Can Audicity help to sync AVI V and A with VLC Media Playei?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Apologies for such a long first post!

I captured nearly 60 VHS cassettes with VirtualDub using a JVC HR-S8960 S-VHS (although my videos are standard VHS cassettes) which has a Time Base Corrector with Digital Noise Reduction, did some basic cutting in VirtualDub and eventually had approximately 300 clips! (There were a lot of duplications, as I made a separate series per child). I used the Lagarith codec to compress. This was hours and hours of work. I have grouped them in separate groups and want to improve the quality with different AviSynth scripts as much as I can. (This was my second attempt-I made an error of some sort a previous time and the quality was very bad.) This project has been going on for 15 months or more.

Unfortunately, I did not check the audio-video sync during this process.(I worked with VirtualDub all the time and never exported to a NLE). These clips are out of sync in most of the clips. The sync difference varies between -400 to -1500ms, as measured by VLC media player.

After researching, posting, asking, etc; I found that the easiest way to solve the sync issue is to play a clip in VLC media player and with the shortcut “J” or “K” find the difference between audio and video. (If for e.g you play the video in VLC, one presses for instance “J” and this delays the audio by 50 ms. If one keeps pressing “J”, the delay jumps in 50ms per press). The value that I got by doing this method, I then load in VirtualDub (e.g. -700ms) and saved the clip. I corrected quite a few clips, eventually encoded them with TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 and played the DVD on TV. The results were quite good.

I would like to know if there is a possibility to play a clip in VLC and Audacity at the same time, probably splitting audio and video, as I really struggle with some clips to find the correct sync difference. If it is possible, one would be able to sync the audio quite well with the video, especially if there is a loud noise, etc.

I am not at home this month and need to use my laptop for this. My desktop is much better, but, I have time to do it now.

My laptop:

Fujitsu Lifebook s760
Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
2.13 gigahertz Intel Core i3 M 330
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total)
3892 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Here is the MediaInfo of one clip:

General
Complete name                            : C:UsersUserVideos1a. Projek Des 20121986troue 1.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile                           : OpenDML
File size                                : 2.14 GiB
Duration                                 : 5mn 54s
Overall bit rate                         : 51.9 Mbps
Writing library                          : VirtualDub build 32842/release

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : Lagarith
Codec ID                                 : LAGS
Duration                                 : 5mn 54s
Bit rate                                 : 50.4 Mbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate                               : 25.000 fps
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:2
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 4.861
Stream size                              : 2.08 GiB (97%)

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Little
Format settings, Sign                    : Signed
Codec ID                                 : 1
Duration                                 : 5mn 54s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 64.9 MiB (3%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 40 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration             : 500 ms

Would this be possible or are there other possibilities e.g. VirtualDub or one of the NLE’s? I have Sony Vegas, but struggle to see the audio line properly.

Thanks!

2

Audacity would only be able to play the audio part and not the video.
Audacity may be able to import the audio directly from the AVI file if you install FFmpeg (see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown ). Note that Audacity does not support all builds of FFmpeg, so even if you already have FFmpeg installed you may still need to install this version.

I don’t see how playing Audacity and VLC at the same time is going to help. What I would have thought you really need is a video editor that allows you to nudge the audio track along the time line to get it in sync.

3

I initially tried to sync with Sony Vegas.

I struggled to work out the number of milliseconds that the audio was ahead, but perhaps if I drag the video/audio out as far as possible, one would be able to establish the actual difference between audio and video. Currently, it is at maximum height.

The other problem is the “link” between audio and video. For this purpose, one needs to “unlink the audio and video”. In my clips they are all greyed out, so it appears as if I cannot unlink the A&V.

I also do not want to send the whole clip through the NLE, as there is a possibility that some of the settings could change- e.g. color from YUV to RGB, as I still want to edit in VirtualDub.

But in essence for me, I cannot play the video basically to fill the screen and see as much detail as possible- lips moving, other images where the sounds could easily be synchronised, with a stream of audio running below it at the same time. I saw someone adding Audacity with VirtualDub, (big image, audio stream at the bottom), but was very vague when I asked him about it.

Any other software that might just have an image and an audio stream? I bought Pluraleyes from RedGiant, but this program I found extremely involved and complicated.

4

I used to use a video editor that was part of “Nero” which was quite easy to use and reasonably capable. Their current offering is Nero Video 2014 which I have not tried, but there is a free trial version available: http://www.nero.com/eng/products/nero-video/free-trial-download.php

5

There are 34 votes for an Audacity feature to “Import/play video for synchronised soundtrack editing”. The idea is not that Audacity would edit the video, just that there would be a video window in Audacity that was synchronised with the audio (or Audacity could call/control VLC).

I’m not clear if you deleted some of the audio track then the associated video playback could be skipped, but that would be most useful.

@avz10 - let us know if you want to vote for such a feature, just so that we can gauge demand for it.

I use Avidemux for taking the audio out of videos, editing the audio in Auadacity then muxing the audio back in. See: http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/ . Avidemux has a control when you can enter the milliseconds of audio shift.


Gale

6

The idea is not that Audacity would edit the video, just that there would be a video window in Audacity that was synchronised with the audio (or Audacity could call/control VLC).

I fully agree, so you can add my vote.

I use Avidemux for taking the audio out of videos, editing the audio in Auadacity then muxing the audio back in. Avidemux has a control when you can enter the milliseconds of audio shift.

I will try this as well. I also want to download the trial version of Nero Video Editor.

7

Done, thanks.


Gale

8

please add my vote