audio video out of sync in arrange window (vegas 12)

T

teuron

Active member
im working on a fairly lengthy project (3 hours or so) and noticed that when I import certain (avi) files, the audio and video are out of sync.

all audio was recorded with the camera (not separately) and all the clips are fine when I play them in vlc, however when I drag a clip into vegas' timeline, the audio portion of the clip is a little longer than the video and also it is out of sync.

i havent yet rendered anything so im not sure if this is an issue that is just in the timeline, however it is still annoying and the fact that the audio portion is longer is worrying
 
What's the codec? (.avi is not a codec. Codecs: DIVX, DV, etc.) What's the camera? Are these video clips straight from the camera?
 
codec is xvid.

cam is sony hx9v, and video files were transcoded into 720p30 xvid mp4, however as I mentioned they play perfectly on vlc and wmp. it is only in vegas timeline that the audio is stretched out, and oddly; not on all the files, only some of them
 
Why were they transcoded? Try using the original camera files. They're AVCHD -- Sony AVCHD -- and Vegas should have no problem with them.

Xvid/Divx codecs are problematic in NLEs. Vegas definitely doesn't like them.
 
i had issues with vegas crashing when i was using the original files.
after transcoding, everything is smooth except for the subject in question.

anyway, ive already put in over 30 hours of editing into this, and so starting from scratch is not an option, and reason why i transcoded is not really relevant at this point either.

question is, can I do anything about it?
 
teuron said:
i had issues with vegas crashing when i was using the original files.
after transcoding, everything is smooth except for the subject in question.

anyway, ive already put in over 30 hours of editing into this, and so starting from scratch is not an option, and reason why i transcoded is not really relevant at this point either.

question is, can I do anything about it?
Click to expand...

If your system can't handle editing AVCHD, you can use the Smart Proxy feature...you change the files to low-resolution, proxy versions for editing on timeline.

[Vegas help]

  • When the preview quality is set to Draft or Preview, the proxy file is used.
  • When the preview quality is set to Good or Best, the original file is used.

When done editing, you render the actual higher quality files.


If you have avi versions in the project, you can replace them with the AVCHD versions/mts files by right-clicking on a video file in the project media bin then choose 'Replace' and navigate to where the file you want to replace/then select.


...and if you're worried about screwing up your project when trying this... although Vegas allows you to undo actions within a session, once you close the program/save file, you can't get that undo history back.

So, simply use the "save as" feature when saving project files.
For example: (project file name) "TestVideo---1-5"
[then do media files replace]
...then name new project file (save as) "TestVideo---1-7" and so on...

You can even make a brief note in the file name:
"TestVideo---1-7- replaced with mts files"

Whatever you call the 'save as' project files, you could always revert back to previous versions, even when you close and later re-open the program.

So, no harm done in trying the proxy and replace files.. or anything else.
 
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hey that sounds like a decent tip.
but the problem is not stuttering playback in the preview window.
when i tried to originally use the native avchd files, they actually played back ok, but it was when i tried to import alot of them, that the computer would crash and i had to reset vegas and try again and so on.

im also mixing footage from two different cameras (the other being a underwater kodak zx3 which natively records to mov) so in the end I just transcoded footage from both cameras into the same format and thus far it has been ok... except for the longer audio versions from time to time.

so id really rather not have to go back to the avchd format for stability reasons (at least for the duration of this project). also, there are over 1500 separate clips and id rather avoid having to 'replace' all of them one by one.

what im asking is, when i import a problem file that has the audio off (it is physically longer than the video file) can I somehow isolate that audio portion and line it up (manually sync it) to the video file?
im looking to 'unglue' the audio from the video and move it around freely

as there are so many files in this project with only a handful of ones with issues, i rather not have to re negotiate the entire project
 
teuron said:
what im asking is, when i import a problem file that has the audio off (it is physically longer than the video file) can I somehow isolate that audio portion and line it up (manually sync it) to the video file?
im looking to 'unglue' the audio from the video and move it around freely
Click to expand...

That is 'remove from' (group) in Vegas.. select audio or video, hit 'u' on keyboard. Think of it as 'Un-group'.

It would be better to replace with the camera files, but you could try this:

- Open up project, then open up a second instance of Vegas (click program shortcut) without opening a project/leave it blank.
- Right click/copy one of the avi clips with the long audio from the project/first Vegas window timeline.
- Right-click/paste a copy of the clip into the timeline of the second, blank Vegas window. (That will be the only thing on the entire timeline.)
- Click on just the video/top portion of the clip to select.
- Type 'u' (or right click just video half>Group>Remove from) to unattach video from the audio.
- Don't drag the video or audio, but instead hold down the keyboard Ctrl key while dragging the video out to match the length of the audio. (also known as "stretching").
- (Click on a blank spot on the timeline to deselect anything that might be selected), then, while holding down Ctrl click the video portion, then the audio portion to select both.
- Type 'g' on keyboard to group the clips back together.
- Go to beginning of clip and play to check if matched up.

If it works, this would only appear/sound natural if your audio is slightly longer (you didn't mention by how much) - otherwise a major difference might look/sound unnatural.

You can also do a second test.. instead of dragging the video to match the audio, paste the file into the blank timeline, remove from group, but then select the audio, hold down Ctrl and squeeze it down to the length of the video portion... g/regroup and play.

If this works, one might be preferable over the other...

But you would have to do this for every clip... or try something else.


_____________________________________________________________________________________
Also, just wondering what would happen if you (again just as a test) went to your source folder with the avi files (outside of Vegas, on PC)..
...make a new folder, copy an avi file into the folder (thus, not affecting any original files)..
...rename .avi to something else, such as .mp4 or .mpg...
...then open up a blank Vegas timeline, import the renamed file from the folder
...place on timeline and see if the audio/video lengths are different or even.

If you experiment with renaming different formats, do it only after a new copy of the avi. In other words..don't place a file in the folder, rename it to mp4, then to .mpg...
..rather, rename .mpg from another copy of the avi file, as a seperate test.

I don't know if that will work,,, but if it actually does, then:
Copy all of your avi files into a new folder to back them up... get a free batch renaming program and rename the original files all at once.

I have never tried this, so you may either need to find a script for replacing all the files or perhaps Vegas will prompt you when opening the program/asking if you want to replace the files.

The concept may not even work - but would be curious about renaming a file extension of at least one (copy) though.
 
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GHKAM, I just wanted to say thanx for your help!

In the end I ended up ungrouping ALL the video clips form the audio (with your 'u' tip) and moving the video ahead (in front) by about 13 frames and this solved all the out of sync issues.
I tried grabbing the audio sections first, but I was not able to (only video can be group grabbed I guess)

Im still puzzled as to why visually some of the files had an actually longer audio section and most did not, yet all were technically out of sync (but it was hard to tell because not many scenes with people talking. or chopping, or other distinctive hits where out of sync would be obvious)
 
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