Plural Eyes and Audio/Video Speed-matching

[cybrmarc]

Hi,
I just spent 2 months synchronizing video with an external source, using chopping the audio and delaying it with Media Player Classic. Extremely tedious.

I got PluralEyes, an auto-synching software for this, and attempted to use it - only to have it not work. Instead of matching up the A/V tracks, it either completely separates the two tracks, or just puts them right next to each other to start at the same time (0).

One thing I noticed while manually synching my audio and video, was that it seemed the speed of each varied. One some of the synchs, I had to cut the video clip in half, or thirds, because partway through the audio or video would be faster than the other. How does this happen (low battery, etc?)

There's another piece of software called WooSync by Wooware, that is supposedly more effective than PluralEyes, but I'm reluctant to shell out more cash when I'm not sure if my source material is even realistic to work with, beyond the manual tedium that I already know is possible.

Does anyone have any experience with different-speed video/audio like this?
Thanks
Adjul

 

[brunerww]

Hi cybrmarc - I feel your pain. I hate syncing sound, so I use the external preamp in my Tascam recorder, link it to my camera with a Sescom LN2MIC-TASDR100 cable and record sound simultaneously to the recorder and the camera (see photo below):

​

But that doesn't help you with your problem. I would contact Red Giant/PluralEyes support and work the problem with them before shelling out more money for another software package. As a paying customer, they are obligated to help you make their product work.

As to why amateur recorders and cameras have different internal clocks - Hollywood and the broadcast industry spend a lot of money on synchronizing pro recorders and cameras

Good luck and best of the holidays!

Bill

 

[Braineack]

I never had any issues syncing audio/video...even in windows movie maker [which is a sorry joke for a movie program] when I had issues with my Adobe Premiere license.

 

[cybrmarc]

"As to why amateur recorders and cameras have different internal clocks - Hollywood and the broadcast industry spend a lot of money on synchronizing pro recorders and cameras "

Thanks for sharing. Yeah, I've been working on getting the right attenuator cable for our cheap Olympus DS-50 to feed straight into the digicam. Olympus makes their own cable, which I found out after ordering all 3 -25, -35, and -50 dB attenuators. And trying a supercardiod mic as well.

So...while I was giving WooSync a go and its XML files crashing in Premiere Pro...I happened on a quote:

"Sometimes files from personal digital recorders mark their time starting with the wrong header, so if you re-export the audio as a WAV in audacity, it will reset to 0."

Exported the WAV through audacity and cha-ching! Synched perfectly. I've been boring through this for months and it's made video-work a true drag...back to the creative aspect!

Now to find out how to tune the export settings so the exported WAV isn't twice the size of the original. Oh well, the questioning technician in me will not die.

-Adjul

 

[cybrmarc]

Clarification: I re-exported the WAV AND THEN used PluralEyes, which synched it perfectly. Apparently PluralEyes was going cross-eyed from the wrong header.