Save Virtual Dub file?

[buttsy00]

Hi guys,

I use Virtual Dub only for cutting out ads etc. from my video files and then I frameserve to TMPGEnc.

Occasionally the frame server stops half way through or something happens and I need to reboot.

This is a pain because I have to start again by cutting out all the ads etc.

What I am asking is, is there a way to save a virtual dub file which knows exactly what frames you have cut out etc. and that way all I would have to do is reboot open Virtual Dub and the video file i'm working with and then open the file which knows which frames of the video I have cut out?

I know you can save the new avi but this is even more time consuming than just cutting the unwanted bits out.

Any help would be appreciated.

[jimmalenko]

I'm pretty sure you can go to File > Save Processing settings, and this should save everything, including your edits.


Or if you really want to get into this hobby, try the guide here:
https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=643&howtoselect=5;23#643

Your starting script could literally be as simple as:

AVISource("D:\capture.avi")
ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true)

and that's it !

Then you'd just follow the instructions in that guide to use virtualdubmod to add the editing points into your script. Then you'd load the .AVS file into TMPGEnc.

[reboot]

Why so complicated?
Open vdub, make your edits.
Select Video, direct stream copy.
File, Save avi.
You now have an edited avi to frameserve.

[SLK001]

Why so complicated?
Open vdub, make your edits.
Select Video, direct stream copy.
File, Save avi.
You now have an edited avi to frameserve.

This isn't complicated for sure, but the memory requirements for storing the resulting AVI can be relatively staggering.

I agree with Jim that frameserving with AviSynth is the way to go.

[gadgetguy]

Why so complicated?
Open vdub, make your edits.
Select Video, direct stream copy.
File, Save avi.
You now have an edited avi to frameserve.

I would follow those steps but instead of actually saving the avi, I would set it up as a batch job. Then start the frameserver. If for some reason there is a failure, then reboot and run the batch job. If not, then just delete it.

Edit: Or as suggested, use Avisynth. It's a little more difficult to set up (emphasize little), but the encoding is usually much faster.

[reboot]

The resulting avi is going to be much smaller than the original, because you're NOT decompressing it, simply resaving it, minus the cuts. No extra memory required.
This is why I said, "Select Video, Direct stream copy"!
If I had said, "Select Video, Full Processing", without selecting another compression codec, THEN it would decompress, and take up huge amounts of hard drive space (not "memory").

[jimmalenko]

Why so complicated?
Open vdub, make your edits.
Select Video, direct stream copy.
File, Save avi.
You now have an edited avi to frameserve.

That defies the whole point of frameserving in the first place. You may as well just open the edited AVI in TMPGEnc direct, no ?

The resulting avi is going to be much smaller than the original, because you're NOT decompressing it, simply resaving it, minus the cuts. No extra memory required.
This is why I said, "Select Video, Direct stream copy"!
If I had said, "Select Video, Full Processing", without selecting another compression codec, THEN it would decompress, and take up huge amounts of hard drive space (not "memory").

If it's a Huffyuv, MJPEG or DV, Direct Stream Copy is still gonna be huge. Again, back to point 1 - this is why we're frameserving in the first place, to avoid saving out to an intermediate file. I tend to disagree about the resulting AVI being much smaller, since all the OP talked about doing was cutting out commercials. So I'd estimate that at least 75-80% of the original AVI is still going to be present, and again, as mentioned above, depending on the codec used, this could still be a massive file. Hence the point of frame-serving in the first place.

The suggested method using AVISynth is really not much different than frameserving with virtualdub, with the exception of offering the redundancy that the OP was after.

[reboot]

Frameserving isn't the problem.
Crashing is.
He wanted to know how to save his edited avi, so he doesn't have to manually find the cutpoints every time it crashes.
I told him how.

Personally, I would find out why it crashes and fix it, before going to all this trouble

[jimmalenko]

Frameserving isn't the problem.
Crashing is.

Crashing *whilst* frameserving though ?

The problem of having to redo edits is related to the crashing problem due to frameserving.

He wanted to know how to save his edited avi, so he doesn't have to manually find the cutpoints every time it crashes.
I told him how.

What I am asking is, is there a way to save a virtual dub file which knows exactly what frames you have cut out etc. and that way all I would have to do is reboot open Virtual Dub and the video file i'm working with and then open the file which knows which frames of the video I have cut out?

I must have interpreted that bit differently

I read it as he wanted the trim points to be easily identifiable without having to go through and make the cuts again. Granted the way you suggested would facilitate this, but the way I suggested lists the Trim points as frame numbers without requiring the time or hard drive space required by saving out to a new file. For XVID/DIVX/<insert other high compression codecs here> this obviously isn't a problem, but when you're dealing with 13GB/hour DV or other low-to-no compression codecs, and possibly multiple projects, file size is a concern for me ... but I digress

Whatever floats your boat I guess ...

Personally, I would find out why it crashes and fix it, before going to all this trouble

Damn straight