Audio/Video sync issues with Photo Booth on YouTube

Today I created my first video blog post, and I thought it would be super easy as I have a MacBook with Photo Booth, but I ran into several super annoying issues. I thought I’d share my problems and how I fixed them because I had to do several searches on the internet – very time consuming – before I found the answer.

I thought that I could upload to YouTube straight from my Photo Booth, and while it did allow me to do this, my audio and video did not match up, making the video unwatchable. Then I tried to upload the Photo Booth video straight onto my blog post through WordPress’s options, but it wouldn’t even recognize the file. What I had to do is bring the video into iMovie (should come with your Mac) and export it with QuickTime though there.

Now, this is where I had the most trouble. I have never really used iMovie before, and I was getting super frustrated with items being blocked out for no apparent reason. Here’s what you need to do (what I did)…

First: You need to import you Photo Booth movie into iMovie. I could not, for the life of me, find the movie in the Photo Booth when doing this option, so I had to drag the Photo Booth movie onto my desktop and import it that way.

Second: You need to export the movie using Quicktime. When I tried to do this initially, the option was blocked out. What you need to do, is make sure the movie clip is not only in the main, bottom box but also in the top box on the left hand side. If the clips were not on both sides, I could not export the movie. All you have to do is command + a the video clips in one box and drag it into the other. Then you should be able to Share > Export Using QuickTime.

Third (read before you hit export): You might need to mess with some of your export settings, but if you’ve never really changed anything, I think the default settings are okay. Now, make sure that the export settings say “Movie to Quicktime Movie.” For some reason, mine defaulted to “Movie to Image Sequence,” which I accepted accidentally… and let me tell you, you don’t want to do that! All the other settings are probably okay, but make sure that the section “Prepare for Internet Streaming” is set to Fast Start.

*Also, I kept going back and forth between my notes and the iMovie settings, and each time I did this, it completely blocked out my options. I don’t know if it’s my computer or what, but I recommending knowing what you need to change first, so you can avoid this.

Fourth: Once your video is done exporting, you can upload that file straight to YouTube. Your audio and video should be synced perfectly!

Good luck and hopefully you don’t have to deal with as much trail and error as I did.