VirtualDub External Encoder Issues

[Bruce Banner]

One common issue is you have to enter the correct file extension in the final Save As dialog. It isn't filled in automatically, not correctly anyway.

Check the muxer settings just to be sure it's looking for "%(tempaudiofile)" and not something else.

>When you say the extension has to match the content, what do you mean by the content?
Just reminding people not to use .mp3 from my example, unless that's what the file really is.

Quoting myself from here,

'Output filename' is the filename of the temporary file that the encoder creates. By default it will be %(outputname).audio or %(outputname).video, but it is recommended to change '.audio' and '.video' to the correct extension as some multiplexers rely on extensions for file type detection.

Here's the log with highlights added, and with the redundant progress messages removed. The name seems correct at the audio encoder, but completely different at the muxer:

[*] Beginning dub operation.

[i] Dub: Input (decompression) format is: YUV420.

[i] Dub: Output (compression) format is: YUV420.

[i] AudioEnc: qaac 2.47, CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.3

[i] AudioEnc: test.mp4.Audio.mp4

[i] AudioEnc: AAC-LC Encoder, TVBR q91, Quality 96

[i] AudioEnc: 0:00.960 (0.9x)

[i] AudioEnc: 0:01.000 (0.9x)

[i] AudioEnc: 48048/-1 samples processed in 0:01.078

[i] AudioEnc: Overall bitrate: 88.3316kbps

[i] AudioEnc: Optimizing...done

[i] Mux: AVC-H264 import - frame size 1432 x 1076 at 23.976 FPS

[i] Mux: Importing AVC-H264: |==== | (20/100)



[i] Mux: Importing AVC-H264: |=================== | (96/100)

[i] Mux: Importing AVC-H264: |=================== | (98/100)

[i] Mux: Importing AVC-H264: |=================== | (95/100)

[i] Mux:

[i] Mux: AVC Import results: 24 samples - Slices: 1 I 6 P 17 B - 1 SEI - 1 IDR

[i] Mux: Stream uses forward prediction - stream CTS offset: 2 frames

[i] Mux: [Importer] Unknown input file type for "test.mp4.m4a"

[i] Mux: Error importing test.mp4.m4a: Requested URL is not valid or cannot be
found

[E] Error: CLI: The multiplexing process failed with error code 1 (00000001).
Check the log for possible error messages.[*] Ending operation.

How do I check the muxer settings? How do I know what the correct extension should be? You're talking to someone who knows nothing.

[raffriff42]

Please read these tutorials and guides, they will really help.

How to use the external encoder feature, a brief overview (virtualdub.org) (the original guide, a bit hard to "get")

Using External Encoders In Virtualdub (virtualdub.org) (one of my early guides)

VirtualDub: save direct to MP4 with external encoders (encodingtalk.com) (another one of mine, very popular in its day)

VirtualDub External Encoder Tutorials (doom9.org) (pointers to more resources)

[Bruce Banner]

Please read these tutorials and guides, they will really help.

How to use the external encoder feature, a brief overview (virtualdub.org) (the original guide, a bit hard to "get")

Using External Encoders In Virtualdub (virtualdub.org) (one of my early guides)

VirtualDub: save direct to MP4 with external encoders (encodingtalk.com) (another one of mine, very popular in its day)

VirtualDub External Encoder Tutorials (doom9.org) (pointers to more resources)

Thanks. I already figured out a solution, though. I just changed the MP4 multiplexer from MP4Box to M MP4 {A/V} That did the trick.

[jairovital]

You need certain dlls from Apple.

1. Download makeportable.zip
2. Download iTunes (64) installer (do not install)
3. Download and install or use portable 7zip
4. Put "makeportable.cmd", iTunes installer (and 7zip portable exe) into same folder and run "makeportable.cmd"
5. Put all files from "QTfiles" into same folder as "qaac.exe" (or all files from "QTfiles64" into same folder as "qaac64.exe")

Thank you, sneaker, but I'm quitting this experience.
It's not worth to download and install a 190 Mb file just to normalize an audio, what I already do using SoundForge, this way having much more control.

When I saw Staxrip doing this using only a single line, I thought it could be done with Vdub in the same way, but I got stuck in a maze.

[jairovital]

regarding <anonymous pipe>, double check your hyphens. They mean the anonymous pipes stdin or stdout. For example,

--tvbr 91 -q 2 --threading -i -o "%(tempaudiofile)" -
...............................................this ^ is really important

Yes, raffriff42, the line is exactly the same.

"Anonynous pipe" error is related to CoreAudioToolbox.dll missing file, I guess.
When send log to a file, I get this message "Write error occurred on file: anonymous pipe" in a window and "ERROR: 193: CoreAudioToolbox.dll" in log file.

[jairovital]

Thank you, sneaker, but I'm quitting this experience.
It's not worth to download and install a 190 Mb file just to normalize an audio, what I already do using SoundForge, this way having much more control.

Changing my mind...

When I saw Bruce Banner using Nologic profile, I realize that its package is full, i.e., all Apple file are already there.
I put its folder on path and, voilà, I could run qaac without error.

[jairovital]

Qaac folder tree:

D:\programs\encoders\quaac\
| libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll
| libsoxconvolver.dll
| libsoxr.dll
| libsoxrate.dll
| msvcp120.dll
| msvcr120.dll
| qaac.exe
| refalac.exe
|
\---QTfiles
....| ASL.dll
....| CoreAudioToolbox.dll
....| CoreFoundation.dll
....| icudt46.dll
....| icuin40.dll
....| icuuc40.dll
....| libdispatch.dll
....| libicuin.dll
....| libicuuc.dll
....| objc.dll
....| pthreadVC2.dll
....|
....\---Microsoft.VC80.CRT
............Microsoft.VC80.CRT.manifest
............msvcp80.dll
............msvcr80.dll

[sneaker]

It's not worth to download and install a 190 Mb file just to normalize an audio.

Well, it's also to get best AAC encoding. And you do not install the 190 MB. Just extract the hand full of dll files you listed in your last post. After that you can delete the installer.

[jairovital]

Unfortunately, I found no difference between results "with and without" normalized audio.
Both audios are almost the same... (!)
And --normalize argment has no extra parameters to set.

Any ideas?

[sneaker]

How different audio will be after normalization depends on source, naturally. What kind of normalization do you want?

[jairovital]

How different audio will be after normalization depends on source, naturally. What kind of normalization do you want?

You are right. It depends on source.
Maybe, I said bullshit.

Sometimes, I get a video with a bad (high and low) levels on audio.
SoundForge give me the ability to change those levels using "Peak" or "Average RMS".
And sliders to test and see (actually, hear) results.

But it's OK.
I have now a new way to process video using qaac and I appreciate your guidance through External Encoders settings.

[sneaker]

CLI programs obviously won't provide any fancy sliders with preview.

I'm not sure what I would recommend to you so I'm gonna list some options for you to look at:
- qaac has more parameters than only --normalize: --gain, --drc, --limiter . See doc: https://github.com/nu774/qaac/wiki/Command-Line-Options
- VirtualDub has its own normalization/gain filters and also an option to view the audio with a diagram and preview. See VirtualDub help (F1) about "Audio volume", "Audio filters" and "Audio display".
- there's a popular ffmpeg filter called "dynaudnorm". Maybe you should read up on it: https://superuser.com/questions/323119/how-can-i-normalize-audio-using-ffmpeg
ffmpeg can be integrated as an external encoder (it has aac encoding though probably worse than qaac. Again: there might be batch tricks to combine both)