EyeTV exports out of sync video to iTunes/Apple TV

I would have a look at this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=949287&tstart=15

The problem is with Eye TV not tv

Dave

Couple of questions:

Is the original eyetv recording out of sync?
If you play the exported file (ie the .m4v) on your mac is it out of sync in a) QT, b) itunes?

How do the files play in quicktime?

If you pause the video in itunes or tv and start it again, does it continue out of sync or start out in sync again and slowly drift out of sync as before.

Have you installed the eye tv software that has been released to correct problems with PPC macs yet.

I have the same problem with "eyeTv"

I have the newest update, I just gave up, until I found this fix

I watched an "eyeTV" to AppleTV , late one night, when I was really snockered

I found the show quite funny, even tho it was a drama

itunes uses quicktime, but playing a movie in itunes and again in quicktime is not exactly the same thing. The fact that that if you pause and continue in QT and the video and audio doesn't come back into sync initially tends to tell me your issue is with eye tv..

To confirm for sure that the problem lies within eye tv you could drop the exported movie into imovie, extract the audio and take a good look at exactly what is going on.

If it turns out that eye tv is to blame I'm not sure where the problem lies, after all it's not as though there are any settings that you could change when exporting to tv.

The original recorded eyetv programs play fine within eyetv and quicktime.

Are you referring to the base ".eyetv" folder files here? If so, can you upload a sample segment of 2-5 minutes duration for examination? (A 30-second segment is enough to confirm data streams but probably is not enough to properly test for some possible AV sync problems. Also need to know either the duration of the original base "problem" file at the sample's data rate or the total original EyeTV file size. Also need to reconfirm that the EyeTV original MPEG capture file both loads and plays in QT Player as you state here.

Just to clarify...you can't or at least I can't open the base .eyetv files in quicktime. When I attempt to do so I get "quicktime can't open this file message" or something to that nature.

Not an EyeTV user but was working with Arnd Kaiser earlier with his "color loss" problem. As part of analysis, he supplied my with sample of his captured file. He recods PAL, but assume other than frame rate and display dimensions, the data stream would likely be about the same. Basically, his files were MPEG/MP2/AC3. If you don't have the Apple MPEG-2 QT component installed ($19.99), your won't be able to open the file in QT applications. And, while QT would like be able to play an MPEG-2 stream muxed with MP2 stereo encoded at 192 Kbps @ 48.0 KHz, the QT Player will crash when it sees the AC3 448 Kbps @ 48.0 KHz.

After I do an export from eyetv for apple tv, that is when I can either open the file in quicktime and/or itunes. Both render out of sync A/V and have done so for every recording I've tried.

There are a number of reasons files may be converted "out of sync." The most likely in this case may be MPEG-2 stream limitations. Since the EyeTV samples I received were captured at 15,000 Kbps (MPEG-2 video) + 448 Kbps (AC3 AUDIO) + 192 Kbps or a total on the order 15,640 Kbps, it is easy to see how they might desynchronize at the 30 to 45 minute point with these stats and depending on the ratio of light/dark scenes, amount/nature of vector motion, and the graphic complexity of the content. (Could happen even sooner depending on frame rate and/or frame dimensions and is why I would like to compare your stats with previous PAL samples.) Basically, what may be happening is that your video content may be being concatenated while the audio is not. When the files are added together, one of the tracks is normally scaled to match the length of the other. Since the audio and video tracks now represent different periods of content in the source file, they're no longer "in sync" with respect to one another.

Do you just want to analyze a sample or will there be a resulting fix?

The purpose of performing analysis is to include or exclude various possible causes one by one until we can determine the specific problem and the best solution for your particular workflow. Basically, I need to determine how much data you are trying to process and if it is contained in a single MPEG-2 capture file or spread over several capture files. Frome what I learned when dealing with PAL captures, it appeared that Arnd was creating files that would likely top 7 GBs per hour. Do the files you record have similar statistics? Do you capture single files greater than 4 GBs on a regular basis? Do your files break at the 1 GB point like normal VOBs? Do you normally edit commercials from your captures and, therefore feel comfortable processing long files in shorter segments. Do you prefer single conversions to reach your target format or would intermediate conversions be an option in your workflow. Without such information or the analysis to learn such information, it is not possible to provide a solution without simply guessing at possibilities here.

As I see it there two options here, you can analyze the files and give me your findings or you can upload the file and I will analyze it, ask a few questions, and well see if there is a satisfactory solution. If you want to upload a sample file, contact me at my public e-mail address and I will provide the means for you to upload a file.

Jon,

Got the mpeg2 plugin for QT, but I'm unable to open .eyetv files with QT or any other software except for eyetv for that matter. Eyetv doesn't show the bit rate, but from the math, my eyetv encodes at about 4500 kbps.

I didn't know whether I'm missing something here or whether the .eyetv files you recieved may have been modified, or maybe they are HD.