Jump to content

Best tool (or easiest to use) for fixing lip-sync issues.


Gilgamesh_48

Recommended Posts

Gilgamesh_48

I have some movies and TV shows (more than a few and less than a lot) that have audio and video severly out of sync. I know I can reencode with modern tools and fix the problem but in man cases I no longer have access to the original material. Most of the problem material was encoded years ago using a variety of tools. They are mostly in either mp4 or mkv containers and have about as large as possible variety of codecs.

I have just recently converted all my media to formats so that they direct play in Emby on my Rokus (the problem is on all my playback devices Rokus, Fire TVs and Shield TV) but only about 10% of the lip sync problems are on files that were touched during that process.

The amount the sync is off by varies by file with no apparent pattern.

I just want a tool that will somehow allow me to get the audio and video back in sync. 

Thanks for any and all suggestions. 

BTW: if there is a method to place the video and audio in different adjustable time frames while watching that world be acceptable but not ideal.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pwhodges

You can use MKVToolnix to remux files without re-encoding.  One of the parameters you can set for each stream is a delay (-ve for advance) which can adjust this.  If your file is already MKV, it may be possible to set this without even remuxing, using the header editor - but I'm not sure.

To determine the adjustment needed, I use VLC to play the file and use the synchronisation tool to tweak it while playing - when it's right I read off the delay currently set and us that in MKVToolnix.  Remember that each stream (if you have multiple audio and maybe subs) will need the delay setting - usually IME by the same amount.

Paul

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

rbjtech

You may also need to watch that the sync issues are actually caused by a fixed 'delay'.  If they have been badly converted in the past, then it's possible that video was converted at one fps, and the audio at another.  This means that they may be in sync at the start of the video, but slowly lose sync.  The only way to fix this is to either speed up/slow down the Audio and/or Video to match.  This is not so easy as just inserting a delay, but it is doable. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gilgamesh_48

Thanks to @rbjtech and @pwhodges I will give it a try. However, since i suspect that a number of the old videos have the problem that @pwhodges mentioned I am now wondering if I would be better off trying to find/recreate the original source and reencode the material. One of the series involved is the original "Lone Ranger" and I have seen the DVDs of that series offered for sale at pretty big discounts. The entire series needs "fixing" and appears to be the kind that is hard to fix. Factoring in my time and effort level I may actually save money by getting new source. The original was converted from VHS tapes and I would get a better encode anyway.

I will evaluate on a series/show basis and take the best, for me, action needed. I also have the original "Dragnet" and it seem to be off by a small fixed amount so I will, probably just  use MKVToolnix to fix that series. 
BTW: I had forgotten just how well acted "Dragnet" was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

rbjtech

If the original/alternate source is available, then I wholeheartedly agree with you - just re-rip from the new source - job done.   Video 'editing' is a time intensive process and of course you won't know if you are fully successful until you watched the entire thing in real time ... 🤔

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gilgamesh_48
1 hour ago, rbjtech said:

If the original/alternate source is available, then I wholeheartedly agree with you - just re-rip from the new source - job done.   Video 'editing' is a time intensive process and of course you won't know if you are fully successful until you watched the entire thing in real time ... 🤔

While none of the originals are directly available, that is I do not have them in my original media storage, it seems possible that I can "re-acquire" some of them and the expense of that "re-acquiring" is more than offset by the effort it will save. Thanks once again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As mentioned before audio sync is a very time consuming process. I only do this when I am absolutely certain that I have the only available copies of video and audio and they can't be gotten anywhere else globally because they were broadcast and never made it to the physical media market. I have spent days on some episodes to correct bad cuts to remove commercials and therefore introduce sync loss. In addition reencoded audio tracks using EAC3to.exe to different frame rates just to get the sync started and then corrected the audio track anytime it got out of sync again. VERY, VERY time consuming and only worth it if the content is valuable to you.

Versions of shows that are not available here in the US can be obtained in other English speaking countries and their streaming services or optical media outlets. It is far quicker to obtain the copies and replace what you have unless the copies you have are unique and not available anywhere else. There are sites that deal in Out Of Print media as well as very rare copies of video content but very hard to get into.

Did just a quick check at my favorite source for TV shows Lone Ranger all 5 seasons are available and ripped from DVD in MPEG-4 video format to MP4 containers size is 60GB but only available in SD format. Dragnet all 4 seasons h.264 video encodes in MKV containers from WebRips size is 12GB.

I am on a constant monitoring lookout on some of my favorite old shows just in case a better quality is being released. I replaced several of them. Also I regard the binary groups on USENET as a personal backup solution in case some of my drives die and the parity drives can't fix it. Premium Usenet servers have retention now of 12 years.

Finally in addition I do have streaming services where some of the TV shows are available on demand. The Twilight Zone on Peacock is just one of those examples.

Edited by One2Go
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...