Picture and audio out of sync on DVCPRO50 clips

Question

I digitized some 29.97 fps/16-bit audio DVCPRO50 footage in FCP6 at DVCPRO50 setting. The captured quicktime clip plays back fine in the quicktime player, but when I drop the clip into a DVCPRO50 project timeline, the video plays back faster than the audio. The longer the clip plays, the more the sync discrepency. I digitized several clips, and I noticed that the data rate is different for each clip, varying between 6.0 and 6.2 MB/sec. One clip with a data rate of 7.0 MB/sec plays back fine, same settings, same everything. What made this clip different, and why does it work when the others, all the same except the data rate, don't? More importantly, is there some way to change it so it does work without having to re-capture my footage?

Answer 1

How long are the clips that are out of sync? In my experience there is a bug that appears from time to time that throws DVCPRO 50 footage out of sync if you capture it in chunks longer than 10 minutes. The only solution I have found is to go back in a break up the capture so that clips are no longer than 10 minutes a piece. Look in the browser under the audio column and instead of seeing 48khz you will probably see something like 47.982345 khz or similar. If that's the case then you have to re-digitize. Make sure you are using log and capture instead of capture now, and try not to run any other programs on the mac while you capture.