Help with VIRTUALDUB Please !!!!

[spliffy]

I am a newbie and would appreciate some help and answers to some dumb questions.
I have just been given a dvd-r of a film, but the picture quite noisy.
I tried using VirtualDub and used the 'Temperol Smoother' filter, with great results.
I have the 'Video' set to 'Full Processing Mode'.
Problem is though,that when I save as an .avi, the output file is incredibly large. (1GB for every 30 seconds !!!)
I realise that I must have the settings wrong, but can't work out where.
I would also ideally like to save as .mpg or .m2v file (for Video Authoring).
Could someone please put me on the right road.
H E L P !

[Baldrick]

You must lower the video bitrate to make smaller file size. You can use YMPEG and save directly to mpg in Virtualdub but it isn't the best. I would rather either frameserve to a mpeg encoder, www.videohelp.com/virtualdubframeserve , or save as dv-avi or lagarith(change video codecs under Video->Compression in Virtualdub) and convert the new avi to mpeg with another mpg converter.

[redwudz]

The first thing I thought when I read the OPs post is that he didn't select a codec. That will give you a huge raw AVI file by default. But Baldrick's idea about frameserving would work fairly well. I use that to TMPGEnc encoder, then I don't have to worry about a in-between file.

Or you can save it out as a AVI in DV-AVI format or another low compression file format, but if you are going to DVD, that's just a extra unnecessary step.

[spliffy]

Thankyou Baldrick !
I am trying YMPEG to begin with.
I have selected the codec in VirtualDub and configured it.
Just one more question.....I can't see how to Run VirtualDub with the codec.
I can still only 'File...Save as .avi'
Your help please.

[redwudz]

Just use 'Save as AVI' after you have selected the codec in 'Compression'. Don't worry about the name 'AVI'. If you selected YMPEG, it will save it as that.

[spliffy]

Thankyou Redwutz !!

[spliffy]

Just tried VirtualDub along with YMPEG.
The quality looks fine to me on my 30 second video test (although I haven't viewed it on a large tv yet).
I created the .avi (dummy) file and the .mpv file, which I can drop into TMPGe Video Author.
Just one more thing........I have lost the sound, which was originally AC3.
Sorry this is a a little bit basic, but can you point me to where I'm going wrong ??

[redwudz]

You probably need the AC3 ACM Decompressor installed in VD to see it. But if you are wanting to keep the AC3 and use it with the MPEG or when you author, you could demux it with VD and use that in TDA as the audio source. It does need to be 48Khz, though.

[spliffy]

Thankyou for your help Redwutz, but I am getting a headache !
I am very impressed with tthe improvement in the video, using YMPEG.
The audio though, is still giving me trouble.
I tried downloading and using the AC3 decompressor in VDub and selected it under Audio>Compression and selected '48KHz stereo'.
When I tried 'Filtered Preview' the audio was there (although the audio sounded to be 'clipping')
When I ran the VDub however, the audio still seemed to be missing on the file produced.
I would rather try to retain the AC3 however, and use it with the YMPEG-generated video.
Could you explain further how to demux the AC3 and use it in TDA ??

[redwudz]

I've only used AC3 ACM Decompressor to enable VDM to 'see' the audio, not do anything with it. In VDM, you go to 'Streams>Stream List' then just click 'Demux' and save out your AC3 audio. Or if it's out of spec, I save it out as a WAV with full processing, then run it through ffmpeggui and convert to AC3 that way. Then I add that in when authoring. I rarely use VD, so I can't help you much there, but the process should be similar.

[spliffy]

Thankyou Redwutz.
Will continue trying.