Proper Video Sync-up for smooooch in Stepmania, Other Questions

Hi, forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section, I'm not sure if you guys have a dedicated help section but I'm sorry in advance if I'm shitting up the wrong subforum.

I don't know much about... any of this stuff, so if I sound kinda dumb that's why. I'm just starting out, I'm trying to learn more and improve at DDR and that general style of gameplay. I was recommended via a Facebook group to check out Stepmania and I was linked here.
I installed Stepmania last night and spent the greater part of today setting it up and installing songs, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me sync up the audio and video for Smooooch.
When I select Smooooch from the menu it shows the stock background at first for a second when the song begins, and then the video starts to play. The problem is that the video and the audio aren't synced up at all. In addition, the OGG file for Smooooch is 1:55 long, but the video itself is 1:57 long and in the video the audio begins roughly 2 seconds in, that way it syncs up with the way the princess characters are moving.

I tried screwing around with the offset in Edit Mode and was able to very approximately sync up the audio (at least as far as I could visually perceive) but the notes were unchanged, meaning the notes were no longer synced. Long story short I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just trying to figure out how to kludge Smooooch into my song list in a way that looks and feels virtually identical to playing it on an actual DDR cab.

As a side note, is there any way to fit the video to the screen? I flipped around in the options but the "stretch/centered" option zooms in too close. Ideally I'd just like to get the entire video centered and fit, that way there's black bars on the side like on an actual DDR A cab (in a perfect world I'd have the talent to recreate the video in 16:9 but still).

Another additional thing, is there any way to force certain songs to always display the background image instead of a random video? I plopped a bunch of dancer videos into the RandomMovies folder in my copy of Stepmania and turned them on because I always like seeing the actual dancing characters, but for some songs I'd like to just have a static background instead. Is there any way to pull that off?

Thanks in advance and sorry for such a huge post. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

You probably want to sync the video to the audio, not the other way around.

Open the ssc/sm in a text editor. Scroll to #BGCHANGES. Example is like 0.000=mv_cmn_n_rot.mpeg=1.000=1=0=0===CrossFade==

The "0.000" is the start time, you can increase this to sync up the video.

As for the other questions, I don't know so I'll wait for someone more knowledgeable to answer..

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Can you upload the Smooooch package to DropBox or show us where you got it from? I will have to see the content to be able to get the right sync. Maybe I can fix it for you and show how I did it.

Just turn off random movies.

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I'm using this simfile:
https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/viewsimfile.php?simfileid=12820
with this video:
https://mega.nz/#!yQhjACYT!KOfDc6_8lPMXwBJ-FDKBCnRXRh0I9tTpQleOiYoqn-o

Looks like the video is missing the beginning seconds. Is https://mega.nz/#!yQhjACYT!KOfDc6_8lPMXwBJ-FDKBCnRXRh0I9tTpQleOiYoqn-o the same as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdI5z8BRdn4

I created my own version https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m7r53db08otc577/AACkdHLb-e4I1z9vVE4_vlgga?dl=0 using a DVD.

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Thank you, I appreciate it. I replaced my copy of Smooooch in my songs folder but unfortunately for some reason it still isn't synced up. It begins with the background PNG and then switches to the video but at the wrong time still.
The tricky thing is that the actions of the characters on-screen is timed with the song itself, like normally in a synced video whenever the first "look up in the sky, it makes you feel so high" sample plays the princesses start to spin around, whereas for me they don't start to spin until a second or two after that part of the song begins.

Usually the very first note of the song is when the pink princess appears and stomps down, the song opens with that "bwssh" kinda intro noise as she leaps up backwards from off-screen and then as soon as her feet touch the ground the very first note plays and the actual melody begins.

I've been fussing with it still in the simfile using the BGCHANGES part but I still can't get it timed up for the life of me.

If you are using SM5.0.12, you should download SM5.1 b2 and update your old one. There are certain background-specific theme metrics that were added to SM5.1 b2.

I also updated the simfile. Please redownload it, then go to your Preference.ini and update this:

BackgroundFitMode=FitInside

I cropped the hd version (from my game data) to display sd. It should play and sync well.

You are an absolute lifesaver. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

Make sure you reload your song list or turn off fast load. You may be using the old version.

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