VirtualDub generated AVI file jumpy when viewed in Windows Media Player

[MRICE]

I have a .avi file which was generated with VirtualDub from a set of 461 JPG files each with a size of 1.1MB

The source .avs file looks like this

ImageSource("C:\Test1\Image%04d.jpg",start=0001,end=0461,fps=25)

When the .avi file is played in Windows Media Player, the video plays but pauses intermittently even when stored on the hard drive of the machine.

Are there any options available to improve this? Ideally I would like to achieve this by setting parameters when generating the .avi file as opposed to installing different software.

Thanks in anticipation.

[poisondeathray]

What codec and compression settings did you use ?

Note WMP doesn't have very many AVI compatible codecs "out of the box", most are installed separately . WMP relies on system installed codecs - so what might work ok on one computer, will fail on another

Does it play ok in a player like VLC ? MPCHC ? There are "portable / usb " versions that do not require install, and they come with a bunch of different codecs

[MRICE]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I used the batch wizard followed by a batch run to create the file. I didn't set any options so I guess that I was using whatever the defaults are. Any advice that you can give on setting various parameters will be gratefully received. This is a new area for me.

The .avi files are being played in a corporate environment where the users do not have the option to use anything but the standard software (WMP) so alternative playing mechanisms are unfortunately not an option. The standard is the WMP that comes with Windows 7 Enterprise Service Pack 1.

Thanks again.

[ndjamena]

Doesn't VirtualDub default to uncompressed? Last time I accidently saved an AVI with VirtualDub without any codecs installed (after reformatting my SSD) I remember my first attempt to convert the file to something else failed because the Windows Codec responsible for reading it buggered up part way through.

[poisondeathray]

What were the dimensions of your images?

If you used no compression settings it would be uncompressed RGB. If this was 1920x1080 25fps, that is well over 150MB/s. Unless your local machines have SSD"s or Raid-0 mechanical drives, you would be running into IO bottlenecks

The only reliable codec "out of the box" for all versions of windows is WMV3 . Legacy installs of Win95/98 etc.. can play it. But Win7 does come with other decoders for things like h264 with MS media foundation.

[MRICE]

The dimensions are 1280 x 800. Is reducing the dimensions further likely to be a positive move forward?

[manono]

1280x800=1.6:1. Did you purposely choose that resolution? And if this thing is less than 20 seconds long, and if you didn't choose any 'options', didn't you notice the file got kind of big? My guess, in the absence of any definitive information yet, is that it's an uncompressed RGB AVI and that explains the stuttering playback. Compress it into something and your problem should go away.

[MRICE]

Can you suggest a suitable compression protocol to use which is compatible with Windows Media Player?

[poisondeathray]

Are they all Windows 7 or 8 machines ? Pre Win7 OS's don't have default h.264 decoders and you would have to use wmv if you didn't want to install anything or use another player (there are portable non installed , usb versions of players available like VLC)

You can use h.264 but not directly out of "standard" vdub - IIRC MS's splitter has problems with h.264 in AVI container. So if using vdub you would need to use the external encoder feature with ffmpeg. There are guides on the vdub forum as to how to set this up

Or since you are using avisynth, just plug that into something like ripbot, megui, xvid4psp, basically any GUI for x264 that has avisynth support and output to a MP4 container. x264 is a free open source AVC/h.264 encoder

[MRICE]

The option of Ripbot and output to MP4 has solved the problem.

Many thanks to all those who have helped on this thread.