Cropping the top of frame in Handbrake

[loninappleton]

hello_hello has suggested using MeGUI instead which, after I installed it, I see has a 'wrapper' for AVI synth and also incorporates Media Info.

I would prefer continuing with that since it loads. I never did see an .exe for AviSynth and
did everything including downloading it from a different source. No exe to be found. You've seen the screen shot. I see no visible .exe.

At this suggestion change I asked if there was a script available to do this in MeGUI
and how to install the script and modify in it's text file.

Other thing I learned is that AVIUtil will not load mkv files at all so I am not
considering that.

I will look tomorrow for any responses.

[loninappleton]

here is where I saw the reference to Net Framework 2 and AVI Synth

https://www.videohelp.com/software/AVISynth-UI/old-versions

I'd rather not go through more frustrations with just being told I'm dense and not being able to use an .exe. But I was looking for an older version which might have the
.exe or UI or whatever in a more obvious form to start the job.

[manono]

I would prefer continuing with that since it loads. I never did see an .exe for AviSynth...

Then you never clicked on the link I gave in a previous post which is the EXE file you need:

Download AviSynth 2.60 and install it.

Apparently you managed to install the wrong AviSynth because your screen shot shows all the files. But I've never installed AviSynth+ myself and have no idea how it installs.

You've seen the screen shot. I see no visible .exe.

You wouldn't. The EXE is for the installation only, not its use.

At this suggestion change I asked if there was a script available to do this in MeGUI
and how to install the script and modify in it's text file.

I don't use MeGUI so hello_hello can take over. However, I know there's a way to edit and modify the scripts it makes for you. Be sure and test them in VDub to make sure they're good after you change them, and before trying to encode with them. "The 'script to do this' (what, Trim and Fade In?) is the same as I showed you earlier.

[jagabo]

here is where I saw the reference to Net Framework 2 and AVI Synth

https://www.videohelp.com/software/AVISynth-UI/old-versions

AviSynth UI is not AviSynth.

I'd rather not go through more frustrations with just being told I'm dense and not being able to use an .exe. But I was looking for an older version which might have the
.exe or UI or whatever in a more obvious form to start the job.

There is no EXE for AviSynth (aside from the installer). It works in the background. You use a text editor (Notepad) to create scripts then open those scripts as if they were video files in an editor, media player, or encoder.

http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/First_script
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Getting_started
etc.

If you want a GUI for AviSynth you can try Avspmod. It holds your hand a bit, showing the possible options for many filters. But you still have to learn about the filters and how to use them.

[hello_hello]

The main reason I suggested MeGUI is it does all the basic stuff. Indexing and creating a script with cropping and resizing etc as required, but once the source is indexed and the script creator opens, you can switch to the script tab and modify it manually.

Nothing wrong with using Avspmod, but MeGUI does some of the work for you creating scripts, so you don't have to understand Avisynth fully.

Just be aware that every time you change something in MeGUI's script creator (cropping or resizing etc) it re-writes the entire script, so if you change the script manually and then change something in the GUI, you'll lose your manual changes. I'm pretty much in the habit of copying the script contents whenever I change something so I can paste it back later if need be. Mind you it helps to use a clipboard manager such as ClipX. It can save multiple clipboard entries so you don't lose the current clipboard contents when you copy something else.

http://bluemars.org/clipx/

[loninappleton]

hello_hello

Thanks for your patience in answering my questions. It's true, as time advances between my
video work I forget things said years ago.

Just now I am considered a simple trim where the fade- in would be since I would be
starting with no knowledge of MeGui not unlike AVISynth. (I never did get it to open.)

MeGui is loaded and I looked at the options. In order to enable video preview tab
I have to have a script entered and haven't got the code for any. Also there is an 'encoding' operation shown. How many steps are needed just to get the mkv ready?

Should this be a new thread in case others wish to view the needed operations?

[hello_hello]

Use the File/Open menu and select your source file, and MeGUI should open the File Indexer and offer to index it. It'll usually pick the best indexer for the job. Click the Queue button and the indexing job will be added to the queue. Switch to the Queue tab and click Start. When it's done, the Script Creator should open with a preview. It offers the usual cropping and resizing options etc. If anything is enabled in the script creator (cropping, resizing etc) maybe disable them to start with (also disable the anamorphic encoding option if it's enabled for the moment). Switch to the Script tab. If you've not enabled any coping or resizing or noise filtering etc it'll look something like this:

Avisource("D:\My Video.avi")
#deinterlace
#crop
#denoise
#resize

The top line will be whatever's required to open the video and the rest are effectively placeholders.

Switch back to the I/O tab and enable cropping. For the moment just select 4, 4, 4 & 4 for the left, top, right and bottom cropping.
Switch back to the script tab and you'll see the cropping has been added. Something like this:

Avisource("D:\My Video.avi")
#deinterlace
crop(4, 4, -4, -4)
#denoise
#resize

And now you know how cropping is added to a script. Click the preview button to see the result.

Next add a trim to the end of the script by typing it in manually like so:

Avisource("D:\My Video.avi")
#deinterlace
crop(4, 4, -4, -4)
#denoise
#resize
Trim(10,19)

Click the preview button again and the video preview should be reduced to frames 10 through 19, but it'll show frames 0 through 9 at the top as the video is now only 10 frames long as far as the preview is concerned (keep in mind Avisynth starts counting frames at zero, so the first frame is frame zero, not frame 1).

Now you know how to add a simple Trim to a script.

Hopefully that'll get you started. When you're done with creating the script, click the Save button and the Script Creator should close and the script will be automatically loaded into the video section. If you left the audio enabled in the File Indexer, MeGUI will have extracted it for file types where it can, or created a script to re-encode it if it can't, and the extracted audio or script should have been loaded into the audio section.

There's encoder configurations for both video and audio encoders, you can configure and save as presets and there's queue buttons for adding the video and audio encoding jobs to the queue individually (I mainly do that) or the AutoEncode button down the bottom can be used to add them both to the queue, set a file size if need be, and MeGUI will encode them and mux the video and audio for you and output a completed file. The jobs will be added to the job Queue so you'll have to switch to the Queue tab again and click Start.

That's the basics of it. Despite it's fairly bland appearance MeGUI is quite versatile and it'll probably take time to discover everything it can do, but hopefully it'll help you learn how to manually add stuff to scripts yourself. You don't have to be afraid of making mistakes. If you type something nonsensical into the script creator and click the preview button, you'll usually just see an error message. Delete whatever you typed and try again.

[loninappleton]

Thanks for this. It looks very complete and I will break it down to do the steps.
Much appreciated. I know there will be more to ask on scripts and such.

[loninappleton]

I have not abandoned this, just doing some other catch- up. The catch-up thing I wanted to get done was install the MKV plugin for and update to Virtual Dub. And print out the keyboard shortcuts.

That procedure went ok. I wanted get a couple successes before going to the long guide.

[loninappleton]

No progress with MEgui yet.

But what I did do is go over what turns out to be _my_ own posts. That's always a surprise and it may be why
some on here don't want to repeat themselves. Can't help it.

I've been trying to set up Virtual Dub to do this task with a very old plugin called FadeFX 1.2. That likely comes from the
AVI era (2003 at Earthlink) and what I have in the job is an mkv made in Handbrake. I've read some suggestions about getting Virtual Dub
able to read and work with mkv. And I added what plugins I can figure out to Virtual dub. The clip loads, I can get the Virtual Dub > Video > Filters open to where I installed FadeFX in the plugs folder of VD system 32 folder. Had problems getting a Save after all that so something is still amiss. The process though is at least clear.
The goal is to get Video and Audio to fade together and FadeFX does not do that.

I still intend to begin hello_hellos tutorial. Will do what I can right now.

[loninappleton]

Using the guide made above by hello_hello.
Loaded MEGUI
Found my Clip of 3 plus min.s and loaded that
Encoder highlights One Click-- I tick that box and a process goes too fast to see
Queue Tab next

Ok in the queue I have too much stuff from other failed tries at this. How to clear the Queue of old stuff?

--> I did try to highlight the bottom most recent entry but did not get the Script Creator response.

Finally for this session I see some queue info on the _name_ of this job in the tab. But the file name etc does not show in the main window.

[loninappleton]

Well I did more of the exercise of crop to 4 described above but I don't know precisely how I got there.

Script creator and Preview opened up at one of the steps which I now have to retrace.
All the flipping back and forth gives me a headache. Quitting for today and cleared the
Queue again. But I did see an AVI Script created in the first window with my SNIP file name.
And FFMpeg is in the tray.

Also ran the preview and was able to get some movement. This is all real rudimentary
excersize. I'll come back to it but would like some smoothing out of the steps.

Only partially related (to headaches) is on this Win7 the type font for MEGUI is really small. I ran all the Win7 'metrics' objects but couldn't get a better type font or size either. One thing at a time.

[loninappleton]

Just re-read the whole thread here from beginning to end.

hello_hello said, now you know how to make a crop. Well yes. I filled in the number 4
in 4 places doing it by rote as always. Not saving the completed script. Script and Content
still mystify me.

I'll have to go back and try the "version" command as a script excercise. Just that. To see if it prints.

I'll make a 10 sec clip of what I got as a final at the item discussed above where I 'decimated' everything wrong. It looked ok from my proofing by eye of it.

back later.

[_Al_]

I just read the whole thread as well, ...., you need videoeditor, not bunch of free tools that you battle every single one of them. Videoeditor , millions users do stuff like that using them. Loading video on timeline, crop video, make fade in or fade away. We are freaks in here in a sense, trying to use free tools but it is not much user friendly or we have some nerd tendencies to make things work, accomplishing a ton and even better sometimes than those $$$ tools, but myself I'd just load that video in videoeditor if I had to do what you are trying to do.

Download something like , Sony Vegas Movie Studio or Cyberlink Power director, or there are other tools. They have usually free trial, like 20days or one month, plenty of time for you. If you decide to buy them they are like $50 to $70 or something.

[loninappleton]

I just read the whole thread as well, ...., you need videoeditor, not bunch of free tools that you battle every single one of them. Videoeditor , millions users do stuff like that using them. Loading video on timeline, crop video, make fade in or fade away. We are freaks in here in a sense, trying to use free tools but it is not much user friendly or we have some nerd tendencies to make things work, accomplishing a ton and even better sometimes than those $$$ tools, but myself I'd just load that video in videoeditor if I had to do what you are trying to do.

Download something like , Sony Vegas Movie Studio or Cyberlink Power director, or there are other tools. They have usually free trial, like 20days or one month, plenty of time for you. If you decide to buy them they are like $50 to $70 or something.

Your reply deserves an answer. But I think it branches to a whole different topic. In point of fact I trust the regulars here for good advice. Maybe one of them would like to comment on alternatives. For now I'll stay on the same path. Parenthetically I will say that I tried to get the easiest -- if you listen to some-- program of all called Shotcut. It turns out that ease of use was a mirage and the only thing they have as help tools is youtube video-- videos where you have to listen to someone over a toy microphone tell you how "basically and "essentially" it all is and in front of a screen where the speaker's mouse gestures cannot be followed without constant lookbacks. If you try to tell them any of this they stonewall you as a troll.

But I think this discussion of what is easy and what isn't needs to be aired.

[_Al_]

Figuring out simple videoeditors, which are really intuitive and having GUI available, are for sure easier than using tools that were discussed here. And I mentioned software like Vegas , more robust systems.

Avisynth is used for denoising, deinterlace, fixing video problems, resizing of interlace footage, restoration of video, if you need to treat videos in batch where processes are automatized, if you want to use free x264 encoder etc. You do not really need any of those I think. That shotcut uses x264 perhaps for encoding (hopefully, it is based on ffmpeg) if x264 encoder is a priority, but anyway, I just had to say it. Mentioning handling simple video within videoeditor. That's all. You mentioned that you have tried it also, so fine.

[loninappleton]

As promised a 10 second clip for Manono ( I think) from my final print after all the changes I made to that (IIRC ) 50 fps screen cap from a live source. In it there's plenty of movement and good color.

[jagabo]

Why did you convert a 50 fps source to 29.97 fps?

[loninappleton]

Why did you convert a 50 fps source to 29.97 fps?

I found it to play back better in VLC. Making this change was initially an experiment I stuck with
because it worked. The original screen cap was huge.

Back on the main topic I am still slowly doing some practice with the AVI Synth exersizes but that is slow and I get involved with other things.

I still have to catch up on the suggestions made by _Al_ above.

[loninappleton]

Figuring out simple videoeditors, which are really intuitive and having GUI available, are for sure easier than using tools that were discussed here. And I mentioned software like Vegas , more robust systems.

Avisynth is used for denoising, deinterlace, fixing video problems, resizing of interlace footage, restoration of video, if you need to treat videos in batch where processes are automatized, if you want to use free x264 encoder etc. You do not really need any of those I think. That shotcut uses x264 perhaps for encoding (hopefully, it is based on ffmpeg) if x264 encoder is a priority, but anyway, I just had to say it. Mentioning handling simple video within videoeditor. That's all. You mentioned that you have tried it also, so fine.

No I have not used the program specifically named Videoeditor I insist on free tools not trialware because I have no means of buying lots of things. The program called Shotcut I tried to use briefly.
That's the one with all the youtube tutorials I can't stand and won't abide. It dealt with unusual file name formats-- not a simple save as mkv. More questions which the site moderator wanted to palm off to a canned video.

Ideally I would use a tool such as the very old Auto Gordian Knot editor for avi's. Numerically
set a start and end point and that highlighted part would then execute a fade in for example. Slope of the fade is not really critical but it might be nice to have that control as well. And do both audio and video. I really don't know how much pecking around is needed. So much needle in a haystack with
many speakers saying different things. That's why these threads get long.

But the process above is apparently not that simple. I noticed Toolnix does a lot behind the scenes for that frame=accurate cut the program can do (as an example.)

I have an analogy for this AVI Synth business. The example is tying your shoes. If you are 69 years old and have tied your shoes for 65 years you do it automatically. If a five year old asks how to tie
his shoes you'd be pretty much stuck. The resulting frustration is visited on the kid. What some people on here have to realize is that some are starting from scratch _all the time_.

[_Al_]

videoeditor is a general term for software that edits video, video editing software etc

To save as MKV is rather unusual within those softwares, mostly MP4 or transport streams like m2ts, besides some professional delivery formats. Yes those free video-editing softwares would export to MP4 or even MKV.

It does not matter what you export into, MP4 or MKV. Video stream is always mpeg4 avc aka H.264 format. Think of MKV or MP4 as containers that contain video and audio stream. It is just wrapped up differently but video content could be identical. It is just more natural if creating MKV to have AC3 audio in it , as oppose AAC audio, that is most common in MP4 container. So again MP4 or MKV is not a format, they are containers. So for example if exporting MP4 in video editng software, it automatically selects AAC audio format for it.

So you can see you can make MKV yourselv, you just get MP4 , then load it into MKVtoolnix and you get MKV, if for some reason you insist on it. But that is no reason for that unless you need to mux subtitles in it , more audio streams etc. MP4 is just fine as well. MKV is not superior to MKV and MKV is not superior to MP4 if thinking only about video quality.

MKVtoolnix is just for making MKV container, not editing software, I would not use it at all for those things.

I can see why Avisynth is not for you. That is why I came up with simple video-editing software. They were specifically designed for what you are trying to do.

[loninappleton]

Which freeware program will do the task of doing that fade then? Or any snipping task? I have at least been able to load things like Virtual Dub and got the
mkv plugin to load this job we are on-- or one of them. The goal is set start and stop point numerically, press fade, done. Then the next question is how to save without losing the rest of the piece.

We may still be talking at cross purposes. I'm continuing but slowly with the suggested MeGUI.

Elsewhere I have at least located some AVISynth scripts to load into the program. It's slow going though. MeGui will take the
elements of the container and work with those if I'm seeing what happens correctly.

My other older threads do a lot with discussion of audio. That may be why hello_hello pointed me toward MeGUI. There are some areas I can work in better than others
with the utilities I've assembled.

[_Al_]

Megui is an encoder, not video-editing software, those softwares also work with audio as well, handling volumes fade ins etc

download Vegas Movie Studio , there should be fully functional trial for 20 days I think, you load your clips in them, join, cut, fade-in, fade-out

click here for tutorial for beginners

always check requirements before, if your computer is ok for that software

[_Al_]

Are you working with MKV file? That Movie Studio most likely would not load it though, and so the others mostly, just make it MP4 using MKVtoMP4 , it is without re-encoding.

[hello_hello]

Megui is an encoder, not video-editing software, those softwares also work with audio as well, handling volumes fade ins etc

download Vegas Movie Studio , there should be fully functional trial for 20 days I think, you load your clips in them, join, cut, fade-in, fade-out

click here for tutorial for beginners

Have you used MeGUI before? It'll be disappointed to discover it can't edit.

Open the source video and create a script for encoding the whole thing.
Open the script with the AVS Cutter under the Tools Menu. Use the preview to add your "cuts" (the frame ranges you specify are the ones that'll be encoded). The AVS Cutter also has simple fade and dissolve options if you're into that sort of thing.
Save the edits to the script and save the "cuts file".
You can load the cuts file into the audio section to re-encod it to match the video, or alternatively there's an Audio Cutter under the Tools menu. It'll load extracted audio and use the cuts file to cut/re-join it losslessly.
AutoEncode can be used to output a completed file if you don't want to do the muxing yourself.

Three cuts added to a script with the fade option enabled:

__film = last
__t0 = __film.trim(0, 6904)
__t1 = __film.trim(11941, 15846)
__t2 = __film.trim(22807, 30164)
FadeOut0(__t0, 10, fps=AudioRate(__film)) ++ FadeIO0(__t1, 10, fps=AudioRate(__film)) ++ FadeIn0(__t2, 10, fps=AudioRate(__film))

I've never needed tried using MeGUI to apply audio fades but when I checked the cuts file it made me confident MeGUI knows what it's doing and it'll be faded, given "fade" is listed as the style.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Cuts xmlnssi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlnssd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Framerate>25</Framerate>
<Style>FADE</Style>
<AllCuts>
<CutSection>
<startFrame>0</startFrame>
<endFrame>6904</endFrame>
</CutSection>
<CutSection>
<startFrame>11941</startFrame>
<endFrame>15846</endFrame>
</CutSection>
<CutSection>
<startFrame>22807</startFrame>
<endFrame>30164</endFrame>
</CutSection>
</AllCuts>
</Cuts>

Simple editing is easy once you know how it works and you've done it a few times. If you want to change the picture quality or apply complex edits etc then maybe a dedicated editor would make it easier, but I've used the AVS Cutter to add a bucket load of Trims to scripts in the past. Not to cut sections, but to apply different filtering to each. My record is around 110 Trims when I panned and scanned a 4:3 DVD while cropping and resizing to 16:9 (no, resizing isn't the work of Satan). I doubt I'll ever do it again, but the result was great. Once you have all the Trims saved you can add any desired filtering manually. I made a feature request to allow the adding of custom filtering to each Trim via the AVS Cutter, but I don't know if that'll ever happen.

Adding different filtering to each Trim:

__t0 = __film.trim(0, 6904).GreyScale().crop(4, 4, -4, -4).Resize8(640,468,1,0,-1,0)
__t1 = __film.trim(11941, 15846).QTGMC().SelectEven().crop(14, 10, -14, -10).Resize8(640,468)
__t2 = __film.trim(22807, 30164).crop(8, 6, -8, -6).Resize8(640,468).LSFMod()

Nothing you can't do creating an Avisynth script from scratch yourself, but MeGUI's previews make it easier. Editing is very much like navigating between frames and adding edits with VirtualDub.

All for free. No trial period.

[_Al_]

Calm down,
take a deep breath and go ahead and help OP edit his video in Megui - "videoediting" software as you say. I'll check back later on Christmas how did it go.

[hello_hello]

Calm down,
take a deep breath and go ahead and help OP edit his video in Megui - "videoediting" software as you say. I'll check back later on Christmas how did it go.

What was it about my post that gave you the impression I wasn't calm? Do you find step by step instructions unsettling in some way?

Likewise, you can help the OP with software that's so much easier to use it requires a tutorial for beginners while you race the trial period to the finish line, but you'll get there way before Xmas and MeGUi will still be able to edit.

[loninappleton]

We are headed to page four on the thread. Right now I'm just having a period of confusion and waiting for it to clear.
I'm fully aware that some of speed typers and speed answerers will not get this all.

I'm in here to report I erred in saying Toolnix cut by frames. Another mistake in the software soup. What I meant was that I had finally learned with a guide how to frame cut with MKVCutter. That got me through one tough spot.

I will catch up on replies when my fog clears. Holiday weekend here, maybe the town will empty out tomorrow
and I can concentrate. Also I'd like to be able to report some progress on the helpful exercises given (still undone.)

[jagabo]

Why did you convert a 50 fps source to 29.97 fps?

I found it to play back better in VLC. Making this change was initially an experiment I stuck with
because it worked.

If you're going to decimate 50p you should decimate to 25p, not 23.976p. At 25p you have equal motion between each frame (every other frame is discarded). But at 23.976p an extra frame is discarded every second leading to small jumps. It's not especially visible in your sample clip but it will be noticeable in panning shots or shots where there is smooth motion. Ie, the original video has frames at 20 millisecond intervals. If you throw out every other frame you have frames at 40 ms intervals. If you change to 23.976 fps you have most frames at 40ms intervals but once a second there's an 80 ms jump.

[loninappleton]

I would prefer continuing with that since it loads. I never did see an .exe for AviSynth...

Then you never clicked on the link I gave in a previous post which is the EXE file you need:

Download AviSynth 2.60 and install it.

Apparently you managed to install the wrong AviSynth because your screen shot shows all the files. But I've never installed AviSynth+ myself and have no idea how it installs.

You've seen the screen shot. I see no visible .exe.

You wouldn't. The EXE is for the installation only, not its use.

At this suggestion change I asked if there was a script available to do this in MeGUI
and how to install the script and modify in it's text file.

I don't use MeGUI so hello_hello can take over. However, I know there's a way to edit and modify the scripts it makes for you. Be sure and test them in VDub to make sure they're good after you change them, and before trying to encode with them. "The 'script to do this' (what, Trim and Fade In?) is the same as I showed you earlier.

Yes, I'd prefer that hello_hello do this since we have at least gotten through other problems. And you'll note that the subject line of this thread was solved, the crop was made.

My question here is for any to answer but I felt I needed to include some quoted remarks. I was looking at the AVI Synth portable version shown for MeGUI in it's update window. It appears to be the same 2.6 you mentioned. Someone confirm that MeGUI installs the correct AVI Synth for good performance. The design of MeGUI appears to take care of all updates. Does it take care of any 'dependencies' as well? (Other things needed to be installed.)

I have more to read over yet.