a newbie needs help

[nosaj56]

I recently received about 20 They Might Be Giants VHS's for conversion to DVD as a pet project from someone I trade with. I've transferred most of the VHS's to DVD using my ATI all-in-wonder card. I've gotten that far. I have a very good AUD recording of one of the shows I also have video for. I'd like to replace the worse version from the VHS with the one I had previously. I have Sony Vegas 6.0, Soundforge 8, and TMPGENC, ya know, all the good pieces of software I've seen talked about on this board. Would anyone mind telling me specifically how to sync up the second audio source I have with the video? I'd also like some tips on how to create some menus that don't look like a two-year-old made them. I've searched on this board for how to sync audio to video, but it is never explained well enough for someone like me to understand.

thanks in advance.

[TheMamba]

I'll bump this up.

It may help if you go poke around in the Video BT forum and try to PM or talk to one of those guys - they're the pros.

[U2Lynne]

Or, he says he's searched here and found other people ask the question but the answers didn't have enough detail for him.... maybe bump that thread and ask for a bit more detail in the areas that you are confused about.

[AAR.oner]

thats a fairly in depth question Nosaj...additionally, you should really take some time to read thru Vegas' manual...also search for some of the Vegas online forums...but here's a quick overview

import both yer audio & video footage into Vegas...drag the video to the timeline, do the same for the audio...i usually find a few places where a noticeable drum hit or guitar strum occurs and sync to those points...if you run into issues with video speed & audio speed not matching thruout, you'll have to cut the video in spots & re-sync...

as for menus, you can use photoshop to create yer backgrounds, and then import those into yer DVD authoring program to make the buttons & link everything together

[nosaj56]

hmm. you guys all say to sync. the problem is no one ever explicitly says HOW to sync. I would appreciate it if someone actually explained how to sync with vegas.

thanks.

[diggrd]

Why not ask in a forum for Vegas

http://www.dmnforums.com/cgi-bin/displaywwugindex.fcgi?forum=sonic-foundry_vegas

[AAR.oner]

the problem is no one ever explicitly says HOW to sync. I would appreciate it if someone actually explained how to sync with vegas.

thanks.
import both yer audio & video footage into Vegas...drag the video to the timeline, do the same for the audio...i usually find a few places where a noticeable drum hit or guitar strum occurs and sync to those points...if you run into issues with video speed & audio speed not matching thruout, you'll have to cut the video in spots & re-sync...
that is how you do it...i guess i coulda added, "shift the video track left and right until the drum hit on the video matches the drum hit on the audio" or somethin like that...but what else are we supposed to tell you?!

as just a general note to people new to video editing, video/audio editing software comes with extensive manuals that explain everything from the basics to fairly technical operations...i would *HIGHLY* recommend taking a weekend [or more like a week] to sit down and go thru it all, playing with the various functions in the program while yer reading...if you really want to author video to DVD, you need to realize that its not a coupla clicks and bam--a DVD...takes years of learning and practice to even scratch the surface of editing video...justa for what its worth

[nosaj56]

ok, thanks for the help. I've actually got the first part of the concert in sync now. it gradually gets out of sync though. it's pretty bad by the last song. AAR.oner, I see you mentioned cutting video frames to try to solve this. would it it be noticeable to the average viewer that a video frame or two was cut every once in a while?

[feralicious]

Yes, it will skip frames or double some up depending on whether the video is faster or slower than the audio, but that's better than having it out of sync. Just play it back and check it out. Also, use frames where there's not much movement to make it less noticeable.

Alternatively, you should be able to change the video speed. I don't know how Vegas works, but if you can do this give it shot since it won't take long... I would find a sync point at the beginning and a sync point at the end. As close to both as possible. Then if Vegas allows you to do a "fit to fill" type thing where you tell it how many seconds/frames you have of video and how many seconds/frames it needs to fill it may be able to adjust the speed to fit the whole thing. You know what I mean? Where you say I have a piece this long and I need it to fit in this section. It can usually either be done my actual amounts entered in or by having in and out marks on both the source and the destination.

You'll have to spot check it to see if it did a good job. If not, you'll have to manually delete/double up frames where necessary. I would think if you can do a "fit to fill" thing it should be pretty good if both the video and audio were running without stopping the whole time and the sync is a constant drift. If either the camera or the audio recorder were stopped at any time you definitely have to do it manually.