Need a script for AVIsynth for loading Digital VCR files

[sklindell]

I noticed a post from a "Marty" for the Creative Labs Digital VCR capture cards. He stated that he has a good way of converting the converted files from this card and bringing them into Virtualbud without the A/V out of sync problem. He says:

I have recently found a simple fix for this.

required files:
m2v.vfp
avisynty

I simply make a short avisynth script that loads the vfapi plugin 'm2v.vfp' and uses it to open the exported video file. I can then open this script in ANY program i what. I usually just open in in VirtualDub, but this should work just as well with nero, or any editing program. I have not run into ANY A/V sync problems since i started using this combination to open the files.

Does anyone know what that script would look like? The files that are converted from the Digital VCR are MPEG (non standard) files. Please help.
Thank you
Scott

[DJRumpy]

Good capture card. Can't believe they went so non-standard on the output. You could probably use a combination of DVD2AVI, and AVISynth. Open the 'produced' MPEG-2 with DVD2AVI (version 1.76..older versions dont' work with MPEG2DEC), and save it as a project file. The AVISynth script would also require the plugin MPEG2DEC, which allows you to open DVD2AVI project files. Anything after the # symbol is ignored.

LoadPlugin("mpeg2dec.dll") #this dll should be in your PATH somewhere
mpeg2source("dvd2avi.d2v") #project file saved from dvd2avi
BicubicResize(352,480) #assuming you want to resize.
# you can change or remark out the resize with a pound sign as needed
ResampleAudio(44100) #that card caps at 33Khz or somesuch right?

Save your script as a .AVS file (example: capture.avs )
drag and drop the .AVS file onto Media Player to ensure there are no errors. It should play just like an AVI.

[sklindell]

This is a great suggestion, DJRumpy. Someone else mentioned that they use DVD2AVI with success. I, on the other hand, wasn’t as successful. I will have to check which version of DVD2AVI I’m using. I understand everything you mentioned but I can’t seem to find the MPEG2DEC in the tools section of the forum.
Assuming this works, and I think it will, and it plays fine in Media Player how can I get the file to load into other applications without using AVIsynth. I ultimately want to edit and author the video in Pinnacle Studio 8. If it is an actual AVI file that is better. PS8 works better with AVI than MPEG. I have plenty of hard drive space (60gb – system, 80gb & 160gb for video). Thank you.
Scott
:P

[DJRumpy]

You can find MPEG2DEC here: http://users.win.be/dividee/mpeg2dec_dll.zip

For version 1.76 of DVD2AVI, go to the doom9 site (www.doom9.org). Click the Downloads section on the left. scroll through the download listings until you see a link that says "Show All Audio Tools". Click on that, and the full list of ALL available software will display. Search for DVD2AVI (Control-F). You'll get two or three references to it, before you actaully get to the download link.

Just drop the MPEG2DEC.DLL file in your Windows\System directory, so you don't have to specify the path to it in your scripts.

how can I get the file to load into other applications without using AVIsynth?

This one is a bit easier. Once your at the DVD2AVI step, instead of saving a Project File, you simply save it as a new .AVI file, which can be opened in pretty much any editor out there. Make sure you specify Huffman as the video codec (compression prompt). You'll get prompted for this info during the SAVE step if you save it as an AVI. You should have enough space with 60+ Gigs.

[DJRumpy]

It is very straightfoward. You simply resize with your .AVS script. The command is
BicubicResize(Width,Height)
and the
Crop(left,top,newWidth,newHeight)
command.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, you want to chop off the left and right edges of your video to make it fullscreen (4:3) ?

[sklindell]

I’m the kind of guy who needs things laid out in order. Do I do this in these steps?
1. Convert file with the file converter
2. Open this file in DVD2AVI
3. Save as project (Now a .d2v file)
4. Create Script for AVIsynth (a .AVS file)
5. I now have a couple of choices?
a. Drop the script (.AVS file) into Media Player
b. Open the script in DVD2AVI and save as a AVI file

Is this correct?

Edsmith77, I would love to help but I’m pretty new to the conversion aspect of video editing. I was using my fathers Sony DV camcorder to capture video, with PS8 via firewire, and he needed it back! So now I have my analog camera and the Creative Labs Digital VCR for capturing and the DVCR converts to a non-standard mpeg file (A/V sync problems) Sorry…

Scott

[edsmith77]

dj,
yup that is correct chop off the top and bottom black borders and rescale to a 4:3 ratio.
I noticed you recommended a Bicubic resize as opposed to a bilinear. better interpolation abilities? hence, smoother looking picture.?


thanks,ed

[DJRumpy]

sklindell, you only open the MPEG file once with DVD2AVI, and either save it as a project file to be used with an AVISynth Scirpt, or save it as an AVI at that point, to be opened in an editor which doesn't support .AVS scripts.

edsmith77, you use the CROP command to remove any letterboxing, and then either Bicubic, or Bilinear Resize to enlarge to DVD resolutions. I tend to always use Bicubic. Bilinear softens the output a bit, which some find desirable when reducing in size. I don't, so I always use Bicubic for both reducing and enlarging.

Assuming your input is letterboxed and captured in 4:3, your going to have to crop off the letterboxing, and then enlarge your output to it's widescreen resolutions.

Assuming your source is 1.85:1 (without letterboxing), then you would simply crop off the letterbox (it's typically anywhere from 60 pixels high on top and 60 pixels on bottom, to 104 for each (104 is common for 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies converted to letterboxed 4:3)

It would look like this for a 2.35:1 aspect ratio movie:

loadplugin("mpeg2dec.dll")
mpeg2source("dvd2avi.d2v")
crop(0,104,0,104)
BicubicResize(720,480)
AddBorders(0,60,0,60)

You'll notice that I chop off the letterboxing, and then immediately re-add it. I do this to eliminate any color or luminance that may have been in the old letterboxing, and then create new (black) letterboxing.

If your movies aspect ratio is 1.85:1 after removing letterboxing, then you do not have to add any borders. It's fullscreen when in 16:9. It would look like this:

loadplugin("mpeg2dec.dll")
mpeg2source("dvd2avi.d2v")
crop(0,60,0,60)
BicubicResize(720,480)

If your not sure what aspect ratio you've got, simply chop off the letterboxing, and then divide the new cropped width, by the new cropped height (example: 720 / 306 = 2.35 Aspect Ratio).

Note that on any crop job, you may have to fudge around with the TOP and BOTTOM values to get rid of the letterboxing. The crop command syntax looks like this: Crop( left,TOP,right,BOTTOM)

[Quigonsean]

Hey DJ,
I wanted to say thanks for that script you gave me in the Star Wars thread. I finnally got off my but and worked it out, though I had to use AVSgenie with your setting. Only tried on small clip but it worked with avsgenie I can see each thing happen in the preview window. Now thanks to some info from the widescreen advocacy page I have discovered I can leave out the add borders line and resize from 720x360 up to 720x480 people will look tall in the mpeg but thats fine because if I encode 16:9 then Author in Maestro 16:9 Auto letterbox it will horizointally stretch the image on a widescreen tv eleaviating the funhouse mirror effect, or squeeze it vertically on a 4:3 tv and then letterbox it. Thanks for your help.
Oh yeah, I gotta d/l decomb.dll so I've not been able to use the filters you put in the script. Question about them. My cap looks fabuless, but after running the script with convert to yuy, and temporal softener it looks even better except one thing, Blaster bolts, and explosions in them there are line sorta like running a comb through them, will the other filters fix this?

Thanks,
Sean aka Quigonsean

ps you can pm me if you want rather than me hijacking this thread.

[DJRumpy]

Someone else mentioned this. Unfortunately, it appears that when they remastered the special effects, that type of scene was left as true interlaced. I haven't verified directly, but I think Flaninacuboard has. You could manually "fix" these scenes, but it would take a lot of editing work, and the interlace artifacts from deinterlacing would probably be just as bad. Until the DVD's come out, you may just have to live with them.

Bye the bye, the actual IVTC DLL I'm using for AVISynth is DGraft's DLL for version 2.X of AVISynth. If you want to try it, you can find it here:

http://shelob.mordor.net/dgraft/decomb/decomblegacy.html

There's also a version for 2.5, which you can find at http://shelob.morder.net/dgraft

I wonder if anyone has actually done the work to try and deinterlace those scenes, and if it was worth the effort?