Hi Tom,
Please can you attach a diagnostic file to your next post.
Guide and instructions, Part B
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7958.page
Please provide a screenshot of the Edit Workspace, Part E & F.
I'm looking for clues as to your set up and display and a lot can be learnt for the information asked for.

A workaround would be to split your project into smaller segments, produced to mpeg2 and then bring the mpeg2 files in for you to create the DVD. It's a workaround not a solution and with more information there may be some better suggestions from members.

Dafydd

Hello Dafydd,

Thanks for your help. I've been trying to attach the files requested, but when I submit it seems to go on forever and nothing gets sent! I tried sending one file at a time and also zipped each one. For whatever reason, the system is not alowing me to attach a file. Any ideas?

Tom Tom in Inver Grove Heights

I'm trying again to send one file at a time. Hopefully it will work. Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Here's the Print Screen. Hopefully this is what you wanted.

Tom Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hi Tom,
What a fantastic starter image you have. My son would, I'm sure, love to paint such picture on a large canvas. Really dramatic and stunning with that Wow, factor.

I couldn't see anything that worried me with your diagnostic. The audio files, if they're mp3's it might be worth converting them to wma or wav formats. Disc write speed, you should possibly lower it. When writing to disc please check the burn to folder option. this will split the render/disc process and may also help.

Let us know how you get on please.

Dafydd

Hello Dafydd,

I believe I have the problem resolved, but I'm not really happy about it. The cause was when I had a music file (including a *.wav) starting at the beginning of a movie, playing through the title, transition and during the first part of my video. This was causing the video & sound to become out of sync a little at a time until further on down the video when it becomes 3-4 seconds off! When I cut off the music, right when the video stars at the transition point, the video remains in sync! My understanding was that you should be able to add a music track wherever you want in PowerDirector. That is why it has that separte track at the bottom of the timeline, right?

Splitting the movie into smaller segments has also helped with other nagging issues, but I still had the out of sync problem on a 25 minute video. The real culprit here is a music clip added to the movie. Is there something else I should be doing in PowerDirector that would alow me to play a music clip from the beginning with the title and continue and slowly fad away into the background of my video? Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hi Tom,
Thank you for the update.
A workaround could be to Produce the section and then import the audio overlay.
I've not had the "experience" of the audio sync issue you've described so I'm really guessing here. Have you tried switching the transition type you're using? I prefer "cross" rather than "overlap" as the latter does throw project layout about a bit if added after audio etc.

I'd like to look at screenshots of the Edit Workspace please to see what your project looks like and if you can point to the sync track points where the issue started that would help. Please expand the tracks down to frame level and to show the transition insertion. I'm just fishing to see what's happening.

Audio can be added to any old or newly inserted audio track. For example you can add an audio track above all the video tracks and help align it to the video. Later you can drag the track to a lower position prior to doing another bit of editing. The only "ground rules" in editing in PD is to do with which is the dominant track. Highest numbered track is the boss!

Guide for screenshots:
Part E & F
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7958.page

Dafydd

Hi Dafydd,

Thanks for some insight! I appreciate it. Attached are two screenshots. Hope they are useful. I may try adding the audio after producing the movie before I burn the disk. That sounds like it might work. The transition type I always use is "cross" which I also prefer.

How can you remove the blank tracks? I noticed number 2 for video and audio that are present by default, although I have never used any tracks other then number 1 and the track at the bottom for music. I tried deleting the empty tracts but they don't disapear.

The problem I have with the video & sound being out of sync, is that it isn't detected until I burn a DVD! I can preview the video after Producing and everything appears just fine. I have to burn a DVD and then play it back using the DVD on the computer to see if everything is in sync. My suspicion is that the problem begins right away, at the beginning of my caputured video, and continues to "grow" in distance (i.e. the "out of sync" becomes greater frame after frame, until it appears to be about 3-4 seconds out of sync).

In this video, I can't tell if the sound & video is "out of sync" until the screen shot I've attached. So often, you hear sound but the video is of something else. I'm talking a lot of the time, but the camera is focused on a different subject. I have to wait until the subject I'm filming is also speaking to see if I'm "in sync" or not.

Please let me know if I can send something else or if you have any other thoughts. I really appreciate your time. Enjoy your Easter.

Tom from Minnesota Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hi Tom,
Thank you for the attachments.

I'm still fishing for things you could try out and just looking.
I notice the 3D image doesn't have any extension showing, is it an *.mpo file? I wonder if the cause is the 3d image (rendering) you've placed at the beginning followed by a 2D transition to a lower res 2D video. Pull the 3D image and convert it to 2D in an image editor, that might help.

I'm working on a couple of things at the moment to do with syncing and i'll get back to you.

Dafydd

Hello Dafydd,

I thought the same thing with the 3D image, but most of the time I'm using a 2D image but have the same problem with syncing. I did try what you suggested and it seemed to work. I produced the movie without the beginning music. Then I took the Produce file and added in the music and produced it again. I wasn't sure if I could do that, but the video and sound remained in sync. However on another short movie, that procedure didn't seem to work. What I noticed on the second video was a 2 second pause of a video frame and then the video continued. Maybe that is the point from which the video becomes out of sync with the sound. I would have to produce that again to see if the pause goes away with the sound & video back in sync.

Tom from Minnesota Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hi Tom,
Have you got a program running in the background? Virus checker or something. Please check your Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete = for those who don't know) and see what's running in the "Processes" tab. Still fishing and wondering = could be something is interfering with the write process.

Please advise where's your data and project files are stored on your PC?

This isn't a new issue, I read about them before and the reasons/solutions are often not found/given on the forum. getting to the bottom of this will help others, I'm sure.

Dafydd

Hello Dafydd,

My files are stored on drive D: where I've also installed PowerDirector. I keep everything together in D:\PowerDirector Videos. The application was installed to D:\Cyberlink.

Attached is a Print Screen of all processes running before I launch PowerDirector. I'm never running any other program at the same time as PowerDirector.

Thanks again for your help!

Tom from Minnesota Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the info Tom.

Carl's posted on another thread and it was going to be my next suggestion to you as well. Please read: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/22716.page#121546
Dafydd

Hello Dafydd,

Thanks for the info about turning off the Hardware Acceleration function. I believe I already was expiermenting with that already. Nevertheless, I just finished producing a video with a duration of 1:40:00. I saved the Produce without adding in the music and one with the music at the beginning and the end. The one with the music was out of sync. The Produce without the music remained in sync throughout! Again it seems like a familiar pattern. In both cases, I had Hardware Acceleration turned off.

I'm going out of town for a few days, but when I get back, I plan to add music to the produce without the music and process it again. Then I'll burn a DVD and see what happens. Hopefully the video will remain in sync. It certainly seems to me to be a problem with music added to a title that spills over the top of captured video & sound.

Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this issue. It would be great to know if any others out there are experiencing the same issue with music causing the "out of sync" issue.

Take care and thanks so very much for you time and attention.

Tom from Minnesota Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hello Dafydd,

I'm still having the same issue with H.264 processing causing the "out of sync" problem. I have done a lot of testing this past week. Even though music seems to be the primary cause of the video & audio being out of sync, the problem still persists to a lesser degree. My last test was just 70 minutes of video with a simple title on the front end and an ending title on the back end. No "cross" transitions or music were used. The produced movie still was slightly out of sync, enough to be annoying. This has to be a software issue and I wish someone would admit to it and let us know that they're working on a solution. I'm going to try the MPEG-4 next to see if it is any better.

I do have one question. Does the entire production need to be produced? Could I go directly to burning a DVD after editing? With one of the tests I did, I produced the video without music and chapter marks. Then I addded those components to the produce and immediately burned a DVD. That worked fine, except of course for the "out of sync" problem that persists.

Tom from Minnesota Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Quote:
I do have one question. Does the entire production need to be produced? Could I go directly to burning a DVD after editing?
Tom from Minnesota

Hi Tom

I'm sorry to hear you are having sync problems.

In answer to your query, yes you can 'burn' to DVD, just use the Create Disc Tab.

As for the sync issues (sorry I haven't read all the correspondence between you and Dafydd as I'm using an iPhone and it's a bit tricky). Have you tried the following:

1. Turn off shadow edit files.

2. Uncheck SVRT in the Produce mode

3. Is it possible to 'break' the project into smaller pieces - say 7 ten minute segments - Produce each one separately and then add these 7 Produced files to the timeline and then add the audio and Produce again?

4.Ensure all music/sound files are WAV's

Good luck Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
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Hello Dafydd,

I just finished with my 2nd test. This time I re-did the entire production adding in the music and the transitions (3), as well as chapter marks. I ended the music, of course, right as the video started to play. I then produced the complete movie in MPEG-4 format. Suprisingly, there didn't seem to be any "out of sync" issues! I also left the Hardware Acceleration On! Finally, I burned a Blu-Ray DVD and it worked great! No "out of sync" issues, not even slightly!

I will continue to produce movies this way. My conclusion is that there must be a processing glitch with the H.264 format and that Music added to a video, seems to cause "out of sync" problems if it runs over the top of captured Video & audio. Turning off or on Hardware Acceleration didn't seem to matter at all.

I will keep you informed if this pattern remains consistent with other productions that I create. Hopefully, this wasn't just a lucky fluke!

Tom from Minnesota Tom in Inver Grove Heights

Hi there
The out of sync issue involving H264 setting has plagued me as well. (Bluray only)
I am placing a number of .MTS files (from Panasonic SD900 - HG quality) in the timeline and burning to Bluray. No titles / no music / no transitions
The video renders and burns very quickly to Bluray using the 1920x1080 50i setting (20 minutes to burn a 2 hour video) BUT the audio lags behind the video.

I have tried the 1920x1080 (50i) setting in "create disc" (best video results but out of sync)
I also tried the 1920x1080 (24p) setting - this took forever to render and the result produced jerky motion every 10 seconds but was in sync.

I have no probs with DVDs and have burnt around 350 this year with 100% success rate.

My coaster total has now reached double figures
Would love a solution if anyone can help

Thanks
David

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