Audio and video out of sync only in Premiere Pro

[Romain H.]

Hi!

Premiere Pro is strange regarding syncing audio and video.

I'm finally editing MiniDV tapes from 2004 which I've acquired a few years ago.

Some of the tapes were worn out, so I had acquired some of them several times.

Now I have 2 or 3 copies of the same tape with artefacts on different parts, so that whenever there's an artefact on one copy (often just on a few frames), I can replace it with one that has none for the same part.

Yesterday I had "cleaned up" half of one of the tapes. I called it a night when I noticed that at some point, two of the copies perfectly in video sync were out of sync for the audio. The first half of the tape was still fine though.

Tonight I restarted Premiere Pro and began by manually syncing audio and video for one of the tapes, with the help of scene detection and waveform. I've shifted the soundtrack 6 frames sooner.

Then I've checked if the first half that was fine yesterday was still fine. I've noticed that when one of the copies is being used in the sequence, I now get a yellow line above. More importantly, what was in perfect sync yesterday is now out of sync by 6 frames also.

I've immediately opened the "out of sync" copy with Windows 10's TV & Movies app, VLC, etc., and noticed that the copy was actually in sync.

In other words, it's Premiere Pro which is out of sync, but I don't know why.

Can you help me fix this mess, please?

I'm using Premiere Pro 2022 up to date on a Windows 10 up to date PC with a Core i7-6700 CPU, a Radeon RX 560 GPU and a MOTU MicroBook II sound interface.

[RobShultz]

I think that the tape "artifacts" which you mentioned could be the culprit. I'd recommend double clicking on the footage in the project panel to get it into the source monitor and trimming around any glitches before bringing the footage into the timeline.

[Romain H.]

Thank you for your suggestion, but I hope that there's another solution, as it would be almost impossible to perfectly sync between my 3 different captures using this method.

Why would the same footage stay in sync with Windows' Movies & TV app or VLC, but not in Premiere Pro? And why is it in sync one day, then out of sync the next day? This makes me think that I'm doing something wrong with Premiere Pro, not the footage.

[Averdahl]

And why is it in sync one day, then out of sync the next day? This makes me think that I'm doing something wrong with Premiere Pro, not the footage.

By @Romain H.

That indicates that the Media Cache and Media Cache Database may be corrupted. Clear the files using this method: FAQ: How to clear your Media Cache in Premiere Pro - Adobe Support Community

[Romain H.]

I will try this and report back, thank you!

[Romain H.]

So I've cleared media cache, as suggested by @Averdahl.

Then I've opened the out of sync file into the source monitor, as suggested by @RobShultz.

As in the sequence, that file is in sync up to a point where there's a big artifact (see frame capture) for around 10 seconds. After this part, the audio is 5 or 6 frames late in Premiere Pro.

But if I open that file with any media player, like Windows' Movies & TV app or VLC, it stays in perfect sync.

Any suggestion?

[Romain H.]

Forgot the attachment:

 

[Averdahl]

As in the sequence, that file is in sync up to a point where there's a big artifact (see frame capture) for around 10 seconds. After this part, the audio is 5 or 6 frames late in Premiere Pro.

By @Romain H.

One way to solve it is to cut before the glitch and then manually move the audio 5 or 6 frames by using the Alt-key to temporary unlink the audio from the video.

This works ok if there is one glitch. If there are more glitches here and threre i find it better to place the clip on a matching timeline and do the steps abowe and then render out a new DV file. I then use the new file as my source and never have to worry about it.

I don´t have clip to test on so i don´t know if Shutter Encoder can fix it faster. Maybe it will fix the issue by outputting the file to DV: Shutter Encoder encoding|converting video FREE PC|Mac

[Romain H.]

From my research and from what I understand from your replies, Premiere Pro is known to have audio/video sync issues where VLC or Movies & TV don't, and there's no fix.

I'll try Shutter Encoder, hoping that it fixes some kind of index, and if it doesn't work I'll try Davinci Resolve.

Thank you anyway for your help! 🙂

[Romain H.]

There is no solution inside Premiere Pro itself, so I won't mark this thread as solved!

Thank you to all those who offered their help.