Checking Sync

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Now that you have a QuickTime movie imported into Pro Tools and starting at the correct time, you should check to see that it is playing correctly and in sync. The easiest way to do that is to watch someone talking in the video to see if the lips are moving in sync with the words.

Importing Audio from QuickTime Movies

If the QuickTime movie you have imported has audio in it, then you can import that audio directly into Pro Tools. It will be placed in sync with the video track, giving you a great reference as to how everything is synching up. Simply select Movie, Import Audio From Current Movie; the QuickTime Track Import Window will open , allowing you to select any audio track from the current movie to be imported (see Figure 4.29). That file will be converted into the current audio file format for Pro Tools and placed in a new track at the same start time as the movie itself.

Figure 4.29. The QuickTime Track Import window. Here is a 32kHz, 16-bit audio track from the current QuickTime movie. Pro Tools will convert and import this file into the session and place it in sync with the QuickTime movie.

Understand that just viewing a video and listening to its related audio is not a foolproof way of determining sync. It is known as "eyeballing it." The only accurate way to determine whether sync is correct or not is to have a time code burn included with your video (dicussed below) or a 2-beep that can be used to align the audio and video.

Examining Lip-Sync

Determining if your video and audio are playing in correct sync is easiest when watching people talk onscreen. We are so used to watching people talk everyday that a sense of what looks in sync and what does not is very natural. It might take some time to develop a very accurate measure of lip-sync, but practice makes perfect. Try offsetting dialog from its video frame by frame until you notice the change. Try it in both directions to get a feel for what bad sync looks like. With practice, you will quickly be able to tell if dialog is properly in sync with the video.

After encountering and correcting bad sync, you should try to determine what has caused the error. Just making the correction without knowing why the error occurred can lead to major troubles later. It might simply be an error you have made while importing or placing the QuickTime file, or it could have resulted from bad or incorrect time code on the source tape. Some frames might have been dropped during the capture process, creating flawed movie files. Perhaps the video editor that gave you the QuickTime file included some black frames before the true, first frame of video, causing the dialog to be some frames earlier than the video. Communication between you and the video editor is crucial for these reasons.

Time Code Burn-In Window

A time code burn-in window is a display of SMPTE within the video image. This allows the viewer to see at what frame number the current video frame is. A time code burn-in window can be very helpful when spotting audio using a cue sheet. A time code burn also helps to accurately check the sync of video and audio in Pro Tools. When a QuickTime movie with a time code burn-in is loaded into Pro Tools, you can easily see if the frame numbers in the burn-in are aligned with the time code ruler in the Edit window as shown in Figure 4.30.

Figure 4.30. Here you can see a time code burn-in in the QuickTime Movie window of Pro Tools.

If you notice a discrepancy between the time code numbers of the burn-in window and those in the Pro Tools time code ruler, then the movie file is not at the correct offset or there is a frame rate problem. Check to see whether the burn-in window has any semicolons in it, as that will denote drop-frame time code. Make sure Pro Tools is set to the same frame rate and frame count as the QuickTime movie.

It is also possible to create a time code burn-in window from any external video source using the Sync I/O. This option creates the window in real time, and the image is not recorded onto the video. This can be nice when you want to watch the video without any time code window present. Simply turn the window off, and you'll have a clean image to watch. Refer to the Sync I/O's documentation for further information.

You are now set up, configured, and ready to begin work on a video project. The next chapter is all about recording and getting all the necessary audio into Pro Tools and ready for editing.

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