artifacts created by Lagarith, UT...unable to import into HC

[SamB.]

Hi. I have a 157-minute movie that I’m trying to losslessly export in sections from Premiere Pro 2 as an AVI, then transcode in HC Video Encoder to MP2 for authoring in TMPG Authoring Works 4. The final use will be factory-replicated DVDs to play on TV. TMPG works fine, but I cannot get Lagarith or UT Video codec to function without introducing artifacts into my AVIs. With Lagarith, these are rough horizontal white flashes (fraction of 1 second) in the upper quarter of the screen (upper letterbox area), and in UT Video (RGB), color flashes (fraction of 1 second), usually in the lower letterbox or entire frame. I’ve tried various settings of the codec and usually choose Maximum Bit Depth. Most of the resulting AVI looks excellent, but I don’t want to introduce artifacts. Under what conditions would these codecs produce artifacts? How can I avoid them? (I do not mind huge file sizes for lossless encoding.)

To complete my tale of failure, I downloaded HuffyUV220 and HuffyUV MT712, but neither codec found its way into my Premiere export compressor settings, so I could not try them.

With HC GUI (versions 0.23, 0.24, 0.25), despite numerous attempts, I’ve not been able to import an AVI; I always get “error loading Avisynth script, Script error: there is no function named “SetMTMode” (F:\Exports\premiere.avs, line 1.” The wording of this error is different from the script that I type in Notepad and place in my F:\Exports folder, along with a clip ending with “post.avi." Here is my script:

SetMTMode(2)
AviSource("F:\Exports\post.avi")

Am I doing something wrong in terms of workflow? All of these codecs are associated with processing AVIs...does that tell you anything about possible system problems? Is there another Avisynth command that I could try? (I am new to scripts so I need handholding here.) All suggestions will be most welcome. Thank you!

XP Home, SP3…Intel DG965WH mainboard…IntelCore2Duo 2.66GHz…4GB RAM…88GB free on F:\

[txporter]

I can't really answer your questions about Lagarith or Huffyuv problems, but it sounds like you don't have a multi-threaded version of avisynth. Just drop the setmtmode(2,0) line or comment it out (#) or get a MT avisynth.dll. If all you are doing is feeding it video without any filtering there will be little difference whether or not it is multi-threaded anyhow.

[SamB.]

TXPORTER, thanks for your reply. You're right. I had not downloaded AvisynthMT, so I did, but then found that I got the same error

message in HC 025. I am not using AviSynth for any filtering. I deleted the "SetMTMode(2,0)" line and, after re-installing AviSynth258

and AviSynth090927, HC’s input function is possible, but HC Info says “Avisynth file opened, AviSynth.dll loaded, Avisynth successfully

initialized”, though no AVI file appears.

My script, written in Notepad and saved as premiere.avs in a folder named Exports on Drive F is now:

Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi").

In the Exports folder is one AVI named CopyofMontage1.post.avi. I added “post” to the file name because Jim Simon at the Premiere Pro

2 forum told me to. Is this correct? How can I get HC to actually import the AVI?

I appreciate your work. -- SamB.

[poisondeathray]

"maximum bit depth" is for 10-bit video (10 bits per channel), it's not supported by lagarith or huffyuv , so uncheckmark it. That could be why you are seeing artifacts. If you still get artifacts, use microsoft AVI with no compression. If you still are getting artifacts, post a small sample

though no AVI file appears

You open the .avs in HCGUI , and no AVI file is supposed to appear. AVISynth is a frameserver so it feeds frames to HCEnc so it can encode to .m2v

If you used lagarith or UT directly from PP, it will be RGB and you need to convert to YV12 , if it's interlaced add interlaced=true

Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

or

Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi")
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)

[filmboss80]

Re: exporting Premiere timeline to HuffYuv .avi: (I had similar problems of quick color flashes with Lagarith, but switched to HuffYuv.) If you loaded the codec you should be able to find it when exporting the Premiere timeline. First, select Microsoft AVI, then under "Compressor" you should find a list from where you can select HuffYuv.

Also disable the project preview folder by renaming from .tmp to .old. That way you will make a fresh rendering of transitions and effects during export.

Always go offline, then temporarily disable virus and firewall software for the export. Export video separately from audio.

HC will encode a HuffYuv .avi just fine.

[SamB.]

POISONDEATHRAY, many thanks for these notes. I've gotten HC 025 workflow sorted out, and your precise Avisynth script #2 was the key, followed by my naming the HC output before starting to encode. So I'm now able to use HC for transcording to M2V. I've discontinued using 10-bit depth for Premiere Pro 2 Export, but unfortunately artifacts continue.

I'm attaching 6 screenshots to show what the various artifacts look like. Curiously, all Lagarith artifacts are B&W in the upper letterbox space and all UT artifacts are red in the lower letterbox space or in fullframe colors...does that tell you anything? I'm determined to lick this problem so I can have a lossless-encoded but artifact-free movie. My experiment in exporting from Premiere using Uncompressed MS AVI produced only gibberish, in both 8-bit and 10-bit (screenshot attached).

FILMBOSS80, many thanks to you for your workflow advice. Whenever I export with a lossless video codec, I'm now working offline, with no antivirus or firewall on. Huffyuv was not appearing in my Premiere codec list because I couldn't figure out how to make it install. After researching the problem, I found that the necessary .dll was/is routinely missing from the downloads, and that one must rename the en [language] file to huffy.dll. Of course, installation instructions are missing from the download package. After Huffyuv installed in my compressor list, things got very interesting! I made the mistake of ticking error logfile, so after exporting and closing Premiere, the log box persisted and whenever I closed it, Windows crashed. I had to reboot. What exported using Huffyuv was gibberish and wouldn't play on any players. So that brings me back to my artifact problem...HC problem is solved. Thanks.

--Best regards, SamB.

[poisondeathray]

Can you try opening the various exports in vdub and check for artifacts on those frames ? The media player you are using in those screenshots is direct show based, not VFW based, and not all of those formats have a directshow decoder with the acm/vfw installer

If that doesn't solve it, I think this is a PP2 problem . The lagarith artifact looks very familiar - I remember reading about incompatibilities with PP2. I don't recall seeing any of these after CS4 or 5 . I'm at a loss explaining the others, especially uncompressed

In PP2 , is there another option for uncompressed AVI ? In later versions , you can select uncompressed AVI in different categories and some give different fourcc's. - What I'm trying to say is see if there are any other uncompressed AVI export options

[SamB.]

Hi poisondeathray, filmboss80, and txporter:

I wanted to update this thread since I figured out where my problems originated and how to solve them. I received advice from Adobe forum, videohelp.com, and doom9.org, and I am grateful to all those who commented.

I had been getting various artifacts in my AVI lossless encoding using Lagarith and UT. There is a "gallery" of screenshots of these artifacts at:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/326242-artifacts-created-by-Lagarith-UT-unable-to-i...74#post2021174

I attempted my same workflows in PremiereCS3, but again got artifacts. Poisondeathray wrote: "I think this is a PP2 problem . The lagarith artifact looks very familiar - I remember reading about incompatibilities with PP2. I don't recall seeing any of these after CS4 or 5." A thread at doom9 commented on PPro2's shortcomings: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=107558 This thread includes the suggestion: "I choose Microsoft AVI. Then I go to the video menu, and choose None for the codec." But for me none of the "uncompressed" settings ever worked--the output was always gibberish.

Through trial and error, I found that Huffyuv (version 211 only) produced no (or the fewest) artifacts. Huffyuv 211 worked for me, so I've been using it for processing crucial movies and for archiving.

I had been getting repeated error messages when trying to use an AviSynth script in HC-025. MT mode was not needed in the script, after all. Poisondeathray wrote: "If you used lagarith or UT directly from PPro2, it will be RGB and you need to convert to YV12 , if it's interlaced add interlaced=true
Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi")
ConvertToYV12()
or
Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi")
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)

The second script worked for me. For future readers, I'd stress the importance of filling-in HC's output and log names+locations before encoding, and of selecting "Make DVD compliant." Here are the settings for my letterboxed 4:3 movie:


Having learned how to use HC-025, I ended up not using it in my workflow. Since I definitely wanted to use TMPG Authoring Works 4 (TAW4) for authoring, I brought three samples into it for comparison:

1) plain AVI exported directly from PPro2 with no lossless encoding. 2) AVI with Huffyuv-211 lossless encoding. 3) AVI with Huffyuv-211 processed through HC-025. #3 produced the least clean footage--HC added barely visible "borders" around the feet of letters in text, an artifact that was not present in #1 and #2. Since #1 and #2 looked the same, I ended up using #2: AVI with Huffyuv-211 imported into TAW4.

TAW4 with its onboard Intercom MPEG-Video Transcoder and its video settings probably made a great contribution to my DVD's visual quality. TAW4's video settings are not obvious; they're at the upper left when in "Source" view. For each Track, click Settings>Video, and make your selections. 8000 bitrate is the highest recommended by Craig Hanna at DiscMakers, with 1550 bitrate as the minimum (which answers one of my earliest questions in 9/10), and 6050 for average bitrate for my particular file size. Then click Video Encoder Advanced Settings and choose Highest (with error correction). Here are my settings for my 172-minute DVD-9.


Thanks. --Best regards, SamB.