In this YouTube video (not mine), the audio and video are already out of sync. It appears to have originally been a video tape recording and digitally encoded. I downloaded the YouTube video and brought it into Shotcut to see if I could fix it. I detached the audio and found the issue isn’t as straightforward as shifting the video and audio to begin at different times. After syncing the audio and video at one place, I inserted a split in both the audio and video, and then tried different speeds and can’t get the sync to remain; the audio and video continue to drift.
Is it possible to sync the audio and video? I suspect some sort of variable rate is at play in the originally encoded source making it difficult to sync. I wanted to reupload it to YoutTube to show my 93-year-old father, who played the organ and was friends at Oxford with David Wright (Oxford organ scholar), who is playing the organ at about 3 minutes into the video. I can sync that segment, but can’t sync the rest. Other parts of the program are also interesting, but impossible to watch due to the sync being off by several seconds.
Properties > Audio > Sync for one second or less. Otherwise, for more than second, right click clip on timeline and choose Detach Audio. Next, move the audio slightly as needed. Finally, use Properties > Audio > Sync to fine tune it.
Thanks for the quick reply Dan, but I have already done those steps. The audio may remain in sync for a bit, but will drift later on. I synced the organ part perfectly starting at about 3:00. The earlier 3 minutes are not in sync. When the scene changes to the coffee shop after the organ scene is finished, the sound of the cup and saucer placed on the table is wrong and everything after is wrong. I removed a few frames from the video to sync up the cup and saucer, but then it the audio and video drift apart again (not saved). I think the original must have had some sort of variability going on because I can’t sort it with just a speed adjustment in the audio or video.
I am hoping someone will look at the video in Shotcut and see it directly. It may be that I have to make several edits to keep the audio and video in sync.
I don’t have a lot of experience with key frames, but wonder if that feature may be part of the solution?
A Highway special from Boston Lincolnshire 2025-09-30T22-02-55.mlt (18.2 KB)
