show 2 movies at the same time?

[loulou]

I'll explain it with an example:
you have athlet A doing exercise X on one video file and
you have athlet B doing same exercise X on another video file.
You want to compare the two performances by watching them side by side at the same time, in one single video file (which will then be the third file of the archive). Just like the pages of an opened book.

It does not really matter which format the video is, since conversion from DVD to avi and vice versa is always possible.

Thank you all very much in advance for any kind of help.

[Manao]

Install avisynth, and make an avs file containing : stackhorizontal(directshowsource("path_to_video1"), directshowsource("path_to_video2"))
If the videos aren't in the same format/resolution/framerate, you may get some error messages, but the probability is high that your videos are in the same format. If you've got two avis, replace directshowsource by avisource.

You can open the avs file with any directshow based player ( windows media player, media player classic, zoom player... ), or with virtual dub.

[unskinnyboy]

Try something like StackHorizontal(DirectShowSource("athletea.avi",audio=false),DirectShowSource("athleteb.avi",audio=false)) in Avisynth. Feed this to whatever encoder you have which takes an avs input and encode accordingly. Note that we are not considering the audio here (if you want, you can). Also keep in mind the resolution increase.

EDIT: Oops. Lost race to Manao. :)

[loulou]

Thank you both soooo much!
I really needed this.
:thanks:

Plus, I didn't imagine avisynth was so powerful. I guess it really worths learning how to handle it.

ETA
One more quastion, if I may.
Must the length of video 1 and the length of video 2 be exactly the same before I put them side by side?
Is there a way to decide, eventually, which part of vid1 and which of vid2 I wanna put in vid3 at run time?
I mean, after opening the avs file?

[Blue_MiSfit]

stackhorizontal(directshowsource("...",audio=false).trim(...),directshowsource("...",audio=false).trim(...))


Also, stackvertical(...) is another option. May fit the situation better depending on your display / input clip resolution.

Avisynth rules....

~MiSfit

[unskinnyboy]

One more quastion, if I may.
Must the length of video 1 and the length of video 2 be exactly the same before I put them side by side?
Is there a way to decide, eventually, which part of vid1 and which of vid2 I wanna put in vid3 at run time?
I mean, after opening the avs file?
No, the length can be different. If lets say, video 1 is shorter than video 2, then during StackHorizontal playback first both will play together till the time video 1 ends. When video 1 ends, the last frame of video 1 will be frozen in its pane and video 2 alone will play.

Learn to use the Trim() (http://www.avisynth.org/Trim) function if you'd like to selectively include the sections you want from either videos.

[loulou]

Again, thank you sooo much for the help! :)

[setarip_old]

Hi!

I'm curious to know if, in fact, the two videos MUST be combined? is there any reason you can't simply run two iterations of a player, such as ol' reliable MS Windows Media Player v.6.4, concurrently?

[Manao]

Much more easier to sync videos when they are both in avisynth. Furthermore, you can then open the file in virtualdub, and seek/step easily.

[loulou]

Hi!

I'm curious to know if, in fact, the two videos MUST be combined? is there any reason you can't simply run two iterations of a player, such as ol' reliable MS Windows Media Player v.6.4, concurrently?

Yes, they must.
The aim is infact comparing the jumping technique of two figure skaters. My coach asked me to help him out with that. He's not at all familiar with video making or even pc usage. I'll have to teach him, so that he can improve as a coach (my coach ;)).

He's providing me a video of a certain jump, I'll have to put it by the side of another vid, where an elite skater does the same jump. So that we all can watch it over and over any time we need.

My first issue was of course putting the two vids side by side in one vid. But then I realized the two skaters, as shown in the resulting vid, must take off in the very same frame. So that will be the frame at which I'll have to trim as "begin".

[trolltuning]

I would not cut right at the frame you really want to compare. I would cut about 3 seconds in front of that as it takes the eyes time to focus. Also look through the Avisynth manual and read up on resizing. You will probably need to make the clips smaller so they both fit on your screen.