FCP6 - Audio Sync issues after FS2 upgrade!
 

I recently installed the FCS2 upgrade on my MacPro desktop. I opened an existing project (with mostly 24p timelines and footage) almost everything works fine, except there are some clips where the audio/video are not in sync. When I play the clips back from the Finder in QuickTime, they play perfectly fine. When I try playing them back in FCP6, in the Viewer window or in the timeline, the audio is not in sync. This project was edited in FCP 5.1.4 and worked fine before the upgrade.

A more accurate description would be: it's actually a VIDEO sync issue. When I play back my timline, the audio for the problematic clips are accurate, but the video plays back a few seconds behind. Another observation: When I play the clip in the viewer from the beginning, the audio is in sync, by the middle it's off a little, then by the end it is VERY out of sync.

My preliminary diagnosis is that FCP6 is not interpreting the 24p files correctly. I've tried disconnecting and reconnecting the media hoping it would help but it didn't.

I also brought up info in quicktime and compared, there is no difference between clips that work fine, and clips that show this audio sync problem.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation. Is anyone else having these issues? Any suggestions? Thanks.

it's not just FCS2
 

I'm still working in the land of 5.0.4 and have found a similar problem. P2 clips shot at 24PN are in sync in the FCP project, but not after a quicktime export. If the exported clip is reimported and matched to the originating material, *some* of the clips have drifting video, the audio is spot on through out. The clips that drift are not random, say clips from scene A and B have drift but not C. I've tried replacing the media and varying export formats, everything except reimporting from the original P2 files.

Just wrapped an edit but can't export... wah!

Dan Kelly

Follow Up
 

I've had a few people contact me through email about this problem. I have found *some* workarounds, but they won't work for every clip. Here they are if you can benefit from them.

What I have found, is that the clips play perfectly in QuickTime player.
Fix 1: So, I would open the clip, then select Save As.. and save it back out. That seemed to fix SOME of the problematic clips.
Fix 2: Next, I tried opening the clips in QuickTime player and doing an Export as a DV/DVCPRO NTSC clip in Quicktime. That worked for some of the clips where Fix 1 did not work.
Fix 3: Next, I tried Exporting the clilps out of QuickTime player as an AVI file using the DV/DVCPRO NTSC codec. Then re-opening the AVI in Quicktime and doing a Save As.. as a Quicktime file. This fixed a few more of the clips where Fix 1 or 2 would not work.

If you have this problem, or benefited from this resolution, please post so we can share info to get this resolved! Thanks.

issues after capture
 

I'm having very similar issues, but they seem to root from the capture process. capturing some 24p stuff yeilds clips out of sync in QT and FCP, even stuff i've removed the pulldown on is going out of sync when it was in sync in 60i. almost everything i've touched in FCP that is 24p has had some kind of sync issue. this is very very disconcerting as i'm about to shoot about 50 hours of 24p hdv to be multiclipped, and the last thing we need is sync issues before it even gets to the multiclip stage.

I also wonder if maybe it's less of an FCP issue and more of 10.4.9 issue. not sure what you guys are running, but i was running fcp 5.1.4 when 10.4.9 dropped, and i installed it. and for a week or so i had some major issues in FCP/Qt, and i eventually reinstalled 10.4.8 and all my issues went away. unfortunately i just upgraded to FCP 2 which i sort of like, but youv'e got to run 10.4.9.

ps it's midnight and i can't get FCP to export out with compressor, it gets to the batch monitor and just sits there "time remaining: unknown" if apple doesn't release some bug fixes in the next week i'm back to 10.4.8 and FCP 5.1.4

Having the same issues here. No rhyme or reason to it, some clips work, some dont but ALL work in older versions of FCP. There is no fix according to all my research, there are some workarounds but most require compromising the footage. Re-capturing does NOT fix the problem...



ash =o)

Here is yet another follow-up to this issue. There is NO official fix from Apple that I have found. So I have found a workaround that works 100% of the time!

-If you open the affected clip in Quicktime, trim about 1 second from each side of the clip
-Select "trim to selection" from the edit menu, then File-Save As to a new file.
-I then rename the old clip, and change the new clip to the original name.
- FCP will then ask to reconnect the media (warning that the clip has changed, which is ok) and all works fine.

This has worked around the issue 100% of the time for me with no compromise in file quality. This process also preserves the embedded timecode in the file, whereas the other suggestions I gave earlier destroyes that timecode.

Does Apple know about this problem?
Seems to be pretty serious and many people seem to be bothered by it.