How to Add a Watermark to the whole video file?

[mbextreme]

I have a MPEG-2 file ready to be authored into a DVD. How would I go about adding a watermark to the whole video?

I am looking for a program to combine this file with a static JPG or Photoshop file; without much quality loss if possible.

Thanks.

[manono]

You should have thought of this before you encoded the thing. If you want it "burned in" or embedded into the video, you'll have to reencode. Otherwise you can make a subtitle out of it and make it forced, so it's hard to turn off.

[mbextreme]

Thank you for the comment. Yes, I do want it "burned in".

If I don't mind the re-encoding, which is a simple program to perform this "combining"?

Thanks.

[mats.hogberg]

VirtualDubMpeg2 + the Logo filter, frameserve to your mpg encoder. Or AviSynth, doing the same.

/Mats

[mbextreme]

Thank you mats.hogberg! It seems the VirtualDubMpeg2 + the Logo filter is exactly what I need.

Here is what I want, a faint logo (in white lines) and without blocking anything behind it.

However, when I try a JPG logo in VirtualDubMpeg2 and adjust its opacity to show (like 20% to 30%) it blocks (lightens) the background by the same amount. I have tried logos with white, black, and transparent background, all the same.

Can you recommend a logo line colour and background combination that will allow the logo lines to show "faintly" and yet without blocking any background?

Thanks.

[mats.hogberg]

See this guide by Jimmalenko:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic248307.html
The std logo filter allows for a transparency, but I prefer Donald Grafts logo filter, http://neuron2.net/logo14.zip, which is a little more flexible - fades among other things.

/Mats

[mbextreme]

Mats: Thank you for the direction to that guide.

I followed the directions to create a few test logo BMP files. They are WHITE LETTERS ON WHITE, WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK, and WHITE LETTERS ON TRANSPARENT.

In all cases, when I try to tick the "Enable per-pixel alpha blending using alpha channel" this errot message comes up and I cannot see the preview:

"Unable to start filters: Cannot start filter "logo": cannot alpha blend logo; image does not have an alpha channel."

If I do not engage the "Enable per-pixel alpha blending using alpha channel" , I could see the effects in preview where as I increase the opacity in value, the BLACK background darkens the whole screen, and the WHITE and TRANSPARENT lightens the whole screen. The WHITE LETTERINGS, however, do increase in opacity as I'd want them to be; so I got half of what I want.

What am I doing wrong with the backgrounds? Help please!

Vince.

[mats.hogberg]

Like I said, I never used the std logo filter, but use Donald Graft's.
http://neuron2.net/logo/logo15.zip is the correct link. Just open the zip and extract Logo.vdf to the plugins dir of your VirtualDub install.
To make a logo with transparent parts, you just fill the transparent parts with any color you like (like full red), then you tell the filter you want full red to transparent. Simple.

The documentation in the ZIP will tell you about all other nifty features, like fade in and out, animation & cetera.
/Mats

[mbextreme]

Thanks Mats, I got it working as the way I want it with the Donald Graft's logo filter as you suggested.

Now, I read it over and over, I still don't get how to "frameserve" the whole file to my authoring program TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 on the fly, without going thru saving the large file first.

Please explain. Thanks a lot.

Vince.

[mats.hogberg]

Ah. Well, I know TDA 3 has built in encoding capabilites, but I'm not sure if it can read VD frameserver. Maybe someone else can pitch in?
I've used TMPGEnc mpg encoder and MainConcept when frameserving from VD.
In the ideal world, you just go File -> Start frame server, click Start button in the small popup form, and finally give it a name like "myvideo.vdr" in the "Save .VDR signpost for AVIFile handler" dialog. Done with VirtualDub for now.
Then you open this "myvideo.vdr" as source in the encoder (just like you would open a real video file), and encode away.
To make frameserving work, you have to run AuxSetup.exe (in the VD install dir) once.

/Mats

[mbextreme]

Mats: Thank you for the very quick response.

I have successfully import files "framserving" from AVISYNTH "on-the-fly" into TDA 3 before, so I know it can be done.

I just don't know how to do it properly in VirtualDubMpeg2. Its seems more complicated.

I will try out your suggestions and report back. Thanks again.

Vince.

[mbextreme]

Mats: I came across a "size" problem. My video is approximately 160 minutes. Since the VirtualDubMpeg2 only accepts avi file, I tried to import it and it turned out it might be 300G or more. I just do not have this much space.

I can have a DVD Panasonic recorder encode it onto DVD-Ram to under 4G with good quality, but VirtualDubMpeg2 does not work with these files.

Is there a workaround? Is there another program to add a faint watermark that accept DVD recorder or Mepg2 files?

[mats.hogberg]

You forgot to set output compression in VirtualDub, and saved out as uncompressed.
If your ultimate goal is DVD the best option is to frameserve from VD.
2nd best would be uncompressed avi as you've done, but the huge filesizes makes it somewhat impractical...
3rd best is to save out as DV video (get the Panasonic DV codec) - still hugish, but "only" ~13 GB/hour. This DV AVI can then be encoded to DVD mpg (probably can be imported in TDA3 straightaway).

/Mats