Skip to main content
travis.tran
travis.tran
Participant
November 12, 2018
Question

Help please: imported video out of sync

  • November 12, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 14806 views

I'm having a problem in both After Effects and Premiere. I'm working with a 45+ minute long MP4 video. The video itself plays just fine on Windows Media Player.

But when I import it into After Effects or Premiere for editing, the video and audio start perfectly together, but they get out of sync at the end. I'm not trying to sync the video file with a separate audio file. It's the MP4 file alone that becomes like this when imported into the timeline of either program. And it doesn't automatically fix itself when I render and export it either.

I don't know if it's the video or the audio that changes its ending time, but it seems that the simple shortcut of moving one of them over on the timeline to match the other is not going to work.

The program I need to fix this on the most is After Effects. Can somebody please help me?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Bulgakov
Bulgakov
Inspiring
May 12, 2019

Hi,

I realize this is an older post, but I had the same problem and your post came up in my search. I subsequently found the solution on the Creative Cow forum, so I thought I would share my findings.

Most likely your footage was recorded in variable framerate. In my case, I was helping someone who was using footage from a laptop camera and this was the default.

You can determine if you footage is variable framerate by right-clicking on the clip in your project panel and clicking Properties.  It will show the framerate as a number, but near the bottom will be written variable framerate detected.

Adobe claims they support it in the latest versions of CC but I found that it does not always work.  (you can scroll down and see their explanations).

https://www.premierebro.com/blog/premiere-pro-1201-update-variable-frame-rate-and-new-features

In my case, I used Handbrake to convert the footage to a fixed 30 fps and then reimported it. It worked fine after that.  If you are not familiar with Handbrake, it is an open source video transcoder. It works quite well.  https://handbrake.fr/

    K
    KarlKaz
    Participant
    January 15, 2020

    This fixed it for me! Thank you. I had no idea there was a variable framerate, and I've been having this problem for ages.

      R
      Community Expert
      Rick GerardCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 12, 2018

      First, an MP4 is the wrong format for production. Second, forty-five minutes is an insane length for an After Effects comp. A comp should only be as long as the visual effect or motion graphic lasts. 90% of all professionally prepared AE comps are under 10 seconds and one shot.

      If you really need 45 minutes of a single video effect then let us know. The sync problem is probably a cache or decoding issue. There is no reason that you can't cut up the project into sections. The entire clip is never going to playback in real time in AE.

      If we knew what you were trying to do maybe we could help.

      travis.tran
      travis.tranAuthor
      Participant
      November 12, 2018

      Thanks for the reply. I had to use MP4 because that's the only format that I can download the video into. I'd like to convert it to MOV if that helps, but like I said, it's out of sync after just importing into the program.

      And the video I'm trying to edit is a podcast. I'm adding a green screen effect to the video using After Effects, as well as some color touch up. Unfortunately, it's all one shot, and it cannot be recorded in separate shots, because the recording is done at the same time as the radio broadcast.

      Can you still help?

      travis.tran
      travis.tranAuthor
      Participant
      November 12, 2018

      It would be helpful to know how long the out-of-sync is? Are we talking about a couple of frames, or seconds?

      Also, what are your computer specs? Maybe the poor thing nearly dies, when it should playback the video in Premiere...

      What do you mean by "green screen effects"? Keying? And if, did you tried to make this right in premiere?

      Let's focus on the video being out-of-sync in Premiere: did you check your audio settings, do they match your video source - especially sampling rate?

      And vice-versa: did you check your video settings, especially fps?


      Yes. Keying. I did it in After Effects.

      About the time I get to the end of the video, the distance between image and audio gets to about 1-2 seconds. It really is noticeable.

      The only reason I used Premiere was because I thought converting the original MP4 into a MOV would solve the problem. But just like After Effects, the video becomes out of sync the instant I import it into the timeline, without making any changes to it.

      The MP4 file is still fine. But whatever comes in and comes out of either program just can't play right.

      This video is the only video that has this problem. Every other project I've done has been just fine. Although I've never converted something this big before.

      Here are my PC specs if they might help:

      ------------------

      System Information

      ------------------

      Time of this report: 11/12/2018, 01:53:10

             Machine name: MAIN-PC

         Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_ldr.180908-0600)

                 Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

      System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

             System Model: To be filled by O.E.M.

                     BIOS: BIOS Date: 11/25/14 14:34:14 Ver: 04.06.05

                Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) X4 740 Quad Core Processor       (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz

                   Memory: 16384MB RAM

      Available OS Memory: 16328MB RAM

                Page File: 6799MB used, 25853MB available

              Windows Dir: C:\Windows

          DirectX Version: DirectX 11

      DX Setup Parameters: Not found

         User DPI Setting: Using System DPI

      System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)

          DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

           DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

      --------------------

      DirectX Debug Levels

      --------------------

      Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)

      DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)

      DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)

      DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)

      DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)

      DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)

      DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

      ---------------

      Display Devices

      ---------------

                Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660

             Manufacturer: NVIDIA

                Chip type: GeForce GTX 660

                 DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC

               Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11C0&SUBSYS_128119DA&REV_A1

           Display Memory: 4095 MB

         Dedicated Memory: 1970 MB

            Shared Memory: 2125 MB

             Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (59Hz)

             Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor

            Monitor Model: unknown

               Monitor Id: PTS0839

              Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (59.934Hz)

              Output Type: HDMI

              Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um

      Driver File Version: 24.21.0013.9811 (English)

           Driver Version: 24.21.13.9811

              DDI Version: 11

             Driver Model: WDDM 1.1

        Driver Attributes: Final Retail

         Driver Date/Size: 6/1/2018 19:04:52, 19081176 bytes

              WHQL Logo'd: Yes

          WHQL Date Stamp:

        Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-5280-11CF-395C-8C321BC2D535}

                Vendor ID: 0x10DE

                Device ID: 0x11C0

                SubSys ID: 0x128119DA

              Revision ID: 0x00A1

      Driver Strong Name: oem40.inf:NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1:Section007:24.21.13.9811:pci\ven_10de&dev_11c0

           Rank Of Driver: 00E62001

              Video Accel:

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices