VirtualDubMod - Problem - Null Transform Filter

[Cunhambebe]

HI there. I'm trying to "reencode" one of my videos using AviSynth, VirtualDubMod and MEGUI (movie is letterboxed). Since the file is MKV, I wrote an AviSynth script to let me open it in VirtualDub. I'm trying to find out the correct Y values to crop the video at the top and at the bottom of the screen, using full processing mode and the filter null transform, but there's a problem. The null transform screen usually shows 2 values for Y offset values (ans X too). Only one of the Y offset values is at the top, the other one cannot be reached because is is located at the bottom of the screen and since the video is HD (1920x1080) I cannot move the screen upwards even on my full HD video monitor. Although I could repeat the same value found for the top, I would like to know if there's a way to reach that button or if there's a workaround for this problem. Help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[hello_hello]

Are you doing anything which requires using VirtualDub? It's just that unless you're using some "VirtualDub only" filters as part of the re-encoding process, you haven't mentioned anything you're trying to do which can't be done using MeGUI and a script.

Anyway..... I don't use VirtualDub much but I couldn't duplicate your problem. I opened a 1080p video on my CRT monitor and the null transform filter, cropping/preview window opened with the video squished so it didn't exceed the size of the screen.

I'm not sure if you have a reason for using VirtualDub to work out the cropping, but why not use MeGUI's preview? You could open the AVS Script Creator from the Tools menu, select the script you've already created as the source/input video (normally you'd just open the original file, but you can open a script) and when the preview window opens you can use it along with the script creator to work out the required cropping. MeGUI's preview has resizing options, but the preview window itself doesn't exceed the size of the screen. If you're also resizing, MeGUI's script creator can help by calculating the aspect ratio distortion for you so you can adjust the resizing/cropping accordingly.

If you're using VirtualDub because you want to edit, maybe try opening the script you created with MeGUI's AVS Cutter if you haven't discovered it yet. It's under the Tools menu. It can be used for adding cuts to a script so you only encode the bits you want to (it's like editing as you encode).

I tested VirtualDub's cropping preview using version 1.10.4, in case you're using a different one.

[jagabo]

Use VirtualDub instead of VirtualDubMod. It will scale the Crop dialog to fit your screen.

[Cunhambebe]

Thanks to you both who took time to respond.
To hello_hello: Being more clear, no, I don't wanna do anything special with VirtualDubMod: I was just "seeing" how I could crop the letterbox areas. I know MEGUI preview works even better, and now I'm using it, but there's the problem I've mentioned with VirtualDubMod. Hope the author fix it since it's an outstanding piece of software. Anyway, thank you very much for your explanations.
To jagabo: It's been a long time jagabo.... nice to C u again around here. Thanks so much for your suggestion. Now I just have to find out a better way to configure the codec x264 lolol. It seems it takes 16 hours to encode the whole thing using the placebo mode
Cheers!

[Gravitator]

Hi Cunhambebe,
Look at this version

[johns0]

You can use handbrake to crop the letterbox areas,much easier to use than virtualdub.

[DarrellS]

I would ask, why use Avisynth and MEGUI since everything you need to do can be done with Virtualdub. The other question (which Gravitator refers too) is why use an old outdated mod of Virtualdub instead of the latest release of the official Virtualdub which will do so much more than any modded version of Virtualdub could do.

The first thing that any Virtualdub user should do (besides downloading the latest version) is to download all the input plugins (preferably all of fcchandler's plugins) and ffdshow to allow you to open most any file in Virtualdub.

It would help if Videohelp had links to all the plugins in the Tools section instead of links to all the old outdated stuff that is useless to most modern Virtualdub users.

Here is the link to fcchandler's stuff...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fcchandler/files/?source=navbar

and a link to Virtualdub's forum where you can find other plugins and instructions on how to use all the features of the modern day Virtualdub...

http://forums.virtualdub.org/

Newbie Questions...

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=SF&f=4

How To Open Non-avi Files In Virtualdub?

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=18798&

Codec Discussion...

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=SF&f=3

How to use the external encoder feature...

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=18840&

VirtualDub Filters and Filter Development...

http://forums.virtualdub.org/index.php?act=SF&f=7



EDIT: For people that "learning to use Virtualdub is just too much trouble", Johns0's suggestion of using Handbrake would be a good one.

[hello_hello]

Use VirtualDub instead of VirtualDubMod. It will scale the Crop dialog to fit your screen.

Ahhhhh.... I missed the VirtualDubMod bit......

[hello_hello]

I would ask, why use Avisynth and MEGUI since everything you need to do can be done with Virtualdub.

Well unless one program is allowing you to do something the other won't, generally you'd use either one or the other. It'd be personal preference, but as you asked.....

There's no need to download a bunch of plugins for opening video when using MeGUI. It comes with the required plugins for indexing and opening the common video types.
There's no need for an "external encoder feature" in order to use the x264 encoder. You can configure the x264 encoder using a GUI.
Multiple audio streams. Even the old and outdated VirtualDubMod can add more than a single audio stream to an AVI.
Avisynth plugins. Yes VirtualDub can open Avisynth scripts, but given the question was "Why use Avisynth and MEGUI since everything you need to do can be done with Virtualdub?"
Unnecessary colour format conversion. From the VirtualDub help file:
"Video filters in VirtualDub currently only run in 32-bit RGB, so the video frames are converted to 32-bit RGB at this point".
The default output colour format is RGB even in "normal re-compress" mode.
When you crop and resize, VirtualDub doesn't calculate the aspect ratio distortion for you.
MeGUI has built-in tools for ripping discs, extracting subtitles, extracting creating chapters.

They're just my reasons, and the ones which immediately came to mind. Maybe there's plenty of reasons why using VirtualDub has it's advantages, but given I pretty much only use it for the basic editing/remuxing of AVIs without re-encoding I wouldn't be familiar with them.

[Cunhambebe]

Thanks to all who took time to respond.

To Gravitator: thanks for uploading the file. Please, where did you get that version?

To johns0: thanks for your suggestion. I'm not using VirtualDub for "everything"... as hello_hello has already explained (thanks hello_hello):

...but given the question was "Why use Avisynth and MEGUI since everything you need to do can be done with Virtualdub?"
Unnecessary colour format conversion. From the VirtualDub help file:
"Video filters in VirtualDub currently only run in 32-bit RGB, so the video frames are converted to 32-bit RGB at this point".

That means unnecessary color format conversion. Many conversions can mean banding on your video.

To DarrellS: thanks for the links.

EDIT: For people that "learning to use Virtualdub is just too much trouble", Johns0's suggestion of using Handbrake would be a good one.

I guess I'm not in deep water just because of VirtualDub,; not yet

And finally, thanks to hello_hello for being so transparent and clear. I could not have put it better.

Cheers
- ps: now I'm trying to go from x264 to x264 but that's another story