Exporting a Rythmo Band at 25 or 24 fps for Pro Tools
You've wrapped your adaptation, you open your Pro Tools session, and nothing lines up. The video slides against the sound, or the text lands half a second too early. Nine times out of ten, the problem has nothing to do with your sync: it's a frame rate issue.
The video has a rhythm, respect it
A rythmo band is text pinned to precise frames. If your reference video runs at 25 frames per second and you export it at something else, every line drifts a little further as the scene plays out. It holds up at first, then after two minutes the text no longer matches the lips at all.
In French-language dubbing, you'll almost always run into one of these two cases:
- 25 frames per second, the standard for TV, web, and streaming in Europe (the famous PAL);
- 24 frames per second, for cinema and certain international masters.
The rule fits in one sentence: export your band at the same frame rate as the video you're going to edit in Pro Tools. Not the tool's default value, the one from your media.
Check your source first
Before you export anything, look at what frame rate your file runs at. On Mac, right-click and "Get Info" gives it to you; with VLC, it's under "Codec Information", on the "Frame rate" line. And in Pro Tools, the session's rate is set in Setup → Session, under Timecode Rate.
You've got your number. That's what drives everything else.
The export, step by step
In Voxdub, when it's time to export, choose the frame rate that matches your video (25 or 24) rather than a high value like 60. Then grab your band in DETX format for post-production (or in SRT/ASS if your pipeline prefers it), and your audio tracks in BWF, which carries the timecode.
On the Pro Tools side, set the session to the same Timecode Rate. From there, text, picture, and sound all land in exactly the same spot, and you no longer have to fix anything by hand.
In short
It all comes down to a single setting: matching the export frame rate to the video's (25 fps for PAL, 24 fps for cinema). Check your source, export at the right value, align the session, and the sync follows.
👉 Prepare and export your rythmo band with Voxdub — 7-day free trial, right in the browser.