artifacts created by Lagarith, UT...unable to import into HC

[SamB.]

Hi. I have a 157-minute movie that I’m trying to lossless-export in sections from Premiere Pro 2 as an AVI, then transcode in HC Video Encoder to MP2 for authoring in TMPG Authoring Works 4. The final use will be factory-replicated DVDs to play on DVD players/TV screens.

TMPG works fine, but I cannot get Lagarith or UT Video codec to function without introducing artifacts into my AVIs. With Lagarith, these are rough horizontal white flashes (less than 1 second) in the upper quarter of the screen (upper letterbox area), and in UT Video (RGB), color flashes (less than 1 second), usually in the lower letterbox or entire frame. I’ve tried various settings of the codecs and usually choose Maximum Bit Depth in Premiere Export. Most of the resulting AVI looks excellent, but I don’t want to introduce artifacts. Under what conditions would these codecs produce artifacts? How can I avoid them?

To complete my tale of failure, I downloaded HuffyUV220 and HuffyUV MT712, but neither codec found its way into my Premiere export compressor settings, so I could not try them.

With HC GUI (including versions 023, 024, 025), despite numerous attempts, I’ve not been able to import an AVI and process it; for a while I always got “error loading Avisynth script, Script error: there is no function named “SetMTMode” (F:\Exports\premiere.avs, line 1.”

After Re-installing AviSynth258 and AviSynth090927, HC025’s input function is now possible, but now HC Info says “Avisynth file opened, AviSynth.dll loaded, Avisynth successfully initialized” and no actual AVI appears.

My script, written in Notepad and saved as premiere.avs in a folder named Exports on Drive F is simply:

Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi").

In the Exports folder is one AVI named "CopyofMontage1.post.avi". I added “post” to the file name because Jim Simon at the Premiere Pro 2 forum told me to. Is this correct? How can I get HC025 to actually import the AVI and not just the avs information? No matter what I've done, the HC Encode box has never become active/clickable.

Am I doing something wrong in terms of workflow? Is there another Avisynth command that I should try? (I am new to scripts.) All suggestions about any of the above problems will be most welcome. Thank you very much.

XP Home, SP3…Intel DG965WH mainboard…IntelCore2Duo 2.66GHz…4GB RAM…88GB free on F:\

[dr.schanker]

Maybe its Premiere's fault (very old doom9-thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=107558)).
Instead of directly exporting your project from Premiere to .avi, you could try to frameserve it with "Debugmode Frameserver" (http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/) and encode with VirtualDub.

Latest UT-Video codec + AviSynth 2.58 (non MT-Version) works fine for me.

[Emulgator]

The frameserving method dr.schanker suggested is the best.
Install debugmode frameserver.
Open the Premiere project, start rendering to Debugmode frameserver.
Let debugmode write the signpost.avi to D:\ and call it v.avi
The HCEnc frontend script is then just:

AviSource("D:\v.avi")

If it works, you don't need any intermediate.

If you need an intermediate file, I would suggest to use Uncompressed YUV,
no Largarith (small artifacts, blurring on dark and grainy details), no Huffyuv (version conflict with ffdshow's version).
Only Uncompressed is really lossless.
You may name your source file as you like.
i.e. you may drop the ".post".

For any Avisynth source filter being able to find your source file
the path and filename must be correct to the dot.

Download VirtualDub. You may test if your scripts work by dragging these scripts onto VirtualDub.
An assertion window will inform you if something went wrong.
If the script delivers a video you will see the video.

Download ffdshow tryouts last version and install.
You get a wealth of DirectShow codecs available to almost any NLE on your system
to decode almost any flavour of video.

For your HC frontend script you may use

AviSource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.avi")

(Avisource can not open all flavours of avi, but is frame-exact.)

or

DirectShowSource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.avi")

(DirectShowSource tries to use any fitting codec available.
So if the Huffyuv install worked, the Huffyuv decoder should be available.
I suggest original Huffyuv version 2.1.1.
Uninstall others first.
DirectShowSource might lose the first frame on Win7U64, at least it does here)

[SamB.]

Hi Dr. Schanker and Emulgator:

I wanted to update this thread since I figured out where my problems originated and how to solve them. I received advice from Adobe forum, videohelp.com, and doom9.org, and I am grateful to all those who commented.

I had been getting various artifacts in my AVI lossless encoding using Lagarith and UT. There is a "gallery" of screenshots of these artifacts at:
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/326242-artifacts-created-by-Lagarith-UT-unable-to-import-into-HC?p=2021174#post2021174

I attempted my same workflows in PremiereCS3, but again got artifacts. Poisondeathray wrote: "I think this is a PP2 problem . The lagarith artifact looks very familiar - I remember reading about incompatibilities with PP2. I don't recall seeing any of these after CS4 or 5." A thread at doom9 commented on PPro2's shortcomings: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=107558 This thread includes the suggestion: "I choose Microsoft AVI. Then I go to the video menu, and choose None for the codec." But for me none of the "uncompressed" settings ever worked--the output was always gibberish.

Through trial and error, I found that Huffyuv (version 211 only) produced no (or the fewest) artifacts. Huffyuv 211 worked for me, so I've been using it for processing crucial movies and for archiving.

I had been getting repeated error messages when trying to use an AviSynth script in HC-025. MT mode was not needed in the script, after all. Poisondeathray wrote: "If you used lagarith or UT directly from PPro2, it will be RGB and you need to convert to YV12 , if it's interlaced add interlaced=true
Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi")
ConvertToYV12()
or
Avisource("F:\Exports\CopyofMontage1.post.avi")
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)

The second script worked for me. For future readers, I stress the importance of filling-in HC's output and log names+locations before encoding, and of selecting "Make DVD compliant." Below are the settings for my letterboxed 4:3 movie.

Having learned how to use HC-025, I ended up not using it in my workflow. Since I definitely wanted to use TMPG Authoring Works 4 (TAW4) for authoring, I brought three samples into it for comparison:

1) plain AVI exported directly from PPro2 with no lossless encoding. 2) AVI with Huffyuv-211 lossless encoding. 3) AVI with Huffyuv-211 processed through HC-025. #3 produced the least clean footage--HC added barely visible "borders" around the feet of letters in text, an artifact that was not present in #1 and #2. Since #1 and #2 looked the same, I ended up using #2: AVI with Huffyuv-211 imported into TAW4.

TAW4 with its onboard Intercom MPEG-Video Transcoder and its video settings probably made a great contribution to my DVD's visual quality. TAW4's video settings are not obvious; they're at the upper left when in "Source" view. For each Track, click Settings>Video, and make your selections. 8000 bitrate is the highest recommended by Craig Hanna at DiscMakers, with 1550 bitrate as the minimum (which answers one of my earliest questions in 9/10), and 6050 for average bitrate for my particular file size. Then click Video Encoder Advanced Settings and choose Highest (with error correction). Below are my settings for my 172-minute DVD-9.

Thanks. --Best regards, SamB.