divx codec wtih virtual dub

[loninappleton]

I have just been getting acquainted with virtual dub sych which
has been a slow process.

Most recently I learned that Divx-- the Divx codec will
give best comprtession for small file size. So i downloadeds what's called the Divx Community Codec.

This codec doews not appear as a compression selection
Virtual duib from the standard download. Does the codec have to
be moved or copied a specific Virtual dub location?

I want to avoid using PIC Video which is a payfor program-- plus it was not give the small file size I'm after.

I see very often the Divx watermark on content. I don't really know
how complicated it should be beyond knowing the basic start/stop sequence in virtual dub.

I have seen a number of guides but none seem to take the
process straight through-- like the writer got bored with it
after making a couple parts.


I have also seen the Doom 9 capture guide. For right now, I'd
like to be able to make some samples.

System is a Tyan Trinity Motherboard
Pentium II cpu
394 mem
Hauppaue Wintv Card
Minimal size hard drive for bench experiments.

[setarip_old]

Hi!So i downloadeds what's called the Divx Community Codec.Have you INSTALLED it? It likely comes with an installer (or directions for installation)...

[loninappleton]

Going to try this again... I answered yesterday and couldn't
post the message.

A find routine gave the Divx codec at

C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Divx\Divx Codec

That's where it installed itself.

So does it have to be moved into V-dub?

A find routine for Huffyuv gave

... some things at windows system and a couple other locations.

[setarip_old]

C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Divx\Divx Codec[/Quote]That's very likely where you've SAVED your downloaded codec - but haven't yet INSTALLED it. As I said previously, it likely comes with an installer (or directions for installation) - so examine ALL of the files that are in that folder/directory...

[CWR03]

"C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Divx\Divx Codec" would be the path to the shortcut in the Start > All Programs menu, therefore it must be installed. In any case, this isn't a fully functional version. XviD is completely free and is more customizable, and with that ability can be better than DivX if configured properly. The DivX watermark is there because DivX is a commercial product and they want you to pay to upgrade from the free version.

[loninappleton]

'Kay.

I'll see what there is and report back.

Between now and then any hints for thoise who have done
this are appreciated.

[Koti]

iirc
the logo is only shown while divx decoder (pro or community) is decoding video , and is not on your actual encoded file . It can be disabled by config.exe > toolbar tab - uncheck the "Show Divx logo watermark"

Pro adds multi threading and a few other encoding options

[DigitAl56K]

If the codec is not listed in VDub most likely your registry has some invalid entries.

Run this tool:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/BigFix.htm
.. and be sure to turn off all options except "Check multimedia drivers" (or something similar) at the bottom of the options list.

You should then be able to access the codec after restarting VirtualDub.

[Your_Idol]

XviD is completely free and is more customizable, and with that ability can be better than DivX if configured properly.

loninappleton cant figure out how to install divx let alone configure xvid properly.

to save as divx in VirtualDub click file - save as, then down the bottom of the save as box click "change." There you will or will not see the divx 6.4 codec. For some divx configurations just ask here.

For an easier program to use with the divx codec try a program called DrDivX.

[loninappleton]

I won't cop to being stone ignorant on this stuff with all the
half-written guides (at least 2) that are around and whatnot
plus using an old capture board with no manuals etc. It has been a long struggle the compares with trying to use Linux.


Anyway, news of the day is Divx 6.whatevs does show up
in the video options. I also did a download of Xvid recommended here which should also show up in the video
options as well.

Using Virtual Dub there seems to be 2 ways to do it:
Capture to avi direct in which there is one compression
setting (none of the Divx options appear under that) or
file loading with compression setting under the main video tab.

If I did a straight avi transfer with Huffy or PicVideo, I get
a huge file. If I then take that huge file and run Divx or Xvid on it, it get the desired compression.

Is that pretty much it? The guides I've seen have gotten me
as far as that first part of capturing the avi to the huge file.
I've only opened up a file in the 2 window arrangement once.

[Your_Idol]

Sorry i can't really understand you.

I don't really know about capturing as an avi, I capture mpegs with the software that came with my tv tuner card or off a dvd and then use VirtualDubMod to open the files and save as divx avi.

Maybe someone could suggest a codec for the capture part, something that's near loseless but compresses a bit to save space.

Then we can talk about the divx bit.

[jggimi]

For analog capture, we recommend our Capture FAQ and our Capture Guide:

FAQ: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=32575
Guide: http://www.doom9.org/capture/start.html

Direct capture to MPEG-4 (such as DivX) is not recommended. Instead, for best results, lossless or near-lossless capture is recommended, followed by encoding to DivX during post processing.

[loninappleton]

I have seen the Doom9 capture FAQ-- printed it out too, I think,
but I got lost in the theory.

I got the Wintv NTSC 61381 rev d133 bare and so had to
hunt down everything for it.

I have the Wintv 2000 program. Virtual Dub Synch is part of
the current install plus the tricks necessary to install DScaler,
PIC Video (non paid version) Huffuv. There must be some other stuff.

I've made successful capture in the PIC Video but the content is unusuable... just like they want.

That leaves Huffyuv.

I have not used much of the record function in Wintv 2000 though apparently that can be done.

My source is a vhs player and the content is only available on
vhs. There is no S-Video hookup and so the cable connects are used to get the capture.


Back to the guides: I'm perfectly happy to use a guide that
is complete and not abandoned after parts one and two with
three nowhere to be found. This probably has to do with
currency. Some of this stuff is a few years old.


So the big question is: How can a get a capture from VHS
on the cable connect to the Wintv in the most compact form for uploading given the tools I've mentioned?


That hardware is kind of old because I know that processing
takes a lot of machine time.


Hardware is:

Tyan Trinity motherboard
Intel P2 slot one 400mHz
394 mem
Matrox vid card
plus the capture baord described above.
and a 15G WD HD with Win2k on it.


I've had some larger drives but they are failing just about
the time of end of warranty. :-/

[Blue_MiSfit]

So this is what you need to do:

1) Capture from your VHS tape into a HUFFYUV AVI using VirtualDub (not VirtualDub Mod). The newer versions of vdub have improvements to the capture interface including support for both VFW and WDM capture modes. VdubMod does not have these improvements. Huffyuv is lossless, and very fast.

2) Add some filtering or whatever to the HUFFYUV and recompress it into DivX or XviD or whatever you want using virtualdub. Avisynth is also a nice component to have, but you have to learn a little scripting. Better to leave it out for now until you're very comfortable with setting up DivX and XviD.

Capturing straight into MPEG-4 isn't a very good idea with such a slow system. You just don't have the horsepower to do it at full resolution with any kind of advanced features. Much better to do a proprer 2 pass once you have the source available in a file.

Good Luck,
~MiSfit

[loninappleton]

Thanks for the tips.

I am doing a capture now with Virtual Dub Sync which is
is used as the program in a guide I have from ars technica.

The guide is not new.

Also from various sources, they all seem to have their
own recommendation for which virtual dub to use so my
basic confusion continues in this sense:

Is the older virtual dub (plain vanilla or whatevs) better for
this old equipment I have or not?

I only installed one V-dub on my scratch drive to avoid confusion.

I set up this capture with Huffy uv and seems to be going ok.

The preview screen shows a lot of interference-- almost a
checkerboard of interference going in both directions.

Has anyone encountered this? Is it from equipment placement or some other factor?

I will install Xvid on the scratch disk as that is recommended
at Virtual dub by the virtual dub guy.


For this job set up under Huffy, I'm running out the whole
length of the content.

The filters must be applied in post processing like a recode
is that correct? My guide has some stuff on filtering further on
but I have to get the content saved due to a time contraint.

Also, since the Huffy is going 3:1 is there a post operation
using Xvid or Divx which can compress the final down to the
desired 800mb or so?

I have the resolution set at minimum-- 320x 280 or whatever it was (as the job is running I'm writing from
my main machine console.)


What I'm getting is the raw file which is recording in real time. I'd think that any filter processing and recompression will take a long time. That's why I have the job set up on a rig which will do that and nothing else.

I have the Doom9 capture guide. I'll with that a bit and see
if it is making more sense now.

Will be back soom to check for answers to these questions.

A direct link to the download of the 'correct' virtual dub would be appreciated.

[loninappleton]

New activity today.


I captured the whole vhs tape which wound up to be huge...
11 GB or so for an hour and 40 minutes of content.

Ok. I squeezed it on there and will worry about post on another day. I backed up the drive and will transfer the whole load to a bigger HD when I get some of these other
wrinkles straightened out.

The problem I ran into was a lot of disk activity on a program called dshow.notif. I had to shut down the whole system for this program that continued to run.


So what is Dshow doing? Some dlls get transferred to Virtual dub manually from DScaler as part of the setup from my reading of the guide I have.

Sounds like something to do with DScaler.

Virtual dub loaded the big file but could not play it after just a minute or so. However,
I was able to scroll the slider to an individual frame. This tells me it's all in there someplace but something is not keeping up.


Previously using the PIC Video, I got some playback through my player. So I don't know if this is a hardware or software
problem for sure.


Maybe I'll have to start a shopping list of new parts or software (only free stuff) to get.


So the news so far is: a player won't pick up the avi file at all. And Virtual dub can see frames of the file but also cannot
play it. It went for a a few counts and then quit.