Audio sync problem in DVDWS2? (Ulead DVD Workshop)
 

Just starting out and experimenting with DVDWS2 in Win7 (gave up on Virtual Box XP: consistently got an error when finishing DVD folders).

The test material is an MPEG capture using AIW9600 (MMC8.8) from VHS (played on S-VHS). There are 2 dropped frames and no visible sync issues. Settings are MPEG-2 DVD, 352x480 NTSC, interlaced,VBR 3920-4520 Kbps, Motion Quality 99; audio 48000 KHz, 16 bit, stereo and encoding at 256 Kbps.

In all authoring test cases, I use the 'Create DVD folder" option and burn using Burn Aware Free.

- When I created a disc template on DVDWS2 matching the MPEG audio/video capture parameters (used the upper 4520 Kbps), the audio lags behind video.
- When I increase to the template "Good" preset (max 6000 kbps, stereo, but not AC-3) the audio remains in sync.
- When using the "Good" preset WITH AC-3 and checking the block in the Edit phase (audio) to "convert to disc template", the program encodes the audio to AC-3, BUT the final disc is again out of sync.

The sync problem seems to start in roughly the second half of the 2 hour recording and the lag increases as it moves toward the end.

1. Do my capture settings appear reasonable?
2. Should video capture bit rates be matched or over-matched by those in the DVD template?
3. Is the block check for "convert to disc template" required for the AC-3 conversion to occur?
4. What could be going wrong here? (I do see blogs from the early 2000s talking about such issues with DVDWS2, and links to patches that no longer exist....)

P.S., Unrelated to above, tried the "Record Cropped Video" option in MMC but the burned DVD does show a thin black "frame" around the picture on the TV. Thought it was to eliminate "invisible" overscan.

Don't mess with the presets. When you do, you tell it to re-encode. At the defaults, it doesn't touch anything compliant.

I don't really recall if I ever let DVDWS encode audio, aside from the menu. I pre-encoded the assets to AC3 if needed, using Besweet, TDA, SoundForge, and some others. I've not had to author much lately, but if I did, and needed to pre-encode to AC3, I'd use TAudioConverter.

But honestly, there's no real reason to encode to AC3 if source is MP2. DVDWS2 doesn't even give a warning like TDA/TAW does.

Capture settings in MMC look fine.

The mask requires two selections, re-read the guides (can't access an ATI AIW system at the moment).

lordsmurf,

Thanks for your help on this. At this point would just like to clarify following:

- The guides/comments in the Forum tend to favor AC-3 over PCM and MP2 (the Stereo in my AIW capture?) for DVDs.
The Forum guide concerning MP2 states this:
"Advantage: size and ease of conversion from XVCD/SVCD/CVD/VCD
Disadvantage: quality and player support"
Is that not completely so?

- Am still interested in question 2 above concerning capture vs. DVD template bitrates

- You mentioned the mask requiring two selections. If that refers to my "PS" about the DVDWS2 selection for cropping, I did use the "MPEG-2 DVD" setting as well. Perhaps I'll just try it again without the cropping.