Virtualdub

[glenpinn]

Hi everyone, is there any topics in this forum dedicated to learning how to use Virtualdub.

Also, what encoder can i get that will associate itself to Virtualdub for Encoding once an edit has been made.

This is more for a friend of mine who wants to import his 1080/50p or 1080/25p mp4 files to slow certain parts of the video down (objects on a turntable) but is not able to output the video because there is no encoder listed.

Cheers

[Baldrick]

No encoders at all? Virtualdub 64bit version? Try instead virtualdub 32bit version.

And you should install vfw encoders like the xvid codec, x264 vfw, etc if you want more encoders.

[glenpinn]

No encoders listed in my 64bit version, which supports MP4 import, but i just tried the 32bit version and it will not import MP4 files ?

I have the x264 encoder in my VRD Pro, but obviously i cannot use that with Virtualdub.

I just installed the x264 vfw encoder, and i can now see that under "Compression" mode, and i have set the output mode the way i want it, but how do i then start the export of the video file ?

[pippas]

...... but i just tried the 32bit version and it will not import MP4 files ?....

Download the ffmpeg inputdriver from HERE

Unzip, and copy and paste the 'plugins32' folder into your Virtualdub directory. Allow it to overwrite the existing plugins32 folder.

I just installed the x264 vfw encoder, and i can now see that under "Compression" mode, and i have set the output mode the way i want it, but how do i then start the export of the video file ?

Select the x264 vfw codec from the compression drop down menu, then click on 'configure'. Keep the default values to start with, or you can reduce the 'CRF rate factor to inclrese quality. (Probably no point in going lower than 18 though). Then tick the 'Virtuadub hack' box to maintain audio sync. Click OK.

Click 'file' from the main menu, and then click 'save as AVI'.

[glenpinn]

Ok, i got all that, will give it a go, but why can we not not use the Virtualdub 64bit version which does let us import MP4 video files.

And why do we have to output as an AVI file, because we will not be able to import it into VRD to add the file to a project containing MP4 files.

Just output a 1080/50p mp4 to AVI, it converted the audio to PCM @ 1500 bitrate, and VRD wont recognize it as a video file

I used a crf factor of 18 to roughly match the source file bitrate of 24Mble, AVI ended up at 22Mbps.

[pippas]

Ok, i got all that, will give it a go, but why can we not not use the Virtualdub 64bit version which does let us import MP4 video files.

Sorry, I only have a 32 bit system here, so I can't help with that one...

And why do we have to output as an AVI file

Virtualdub only exports as AVI. It's simple enough to convert that to an mp4 with freeware, without reencoding the video - although you may need to convert the audio to AAC.

Probably the simplest is to try MKV to MP4 although you will need to export the audio as AC3 from Virtualdub, to get the audio converted to AAC within that program. Like Virtualdub, the program is portable, so no need to install it.

I personally prefer to use MP4 box and Fre:ac to do my conversions to mp4 but that is a little bit more fiddly......Fre:ac can also be portable, but IIRC MP4 box needs to be installed.

I usually do my editing with AVI Synth scripts, and use Virtualdub to read the scripts and export the output, so once my AVI Vdub outputs are converted to MP4 that's my final output. I have no need to import that file any where else for any further editing..

I also always use intraframe Grass Valley HQX as my editing files. I'm not keen on trying to get editors to 'work' with long GOP formats like mp4. Too much messing about with things like 'smart rendering' for my liking..

[LMotlow]

Ok, i got all that, will give it a go, but why can we not not use the Virtualdub 64bit version which does let us import MP4 video files.

And why do we have to output as an AVI file, because we will not be able to import it into VRD to add the file to a project containing MP4 files.

Just output a 1080/50p mp4 to AVI, it converted the audio to PCM @ 1500 bitrate, and VRD wont recognize it as a video file

I used a crf factor of 18 to roughly match the source file bitrate of 24Mble, AVI ended up at 22Mbps.

A couple of things to understand about VirtualDub:

It isn't designed as a one-shot NLE. It's basically designed to work with lossless decoded media, which is what advanced users work with for filtering, and for video restoration and repair. If you want an all-in-one editor and multi-format encoder, there are plenty of those around. You can get SONY's Video Studio Platinum for under $100 USD, which will take you through import, edits, a few filtering operations, encoding, and authoring, all in one step. For video restoration and more sophisticated filtering in themselves, one-shot NLE's are more limited.

There are hundreds of filters and dozens of recompression output codecs for VirtualDub, and it can hook into many other codecs for import. Most of these codecs and filters are 32-bit, and likely they always will be. There are plenty of ways to install codecs in either VirtualDUb or your overall system for those tasks. These include imports for mp4.

You should also understand that mp4, mkv, AVI, etc, are containers -- not codecs.

[hello_hello]

And why do we have to output as an AVI file, because we will not be able to import it into VRD to add the file to a project containing MP4 files.

You don't have to. VirtualDub normally uses video for windows codecs for encoding but newer versions have an "external encoders" feature under the Options menu. That'll allow it to use any command line encoder (video or audio). There, you can slowly drive yourself mad configuring it and trying to get it to work. There's builds of the x264 command line encoder able to write directly to MP4 (the standard builds only write MKV or raw video streams). Attached is an MP4 capable build of x264. I can't remember where I got it and it's a year or so old. Someone else may be able to tell you where to find newer one. Or see what Google has to say about it.

Here's a command line that works (anything prior to --demuxer are optional x264 settings):

--level 4.1 --preset slow --tune film --crf 18.0 --stitchable --no-fast-pskip --vbv-bufsize 78125 --vbv-maxrate 62500 --demuxer raw --input-csp i420 --input-res %(width)x%(height) --fps %(fpsnum)/%(fpsden) -o "%(tempvideofile)" -

Here's what the external encoder configuration window looks like:


Aside from pointing out you'd use the File/Export menu for encoding, that's about as much as I can help. If you want to output the audio as well, you need to set up an audio encoder and an "encoder set", and a muxer if you don't want to mux the video and audio into a single file manually, although it's possibly easier to do it yourself with something like MP4Box. I virtually (no pun intended) never use VirtualDub for encoding myself so I'm nowhere near an expert. I just configured a few command line video and audio encoders a while back to see if I could get it to work, and in case I needed it one day.

Edit: If you're outputting audio and video there's probably no necessity for an x264 version that'll write MP4 files. VD could just output raw video and audio streams, which you could mux together as an MP4 with MyMP4BoxGUI. Then again, you could do the same if the output is AVI (MyMP4BoxGUI should open AVIs). If you're only needing to output video on it's own though, being able to write directly to MP4 might be convenient at times.

[hello_hello]

PS. There's a much more recent version of the ffmpeg input driver plugin here (it'll let VD open lots of file types, including MP4). I think at one stage I had problems using the older ffmpeg input driver with the latest VirtualDub.

[racer-x]

This has all been discussed countless times. This may be of interest to you: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/367446-Virtualdub-External-Encoder-feature

[jsryork]

I have a strange problem with VirtualDub (or just possibly AviSynth).

I have a project which uses long and complex .avs scripts, which are generated by some Ruby programs. I am converting these to uncompressed AVI files, which are used as source for a later step in the build and render process. These files are from 500Mb to 5Gb long.

My latest such script, 39Kb, works fine with VirtualDub 1.10.3 on my HP laptop, a 2-core AMD, 6Gb ram, running Windows 7 Home Premium. When I run the same version of VirtualDub on my desktop, an HP Xw6600 with a 8-core Xeon, 16Gb ram, running Windows 7 Professional, the conversion to AVI never completes. At frame 51, the process keeps running, gradually building up its memory use to 1.8Gb (the laptop process never uses more than 1Gb), but never stepping onto any higher frame number.

I have uninstalled VirtualDub and AviSynth from the desktop. I have installed 1.10.2, 1.10.3, 1.10.4 (all 32-bit versions, the 64-bit ones all give 'cannot open file' errors for me), and AviSynth 2.5 and 2.6, and I always get this same effect. I have copied over the same executables from the laptop, and still the same thing happens. I have tried with an withour ffinputdriver.vdplugin.

I have tried turning off the NVIDIA graphics card enhancements. Nothing seems to make any difference.

I am really puzzled. I would not have been surprised if the lower-spec laptop had problems; but to have the same code and input files cause problems on the desktop seem weird.

Has anyone else seen anything like this?
Can anyone suggest likely culprits or remedies?

Thanks in advance

John

[sneaker]

Try the following VirtualDub version. It has the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag and can use more RAM.
https://www.mediafire.com/?5wdk1o6wm7c94zz

(Not sure why your laptop never uses more than 1 GB. There must a difference in AviSynth and/or the plugins you have installed.)