Guide on using AviSynth filters in StaxRip

[stax76]

It's frequently asked how to use AviSynth filters in StaxRip so I wrote small guide you can see below.

Opening the AviSynth plugin directory

One of the first steps is likely to put a AviSynth plugin DLL to the AviSynth plugin directory. The plugin directory can be opened (meaning showing a explorer window) directly from StaxRip's main menu under 'Tools/Directories/Plugins' (you can also open the source/target file directory and several other important directories from this menu). If you run Vista or higher you will see a UAC prompt trying to copy files. It's possible to move the plugin directory to your home directory editing the following registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Avisynth]
"plugindir2_5"="c:\\program files\\avisynth 2.5\\plugins"

This way you won't be bothered with UAC prompts in the future. Hopefully AviSynth will use the home directory by default in the future, a request for this has been made.

Creating a filter profile

Once the DLL was copied to the plugin directory the most common task is to create a filter profile. To edit the filter profiles right-click the filters list and select 'Profiles...' from the context menu. A window shows the filter profile definitions in INI format. While the INI format is dated it's perfectly suited to define filter profiles. A INI section defined within brackets defines the category to which a filter belongs:

[category name]

The names of these categories can't be changed as internal features of StaxRip rely on these names. The left side defines the name of a filter profile and the right side defines the filter code:

filter profile name = filter profile code

example:

MPEG-2     = MPEG2Source("%source_file%")

The filter code may contain macros. Clicking the Macro button shows a list of possible macros. A filter profile is restricted to a single line, there are two ways to overcome this restriction, the first is to separate different functions with blanks which is legal AviSynth syntax:

Yadif      = LoadCplugin("%application:Yadif%") Yadif()

Another way is to use the newline macro:

Yadif      = LoadCplugin("%application:Yadif%")%newline%Yadif()

Using filter profiles

The filter list has check boxes to enable/disable filters. The filter order can be changed with drag & drop. To replace a filter it can be right-clicked, the context menu will show all filters of the same category. To replace it with a filter of another category choose 'Replace'. 'Insert' inserts a filter pushing the selected filter below and 'Add' inserts a filter at the end. 'Edit' shows the filter list in a new window with some additional features. Double-clicking a filter edits the clicked filter.

Filter Setup Profiles

While a filter profile represents a part of a AviSynth script a filter setup profile represents the entire scripts.

Changing the filter setups of project templates

Frequently used filter setups can be saved in project templates, like the default project template loaded at startup so the filter setup don't has to be changed everytime. Project templates are saved from the main menu under 'Project/Save As Template'.

Importing a AviSynth script

It's possible to use a AviSynth script as source file. StaxRip will simply import the script in the source filter. Scripts shouldn't however contain a return statement as it would disables a few StaxRip features since filters below would be ignored.