VirtualDub, AviSynth Script and Commands

[Phuket]

I've just used VirtualDub with an AviSynth script (very simple) but I really don't know how it all works, and was hoping for a little help.

Here's what I just did:

I have two dashcam videos from my pickup - the front view and rear view. I wanted to join them, one above the other, to show both views in one video.
Firstly, I converted them both from .mov to .avi with "AnyVideoConverter", and reduced the size of both from 1980x1024 to 480x272 (just to make process quicker).

I found a script on this forum ( here: goo.gl/3c0O2h ) and modified it (pure guesswork) to use "StackVertical" instead of "StackHorizontal":

clip1=AVISource("H:\AVI\2\front.avi")
clip2=AVISource("H:\AVI\2\rear.avi")
StackVertical(clip1, clip2)

It worked: when I dragged the script (test.avs) onto a VirtualDub shortcut on my desktop, VirtualDub opened and showed the two videos, one on top of the other. I saved the video and when I play it, it looks exactly as I'd hoped.

But, being a newbie, I have some questions:

1. Where are all these commands described? i.e. "clip1=" ; "StackVertical" ; "StackHorizontal" , etc.
2. How does AviSynth work with VirtualDub? Which of those two programs understands these commands?
3. Is there an editor that knows the commands/keywords that VirtualDub and/or AviSynth uses? I ask because I have been using AutoHotKey for years, and understand the beauty of having an editor like SciTE4AutoHotkey which makes writing scripts so much easier and includes "Help" that shows all the commands available and details their syntax. Is there something like that for VirtualDub?
4. The file that was saved was 3.5 GB. The two sources totaled 50 MB. The new file had a bit rate of 157 Mbps (MediaInfo), so I need to know how to change that!!


Thanks for any help you can give.

Regards,

Roger in Phuket.

[sneaker]

1. In the AviSynth documentation.
http://avisynth.org.ru/docs/english/
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page
2. AviSynth
3. AvsPmod
4. AviSynth works with uncompressed video and audio. You need to compress its output.
Take a look at this recent thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/383361-How-and-what-to-use-to-compress-video-in-Virtualdub

Firstly, I converted them both from .mov to .avi with "AnyVideoConverter", and reduced the size of both from 1980x1024 to 480x272 (just to make process quicker).

Doing an extra encoding step will not make things quicker. It will cost time and quality. You can open .mov in AviSynth and resize there, too.

[Phuket]

1. In the AviSynth documentation.
http://avisynth.org.ru/docs/english/
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page
2. AviSynth
3. AvsPmod
4. AviSynth works with uncompressed video and audio. You need to compress its output.
Take a look at this recent thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/383361-How-and-what-to-use-to-compress-video-in-Virtualdub

Firstly, I converted them both from .mov to .avi with "AnyVideoConverter", and reduced the size of both from 1980x1024 to 480x272 (just to make process quicker).

Doing an extra encoding step will not make things quicker. It will cost time and quality. You can open .mov in AviSynth and resize there, too.

Thanks very much for your quick reply. It's just gone midnight here so I'll be checking out your links tomorrow.
I did see a post about AvsPmod elsewhere on the forum, so I'll be checking that out too.

[the_provider]

Hello.
I used the side-by-side comparison to choose a de-interlace filter for a DV video. So I used each of the 4 and also compressed it using X264 and in the process resulted 4 videos that I intended to watch side-by-side on a big screed and decide.
The uncompressed DV video is ~400MB.
Each compressed & filtered video is ~10MB.
The stacked result is a stunning 24GB file so I would like to understand where does the difference comes from, could someone explain that for me?
Thank you in advance.

[manono]

The stacked result is a stunning 24GB file so I would like to understand where does the difference comes from, could someone explain that for me?

It shouldn't have to be explained as the answer was given in sneaker's previous reply. When opening an AviSynth script in VDub you have to choose and configure a codec. Even if your sources have been compressed, they still get decompressed in your new script.

The uncompressed DV video is ~400MB.

You may be under the impression that DV AVI is uncompressed. It's not. It's heavily compressed.

[_Al_]

Hello.
I used the side-by-side comparison to choose a de-interlace filter for a DV video. So I used each of the 4 and also compressed it using X264 and in the process resulted 4 videos that I intended to watch side-by-side on a big screed and decide.
The uncompressed DV video is ~400MB.
Each compressed & filtered video is ~10MB.
The stacked result is a stunning 24GB file so I would like to understand where does the difference comes from, could someone explain that for me?
Thank you in advance.

When looking for deinterlace filter for DVavi, there is tons of way on web how to do it, there is one problem though, they are outdated, most of the time and second watch for what purpose they did it. For example just 5 years ago folks did not double frame rate deinterlaced , today there is no problem with 50p or 60p footage at all, not mentioning it is only SD resolution. For DVavi you go with QTGMC , you do not need to test anything else pretty much.

Also testing, previewing footage side-by-side is almost useless, you might have stronger eye , there is different light on the right. on the left, our brain could be tricked, I fell for it constantly. You should interleve your testing videos in Avisynth script and watching same frames, stepping thru frames using MPC-HC or within virtualDub, for example.
v1=Avisource("video1.avi").subtitle("video1")
v1=Avisource("video2.avi").subtitle("video2")
interleave(v1,v2)

you can load all four of them in there, that was just example
and someone should do it for you, name those videos for you, so you do not know what those videos are, if you think some deinterlacer is better , you get corresponding result ...