Audio out of sync when exporting H.264

[Inrot]

I just discovered the following:

Whenever I export a H.264 in MP4 container, the audio in the resulting file goes about 10 ms out of sync. (575 audio samples to be exact.)

Screenshot:

Green is the original clip, red is the resulting file from export.

I used 25fps in export settings.

To test this I used:

• HD bars and tone that lasts exactly 1 frame @ 25 FPS
• Cleared / reset the cache
• Disabled the h.264 acceleration in settings and restarted premiere
• Rendered the timeline to green
• Tried to render with Adobe media encoder

The result was always the same, audio is not in sync with the original timeline.

To see if it's just a display issue, I copied the empty space in the start of audio, pasted it 100 times and it was silent. I also brought the video file to cubase and the desync was clearly there as well.

I tried other codecs and they all worked fine and are 100% in sync, including H.264 in .MOV container.

The video is exactly the same in the resulting file and lasts for 1 frame as it's supposed to, the audio starts 10ms late.

I tried to export audio only as MP3, that made the audio go even further out of sync.

I've gotten similiar files from my coworkers using adobe premiere, which is telling me that this is not a problem with my system only.

What is the cause of this and can it be fixed?

[Eric E D]

It was fixed in a software update to Premiere. I haven’t been editing video for a while so I couldn’t tell you if the issue came back or not…

Good luck!

Sent from my iPhone

[JohnMicheal]

We are experiencing this now. This time its a Media Encoder problem. But if you export this directly to Premiere Pro, all of the audio is in sync.

[magnobarros]

I initially thought QuickTime was starting to act on me, as all videos from this project were going mute half way or sometimes going mute from the start. Each time I played a file, the audio problem changed.

Reading these posts i tried changing Bitrate settings but rendering time was ridiculous.

Then I tried to open the troubled file on QuickTime and then export it as 4k - Voilá! Problem solved.

It tells me there is something off with the audio encoder within Premiere, which QuickTime fixed during export.

Still amazed that we have to find ways around to make Premiere work. Such a great software but bugs like these really suck the love out of my soul...

Recapping > Export your file using QuickTime player (4K)...

[Kevin-Monahan]

MagnoB,

You are actually losing a generation by encoding any file once more in QuickTime Player, more than likely. Does it seem to be doing so? Feel free to file a bug here: Premiere Pro User Voice

I'll let the team know in the meantime. 

Please file your bug, and I will advocate for a fix or some kind of solution to the problem other than, "avoid QT Player." As you say, files should not be playing out of sync on the Camera Roll. That point got my attention as a customer advocate.

Edit: After a bit more research, I found out that this is a bug that has already been reported by customers and has been filed by my associates. I added this post to the bug that is being worked on right now. I hope we can get the fix into an upcoming version as soon as possible. So sorry for the inconvenience and workaround. In the interim, please use VLC to evaluate your video until we can resolve this issue.

Thank You,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Community,

I found a variety of bug reports on the same topic you can upvote. Please let the Premiere Pro team know that you want this bug fixed ASAP by upvoting. I'll add more if I find them along the way.

• Audio out of sync when exporting
• Audio out of sync on MP4 Renders
• Audio problem on H.264 MP4 output
• Audio Video Out of Sync
• Audio out of sync when exporting H.264 video file
• Keep sound in Sync when doing H264 exports
• Exporting Out of Sync

Thanks,
Kevin

[Eric E D]

Yes - VLC worked fine for these files for me when Quicktime did not, but I also found that other MP4 files that I had not exported myself, worked fine in Quicktime – no issues with it being out of sync. I worked with Apple to help me but they eventually disappeared and I never re-opened the case.

Even with Monterey update and a new computer, Quicktime was still giving me sync trouble with those same exported files.

Haven't edited in a while and there have been a couple of Adobe updates, so I exported a new version of that same session with all of the same export settings and now it plays fine of Quicktime! It seems that Adobe must have fixed the issue! 🙂 Are others having the same experience?

[Eric E D]

Just noticed that the newly exported file is much smaller, but it seems like all of the settings are the same and I used the same preset, so I can't explain that part... Attaching an image of the "Get Info" of the two files...

[Chris32135593rh5k]

Trying changing Hardware Encoding to Software Encoding. Not sure if that will work for you, but it was an easy fix for me!