Needing some help with converting mpeg 1 to avi...

[Tamiu]

hey all, I know that this is a major no no, but I really have to try and get this to work. I have an mpeg 1 file, that I rendered in TMpeg as a vcd mpeg file. Now I need to change it to an avi file. I'm trying to use VirtualDub for the conversion. I'm on a PC platform with a matrox rt.x 100 extreme card, so I'm using the matrox dv codec, but so far the results I get are okay, but kinda of fuzzy?!? is there any way to get this file "workable"? or as they say, am I screwed??
any input would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[poerschr]

You said that you converted the orginal file into a vcd mpeg1 file. What was the orginal file format? it is best to start off with the orginal, if you can.

It is probably fuzzy becasue the resolution of VCD is so small that it makes things appear fuzzy, if you try to resize them to a larger resolution later on...

If you really want to try to sharpen it up...try avisynth, and try a resizing filter called lanzcos or one of the sharpening filters..you would need to use the directshowsource command for avisynth to use the mpeg1 VCD file...check out avisynth.org and

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/avisyntha.html

Then you can import to virtualdub....

[Tamiu]

thanks there poerschr, although that seems quite abit for me to get into..
*still very new at this * I finally got a decent export out of virtualdub, but when I open my avi in premiere 6.5, the audio is takes off, and the video is dragging. any thoughts on that?? I'm rendering again, as I type, so I hope this one will be the one, . I will get back when it's done, to tell you the settings used for the audio.
and thanks for your help.

*oh, and the original file, was edited in the Newtek Toaster Edit Program,
so there was no original file par say, I can send the project from toaster directly to TMpeg to render, but I no longer have the project, only the encoded mpeg file, so that's why I'm trying to convert back to avi. For some reason, the toaster system, or premiere for that matter will not read or play the mpeg file at all.*

[poerschr]

Why are you using Premire? It is an editing program, and it only edits uncompressed avi files....

What kind of compression are you using in Virtualdub?

[Tamiu]

I'm using Premiere because I'm hoping to combine some of these files and make a full length DVD, and my DVD burner is on my matrox machine, which uses Premiere and Encore. Long story short, I edited these files and my boss had me encode them as vcd's to store. Now the client wants these files but together on a DVD, and I no longer have the projects on my system. I only have the encoded mpeg files with which I made the VCD's from. *I know, I know, I have to back up or save my projects on disk or something for such events, I'm slowly starting to learn this* So now, my only option is to convert these mpeg's into avi's and use premiere to edit them down, then use encore to create this DVD.
Hope that explains abit, and I'll try not to let this happen again.
Thanks again for the tips and help.

[poerschr]

no problem, you have a couple of choices. first, you want to use half dvd resolution (352x240). Why? Becasue it is closer to the resolution of the VCD, you really woun't gain anything by changing the resolution to 720X480. Don't worry, half resolution is a standard DVD resolution, it will work anywhere..

now, one thing that you can do is leave the VCD files split up, and then use the program like TMGEnc DVD author to create a menu, you can have something on the menu like, PART1, PART2, etc. That way you do not have to bother with trying to join them....

but if they are strait cuts, like cutting a cake in half, you can put them back together again easily, as long as all the files have the same settings (resolution, framerate, etc) which I think that they do....

ok, the best best is trying to forget the avi step....less conversions the better, that should be one of the commandments of video...

try virtualdub mod, it accepts mpeg1 files, and try to create one big mpeg1 file....

of you really have to do some real editing (like special transitions, etc), then you must convert to avi (uncompressed will be the best)...

but, if you only want to cut and trim scenes...I recommend avisynth and that page that I told you about...

start your script like this:

DirectShowSource("C:\_______.mpg")
BicubicResize(352,240)
Trim(_____,_____)

Then take your script and load it up into TMGenc and convert it to mpeg2 DVD, use one of the DVD templates...

[ZippyP.]

...you want to use half dvd resolution (352x240).

Correction - 1/2 DVD is 352x480, 1/4 DVD is 352x240 and is the same as VCD. It is also fully DVD compliant.