More Audio Sync issues

[maryjos]

I've read through the previous threads on this and don't seem to see any that describe my problem. The videos I record look perfect for about 1-1/2 minutes. Then invariably, the sync goes off. I also notice that this time in the video is what Windows seems to see as the length of the video, in both Media Player, and other video players. The video will continue to play, but the length is described as something like "0:58" even though the video is actually 5 minutes long. The delay audio setting does nothing for me, other than throw off the beginning of the video as well.

Ideas?? I've wasted a ton of time trying different things to get this to work, and am at my wit's end.

[stream-recorder.com]

Your PC need to be powerful enough to record. See how much memory and CPU is used when recording.

If you record into WMV, try to record into MPEG-2 instead. You can also try to reduce screen resolution and record a smaller part of your screen.
And try to use universal audio driver.

[maryjos]

Well, I knew my computer is more than powerful enough to do video capture, and has plenty of memory, so had to look further than that. After a lot of detective work, I finally got the sync issues fixed for the most part. It doesn't take much to throw it off so I have to often re-record a couple times before I get a decent video which is really annoying, but at least they aren't *all* screwed up. I basically went into my Windows services and turned off anything I didn't absolutely need running (not for the average user but I know enough to not mess anything up). Even after doing that I was still having problems so I used task manager to keep an eye on my CPU and what was running and turned out the major issue was that WMP was running a service that was taking a lot of resources...turned out to be media streaming which installs as a service in Win7. Stopping it didn't work, it would just start again, so I had to disable it in the services panel to stop it from running.

This has fixed the sync issue, but I continue to have problems with media players properly seeing the length of the video, it doesn't seem to encode that properly. For instance, I have a video that is over 3 minutes long, and WMP sees is as 0:16. It will still play the whole video, but it's impossible to forward or rewind properly in it as a result. Any thoughts on how to fix this problem??

[stream-recorder.com]

This has fixed the sync issue, but I continue to have problems with media players properly seeing the length of the video, it doesn't seem to encode that properly. For instance, I have a video that is over 3 minutes long, and WMP sees is as 0:16. It will still play the whole video, but it's impossible to forward or rewind properly in it as a result. Any thoughts on how to fix this problem??

This is a known issue and is a Windows Media Player problem. You can use a different media player like freeware VLC.

The MPEG recording is OK and if you convert to another format you'll get the right timing. I don't know why Windows Media behaves like this. It is also interesting that if you record at a higher rate, WMP gets the correct time.

[stream-recorder.com]

Well, I knew my computer is more than powerful enough to do video capture, and has plenty of memory, so had to look further than that. After a lot of detective work, I finally got the sync issues fixed for the most part. It doesn't take much to throw it off so I have to often re-record a couple times before I get a decent video which is really annoying, but at least they aren't *all* screwed up. I basically went into my Windows services and turned off anything I didn't absolutely need running (not for the average user but I know enough to not mess anything up). Even after doing that I was still having problems so I used task manager to keep an eye on my CPU and what was running and turned out the major issue was that WMP was running a service that was taking a lot of resources...turned out to be media streaming which installs as a service in Win7. Stopping it didn't work, it would just start again, so I had to disable it in the services panel to stop it from running.

Could you please tell me the exact name of the service? So that we can suggest to disable it to other users. Thank you!

[maryjos]

Could you please tell me the exact name of the service? So that we can suggest to disable it to other users. Thank you!

In my Windows 7 services it is called "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service".

Again the important thing was to not just stop the service, but to disable it, as otherwise WMP just keeps starting it up again. If you actually use it for network streaming of media, you would need to start it manually when done with your video capture.

[maryjos]

This is a known issue and is a Windows Media Player problem. You can use a different media player like freeware VLC.

The MPEG recording is OK and if you convert to another format you'll get the right timing. I don't know why Windows Media behaves like this. It is also interesting that if you record at a higher rate, WMP gets the correct time.

Well, I am having the same issue in my other favorite media player, so it's not solely a WMP issue. VLC does seem to work so I guess I'll just have to use it for my video captures.

When you say that at a higher rate, it works okay, what rate are you talking about? Bitrate? Framerate? What settings are recommended to get proper times?

[stream-recorder.com]

Well, I am having the same issue in my other favorite media player, so it's not solely a WMP issue. VLC does seem to work so I guess I'll just have to use it for my video captures.

VLC and SMPlayer are great, so you will like it.

If another player that you like also uses DirectX (like MPC) it will probably react the same way as WMP.

When you say that at a higher rate, it works okay, what rate are you talking about? Bitrate? Framerate? What settings are recommended to get proper times?

I'm referring to high bitrate. I haven't mande extensive tests to find the border where the time get proper. But when the bitrate was very high, everything was fine with times.

See also:
Audio Video out of sync with Netflix