Does the GH4 have an audio sync issue? Or is it Final Cut Pro X? All of the footage I have shot with the GH4 is out of sync by about 2 frames, when in a FCP X timeline. I’ve shot in 4K and HD, both in 24P and 23.98. I’ve used the built in microphone for testing, and I’m using version 1.1 of the firmware.
I’ve imported the footage into Final Cut Pro X, and used a timeline native to the frame rate and size of the test footage.
Take a look at the image above. Notice the playhead has moved past the slate waveform, yet the slate hasn’t made contact. The audio is about 2 frames early.
I uploaded test footage to Vimeo directly from the SD card, and made the original file available for download.
In searching the web, I found that Dave Dugdale had a similar issue with the GH4 footage in Premiere Pro (see a screen grab here). (Dave has an excellent blog on DSLR filmmaking, and I highly recommend you check it out).
If anyone has insight into this issue, please contact me. I’ll keep this page updated as I find out more information.
UPDATE: 7/30/14 – Thanks to Neil McClure for downloading my original GH4 clip from Vimeo and putting it in a FCPX timeline. Yes, indeed the clip is 2 frames out of sync in the timeline. It’s seems that FCPX is not interpreting the files correctly from the GH4.
Thanks to Frederick Williams for downloading the file and pulling it into Avid Media Composer, where he found no sync issue.
UPDATE: 8/11/14 – Another user confirmed the sync issue in FCPX and in Vegas.
UPDATE: 10/27/14 – Firmware version 2.0 has not fixed the sync issue in my testing.
