Advanced FrameServer vs DMFS

[SameSelf]

According to Jeff Bellune here, Advanced Frameserver is much, much better than DMFS ever was. However, I am surprised it is not listed under the Video Frameservers on VH.

Does anyone have any experience using AFS? And why isn't it hosted on this site?

TAA

[_Al_]

Frame server either works or does not. It depends on NLE version as well. I use Vegas 8.1c and no problem whosoever. Vegas 10, gives me a problem with audio, after frame server is ran once , audio does not work and frame server needs to be restarted for other encoding. So if I want to encode couple of versions over night, audio is pre-rendered and batch script handles all that.

I use Sony Vegas so I cannot try Advanced Frameserver, and website is in Russian. After translating, I gathered that served avi could be played over LAN, which would be a great feature. Imagine playing your NLE timeline on big screen in your living room. I tried to make it work in the past with regular dmfs and I was not successful. It would be nice to know if it works like that with that Advanced Frameserver.

[SameSelf]

I don't have Vegas, I use PP.

[_Al_]

I know, I just pointed into that NET encoding/ perhaps possible playback over LAN feature, so YOU could look into it if there is an interest. And that fact that frame server either works or not.
To watch edited video in living room, or much bigger screen, in different , calm and comfortable environment, one can usually catch more editing mistakes before final render.

[racer-x]

According to the site you linked to, it is based on the Debugmode FrameServer and is optimized for 64-bit for use in PP only. I don't use Premier, so can't test it out. Since you use PP, why don't you test and compare the two frameservers and make recommendations based on your findings?

I seriously doubt one is much greater than the other. A 64-bit version would help on 4k+ sources maybe....

[SameSelf]

And why isn't it hosted on this site?

No feedback from Baldrick on why it isn't listed or hosted on VH?

[SameSelf]

Here is something interesting. AFS offers the following export formats:

• RGB
• YUY2
• UYVY

Isn't that curious? DMFS only offers RGB and YUY2, and up until a few weeks ago, I never understood how UYVY unlocks lossless workflows. Does this mean lossless workflows are now possible when frameserving? I tinkered around last night, but Avisynth does not natively support UYVY. The best I was able to do was using QTSource to load the signpost which re-orders the bits on the fly resulting in a YUY2 clip. I didn't push it all the way through ffmpeg to see if it results in a lossless round trip just yet. I will finish tonight.

But here are some questions:

Is there another workflow that I am not considering for the resulting signpost.avi? I tried opening that directly in ffmpeg. Maybe I didn't do it right? I am basically just trying to avoid a pathway that requires YUY2 conversion, if possible.

[SameSelf]

After frameserving out of PP as UYVY and loading the signpost using QTInput() and transcoding to UYVY with ffmpeg, the transcode is lossless! Fantastic! A new lossless workflow to add to my arsenal!

[racer-x]

All frameservers are lossless. I don't get what you are trying to say. If you applied any filters in your NLE, then it got converted to RGB. Vegas works only in RGB, I don't know about Premier. Sounds like you are making a big deal about nothing to me.

[SameSelf]

Just read the Lossless Worklows thread in my sig and you will know what I am talking about.

[_Al_]

Using Vegas, that works in RGB, thus 100% lossless out is really not 100% anyway, because there is always YUV to RGB right there since the beginning. So,
YUV loaded into Vegas -> RGB out using frame server -> then changing it into UV12 in Avisynth
But Premiere COULD behave like that as well if particular filters are applied. Not sure how many or what those filters are, poisondeathray brings this subject every now and then. If that is true, then it is similar like in Vegas, trying to be exact with already rounded up numbers. If you know about this, never mind, just bringing this up. If you just cut video, original suppose to be intact.

[SameSelf]

Using Vegas, that works in RGB, thus 100% lossless out is really not 100% anyway, because there is always YUV to RGB right there since the beginning. So,
YUV loaded into Vegas -> RGB out using frame server -> then changing it into UV12 in Avisynth
But Premiere COULD behave like that as well if particular filters are applied. Not sure how many or what those filters are, poisondeathray brings this subject every now and then. If that is true, then it is similar like in Vegas, trying to be exact with already rounded up numbers. If you know about this, never mind, just bringing this up. If you just cut video, original suppose to be intact.

I can't speak to Vegas, but there are lossless YUV pathways through PP. They all require UYVY versus YUY2 or YV16 even though they are all 4:2:2, iow technically the same just as 1+2+1, 1+1+2, and 2+1+1 are the same. I should also add that DV AVI YUV 4:1:1 is lossless through PP. But unfortunately for whatever reason, PP does not treat YUY2 and YV16 the same as UYVY. And of course, frameserving a YUV source as RGB out of any NLE will result in the lossy YUV -> RGB conversion. But then frameserving a YUV source out as YUY2 is not lossless either. As a result, I have deleted DMFS entirely from my build, so I can't even test it any more.

I am a happy Advanced Frameserver user, now frameserving my video as UYVY.