Editing an AVI File

[solarblast]

I'd like to take an AVI file from my camera and cut it up into sections, and save the sections as AVI files. Can that be done with some tool? I might want to glue some sections together, and put them out in a single avi file.

[Baldrick]

Virtualdub. Video->direct stream copy and audio->direct stream copy. Cut. Save.

[solarblast]

Thanks. I forgot I had it; however, I think I used it once a few months ago for just trimming a specific segment. It appears the Append Segment item in File should just place the next segment on the time line. That doesn't seem to be the case. It may be that I'm not actually looking at a time line. I see two image that appear to be identical. If I use the long slider at the bottom, I can see the frames flash by, and it even looks like the second segment I added may be there.

I don't see anything in the Help that explains the main screen layout. If I put my cursor over the buttons at the bottom, there's no indication what they are really for. Is there some broader operational instruction elsewhere?

[gadgetguy]

Virtualdub doesn't have a timeline as such, rather a frame slider. In standard setup the input video is on the left and the output video (after filters are applied) is on the right. (These can optionally be reversed.) All of the buttons at the bottom have tooltip text that explains each function, but in a nutshell from left to right "Stop", "Play Input", "Play Output", "Jump to first frame", "Previous Frame", "Next Frame", "Last Frame", "Previous Key Frame", "Next Key Frame", "Previous Scene", "Next Scene", "Mark In", "Mark Out". All of which are explained in the help file under Processing/Main UI in the version I have installed (1.7.6). What version do you have?

[solarblast]

Thanks. 1.5.10. Time for a new download.

I'm assuming that if I do nothing with regard to the filters, I will get all frames in the output, correct? Apparently, there's no way to determine what segments have been added. They just continue in a larger whole.

[solarblast]

BTW, how do I uninstall VirtualDub in XP? I see no menu item in the Start menu nor anything in the Control Panel Add/Delete software icon.

[Baldrick]

Delete the folder.

[solarblast]

I was afraid someone would say that. Ugly. Remove it from there plus the Start menus.

[gadgetguy]

Thanks. 1.5.10. Time for a new download.

I'm assuming that if I do nothing with regard to the filters, I will get all frames in the output, correct? Apparently, there's no way to determine what segments have been added. They just continue in a larger whole.

You get all frames even with filters unless you select and delete frames. And yes, there is no clear delineation between clips you have appended. Also, since you seem to be inexperienced with Vdub, when you append clips that share the same name with a numerical sequence, (MyVideo1.avi, MyVideo2.avi, MyVideo3.avi, etc.), all of the clips get appended automatically so you don't have to add each one individually. (Which is really confusing if you don't know about it.)

[solarblast]

That's interesting about the names MyV1, MyV2, ... Wow.

Something is amiss here. I went to https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Virtualdub and downloaded the 920K file mentioned near the top. (Dec. 10, v 1.7.7). When I unzipped it, it looks like it has about nine files* and two folders. These does not look like an install file. Am I supposed to replace the 1.5.10 files with these in the "executable" folder?

* For example:
VirtualDub.exe
Vdremote.dll
Auxsetup.exe
...

[gadgetguy]

Vdub does not need to be "installed". You just run the VirtualDub.exe from the folder that you extracted it to (double-click on it). I've never heard of an "executable" folder before. Also, if you plan on frameserving you will need to run Auxsetup.exe once.

[Jim44]

These does not look like an install file. Am I supposed to replace the 1.5.10 files with these in the "executable" folder?
...

Yep. Not "installation", other than extracting them from the zip file, required.

[solarblast]

What I meant by an 'executable" folder is that when I unzipped 1.5.10 several months ago, it created a folder with quite a few files and several subfolders. It contained the exe file that starts the program. I have no idea any longer if I had to make a menu entry or not.

As extracted for 1.7.7, the folder with the main exe file will not execute. I do believe it needs to be in the location where 1.5.10 ended up. This is a very unusual to install a program. I suspect in some way that the install (original) circumvented the registry of XP.

Ah, additional insight into what's happening. When I clicked on the zip file for 1.7.7, Xp it showed the compressed the files in zip. It did not release them anywhere into a folder. The unzip program was not in effect. This is very odd, since I don't recall this ever happening with a zip file. Somehow unzip is not available.

This is really weird. I found unzip.exe (and pkunzip.exe) and tried to unzip the virtualdub-1.1.7.zip file into C:\ ...\junk. It did it, but I don't see the files there. If I repeat it, it knows the files are there, but asks if I want to overwrite them. As far as I can tell, there's no reason I shouldn't see them. They are not hidden files.

I'll be back.

[johns0]

I have had problems with vdub when appending avi's that had same names such as movie1.avi,movie2.avi and movie3.avi.The order would be all screwed after such as movie1.avi,then movie2.avi then movie1.avi ran even though i did them in proper order,What i did to fix that was rename them show1.avi,movie2.avi and picture3.avi,then they appended ok after that.

[solarblast]

Well, I guess I worked this out. This seems very odd. I opened the zip folder, apparently with some XP Compress facility. It shows the contents of the zip folder. I selected all of them, and copied them to another folder. However, the folder with the zip file seems empty, except for the zip file itself. This even though, as said below, pkunzip seemed to pull them into that folder.

This is a really odd way to install an update. I guess I now take the new unzipped files from the above folder and stick them into the folder where 1.5.10 resides. I've never seen anything like this before. DOS maybe?

[gadgetguy]

XP has the ability to browse into Zipped files as if they were like any other folder. If you right-click on the zip file one of the menu options it to "Extract All", which opens a wizard allowing you to specify where to extract the files to.

The fact that VirtualDub doesn't need an installer is not that unusual for open source and/or freeware. Personally, I prefer programs that don't require an installer because it offers me the most control over where my programs and files are stored, (although in most cases I still put the folder in the Program Files folder). You're not really performing an update so much as installing a newer version. This allows both versions to co-reside so if the newer version has a feature or change that you don't like, or is broken in the newer version, you can easily switch back to use the older version.

[solarblast]

I was away for 30 hours, and am now back home.

Regarding the installation, I still think it's a little funky, and I don't think there is a description of how to set it up initially or update it. Nevertheless, I'm running 1.7.7 now.

Back to editing questions. I did manage to take 6 avi files and glue then all together in one larger file. That's very good. The help looks like a good improvement over the 1.5.10 vers. I'll print it shortly. I plan to print the entire document, but the "print all" doesn't give me a clue as to how big that is. I'll print 10 pages and see what that gets me. I'll be looking to see if there's someway to move the slider directly to a frame number or time. Anyone know? Back later.