I have transferred some vhs videos to my harddisk, using Pinnacle moviebox and Studio 9. The resulting file is a mpeg2. Some of these are too big to fit a dvd, and therefore I try to make them smaller. I have tried Tmpgenc, DVD shrink and others, but the result is always the same: The audio and the video does not follow each other, so to speak. In the beginning of the movie, it looks okay. But the further You watch, the more the audio gets "behind" the video, that is, the audio is "slower". Is there anything to do about this? Perhaps it is in my computer (2.6 pentium4, 512 mb ram, audio:sound blaster audigy, video: 128mb gF3 ti200.) Please, if You have an idea of what to do, spell it out to me - I am a newbie on this! THanks
Hello ps76, Maybe you would like to check if the original captured mpeg2 playback OK, I mean does the video/audio synchro well from beginning to ending? To what I know DVD shrink will not cause video/audio to go out of syn even after trimming off unwanted portion. Well, if the original captured mpeg2 doesn't syn in the first place, you could check out your capturing device software settings for 'master stream' options. By changing it to video or audio will help to correct problem - just have to test it out which setting will work.
Thanks for the answer - but yes, I have already checked the original file, and it is okay. So it is not happening during the capture phase. Reg. DVD shrink - The file I have is a mpeg2 file, and I cannot use that directly in dvd shrink - as far as I can see?? It is looking for a dvd file - as the name implies. But perhaps I should convert my mpeg2 file to a dvd file, and THEN use dvd shrink. Just dont know how to do that...?!
Hello, To convert mpeg2 into DVD files, you can use softwares like TMPGEnc DVD Authour (simple) or DVD-Lab (powerful). You may also try Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 Disc Creator which allows direct copying, input video, editing, output DVD files or even burn DVD.
Some Mpeg Capture Devices and Mpeg capture Software will Pad the Video stream with blank Data when the device Drops frames or get frames that can not be read, It does this so the File will keep sync when being Played Back But when you try to re-encode or edit these Files the Padding gets removed so in essence the Blank Frames get removed which changes the Length of the Video stream causeing it to go out of Sync....Even when you try to author these Files to DVD the Padding will get removed because the DVD authoring software will generally re-Mux the Mpeg2 file to Vob files useing the DVD Standard Mux rate, So even seemingly perfectly synced Captures will go out of Sync when re-encoded or edited and when authored to DVD which Basicly makes the Captured files useless.... This is a Major Flaw in the way that the Crappy assed Pinnicle USB decice captures Video, and there is very Little you can do about it accept Take it back and get a Good Capture device, Hopefully you just got this device and Can take it back for a refund because it is well Known that Most USB Devices are Total Crap and if you can get a PCI Card you will capture better Quality with Much less hassle....good Luck
Thanks for all advice, all. I am afraid I cannot turn back the Pinnacle device now - bought it in another country via the internet, would be to complicated. BUT: Meanwhile I have actually found a way around the problem: In stead of converting the whole movie in one long go - which then gave the sync problem - I split it up, using MPEG2CUT, in smaller sections, smaller vob files that is, and then use Nero vision express to make a new movie consisting of all these "sections", so to speak. THEN, if the movie is too large for a dvd, then I put it through DVD shrink to make it fit. This actually works. As long as You keep the clips relatively small, there is no - at least noticable - sync disagreement.
One word of Advice...Nero Vision express will allways Re-encode your Files useing it"s Sh*tty Assed encoder, even if you captured your Files as Mpeg2/DVD Compliant it will still re-encode the Files which really affects the quality quite Badly so if you can use a DVD authoring Program that does not re-encode your Files then you would be Much better off....Cheers
Well If the Captured Files are 100% DVD Compliant Mpeg2 files then there is not need for the Files to be Re-encoded so any DVD authoring Program will Work (Other than Vision express becauses it is One of a Kind), Pretty much any DVD authoring Program allready mentioned Like DVD lab or Ulead DVD Movie Factory ect....Cheers
I too have this problem sometimes, but it's in the original captured vid. I thought it was because dropped frames meant you lost video but the sound was still captured so they got out of sync. If I only drop a few frames (< 10) the end result seems to be ok but anymore than that and I have to re-do it. It's a bugger when you spend an hour capturing a tape only to have it all out of sync at the end. Can it be fixed or do I have to try and re-capture it again? I use MGI videowave and can't see any options to adjust the "master stream" as suggested above. Majority of my vids get captured quite well but some seem to be done over and over before they are right. (tape & vhs are both newish).
There are Capture Program that will compensate for dropped Frames and for the Latency between your Sound Card and Capture Card so you should notice any sync problem useing one of these program...Like with WinDVR 3.0 I never had any sync problems because it can properly compensate for dropped frames....
Thanks for that Minion, I'll give it a burl. I captured a vid last night which did not drop a single frame yet the sound was still out of sync. I've tried it three times now on the same vid and the sound is always wrong, but just for the first half of the tape. I captured the vid in two sessions (therefore 2 avi files) and the second half of the tape is fine. It's just the first half that just doesn't seem to want to work. Argh! It's my kids tape of "Brum" so having to play it over & over can make you go kind of INSANE.
Well the Other Main Cause of Sync Problems is the Time Lag between your Capture Card and your Sound Card... Your Capture card will capture the Video useing it"s own Built in Clock for a time refrence and your Sound Card Captures the Audio useing it"s own Time Clock and Rarely are these Clocks exactly the same, It might only be a couple second per hour but that is enough to Ruin a good Capture..... Most good Capture software has a way of Compensateing for this if the time clocks aren"t too bad out of Sync but if they are badly out of Sync the only solution is to get a Better Sound Card, I have a Simple Sound Blaster 16 Card that costs about $20 and it keeps good Time and the Quality isn"t too bad But I just got a new Motherboard that has Killer 5.1 Sound and captures audio at up to 96000hz which is twice the quality of a standard DVD"s audio so i will be useing it instead of the Sound Blaster but I have them both installed......Good Luck ...Cheers
Hey Minion, I downloaded windvr and can't see any option but to have the captured vid in mpeg format (I can see anything in the help which suggests you can capture as an AVI). Won't this mean the quality will be inferior to an AVI captured vid in the end? edit: I'm starting to think it's some hardware problem, namely memory. My PC will sometimes freeze for a bit and then reboot itself a minute later. I don't have a sound card either, it's built into the mobo.
Yes the Quality Might be less when captureing to Mpeg but there is a Method of Captureing with WinDVR 3.0 that will produce quality as good as if you did it from AVI...What i do is set up a Custom Capture Profile and set the Settings to the Highest Quality setting Possible Like 720+480 and a Bitrate of 20,000kbs and the Motion Vectors up to 32, and then capture your Movie and the quality will be very very good because captureing at 20,000kbs Mpeg2 is allmost lossless and WinDVR 3 has built in Noise and Deinterlace filters that help with the Image quality...But at that Bitrate you can not make a DVD because the Bitrate is about 250% higher than is allowed for DVD, so you use a High quality Mpeg encoder to re-encode the files useing a lower DVD standard Bitrate, Useing this method you can get quality as good as Captureing to AVI..And Captureing to AVI is only better than Captureing to Mpeg2 if you are captureing to Uncompressed AVI or useing a Lossless Codec Like HuffYUV...... You do sound Like you are Haveing a Hardware problem also, Do you Monitor your CPU"s Temperature??? Cuz sudden restarts like that can be from Overheating....well good luck
I tried virtualdub and when I set the resolution anything above 352 x 240 I get a error message ""Unsupported video format" but it keeps it at this resolution. However when I try to start capturing I get another error message ""Out of memory for video buffers". I have 768 Meg of ram and have a 2Ghz P4, and a proggie I use tells me I have 700meg ram free so I dunno why there isn't enough memory.
Well It is a Little bit Hit and Miss useing Virtual-Dub with a Card that uses WDM Drivers because Virtual-Dub uses VFW (Video For Windows) ...Try useing "Virtual-VCR" cuz it is made to work with WDM drivers....Cheers
Thanks Minion. I ended up setting the capture resolution to 640 x 480 and it seemed to work ok on a 5 minute test I did. I got an error when encoding it with tmpgenc at 99% saying... damn, I should have wrriten it down. Something about line 480. Can't remember. Anyhoo, the end product's DVD quality seemed good enough at that resolution. Here's hoping the 1 hour capture I do next time will be ok. Just weird that I managed to capture and convert hours & hours of VHS tapes and all of a sudden this sound problem just started happening.
