Need advice on batch editing a large number of clips

[clarkkent]

I have done a bit of editing with Premiere Pro, but in this case I need to process 100s (perhaps over 1k) of AVI clips so any manual editing of each clip is out of the question. This is what I need to do for each clip:

1. Cut out the first 2 frames - in each clip the first two frames are wrong - from the previous clip on the tape No idea why that happens but it's much easier to cut them out than to capture everything again. Captured with premiere pro (with scene detect on)
2. Join with another (title) AVI at the beginning of each clip
3. Insert watermark in the top corner that shows up at regular intervals
4. Capture thumbnail images at regular intervals and produce a contact sheet - save as a single jpg
5. Convert to WMV

Right now I am looking at writing a perl script to automate the process, but wanted to get some advice on what tools I should use for editing.

Would something like this work:

- Use avidemux or virtualdub in command line mode to do 1 and 2
- Use virtualdub to insert watermark (is this possible through command line? can't see an option to insert watermark in avidemux)
- Use video thumbnails maker to capture thumbnail images
- Use some converter (windows media encoder?) to convert to wmv

Any better ideas? I was hoping there is a single tool that would do all this but doesn't look like it. Never used any of those programs so any tips on the best way to go about it would be very welcome.

[guns1inger]

If you are watermarking the entire clip then you have to re-encode, in which case it is probably easier to use an avisynth script to do all the leg work, and use Windows Media Encoder to control the encoding to WMV

[clarkkent]

Thanks. That's what I'm doing and I got the trimming/joining and watermarks all working nicely with an avisynth script, and it plays ok in VirtualDub. However when I pass the avs script to windows media encoder for the final step of converting to wmv I get "Error: 0x80040154 - Class not registered"

Avi files open ok in the encoder, but avs scripts don't. Any ideas? This is Vista 64-bit

[poisondeathray]

I'm using XP. WME is very buggy for .avs scripts, it's probably worse on Vista x64. If you select source from "both device and file" it sometimes works - you might give it a shot

WMNicEnc is made to accept avs scripts (in fact it's the only format that it accepts) and works very well , at least on XP. Another option is WMVMuxer; unfortunately they don't have batch capabilities.

Expression Encoder 2 works with avs scripts and is very nice, unforunately not free

[clarkkent]

Are there any command line tools to encode avs as avi? I am thinking it would be simpler to do that intermediate step than to keep trying to convert avs to wmv, already spent most of the day struggling with it

I found avs2avi.org but I have quite a few problems with it. Even though it's run from the cmd it pops up a dialog box each time to choose compression options so it's no good for batch operation. There is supposedly an option to save settings but it crashes when I try that. Also, my clips are 16:9 and I don't see any option there to set the aspect ratio so even when it works it doesn't produce the result I want

I'll try expression encoder 2 as well

[clarkkent]

Never mind the previous post, looks like expression encoder 2 works perfectly for what I need. Thanks

[PatrickMc]

I am not an video expert. (I am a system admin.) Just wanted to add my 2 cents' worth.

If any of these video editing tools provide a command line interface, would it not be possible to use a scripting language (perl, biterscripting, php, or even DOS) to create a batch script to automate editing ?

I do routine processing of server log files using biterscripting ( http://www.biterscripting.com ). I find their scripts easy to develop and use. But, really, any scripting language is always good to have to automate tasks performed using pre-packaged software, as long as that pre-packaged software has a command-line interface.

Patrick