Video and Reaper sync issues

I'm a PTLE user who is looking for an alternative for post production. I figured I might as well give Reaper a shot because of all the buzz about it on Gearslutz. Anyways here are 3 initial issues I experience already... I'll input a video... and it seems that on the tracks listing it'll show the name. However, I have no direct way of determining the start of the video in the time line. I 'think' it starts where the video audio starts, but its hard to tell. Also, if I re-size the video window, it seems that if the video has audio, it'll get out of sync with the video at random times. Like if I press play 5 separate times, the sync issue will happen at 5 separate different places or sometimes not at all. Lastly, Reaper does not seem to want to import AAC audio at all. Is that a codec issue? Any help would be appreciated. I always like to support the little guy, but its always frustrating moving from one platform to another.

PS. How can I get nudge to work? I looked up the keyboard shortcut and clicked on the wav/clip I want to nudgem and nothing seems to happen.

Voted - Thanks for the link

voted again

Doing post-audio for picture with Reaper is still a bit on the bleeding edge. It can be done but it won't be as easy to do the simple things as it is in PT. The advantage of working through this is in the routing, item volume/fx/resampling, customizable hotkey macros and a host of other generally awesome things in Reaper. Let me say again that some very basic things are a little rough, I wouldn't blame you for deciding it's not ready for primetime in your edit suite. That said, here are a few things that might help you in your desire to give it a fair shake. A number of post workarounds and experiencial advice can be found on the Reaper Wiki for Post Production. This includes a workaround for Timeline, Grid and Snap Setup. With a simple hotkey macro this can be extended to include a frame and/or multiframe item nudge. As Airon said, the video engine needs work. Your mileage may vary and there are quite a few voodoo type suggestions about getting video to work. I personally use h.264 and divx for my video containers. This goes against conventional wisdom but in my experience uncompressed video types do not give a significant improvement in locking or scrubbing. Since it seems to be same difference I choose the vastly smaller file size and now I can easily justify archiving a video with my working edit/mix. I would not venture to sync up a video that doesn't have a timecode window burn or at the very least a visual 2 pop. The video frame can be scrubbed against the Reaper time window until the window burn or 2 pop matches up. This post is getting quite long so if you'd like you can PM me or visit the IRC to chat with some of us post people. If you decide not to give Reaper a try at this time we all understand but please don't write it off completely. Check back in a few months as a lot can happen in a very short time with this program.

Plush, I'm going to send you a PM to see if I can get back on track with reaper.

Video Sync Issues 

Hello, I'm new to reaper and am also interested in using it for Post work. I'm working on a long format film ATM and thought I'd switch from PT to Reaper and see how it goes. After searching the forum, I came across this thread, and I am also still seeing a Zoom Video Sync issue. When I load my QT movie into Reaper, the Sync Audio will move "become out of sync" as I zoom in on the audio track (mouse wheel zoom in/out). It happens each and every time, and often it will also be random how offset or out of sync it is. Steps to reproduce... Import .Mov file w/audio Zoom in on the audio track Observe the wave file moving on the time line in and out of sync with each zoom in or out (its very obvious to see it happening, and if you set a marker point, you will notice the wave forms moving off the marker when you zoom, and hear the sync change). Since I have TC burned into the video, I can just set my session's TC to match and be fine, however often times I use the sync sound track from the video to sync wave transients if I don't have a TC burn, and this obviously makes that impossible. Has this been fixed, or is there a work around for this behavior? Thanks! Loving the program thus far! -Justin

Hi Justin, if you rip the audio on the video to a separate audio file and line it up, the video (in my limited experience although confirmed with tc window burn) stays in sync and the audio, now that it's being treated as regular audio does as well.

Can you give us the Quicktime Movie Inspector output on that file ? Perhaps you could provide an example file of some kind as well. My path to get around this is to export the audio from the Quicktime Player and line that up with an audio-less version of the movie. I didn't trust the glue method because of the sync issues, but haven't actually done a lot of tests. Since Plush2 has verified it, it'll be safe to use. Reaper will natively play audio it supports directly, which does not include AAC, so this may be the culprit. You'll want to do the audio track export from Quicktime for that. Not the quickest way I know, but workable with small fuss. Codecs that work particulary well are documented here: I just updated it with Quicktime-Photojpeg and Avi-DivX info. We've gathered considerable experience now. Perhaps some of the other gentlemen would like to add some information to the WIKI on their experiences ? Btw, new automation commands were just added, and the WRITE automation mode now works properly(never reads), so you can gather settings either through one of the read modes or SWS Snapshot window, and apply them across time and track selections now. Mixers wouldn't want to miss this :) . Session export and import AATranslator has garnered OMF import abilities. You may wish to check that out. It can import Protools 5 sessions as well for basic capabilities. Anything else will have to be handled by ProConvert, whose Samplitude EDL and Vegas Text EDL output Reaper can import. Anyone want to update the WIKI on that fun subject as well perhaps ?