Audio out of sync

BH
If I captured a video and the audio is out of sync. Can I fix it before I put the clips down to the timeline?

explain the out of sync situation.

have you played the captured clip in another application like quicktime player? it may just be an issue of having your audio and video playback sources mismatched...

BH
no it has to be a problem with the capture. I exported it as a quicktime movie and it's the same prob
The issue: the video and the audio tracks are not in sync. I have about an hour of footage and it will be easier to fix before I edit down to the timeline instead of afterwards fixing each clip.

> I exported it as a quicktime movie and it's the same prob

That's not the way to check it. If another problem on your timeline or in FCP is causing the sync drift, your exported QuickTime Movie may carry that problem as well. So you haven't definitively nailed down the cause of the problem.

What you need to do is open the captured clip in QuickTime Player, play it with the computer speakers as the audio source. If that's out of sync, then check your tape, with audio playing back from the camera/deck and image on a monitor hooked up to the camera/deck. If the tape is out of sync, then that's your master and you'll have to fix the sync manually. If the tape is in sync, then something went bad with the capture process and we'll go from there.


www.derekmok.com

BH
Ok derek, you officially became my guru now
I played the caputured file straight into quicktime player without loading it into final cut... and it is out of sync... fix it manually? clip by clip? how? ... I don't like this...

> I played the caputured file straight into quicktime player without loading it into final cut... and it
> is out of sync... fix it manually? clip by clip? how? ... I don't like this...

Next step is check the tape, examining video and audio as I described above, figuring out whether it's the tape or the clip that's out of sync.


www.derekmok.com

BH
I don't have the tape anymore. Had to give it back... I asume is the clip because it happened already with other clips before

> I assume is the clip because it happened already with other clips before

Possible but not definitive. Unfortunately, if the clip is out of sync, there's nothing you can do except recapture from tape or resync by hand. Without the tape, the troubleshooting pretty much stops here. There's one more thing to try: Where are the clips currently stored? A storage drive that's not fast enough (eg. USB, or FireWire 400 for certain kinds of HD) for the media format you've chosen can result in non-permanent sync drifts.


www.derekmok.com

BH
It's in a firewire 800 drive that is almost full. Could it be that's making mistakes because it's almost full?
To fix by hand you mean on the timeline, right?

> It's in a firewire 800 drive that is almost full. Could it be that's making mistakes because it's
> almost full?

Yes, though sync problems are not the most common symptom. Check all drives connected to your system, including the bootup drive -- none of them can be over 90 per cent full, even if you're not using them for anything FCP-related.


www.derekmok.com

BH
thx derek