FCP 6 - Out of sync footage, works on export
 

FCP 6.0
G5 MAC OSX 10.4.11

Working on files from both miniDV and P2 files from an HVX-200 on a DVCPRO50 HD timeline. All clips work fine except for two of the clips. They work fine on the Viewer, but when I drag them to the timeline they go out of sync. I've tried fixing sound on timeline, but when I export it "fixed" it exports out of sync. When I export "out of sync" it comes out "synced". Breaking my head over it. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

do you have to render it when you drop it into the timeline?

I don't...all the specs match the other working clips. Never turns red, even when I go to export.

I was gonna say something about drop frame/non-drop frame but if it doesn't need to render then i dunno.

I don't know how you are set up but if you had a deck/camera hooked up and you were watching it on a monitor, the sound is meant to match the monitor and it will be out of sync with the computer/fcp. So it depends on what you speakers/headphones are hooked up to.

Just have speakers connected to computer. No other monitors, decks, or camera. I'm looking at everything on one monitor.

Note that if the clips were captured over firewire, there is a high probability that there will be an audio sync issue if the clip length is over 30 minutes.

For our feature, we captured 33 hour long tapes with 21 being out of sync beyond the 30 minute mark. Our solve was to use our DVD dallies and export the audio files to re-sync to the de-interlaced source.

Otherwise try playing the clip entirely in QuickTime and double check that it is in sync the entire way through.

If it is in sync, than the problem is with your timeline settings. The sure fire way to eliminate sync issues is to ensure all your video is playing back at the same frame-rate - something that is difficult if you shoot in 24P native mode and shoot 24p over 60i on DV tape. You would definitely have to de-interlace your DV footage to match your HVX 24p Native footage.

This nightmare just happened to me and I know how frustrating it can be. Just verify your settings, de-interlace and if need be, re-sync all your audio from another source.

Hope this helps,
-C

How do I deinterlace the clip?

Re-sync from another source? Not sure about this one...


Thanks!

Forgot to ask, do I have to de-interlace one or the other or does it HAVE to be the DV footage? And again how do go about doing that? Thanks!

I just encountered an out of sync clip. It seems the original clip is out of sync, not just when it's inserted in the time line. I discovered it when I marked in and out points for about a minute of footage about 19 minutes into the clip and inserted the one minutes worth into the timeline. Here is how I "fixed" it [using Final Cut Pro 3 on a Mac G5]:

The one minute piece of footage was all that was in the timeline (create a new sequence if you have to to have an isolated place to work.)

I superimposed the same one minutes' worth of footage over the original, which gave me two video tracks and two audio (four, really) tracks - identical.

Then I deleted the top video track (the one just superimposed) and the original audio track (this separates the audio from the video).

Then, I shifted the audio forward and tested a couple of times until the words and mouths were synced. It showed a shift of +6 in the audio track. This was a quick process for me, didn't take too long, or require too much tinkering.

When I edited the one minutes' worth of footage, I just made sure that cuts were made to both the audio and video tracks and then Ripple Deleted to keep it synced to the end.