Exporting with TMPGEnc Plugin - Audio disappears after a second or two (for remainder of first clip)

[travise38589766]

I've been exporting with the TMPGEnc plugin for Premiere Pro for a couple months now (I paid for it).  However, today I noticed that almost all of my resulting mp4 files have audio drop-outs, starting about a second in.  There will be a second of audio, then silence for several minutes, and then audio will come back.

Here is an example, where the audio disappears after 1 second and then comes back at 12:48:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J6HgWIJnok

Here's another example, with audio disappearing a second or so in, until 14:55:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOWmjDIvrLs

The same videos, when exported with Premiere Pro's normal CBR 100 (not TMPGEnc), both have perfect audio.

I am getting the same problem over and over, on all of the 4K@60Hz videos I've exported with TMPGEnc since 28 November.  Videos before that didn't have the same problem, except I remember last year when I trialed TMPGEnc (on a different computer) I experienced audio drop-outs, but those were much shorter.

For the first video (where the audio disappears until 12:48), I see that the video consists of 2 clips created by my GoPro Hero 11.  The first clip is exactly 12:48 long, so it looks like TMPGEnc mutes the entire first clip (except for the first second) but then includes the audio for the second clip.

Ditto for the second video; the sound disappears for the first clip but comes back for the second clip.  You can actually see the video "jump" at 14:55 because I was using Warp Stabilizer on the clips separately, and the adjustments don't perfectly line up.

So why is TMPGEnc omitting audio from the first clip, but including it for the rest of the clips?

And why is this bug only affecting TMPGEnc and not Premiere Pro's "native" exporting?

[travise38589766]

I just tried exporting with TMPGEnc using all the different audio formats (mpeg 2 HE-AAC, Linear PCM, etc.) and all of them have the same behaviour: after about 1 second, the audio drops out. 

This bug only happens when I use TMPGEnc H.264 as my export format; normal H.264 works fine.

So far it is happening on all of the videos I've tested today.  (I'm exporting the first 5 seconds of them to check for drop-outs, so I am able to conduct lots of tests).

[travise38589766]

It happened on all videos exported with Premiere Pro 23.  I have one video which I exported in Premiere Pro 22 with TMPGEnc and it's fine (the audio plays all the way through).

So, the bug seems to only affect Premiere Pro 23, but it affects it consistently.

TMPGEnc H.264 = audio drop-out for entire first clip, other clips fine

Premiere Pro's built-in H.264 = audio works perfectly

Any suggestions?

[travise38589766]

Also, I get the same bug with videos created by the Hero 9 and the Hero 11.  

When I use MediaInfo to look at the GoPro's video files, I see that the audio stream is:

English, 192 kb/s (48.0 kb/s), 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, AAC LC

The video stream is this:

English, 99.9 Mb/s, 3840*2160 (16:9), at 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS, HEVC (Main@L6AMain)  -- for the Hero 9

English, 120 Mb/s, 3840*2160 (16:9), at 59.940 (60000/1001) FPS, HEVC (Main 10@L6AMain)  -- for the Hero 11

Do these details help?

[Averdahl]

Any suggestions?

By @travise38589766

Assuming that you use version 1.1.8.25. Assuming no audio effects has been used inside Premiere Pro.

It is impossible to help without screen dumps of all settings you use in the Export window so one can see the settings you use. With all settings there are so many combinations possible making it impossible to guess, especially if you have done changes in the Advanced window.

What happens if you first export only the audio as .wav using the Waveform Audio as the format and then import that file .wav-file and place it on the timeline and then mute the original audio? Do the audio drop out in the TMPGEnc exports now.

[travise38589766]

Hi, I did a quick 5 second test, and it worked!

Here's what I did:

1) exported project using "Waveform Audio" format (to .wav file)

2) muted original audio track (there was only one but I assume this would work if there were multiple)

3) dragged .wav file to another audio track

4) exported project using TMPGEnc H.264

This worked on my 5 second clip.  I'm now trying a 6 minute video to see if that works.  If so, I can try one of my full-length (30+ minute) videos.

So, did the GoPro audio confuse TMPGEnc?  I read somewhere that TMPGEnc does not handle audio conversions smoothly.  This would make sense, then.

Is there an easier way to convert to wav than export - import? 

Would "Render and Replace" work just as reliably?  (I haven't used that except once for video, and the resulting video files were too big).

[travise38589766]

I've been doing the export-to-wav, export-with-wav trick.  It's a few extra steps, but has been working well.

Is there a way to streamline this process?