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Participant
October 18, 2012
Answered

Audio out of sync AFTER importing

  • October 18, 2012
  • 78 replies
  • 628919 views

Hello, how are you?

I've been searching for a solution for a while, but I can't seen to find any.

The thing is... I've been capturing some gameplay footage, with files that last an hour or even more.

When I watch the files in any player (Windows Media Player, VLC, Media Player Classic) they play fine, the audio and the video seems to be on sync and OK.

But after I import to Adobe Premiere, it just gets out of sync. Even when I watch in the Source Monitor, before dragging to the timeline.

It looks like there is a problem when conforming the audio.

But even the time duration is different from the original, there is some frames or even seconds of difference inside Premiere.

And this happens with different codecs, AVI (from FRAPS), H.264 (with AAC audio and MP3)...

I've tried cleaning the cache, deleting the software and reinstalling again, converting - everything.

Some are saying this is a recurrent bug on Adobe Premiere. Isn't there any fix or something that I could do?

It's really strange that the problems only occur AFTER importing. Outside of Premiere is fine, so there is no problem with the capture, right?

I would really appreciate if someone helps me. Thanks a lot!

PS: I have Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.

Intel Core i7

12 GB RAM

GeForce GTX 580

HD 2 TB 7200RPM

Correct answer caroline_edits

We've got a tutorial here on how to fix it when working with screen recorded footage! This helps with other non-camera formats too like Zoom recordings or gameplay footage. 

78 replies

Participant
April 22, 2020

After trying 5 different other fixes the Handbrake converter was the only one that worked I thank you for helping me reach a deadline good sire.

MMPrime
Participant
April 21, 2020

Thank you! I was looking all over for an answer, that is perfect!

Participant
April 2, 2020

Thanks for a great answer.

Just a tip eight years later: I just had the same problem and I solved it by running the file through Adobe Media Encoder first and then importing it to Premier.

April 10, 2020

,,

Thanks for a great answer.

Just a tip eight years later: I just had the same problem and I solved it by running the file through Adobe Media Encoder first and then importing it to Premier."

 

Hi. That is my main problem too at now with PP 20. The mp4 file is correct, but when i import in premier pro and working with it then rendering, the end file is out of sync.
My brain is exploding because this problem here the all early version s too.


So you can do it and working fine just simple start the media encoder, open the file what you want later to rendering with premier pro and working??? Not need anything just open the file, then close the program and start premier pro and import?

thanks your help.

Participant
April 14, 2020

Hi Brian,

I'm sorry I didn't specify: You will have to render the file with Media Encoder to get a new video file. I can't remember what settings I used, but I guess I used "Match source".

Participant
February 11, 2020

Thanks bailzmc1, your information just helped me out of a big jam on a project, it worked perfectly for my sync issue.Handbrake and you save the day!

Participating Frequently
June 3, 2019

It's 2019.. the problem is still here. — Adobe lol

Moderator note: your post was edited. Please avoid profanity.

Participant
January 15, 2020

Posting to say that I am having the audio out of sync error and HandBrake DOES NOT fix the issue for me. It seems my file has some sort of missing frame error. Re-encoding to CONSTANT Framerate does not fix this in Handbrake. Not sure what else to do. Video plays back in VLC just fine *shrug* Premiere being Premiere I guess

Participant
January 11, 2019

Inspiring
September 7, 2018

THANKS!!!  I've had this problem for YEARS.. .over many releases of Premiere Elements!  This workaround is GREAT!!  Not sure why Adobe has not fixed the bug in  Premiere Elements that been there for at least 5 yerars, but I very much appreciate knowing how to circumvent it. 

Inspiring
September 8, 2018

First off, not necessarily a bug.  VFR only works with video games because they are not reality based.  They are overlay graphics being built on the fly as needed.

The difference between VIDEO and GRAPHICS is that VIDEO is CAPTURED, and GRAPHICS are WRITTEN.  Video is litterally the visual of life.  Graphic littlerally means "Drawn" or "Written" image.  With video, it's assumed that things change and it is captured at a set rate to keep some semblance of balance in the speed of motion.

Keep that in mind.  Video cameras in the consumer or "Prosumer" market use OIS and EIS to "Stabilize" handheld shots, but they EXPECT YOU to run it through a blend mode ingest operation before you actually edit the footage.

Here's the overall rundown:

PRO CAMERAS NOW SHIP WITH OIS\EIS ENGAGED-->TURN IT OFF!  And remember when I say pro camera, I mean between $2000 and $80000

Prosumer\Consumer Cameras are less expensive, but you are more responsible; many are LOCKED into OIS\EIS in the lower price range-->make time to ingest your footage if you get one of these.  Many of them come with cheaply made software that will create a lesser quality frame where needed, and running them through this software to download your video directly from the camera will give you useable video.  The reason is simple, they want you to keep buying their cheap gear, so they give you everything you need, but very little instruction on how to actually use it.

Many of you aren't familiar with the concept of DAILIES.  I will admit I had to go to college to learn that one... ...It was a COMMUNITY COLLEGE, and the class was offered to 9th graders!!  They even had a middle school AV geek in that class!  And we learned it from a BOOK!  A book you could get at any library!

Okay enough ranting.

Here's an example of my workflow:

I set up 3 cameras, 2 of which are manned and panned (they zoom in and out, panning and such).  They are all different makes and models, but have a common frame rate, and video format (progressive or interlaced; one or the other).  I set them all to the highest setting of the lowest end model, and have one far away go-to angle just in case, that's always running.  The pancams can clip, zoom, pan, whatever they want, provided they are within 30feet of what their shooting, or have a sound drop, or sound isn't needed.  When I get home, I immediately open up either AME or Prelude.  For longer Projects with a lot of clips, I use Prelude, and go through all the b-roll first.  Then I import the main videos in the following manner:

I create an AUDIO ONLY rip of every file first, and store it.  This is super fast, and gets me something to work with right away.  Then I add them all back again, with a preset that keeps their "INTENDED" frame rate ( i have many presets for many rates, all with the "Keep original frame rate" unchecked, and an interpolation method selected for the footage), then I can add them all to a queue, and have them start.  Their file formats and other information are all kept, just the framerate problems are fixed.  I get started on cleaning up and test-synching audio for about an hour.  Then I turn off all sound, and put on some ambient music at a very low volume to soothe my ears out of fatigue; I get started in prelude on the files that are finished processing, and start making some rough cuts.  With 3 cameras all pulling in an event shoot that was 2-3 hours of footage for each one, plus some B-roll, it usually takes about half the time to a solid match for time.  The reason is simple, it only runs through, checks the compression, copies each video frame for frame, and when it finds missing frames it fixes that.  I get home at midnight or even 1AM, get to work for a couple of hours, go to bed, wake after a good sleep, and I've got most of my cuts and audio cleanup done.  All that's left is a run into premiere and the final choice of which cut goes where, then a few transitions, an audio resync to my cleaner and clearer, and viola.  2-4 more hours working in the day on a total of 9 -12 hours worth of footage to cut it down to about 2-3 hours.  In total about 6 hours worth of work and I have a file I can digitize.  Then I just drop several outputs into a queue for AME and let it process those while I grab another project or take a break.  Oh and did I mention I'm doing all that on a LAPTOP.

People who complain that they're on a deadline are basically telling you they have no idea how to use the software.  I took several classes to learn premiere.  One or two I audited for a repeat, just to make sure.  Prelude is a different animal.  You have to go online and follow along with their tutorials.  Once you get used to making rough cuts while your videos are being "Ingested" by AME, you realize that your deadline isn't really that hard to meet.  You can put together the basic cuts and timelines, mark clips, all that.  Then you simply disconnect the old file in premiere, and reconnect that link to the new file.  It will work perfectly, and you only have a couple of steps left.  The Drawback of Prelude is that it is so different.  But it's designed to do what's called "LOG AND TRANSPORT".  That means you can take some notes, name, and mark up your footage to prepare for editing in a team if you've got one.  You can make cuts of this shot for this team, that shot for that team, and so on.  It's a great way to divide work, but it also allows you to bypass the problems of digital capture in the current era of lazy manufacturing.  

Why it works:

Because it doesn't recompress already compressed frames in clean areas, it can fly right through.  In missing frame areas, it has to uncompress at least one before, at least one after and blend them.  For optical flow, it has to uncompress several images before, several after... ...but when it works right, it's worth the time (still background, moving subject, semi stationary camera).  This decompression takes up some time, but most of it is in rebuilding the frame or frames that are missing.  When last I checked, it didn't seem like it was recompressing the frames it just used for rebuild, it instead grabbed the data from the original file and passed it along because those frames were clean.  Why waste the time on recompression?  Of course, this is in the most recent version of creative cloud.  Older versions have shown the operational clutter that appears they are recompressing clean footage after borrowing it for a blended frame.  Not a bug, but definitely a time suck.

Participant
April 15, 2018

I am using 2018 updated premire pro cc and having same issue with some encoded files.Looks like the problem is NOT the premire pro, actually it does it's job perfectly:) the problem is the recording device itself. Devices are failing somehow single files or splitting long videos and audio and video recording synchronization is lost(There is sound for as long as the miliseconds at the beginning of the video, but there is no image.which means the device is unable to record video and audio at the same speed.) and adding audio latency information to video information to correct this and video players are playing the sound according to this information except Premier pro:).Premiere pro helps you identify blank frames as a professional program should do. SOLUTİON: in the windows exlplorer right click the file then select "mediainfo"(http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net) memorize the "Delay relative to video     : -xxx ms) now you can adjust the video and the audio in the premiere pro, slide the audio -xxx miliseconds and just cut the "video free" section from audio at the begining and the "auıdio free" section from the video at the end.I hope this was helpful.

The handbrake solution looks like fix it but there is still video and audio free secitons and it takes time.

Inspiring
August 9, 2018

Finally, somebody gets it.  Yes, the video hardware is to blame.  Hardware manufacturers put in functions that drop frames during shake, requireing you to ingest video, rather than simply import.  Turn off OIS, and use tripods or monopods where possible.  Any physical stabilizer will do better than before.

Hanbrake will do the job of fixing it.

Media encoder will do it.

PRELUDE will do it.

Adobe gives you Media Encoder, and Prelude.  Prelude is a way to create rough cuts.  I like it.  I create rough cuts first, then export to premiere, then ingest in prelude by sending it to my own media encoder presets for different camera manufacturers and sizing.  I can get started, put together some of the story and let my system render the video in the background.  Then I just replace the sources in premiere with the new files.  Everything adjusts and falls into sync.

You have to set the frame rate to CONSTANT.  Look that up in handbrake forums.  NOT BIT RATE.  FRAME RATE.  You are missing frames.  Setting it to constant will force the software to blend a frame.  In Media encoder, this is an obvious fix.  It's automatic if you UNCHECK the box next to the frame rate to undo the Match Source, and set it to the same as your original video standard.  It will use the "TIME INTERPOLATION" setting to fix any problems.

If you have the camera still will relatively low wind, and you want to double the frame rate of your video without adjusting the playback speed, you can use Media Encoder to set the frame rate from 30 to 60, or similar, and look at the bottom right of the window where it says "Time Interpolation." which usually uses Frame sampling (which is standard processing); if you are okay with a longer render time, use Optical flow, and it will guesstimate changes between frames, and build a frame in between.  It works better with more pixels remaining the same.  If you have a lot of things moving and higher wind, you should use frame blending, which will blur two frames together.  Frame blending is a more common fix for missing frames since it's usually due to motion.  Frame sampling can be done where frame rate changes are due to still motion, as with games.

Optical flow has been gaining popularity and has worked well in many situations for me, but indoors with a still background and moving people.  It has been updated constantly, and it works.

Participant
April 3, 2018

Having the same problem when importing Google Photos created MP4s into PP for tweaking, ie; original MP4 is fine but soundtrack is off synch when played in PP. I found this thread via Google and am delighted to say that the Handbrake solution worked a treat (re-buulds the original MP4 using constant framerate for anybody wondering how).

The SHOCKER is that this thread is 5 YEARS OLD and Adobe have seamingly not addressed this issue!

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Participant
March 6, 2023

"The SHOCKER is that this thread is 5 YEARS OLD and Adobe have seamingly not addressed this issue!"

That's because Adobe is only interested in extorting money from users by exploiting its monopoly position.

Byers Video
Known Participant
March 2, 2018

This issue does not reside in Davinci Resolve. I just added the long iphone video that gets out of sync in premiere to davinci resolve and there is no issue. Avid does not have the issue as well. Premiere seems to be the one that gets tripped up with mulit-framerates.

Byers Video
Known Participant
March 2, 2018

I used http://mirovideoconverter.com

which also works converting it.

Has anyone tried Adobe Media Encoder?

Participant
March 16, 2018

I've tried Media Encoder without success.  This problem just cropped up for me in the last couple of months after a PPro update.  Now .MST and .mp4 videos that play with synced audio in other players are out of sync in PPro and I have to manually adjust the audio timing.  I am guessing that maybe a codec has changed somehow, but haven't found the answer yet.