Simple Titles Or Blank Frames in Virtualdub

[Clay201]

I would like to add titles or at least black frames to my DV AVI files using Virtualdub or another simple and inexpensive program.

I've got some DV home video AVI files captured to my hard drive in their original 216 MB/minute form. I don't want to compress them until I'm done editing.

I tried using Premiere and some other fancy video editing software, but kept running into crashes and other issues. I found that I was much better off doing basic editing with virtualdub.

However, I would now like to add some basic, simple titles to the video (I.e. 5 seconds of black screen with "Little Sister Graduates from College" in plain white letters; nothing fancy). I've found tutorials, software, etc. for creating subtitles; these can be adapted to create titles. But now I need blank, black video frames to serve as the background for these titles.

Using various programs, I created short avis composed of blank, black frames and then, using virtualdub, tried to append them to my home video. But virtualdub insists that the sample rates for the two avis are different and that it can't do the append. I've googled the problem and it's apparently a known issue with virtualdub (the creator argues that it was never intended for this sort of thing, I think) and there really isn't a workaround or fix because even if you try to change the sample rate for one or the other avi, virtualdub just keeps insisting that it's .00002 frames different and that it can't deal. (Has something to do with calculating the frame rate as a fraction instead of as a decimal... or something like that.) I even tried shooting black, silent video with the camcorder and then capturing it to the puter, hoping the frame rate would come out exactly the same as the frame rate on my home videos. No dice.

I've looked through the avisynth website more than once but can't seem to find anything useful. Also, I've tried using frameserving to get around virtualdub's crankiness and had no luck.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.


Clay

[guns1inger]

Simplest tool to do this would be Windows Movie Maker, which you already have. It has titling capabilities built in. Just make sure you output as DV avi and not wmv.

If you want to do it in virtualdub you will have to create still images in photoshop or even paintbrush, then import them.

[manono]

Hi-

I've looked through the avisynth website more than once but can't seem to find anything useful.

http://www.avisynth.org/BlankClip

Black is the default color for a BlankClip. It can be created separately and appended, or it can be created at the same time you're encoding the main video. You'll need to know the properties of the main clip, so you can create the black video the same way. Create an AVISource for the main clip and Add Info() to the script:

AVISource("C:\Path\To\MainVideo.avi")
Info()

Open it in VDub(Mod).

[Clay201]

Thanks for the reply.

>Simplest tool to do this would be Windows Movie Maker, which you already have. It has titling >capabilities built in. Just make sure you output as DV avi and not wmv."

Actually, after I posted this question, I took another look at Windows Movie Maker. Originally when I tried it, I couldn't seem to get it to export the video without compressing it. I don't know if I just overlooked the DV avi setting or what.

In any case, the file size isn't shrinking but... I don't know. DV always looks kind of crappy to me anyway, so it's kind of hard to tell. Can I be certain it's not doing anything untoward to my video when it exports it?


>If you want to do it in virtualdub you will have to create still images in photoshop or even >paintbrush, then import them."

I read something about virtualdubmod having the capability to import still images and combine them with an existing AVI, but I can't seem to find anything in the program that will allow me to do this. I was able to get it to create an AVI out of a collection of .bmp files, but I could not then get it to combine the .bmp AVI with my home movie AVI (due to the same issue I mentioned perviously).

Is there some special filter or plug-in which will make this work?


Clay

[guns1inger]

DV isn't a great format for titles and graphics anyway, and the microsoft DV codec is a shocker for this type of work. Sony's DV codec is much better, but you need to use Vegas or Movie Studio to access it.

[Bentwings]

I've been using Vdub to edit my Handycam AVI and then imported the Vdub file into Movie Maker to add titles and transitions. The method works well.
Leo

[jagabo]

You can use AVIFrate to set the frame rate on both segments to make sure they match exactly.