Why is my HCenc resulting lighter/brighter AVI video?

[oavs]

Why is my HCenc resulting lighter/brighter AVI video?

Some reason my videos are coming out brighter. This is a concern because some of the text on lighter background now can not be read. How can I fix this?

Thanks

My settings are:

*INFILE           F:\My Documents\C L I E N T S\Art Centre\talking-heads.avs
*OUTFILE          F:\My Documents\C L I E N T S\Art Centre\talking-heads\video\talking-heads..mpg
*BITRATE          15000
*MAXBITRATE       20000
*FRAMES           0 360
*AUTOGOP          15  
*MATRIX           mpeg

AVISource("F:\My Documents\C L I E N T S\Art Centre\talking-heads\video\talking-heads.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

[guns1inger]

How are you comparing the output ?

Are you comparing them side by side on the PC, or comparing the avi on the PC with the mpeg on your TV ?

Try loading the same clip into something with a vectorscope (Vegas has one, and there is a plugin for virtualdub as well) to get an objective view. It could be the colourspace change, or a shift in IRE levels.

[oavs]

I am looking both at the same PC screen. I am converting AVI to MPG. Why is it that its getting brighter. ? Is there any way during the encoding I could compensate ? if so what is the code I need to experiment with?

Thanks

[jagabo]

What are you comparing with? If you are using a media player it might just be a video overlay issue. Only one program at a time can use overlay and overlay has its own brightness and contrast settings.

Try using VirtualDubMPEG2 (which doesn't use overlay) to compare the two files. Or open some other video first (so it gets video overlay) then open the two files you want to compare.

[guns1inger]

I would open both with avisynth and do a stackhorizontal.

[oavs]

I am using ASUS DVD (cyberlink Power DVD ) player. why do they original AVI and converted MPG) look different when viewed on the same machine with same screen using same DVD player?

There must be some thing in the encoding that makes the MPG brighter surely.

Is there an adjustment code where I can insert into the ini file to bring the brightness/contrast levels down? and what are they?

And where can I find all the available commands I can use for the AVS and HC ini files. I can't find them anywhere.

Thanks.

PS. I will check it in avisynth too but I dought it will look the same

[guns1inger]

If you can put them in a vectorscope then we can see, objectively, what the differences are. From there we might be able to give you a real solution, and not just a 'dabble with the brightness' answer.

[jagabo]

The AVISynth script and your using shouldn't cause any brightness shift in HCEnc. But try using DirectShowSource() instead of AVISource(). That will force AVISynth to use DirectShow decoders rather than VFW decoders. There could be a difference in the way the two are working.

Are you comparing both videos at the same time with PowerDVD (I don't know if it will let you start two instances)? If so, it could be the video overlay settings I mentioned earlier. If not, then PowerDVD might be handling MPEG and AVI sources differently.

If you want to post short samples of each we'll take a look at them.

[oavs]

Yes you are right with saying

then PowerDVD might be handling MPEG and AVI sources differently

.

I have used other viewers and looks fine. Oh thank god. Thank you for your suggestion.

I do not have a vectorscope so I won't be able to see that.

I am new to HCenc so I want to explore further. Is it really possible to get results like this here http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/utenacleanup.html If I use the same code in my ini files. Mind you I have a AVI source.

And lastly its pity that I can not convert from flash swf files to mpg using HCenc. Or is there a way?[/quote][/code]

[manono]

Is it really possible to get results like this here http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/utenacleanup.html If I use the same code in my ini files. Mind you I have a AVI source.

ini files? They used the DVD as a source, so your results won't be the same or as good. But you can use the same filters when encoding, if you want.

And lastly its pity that I can not convert from flash swf files to mpg using HCenc. Or is there a way?

Just learn some AviSynth scripting and you too can convert some crappy YouTube videos to MPEG-2 using HCEnc.

[oavs]

I am not interested in converting crappy YouTube videos. I create animation in Flash. I then need to convert it to MPG video for cinema screening. Currently I am exporting flash as AVI then using HC to convert to MPG. I was thinking if there was a way of converting SWF file to MPG.

I have been experimenting with AviSynth scripting but every time I place a command (just for sake of it to see the results) I get no xxxfunction found. Not sure why?

For example I tried this and get the error.
AVISource("F:\My Documents\C L I E N T S\Art Centre\talking-heads\video\talking-heads.avi")
fluxsmooth()
mftoon()
ssxsharpen()
colorYUV(gain_u=15)
tweak(sat=1.2)

But if I use the following its fine.
AVISource("F:\My Documents\C L I E N T S\Art Centre\talking-heads\video\talking-heads.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

So as you can see I am trying to learn

[manono]

Oh, not YouTube. Sorry. The odds were that the SWF source was a YouTube video.

Test your scripts in VDubMod so you get a good error message if something's wrong with the script. And since HCEnc requires YV12 input, if the source isn't YV12, you'll have to make it so before encoding. Add Info() after the AviSource line to find the colorspace of the source.

If that was your entire script, then you didn't load the various filter.dlls, and it won't work. You can stick the .dlls in the AviSynth Plugins folder, and they're supposed to load automatically, but I prefer to load them myself. So, your script might go something like this:

LoadPlugin("C:\Path\To\Fluxsmooth.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Path\To\MFToon.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\Path\To\SSXSharpen.dll")
AVISource("F:\My Documents\C L I E N T S\Art Centre\talking-heads\video\talking-heads.avi")
fluxsmooth()
mftoon()
ssxsharpen()
colorYUV(gain_u=15)
tweak(sat=1.2)
ConvertToYV12()

ColorYUV, Tweak, and ConvertTo are included AviSynth filters, and don't have to be loaded the way 3rd party filters do. And test the script in VDub(Mod) to make sure something's not missing or done wrong.

[oavs]

Thanks for the tip and help. I'll experiment and feed back here in a few days.

Thanks again

[jagabo]

If you put all your plugins in AVISynth's plugins folder you don't need to load them explicitly. But AVISynth will take a little longer to start up because it will load all the plugins every time it starts. And there is the possibility of conflicts. But that's what I do.

[guns1inger]

A Doom9 user called Trevlac has written a cool filter for virtualdub called Color Tools, which includes a vectorscope and histogram function.

Unfortunately his website seems to have gone, so I have posted a link here



clrtools.vdf

[manono]

And AviSynth has a built-in Histogram filter with histograms and vectorscopes:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Histogram

[jagabo]

Note that the Colortools filter in VirtualDub will show you levels after conversion to RGB. When VirtualDub converts from YUV to RGB it performs the usual rec.601 luminance stretch. So levels will not be the same as those viewed in AVISynth working in a YUV colorspace.