GrannyPat
Getting used to the place
Posts: 35 
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Post by GrannyPat on Jun 24, 2008 13:41:04 GMT -5
I'm having exactly the same problems as nolaespoir. I wondered if the problem could be because I have Vista and noticed that the version I downloaded is for XP. Occasionally it works but most times I have to do it over a few times before I finally have it. I'v'e just been on the site and on there it says it's for Vista as well as XP so back to the drawing board  Pat |
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Post by Elvira on Jun 24, 2008 15:13:03 GMT -5
VirtualDubMod should work fine, for making DV AVI files, and they'll work great in Vegas, GrannyPat!  I have Vista on one of my other computers, and I could have sworn that MPEG Streamclip worked okay. I'll have to do more tests. In any case, you've got other options!  |
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Post by nolaespoir on Jun 24, 2008 20:31:22 GMT -5
I have Vista, but since I downloaded the Beta version, everything seems to be working okay, I think.
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GrannyPat
Getting used to the place
Posts: 35
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Post by GrannyPat on Jun 25, 2008 4:55:01 GMT -5
Thanks Elvira and nolaspoir, I downloaded the Beta version last night and so far it seems fine too. I'll look into VirtualDubMod though just in case. |
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Post by Elvira on Jun 25, 2008 5:13:19 GMT -5
I just logged into Vista on my PC, and had trouble with the non-beta version, but was able to successfully encode a video with the beta version. So there you have it! I'll have to update the tutorial to give this tip. Thanks so much, ladies!  |
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Post by zetaminor on Jun 28, 2008 16:52:47 GMT -5
Is there any way that I can convert these to a slightly smaller sizes? Hi Val, I know this is from a couple of months ago, so I don't know if you've found another solution or have gotten more disk space to solve this, but I thought it may be worth posting.  Have you tried Lagarith Codec? Its files are quite a bit smaller but it's still a lossless codec. I particularly like it because it supports YV12 natively. Lagarith creates files a little less than half the size of HuffYUV, I think I read on AMV.org that it's something like 5Gig per 24 minute episode, but can't re-locate the exact reference. I never encode whole episodes, though, just the clips I want. That cuts space down even more. If you have a dual-core processor it shouldn't take any longer to encode than HuffYUV, either. My laptop encodes Lagarith faster. Unfortunately, though, you probably won't find a lossless, editable codec that will get much smaller than this from what I've read. I hope this is helpful. This is probably only information good for PC users though. I don't know if MAC can use Lagarith. And I'd like to thank you for this great tutorial, too, Elvira. I've never used MPEG Streamclip. After reading this I definitely want to try it. |
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Post by Elvira on Jun 28, 2008 16:56:07 GMT -5
5 GB per 24 minute episode? That sounds good. That sounds comparable to DV, which is about 1 GB per 5 minutes (if memory serves). And Lagarith is lossless, while DV is slightly compressed. (I personally don't think the detail loss in DV is that drastic or even really noticeable if you don't keep recompressing, but hey, there's a difference between slightly compressed and lossless! ) Right now my tutorials focus on DV and to a lesser extent, HuffYUV. Not much experience in Lagarith, though that is next on my list! If you would like to write a tutorial on how to encode it, please let me know, zetaminor! (Or is it just another codec in the list of codecs in VDM? I have a feeling it is . . . ) In any case, I am sure your tutorial would be better than the one I currently have for VDM!  (And no, Macs cannot use Lagarith. Though I think (but am not sure at all) that the new PRORES 422 codec is pretty good.) I like the MPEG Streamclip way because it is easy, easy, easy, and the quality is good. But that certainly doesn't mean it's the only way! |
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Post by zetaminor on Jun 28, 2008 18:52:55 GMT -5
5 GB per 24 minute episode? That sounds good. That sounds comparable to DV, which is about 1 GB per 5 minutes (if memory serves).  Well, I'm 99% sure about that. I did some calculations way back to see if it was worth my encoding whole episodes. That was the conversion I remember using, but I'd definitely like to have a reference quote to back it up. I'll keep looking. ;D Lagarith is also slightly compressed, but it uses a special logarithm to manage it in a lossless fashion with keyframes every frame, in an intraframe format. It can be slower to encode if you have an older processor, though. DV is also an excellent codec! The difference between the two is more mathematical than perceptual if the source material is of good quality. In the end, if you keep your original VOBs and just pull clips from them into lossless codecs, you save on space and can create a library with time for later use. ;D If you would like to write a tutorial on how to encode it, please let me know, zetaminor! (Or is it just another codec in the list of codecs in VDM? I have a feeling it is . . . ) In any case, I am sure your tutorial would be better than the one I currently have for VDM! Wow, really? I'm so flattered! I wouldn't bet that anything I write would be better than what I've seen here, you're too kind! I'm certainly willing to give it a shot, though. Lagarith is usable from VDM, but I think you need to download the codec and install separately. It comes with AMVapp as a separate codec pack and doesn't show in the VDM's Codec.ini as HuffYUV does so I don't think it's native, at least not to my version. I'll have to research it a bit more. I thought it might not work on Mac. I'd love to learn why some codecs work cross-platform and others do not. There has to be a good reason for it. Good to know that there are at least other options being developed for Mac. One day I'd love to make the switch from PC. I've been using DGIndex for DV conversion, but MPEG Streamclip sounds faster and looks to have more control. |
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Post by Elvira on Jun 29, 2008 5:23:35 GMT -5
That was the conversion I remember using, but I'd definitely like to have a reference quote to back it up. I'll keep looking. ;D I am in Windows now (I boot back and forth) and just did a little test with Lagarith. But I could be doing something wrong! (Would not surprise me a bit!  ) A 17 second Lagarith clip (no audio, PAL) was 551 MB, and a 17 second DV AVI (no audio, PAL) was 62 MB. I need to try that again!  EDIT: Tried again, I think I set the color space wrong the first time? (I await your tutorials for more information.) Now I'm getting an almost identical file size for both DV and Lagarith (DV slightly smaller). Well, that's really good to know. We can cover all bases here. I've edited in DV on an old PowerMac, and I'm sure there are vidders with similarly configured PCs. (I have a 5-year-old PC that has a lot of life left in it, and I think it'll be sticking with DV!  ) That makes sense. I did a small test with Lagarith in Sony Vegas, and the visual difference between it and DV was not drastic. (I didn't really notice much difference at all--but my eye is probably not honed yet to see the difference.) I have a feeling that this is the case when the source material is (as you say) good quality, and you aren't planning on doing any pre-processing. That's the impression I get from the a-m-v.org guides too. I do know that I had an experience with a troublesome NTSC DVD--it wasn't horrible quality, but the interlacing was particularly whacked. I ended up getting the PAL version of the DVD rather than deal with the NTSC DVD. But when I ran that DVD through Avisynth/VDM (following the a-m-v.org video tutorials) the annoying NTSC DVD looked fabulous!  It wasn't something I was able to do by converting to straight DV. It's showing up for me fine! Yes, big love for MPEG Streamclip! It dominates my tutorials because I can cover both Mac and PC in one tutorial ( ) and also, it is very easy. One main configuration window for both audio and video, click on this, select that, 1-2-3, and you're ready to encode. It somehow performs magic on DV files so all video editors (except for Vegas, but that's another story) recognize its intended aspect ratio (something I have not successfully been able to get with any other Mac or PC encoder). It combines ease of use with good quality. (It doesn't just do DV, it can do uncompressed and various other codecs--but not HuffYUV or Lagarith so far as I can see--and on the Mac, it'll convert to PRORES 422.) But, with that said, it could not resolve all the issues with that troublesome NTSC DVD (the output quality was okay, but has problems that bothered me), while Avisynth/VDM was fabulous. So, it's good to have many options, to fulfill different vidding styles and needs. |
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Post by zetaminor on Jun 29, 2008 14:38:12 GMT -5
Were you testing from VDM? That program runs Lagarith better than most because it has several different levels of compression you can use. Also, Lagarith is a YV12 codec. You have to be careful with settings if you're exporting a file from a different colorspace. I'll be sure to include that. No worries, learning the configurations of a new codec can be strange, but it's not hard. The Lagarith file should be about the same as DV, so you must have got it. It's smaller only in comparison to other lossless codecs. Might be able to compress a bit more with some pre-cleaning, though.  yeah, I'm gonna stop myself here, or I'll go on and on and never actually write the tutorial. That one should be quick and up soon.  |
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Post by animatedentropy on Jun 30, 2008 20:37:25 GMT -5
I did it, I did it!  I can't believe how *good* the clips look! It's going to slow me down quite a bit to re-edit all the clips I've already done, but I'm going to replace the clips in my current project with freshly-ripped ones, because it's just so worth it for how amazing it looks. I used DVDshrink rather than DVDdecrypter (which for some odd reason gave me issues) to decrypt my DVDs, but other than that, the tutorial was super-easy to follow. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this, Elvira! |
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Post by Elvira on Jun 30, 2008 21:46:14 GMT -5
 I'm so glad, animated entropy! I'm so happy that it was easy to follow! The quality will be great, especially when you're dealing with DVD rips (glad DVDshrink worked for you ) and yes, using MPEG Streamclip is super easy!  I look forward to seeing your first video edited in DV! |
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Post by zetaminor on Jun 30, 2008 22:55:49 GMT -5
Me too! I can't wait to see it, the rough you have already is great! In DV it'll be outstanding! Congrats Honey! |
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Post by zetaminor on Jul 2, 2008 21:52:35 GMT -5
 So I was playing with streamclip on the desktop the other day and it worked fine on that computer. Just installed on my latop.  It won't open the VOB. Just crashes with no meaningful reason: "Has Encountered An Error"  I tried tweaking the direct draw settings in quicktime as the manual says (Laptop has nVidia card) but no joy.  Not sure what to do about it... Any suggestions? I've been looking around online but finding nothing helpful yet. Event viewer says "faulting module quicktime.qts". Any idea what that is?
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Post by Elvira on Jul 3, 2008 7:52:36 GMT -5
I don't know! I assume you have tried both the beta and the non-beta version? I am rubbish with trying to resolve hardware problems, alas!  |
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