iMovie export for iDVD: broken audio

[Hank Shiffman]

Has anybody experienced a problem exporting a movie from iMovie to iDVD?
I'm getting .mov files with breaks and loss of sync in the audio. I
haven't been able to nail down a pattern; sometimes the file is fine
(plays correctly in Quicktime Player) and sometimes it isn't.

The movies play fine from within iMovie and export to my DV camcorder.
It seems only when I try the iDVD export that I run into trouble.

--
Hank Shiffman http://www.disordered.org
Have Opinion, Will Travel ha...@disordered.org
Mountain View, California

[Steve Palm]

In article <hank-F3D990.1...@news.fu-berlin.de>, Hank Shiffman
<ha...@disordered.org> wrote:

> Has anybody experienced a problem exporting a movie from iMovie to iDVD?
> I'm getting .mov files with breaks and loss of sync in the audio. I
> haven't been able to nail down a pattern; sometimes the file is fine
> (plays correctly in Quicktime Player) and sometimes it isn't.
>
> The movies play fine from within iMovie and export to my DV camcorder.
> It seems only when I try the iDVD export that I run into trouble.

I have experienced exactly the same symptoms but I was exporting from
iMovie to QuickTimes highest quality. When I repeated the effort but
exported to the tiny "for email" size all problems disappeared.

I am still searching for a cure.

Steve Palm

[R. Tang]

In article <palm-20010...@10.0.1.2>,

There are two things that could be happening.

A) iMovie could be dropping a frame or two when exporting to
Quicktime. What can help is to open up the Quicktime movie with Quicktime
Pro. Export the sound track from the movie to a 2nd file. Delete the sound
track. Then go into the 2nd file, copy the sound track, go back to the
first file and then use the ADD SCALE command. That usually synchs it
right back up.

B) iDVD could be having trouble coding, burning and synching
simultaneously. The thing to do is to allow iDVD to completely code first
(takes 1-2 hours per hour of video), and THEN burn. Takes care of sound.

Both of these are relatively easy solutions to try first.

Of course, under iLife, some entirely new problems may come up...
--
-
-Roger Tang, gwan...@u.washington.edu, Artistic Director PC Theatre
- Editor, Asian American Theatre Revue [NEW URL][Yes, it IS new]
- http://www.aatrevue.com

[Chris Waltham]

"R. Tang" <gwan...@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:b0iens$1rsa$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu...

> >I am still searching for a cure.
>
> There are two things that could be happening.
>
> A) iMovie could be dropping a frame or two when exporting to
> Quicktime. What can help is to open up the Quicktime movie with Quicktime
> Pro. Export the sound track from the movie to a 2nd file. Delete the sound
> track. Then go into the 2nd file, copy the sound track, go back to the
> first file and then use the ADD SCALE command. That usually synchs it
> right back up.

Silly question.. but.. there's nothing to prevent me doing this on a PC, is
there? I mean, I have QuickTime Pro on my PC, but not on my Mac (the latter
is a work machine & they won't purchase it).

Chris

[R. Tang]

In article <fP3X9.120$oZ1....@nnrp1.ozemail.com.au>,

Shouldn't be a problem....but most of my experience is just Mac...

[Hank Shiffman]

In article <b0iens$1rsa$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu>,
gwan...@u.washington.edu (R. Tang) wrote:

> In article <palm-20010...@10.0.1.2>,
> Steve Palm <pa...@nfinity.com> wrote:
> >In article <hank-F3D990.1...@news.fu-berlin.de>, Hank Shiffman
> ><ha...@disordered.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Has anybody experienced a problem exporting a movie from iMovie to iDVD?
> >> I'm getting .mov files with breaks and loss of sync in the audio. I
> >> haven't been able to nail down a pattern; sometimes the file is fine
> >> (plays correctly in Quicktime Player) and sometimes it isn't.
> >>
> >> The movies play fine from within iMovie and export to my DV camcorder.
> >> It seems only when I try the iDVD export that I run into trouble.
> >
> >I have experienced exactly the same symptoms but I was exporting from
> >iMovie to QuickTimes highest quality. When I repeated the effort but
> >exported to the tiny "for email" size all problems disappeared.
> >
> >I am still searching for a cure.
>
> There are two things that could be happening.
>
> A) iMovie could be dropping a frame or two when exporting to
> Quicktime. What can help is to open up the Quicktime movie with Quicktime
> Pro. Export the sound track from the movie to a 2nd file. Delete the sound
> track. Then go into the 2nd file, copy the sound track, go back to the
> first file and then use the ADD SCALE command. That usually synchs it
> right back up.

This doesn't fit the situation I'm encountering, at least as I
understand what you suggest. Problem is that the audio track that comes
out of iMovie is mangled; it has breaks in it and occasionally even a
sequence plays out of order. There's something about the conversion to
DVPRO that's making a mess of the audio.

> B) iDVD could be having trouble coding, burning and synching
> simultaneously. The thing to do is to allow iDVD to completely code first
> (takes 1-2 hours per hour of video), and THEN burn. Takes care of sound.

My problem isn't with iDVD. If the output from iMovie plays correctly
in Quicktime Player, iDVD produces a correct video.

> Both of these are relatively easy solutions to try first.
>
> Of course, under iLife, some entirely new problems may come up...

Or someone may have found the problem and fixed it. (Hope springs
eternal.) I discovered that if I exported to my DV camcorder, imported
the movie back into iMovie and then exported to iDVD, I got a working
audio track. Of course, I also converted the video a few extra times,
which isn't a perfect solution.

[Chris Waltham]

"R. Tang" <gwan...@u.washington.edu> wrote in message

news:b0im7u$20qu$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu...

> >Silly question.. but.. there's nothing to prevent me doing this on a PC,
is
> >there? I mean, I have QuickTime Pro on my PC, but not on my Mac (the
latter
> >is a work machine & they won't purchase it).
>
> Shouldn't be a problem....but most of my experience is just Mac...

Hrm, okay. I'll dig up another copy of the QuickTime file, throw it on my PC
and try it with that.

I'll let y'all know how I go,

Chris

[Matti Haveri]

In article <hank-F3D990.1...@news.fu-berlin.de>,
Hank Shiffman <ha...@disordered.org> wrote:

> Has anybody experienced a problem exporting a movie from iMovie to iDVD?
> I'm getting .mov files with breaks and loss of sync in the audio.

I have not experienced this bug but some sources recommend to set the
timeline view to 1x before exporting to iDVD.

Check also

<http://www.danslagle.com/mac/imovie/iMovieFAQ.html#AudioSync>

--
Matti Haveri <mattiDOThaveriATsjokiDOTutaeiroskaaDOTfi> remove ei roskaa

[Gaston Klares]

I got the same problem running iMovie and iDVD on a french OS X. The
video quality is less good than in the previous version. The audio
track is several seconds out of sync to the movie. I had several tries
when coding from iMovie to iDVD and had to force to quit the operation
after several hours. At this moment i have no solution to create a
clean DVD.

[Jeff Price]

Gaston Klares wrote in message
<11fcd7a0.03021...@posting.google.com>...

Is the audio that is out of sync the one 'linked' to the video itself (i.e.,
is not a separate track)?

If so, then one suggestion is to select all of the frames, extract the audio
then lock it to the first frame. This places the audio into one of the
audio tracks as opposed to being part of the video track.

J Price
Flickerflix Nature Videos

[Gaston Klares]

Hi Matti and Jeff. Thanks for your tips and the excellent link. But
"copy the audio track"?? I have counted in my 50-minute movie 15
audio-tracks. I tried co copy them and then reinsert. In fact, the
music soundtrack was in sync, but the original audio from the video
tape was lots of seconds in advance to the picture. As in my
preceeding try, the video quality was poor. A DVD (with the same
movie) that i burned with the previous iDVD was ok in audio and
picture quality.

[Jeff Price]

Gaston Klares wrote in message

<11fcd7a0.03022...@posting.google.com>...

iMovie really has THREE audio tracks. There are the two audio tracks you
may be used to dealing with (the ones on the timeline) and a third audio
track that is embedded with the video (usually the one with peoples voice on
it). It is this embedded third audio track that gives people the most
problem. For what it's worth, synch issues are NOT an apple specific
problem, it can occur on almost all video applications on PCs and Macs.

The solution to the problem is that you need to extract the sound off of the
clips (the embedded audio track) and then lock it to the video clips. I
don't have my system on so the first suggestion I'll make may not work.
This really assumes that you are not already using both of your extra audio
tracks for your music.

1) [May not work] Select all of your clips. Then select the command to
extract audio. Then lock the start of the audio to the start of the first
clip.

2) If 1 is not possible then the second option is to extract the audio for
each clip and lock it to its clip. This can be really tricky if you have
transitions already in place.

3) Finally, and this is tricky, you can export the file to tape. Then go
into preferences and make sure that your split clips on capture is OFF and
to place the clips on the timeline. Now you have one (or a couple of LONG
clips). If you are lucky the audio will be in synch. Now, extract the
audio from the clips and, if it is in synch, lock it to the video. If you
aren't lucky you will need to unlock the audio and move it forward or
backward, one clip at a time until it is in sync and then lock it in place.
Tedious.

I think there are some commands in QT Pro that will do the same thing in a
more automated fashion but I don't know QT Pro.

Other general things that can cause issues on DVDs -
1) make sure your hard disk is not fragmented
2) If you are exporting for iDVD off of the timeline make sure it is set at
1x

Jeff Price
Flickerflix Nature Videos