MP4 Video in Compressor has out of sync audio in Premiere?

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Level 1

6 points

MP4 Video in Compressor has out of sync audio in Premiere?

Greetings,

Last week my MBP crashed so I decided it was time for a clean OSX install upgrade from Mavericks to El Capitan. With that jumping OSX upgrade I was finally able to update both FCPX and Compressor with no problems. My workflow for formatting movies from FCPX has always been to export a MasterFile(AppleProRes422.mov) and then drop that into Compressor to spit out a High-Res 1080p29.97 MP4 Movie. From there it is uploaded to my work server and used by a coworker to create promo trailers with. He uses Adobe Premiere to edit the mp4s into promo content and has never had an out-sync audio issue with them until I upgraded to Compressor 4.2.1.

Every Mp4 Video that is now created on Compressor 4.2.1 has an out-of-sync audio problem when imported into Premiere. After hours of testing different mp4 settings and other various import/export prefs in both Compressor and Premiere with no result I decided to try the same process on a backup Compressor 4.1.3 version. Using the same MP4 droplet I created another MP4 but this time the audio was in sync when imported into Premiere for both of us? strange yes I know! I also tested wmv's and mov's during this process but the new MP4 was the only one with a audio sync problem.

Can any one share some light as to why the Compressor 4.1.3 can make audio-synced MP4 movies that import correctly to Premiere and Compressor 4.2.1 cannot? Was the compressor structure that significantly upgraded and now there is a new method to make mp4 h.264 movies files that import into Premiere with audio synced up correctly?

Any help, ideas or thoughts so I can use the new and seemed very speedy Compressor 4.2.1 would be very much appreciated 🙂

Thank you!

Compressor, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), MacBook Pro Retina, Late 20-13

Posted on Nov 23, 2015 1:16 AM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 23, 2015 4:31 AM in response to iamKade

Can you post screen shots of the video and audio settings fro both versions of Compressor?

Russ

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Answer 2

iamKade Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 23, 2015 3:02 PM in response to Russ H

Thanks for looking into this problem for me Russ 🙂 Attached screenshots of all settings for the Mp4 droplet on both Compressor versions. I am using the same droplet in both versions but during testing I did also try a newly made droplet in 4.2.1 as I noticed their was a "update droplets" option in preferences now. Everything looks identical so am a bit flustered as to what the issue could be that causes 4.2.1 to make a Mp4 with out-of-sync audio when imported into Premiere. Just to clarify the audio is only out of sync when imported into premiere as in any other player or editor the movie plays correctly.

Compressor 4.1.3 :

Compressor 4.2.1 :

Thanks again!

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 23, 2015 4:35 PM in response to iamKade

I'm sorry to say that I can't spot anything in your settings.

That it is a problem only with PPr is interesting. Perhaps you should try the Adobe forums. Or maybe someone else will chime in.

If you discover the issue (or not), please post back.

Russ

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Answer 4

iamKade Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 23, 2015 5:22 PM in response to Russ H

Thanks for looking at least Russ as I couldn't find anything changed either making me think it has something to do with the Compressor framework being changed in those updates. Will post on adobe forum to see if that have any advice and will be sure to give an outcome on here either way.

If anyone else has any ideas or the same issue please do chime in..thanks!

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Answer 5

BenB

Level 6

12,103 points

Nov 24, 2015 5:56 AM in response to iamKade

The out-of-sync clip you encode, ir you open it in Quicktime Player and I bet it is in sync. The movie file created is just a standard movie file, nothing fancy about it. No metadata to determine sync. It is a flat, baked-in file. So PPro is doing something to that flat file on import. Look at PPro's issues.

Both versions of Compressor use the same framework, etc, so that is not an issue. The framework is in the OS, not in the app.

I would UNCHECK the "Optimize for network" option for sure, that adds metadata you do NOT want in a file going to an NLE, for a variety of reasons, mostly, it isn't needed and adds another moving part that can break down.

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Answer 6

iamKade Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 26, 2015 2:01 AM in response to BenB

@BenB : Thanks for chiming in with info about the framework as I can confirm it is just a Premiere issue and the audio is synced in every other player. Still very weird that different versions of Compressor would spit out one that works well and one that doesn't. I have just gone ahead and unchecked the optimize for network as recommended and will test that out in 4.2.1 to see if that changed anything. As of this moment I am using the original 4.1.3 that works well for my coworker to edit in PPro but would like to find a solution to use 4.2.1 since it did seem hundred times faster.

Very much appreciate the knowledge and advice and will be sure to update this if anything gets solved =D

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Answer 7

BenB

Level 6

12,103 points

Nov 29, 2015 5:18 AM in response to iamKade

Fill out the feedback page, as Apple may (or may not) have a response to this, and/or a fix in a future update.

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Answer 8

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 29, 2015 8:13 AM in response to iamKade

I saw that you did post this MP4 sync issue over at the Adobe forums (unfortunately with no replies so far). A Web search didn't turn up any answers, but it did return one very long thread – also at Adobe – about sync problems with clips after importing to Premiere; many examples were MP4 specific. Again, no definitive answers there either.

Was curious whether you had tried exporting an MP4 directly from FCP to see whether you got any different results. If you haven't, try Share>MasterFile>Computer. You could also try Share>Compressor Settings (which uses FCP's embedded version of Compressor) although I'm not optimistic that will give you a better result.

Russ

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