Watermarking

[AP joe]

I need to watermark videos from 3 sources
- AVCHD from Canon HF11 Vixia
- *.avi from a Canon picture camera
- *.wmv from a webcam
and batch encode them to wmv.

I got the wmv encoding down with Microsoft´s BatchEncode. WinFF gave me an inferior quality video although I used the same profile. BatchEncode takes longer though, but I don't mind.

Preferred method: I wanted to add a watermark with Avisynth but BatchEncode doesn't accept AVS files. I get this error:

Error: Encoder Prepare - cannot find a valid output stream from the source

I didn't even add anything just a simple line to see if it would recognize avs

DirectShowSource("C:\Users\Documents\2009\2009-05-16\webcam\clip1.wmv
")

Can I have BatchEncode accept AVS files somehow?

Other method: So I read on this forum about encoding losless with the Lagarith codec. After installing the codec however it doesn't show up in my Video Watermark Factory.
I want to use VWF because it can batch watermark. I read that VirtualDub cant batch encode in Vista or am I wrong?
So I tried the "Full Uncompressed" Codec listed by default in Video Watermark Factory but got a 450MB AVI for 20 seconds of WMV video. Will it be just as big with Lagarith?

Any other methods to batch watermark many videos to WMV without too many steps?

If all fails I think I´ll batch watermark with Video Watermark Factory to Xvid, then from Xvid to WMV with Bathencode. Any better ways?

[poisondeathray]

MS Expression Encoder does batch, accepts avs, but is not free

WMVNicEnc accepts .avs , but does not batch

I'm not familiar with VWF , if it uses vfw codecs or directshow, or something else.

Lagarith will be smaller than uncompressed rgb

[AP joe]

Thanks for your input.

What about encoding to Xvid first (to get it watermarked), then from Xvid to WMV? Would another intermediate codec be better? If I can´t find the solution to Lagarith codec not showing up, because that's a lot of HD space.
I´d encode it straight to WMV with VWF, but it doesn't take custom profiles and the "biggest" default WMV profile is only 768 kps.

[jman98]

I just want to point out that if you are watermarking video that you will not charge money for (ie. maybe you want to upload it to You Tube, maybe you will give it away for free) then watermarking is tolerated. However, if you plan to charge money for the video and you watermark it to prevent copying, actually all that usually does is make customers angry and more likely to copy your video without paying for it.

[AP joe]

Point taken.

It's watermarking for brand recognition. Also watermarking doesn't prevent copying. Nothing does really, but at least they'll know where the video came from.

[poisondeathray]

What about encoding to Xvid first (to get it watermarked), then from Xvid to WMV? Would another intermediate codec be better? If I can´t find the solution to Lagarith codec not showing up, because that's a lot of HD space.
I´d encode it straight to WMV with VWF, but it doesn't take custom profiles and the "biggest" default WMV profile is only 768 kps.

XviD makes a poor choice for an intermediate, because of the quality loss and compression artifacts which get compounded once you encode to WMV. If quality wasn't a huge concern if you use a low quantizer, it might be ok

Instead of lagarith, other lossless codecs include huffyuv, or encode huffyuv through ffdshow , or ffv1 . Most of these are vfw type codecs, so if lagarith didn't show up, they probably won't either. Just beware all lossless intermediates will be huge in terms of HD space, but still much less than uncompressed RGB

It's an extra step, but you could use avisynth and vdub to encode to a "watermarked" lagarith avi, then use that lagarith avi as input into the wmv batcher

Other wmv batch capable software (e.g. super) usually only use wmv8 (not wmv9 or wvc1), hence the lower quality

I don't use WMV much, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think Expression Encoder 2 (there is a v3 out now) is probably the best in terms of workflow, quality, batching, avisynth compatibility, etc... (and no, I'm not a MS shareholder :P )

Good luck

EDIT: I forgot about automkv, it should be able to do what you want with .avs as input, but the interface is a bit "clunky"

[AP joe]

Thanks for all your info.

Right, huffyuv didn't show up either.

The Expression Encoder 3 trial for has a 10 minute time limit and the full version is $150. Not really what I'm looking for now. Also, I prefer free programs because if there is some problem, the solution is more likely to be found on the web.

I don't mind the AutoMKV interface, but it always crashes on both my XP and Vista machine as soon as I select WMV as container. (I have WME9, WME9SDK, WMP11 installed)
I gave up on Super as I always get crashes/errors as well...

I´m thinking about just trying this method in batch: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic248307.html?highlight=watermark
A yr ago I tried it, but ran into some errors and found that VWF worked for what I wanted at that time.

Your avisynth and vdub method got my attention.
So I need an AVS script in which I specify the 1. files to watermark 2. the watermark and 3. the lagarith codec? What should I specify as a good intermediate audio codec? Or can I just have it select the original audio?

thx again

[poisondeathray]

I´m thinking about just trying this method in batch: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic248307.html?highlight=watermark
A yr ago I tried it, but ran into some errors and found that VWF worked for what I wanted at that time.

Your avisynth and vdub method got my attention.
So I need an AVS script in which I specify the 1. files to watermark 2. the watermark and 3. the lagarith codec? What should I specify as a good intermediate audio codec? Or can I just have it select the original audio?

thx again

Nope, the script only specifies 1 & 2. You still need an .avs specifying each video. (I vaguely recall someone made an .avs autoscript generator using some wildcards, but you have to look for it.) The codec settings are selected within vdub itself. video=>set fast recompress (this prevents the RGB conversion internally), video=>compression (select lagarith). You still have to queue each avs individually into the batch list (i.e. it doesn't read a directory of files), but I seem to vaguely recall someone making a utility that does this? maybe do a quick search on vdub batching. Another way is to use vdubmod's avs template feature, but you would still have to open & queue each video (unless you can find that batch script)

For audio, I would leave as no compression (wav), or select direct stream copy (original audio). It depends what your other program will accept (i.e. it might not accept certain types of codecs), and whether or not that audio is compatible in .avi container (e.g. aac audio isn't compatible, so you would use wav)

EDIT: here is the avs batch scripter link, I've never used it so I don't know how/if it will work
https://www.videohelp.com/tools/AviSynth_Batch_Scripter

And here is a thread regarding generating .avs script from a directory using wildcards
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79259

And a tutorial for vdub batching
http://sleepytom.co.uk/virtualdubbatch

[poisondeathray]

EDIT: oops double post

[AP joe]

Thanks for the audio tips.

I did a test run with an AVI instead of an AVS for now. So far, so good.
I don't know anything about Avisynth though.
I found this code on the web

vid = DirectShowSource("%inputfile%")
img = ImageSource("C:\watermark.png").ConvertToRGB32
Overlay(vid, img, y=100, x=100, opacity=0.5)

Is it all I need? Save it as AVS and good to go?
It also said that for a watermark placed at the bottom right corner, one should set the x = 720 - (width of your overlay image) & y = 576 - (height of you overlay image). But I assume 720 and 576 need to be replaced with whatever the dimensions of my videos are, right?

I found several VirtualDub Batch Job makers. Might as well list them here:
http://www.ericphelps.com/scripting/samples/VirtualDub/index.html
http://www.pfreak.com/useful-tools/view-category.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubbatch/
I´ll look into them after I got my first succesfull test runs worked out.

thanks

[AP joe]

Wow, thanks, I didn't see your edit before I posted last message. Looks like I have the batching covered with so much info.

[poisondeathray]

Thanks for the audio tips.

vid = DirectShowSource("%inputfile%")
img = ImageSource("C:\watermark.png").ConvertToRGB32
Overlay(vid, img, y=100, x=100, opacity=0.5)

Is it all I need? Save it as AVS and good to go?
It also said that for a watermark placed at the bottom right corner, one should set the x = 720 - (width of your overlay image) & y = 576 - (height of you overlay image). But I assume 720 and 576 need to be replaced with whatever the dimensions of my videos are, right?

Yep that would leave it flush on the bottom right corner. The way you have it setup, it's just opacity adjusted (not alpha channel transparency), not sure if your png logo has alpha channel or if you want transparency to show through (If you do, you have to alter the script a bit)

[AP joe]

Hmm, I didn't understand a word of that last alpha channel stuff. In fact I have a BMP file, black background, white font over it with my text in it.
I can save this BMP to any image format with Irfanview. I though I´d just set the transparency/opacity to 0.5 (50%). Showing through would be nice. What do I change?

[poisondeathray]

Your png has to be specially prepared with alpha channel (it's transparency), if you didn't know what I was talking about, you probably don't have it. So in your example, the black background would become 100% "see-through", leaving your logo solid. If you just adjust the opacity to 50%, your logo fades by 50% as well...but maybe that's the look you're going for?

If this doesn't quite make sense to you, upload your logo, or pm me a link to your logo and I'll try to show you the difference. If your're happy with the 50% opacity then just carry on...

The script if you wanted alpha channel might look something like this (I'm not sure if the wildcard notation for directshow input file is completely correct):

vid=DirectShowSource("%inputfile%")
img=ImageSource("logo.png",pixel_type="RGB32")
Overlay(vid,img,y=100,x=100,mask=img.ShowAlpha())

Ok so the way you are proposing (maybe this is what you want?), the black and the white logo part become 50%, blended with the underlying video


If you show the alpha, the black background becomes 100% transparent, leaving the logo fully visible


Hope this make sense?