Mpeg 2 codec for virtual dub?

[jimmalenko]

So if i used ympeg i could open my mv2 video file into virtualdub then add the ac3 sound and save as avi,, which would save as mpeg through ympeg.

Ya. similarly, you could get a charter flight from wherever you live to antartica, and then get a courtesy helicopter from there to your neighbor's place, instead of just walking across the road
[/end sarcasm]

If you already have a m2v stream and a AC3 stream, all you need to do is multipelx them together to make an MPEG. There is no need/benefit/advantage to going via Virtualdub unless you are going to apply a filter that onyl virtualdub or YMPEG has.

Back to the topic of framserving what is so good about it compared to just saving it to avi?

frameserving means you are only doing one conversion, not two. time & quality are the main reasons.

[Garibaldi]

AFAIK, Virtualdubmod can open MPEG-2, but cannot encode to it. Best way is to frameserve your DV footage into an encoder like CCE or TMPGENC via Virtualdub.

As mentioned above Virtual Dub Cannot export to mpeg 2, however I know of a similar FREE program that can, Avidemux. This has been ported to win32, but it works best under linux. Let me know & I'll give you more details.

[Shifty268]

jimmalenko said: Just tell me what you have available, what you want to end up with, and I'll tell you how to do it

I don;t understand video stuff to good so lets just go back to this queston.
ok...

I have a avi file it has dv video and pcm audio, The avi file was captured through a video camera from a VHS tape to keep in digital form as it will last longer. The avi file is like 16 gb and it is quite a chunk of my hard drive i want to compress it and later, author it to dvd when i get a dvd burner.

[Garibaldi]

I have a avi file it has dv video and pcm audio, The avi file was captured through a video camera from a VHS tape to keep in digital form as it will last longer. The avi file is like 16 gb and it is quite a chunk of my hard drive i want to compress it and later, author it to dvd when i get a dvd burner.

Alright, to compress it you will probably want to convert it to mpeg 2 d1 (dvd) so that it will be smaller and in the right format for authoring later. There are several programs to do this. Probably the best encoder is TMPGENC. A very good free encoder like I mentioned is Avidemux or BBmpeg. You can probably use avidemux or bbmpeg (the free ones) for this job since its coming from VHS and I'm guessing its not perfect quality. In that case let me know which encoder you decide to go with and I'll post how to convert in either. Here is a guide for converting in avidemux (its done in linux but the process is pretty similiar in windows):
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=242455&highlight=avidemux
I'm glad to help.

[junkmalle]

I have a avi file it has dv video and pcm audio, The avi file was captured through a video camera from a VHS tape to keep in digital form as it will last longer. The avi file is like 16 gb and it is quite a chunk of my hard drive i want to compress it and later, author it to dvd when i get a dvd burner.

If you want to make your life simple get an all-in-one DVD program like Ulead DVD Movie Factory. The final results may not be quite as good as using individual tools but it's as simple as loading the AVI file, selecting a few option, and burning (or creating an ISO file that you can burn later).

[jimmalenko]

I have a avi file it has dv video and pcm audio, The avi file was captured through a video camera from a VHS tape to keep in digital form as it will last longer. The avi file is like 16 gb and it is quite a chunk of my hard drive i want to compress it and later, author it to dvd when i get a dvd burner.

Right ! OK, that's cool. Let's start from step one ...

We have a DV AVI. We want a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file.

This guide takes you through the entire process from go to woe to take your DV AVI and leave it as a ready-to-author DVD-compliant M2V file, as well as an AC3 file. All you then need to do is drop these two files into something like TMPGEnc DVD Author and it will author them for you, joining them together at the same time.


I would suggest you have a crack at this guide. Follow it TO THE LETTER. If it says jump, you say "how high?". Got it ?

Post back quoting any parts you do not understand, or any screenshots of any errors that you get.

[deckard8]

Just try out the demo of Ympeg for yourself. I'ts only a small download and you can encode 2.5 hours mpeg2 for free so you can sample the quality for yourself. I tested the new version myself and the quality seems very good although encoding speed is very slow.

[Cornucopia]

deckard8, you're just gonna confuse him further.
There are faster encoders, and better encoders (most are one and the same). YMPEG may be getting much better, but he'll still be wasting available bitrate if he can't make use of B-Frames. Not the best place to start on the path of video conversions.

To set you straight:

You don't have to frame-serve. It saves a file saving step and saves on hard drive space. That's all. If you've got the time and you've got the drive space, you can ignore that part and just save to another DV-based AVI (or a similar or better codec, such as MJPEG, HufYUV, Uncompressed, etc).
If you DO need the space, and/or don't want to wait for that intermediate rendered file, use frame-serving!

Also,
VirtualDub will open VFW-based AVI's and MPEG1's. It won't open up MPEG2's, WMV's, or Directshow-only-based AVI's.
VirtualDubMod (in some of it's many flavors) will additionally open up MPEG2's (with or without AC3 audio). Still no WMV's or Directshow-AVI's.
Neither will export directly to MPEG1 or MPEG2. They both only save to VFW-based AVI's (which can include a frame-serving signpost file) with its various supported codecs.
Because YMPEG purports itself to be like another AVI codec (even though it's more like an export to MPEG), it will be listed as one of the available codecs. Just because it's there and not other well known MPEG encoders doesn't mean that it is the preferred method.

Like the other guys have recently said, pour through the guides and learn!
They're there because others have already been down that road.

Scott

[deckard8]

I'm sorry I'm not trying to confuse the poor guy, he just wanted to know if it's possible to encode mpeg2 from Virtualdub - I said it is, everyone else said it isnt!. Out of interest I loaded up Ympeg to have a look and on the advanced tab it has GOP structure (I,B,P ) frames.

[jimmalenko]

he just wanted to know if it's possible to encode mpeg2 from Virtualdub - I said it is, everyone else said it isnt!.

Everyone else said it wasn't possible by default, but you could do it by frameserving.

[deckard8]

Hey! come on now - frameserving isn't encoding from a codec within Virtualdub. He wanted to know if you can encode from within Virtualdub.

[jimmalenko]

Hey! come on now - frameserving isn't encoding from a codec within Virtualdub. He wanted to know if you can encode from within Virtualdub.

... and YMPEG doesn't come with Virtualdub by default or as standard when you download it, does it ?

so the true and correct answer is yes, you can, provided you buy YMPEG. OR you can frameserve for free, and all you need is an MPEG encoder.

[deckard8]

Jimmalenko, you're one of the more knowledgable and helpful people on the site and I'm not questioning your advice, it's spot on as usual. What I'm saying is, quality issues/cost/default settings aside - Is it possible? -

Yes it is.

[jimmalenko]

Is it possible? -

Yes it is.

Agreed. but ...



FWIW:

Jimmalenko, you're one of the more knowledgable and helpful people on the site and I'm not questioning your advice, it's spot on as usual. What I'm saying is, quality issues/cost/default settings aside ...

No quantification needed, my friend. We've both fought a good battle, kept it clean and debated without resorting to flaming. Good job !

[mikesbytes]

If you really don't want to pay for mpeg2, you could save it as mpeg1, as mpeg1 is still compatible with DVD.

Why don't you save it back to DV tape and then reload it when you are ready to use it. DV has a much lower loss rate than mpeg1 or 2.

[Garibaldi]

It really depends on what level you want to do video-editing. If you want to really understand the whole structure and be able to really troubleshoot problems quickly, I would recommend using a couple individual programs (like TMPGENC, GUI for DVD Author, ect) for each step. If you wouldn't like to get that involved you may want to go with an all-in-one program. I only started video-editing in may and let me tell you, it gets easier with time.
[/quote]

[Cornucopia]

I'm sorry I'm not trying to confuse the poor guy, he just wanted to know if it's possible to encode mpeg2 from Virtualdub - I said it is, everyone else said it isnt!. Out of interest I loaded up Ympeg to have a look and on the advanced tab it has GOP structure (I,B,P ) frames.

I guess I'm slightly behind the times...
Looks like v2 and onward have I, P, & B. I just stopped checking it out cuz I'm already satisfied with what I've got.

Scott

[Shifty268]

Thanks for the replys, ill try that guid jimmalenko.

[Shifty268]

Why when i encode something to mpeg or whaeva the product file always has like jaggered black lines through it:-

[jimmalenko]

Why when i encode something to mpeg or whaeva the product file always has like jaggered black lines through it:-

I'd say that you're seeing interlacing - totally normal and will be fine (read "removed") on your TV. To test, load your file into PowerDVD or WinDVD (both will deinterlace on the fly) and if the problem goes away, then problem solved.

If you only want to view the MPEG-2 files on your computer, then you need to do a deinterlace. If your output is going onto DVD disc for playback either through PowerDVD or equivalent, or on a settop DVD player, then do nothing. It will be fine.

EDIT: Didn't see the screen dump the first time

Yep. Interlacing.

[burnman99]

Shifty you can use ffdshow to get mpeg 2 from vdub the same way YMPEG will do it (save as a dummy .avi file & go into the configuration and encode it as mpeg2) and it's free. However, i'm not sure about the quality. I would go with Garibaldi's suggestion and use AVIDemux. It can be found here
http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/ It's a good open source MPEG-2 Encoder that has some filters and is very similar to VDub. Other Free Mpeg2 encoders are Quenc, Freenc & Nuenc, but they all require Avisynth. So I'd definitely give AVIDemux a whirl, it's most likely your best bet.

Hope this helps.

Rog

[Shifty268]

How can you get mpeg using ffdshow through virtualdub as a dummy file.
I know you save as avi and it makes mpeg file but how do you configure ffdshow?

[J. Baker]

In my test, YMPG (latest version) and TMPGEnc produce about the same results. I believe YMPG, TMPGEnc and Procoder are the best encoders for the consumer price. YMPG and TMPGEnc produce sharper detail then Procoder Xpress though. These test were done on an advanced 3D animation.

[mats.hogberg]

open my mv2 video file into virtualdub then add the ac3 sound and save as avi,, which would save as mpeg through ympeg.

In principle, yes, but to combine (multiplex) a m2v with an AC3, this would be a long and winding road to do what is usually done with a multiplexer (mplex, TMPGEnc MPEG Tools).
AVI is fine for computer viewing, mpeg is what's DVDs are made of.

what is so good about having as mpeg file
just not avi

Nothing - it all depends on what you want to use it with. But your initial post says:

Hey i was just wondering where i can download a mpeg 2 codec for virtual dub that lets me convert DV to Mpeg 2

which might account for the discussion of mpeg...

/Mats

[ympeg]

I haven't tried YMPEG yet beyond simple clip test. I doubt if I'd ever really use it. You see, it DOESN'T do B-Frames, only I- and P-Frames. That makes it pretty worthless for me at this point (and for many of you). Maybe it'll get B-Frames later on...

This is not correct. YMPEG generates I, B, P frames by default.

However, if you like, YMPEG also has an option to create I-only or IP-only video.

Hope this clarifies.

[junkmalle]

ympeg[/url]]

I haven't tried YMPEG yet beyond simple clip test. I doubt if I'd ever really use it. You see, it DOESN'T do B-Frames, only I- and P-Frames. That makes it pretty worthless for me at this point (and for many of you). Maybe it'll get B-Frames later on...

This is not correct. YMPEG generates I, B, P frames by default.

However, if you like, YMPEG also has an option to create I-only or IP-only video.

Hope this clarifies.

Guess you missed this:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1111328#1111328

[burnman99]

Shifty, I gave you the wrong name...it's FFVFW is the free codec. Here's a link to the latest download.
http://athos.leffe.dnsalias.com/ffdshow-20040718.exe

I do not believe it will mux the audio to video though; you may need mplex or another mux program.

Hope this helps

Rog

[celtic_druid]

FFVFW was integrated into ffdshow some time back and the latest build would probably be mine from the 12/12, however there are official ones on ffdshow's sourceforge page newer than that one.

[burnman99]

Celtic, i have the 10/12 build but it doesn't show in the compression section in Vdub for some strange reason. Running FFVFW makes it appear there.

[celtic_druid]

There was a problem with the installer for that release. Basically it is supposed to use short filenames for the VIDC entry, but it uses the full pathname. If you manually change the entry to progra~1 then it will show up.

Anyway for a while now ffdshow has been using VFW and ACM wrappers that go in the sys folder... so no more path issues.