Fix Audio Delays Permanently Using VLC & MKVToolNix

Multimedia files with ‘lip-sync’ issues are not uncommon, but they rarely happen in professional environments as they take extra precautions to avoid them. Let me show you how to fix mkvtoolnix audio delay (or VLC audio delay) on a Windows computer.

In a previous post I wrote about how to fix some of these synchronization issues permanently using ‘Avidemux’, but since then I have received a few complaints of ‘Avidemux’ not being able to fix those issues in some cases. Even though I came across some of these problems, fortunately, I have been able to fix them (so far).

‘Avidemux’ can do very little if the input file itself has some issues (corrupted video frames etc.), but ‘Avidemux’ is also a bit buggy, so some of the blame goes toward it also. In any case, there are a few other tools that you can try while trying to fix a sync ‘malfunction’, and ‘MKVToolNix’ is one among them.

‘MKVToolNix’ is not an encoder as you can only use it to ‘extract’ audio/video/subtitle tracks from other containers (MP4, AVI, FLV etc) and put them into the powerful and open-source MKV container. While doing so, this tool also lets you pass certain settings (sync, fps, aspect ratio …), and it is through that we can attempt to fix sync problems.

But please be aware that the only output format it supports is MKV (and a few of its variations such as ‘MKA’ for audio’, ‘MKS’ for subtitles etc.), and unlike MP4 or AVI, MKV is not supported by a lot of commercial and strictly hardware-based multimedia players. Computer users, however, do not have to worry about it as popular players (VLC, MPC, PotPlayer, SMPlayer, KMPlayer …) support it. Enough talking, let’s do it!

Note: Make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest builds of ‘MKVToolNix’ from here. I also recommend that you use VLC because both these utilities are available for multiple operating system platforms, so you can use this ‘guide’ in any of them.

What we are going to do is …

*. First, we are going to play the ‘troublesome’ file in VLC (or any other player that lets you change the sync temporarily), and we will try to identify the proper sync value.

*. Then we will simply enter that sync value into ‘MKVToolNix’ and save it as a new MKV file so that it is saved permanently. That is it!

Step 1:

So open your ‘troublesome’ file in VLC, and let it play for a few seconds. Then simply press the ‘j’ key on your keyboard. This will make VLC play the audio track a bit ahead of the video. A single click only increases the value by 50 milliseconds, so unless the ‘gap’ is very small, you will have to press it a few times to see its effect.

Anyhow, if after pressing the ‘j’ key a few times it worsens the ‘gap’, then it is an indication that you actually have to make VLC play the audio track a bit behind (delay) the video. The shortcut key for that is ‘k’. Again, to feel its effect, you might have to press it a few times. If, after doing that, it seems to shorten the ‘gap’, then it is an indication that you are on the right track. So keep doing that until you come up with the perfect sync value.

So as a general rule, play with the ‘j’ and ‘k’ keys until you find the perfect sync value for that multimedia file. Once you have found it, simply take a note of it (note that depending on the file, the value could be positive or a negative one. If it is a negative/minus one, then you should enter a minus sign before entering the value in ‘MKVToolNix’, more below) and close VLC.

Step 2:

Now open ‘MKVToolNix’ and load the ‘troublesome’ file into it. Then under the ‘Tracks, chapters and tags’ field, select the audio stream/track (shown below is an example).

Step 3:

Then from under it, click on the ‘Format specific options’ tab, and you will see an empty field that says ‘Delay (in ms)’. Now simply enter the sync value you found above into that field.

Step 4:

Now click on the ‘Browse’ button under the ‘Output filename’ field. Select a location and a file name for the output MKV file. Once done, simply click on the ‘Start muxing’ button. If everything goes without any errors, try playing the newly saved MKV file, and now you should be able to enjoy it without any ‘lip-sync’ issues!