I have an AVI file which Gspot identifies as Xvid compressed. The program I usually implement here is Procoder, so I convert it to a highe quality MPEG-2 file, but there seems to be some incompatibility in the file. VirtualMod can open it and I could convert the video stream onto another AVI file, but the size I get is too large, more than 100GB. As the file is 2-hour long, I would expect it to be 25GB or so at most. Or perhaps I can use VirtualMod to convert it onto a high-quality MPEG-2 file too. How can I do any of those? How do I set the compression in avi?
VirtualDubMod cannot save the file as mpeg. Normally you wouldn't load a file and save it unless you suspected a problem in the file structure. In VirtualDubMod, you can select 'Video' 'Scan Video Stream for errors'. If you wish to save the file without recompressing, click 'Video' 'Direct Stream Copy'. Click 'Streams' 'Stream List', right click on the stream and verify it is set to 'Direct Stream Copy'. Then 'File' 'Save AVI as' and choose avi. If you with to change the compression on either Video or Audio, choose 'Full processing mode' then 'Compression' and select the codecs and settings.
Well, I thought VistualMod might help me with my problem, by solving eventual problems, but I was wrong. There's a problem I am having with an avi file which is split in two parts, compressed with Xvid. Both parts play fine in VLC or WMP. But if I try to load the files in VirtualMod, it detects an improper VBR audio encoding, which it say may introduce an 8923ms skew. On the other, the message says the skew may be 4229ms. These files I usually convert with Procoder onto MPEG-2 files, but the program refuses to load the files. So I tried a different road: I joined the files with Easy Video Joiner. That went fine and (I don't know why) Procoder 2 loaded the joined file. Then I loaded the avi files in VirtualMod, captured the audio streams and joined them with Procoder. The resultant files run fine until the middle, where they were splitted. Then the audio gets out of sync. The problem is as I don't know what's causing this out of sync, I can't see how to solve it. Is it a plug-in problem?
What I have done with two VBR files that have sync problems after appending. It consists of making sure the two files are otherwise identical and constant bit rate audio, then clipping one or two frames off the end of the first one then appending the second. "answer no to Virtualdub offer to rewrite VBR files" Load first video, compress audio to lame mp3 (48000.128.stereo.cbr) Save video 'direct' (don't re-compress) as new1.avi Load new1.avi and cut last few frames, save direct/direct (no re-compression)as new1cut.avi and exit. The cut should be at a key frame to give exact size to video and audio Restart VDubMod. Load second video, compress audio to lame mp3 Save video 'direct' (don't re-compress) as new2.avi and exit. Restart VDubMod. Load new1cut.avi and append new2.avi Save direct/direct (don't re-compress) as combined.avi Lame MP3 codec file and installation instructions. http://users.tpg.com.au/mtam/install_lame.htm These were my crib notes and may be redundant for some users.
@ attar Interesting approach. To the the OP, try combining the AVIs in AVI-Mux GUI. http://www.alexander-noe.com/video/amg/ http://www.alexander-noe.com/video/amg/en_join_files.html
@MysticE Thank you.I tried with two, otherwise identical, episodes and the combined file exhibited the out of sync problem as the second part starts. If I reloaded the combined file into the GUI, it does not list a value in the 'delay' box. BUT, I started again and clipped the first file in VDubMod, saved it to a new file, then used the GUI to combine the clips and it worked! No sync. problem and much faster than saving the files with my, now obsolete, technique.
Thank you very much, attar, for suggesting a way to solve my problem. As my main problem was in the second avi file, which played fine before conversion but went off-sync after, I concentrated on ways to see when the problem happened. The why I still don't know. What I didn't like in your workflow was using mp3, an audio format I abhor. Audio files for me have to be wav and AC3 for the DVD. A little by accident during my tests, I discovered that if converted just a piece of the file in Procoder, things went fine and the audio stayed in sync. So I tried converting the whole file, except by a 1 minute piece in the final credits. Things went fine also. So I converted that second avi onto two files: a large one and a small one, where sync was not important. It worked. So that's the way I did it, even if did have to output three MPEG2 files. Then I took all the files to TMPGEnc DVD Author: the first avi file, where sync was fine; the first large part of the second file; and the small part of the second file. I processed them one by one, as separate DVD files. Then I went back to Procoder 2 and loaded those vob files in order to convert them onto a single file for the final DVD. Then I used DVDLab Pro to author the DVD files, with subtitles and all. Uff!
Attar, Let me use your expertise with VirtualDub to learn how to compress an uncompressed avi file I have, captured from satellite TV, so I can load into Subrip to OCR the subtitles. As it is, and I don't know why, Subrip refuses to load the original file. Which is weird, because on my old configuation with my other PC it did load, so I think maybe there's something missing here. Now it says there's an access violation. As I don't have such a problem with my compressed Divx avi files, I think maybe I can do that on that file and get my results. So how should I proceed to process those files in VirtualDub?
Assuming that VirtualDub can load the file, you can install the free DivX codec and compress the output - but that leaves the audio as uncompressed (PCM?) - since you abhor MP3 BTW, VirtualDub has an available filter, which can insert subtitles into the AVI - there is a guide here at Afterdawn - which saves the file from even more processing. This was also my problem, but it was solved by clipping the first file before appending the second.
There are many incarnations of Vdub. To avoid that use the mp3 freeze version. There is also the very handy Surround version (great for ac3 work) which also accepts mpegs. I get a lot of mileage out of these 2 versions. http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Virtualdub_MP3_Freeze http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Codec-Packs-Video-Codecs/VirtualDubMod-Surround.shtml @carlmart You never said if you you tried AVI-Mux GUI to solve your problem. There are 2 ways to try. Try combining/merging both original pieces frst. If that doesn't work run each one separately then try combining the 2 new ones. As was noted the newly saved pieces will now show a 0ms delay.
MP3 files may be fine to use in adverse conditions, like listening from earphones on a noisy environment or jogging. But it's quite far from being a high quality audio file. I use uncompressed or minimum compression files when I can. In this particular case I don't care for the quality of this compression, because I won't be using the audio. The image I will just be using it for retrieving the subtitles in Subrip. So I just need to know how to proceed to compress the file.
No, I didn't use AVI-Mux Gui. I think I remember that was not a very user friendly program, and I was afraid of combining/merging. Now I already deleted the original files, as I didn't need them anymore and I needed the free space. But next time I may try AVI-Mux on my conversions. Thank you for the suggestion!
