Create Fake AVIs?

[Raterus]

I'm pulling video from my DV camera, which I'm then creating .avs files for each clip. I now need to create fake AVIs so I can use them in Vegas for my final product for the DVD.

What I'm trying to do is speed up the process of creating these fake DVDs. Right now the only thing I've found to my liking that works is the utility VFAPIConv-En.exe, the only problem for this is I have to load each clip (I usually have hundreds) one at a time into the program. This really sucks. I'd like a fast way to create these fake avis!

I have tried three scriptable options

makeAVIs.exe - resulting AVIs wouldn't work in Vegas
AVS2AVI.exe - no audio, I'd like audio unless there is an easy scriptable way to readd it
DGVFAPI - Looked at this, but I felt like I was in the wrong place, seemed to work with files pulled from a DVD, not a camera.

Any more ideas i'm missing?

Thanks!,
--Michael

[Wilbert]

Try PluginPac: New Plugins and Utilities sticky -> PluginPac frameserver (by Satish Kumar).

Btw, makeAVIS should work though. What settings did you use?

Btw2, AVS2AVI is a commandline encoder, not a frameserver.

[Guest]

Just for the record, DGVfapi can process AVS files as well as D2V files.

[Raterus]

As far as makeavis.exe, I have a pretty simple setup here, checked both video/audio, also tried every combination of "forces" I can, still do dice. Vegas (Movie Studio) just doesn't see the avi as a video clip. Other video apps like windows media player seem to play it fine.

Will look at PluginPac now...

If DGVfapi can handle it, which it certainly sounds like it can, I couldn't figure out how. Everytime I tried to open an .avs (using DGIndex.exe) I'd get a "No Video Sequence Header Found" error. Am I totally missing something with this program?

Thanks for both of your help so far!

[Raterus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the "PluginPac" (DebugMode Frameserer) useful for frameserving out of Vegas?

[Guest]

If DGVfapi can handle it, which it certainly sounds like it can, I couldn't figure out how. Everytime I tried to open an .avs (using DGIndex.exe) I'd get a "No Video Sequence Header Found" error. Am I totally missing something with this program? Try reading and following the instructions in the file DGVfapi.txt. You do not open the AVS in DGIndex.

[Wilbert]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the "PluginPac" (DebugMode Frameserer) useful for frameserving out of Vegas?
Oops, you are right :)

[Raterus]

That's actually the first thing I did when I downloaded your program!. I don't think I fully understand what the program is for and all the various pieces and how it fits into exactly what I'm doing.

I get stuck at the instruction "Generate your D2V project file as usual.", What program do I need to use to generate this D2V file? (I assumed it would be DGindex, as it can load em!) I'm a complete noob at this stuff, please bear with me!

Another question too, is there going to be as many fake avi's as my .avs scripts, I want this since I move them around in my Vegas Project. And will I continue to use the VFAPIConv-EN.exe utility to make em? It appears from the screen shot on this page, that it creates one .AVI http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/vfapi_reader_codec.htm

Thanks for all your help so far!
--Michael

[Guest]

I get stuck at the instruction "Generate your D2V project file as usual.", What program do I need to use to generate this D2V file? You are making a fake AVI from an AVS script, not a D2V file, so there's no need to make the D2V. Just follow the instructions but open the AVS script with the VFAPI Converter instead of the D2V.

Another question too, is there going to be as many fake avi's as my .avs scripts Yes. Convert each script and you will get an AVI for each one.

[Raterus]

I think I'm still missing something, because I'm right back where I started!, opening individual AVS files into the VFAPI Converter. Right now I have hundreds of .avs scripts which I have to add to the Converter one-by-one-by-*yawn*. Seems the converter doesn't an option (that I know of) to import all at once, or potentially script this process around.

[DDogg]

I'm pulling video from my DV camera, which I'm then creating .avs files for each clip. I now need to create fake AVIs so I can use them in Vegas for my final product for the DVD. ... <snip>

To back up a bit ... Why do you need all of these individual AVS files? You should take a look at combining all the clips and/or trims into one script <see docs>. Perhaps supply some more information such as an example of one of your scripts - Are they basically the same?

Another avenue to check is to load all of the clips into VDub. You can do edits and such and then save the job. Somewhere around here is a utility to convert the resulting edits stored in the VDub .VCF file into avs trim statements that can be used in a master script.

Would suggest you back up, and state in a more basic form exactly what and why you are trying to accomplish.

@ Wilbert and Don - Best to you both. I see you continue to be wonderful jewels in the D9 sea :)

[Raterus]

Certainly,

I'm not the 'typical' user you see on these forums, I'm just a proud dad trying to put DV camera footage I take of my kids on DVD. I don't do much with the video, just weed out the bad shots, add transitions between shots, and...(which got me involved with this side of video), put a datestamp on the video. This proved to be much more difficult that I originally had thought!

Anyway, I found the Avisynth plugin to do this (DVTimeStampEx), and quickly made a little VBScript to spit out hundreds of .avs scripts that add just a simple datestamp to my video. The only problem is, the program I use to edit the video (Vegas Movie Studio 4.0), doesn't allow me to use .avs files.

This is when I got into making fake AVIs, and using the VFAPI Converter seems to do the trick, but I have to import each clip from my camera into it, which takes a little while (what this question is essentially about) Another plus I like about these fake AVIs is that they are small. I have explored using VirtualDub and making standalone AVIs, but these use twice the space on my hard-drive and take all night to create.

That's basically what I'm doing, I really want all these clips to be available individually to Vegas, just makes it easier to weed out the bad shots. I've really only using Avisynth to do the datestamp.

If any of you three, who certainly know much more about this stuff than I do, know of a better way I can accomplish this, I'd certainly be up for suggestions!

--Michael

[DDogg]

OK, if you want to stay with your method perhaps the question becomes, "How to combine multiple AVS scripts into one script?"

It has been a while since I actually had to write a script and I have forgotten nearly everything ... but - one that will work on a few is something like this:

a=avisource("d:\clip2.avs")
b=avisource("d:\clip3.avs")
c=avisource("d:\clip4.avs")
d=avisource("d:\clip5.avs")
e=avisource("d:\clip6.avs")

return(a+b+c+d+e)

OR, if audio sync problems, invoke the AlignedSplice syntax -

return(a++b++c++d++e)

I believe this should be equivalent to the alignedsplice script below


Hopefully somebody will suggest the proper way as you may hit a wall with the number of files and/or may get audio sync problems. I am just too rusty to remember a better way. At the least, it may point you in a direction or get you a better suggestion from one of the pros here. Good luck.



v1=AVISource("\c02.avs") ++ AVISource("\c03.avs") ++ AVISource("\c04.avs") ++ AVISource("\c05.avs") ++ AVISource("\c06.avs")
v2=AVISource("\c05.avs") ++ AVISource("\c06.avs") ++ AVISource("\c07.avs") ++ AVISource("\c08.avs") ++ AVISource("\c09.avs")
v3=AVISource("\c10.avs") ++ AVISource("\c11.avs") ++ AVISource("\c12.avs") ++ AVISource("\c13.avs") ++ AVISource("\c14.avs")

return(v1+v2+v3)

Perhaps you could combine and timestamp many of your DV clips in one script? Something like this?


LoadPlugin("d:\wutemp\DVTimeStampEx.dll")

a="path\c1.avi"
b="path\c2.avi"

v1=Avisource(a).DVTimeStampEx(a)
v2=avisource(b).DVTimeStampEx(b)

return(v1+v2) #use ++ for alignedsplice only if Audio Async - may give you video glitches



Sorry for the many edits as I tried to remember how to do this stuff