Need assistance using Virtualdub as Frameserver

[satwar]

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to follow the Sefy's Original Guide for converting AVI to VCD https://www.videohelp.com/sefy/?id=divx2vcd.html on this forum. I've become completely lost in the Frame Serving and Encoding steps.

First what is frameserving? Second please clarify how I get Virtualdub to act as a frame server (supposedly I start it by running Auxsetuip.exe?) and do I leave it running and how does it relate to the Encoding step? I started the frameserver and it created a small VBR file, what is that for?

Could someone please help explain not only what I am supposed to be doing but why I am doing it as well as why?

[Cole]

Frameserving:

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?F#Frameserve

The process of creating a direct video "link" from one application to another. For example a video editor application to standalone mpeg encoder so you don't need a plugin or create a temporary video file.

Basically if you have edited a movie, you don't have to save it as another .avi.

When you have done all your editing on a video in Virtualdub, you then save the *.vdr.avi and the 'Frameserver mode' box appears. Leave this open and then open up your encoder program (e.g. TMPGEnc) and load the *.vdr.avi file and encode as normal.

This caught me out the first time I followed Sefy's guide

Auxsetup.exe you only need to run once as this installs necessary files, the next time you use Virtualdub to frameserve, you don't need to do this part.

Hope that this is helpful.

[satwar]

Frameserving:

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?F#Frameserve

The process of creating a direct video "link" from one application to another. For example a video editor application to standalone mpeg encoder so you don't need a plugin or create a temporary video file.

Basically if you have edited a movie, you don't have to save it as another .avi.

When you have done all your editing on a video in Virtualdub, you then save the *.vdr.avi and the 'Frameserver mode' box appears. Leave this open and then open up your encoder program (e.g. TMPGEnc) and load the *.vdr.avi file and encode as normal.

This caught me out the first time I followed Sefy's guide

Auxsetup.exe you only need to run once as this installs necessary files, the next time you use Virtualdub to frameserve, you don't need to do this part.

Hope that this is helpful.

I think I'm still very confused.

The procedure tells me to open my AVI in Virtualdub, start the Frameserver which saves a VDR file and leave it running, start MainConcept Encode, point to the VDR file for the video source, point to my previously produced WAV file as the audio source and then encode.

This is confusing, why don't I just point MainConcept Encode to the original AVI file as the source for the video (and audio). I don't understand what this frameserver step (or creating the WAV file, although maybe because MainConcept doesn't understand AC3, the original sound track in AVI) is achieving, unless MainConcept only encodes VDR files?

[Laddydaddy]

satwar,

Here are two quotes from Sefy ;

FrameServing an AVI


Unfortunatly as most AVI's are encoded with one or another compression method, not all encoders can open them, In those cases you can create a frameserving file using VirtualDub, and then use that file as your source, this will slow down the encoding, but quality wil not be affected

Using - VirtualDub - FrameServing


This program is basicly both an editor and a frameserver and has many filters, which one of them i'll cover here, and that is the SubTitles.
It makes it possible for an encoder (old or new) to encode the movie from the VOB files with the addition of selected filters, that it would not be capable of doing otherwise.

These are the two main reasons to frameserve to an encoder. If you can open the avi directly in your program (Mainconcept encoder) and you are not going to use any filters, there is no reason to frameserve to your encoder.

[satwar]

satwar,

Here are two quotes from Sefy ;

FrameServing an AVI


Unfortunatly as most AVI's are encoded with one or another compression method, not all encoders can open them, In those cases you can create a frameserving file using VirtualDub, and then use that file as your source, this will slow down the encoding, but quality wil not be affected

Using - VirtualDub - FrameServing


This program is basicly both an editor and a frameserver and has many filters, which one of them i'll cover here, and that is the SubTitles.
It makes it possible for an encoder (old or new) to encode the movie from the VOB files with the addition of selected filters, that it would not be capable of doing otherwise.

These are the two main reasons to frameserve to an encoder. If you can open the avi directly in your program (Mainconcept encoder) and you are not going to use any filters, there is no reason to frameserve to your encoder.

Excellent, I couldn't see the trees for the forest in this procedure, but I now have several followup questions:

(1) Why is Sefy talking about Subtitles in this procedure of converting AVI to VCD?

(2) Do I understand the frameserver procedure correctly, that is, create the VDR file, and then use it as the video source in MainConcept Encode while leaving the Virtualdub frameserver running?

(3) Does MainConcept Encode let you know that it is happy (or not) with the audio & video source or do you just run it and see if the resulting MPEG file works?

[pijetro]

(2) Do I understand the frameserver procedure correctly, that is, create the VDR file, and then use it as the video source in MainConcept Encode while leaving the Virtualdub frameserver running?

Yep..
Your .AVI (temporary .VDR) holds both audio and video information for encoding..

Some people prefer to encode audio separately, so perhaps this is confusing you for now..
Usually, converted movies (Divx, Xvid etc..) need to have the audio reprocessed, since it's compressed..
So you can save out the .Wav as uncompressed PCM, and bring it back in, and then serve out the edited .AVI. This fullproofs any audio synch issues that's known to happen with what you're doing.

Baby steps...

[satwar]

Well I successfuly created a nice MPG file by having MainConcept Encode use the original AVI file as the video file and use the WAV file I created from the AVI file using Virtualdub as the audio file.

But......, I can't get the frameserver function of Virtualdub to work, I get no video in the encoded MPG when I use the VDR file created by Virtualdub as the video source in MainConcept Encode. I obviously still don't understand how to use this frameserver aspect of Virtualdub, I must have missed a step somwhere.

(1) I ran Auxsetup.exe to install the file handler, my understanding being that you only have to install once.

(2) I then opened Virtualdub and opened the source AVI file

(3) I then selected "Start Frameserver..." and created a VDR file, and left the frameserver running.

(4) I then opened MainConcept Encode and selected the previously created VDR file name as video source and the previously created WAV file as audio source. Then pressed "Convert" and MainConcept Encode ran for 1/2 hour.

(5) Played MPG file in Windows Media Player and get sound but no video (green screen)

What did I miss here? I really appreciate the help you guys are giving me, I'm really enjoying learning about video on this site, even though it is a slow learning process.

[pijetro]

Does the video perhaps need to be in Full Processing mode rather than Direct stream copy, or vice versa??

[satwar]

Does the video perhaps need to be in Full Processing mode rather than Direct stream copy, or vice versa??

Not sure it would make any difference since Virtualdub closes when you start the frameserver, but I switched to Direct stream copy and it made no difference.

I tried a little test and tried to open the VDR file with Virtualdub while the frameserver was running and it opened the entire video. At least something works.

[pijetro]

I once remembered a guide that said, when you save out the .VDR file, you need to actually type the .VDR extension when saving...

Perhaps if you were to try Tmpgenc ??
On a side note, if you cancel out your encoder, then stop the .VDR file, Virtualdub will stop on the served frame..
So in this way, you'll know that Vdub is doing it's job correctly....

[Laddydaddy]

satwar,

Is your avi an xvid file by chance?

[satwar]

satwar,

Is your avi an xvid file by chance?

Yes it is, XVID is the video stream compression and AC3 is the audio stream compression in the AVI. If I use the AVI directly as the source for video in MainConcept Encoder, the video is properly encoded to the VCD. I'm just trying to learn how to operate the Virtualdub frameserver as source for encoding the VCD, as per Sefy's tutorial.

[Laddydaddy]

For some reason, if you have the xvid codec installed and try to frameserve from VDub to Mainconcept you get a green screen. At the top of the Mainconcept encoder screen click options>show preview. This will allow you to preview your film as it encodes. If you load the xvid directly into Mainconcept you get a picture, not the green screen. Others have had this problem with Mainconcept and VDub. Some say they have solved the problem by uninstalling the latest xvid codec, and installing an older version. I can't say personally if this solves the problem as I use TMPG for all my encoding these days.

[satwar]

For some reason, if you have the xvid codec installed and try to frameserve from VDub to Mainconcept you get a green screen. At the top of the Mainconcept encoder screen click options>show preview. This will allow you to preview your film as it encodes. If you load the xvid directly into Mainconcept you get a picture, not the green screen. Others have had this problem with Mainconcept and VDub. Some say they have solved the problem by uninstalling the latest xvid codec, and installing an older version. I can't say personally if this solves the problem as I use TMPG for all my encoding these days.

Interest theory. All I can say is I've installed a number of XVID Codec versions (1.0.2, 1.0.3, & 1.1.0) and they all behave the same . I appreciate the time you put into my question.

Update: Looks like you were right on the money with the codec idea. I uninstalled XVID codec and installed DIVX codec and the Virtualdub frameserver link to MainConcept Encoder works like a charm. Thanks a million, that sure wasn't very obvious.

[Sefy]

Regarding the Question on the use of Subtitles in the Guide 8)

It's an optional step for those who wish to integrate/encode subtitles into the movie itself, since VCD for example cannot have external subtitles and most hardware SVCD subtitles can't be played either.

If you are not using Subtitles, you can skip that step in the guide and simply move forward

[satwar]

Excellent guide Sefy, even though I stumbled I learned a lot. Thank you.

[Sefy]

Glad to hear it helped out, i'm hoping to resume work on it as soon as i can. If you have any pointers on making things clear, i'd be glad to do it

[satwar]

Glad to hear it helped out, i'm hoping to resume work on it as soon as i can. If you have any pointers on making things clear, i'd be glad to do it

Actually an area of your guides which completely baffles me is the saving of an AC3 audio track with a WAV header from an AVI using Virtualdub configured as a Direct Stream Copy. Then using Headac3he to decompress back to a WAV format. Whenever I open the WAV file created by Virtualdub in Headac3he I get the error "Data chunk missing". I must have missed some fine print somewhere. It seems easy enough to select Full Processing Mode in Virtualdub and save the AC3 track as a WAV file, but I just can't follow your more tortured path to the same end. I'd sure like to understand why you go through so much trouble for AC3 tracks with Headac3he, and I'd like to figure out what I'm doing wrong.



Update: My god Sefy, don't tell me it's as simple as just renaming the Direct Stream Copy WAV file with an AC3 extension? It sure makes Headac3he happy. I noticed that your tutorial shows saving a WAV file with Virtualdub and opening an AC3 file in Headac3he. Could this be the missing step in the procedure, that is, add an .AC3 extension to the file name before opening with Headac3he?

I can see that Headac3he gives you a lot more control over creation of the WAV than Virtualdub does, perhaps this is the reasoning behind taking this more tortured route with Headac3he.