after affects video audio is dragging on both mp4 and mov

[drotar]

I imported my MP4 video which plays perfectly on the computer into After Effects 23.2 build on my mac. I am viewing it at Half and quarter but when the audio plays (it's a concert performance) it is in slow motion and sounds awful. I converted it on Cloudconvert.com to a .MOV file and imported it back into After Effects but it still has the exact same problem with the audio dragging. When i play either video format outside of After Effects both of them play perfectly. Any idea on how to fix this please?

[drotar]

another thing, the audio will start out well but two seconds in starts to drag. I don't know why. please advise.

[Rick Gerard]

There is a Cache Before Playback checkbox in the Preview Panel. Try setting that option to On. Verify the playback frame rate by expanding the Info panel.

You can also open press Alt/Option + Ctrl/Cmnd + ; and open Preferences/Preview and check Mute Audio When Playback Is Not Realtime. 

[drotar]

turned on the Cache Before Playback, same problem, the singer starts off perfectly and by the third second her audio starts to drag. I set the FPS to 24. Any ideas on how to solve this problem please?

[Rick Gerard]

You should not set the frame rate of the preview panel to anything but Auto if you want any real-time playback. If the Info Panel shows less than real-time playback you have run out of system resources. Mitigate that by setting the Composition Panel resolution to Auto and the Magnification Ratio to 50% or less. If you still can't achieve long enough real-time playback set the Preview Panel to Skip Frames. 

Full-resolution previews and Magnification Ratios above 100% should be used for fine-tuning edges and composition. Checking the timing and motion in a frame are usually checked at a lower resolution. After Effects is not an NLE. Even NLEs reduce the resolution to facilitate playback. A system that barely meets the minimum system requirements for After Effects is probably only going to give you a few seconds of real-time playback of a half-resolution HD comp. Those are just the limits. 

If this is new behavior, check for changes to your drivers or software updates not related to After Effects that may have fouled things up. Anti Virus software in the past has been notorious for slowing down After Effects. Check all of that.

[drotar]

This is what was happening. I have a dual monitor set up to my mac powerbook pro. When i viewed the video on the second (and larger screen) the audio would lag terribly. But once i pulled the after effects page back onto the macpowerbook screen the lag disappeared and played perfectly fine. I would then drag after effects back onto the large screen and the audio would again drag. Luckily i was working with an Apple represetitive who couldn't see the large screen when i shared screens with her and pulled the after effects window back onto the powerbook screen. Odd this but it fixed it. go figure.