AVS, Virtual dub framserving to TMPenc

[droopy]

I hope someone can help me with this. I use the following process to make VCD's from old noisy LP recorded VHS tapes.

Picvideo MJPEG quality18 704x576->AVS script file with cropping bottom / addborders / resize 704x576 -> VirtualDub 1.4D with brightness / dynamic noise/ sharpness frameserving -> TMPGenc 1.2F VCD with bitrate 2000.

I know it's a bit complicated process but I need the addborders option from AVISynth to compensate for lost picture lines when capturing using the Marvel G400. When capturing I have about 15 frames dropped on about 45 minutes which to me is acceptable.

The problem though is whilst encoding to VCD. As soon as VirtualDub encounters the first dropped frame it will repeat this frame until the end. This basically means that encoding to VCD is fine until the first dropped frame. When scrubbing through the file in VirtualDub though all is fine and I can go past the dropped frames. This problem only occurs when frameserving from VirtualDub to TMPGenc.

Anybody have any idea? I've already searched this and several other forums to no availl. VirtualDub can read AVS files and TMPGenc can be used with VDR files from VirtualDub. But can they be used together with files with dropped frames? I would like to use this process as initial results have shown a to me unexpectedly good quality in the final VCD.

Thanks for your help, Leon

[mits]

Hi,
I don't have an answer to your problem, but i could suggest you to try TMPGenc 12A version.
What i usually do -with no problems - is :
1. capturing MJPEG with the old RRS at either 352*576(preferable) or 704*576 having some dropped frames usually 1or 2 every 4 to 6 minutes.
2. VirtualDub 1.3 resize to 352*288 (precise bicubic),unsharp mask (or whatever else), start frameserver
3. Encoding with TMPGenc

Hope that helps



------------------
mits

[Rob100]

AviSynth can support some Virtual Dub filters. Could you not call these from your AVS script and do away with the need for VD all together? And feed your AVS file directly to TMPEG...?

[droopy]

Thanks mits and Rob100 for your suggestions.

I have already found the solution to my problems though. So for anyone out there, here's what I've found.

If my understanding is correct on AVI files and capturing them. When a dropped frame occurs, instead of copying the full previous frame, a command is inserted in the AVI file telling to copy the previous frame.

This command was the reason for my problems. Appearently AVISynth does not support these commands and basically returns an error that it is not able to get the requested frame. So the cause is AVISynth.

Thank god though for a freeware program like VirtualDub. It is worth it's weight in platinum. It has an option where you can immediatly jump to the next or previous dropped frame. By simply marking that frame and deleting it I was able to remove these commands. By then making a new AVI file using the direct stream copy option in VirtualDub I'm left with a video file minus 15 dropped frame commands. Taking this file in the in my initial email mentioned process works like a dream. Although encoding for 45 minutes takes about 10.5 hours on a PII-450, it's worth it in IMHO.

I know crap in gives crap out for making VCD's or any other medium for that matter. I was pleasantly surprised though on the final quality of this process for the VCD's I wanted to make from old noisy LP recorded VHS tapes.

Regards, Leon

[funsoul]

Hi droopy and others!
I've played with AVIsynth a little bit but still can't get the hang of frameserving. Was wondering if any of you could provide assistance or know of a page that has help.

It looks like the way to go is capture using VirtualDub then frameserver to Premiere (via AVIsynth), do all editing then frameserver (again with AVIsynth) to Tsunami or LSX encoders.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
-funsoul

[AmSci]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by funsoul:
Hi droopy and others!
I've played with AVIsynth a little bit but still can't get the hang of frameserving. Was wondering if any of you could provide assistance or know of a page that has help.

It looks like the way to go is capture using VirtualDub then frameserver to Premiere (via AVIsynth), do all editing then frameserver (again with AVIsynth) to Tsunami or LSX encoders.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
-funsoul</font>

Read this thread, I think it will help
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum2/HTML/005787.html

[Dr Mordrid]

Here's a bit of an update on my original frameserving post;

First install AVISynth by copying the AVISynth.dll file to c:\windows\system (c:\winnt\system for NT and Win2K), then doubleclicking on the "install.reg" file that came with AVISynth.

Next install the Premiere AVISynth plugin by first downloading it here;

http://www.videotools.net/

For now get version v0.28 beta 37. Now rename it to Cm-avisynth.cm.prm and copy it to Premiere's plug-ins folder.

I *highly* recommend using TMPGEnc 12a, which is much easier to get working with AVISynth. You can download 12a from this site;

http://www.jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/

Make sure you install TMPGEnc, its English translation patch and the VFAPI plugin.

All done installing the components.

Now start editing a project in Premiere. When you get to the point where you want to export the timeline to TMPGEnc you open the "Export Movie" dialog and give your project the filename "frameserve.avi".

Now, open the "Settings" dialog. Set your video settings first, then under the "general/filetype" listing you'll find "Link to AVISynth". Select this and exit the settings. Select to save the movie.

A new dialog will come up "Default settings loaded". Click "OK" and another dialog will come up with a command line for AVISynth at the top along the lines of;

IPCSource("frameserve.avi0")

Note the trailing zero. Copy this to a text file and save it as "frameserve.avs". Make sure NotePad saves this as "frameserve.avs" and not "frameserve.avs.txt". If it does add the *.txt rename the file.

Now start TMPGEnc with a new project, open the "video source file" load dialog and select "all files" as the filetype. Now browse to and load "frameserve.avs" into TMPEGnc.

If the first frame of the project appears in TMPGEnc's display you're ready to set the MPEG rendering options (or load a preset) and render the project. Change the name of the exported file in TMPGEnc's "output file" dialog if you wish.

You can also encode segmented files (serial captures like AVI_IO creates) off the disk into a single MPEG using the following command sequence in a "segmented.avs" script;

SegmentedAVISource("filename.avi")

Place the segmented.avs script in the same folder with the segmented files and you won't have to put a path in the command sequence.

Filenames from "filename.00.avi" to "filename.99.avi" will be served in order to TMPGEnc by the script. If you have more than 100 segmented files to encode into one MPEG then use the following command;

SegmentedAVISource("filename.avi", "filename2.avi")

for capures named filename.00.avi to filename.99.avi and filename2.00.avi to filename2.99.avi.

You can keep adding new filename seqences in this manner. Needless to say a program capable of group file renaming is handy. I use Windows Commander.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 13 June 2001).]

[Flying dutchman]

You don't need AviSynth to add borders - VirtualDub's resize filter does that too! Just check the "Expand frame and letterbox image" checkbox !

[droopy]

@Flying Dutchman

Thanks for the tip. I already knew this was possible. The "Addborders" command from AVISynth has one up though on the "Resize" option from VirtualDub. Being that it is possible to add different borders for each of the 4 sides.

I use that one as captures from the Marvel G400, at least on my computer, when replayed through computer / Stand alone DVD player loose part of their original size. About 5 lines for the top, nothing from the right, about 4 from the bottom and about 7 from the left side. I simply add borders for these and then use the bicubicresize command to go back to 352x288. I use bicubresize as according the AVISynth reference it is likely to work better on low bitrates and for shrinking size.

The results to me are satisfactory, similar to SP VHS recordings.

Thanks again, Leon

PS: I've already sent a email to Ben Rudiak Gould about this problem with AVISynth. So far no reply though. But then again, I'm already very happy with the fact that AVISynth is available the way it is. So no complains from me.

[funsoul]

Wow! Thanks for the tons of info folks! Definitely enough to get me going and keep me busy in the premiere>tsunami thing.

Couple other questions, though (there always seem to be more). After doing the raw capture in virtualdub...what are the steps to frameserve it to Premiere? I generally cap at 352x480 (or 704x480), huffyuv so the files are well over the 2gig limit. How do I handle this?

Thanks again for all your tips/help and advice...it's much appreciated.
-funsoul

[Dr Mordrid]

I recently exchanged messages with Ben about the problem of MSPro not supporting *.avs scripts.

He tried to make an MSPro AVISynth plulgin some time ago, but Ulead insisted on him signing an NDA and not open sourcing the code. So much for MSPro support for *.avs.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 13 June 2001).]

[Flying dutchman]

So Ben is still alive? Nobody's heard from him for months!