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If forest-stream audio is aligned at first but gradually slips out of sync, do not try to fix it with a single OBS delay setting. First determine whether the error is a steady offset or grows over time: a fixed offset can be adjusted, but progressive drift points to a timing or clock problem that needs diagnosis.
First identify whether the audio is late or progressively drifting
Choose a recognizable event, such as a bird call, splash, or branch movement, and compare its sound with the corresponding image near the start of an observation period and later. Record the approximate times and whether the sound is early or late. If possible, check more than two points or make a short local recording so you are not relying on memory.
- Constant offset: the sound is consistently early or late by about the same amount. A one-time sync adjustment may help.
- Progressive drift: the mismatch grows as the stream runs. Audio and video timing are diverging; a fixed delay can align one moment but cannot correct the changing error.
This distinction matters because shifting timestamps by a common amount preserves the relative timing difference rather than correcting a mismatch that keeps increasing. FFmpeg’s timestamp documentation describes timestamp shifting; a practical technical guide explains the difference between fixed offset and growing drift.
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Rule out playback and network problems before changing sync
Compare another player or receiving device
Check the same stream in another player or on another device if available. If the mismatch appears only in one viewer, the issue may be playback-specific rather than in the stream being encoded. FFplay can display audio/video synchronization drift statistics and lets you examine audio, video, or an external master clock. These controls help with diagnosis; selecting a master clock alone does not prove the encoder has been fixed. See the FFplay documentation.
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Check OBS dropped frames separately
If you are encoding with OBS, look at its dropped-frame count. OBS explains that dropped frames indicate a network problem between the computer and the remote ingest server, commonly an unstable connection or a bitrate the connection cannot sustain. Investigate connection stability and bitrate if the count rises, but do not assume that dropped frames and audio drift are the same fault. See OBS’s dropped-frames guide.
Fix a constant offset in OBS
- In OBS, open Edit > Advanced Audio Properties.
- Find the audio source that is out of sync and adjust its Sync Offset in milliseconds. A positive value delays the audio; a negative value moves it forward.
- Test a short stream and compare a recognizable action with its sound. Tune the value based on the measured mismatch rather than choosing a preset number.
- Keep the change only if the offset remains stable over the test. If the error grows, restore the prior value and investigate progressive drift instead.
Kick’s Help Center describes these offset directions and cites 100–400 ms as a typical adjustment range. That range is platform guidance, not a universal target; measure your own stream. Kick also specifies stereo audio and a maximum sample rate of 48 kHz for its platform. Check the current requirements for your destination before applying Kick-specific settings elsewhere. See Kick’s audio-delay guidance.
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Investigate progressive drift as a timing problem
If the mismatch gets larger during the stream, changing Sync Offset only moves the starting point. Inspect the timing of the audio and video through the whole chain: the source devices, capture path, timestamps, and encoder logs. Use FFplay’s drift display to help establish whether the error changes over time, and compare those observations with the timestamps described by FFmpeg.
- Check whether audio and video come from devices with separate clocks or pass through different capture paths.
- Review encoder logs and timestamps for changes or irregularities that coincide with the drift.
- Change one variable at a time, then monitor for a representative duration. A brief moment of alignment does not show that the drift’s rate has been corrected.
- Keep a rollback path for live configuration changes so you can restore the previous settings if the stream worsens.
Do not treat setting the output to 48 kHz as an automatic cure. It may help compatibility, but by itself it does not correct a genuine clock-rate mismatch. A file-processing rate correction example is not a drop-in recommendation for a continuous live stream.
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Keep the diagnosis separate from the 24/7 operating setup
A 24/7 stream needs observation long enough to tell whether a change controls the drift over time, not just whether one point looks aligned. Log the time, observed offset, settings changed, and result. If the same stream behaves differently across viewers, compare those playback paths before changing the encoder. If dropped frames rise, investigate the computer-to-ingest connection independently of the audio timing issue.
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