addressed Synchronizing audio with the video

[Joel Salazar]

I'm looking for suggestions on how to keep the audio in sync with the video. VideoPad doesn't seem to do a very good job of this (many different projects), and I'm wondering if there is some setting or menu item I'm missing when the project is exported to a video file. It doesn't seem to matter whether the original clips are .vob, .mov, .mp4, .avi, or .mkv, and it doesn't seem to matter what frame rate I choose or what format it's exported to (.mp4 or .iso are my preferred final file formats), and it doesn't seem to matter whether I choose h264 or h265 or vp8 when exporting. There's still usually at least a small mismatch between the audio and video. Sometimes it's quite noticible and very irritating, as in a closeup of someone speaking. The original source video is fine; when I preview the video (or several video clips) with VLC media player the sound is perfectly in sync with the video, but the final exported file from VideoPad is not. Can't believe I'm the only one having this problem. I know from trying to research this that audio-video sync problems are very common (not just VideoPad), and I know there are several software programs that will (allegedly) fix that problem in the final file for you, but I'd really like to avoid having to buy yet another program and take that additional extra and time-consuming step to correct something that shouldn't need correcting in the first place. Why doesn't VideoPad add this audio-video sync capability? Charge more for a "VideoPad Gold" version, fine with me, I'd buy it.

[borate]

What version of VP is being used?  Try the latest.  For licensed users upgrades are free for up to six months from purchase date.  After that, VP will continue to fully function but a fee will be required in order to register the newest.  Retain your old install file and registration info.

While sync issues have cropped up from time to time. when documented they have been fixed.  Let's take a look at yours...

Please submit a file or two that has the issue. Someone will check it out.  Upload the file/s to a free server, such as Google Drive or MS OneDrive, get a shared (public) link, copy the link and paste it here or to me in a Private Message via the mail envelope in the top-right corner of this forum.  When using Google Drive, if necessary change "restricted" to "anyone with link can view."

[Joel Salazar]

Thanks for the reply; here is additional information, probably more than you need but the background info might help. I'm in the process of doing what a million others have done: turning all my DVDs and a few videotapes into digital files on a large external hard drive, and just storing the originals in the garage as backups. (My computer is connected to my large screen TV via HDMI, so I can have a choice of a hundred different movies without changing a disc or even owning a DVD player.) The software I'm using will rip ALMOST all DVDs, but occasionally has a problem, usually a disc that has lots of extras in a complicated menu structure. In that case I can just copy the individual .VOB files and process them manually with VideoPad or something else. (VLC actually does a pretty good job SOMETIMES, but not often enough for me to use it all the time.) So that is the majority of what I use VideoPad for, processing .VOB files into .mp4 or .iso. (Same problem when I just use Prism to convert the files.)

I'm using VideoPad Professional 11.73, registered on 7/20/22 (upgraded from an older version).
Computer is a Dell, Intel Core i7-6700 @ 3.40GHz, 16 GB ram, Windows 10 64-bit, latest updates installed

Here's a public link to an example .VOB file:

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/oI8bCHaNXZE5lSBavkH3gxWfoCGxsp8tOVDIyoZVvcu

The file is "VTS_03_1.VOB", 459.9 MB. It's 7 minutes long and is a perfect example to show the problem. It's one of the extras from an old Gregory Peck movie, "Twelve O'Clock High", and there are many short segments throughout the clip of closeups of someone speaking.

Checked .VOB file by playing in VLC Media Player, sound & picture perfectly syncronized
Added file to VideoPad, was automatically placed in Sequence 1 Timeline.
Played file in Sequence Preview and ALREADY there is a very slight mismatch between the audio & video!
Did nothing at all with file, just immediately exported:

File Format: .mp4, h264, High Quality/Larger Filesize
Resolution: Auto Match Content (640 x 480)
Widescreen Fit: Letterbox
Frame Rate: Constant 29.97fps [TV NTSC]
Subtitle: Hide subtitles

Viewed the resulting .mp4 file with VLC and it has even MORE of a mismatch between audio & video which is very noticible, and just not acceptable if you try to watch a whole movie like that. I've just about resigned myself to having to get some additional software to fix the problem after exporting from VideoPad, but I'm wondering if there is something simple I'm overlooking; I can't be the only one that has this problem consistently.

 

[borate]

Thanks for sharing.  Grossly out of sync.  A report has been filed and suggest that you do the same...

https://www.nch.com.au/software/bug.html?software=VideoPad

In the interim, do this to manually correct the synchronization...

UNlink audio from video by right-clicking in either track and making that choice

Expand the timeline with the slider at the bottom-right...  

Click in the video track to select it

In the Cursor box enter 01.145...   Press <enter>.  The cursor jumps to that position

Drag the video track to the right until it snaps to the cursor position.

[borate]

VP developers confirm that this file is corrupt and not much can be done without causing other problems.

While in VLC it seems mostly fine, but attempting to seek causes various errors - e.g. seeking to 6:00 in VLC instead seeks to 5:51, and sometimes after seeking close to the end the video freezes and fails to play any more frames, even after attempting to seek anywhere else.  In MPC-BE it plays and seeks well. 

The suggested fix, as above:  UNlink, then delay video by 01.145.  That offset may work on similarly corrupted files as well.

Sync issues have not been reported lately with most files in any format, so this may relate to the program that created or converted the files?

[Joel Salazar]

Thanks for the effort on this topic; I suppose I will just have to use other much longer & time-consuming methods to get a perfectly-synced .mp4 file. I can always just play the video with VLC and screen-catpture with SnagIt which saves in .mp4 format. (Debut Video only saves in .avi, at least I can't find any menu item to save as any other format.) I've done that a few times, but it takes longer than being able to just rip and export to another format. Oh well. And the unlinking you suggested does work good, I'll just have to take the time and effort to do that on the relatively small percentage of discs I can't rip directly to an .iso file on the hard drive.

Thank you!

[borate]

Whatever does the job.  The video offset should be easy to set.

Debut can export files in avi, asf, wmv, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mov, flv, mkv, ogv, webm and dv format.

At least that's what is claimed for the registered version.  The free release may have limitations.

Check out the Debut tutorials.