How to add a splash screen at beginning of avi

[Overfloating]

Hi. I was wondering how I can take an image file and add it to the beginning of an avi file so that you only see the image for about the first 1.5 minutes before the video starts. The avi file was compressed using XVID, if that helps. I would prefer (if possible) to not have to do a full re-compression just to add a simple image at the beginning.

Thanks for your help.

[manono]

Hi-

It won't be easy, but it can probably be done. If you encode the pic using the exact same attributes/settings as the AVI, you can append it at the beginning of the AVI without having to reencode the AVI. My question to you is why on earth would anyone want to watch a 90 second logo or whatever it is before going on to watch the video?

[Overfloating]

OK how would I go about encoding a single image file into an avi which I could then presumably append? The image file is the same resolution as the video of course.

And since you asked I've been working on synchronizing an mp3 of rifftrax (www.rifftrax.com) to the already existing audio of the avi movie file. The only problem is the rifftrax mp3 starts before the audio of the movie to do some guest introductions (About 2.5 minutes actually). I just thought it would be slick to have the rifftrax logo on the screen while it goes through the intro then once the movie starts it goes away. At this point I would even settle for a blank screen in lieu of the logo splash screen.

[manono]

Well, I'd do it using AviSynth, but it can probably be done using VDub filters as well. Everything has to be the same. I assume, since you said the audio is longer than the video and that's why you're adding the pic, that you only want to create the splashscreen video (without audio), and will use only the one audio track, which you'll add in afterwards. That makes the job easier because you won't have to create a silent audio track for your splashscreen video.

You have to find out everything about the AVI file that you can; codec, resolution, framerate, etc., and try and duplicate it in the splashscreen encode, at the same time making it the length you want. Maybe open the AVI in GSpot to get the particulars. You'll have to convert the JPG to YV12 as the AVI is probably that already, and you can't join videos of different colorspaces. Remove the audio from the AVI so you have only the video remaining. When done, open the newly encoded splashscreen AVI in VDub(Mod) and "Append Segment" to add in the main piece. If there's an error message, try and take it into account when you reencode.

If you're familiar with AviSynth, I'd use ImageSource to open and encode the pic you have:

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/ImageSource

I suppose you can do the same thing by opening the pic directly in VDub(Mod), but as I don't do it that way perhaps someone else will have to help if that's all you know. Or maybe they can suggest a third way. And if you've had no encoding experience, there's a fair chance you've bitten off more than you can chew. Good luck.