How can I Create short avi "Title clip" from jpg or gif image

[atalldave]

Hi All,
I recorded live meetings for my club to DVD at 720 X 480 NTSC 4:3 2-channel stereo MPEG-PS container 29.97fps MPEG-2 on a Sony VRD-MC5. Been able to rip the VOB's, fix an audio problem, and trim a few spots all without re-encoding so no quality loss - nice.
Now would like to take a 720X480 sized "Title page" jpg, which I have no problem importing into either VirtualDub ver. 1.9.11 or 1.10.0.0, and make a 5-sec long avi which I can then "Append" to the main edited avi. I have "Googled" and otherwise studied/searched, for many "moons", for a method of making this short clip with doom9 software without success. Even found how to do time-lapsed video - neat!
With the jpg imported, Video> Frame Rate> have been able to change from 10,000 fps as imported to "Change frame rate to (fps) [I inserted] 29.9700". When I click "OK" on this window and re-open "Frame Rate", the changed setting remains. However, when I open Video> Select Range and enter 150 into the grid intersection of "Length" and "Frames" which would represent 30fps X (for) 5-secs = 150 frames, I find the previous settings have returned. Apparently this is not the method of creating a 5-sec avi of the image.
I have been able to make an avi clip of gif or jpg images easily in Freemake Video Converter at 720X480 xvid, same codec as the ripped DVD files but these clips are not compatible with the ripped/edited avi's processed with VirtualDub so I've had to use Freemake to join everything. It appears to re-encode and slower joining of avi clips.
Apparently adding still images to videos has not been too popular with the forum or at least I haven't been able to find the secret. Would someone please help me? Thanks, Dave
Running XP Pro 32-bit, i5 750, 4gig ram

[Gavino]

Now would like to take a 720X480 sized "Title page" jpg, ... and make a 5-sec long avi ...
With the jpg imported, Video> Frame Rate> have been able to change from 10,000 fps as imported to "Change frame rate to (fps) [I inserted] 29.9700".
In the "Source rate adjustment", "Change frame rate to" 0.2 fps.
In the "Frame rate conversion" section, set "Convert to fps" to your desired output rate (29.97).
Then save the AVI (no "Select Range").

The 0.2 fps (5 secs per frame) tells VirtualDub the 1 frame input has to last 5 seconds. Then it will repeat that frame in the output to produce the required output rate, maintaining the 5 secs duration.

[atalldave]

Hello Gavino,
Thank you very much for your reply and instructions.
I followed them and experimented with the 0.2fps and found 0.05 gave a little less than 20-sec. in duration; 0.25 slightly less than 4-sec. Yes, 0.2fps did give close to 5-sec. Very interesting but haven't cracked the formula for computing how these settings relate to the duration.
When I tried to combine the saved avi's made from the still gif files with the avi video clips, I got an error message saying it couldn't be done because of incompatible frame rates. The video tool "MediaInfo" showed that the still avi's had a frame rate of 249 Mbps while the regular video avi's had a frame rate of 3107 Kbps. Is there a way to make the frame rates the same?
Thanks again for your help with my project.
Dave

[Gavino]

I followed them and experimented with the 0.2fps and found 0.05 gave a little less than 20-sec. in duration; 0.25 slightly less than 4-sec. Yes, 0.2fps did give close to 5-sec. Very interesting but haven't cracked the formula for computing how these settings relate to the duration.
The output has to be a whole number of frames (obviously), so if your frame rate is 29.97 fps, you cannot have a duration of exactly 20 secs, 4 secs or 5 secs. For an input rate of 0.2 (a nominal duration of 5 secs), VirtualDub will produce 150 output frames at 29.97 fps, which is slightly over 5 secs, but the closest it can get. (Or maybe it gives 149 frames, I'm not sure how it does the rounding.)
When I tried to combine the saved avi's made from the still gif files with the avi video clips, I got an error message saying it couldn't be done because of incompatible frame rates. The video tool "MediaInfo" showed that the still avi's had a frame rate of 249 Mbps while the regular video avi's had a frame rate of 3107 Kbps. Is there a way to make the frame rates the same?
Those are bitrates (related to compression), not frame rates, so not relevant to that error.
The problem is that VirtualDub is a bit picky about frame rates when joining and requires the two clips to have exactly the same rate. Use the exact rate as reported by MediaInfo for the other avi (including all decimal places). Alternatively, set all inputs to have the same rate (eg 29.97) in the "Source rate adjustment/Change frame rate to" dialog.

[atalldave]

I'm finding that 720X480 is mathematically a 3:2 proportion yet is listed as a 4:3 format. MediaInfo shows the VOB files on the DVD as 720X480 4:3 but the ripping software to AVI I used, which was not supposed to re-encode, didn't when no ratio was selected in it's gui. I just noticed that MediaInfo shows the ripped VOB's (now AVI's) are 3:2. Hope to find software to rip to avi without re-encoding while maintaining the 4:3. I am using vdub 1.9.11 (build 32842/release) by Avery Lee which will import the VOB's directly from the DVD but doesn't appear to be able to save the file as an AVI without re-encoding. As I understand it, all I need to do is change the wrapper from MPEG-2 (the VOB's) to AVI. Then a little trimming in vdub, add the credit pages per your guidance and I'm done. As the Roseanna Danna character on Saturday Night Live said, "There's always something". Oh well, the nightmare continues. Thanks again.

[Asmodian]

Pixels on DVDs are not square, DVDs (NTSC) are always 720x480 for both 4:3 and 16:9. This makes it get somewhat complicated. Read up on SAR, DAR, PAR if you want to understand (or get very confused).

You cannot put MPEG2 in an AVI, you will need to use a newer container like mkv.