[MPlayer-users] Audio sync problem with mencoder

[Greg Ward]

Hi all --

I've been a happy user of mencoder for many years, mainly for ripping
DVDs. Something changed recently and it stopped working: specifically,
the audio is no longer in sync with video. I first started having this
problem with Ubuntu's binary package a couple of weeks ago; it's still
happening with the current binary from Ubuntu 11.10 (version
1.0~rc4.dfsg1+svn33713-1). I just built mplayer/mencoder from source
(svn r34809) and the problem is still there.

The symptom is simple: the audio is about 30 sec behind the video, at
least near the start of the file. (I have not tried to determine if
it's a simple fixed offset, or if the delay changes later in the
file.)

Everything works perfectly when I play the DVD using either mplayer or
VLC.

Comparing DVD playback to playing from the ripped file, it appears
that the audio plays at the same speed, but the video goes too fast.
Example: I've just ripped the first 3 min of a DVD where the first
dialog is at 2:29 when playing the DVD. In the ripped file, the
character's mouth moves at 1:59, but the words don't come until 2:29.

I get the same problem when I play the ripped file with either mplayer
or VLC, so I assume the problem is in the file rather than the player.

Here's the command I use to rip:

  mencoder dvd://1 -quiet \
    -oac copy \
    -ovc lavc \
    -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vhq:vbitrate=2048:autoaspect=1 \
    -mc 0 -noskip \
    -o <outfile>

("-mc 0 -noskip" is a recent addition after I Google'd for mencoder
audio sync problems. It does not seem to have helped.)

Oh yeah, I'm doing one-pass ripping -- I've never bothered to figure
out two-pass, since I'm not hugely concerned about disk space or
quality. I just keep my rips until I get around to watching the movie
and then delete them.

I usually rip to .avi files. I've tried different container formats
(.mkv, .mpg), and still have similar problems.

Any suggestions?

Oh yeah, system info:
  * Ubuntu 11.10 (oneiric)
  * uname -a: Linux lucifer 3.0.0-16-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 27 17:44:39 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  * libc version:
      $ ls -l /lib/*/libc[.-]*
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1685816 2012-03-06 21:17 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc-2.13.so
      lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      12 2012-03-06 21:17 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 -> libc-2.13.so
  * gcc, ld, binutils:
      $ gcc -v
      Using built-in specs.
      COLLECT_GCC=gcc
      COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.6.1/lto-wrapper
      Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
      Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu/Linaro
      4.6.1-9ubuntu3'
      --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.6/README.Bugs
      --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,go --prefix=/usr
      --program-suffix=-4.6 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id
      --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext
      --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.6
      --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu
      --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-plugin
      --enable-objc-gc --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686
      --with-tune=generic --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu
      --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu
      Thread model: posix
      gcc version 4.6.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.1-9ubuntu3) 
      $ ld -v
      GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.21.53.20110810
      $ as --version
      GNU assembler (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.21.53.20110810
      Copyright 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
      This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of
      the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
      This program has absolutely no warranty.
      This assembler was configured for a target of `x86_64-linux-gnu'.

Thanks!

        Greg