Adding "blank" Black screen time, and/or fades... for FREE

[homerpez]

I bet many hoped this was an answer, but no... it's another question.

Is there any program out there than can, preferably for free, and preferably with little re-encoding, add extra "black" frames to a section of video.

Also, on some I'd simply like to freeze longer on the last frame, just to hold or repeat it for several seconds.

The application? I'm converting Flash SWF files to uncompressed AVI (separate audio/video streams), then to MPEG.

I have everything working just perfectly, except I would like to add a "black screen" to space one clip from another one by a few seconds, or alternately to freeze longer on a title or credits.

I would ideally not want to run this through anything that's going to do massive re-encoding on me (Premiere), but if it can do it Uncompressed to Huffy AVI, that's acceptable. Preferably, I would like the program involved to be free (V-Dub or similar).

Any solutions?

[Mackerelq]

Use AVISynth.

[homerpez]

Anything where it isn't a text file and I can see what I'm doing?...

[Truman]

Use AVISynth.

At the moment I can not see a way to add black frames or freeze a frame with Avisynth. All what I can do is to replace frames by a frozen frame. Could you explain your method please?

[homerpez]

I'm curious to know as well...

So far, I have tried most every "Free" program out there (and some that aren't)... I'm unfortunately thinking that Premiere is the only way to go in a case like this....

Does that mean that, hypothetically, if I wanted to make my own logos with a freeze-frame, I would also have to use nothing less costly/elaborate than Premiere?

I would think somebody, SOMEWHERE, would have come out with even just a simple AVI editor (I want to do all this with uncompressed AVI anyway) that could insert "real" blank space into a video stream...

[doug1937@hotmail.com]

Why don't you just capture a few seconds of video with a black signal and no sound? It shouldn't be that difficult to do.

I think, if you must do it the hard way, that Virtualdub will let you copy a black frame until you have as many black frames as you want. Then just convert that AVI to MPG.

[Mackerelq]

Okay, AVISynth is not the easiest "Program" to understand, but if you look through the tutorials on its website you can (being optimistic) figure it out. Basically AVISynth is a scripting language for video editing, but the odd thing about it is that when you install it, the scripts that you make can be opened with certain video editing programs, ie. VirtualDub so that it is like you have already modified the video in the way that you have scripted when you open the script. You can use the Blackness command to create an all black clip, or use FadeOut2 to fade out and append two black frames to the end of the clip.

Another way, if you're not so AVISynth inclined, is:

1. Create a black bitmap in paint 352x240 (252x288 PAL) pixels in size.
2. Copy the file multiple times and then rename them in sequential order, (ie. 1.bmp, 2.bmp...)
3. Open TMPGEnc load the VCD template of your project type.
4. Select the first bitmap as the video source. (use no audio)
5. Select File>Output to file>Avi File and select the destination and filename.

You will now have an Avi file of all black frames that you can edit in to your project.

Enjoy.

[Truman]

So I think I was right, that you can not add black frames into any part of the video.
I did a short test. I want to freeze frame #1500 for 5 seconds
and add 3 seconds black screen between frame #1500 and #1501.
So I have to create 3 different scripts.
The credits:

v=AVISource("d:\video.avi")
a=WAVSource("d:\audio44,1.wav")
AudioDub(v,a)
BilinearResize(448,414,9,0,702,576)
AddBorders(16,81,16,81)
Trim(0,1625)
FreezeFrame(1500,1625,1500)#note, the audio is not modified

the black screen

Blackness(75,480,576)
ChangeFPS(25)
ConvertToYUY2
#you can specify the clip properties in one line, but I dont #know, what "pixel_type" means

the video

v=AVISource("d:\video.avi")
a=WAVSource("d:\audio44,1.wav")
AudioDub(v,a)
BilinearResize(448,414,9,0,702,576)
AddBorders(16,81,16,81)
Trim(1501,0)

I saved these scripts as part1.avs, part2.avs and part3.avs.
Next script:

AVISource("d:\part1.avs","d:\part2.avs","d:\part3.avs")

Save as filename.avs and load it as video source into the MPEG encoder.
btw, you can preview the .avs with windows media player or VirtualDUB.

[hitechjunkie]

another option would be to download and use the trial version of ulead's videostudio. i got a copy of v4 for free with my firewire card and it is fast and extremely easy to use and let's u do things like add clips of black (or whatever color u desire) between frames, scrolling text, crossfades, etc., without all of the overhead of premiere. it's great for creating "insert next disc" mpegs for those multi-disc XVCDs.

[WRCoach]

Go to:

http://www.capturix.com/english/index.asp

and get the demo version of video capturix. It has a feature called avi builder. You can turn stills into avi files. Set the framerate at 1 frame per second and add as many BLACK BLANK bitmaps as you want, then convert with TMPGEnc to 29.97 frames per second. Use the MPEG TOOLS (Merge and Cut) of TMPGEnc to add the black to the beginning and end of your MPEG.

....all for free.

[OH]

You can use virtualdub, with a filter called Frame tweaker (Chris LaRosa)

OH

[dinesh]

If you still wish to use VirtualDub, try applying the Frame Tweaker filter available here http://www.geocities.com/cplarosa/video/tweaker.htm
Although this might help in FadeIn FadeOut, Blackness etc, I am not sure of a way to freeze frames, try the COPY / PASTE option in the filter.

[Truman]

I tested the frame tweaker filter too. It will replace frames, but do not add frames.

[lafamar]

I think it's simple.
1)Take a black .jpg or .bmp frame/still.
2)Take a 1 second or minute (time what you want) of silent .wav file with your record sound editor.
3)Run TMPGenc and load on source video your .jpg or .bmp. Load on sorce audio your .wav file.
4) Load your prefereble TMPGenc template (the same of your blahblah.mpg file) and START encoding.
5) Join both file with TMPGenc.
Bye

[hitechjunkie]

nah, homer wants to be able to do it in AVI. i still say ulead videostudio is the way to go. once you've loaded and edited ur avi with titles, crossfades, etc., you can export the video using any codec available on ur system, even back to AVI using huffyuv.

[homerpez]

Well... here's an update...

I ended up having to use Premiere... I found it was about the only program I could use that made any sort of sense...

Now, I'm having all sorts of other problems with it. Like, I can input a 10fps AVI with 120 seconds duration, and yesterday, it worked (clip was 120 seconds long in the timeline). Now I do the same exact thing and it's drastically shorter in timecode duration like 37 seconds or something)... and it doesn't matter what I set the project framerate to, nor the video framerate (10, 12, 15, 20, 29.97... it all works the same...) !!!!! SO i'm back to the "Newbie" forum to solve that one...

But, on the other hand, it did what I wanted to do in the way of inserting black frames, fades, etc. Freeze-frame is another issue, I can seem to do it but I need to tweak it a bit...

Tried Ulead, which I had on CD for a while but never bothered to install. I'm glad I didn't...