New tool - VapourBox

[StuartCameronCode]

I've just released 0.1.0 of a new open source tool GUI tool I've built called VapourBox (in honour of all the heavy lifting done by VapourSynth).


[Attachment 90871 - Click to enlarge]

It's a friendly wrapper around VapourSynth and its various plugins (including QTGMC de-interlacing) available to everyday folk who don't want to have to navigate the command-line or complex tools. It's available on both Mac and Windows. Just drag & drop an input video, tick the filters you want to apply, check out the split preview and go nuts.

You can grab a copy from https://github.com/StuartCameronCode/VapourBox, just go to the Releases page. The app automatically fetches a bundle of all the various third-party tools required on first launch.

[Alwyn]

Looks interesting. What AVI Output options are there, codecs-wise? Can we use any system-installed AVI codec?

[StuartCameronCode]

Encoding is managed by ffmpeg, so it's "limited" to its codecs rather than system ones. That said, AVI handles H.264 and FFV1 (lossless) at present via the UI, for MKV it handles H.264, H.265 and FFV1, and for MOV it's H.264, H.265 and ProRes and it also handles MP4. I've been FFV1 for my VHS restoration projects.

[StuartCameronCode]

That said, it's pretty trivial to expose others if there's demand. It's just a balance between flexibility and keeping the number of options in the UI sensible.

[_Al_]

That could be great, always was wandering why there is no install, easy gui (besides Hybrid or StaxRip I think) to use vapoursynth and QTGMC as a full GUI.

I ran it and got this:

[Attachment 90873 - Click to enlarge]

[StuartCameronCode]

That could be great, always was wandering why there is no install, easy gui (besides Hybrid or StaxRip I think) to use vapoursynth and QTGMC as a full GUI.

I ran it and got this:

[Attachment 90873 - Click to enlarge]

Thanks, I'm setting up a VM to try to reproduce the issue. From some googling it seems to be that the underlying HTTP library used by Flutter has SSL trust issues with GitHub if you don't have their root certificate installed. Having a play with a workaround, stay tuned.

[StuartCameronCode]

0.2.0 release is out with a change to the http library used to download dependencies. Hopefully that sorts the issue!

[_Al_]

Thanks, 0.2.0 downloads ffmpeg,ffprobe, portable vapoursynth and portable python 3.8 into directories within portable vapourbox.

Got error using NTSC DVavi though to QTGMC deinterlace that,
NTSC is 4:1:1 and QTGMC would not accept it, BestSource gets 4:1:1 it seams, obviously vspipe gets that error, so vapoursynth template needs to catch it
Most simple would be to change clip to 4:2:0 after BestSource, though it is not ideal (I used 4:2:2 for processing a while, only at the end changed it to 4:2:0), but heck AviSource used to do it automatically, converting 4:1:1 to 4:2:0, and we got used to that.
Doing that also fixes possible crop conflict using 4:1:1, where only mod4 is allowed for width.

[StuartCameronCode]

0.2.1 is out, primary with a fix to audio passthrough and the option to reencode audio if the container doesn't support the source codec.

[_Al_]

for NTSC DV avi files (which still many use to deinterlace) and using QTGMC.
1.use mkv output because audio is original, which for DV avi is wav (it would mux mp4 with wav as well)
2.Having NTSC DV, fix both scripts in template directory, for both pipeline and preview templates:
instead of:

clip = core.bs.VideoSource(source=r"{{INPUT_PATH}}")

use:

clip = core.bs.VideoSource(source=r"{{INPUT_PATH}}")
if clip.format.subsampling_w == 2 and not clip.format.subsampling_h:
    clip = clip.resize.Bicubic(format=vs.YUV420P8, matrix_in=vs.MATRIX_ST170_M, matrix=vs.MATRIX_ST170_M)

3.It does not support batch.
I wanted to recommend this app, instead of very old DVavi helper, which is oddly still being downloaded (and where folks are perhaps disappointed because not working with today's windows or avisynth versions). So, still not there yet

[StuartCameronCode]

0.3.0 release is out. It now handles 4:2:1 video sources (eg. NTSC DV footage) and up-converts to 4:2:2 so there's no loss of quality, PLUS the tool now supports queueing and batching of videos for processing.

[aramkolt]

Always great to have more Mac-Friendly tools. Hybrid generally works on Mac, but hasn't been updated since 2023, so definitely looking forward to trying this out! Thanks for putting it out there!

[StuartCameronCode]

Always great to have more Mac-Friendly tools. Hybrid generally works on Mac, but hasn't been updated since 2023, so definitely looking forward to trying this out! Thanks for putting it out there!

Thanks for the feedback . Hybrid works great but the UI makes my stomach churn, I wanted to see if I could make something a little friendlier and just get it out there for folk to play with. I've been capturing my old family VHS tapes and going through the many, many different alternative ways of processing video out there and got fed up enough to see what I could grind out myself. Having a real-time preview in itself should be a massive time-saver for people wanting to tweak parameters and iterate.

[lordsmurf]

Very interesting.

[_Al_]

0.3.0 release is out.

single file encodes ok, but if attempting to load couple of files and then running batch, it encodes first ok and then it hangs going into second file. Last log line printed for that next file is:

[DEBUG] PYTHONHOME: Some("E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\deps\\windows-x64\\vapoursynth")

That is what I can see, I cannot copy log when it hangs into clipboard,only the first log, which runs ok:

[INFO] Loading job configuration...
[INFO] Processing: D:\DVavi_1.avi
[DEBUG] QTGMC params: opencl=false, tff=Some(false), preset=Slower
[INFO] Generating VapourSynth script...
[WARNING] Loaded template from: "E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\templates\\pipeline_template.vpy"
[WARNING] Loaded template from: "E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\templates\\preview_template.vpy"
[DEBUG] Script written to: "C:\\Users\\... my user name ...\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\072eea48-8d68-4b32-8956-7ee147e203b8.vpy"
[INFO] Starting encoding pipeline...
[DEBUG] vspipe: "E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\deps\\windows-x64\\vapoursynth\\VSPipe.exe", ffmpeg: "E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\deps\\windows-x64\\ffmpeg\\ffmpeg.exe"
[DEBUG] PYTHONHOME: Some("E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\deps\\windows-x64\\vapoursynth")
[DEBUG] PYTHONPATH: Some("E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\deps\\windows-x64\\vapoursynth\\Lib\\site-packages")
[DEBUG] VAPOURSYNTH_PLUGIN_PATH: Some("E:\\tools\\VapourBox\\VapourBox-0.3.0-windows-x64\\deps\\windows-x64\\vapoursynth\\vs-plugins")

[StuartCameronCode]

0.4.0 is out!

Processing Improvements

Batch processing fix: Fixed race condition in batch processing queue
Re-process videos: Videos can now be re-processed without restarting the app
Overwrite confirmation: Added confirmation dialog when output file already exists
Video Info

Codec and pixel format info: Video info dialog now shows codec name and pixel format details
Auto-Updates

Update checker: App now checks for updates on startup and notifies when a new version is available

[_Al_]

0.4.0 is out!

Works well, thanks, batch processing

- realized, audio could be set to AAC LC by unchecking Copy Audio Stream in settings/audio, that's great, but cannot set AAC audio bitrate though. But that is maybe adjasted a bit by selecting a preset (Fast, Balanced, High Quality,...) not sure here.

- For NTSC DV I cannot set 420 for a final H264 video. I understand it is better for processing as 422, that is super great. But perhaps at the end there could be conversion to 420 for NTSC video (some option in menu). It could be hardcoded with a conversion line i vpy scripts, for now if necessary.

- I cannot seam to have a chance to set in settings interlaced output and encode it as such. If unchecking deinterlace and even setting "Single Rate" for Output Rate. It says Scan type as Progressive by MediaInfo.

- This is not a problem though, just a confusion -> Input Field type is set in couple of places, not sure about priorities, so if deinterlacing and wanting to be sure, or loading interlaced video, I set manually BFF, Bottom field first in settings/field order and again in Output settings (main screen). But it works as it is.

- Trimming is offered for encoding I guess by setting set in and set out points, but trimming is outputting only one image for the whole video

Looking good though

[TimA-C]

It would be good if I could use some HW encoding . . . ? Specifically Intel and nVidia for H.264 encodes. Some of my captures have slight banding issues, and this looks like it could be a simple solution for easily smoothing them out. Also, it would be handy to have the option of setting either a target average bitrate OR a CRF value. (I haven't had a chance to play around with this much, so if I can already do these things then apologies!)

Thanks!

[StuartCameronCode]

New release is out .

https://github.com/StuartCameronCode/VapourBox/releases/tag/v0.5.0

Hardware Encoding Support
- Added support for hardware-accelerated encoding: NVENC (NVIDIA), QSV (Intel), VideoToolbox (macOS), AMF (AMD)

Audio & Encoding Improvements
- Audio mode selection (copy, transcode, or remove)
- Chroma subsampling options
- Codec and pixel format info in video info dialog

[HemLok]

I'm using an NVIDIA RTX 2060 with the latest drivers, 591.86, under Windows 10 and it doesn't appear that I have the option to use hardware encoding with v0.5.0. I see the software codecs listed and lossless. No hardware encoding.


[Attachment 91128 - Click to enlarge]

[StuartCameronCode]

I'm using an NVIDIA RTX 2060 with the latest drivers, 591.86, under Windows 10 and it doesn't appear that I have the option to use hardware encoding with v0.5.0. I see the software codecs listed and lossless. No hardware encoding.

If you go into the deps\windows-x64\ffmpeg folder and run "ffmpeg -encoders -hide_banner" can you see "h264_nvenc" or "hevc_nvenc" listed? The app queries what codecs ffmpeg supports on your machine, if it's not listed then I guess it must be an ffmpeg issue.

The version of ffmpeg used on Windows comes from https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/download/latest/ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl.zip, can you try downloading from there and running the same command on that version and tell me if it's any different? If you've still got no luck perhaps try a few ffmpeg versions and if you find one that works for you then copy it into the app's `deps` folder and run VapourBox again. If that works, let me know and I can try switching the bundled version to an alternate build.

Thanks!

[HemLok]

I'm using an NVIDIA RTX 2060 with the latest drivers, 591.86, under Windows 10 and it doesn't appear that I have the option to use hardware encoding with v0.5.0. I see the software codecs listed and lossless. No hardware encoding.

If you go into the deps\windows-x64\ffmpeg folder and run "ffmpeg -encoders -hide_banner" can you see "h264_nvenc" or "hevc_nvenc" listed? The app queries what codecs ffmpeg supports on your machine, if it's not listed then I guess it must be an ffmpeg issue.

The version of ffmpeg used on Windows comes from https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/download/latest/ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl.zip, can you try downloading from there and running the same command on that version and tell me if it's any different? If you've still got no luck perhaps try a few ffmpeg versions and if you find one that works for you then copy it into the app's `deps` folder and run VapourBox again. If that works, let me know and I can try switching the bundled version to an alternate build.

Thanks!

C:\Program Files\VapourBox\deps\windows-x64\ffmpeg>ffmpeg -encoders -hide_banner

Encoders:
 V..... = Video
 A..... = Audio
 S..... = Subtitle
 .F.... = Frame-level multithreading
 ..S... = Slice-level multithreading
 ...X.. = Codec is experimental
 ....B. = Supports draw_horiz_band
 .....D = Supports direct rendering method 1
 
 V....D av1_nvenc            NVIDIA NVENC av1 encoder (codec av1)
 V....D h264_nvenc           NVIDIA NVENC H.264 encoder (codec h264)
 V....D hevc_nvenc           NVIDIA NVENC hevc encoder (codec hevc)

The output lists NVIDIA NVENC for av1, h264, and hevc. That said, the RTX 2060 doesn't have support for av1 encoding so I'm confused on that. Regardless, I used the ffmpeg that came with VapourBox in the deps folder to perform a command line encode for both h264_nvenc and hevc_nvenc and it worked successfully so the issue doesn't appear to be with ffmpeg.

Edit: I removed the other encoders from the output because they weren't relevant and a waste of bandwidth. I also downloaded and swapped the newer ffmpeg from the link you posted as well as ffmpeg 7.1.1 and ffmpeg 8.0.1 in the deps folder. I didn't expect that to make a difference but did it nonetheless. I'm simply not able to access the hardware encoding when using VapourBox even though it's supported on my system through ffmpeg directly.