Windows 7: Recorded audio ends up beng LONGER than it should

Yeah... that's the best I could describe my problem, but I'll go into detail now...
Since it's a problem with audio recording, I figured it should be OK to post here.

This problem has only occurred twice so far, so it's somewhat random, but the problems it causes is huge.

I record playthroughs for YouTube with commentary, and use Audacity for the commentary track. What I do is start the video recording then start the audio recording 5 seconds later. So the audio SHOULD be shorter than the video. For example...

Video = 00:45:15 long
Audio = 00:45:10 long



However, in this case, the audio recording is actually the SAME LENGTH as the video, despite the audio being started last and stopped first. It's as if the audio is recording at a faster rate than it's supposed to.

I've been using Audacity and recently tried AVS Audio Recorder, but it's exactly the same problem. Once I've placed the files in my video editor, the audio file is insanely longer than the video, so it they don't sync up properly, resulting in me having to delete everything and start again.

Does anyone have any possible idea as to what could be causing this? As I've said, it rarely happens, and nothing is changed on my laptop or Windows when it does happen... it's just purely random.

Any help or tips or anything would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Are you using 44.1Khz or 48Khz to record? I have a Sonar recording studio and according to the help file in Sonar, if I'm creating an audio track for a video I'm supposed to use 48Khz (16 bit).

Thanks for the reply. My current recording setting is set to '16-bit, 44100Khz (CD Quality) Would it be better to have it set to '16-bit, 48000Khz (DVD Quality)? I can also choose 24-bit as well.

I don't know if the 48Khz will fix your problem, but worth a try. You don't need the 24bit, 16bit is "CD Qualtity".

Hello again. I actually set it to 48000Khz last night, and tried again this morning, but it's exactly the same. The audio recording is the same length as the video recording, when it's supposed to be about 4-5 seconds shorter, thus making the audio not in-sync with what happens on video.

EDIT 1: I reformatted my laptop this morning, for other reasons as well, and tried recording some footage with commentary. Despite a very clean, recent install, it STILL does the same thing. The audio is just longer by a few seconds to what it should be. I'm seriously stuck for ideas here. If this carries on, i'll have to either get a whole new laptop, or use a second computer just to record audio with.

EDIT 2: For some inexplicable reason, I THINK it's related to recording from the PS3 only. Going through a few hours of testing, recording from my Xbox 360 has been perfect. I perform the SAME recording tests on the PS3... instant problems. I also don't think it's the audio anymore. In stead, I'd say it's the video that ends up shorter than it should. Does that help anyone?

Aha! You are not using the PC directly but through an external unit.

It apparently comes down to how the PS3 records it. Not an actual "PC" problem.

I am yes. Before, when I thought it was the audio, I thought it WAS the PC that was at fault. But with further testing it seems to be a PS3/Hauppauge problem. So using that, I'm not using the PC directly. I mean, the Hauppauge IS connected to the PC, and the software on the PC records it. But the PS3 is connected to the Hauppauge.