how to sync two video files
 

I have HDV footage that was shot using two cameras; is there any way to sync it in Vegas? I always have fraction of a second apart. Would using of some sort TBC help???

I use the audio to sync. Usually come out pretty darn close. Match your peaks on the lines of audio the best you can and then zoom in on the timeline and match it more precisely.

Have you already tried that Marius?

Same here. Look for a specific audio peak and line them up. Using the 1/3 keys on the numeric keypad helps this process. You can also listen to the audio with both playing and eliminate any "echo" to line them up.

If you have a camera flash, that can often be used as well. Just line up the "flash" on both cameras and you should be in sync.

Clap clap clap!
 

You could also buy a clapper and use that at your shoots :) it IS called a clapper right? Sync the audio spikes of the clapper's sound in each footage, this is particularly handy if you usually don't have or can't see any distinctive audio spikes.

A trick I've seen here previously is to pan the two audio tracks far left and far right - use headphones and you should be able to sync the two tracks almost to perfection. I've used that a few times now when I just couldn't quite nail the sync... seems to work pretty well!

Guys,
Thanks for your input; of course that's what I do I sync audio looking at it (although I heard that Vegas 8 should sync audio automaticly - or is in some extra plugin "Excalibur"???)
what I need, is to sync it VERY precisely almost ideally - it is always like small fraction of second apart. It is like Photoshop and working with leyers; you have to uncheck "snap to" option to freely move layers around to achieve almost "infinite" precision ; if you enlarge the timeline and work in single frames, Vegas behaves like tracks are always a notch shifted so I was hpoping that maybe there is some kind of setting that would free the tracks COMPLETELY.
I need this absolutr precision to produce 3D video (something like TBC).

Marius, turn off Quantize to Frames, get everything properly synced up and then turn it back on again.
I've used this technique several times when I need to adjust one track finer than the lenght of a video frame.

bingo;
thanks

Turning off quantize to frames is fine when you need to sync just audio, but it should never be turned off for video. Video must end up on frame boundaries.

Also, you can't really use audio to sync unless both cameras were fed from the same audio source. Remember that audio travels at about 1 foot per millisecond and that a frame in NTSC is 33ms. If you're using on-board microphones and one camera is 33 feet from the sound source and the other is 33 feet further still, then audio from the first camera will be one frame late with respect to the visuals and the second camera will be off two frames and the two cameras will be off a frame relative to each other. If you're doing 3D then you really must genlock the two cameras so they record in exact "lock step." The problem you are having is that both cameras didn't start at EXACTLY the same time and their frame offset doesn't match up. I've done a fair amount of 3D video for Los Alamos Labs and it simply does not work well unless the cameras are perfectly synced.

NOTE: I just upgraded to 8.0c and haven't done any editing with it yet. This is what I was doing with 5.0.

Keeping the video locked to the audio tracks
do a close/rough sync
run one audio track to the right channel and the other to the left channel
playback and listen, adjust one track until your echo dissapates.

If you need a finer adjustment
zoom in on the track, you will be able to make micro-adjustments

I shoot with two cameras, so the difference in the video portion won't be noticable at all when making cuts. Only way to see a problem with the video is if you show both video tracks at the same time.

Also, use the flash method, or look for a spot where someone dropped a hymnal creating a spike. (always happens)

For fine-tuning the placement of the audio, I prefer to have ONE of the audio tracks selected. Then using the 1 and 3 keys on the numeric keypad I can adjust the position one frame at a time left or right until I get it in sync. No need for zooming or anything else.

Personally, I just leave both in both ears and get rid of any "echo".