URGENT, VEGAS 7.0- Help PLEASE!?! Audio/Video Sync problem

[Mike Cline]

First off, hi all & thanks for having me. ULTRA newb here.
Anyway, onto business.
I need advice & tutoring on Vegas 7.0.

Ive never done this before, so feel free to talk to me as if Im 3 years old. Keep it simple, Im quite the newb. lol

However, if it makes a difference, Im pretty skilled at the old Cool Edit Pro. Im not bad at audio manipulation & effects.
Ive just never done video editing.

So, here goes:

When I first got Vegas & started using it, all was well.

Now, when I load a certain VOB file into Vegas, the Video is always about 3 seconds ahead of the Audio. Every time.

Ive tried re-loading the file.
Ive tried uninstalling & reinstalling.
The file plays fine in every single media player known to man, even Power DVD, but once its in Vegas, its out of sync, & so is any rendering of it.

Im at my witts end :(

Please help?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

mpeg was never made for cutting, and it sounds like you've got frame headers in off locations. This happens. Hopefully you've got heads/tails in another VOB that you can cut in to lead the vid?

So...you can separate the audio from the video, and nudge it to match...
If you know CEP, then you're gonna understand Vegas almost immediately. they're different, but not all that different.
Select the video, then choose the "U" key to ungroup the audio from the video.
Select the video, and zoom in fairly deep. Now use the 6 key to move the video backwards. You can double click the video to make a selection, then select the "Q" key to keep it looping. Nudge the video backwards until you get a match. Then trim the audio to fit.

Welcome to the community!

[Mike Cline]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

mpeg was never made for cutting, and it sounds like you've got frame headers in off locations. Hopefully you've got heads/tails in another VOB that you can cut in to lead the vid?You can double click the video to make a selection, then select the "Q" key to keep it looping.

Not sure what the underlined parts mean :(

Also, why would the vob have worked fine for about a week, & then mess up all the sudden? It seems to have happened after I installed architect. Ive since uninstalled both & reinstalled only Vegas with no success.
I was really far along in my work & now its pretty much ruined.
Cant understand why its only this certain VOB, & why now after all this time when it was working perfectly.

[Don Bloom]

it has nothing to do with DVDA or Vegas - it's simple luck that the VOB (mpeg) file was running OK in Vegas. MPEG is the worst file association possible to use for accurate editing-convert it to DV-AVI and all your troubles seem to fly away (pardon me for plagarizing PM and JL)
Since the project is ruined anyway play the DVD back into Vegas-in other words capture it as you would any other tape and you'll be all set. By the time you play around trying a dozen different things to fix the problem you could have already played it back in and had it cut.

Don

[Mike Cline]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

it has nothing to do with DVDA or Vegas - it's simple luck that the VOB (mpeg) file was running OK in Vegas. MPEG is the worst file association possible to use for accurate editing

Is there a program like Vegas that IS good for editing MPEG?

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

convert it to DV-AVI and all your troubles seem to fly away

How is that done, & wont it result in loss of quality?

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

play the DVD back into Vegas-in other words capture it as you would any other tape and you'll be all set.

How is that done?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Plug your DVD player into the analog inputs of your DV deck/camera.
Firewire from the deck/camera to your computer.
Let your DV cam/deck convert the mpeg to DV for you, and Vegas will capture it as such.
Then you'll be able to match the exact phrase in the Trimmer and replace the offending MPEG clip.

Were it me and I could get the MPEG audio in sync by nudging as I mentioned earlier, I'd simply render the existing footage to a new track and use the new clip.

[Mike Cline]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

Plug your DVD player into the analog inputs of your DV deck/camera.
Firewire from the deck/camera to your computer.
Let your DV cam/deck convert the mpeg to DV for you, and Vegas will capture it as such.
Then you'll be able to match the exact phrase in the Trimmer and replace the offending MPEG clip.

Were it me and I could get the MPEG audio in sync by nudging as I mentioned earlier, I'd simply render the existing footage to a new track and use the new clip.

Um, no, Im not using external devices. Wouldnt even begin to know how.
This all done from Rom.
I already have the VOB files on my computer & they play fine everywhere but Vegas.

Don, any thoughts on my above post?

[Don Bloom]

well Douglas is 100% right (as he generally is) but since you're not going off an external device you might try taking the MPEG and rendering it to DV-AVI. You might lose a bit of quality but depending on the subject matter it might be minimal loss.
See MPEG is just a bad codec to try to edit, it will stutter and most often be slightly out of sync as you have found out. if it were me and I cou;dn't play it back in thru an external device I would try rendering to DV-AVI and see if that works. Other than that there's not much you can do.
Don

[Mike Cline]

"I would try rendering to DV-AVI and see if that works."

How do I do that?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Get the file in sync by nudging.
then double-click to create a selection
File/Render As
Then choose the NTSC DV AVI template for File Type-Video for Windows/AVI.
That's it. Give it a name, render it.

[Mike Cline]

I just watched closely & figured out that its not just out of sync, but that the video is actually playing quite sped up, while the audio stays at the right rate of speed.

The farther along it plays, the worse its out of sync & the video WAY ahead of the audio. So, no matter how much I syncronized, it would never be right.

Any ideas?


As I said, I have no problem with ANY mpg file except this one.
Im able to edit a dozen other Vob or Mpg files just fine.

[Don Bloom]

the last thing I can think off is to delete the project and start over. Open a new project and bring the source material back in. Obviously there seems to be a glitch of some sort in this particular mpeg file.
Other than that I can't think of anything else.

Don

[Mike Cline]

Ive already tried that.

I suppose theres nothing that can be done :(

Thanks for being kind though.

[Mike Cline]

I started over completely with the same crappy results.
I even tried importing as a camcorder DVD, which took about 2 days, & it STILL did the same thing.

Im thinking Vegas isnt all its cracked up to be :(

[Don Bloom]

Well while I can feel for you and the trouble you're having I have to disagree with you. Vegas IS all it's cracked up to be and then some.

The fact is MPEG is TERRIBLE to try to do anything with and as I said earlier the fact that you were able to get away with it on earlier projects is to me more a sign of good luck than anything else. Again the surest and easiest way to bring in MPEG files an be able to work with them is to play the DVD into Vegas but simply hooking up a DVD player thru either your camera or tape deck (composite from DVD player to camera or deck and then firewire into computer) provided of course your camera has the capability to run DV-IN. Some don't.
As for taking 2 days to bring in the camcorder DVD that tells me something is going on with your computer not Vegas. There is no way that bringing in a DVD like that would take 2 days-it should only take at the most the length of time that the DVD is long in other words a 2 hour DVD shouldn't take longer than 2 hours etc.
Wish I could give you the magic bullet to make it work but again I think along with Spot and a couple of others that the best way is to play it in.

Don