Recorded video/audio out of sync on playback

I am using the Balckmagic Media Express software to capture audio/video of our church services through the H.264 Pro Recorder on my laptop.

My problem is during play back the audio/video is out of sync. The audio is ahead of the video.

The following is how everything is configured:

First off the audio is being feed from a sound board to a Kramer HDMI Scalar.

The video is coming from 2 Canon VIXIA HFM 31 HD video cameras. They feed into a Kramer 2x1 Audio/Video component Switcher that lets me switch between two cameras. The video then goes to a Kramer box via component in then component out to the Kramer HDMI Scalar.

Then the audio/video feeds to the Blackmagic H.264 Pro Recorder via a HDMI cable. Then from the H.264 Pro Recorder to my laptop via a USB cable and captured using Blackmagic Media Express.

My problem started with using the Blackmagic Intensity Pro. I was told that the H.264 Pro Recorder would fix that. But I still have the same problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Richard Araujo

I have H.264 Pro Recorder Pro and have encountered the same problem. Unfortunately there is no easy fix.

1. Make sure you have enough HHD/SDD speed. (I had problems with fragmented drives)
2. Update the firmware. (No instruction, that I could find. No way to force it... it just didn't come up for me)
3. Try different USB bus and different systems to eliminate PC related problems.

PAV89, Thank You for the advice.
I will check out and try the things you suggested. Have you not been able to resolve your problem?
I greatly appreciate the feedback.
Richard

Mine got sorted out. Still don't know how, probably firmware got updated... or something.

On my home PC I could get it to update. But after few connections on different computers it fixed its self... somehow. Because it supposed to pop up update notice if there is newer firmware available, but the only time it showed up for me when I unplugged the device and I couldn't update it...

There was a thread some months ago about the H.264 files getting audio out of sync. I recall they mentioned a new firmware that fixed this?

We came upon the same problem right when we upgraded the TVS firmware to the latest version. (3.4) Immediately, that next recording, it started recording audio out of sync and was also glitching up the video. see at :25, 1:16, 1:26, 1:35, and 1:56 and so on. I was able to go and somewhat fix the audio on FCPX by shifting and retiming the audio, but that's all I can do with it and without ULTRA-TEDIOUS work, it's still not right. Not the way we want to do every recording. We uninstalled 3.4 and reinstalled 3.3 and all was well. The sync problem has never reared it's head since we installed the system in October. The firmware update was definitely the culprit. We upgraded because I read it would pass HDMI from our VGA/HDMI or USB/HDMI converters to insert PC Graphics through TVS. It still didn't pass the signal, even after the update. Anyone? Anyone?

Mac Pro w/Lion
FCPX/Compressor 4
ATEM TVS Capturing USB H.264 using software control
Have Intensity Pro Installed with Media Express but the file size captured was HUMUNGOUS under our curent storage arrangement.
Canon XF300 and XF100 using BMD HDMI-SDI converters

Did you report the H.264 issue with 3.4 to Black Magic? I had not heard there was a problem with 3.4 related to that.

On the 60Hz issue that was fixed in 3.4 - I can at least confirm it fixed the issues I was having (and other reported it fixed too). Did you report these issues before?

Maybe the problems you are having are unrelated to the 60Hz problem. I must admit even with the 60Hz issue in firmware 3.2 and 3.3 I still had no problems connecting my laptops to the TVS or my 1ME. My graphics card allowed me to set the resolution and refresh rate to match my settings in any case.

My problem is during play back the audio/video is out of sync. The audio is ahead of the video.

The following is how everything is configured:

First off the audio is being feed from a sound board to a Kramer HDMI Scalar.

The video is coming from 2 Canon VIXIA HFM 31 HD video cameras. They feed into a Kramer 2x1 Audio/Video component Switcher that lets me switch between two cameras. The video then goes to a Kramer box via component in then component out to the Kramer HDMI Scalar.

If I understand correctly, your audio leads your video by a number of frames (I'm guessing 3 - 6 looking at your setup). Is that right? It doesn't "go out" of sync, meaning getting worse as time goes on, right?

You are incurring latency at several points in the chain. Each conversion in your path is adding delay, the camera outputs are potentially slightly delayed. Probably picking up a frame at the switcher. DEFINITELY picking up some at the component to HDMI. You need to delay the audio before "marrying" it to the HDMI signal.

This is absolutely normal, ASSUMING I understand you correctly.

My problem is during play back the audio/video is out of sync. The audio is ahead of the video.

The following is how everything is configured:

First off the audio is being feed from a sound board to a Kramer HDMI Scalar.

The video is coming from 2 Canon VIXIA HFM 31 HD video cameras. They feed into a Kramer 2x1 Audio/Video component Switcher that lets me switch between two cameras. The video then goes to a Kramer box via component in then component out to the Kramer HDMI Scalar.

If I understand correctly, your audio leads your video by a number of frames (I'm guessing 3 - 6 looking at your setup). Is that right? It doesn't "go out" of sync, meaning getting worse as time goes on, right?

You are incurring latency at several points in the chain. Each conversion in your path is adding delay, the camera outputs are potentially slightly delayed. Probably picking up a frame at the switcher. DEFINITELY picking up some at the component to HDMI. You need to delay the audio before "marrying" it to the HDMI signal.

This is absolutely normal, ASSUMING I understand you correctly.

Shaun, That right. Thanks for the info.

We delayed the audio coming out of the Roland soundboard 10 milliseconds and during the capturing of the audio/video this Sunday everything looked liked it was all in sync. So of course I was very excited. But after capturing when I went to play it back the video and audio were in sync at the beginning but became out of sync the further into the playback. Its good to here this problem is normal because it is driving me nuts. Just wish I could get it figured out.

I have been very thankful for all the feedback on my problem.
Richard

If as you describe it becomes further and further out of sync as you play, then you do indeed have a fault of some sort. If video starts late and remains late the same number of frames throughout, the behavoiur is normal.

In terms of audio delay, I'm at 37ms with just an ATEM 1ME switcher and an analog to SDI converter in the path. plus or minus a handful of frames but I've got sync that works. 10ms isn't even a full frame at 60 frames per second.

33ms is one 30P/60i frame, 16 ms is one 60P frame, 42 ms is one 24P frame.

Shaun, Thank You for the quick response to my post.

It appears then that I might have a fault somewhere. Now I just need to figure out where.

All this is pretty new to me and I am learning as I go. Everyones posts have been very helpful and greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the audio delay information.

r/Richard Araujo
Jacksonville Fl

In trying to troubleshoot and identify where we might have a fault, We started by removing everything and connected the Canon VIXIA HF 31 HD camera directly to the H.264 Pro Recorder via a HDMI cable and recorded 35 minutes of video via the USB cable using Blackmagic Express on our PC. On playback the video and audio stayed in sync the entire length of the video. And the video was even clearer than before.
Our next step is to start adding back into the process each one of the components we removed one at a time until we can isolate at which time the video and audio become out of sync again. If we can’t figure it out and come up with a solution we'll just leave the camera hooked of directly to the H.264 Pro Recorder.

r/Richard Araujo

Update

We reconnected everything to its original configuration. Then delayed audio again coming out of the soundboard this time by 37 milliseconds. Recorded 27 minutes of video. On playback the video and audio remained in sync throughout the entire playback. Problem appears solved. I am very happy. Now we are ready to post our churches messages on our web page.

Thanks to everyone for all the support
r/Rlchard Araujo
Jacksonville Fl

Great news. Thanks for sharing.