AviSynth/VDubMod: adding title sequence to DV-AVI keeping 16x9 aspect

[Jim44]

Hi all,

What I'm looking to do seems like it would be fairly easy, but I seem to be missing a step or proper method, so I've come asking for help. I'll try to go through succinctly what I've done so far, hopefully to eliminate any need for pliers

I want to add a brief opening title sequence, similar to what was done here in Windows Movie Maker:
http://www.jimbassett.com/Test/Chasing_test1_trim.wmv (15 sec clip, 2.5MB)

But I'd like to do this with AviSynth/VDubMod in order to stay in the (DV)AVI space. Ultimately I'll end up with an MPG2 for uploading/sharing as well as DVD. The original footage was shot on my MiniDV camera in 16X9.

Intro graphic:
http://www.jimbassett.com/Test/Chasing_open.jpg

Now, I've created the intro graphic and have a working AVS script to turn it into a video clip, then join & dissolve the two clips (intro & video) together. The graphic is 720x480, and during processing I use the DV codec in VdubMod (Mainconcept) in order to keep the clips the same fourcc. However, following this procedure results in the graphic being "squished" compared to the original above:
http://www.jimbassett.com/Test/Chasing_new_trim.avi (12 sec clip, ~45MB)

Changing VDubMod to "Direct Stream Copy" results in the graphic having the proper aspect, but the video portion is incorrect. I haven't uploaded this clip (it's quite large ), but can if it'll provide add'tl info. I watched in both WMP and MPC.

I read about using a 853x480 graphic for menu creation for 16x9 content, and that works when I've done menus in DVDAuthorGui, but I couldn't get that sized graphic to process in Avs/VDM as a video sequence.

Finally, here's the Avs script I've used - the various pieces get commented in and out as I go through the process:

#---------Use "Full Processing" and "MainConcept DV Codec" - FourCC code="dvsd"------------

#Create blank clip with proper video and audio parameters
#video=AviSource("Chasing.avi")
#BlankClip(video, length=150, color=$000000)

#Create AVI of desired length & frame rate from image
#ImageSource("Chasing_open.jpg", end=150, fps=29.97)

#Dub audio from blank clip with video from image AVI - set compression in VDub to match AVI clips below
#video=AviSource("Open_new.avi")
#audio=AviSource("Blank.avi")
#AudioDubEx(video, audio)

#-------Dissolve is ~2 secs on both ends of middle clip (60 frames @ 29.97fps)------------------
#-------Inserted clip was ~10 sec in length, so ~6 sec full, unDissolved display---------------------
clip2=DirectShowSource("Open_New_a.avi")
clip3=DirectShowSource("Chasing.avi")
Dissolve(clip2, clip3, 60)

Hopefully in my attempt to not make this too long I haven't left any info out, but if I did, I'll do my best to provide it. Hopefully the solution is something simple that I've just missed - I feel at this point I know just enough to be dangerous

Thanks for any and all assistance. Certainly if there's a thread or topic already that will show me the way, feel free to "smack" me - I had difficulty finding "good" search terms to get the info I'm looking for.

Jim

[SLK001]

Create your graphic at 856x480 to your satisfaction. Then resize it to 720x480 (squishing the horizontal).

Your WMV video plays at 720x480. Is that what it is supposed to do?

Whenever you join clips, they have to be the same size, color space, framerate, etc. Perhaps that is your error.

[Jim44]

Create your graphic at 856x480 to your satisfaction. Then resize it to 720x480 (squishing the horizontal).

See, I knew it was something simple that I had missed. Let me give that a try.

Your WMV video plays at 720x480. Is that what it is supposed to do?

I believe so, it looks "right" to me.

Whenever you join clips, they have to be the same size, color space, framerate, etc. Perhaps that is your error.

Yep, I've tried to be careful about that, and early on when I was learning this, I believe I'd get an error in VDM alerting me to this. What I have now seems to work fine (I can join/dissolve/etc different pieces of video just fine). Bringing in the jpg as a video sequence with the "right" aspect ratio is where I (was?) getting tripped up.

Thanks for the info - I'll let you know if the resize works.

Jim

[SLK001]

But you originally shot at 16:9 AR. Do you now desire to revert the video to 4:3?

When I do 16:9, I do all the work and adjustments at that AR. Once I am satisfied with the results, I add a "BILINEARRESIZE(720,480)" statement at the very last before I encode (but to M2V in my case).

I also recommend that 856 be your horizontal resolution (instead of the more correct 853), because some color spaces have difficulty with the odd number. The 856 is also evenly divisible by 8, which can speed up encoding.

[Jim44]

But you originally shot at 16:9 AR. Do you now desire to revert the video to 4:3?

No. I will say that this was the first time I used WMM, and just set the output to 16x9.

Gspot tells me the WMV is 720x480 (hmmm), but it looks "widescreen" when I watch it (appears to be black bars top/bottom).

Sounds like I need to re-do some basics (which I *thought* I had a handle on )?

So, here's a Gspot of the original video clip, just trimmed from a longer clip via VDM:

When I do 16:9, I do all the work and adjustments at that AR. Once I am satisfied with the results, I add a "BILINEARRESIZE(720,480)" statement at the very last before I encode (but to M2V in my case).

Based on that, and the info you have so far, what adjustments do I need to make to my process in order to do all my work in 16x9 (I thought I was, but guess not).

I also recommend that 856 be your horizontal resolution (instead of the more correct 853), because some color spaces have difficulty with the odd number. The 856 is also evenly divisible by 8, which can speed up encoding.

Ahh, good point, thanks.

Appreciate the help so far.

Jim

[Jim44]

Create your graphic at 856x480 to your satisfaction. Then resize it to 720x480 (squishing the horizontal).

See, I knew it was something simple that I had missed. Let me give that a try.

This seems to have done the trick, giving me a much more acceptable intro. I feel a bit at how simple the solution was (and I was *almost* there, already knowing about the 856&resize deal. Ah well, live & learn.)

I'm still interested in understanding the other issue of working in 16x9 vs. 720x480 that you referred to. Just when I thought I had a handle on the different ARs, sigh.

Jim

[SLK001]

Maybe it is 16:9 (I can't tell from the cars). I don't use WMM so I can't comment on that (with any accuracy!). GSPOT is showing that the display AR is 16:9 (look for DAR in the info window).

I would just bring in my AVIs and resize them to 856x480 (which they already may be), then just work with that.

V1=AVISOURCE("VIDEO1.AVI").BILINEARRESIZE(856,480)
V2=AVISOURCE("VIDEO2.AVI").BILINEARRESIZE(856,480)

Add your title as an 856x480 sequence, then edit your product.

Just remember to add a resize back to 720x480.

[Jim44]

Maybe it is 16:9 (I can't tell from the cars). I don't use WMM so I can't comment on that (with any accuracy!).

No problem - I only used it as an example of "This is what I want to end up with". Hence this being the first time I've used it

GSPOT is showing that the display AR is 16:9 (look for DAR in the info window).

That's what I thought. All the subsequent editted clips show similar DAR, BTW.

I would just bring in my AVIs and resize them to 856x480 (which they already may be), then just work with that.

V1=AVISOURCE("VIDEO1.AVI").BILINEARRESIZE(856,480)
V2=AVISOURCE("VIDEO2.AVI").BILINEARRESIZE(856,480)

Add your title as an 856x480 sequence, then edit your product.

Hmm, thanks, I'll give that a try and see what it looks like.

Just remember to add a resize back to 720x480.

Would I still need to do that if my editted product goes right to an MPEG encoder for MPG2 or DVD creation? (I use TMPGEnc Plus currently.) Or is Avs just better at doing the resize back to 720x480, leaving the encoder to deal with *just* encoding?

Jim

[Cornucopia]

Both DV-AVI and MPEG2 and WMV files (and others) have support for AR flags.

Industry standard SD video is 720x480 for NTSC, whether it is 4:3 or 16:9.

You could (and SHOULD) make a DV, edit and convert to WMV and/or MPEG2, all the way through the process WITHOUT having to change the resolution specs or ARflag. Sometimes, you do have to get medieval on some apps and manually force the flag back to what it should have been all along, just because they've got stupid, non-adaptive, counter-intuitive presets.

Scott

edit: resize in AVS and let the encoder do JUST the encoding.
Or better yet, never resize to 853x480 in the 1st place. Start with the 853x480 graphic, resize (in your graphic editor) to 720x480 before converting to DV-AVI and keep it there from then on.

[Jim44]

edit: resize in AVS and let the encoder do JUST the encoding.
Or better yet, never resize to 853x480 in the 1st place. Start with the 853x480 graphic, resize (in your graphic editor) to 720x480 before converting to DV-AVI and keep it there from then on.

Thanks for all the info, Scott.

As a late follow-up to SLK001's earlier suggestion, I did go the "resize to 856" route since it's a slow day at work The "problem" I ran into was that I couldn't keep all the clips in "DV-AVI" with the MC codec (it couldn't output in 856x480). Basically I had to run everything through as "Uncompressed". Nice experiment for the 12-15 second clips I was dealing with, but I can see how this would become impractical from a file-size standpoint with anything longer

Both of your suggestions to work with an initial graphic of 856(or 853)x480, resize, and continue editting as DV-AVI seems to be the way forward for me.

Thanks!

Jim