Sony A7s3 HEVC Video's Audio in Premiere Pro is out of Sync with Footage, but not H.264 Proxies

[wesleym85465781]

Hi, we record our footage on a Sony A7s3 in the 4k HEVC 10-Bit. Whenever we import the footage into Premiere Pro, the audio is out of sync with the footage by about 1 frame. We noticed this because we also use the H.264 proxies recorded by the camera. When we toggle the proxies, the footage stays in the same spot, however the audio waveform shift by about 1 frame. The thing is the proxy's (h.264) waveform is correctly synced with the video, but the original media's waveform is not. 

I did a test by recording  H.264 on our Sony A7s3, and that footage was synced correctly when we imported it into premiere pro, so it seems it is only an issue with the HEVC Codec.

I importat the HEVC files into DaVinci resolve, and they are correctly synced there. So it seems to also be any issue in premiere pro.

Right now our solution is just to manually sync the video to our external audio recorder's audio file.

We'd like to continuing editing in premiere because our workflows are based around it, but this issues causes alot of errors and slows us downl. Does anybody have recommendations on if this issue is common, and/or if it can be fixed?

Premiere Pro Version 23.0.0

Computer Specs attached

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Wesley,

Sorry. I would download the freeware Media Info and inspect the contents of these files in the tree view. If possible, can you post the results here? May we also see your Sequence Settings? Perhaps the audio sample rate is not matching in one of those areas. I'd need to see it to make a judgment.

Even if sample rates match, audio from long GOP formats is not very reliable in the frame accuracy realm, I'm afraid. It's often a problem. I recommend using ProRes Proxy proxies generated inside Premiere Pro instead of camera-generated proxies for a more reliable workflow. 

If you wish to continue working with proxies, you may want to test this. An alternative is to transcode straight away to a 10-bit editing codec like ProRes and edit natively with those. 

I hope we can help find an acceptable solution.

Thanks,
Kevin

[wesleym85465781]

@Kevin-Monahan 

Thanks for the response Kevin. Below are the tree view report of the XAVC HS (h.265) footage for the sony As7s3.

Also, I ran another test to show off the sync issue and narrowed down the sync issue to be specifically with the sony H.265 footage in Premiere Pro, because the H.264 footage was in sync, and the H.265 footage was in sync when imported into Davinci Resolve. I also tried this on my Windows PC, and my Mac Laptop, so I don't think its a computer specific issue.

I'm surprised I haven't been able to find any other threads because its seems like the Sony A7s3 and Premiere Pro would be a popular combination. 

Premiere Pro Sony A7s3 XAVC HS footage, internally recorded h.264 proxy disabled (out of sync by 2 frames)

Premiere Pro Sony A7s3 XAVC HS footage, internally recoded h.264 proxy enabled (in sync)

Note that I actually moved the play head for this screenshot. The audio shifted, not the video

Premiere Pro Sony A7s3 XAVC HS footage, recorded without proxy (out of sync by 2 frames)

Premiere Pro Sony XAVC S (h.264) (footage in sync)

Davinci Resolve XAVS HS (in sync)

Premiere Pro Sequence Settings  

Media Info Tree View

 

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks for doing all the screenshots. MediaInfo shows that the audio and video streams have different durations. Do you suppose that could be the issue? Let me know. 

Kevin

[wesleym85465781]

@Kevin-Monahan 

Unfortunately I don't think that's the issue because the the H.264 clips that are in sync have their video and audio in Media Info off by about 3-5 ms as well. And other editing programs seem to have both H.264 and H.265 footage in sync.

I just tested importing the footage into Final Cut Pro X and the H.265 footage is in sync there, which is why is why I think it something specific to the way Premiere Pro is reading the footage.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks for the message. The information and screenshots are helpful for the devs (I am not on the Premiere Pro team directly).

...the H.264 clips that are in sync have their video and audio in Media Info off by about 3-5 ms as well. other editing programs seem to have both H.264 and H.265 footage in sync.

Ah, interesting. Thanks for letting me know.

...other editing programs seem to have both H.264 and H.265 footage in sync.

I just tested importing the footage into Final Cut Pro X and the H.265 footage is in sync there.

Thanks, the devs will appreciate those findings. Other NLEs and Premiere Pro are not always aligned in how long GOP footage is interpreted or handled. Check out this bug report; It leaves me curious about what's going on in those labs. 

Let me get the team's eyeballs on this thread. 

Thanks,
Kevin

[Fergus H]

Hi Wesley, 

Thanks very much for the detailed description of the issue; very helpful. I'm going to send you an email to get some more information. 

Regards,

Fergus

[wesleym85465781]

@Fergus H 

Great, thanks for looking into this Fergus!

[Stefan P]

Hi I have same problem with editing Sony FX3 files.
I want to make proxy files and editing with them, but I can't make proxy with Media Encoder, because it doesn't support mov with h264 codec.
So I must make with different program and there is the problem. When I convert-make proxy, audio in resulting file is with 1-2 frame delay.So when I finish editing and watch with original file I was very surprise that audio cuts and keyframe is not in the right place and some parts of word are cut.
I have PC and MAC and the problem is on both system.
Software for proxy that I try on MAC is: Final Cut, Resolve, Shutter encoder
Software for proxy that I try on PC is: Edius, Resolve, Shutter encoder

Then I start to compare audio waveform of Source-Original(not proxy) video file on every program, and then I see that on Final Cut, Resolve, Edius audio is in the same position except in Premiere pro, where is with 1-2 frame desync. In the screenshot in Premiere you can see audio waveform on Track 1 is "ahead" and cut from beginning, compare to all other tracks.

I check different version of Premiere v23.3 and v15.4.5 on PC and MAC and it is the same.
I think the problem is how Adobe implement Sony XAVC decoding.