iMovie not syncing sound with video properly...

messiahtoshmessiahtosh
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I have a project in iMovie that is really intricate in terms of the number of edits, sound clips, audio....its very intense compared to anything I've ever done with video before. I have 17 minutes of footage and in iMovie everything seems to be sinked when I play it within the program. I created a DVD out of it, also I exported the exact same project to camera with both resulting in the same issue. The sound on the second half of the video is ever so slightly out of sink with the video, producing an annoying audio/visual blunder. It isnt so terrible that the video cant be watched and enjoyed, it just bugs me that it does this after countless hours of exact and detailed editing work...I dont know why its happening or how to resolve it. Any help is very, very much appreciated. Thank you.



Oh, to be precise (no pun intended) the sound and video is off on clips that have the sound attached to them. Regularly imported DV from the camera is doing this, it really makes no sense. The only thing I can think of that might cause this is the fact that I bumped up the volume on the clips, almost all of them, to 150%. Would that cause a sinking issue??

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    flounderflounder Posts: 2,674member
    Out of sink?



    How about some liquid plumber?
  • Reply 2 of 20
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Flounder

    Out of sink?



    How about some liquid plumber?



    Thanks, but this is an important project for a film making class that my group and I have spent days on. If anyone knows what I could possibly do to fix this issue, it would save my grade and make my presentation a lot better. No wonder people get bad impressions of Apple sometimes, stuff doesnt always work as advertised. I have done nothing out of the ordinary, iMovie has never done this in the thousands of times I've used it before...but now, on the eve of my presentation, kablooom!
  • Reply 3 of 20
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    i've been in your position before. try exporting as a quicktime movie instead of "full quality dv". bump up all the quicktime options for maximum quality, and pray that it works (it worked for me.) btw, the syncing issue was a main reason for me switching to final cut... let me know if you still cant get it.
  • Reply 4 of 20
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    ps: the other problem could be due to imovie rendering out some files... occasionally, when doing music videos, timings are perfect until a render, then it all goes to hell for some reason.... like i said before, i've been in the same position before, so i feel for ya. good luck!
  • Reply 5 of 20
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    What is the best compression to use? How many FPS, key frames etc? I am doing the expert settings, and want to know what the best settings are...hopefully exporting it like you said will fix this glitch...I own FCP but dont know how to use it right now, is there anything that would help me there? All the original footage is gone now BTW. Thanks a million.



    Maybe iMovie version 4 will fix this, I get iLife tomororw and am just wondering? Can I even re-open this project in iMovie 4? Oh man, i'm just flipping out about this, shit.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    ok, go into expert settings, make sure its set just to "quicktime movie", then bump the setting to "best", uncheck fps and keyframe. that should be all you need to know... i'll keep chekcing back.



    edit: basically, leave the fps blank
  • Reply 7 of 20
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Messiah, if I was a bettin man, I'd say it has to do with mixed-up sample rates among the various sound sources in your movie. I know I've had this issue before where the music and camera audio sample rates are different from each other, and the final movie's audio eventually "drifts" out of sync.



    To alleviate this problem...won't be easy, if that's what it is. You'd basically need to send the music into a different program to convert the rates to the same as your camcorder.



    If this is NOT the problem, it could be that when you laid down the music it bumped your audio-following-video out of sync.



    Let me know if this helps at all.
  • Reply 8 of 20
    maxuzimaxuzi Posts: 13member
    I'm using iMovie to cut a Television show. I'm on episode 15 this week and it is a 2 hour show. I've had this problem on 50% of the shows. Here are my quick fixes for this. 1) back up your edit to DV TAPE. 2) select ALL on your clips and extract ALL the audio to the time line. Now export to DV TAPE. Your show should be in sync. If that does not do it. Save project and try again. I have to make 3 copies of each show so sometimes I only get one of the three copies in sync. Sometimes I have no problem getting 6 copies in sync!. I do the shows in 2 -1 hour chunks. I have 100's of edits and audio clips stacked on top of each other for each show. If you can't get any of this to sync up back up your project to tape and dump your project. Open up a new project and dump your show back in from tape. Now all of sound FX and wipes will be mixed together. Find the point the show goes out of sync and split clip. Extract the audio and slide it over a few frames untill it syncs up with video. That should do it. If not try 1 & 2 again. I have to do this show each week and so far steps 1 & 2 have saved the show. I just got iMovie 4 so will be testing it this week. I did load last weeks show into iMovie 4 as a 2 hour project and did burn a 2 hour DVD in iDVD4. First try didn't work but had the last 4 tries work fine so far. Also the 2 hour iMovie project opened without a Bad project file ( I hate when that happens...)

    I'm using a 800 MHZ iMac with 512 megs of ram ( Just upgraded to 768 megs of Ram when I added ilife 4 and iMovie opens faster)

    You should run NORTONs Disk Doctor to keep your drive files in order, I just added this program and it seems to help a little( I went over a year without it) Also the David Pogue book iMovie the missing Manual REALLY helped out on these big iMovie projects.



    GOOD LUCK!

    Ken Waller

    Cinema insomnia
  • Reply 9 of 20
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    Thanks all, I'll see what happens.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    The "trick" worked perfectly, thank you sooo much. I extracted all of the audio files, exported DV to camecorder, and the sound is perfectly in sync now, thanks!
  • Reply 11 of 20
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    another case solved by AI
  • Reply 12 of 20
    slackulaslackula Posts: 262member
    Messiahtosh: Glad you got your problem fixed! I used to run into this problem all of the time. You've probably already heard of this, but in all future iMovie projects, if possible, record your original video(tape) with audio in 16-bit rather than 12-bit. I'm not smart enough to know what this means, but I just know it works. Even my $399 Digital8 Sony camcorder lets me set the audio recording to 16-bit. Glad you got the current project fixed, and good luck!
  • Reply 13 of 20
    maxuzimaxuzi Posts: 13member
    16 bit is the only way to go in DV. 12 bit will start driffting after a few minutes.

    Glad the trick worked. I'll give a update on iMovie 4 on Friday after I use it to edit this weeks show...

    Ken
  • Reply 14 of 20
    maxuzimaxuzi Posts: 13member
    Well I just finished my 2 hour project in iMovie 4. The program was Quicker for the most part but I still had audio sync problems when going to tape. Same project worked fine 2 times then went out of sync for the next 2 passes to tape. extracting all the audio fixed that. Program did get stuck twice. Once during a 55 second title and the other during a Ken Burns 5 second Jpeg render. Had to do a Force quit. Both effects showed up in the trash after restart. Project was restored to last saved. Seems more stable than V.3

    Thats all for now...

    Ken
  • Reply 15 of 20
    sport73sport73 Posts: 438member
    I've had this same issue myself and I've been dying to find a way to fix it. I'll try the suggestion and post my results, but it's encouraging to know that Messiahtosh found it successful.
  • Reply 16 of 20
    maxuzimaxuzi Posts: 13member
    I just used the "TRICK" for 2 more one hour projects last night. Worked fine, but it would be great if it worked without the TRICK... Also if you use the WAVEFORM option in V.4 it really slowed down my 800mhz iMac to the point that I turned off that function.( Guess I'll have to wait for a G5 to play with that)
  • Reply 17 of 20
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    heya.





    I made a massive project in iMovie 3. Lots of fade ins and outs, extra music, etc etc.



    I upgraded to iMovie 4 and it openend the project fine. BUT



    about halfway into the movie the audio that plays and the corresponding audio tracks totally do not correspond visiually.



    The audio and video are synched no problem... but the audio timeline below is whacked.



    For example, if I edit the volume at 01:00:00 it will actually happen a few seconds BEFORE, at, say 00:59:55. Nontheless, it all LOOKS fine.



    Any idea of what the hell I have to do?
  • Reply 18 of 20
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    Yes, just export all the sound from the video files, then it should playback correctly.
  • Reply 19 of 20
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    sorry... what do you mean by exporting the audio? Then what?
  • Reply 20 of 20
    messiahtoshmessiahtosh Posts: 1,754member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ZO

    sorry... what do you mean by exporting the audio? Then what?



    Select every single video clip and then export the audio to the timeline. It will take care of the syncing once you "share" the video.
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