Is there VFAPI Alternative (For Windows Vista)?

[foochuck]

I haven't been able to find a solution to get VFAPI to work correctly on Windows Vista.

I'm using DGMPGDec to save a DVD (VOBs) as a d2v file.

I'm used to using VFAPI to frameserve the d2v file as an AVI and then simply import it into Premiere Pro (CS3).

However on Windows Vista home premium edition, the AVI file that VFAPI produces isn't working correctly in Premiere Pro.

Is there an alternative or does anyone have any other suggestions for what I can use to do this on Windows Vista???

(Basically I'm capturing DVDs and then editing small clips from the DVDs in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3)

[vhelp]

I'm sorry you having the same problem as I, though mine is on xp home.

For me, I reverted back down to DGMIndex v1.4.3 under XP Home, because I couldn't
get its latest version working on it. But that was back in May/07, I think. And
I haven't tried looking around now for the even later versions to see if it works
in xp home. My needs were simple enought that I didn't need latest versions,
which are (were) mostly bug-fixes anyway.

So far, I haven't found any need for a later (or latest) version. And the those
may not even have any impact on your usual line of processing anyway.

Then There is also another utility, makeavis.exe i think is something you could
also try. You can get this from one of the ffdshow tools. The one I got
has a date stamped for 7/22/2007, but I also have a few others with date stamps of
11/29/2005 as well.

But, if you find the you need the latest version(s) but still can't get it to
work under Vista, then perhaps you could try the hack I laid out on the other
thread, elsewhere. See if that works for you. Its been a while since I used
that method, because like I said, I reverted back to v1.4.3 for ease of use.

F: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1770443#1770443
S: VFAPI Codec Problems -- by [K]eep[A]way; -- Jan 27, 2007

-vhelp 4417

[foochuck]

DGIndex seems to work fine. I have a d2v file that's ready to go (I think)...my only problem is getting that d2v frameserved so I can edit it in Premiere Pro CS3 as a fake AVI file.

[vhelp]

Well, I'm not sure what your problem is, then.. other than that you say it
will not work inside Premiere. You did say you were running Vista. Anyway.

You could try and test the psuedo avi file in other, more simple apps, like
virtualdub as a test. If it reads it fine, then your trouble is with Premier,
and setting it up to read such (vfw) sources. Don't forget, that sometimes
you have to jiggle around with virtualdub's proxy and/or .reg (bat) files to
get it to read sine post files -- or whatever they call them

-vhelp 4418

[foochuck]

I have tried to open my psuedo AVI in Windows Media Player as well and when I try it says

"Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file. for additional assistance, click Web Help."

FYI this is what the first few lines of my d2v file look like in Windows Vista:

DGIndexProjectFile16
4
E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB
E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_4.VOB

Stream_Type=1
MPEG_Type=2
iDCT_Algorithm=6
YUVRGB_Scale=1
Luminance_Filter=0,0
Clipping=0,0,0,0
Aspect_Ratio=4:3
Picture_Size=720x480
Field_Operation=0
Frame_Rate=29970 (30000/1001)
Location=0,0,3,77b54

And here's the same DVD from the d2v created on my Win XP Pro Machine (which works fine with VFAPI on that machine):

DGIndexProjectFile16
4
G:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
G:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
G:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB
G:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_4.VOB

Stream_Type=1
MPEG_Type=2
iDCT_Algorithm=6
YUVRGB_Scale=1
Luminance_Filter=0,0
Clipping=0,0,0,0
Aspect_Ratio=4:3
Picture_Size=720x480
Field_Operation=0
Frame_Rate=29970 (30000/1001)
Location=0,0,3,77b54

Let's just say they are identical so I'm thinking the problem lies somewhere in the VFAPI codec on vista.

[vhelp]

ohh. I was just thinking..

you could also try feeding your .d2v file inside makeavis and proceed to
create another psuedo avi file. This is perfectly doable. I just tried
it to be sure, and then rand that (2nd) psuedo avi file inside vdub and
it worked find. So try that, but this time with Premiere. But make sure
that it at least works with vdub.

--> .d2v -> makeavis -> virtualdub = success

-vhelp 4419

[foochuck]

I will give that a try. Is there a menu for creating a frameserve AVI in makeaivs? Or is it at least pretty easy to do, as I've never used that program before.

[foochuck]

I tried installing a couple different builds of ffdshow and when I try to open makeavis.exe a dos window flashes and then nothing happens. ;(

[foochuck]

One other question - is there a way to manually install the VFAPI codec? Is it as easy as copying files into the c:\windows\system32 folder?

[vhelp]

I'm sorry. I'm trying to help, but its not easy as it would seem. And since
I don't have Vista, I really can't be sure of too much. But, I'll continue
to try as I may.

makeavis (from one of the ffdshow builds) flashes that way whenever you
start it up in windows. You didn't say if a window popped up after the
flashing .. there should have been one open up right afterwards.

As far as installing VFAPI, manually ??? ?? ?

Well, first, the included vifp.inf is suppose to do this automatically,
for (I think) both system.ini and Registry. You'll have to do
a little looking around in both areas to be certain. Just use the
>> search >> methods of either, (registry [.reg] or notepad [.txt]) to find
the keys or fields.

--> open \windows\system\system.ini

[drivers32]
..
VIDC.UYVY=msyuv.dll
VIDC.YVYU=msyuv.dll
vidc.hfyu=huffyuv.dll
vidc.bt20=btvvc32.drv
vidc.y41p=btvvc32.drv
..
vidc.x264=x264vfw.dll
vidc.yvu9=IYVU9_32.DLL
vidc.vifp=VFCodec.dll -- located in the VFAPIConv-1.05-EN.zip file

Then, you might have to register it via --> RegSvr32.exe VFCodec.dll
(or maybe you do it first, and then add the .dll manually .. just experiment)

I hope I covered everything, this time

Here's what it would look like if everything were working properly.



-vhelp 4420

[foochuck]

Thanks for your help. Acutally that window for makeAVIS doesn't open after the "dos window flash". I tried it several times - even rebooted and still no luck.

[vhelp]

Don't forget to make sure you have both DGVfapi.vfp and DGDecode.dll in
the same directory as DGIndex.exe is..

Like this:

c:\dgindex.exe
c:\DGVfapi.vfp
c:\DGDecode.dll

Also, forgot to mention about the use of readavs.dll that has (or might
have) to be installed as well. And, prob in the same folder as above, though
I'm not sure, exactly. I think you can find it on this forum in the tools
section.

Or, try this download:

--> readavs.zip

...

You might need the DGMpgdec tools for vfapi frameserving support. I don't for
sure. I only know that between dgmpgdec and dgindex they are
somehow responsible for proper frameserving:

F: http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/FullChanges.html
S: DGMPGDec MPEG Decoder and Frame Server

-vhelp 4424

[foochuck]

Is readavs.zip for avisynth? Just curious what it's used for...

[vhelp]

From what I can remember, readavs.dll was used for helping to read in AVS
scripts via frameserver mechanism like vfapi and virtualdub (.vdr) sign posts.
It was also used with TMPGenc so that it could read them (.avs) in directly.

But, from my google searches, I was also used in vfapi and when you open
the vfapi file dialog, it was suppose to list (as options) .tpr and .vdr
as well as .avs files for importing. And, when you saw these, you knew
that you have everything installed and working correctly. But this was
for Windows XP and other os's that were not properly configured with
frameserving operations.

And those users who reported problems where either using dgmpgdec or
dgindex at the time.

I realize that we could use avisynth directly in most cases, but there are
times when can't or don't want to (for various reasons) and need to work
with our videos in RGB color space. There could be a filter or routine(s)
that is only available in the apposing video application. For instance,
I've been searching around for an CMYK filter/plugin, like the one used
inside TMPGenc's, (last time I looked, there was none for avisynth) and
just today (maybe last 20 minutes or so) I just found one for virtualdub,
ran a couple of tests, and seem to work the same, so far. But, finding
this filter save me 1/2 hr of processing time, because the way I used to
filter (with CMYK setup) was by using the following (crude) scenario:

PASS 1 --> avi -> vdub[filters] -> new_avi
PASS 2 --> new_avi -> avisynth[filters] -> vdub[filters] -> TMPGenc[CMYK] -> new_avi

But, now I can save that 1/2 hr (of TMPGenc slow) processing time using:

PASS 1 --> avi -> vdub[filters] -> new_avi
PASS 2 --> new_avi -> avisynth[filters] -> vdub[filters] -> new_avi

I won't know if this will be practiced ongoing. I have to run through
various scenarios and see how it stands up to my previous video processes,
in terms of picture quality, etc.

-vhelp 4425

[foochuck]

Is there a specific way to install readavs.dll or does it need to be placed in the same folder as VFAPI?

[foochuck]

One more thing I should let you know - I have basically copied the DGMPGDec & VFAPICodecV105en folders to my desktop. I run each corresponding exe file when working with those programs. Each folder contains the following files:

DGMPGDec:
Bugs_Limitations.txt
Changes.txt
COPYING.txt
DGDecode.dll
DGDecodeManual.html
DGIndex.exe (the main file I open)
DGIndex.ini
DGIndexManual.html
DGVfapi.txt
DGVfapi.vfp
QuickStart.html

VFAPICodecV105en:
Oemsetup.inf
Readme.txt
Readme2.txt
VFAPIConvEN.exe (the main file I open)
VFCodec.dll
vifp.inf
vifpset.bat

Also I noticed this line in DGVfapi.txt: "3. Ensure that the VFAPI reader codec is installed." I don't know how to verify that the codec is installed. Is there a way I can check and see if that codec is installed?

[vhelp]

I don't know how to verify that the codec is installed. Is there a way I can check and see if that codec is installed?

Absolutely.., there is. But it envolves having yet another utility.. its called, ahhh

--> VCSwap -- though I have an older version.

After you install it, you run it as you do any other windows tool.
Then, after it initializes it checkes your HDD/registry values for any
codec(s) installed, and then displays them in a listing. I left an
example output of this, below. I shrunk the window to only allow
enough entries so that I could keep the space down in the jpeg.

But, the main purpose of the utility is to *swap* codecs when you
have multiple of the same in operation and can only use one at a
time.., hence, V.C. or, Video Codec Swap.



-vhelp 4426