Uploading AVCHD Footage into S4000- Audio/Video Sync Issue

[Rte80west]

I just loaded about 6 hours of AVCHD footage into the S4000 (which took about 10 hours- is that normal?). Anyway, upon reviewing the footage after uploaded, I noticed as it goes on, the audio starts to go out of sync with the video. Not sure why or how to fix. I checked the source footage on the videocamera and its fine. Then I reloaded a small selection of footage when it started to go out of sync, thinking maybe loading up a 6 hour chunk at once was too much. But upon reviewing that, it was out of sync just as before. So the good news is the source footage is fine, since I can see it on the videocamera, but the bad news is I don't know why it's going out of sync or how to fix it. Does anyone have any ideas? Anything obvious I am missing? Thanks a lot for the help, I appreciate it.

[jimmeeker]

Hello,

Yes, welcome to the Cassie forum. We hope you will continue to visit with us. We think this is the friendiest place on the web where we all learn from each other.

I'm just starting to learn how to load AVCHD footage into my S-4000 now as well ....so I'm not sure how to correct the internal software problem to get the footage to stay in sync with an AVCHD capture to the Cassie. However, I can tell you an easy way to fix it when you get in the scene bin and then on the storyboard.

Split the footage into shorter sections and the go to "special" and click on "Scene->Sample" and this will copy the audio portion of your footage into the audio section. It looks like nothing happens when you click on it but if you open the list of audio samples....it'll be there with the name or number you have given each of the sections that you split off and placed in the story board.

Now, take each of these samples of audio and place them under their corresponding scenes in the storyboard. There are several additional audio tracks available to place these sample in. Just highlight one track so it turns blue. Then click on the native audio sample that is right there under the scenes and lower the audio levels until each is muted out. We don't want it to stay on as we are going to replace that audio with a copy of itself but in a way that allows you to move it back into sync with the videol

This will give you the same audio as was there before.....but it will be in a separate audio track which will allow you to fix the out of sync problem easily. Now find the first scene that the sync is off and highlight the audio that you added below it.
Now click on "Range" after the track with your highlighted sample has turned blue. now click on "Trim' and then move the highlighted area down to "position". This will allow you to move the audio track either forward or backward in relation to the video images in the scene above it.

Listen to your clip and determine if the audio is too early or too late. then click on "Start" in the trim menu dialog box and move the sample one frame at a time forward or backward.....using the small arrows pointing forward or backward. DO NOT TRY TO MOVE THE SAMPLE WITH THE TRACK BALL. It'll move it way too much at a time and you won't be able to control it properly.

Each time you click on the small arrows, it moves the audio one frame in that direction. So if your audio sounds like its coming on later than the video ( this is easiest to test with someone talking where you can see the mouth movement) you will want to move the audio forward or to the left on the sound track..ie clicking on the left arrow. I usually try it for five frames at a time to see how it sounds,, then render it and listen. If it's still coming on late....click it five more frames to the left and render it and listen to judge how close you are to being correct. Generally you'll have to do this a couple of times and then maybe go back to the right a frame or two to get it synced perfectly. Always remember how many times you have clicked on the arrows' so you can tell where you are. That way you can tell which direction to move the next time.

Once you have determined how far off the first scene is, then you can move the next one that same amount of clicks to the left or right and check it. Usually the amount of out of sync will be about the same until a lot farther down the storyboard, so you can move all the audio samples in the correct direction until you find it going out again and then its just a matter of clicking more times in the direction you need it to move.

Remember...you do have to render it to hear how it has changed. You can click on it all day but if you don't render it, you'll be hearing the audio in the unchanged position and it'll drive you nuts wondering why it doesn't change.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you. Again welcome to the forum and come back and visit us regularly. I would suggest that you go to the "User Control Panel" at the top left hand of this page and fill in all the information about yourself so we can get to know you by your real name, we don't want folks hiding behind internet "handles" here.

Then also fill what machine you are using and what software you have as this will allow us to help with questions more accurately instead of guessing about what you are working with and then accidently giving you the wrong information in answer to your questions.

Look at the tagline to my post here and see how it will look when you fill in yours. That way you don't have to re-type all that info each time you write, it automatically appears with each posting from you.

If we knew your name, hometown and State it would really by nice to get to know you that way.

[Rte80west]

Hey Jim

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and for giving such a detailed answer. Greatly appreciate the effort. Yes, I knew of this way to remedy the problem but I'd rather not do it that way, simply because it bugs me that it's happening and I want to find out why. So the good news is yeah, it will work and I'll do it that way eventually when I get desperate enough but I've heard that perhaps the new OS update will remedy the problem. I'll wait for that and give it a shot and if it doesn't work, give this annoying exercise a go. I was hoping there was some easy fix I was missing, such as wrong USB port entry or maybe the cam had to be powered up after the s4000, etc - something like that. But again, big thanks for the time and effort to lay out in detail all that you did.

[jimmeeker]

Hi,

They are still ironing out all the bugs in the Bogart software and I hope along with many others that this sync problem will be corrected soon. It shows up in other places as well. I understand that the Testing is going on around the clock to fix some of the errors in the software.

Because I was not familiar with you and your experience level, I tried to give a basic beginners answer to your problem, I hope that I didn't cause any problem with that approach. That's why we want everyone to fill in the profile with their name town and state and list the software they are using so we can answer better in the future.

I would like to invite you to look into the "March Get Together' National Convention for Cassie Users that we hold every year. Look us up at http://www.marchgettogether.com We have a ball and get to meet all the Cassie users from coast to coast. We learn from each other and get to know each other much better when we meet in person.

[Rte80west]

Hey Jim-

No, no problem at all. As I said, I greatly appreciate the effort and the time you took with your detailed response. Regarding experience level, I actually think even a seasoned veteran of Macrosystems products can easily overlook something so I think approaching every problem with a fresh eye is the way to go, even at the risk of being repetitive. Regarding my issue, yeah I hope the OS does it, because I reallly don't want to slave thru all of that footage and manually correct if there's an easier way to go.

Have a great day and if appropriate, Happy Father's Day to you and all relevant readers.

John

[DaleVenvertloh]

I am a recent purchaser of an S-4100 and searched the forum to see if anyone else had previously encountered the a/v sync issues that I am encountering when reviewing AVCHD footage uploaded from a Canon HD camera. Much of the video I have loaded seems to be "off sync" by about half a second. I can correct the issue by following Jim's method, but does anyone know whether this problem has been corrected by Casablanca or if there is something I can do to prevent the problem when loading the footage in?

Thanks.

Dale Venvertloh

[LouBruno]

Never had this problem with any of my Canon AVCHD cameras. Are you hearing the problem with the finished AVCHD project? Check the Audio Synch in the main SETTINGS>RECORD,PLAYBACK<PLAYBACK>AV/ ASYNCHRONITY in BOGART.

I am a recent purchaser of an S-4100 and searched the forum to see if anyone else had previously encountered the a/v sync issues that I am encountering when reviewing AVCHD footage uploaded from a Canon HD camera. Much of the video I have loaded seems to be "off sync" by about half a second. I can correct the issue by following Jim's method, but does anyone know whether this problem has been corrected by Casablanca or if there is something I can do to prevent the problem when loading the footage in?

Thanks.

Dale Venvertloh

[DaleVenvertloh]

Lou,

The problem is not with a finished project . . . the original footage that I have loaded in is out of sync.

Dale Venvertloh

[LouBruno]

Your original material is out of sync in the scene bin only?

But your finished and rendered project is OK?

HD?

Let me know. If it is rendering fine, but out of sync. in the scene bin, simply use the settings I mentioned for playback.

What camera are you using? Frames or drop frames if in the menu?

Lou,

The problem is not with a finished project . . . the original footage that I have loaded in is out of sync.

Dale Venvertloh

[erictom]

I'm not sure if it's relevant...but even when monitoring actual recording through headsets, you can actually already sense the delay audibly.