtobacca
Time: 16-Jan-2011 2:42 PM (Edited)
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I thought 1 was out. 2 and 3 seemed in sync. 2 seemed a bit better on first viewing, but it's close. In my opinion, if the audio is one or two frames out it is unlikely to be noticed by most people, but three or more is usually noticed at some point in the film. I'm usually quite good with synch and often see commercial DVDs that look out of synch, which can be really annoying.

EDIT: Whoops! Didn't see that you'd posted the results. Now no one will believe me lol.

Author: hairy_hen
Time: 17-Jan-2011 5:54 AM (Edited)
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I'm coming late to this party, so I can't perhaps claim with complete believability to have been right (lol), but my reaction to the clips was in line with the actual results. At first I couldn't tell anything was wrong with any of them, but looking more closely I then thought the second was most correct while the first was late and the last was early. It's kind of hard to tell with dialogue perhaps, because nobody really moves their mouth exactly the same way or fully enunciates or whatever, and the difference was so small I couldn't really have said with any degree of confidence that I knew which was which. Still, I was gratified to see that my fleeting impression was actually the right one.

So it seems that a couple frames difference is noticeable, but only just barely, and perhaps not completely objectionable if the error is small enough. I think the sound being early was easier to spot than being delayed, because the movement carried on a bit after it was already heard, which is the least natural. But, they were close enough that it was very easy to get psyched out and confused about it. Hmm . . .

Author: fishosaurus
Time: 17-Jan-2011 10:35 PM
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Damn! There goes my credibility, haha. But I will say that the one that's 4 frames off is definitely noticeable to me, and juuuust about at or under the threshold of what I would find irritating. I'm starting to feel driven crazy by out-of-sync audio on everything. It seems to be a problem of our digital era.