Read my Lips...(Check Your Camcorder's Audio Settings!)

Sometimes after I’d burn a DVD, and especially when I would use my PC for that task, the burn would go well. But when I’d play back the DVD, the audio and video would go out of synchronization. I could never figure out what was causing it.

Now I know.

The DVD standard, and the standard for most professional audio processing, is 16 bit audio. Did you know that nearly all digital video camera manufacturers build in 16 bit audio into their cameras but default them to 12bit? Not only is 12 bit audio noisier than 16 bit, but the mismatch between the audio and your editing and burning software (which is expecting 16 bit audio) is responsible for the “out of synch” audio problem.

If you’re going to shoot video that you subsequently want to burn onto a DVD, go into the camera’s setup and make sure that the audio is set to 16 bit.