On this episode of "Does is sync?", we present Carnivāle, the acclaimed series from HBO.
Like many series, it received beautiful DVD box sets back in the day, but has had no BluRay release. It has, however, been released in HD on iTunes. But without the commentary tracks.
The question asked by "Does is sync?" is always, "Do the commentary tracks on the old DVDs sync up perfectly to the HD download version sold on iTunes?"
The answer in the case of Carnivale is:
YES.
However, when aligning each commentary track to the HD download you'll need to offset the commentary by negative 1850 milliseconds. That timing only applies to Carnivale. Fortunately it is the same for every one of Carnivale's commentaries, from both season 1 and 2. They all need exactly -1850 milliseconds. There are 6 commentaries in total, 3 in the first season and 3 in the second season.
What's my process?
I'm on a Mac. This is my process:
1. Buy the iTunes download! (You must sort out for yourself how to make the download editable).
2. Buy the DVDs! Rip the commentary tracks from the DVDs to wav using DVDAudioExtractor.
3. Drop the first iTunes episode into MP4Tools. That'd be "101 Milfay (1080p HD).mp4".
4. Drop the wav of the commentary track into MP4Tools.
5. In MP4Tools select the video and the commentary track wav audio, and nothing else (we will discuss why later), and then set MP4Tools to convert that commentary track wav audio to 320kbps AAC, and set MP4Tools to simply "Pass Thru" the video (which means it won't take long, since it won't be reencoding the video portion).
6. Press Convert, and MP4Tools will output the episode, now with the commentary track - albeit with the commentary track not yet precisely synched. The file name will have the word "conv" in it, so you will be able to recognize it easily.
7. Take that converted file, and drop it into Avidemux2.6.
9. Set Avidemux Output Format to "MP4v2 Muxer", Video Output to "Copy", Audio Output to "Copy".
10. Set Avidemux "Audio Output" "Shift" to offset the Audio by "-1850" ms.
Press Save. The resulting file is now perfect. I believe (but am not entirely sure) that when Avidemux shifts the position of the audio it does not re-encode it, so there should be no loss in sound quality.
11. Rename it something like "101 Milfay (Commentary Track) (1080p HD).mp4" so it is distinct from "101 Milfay (1080p HD).mp4"
Why did I make this video with only the Commentary Track audio? (Why didn't I leave in the other audio tracks?)
I've found that making a file which is simply the episode with only the commentary track is the only way to ensure perfect compatibility with all playback devices. The problem with trying to add in several audio tracks is that sometimes all audio tracks will play back simultaneously, rather than allowing you to choose between them.
Why did I imply that some shows might NOT sync?
Some tv series' HD versions don't sync perfectly to their old DVD versions. Usually this happens when a show was designed with commercial breaks. The new HD version might have more or less "black" at the moment where a commercial break would have been placed, or more or less "black" in between the end of the opening theme song and the start of the episode. Every such occurrence throws off the audio sync more and more, requiring editing of either the commentary track or the video track. Neither of which are easy.
So it is always fortunate when an HD version happens to perfectly sync with the old DVD version, as is the case with Carnivāle.
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