Help please: imported video out of sync

Report · Nov 11, 2018

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?

Report · Nov 11, 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.

Report · Nov 11, 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?

Report · Nov 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?

Report · Nov 12, 2018

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

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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

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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:

Report · Nov 12, 2018

Thank you for the specs.

One more question to the out-of-sync: is the audio track ACTUALLY LONGER than the video track, or do they both start and end at the very same frame?

Report · Nov 12, 2018

They both start and end on the same frames.

Here's what it looks like in Premiere. On the timeline, both the video and the audio are perfectly parallel to each other, size, placement and all. They start on the same frame, and end on the same frame. It's one single video file.

But when I play the project in the preview window, the video ends and goes black before it even stops playing. I think the audio is just fine and still about the same length, but it gradually falls behind the video.

So while it looks fine on the timeline, it actually does play like the way you described, with the video track being shorter.

Report · Nov 12, 2018

Okay, so it's just the playback that lags.

You can lower the preview quality (right clicking into the preview panel, as I remember correctly - not doing much with premiere) and increase performance in doing so.

Another thought - and please don't get me wrong - you are sure that the video don't have just a couple of seconds black at the end?

Report · Nov 12, 2018

I would do 90% of your work in Premiere Pro. There is a very good keyer in PPro. You'll get Realtime playback of the original. If there are portions of the show that need special work you can split out part of the footage and do the fix in AE and splice that back in. I still see no reason at all to put the entire shot into an AE comp and try and work with it.

I've done hundreds of presenter and pseudo-live presentations that are similar. Folks sitting at a desk with a monitor in the background. or standing in front of a whiteboard that I had to fill with graphics. I've never seen one of those presentations where the replacement graphic stayed the same for the entire presentation. If the replacement (keying or graphics) had to be done in AE I would do each of the graphics separately, but the composite would be done in Premiere Pro.

Even on complex composites, the edit would be done in Premiere Pro. I had a shot the other day with a moving camera that was 20 seconds long. Followed a family with a kid as they walked down Santa Monica pier at night. There were 3 times when the family walked past signs that had to be replaced. The longest time that a sign was in the shot was around 3 seconds. I cut the shot each time a sign came into view, made three separate comps that were on average 3 seconds long, then using the trimmed shots, camera tracked the shots one at a time, replaced the signs, then went back into Premiere Pro and replaced the sections of the 20 second shot that had been fixed. It would have been an incredible waste of time to try and camera track the entire 20-second shot and do the replacements in one comp. Just the likelihood of a perfect camera track for the entire 20 seconds would be very low.

Here's another scenario. Let's say that you have a 10-minute section of your show where you need to put a bunch of different products in the frame you are going to key. The camera is locked off for those 10 minutes. Here's what I would do:

Make a cut at the start and end of the product sequence
Copy the section
Start a new sequence and paste the copied section to the new sequence
Add still shots of the products to the sequence in the track above the original footage
insert all of the transitions that are required and adjust the timing so you get a full-screen version of the product parade complete with transitions
Render this full-screen product parade with audio
Back in the main timeline export a frame from this section that has a clear view of the screen you are going to replace.
Open AE and import the exported frame and the product parade you rendered to a production codec
Apply corner pin to the product parade so that it fits the screen in the shot. You can use blend modes or just cut a hole in the still to get the perspective right
Delete or turn off the reference frame
Export the Product Parade using a production format
Back in Premiere Pro move the master shot up one level, place the product parade below the original shot, Key the screen in the original shot so you can see the product parade in the sreen and you're ready to move on to the next section.

You end up with an easy to deal with timeline in Premiere Pro and a simple comp in AE, and the entire process took about 1/4 the time to do than it would have taken in After Effects and the rendering time is going to be at least 50% faster than it wojld be if yuou rendered the entire project in AE.

Report · 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/

Report · Jan 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.

Report · Oct 16, 2020

I was also having this problem, for me it was because even though mac Get Info and After Effects project window both said my footage was 30fps, QuickTime movie info showed it was 29.97. I changed the AE project to 29.97 and that fixed it. My footage drifted more out of sync later in the AE timeline until this fix.

Report · Sep 17, 2023

I had the same issue. In my case I just duplicated the framerate on AE. The footage was too fast, so instead of 30fps(the original framerate of the video) I chaged it to 60fps and the video played just fine.

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Help please: imported video out of sync