Audio Sync Drift Issue with Premiere Captured AVI Files

Thanks again for the help everyone.

Averdahl, I suspect you have the right idea. I tried importing into Audition and doing the sample rate conversion to 48kHz 16-bit, then reimport into Premiere. Unfortunately the new wave file is exactly the same as the source in sync except it has one frame removed from the end (sync throughout is not changed at all).

I also tried VirtualDub. VirtualDub also plays the files perfectly in sync throughout. I set it to pass-through the video stream and do a 32kHz->48kHz conversion on the audio stream. This losslessly creates a new AVI which I can import into Premiere, however it still has the same issue annoyingly.

I did make another discovery though. I noticed that the tail end of the audio track has a blank period ~6 frames long.

It turns out this blank space precisely corresponds with the timing discrepancy such that if I stretch the length of the entire audio track out 6 frames, all audio will become in sync throughout. Speeding up the video by 6 frames also has the same effect. While these solutions 'work' they are both lossy and not ideal.

So I still suspect the 32kHz audio is the root of the issue but I haven't been able to find a solution so far...

When I use the no longer sold Grass Valley ADVC 110 external digital converter to capture from tape... even from VHS... the audio is 48khz and I've never had a problem with audio+video sync

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ann is correct that these are not variable frame rate files. I had already checked that, sorry I didn't mention it. (Also Premiere now supports VFR anyway) Also while the suggestion to capture is smaller parts would probably work, this isn't an issue with the underlying files as VLC/WMP show, just with how Premiere is interpreting the files. So capturing in smaller chunks would probably mask the issue since the .AVIs imported to Premiere would be too short to experience drift. Also I've already capture 100+ tapes so I don't want to redo it all.

Another thing I discovered is that captured MiniDV tapes (not VHS) with Premiere (which uses the same DV codec with 48kHz audio) do not experience the drift issue. This again makes me wonder if there's an audio sample rate issue that could be causing issues somehow, but I'm still not sure where to go from here.

To avoid this issue I would capture in smaller chunks.

You can check if changing the Variable frame rate setting helps: FAQ: How to work with Variable Frame Rate (VFR) media in Premiere Pro?

Sounds like your footage is Variable Frame Rate. And it seems that most people have great success using Handbrake to transcode their footage to Constant Frame Rate. You might experiment with different compression settings in Handbrake to get a clip you're happy with.