Editing FLV in VirtualDub

[CursedLemon]

I noticed that there was a thread on this made a while back.

When I open FLVs in VDub, all I get is a black screen with the audio. Unfortunately, the solution to the person's problem who posted the original thread was to just install ffdshow and enable all the FLV codecs, and I had already done that (unless I'm doing it wrong, in which case feel free to instruct me). I can't simply ignore the blackscreen and process the video anyway because it will, predictably, just end up as blackscreen again, even if I convert to another format.

Any ideas?

[poisondeathray]

what kind of flv? use mediainfo (view=>text) copy and paste the info back here

are you opening the flv directly in vdub ? or using avisynth script ?

[CursedLemon]

All the FLVs I'm trying to edit are ripped from Youtube using Unplug.

I'm not quite savvy enough to use Avisynth. ;(

Here's the info for one particular video, though all the videos might not be the same:

General
Complete name : C:\Mein Folder\Audio-Video\Hockey Vids\datsbert.flv
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 20.0 MiB
Duration : 1mn 17s
Overall bit rate : 2 167 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-16 21:05:14
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-16 21:05:14
gsst : 0
gstd : 77786
gssd : B4A7D0C44HH

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1mn 17s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 039 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 380 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.074
Stream size : 18.8 MiB (94%)
Title : (C) 2007 Google Inc. v08.13.2007.
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-16 21:05:14
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-16 21:05:15

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1mn 17s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 124 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 162 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Stream size : 1.15 MiB (6%)
Title : (C) 2007 Google Inc. v08.13.2007.
Encoded date : UTC 2010-01-16 21:05:14
Tagged date : UTC 2010-01-16 21:05:15

[poisondeathray]

did you enable h.264/avc in the ffdshow configuration ?

this is actually .mp4 not flv, try renaming extension

another option is avidemux

avisynth is quite easy to use for opening videos ,it's just typing 1 line

[CursedLemon]

I posted the wrong info initially, have a look at it again.

[poisondeathray]

If it's correct right now , everything I posted above still stands

Youtube doesn't use flv container for their HD content. They use mp4 container. The recording application you used re-wrapped or (more likely) just changed the extension . You can use download helper, or even check your temp. internet directory. Youtube automatically downloads to that directory, you don't even need another program to "record"

Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42

[CursedLemon]

Well, I'll be downsizing the HD videos because I'll be mixing HD and SD videos for this little Youtube project I'm working on. What can I do to get them to work in VDub so I can convert them to different formats?

The video quality for this project doesn't really matter because the video is just an accompaniment to the audio.

[poisondeathray]

Easiest way is to use avidemux, which offers similar functionality as vdub (I would still rename the extension to .mp4) . You can open flv, mp4 etc.. without hassle and it has resize filters, multiple export options etc...

For vdub, I would use avisynth script. mp4 can be quite problematic to open in vdub, it is very finicky depending how you have your system setup, just search for the dozens of thread on the topic - the vdub import plugins are quite unreliable . Best way that is consistent and works all the time is avisynth

[CursedLemon]

I'll acquaint myself with avisynth and see what I can do with it.

[poisondeathray]

1) install avisynth

2) download ffmpegsource2 plugin and unzip into avisynth\plugins folder (you need the .dll and .avsi specifically)
http://code.google.com/p/ffmpegsource/

3) open a notepad text file in the same directory as your video, write the following (change filename to match), save, then change extension from .txt to .avs

FFMpegSource2("video.mp4", atrack=-1)

(I would still rename that video extension to .mp4 from .flv, because that's what it really is)

4) open that .avs file in vdub


You can do other processing in the script,e g. resize as well . This way you can use "fast recompress" mode in vdub, and avoid RGB colorspace conversion

e.g
FFMpegSource2("video.mp4", atrack=-1)
LanczosResize(640,360)

This example would resize to 640x360

[Bonie81]

Try edit FLV directly in AVIDemux, if AVIDemux fails to open 1 280 x 720 FLV, then,
Just convert FLV into AVI using nice video conveter so audio and video do not get out of sync.
Edit AVI either using VirtualDub or AVIDemux.

[DarrellS]

You need to use FLV Extract to demux the aac.audio and 264.video and use Yamb or MP4Box to mux to MP4 before opening in Virtualdub. You could install the Directshow Input Driver and use that with Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow to open the files. You should install those anyway to open most files that Virtualdub does not support. Virtualdub can't read 264 in an FLV container.

I use FLV Extract and Yamb on all my mp4.flv so Explorer can see the thumbnails.

The only plugin that is broken is the mp4 plugin. You should use the QT plugin instead. This site needs to remove that plugin which is known to be broken and abandoned or put a warning stating so like Virtualdub does. The plugins won't work if you don't follow the instructions and setup ffdshow correctly. You need Quicktime Alternative or quicktime for the QT plugin to work.

[CursedLemon]

Dear god, so much noncompatibility in the the video world. x.@

Thanks for the detailed responses, guys. I'll try everything you've recommended until I get it working (haven't attempted anything quite yet, just got home from work).