VC-1 formally approved by SMPTE!

[stax76]

This might be a stupid question as nobody ask before, will AviSynth scripts be supported by WME Studio and the automation interfaces? With the old stuff it's not working and I have problems to understand how it can be useful for us without AviSynth support. If it's possible I will add VC-1 support to StaxRip. I wanted to do that with WMV9 too but after having a major pain I was forced to give up.

[GmorG McRoth]

This might be a stupid question as nobody ask before, will AviSynth scripts be supported by WME Studio and the automation interfaces? With the old stuff it's not working and I have problems to understand how it can be useful for us without AviSynth support. If it's possible I will add VC-1 support to StaxRip. I wanted to do that with WMV9 too but after having a major pain I was forced to give up.
I was wondering same thing for some time now, but I could not decide where to post here or there (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=110404)

[Latexxx]

This might be a stupid question as nobody ask before, will AviSynth scripts be supported by WME Studio and the automation interfaces? With the old stuff it's not working and I have problems to understand how it can be useful for us without AviSynth support. If it's possible I will add VC-1 support to StaxRip. I wanted to do that with WMV9 too but after having a major pain I was forced to give up.

If I remember correctly, avisynth is somewhat usable with wmenc9. I mean that it is a pita to set up but it works correctly at least for video only content.

[HookedOnTV]

WMNicEnc uses avs input.

[zambelli]

Simple profile for mobile and low caculation capable device~
and for main profile, i take a look into the VC-1 draft, there's just a bit differents compare to the adavanced.
if they re-implement the VC-1 from scratch, main profile might be improved too.
Correct. Improvements to AP should be seen in MP, too. One catch though: when we release the standalone AP codec for download, it'll just be the AP encoder DMO - your existing MP encoder DMO will not be updated. You'll have to wait for WMP11 or Vista for an updated MP encoder DMO.
People commonly talk about VC-1 as a new codec, but in reality it's mostly the Advanced Profile that's new - and that's what all the buzz is really about.

[zambelli]

Avisynth input - good question.

I can't speak for WME Studio Edition, but now that Ben is in charge of that project - I don't think that's an impossible request. From an implementation perspective, AVS support is not much different than AVI support (that's the whole point anyway) so one would only need to make sure .avs input is not being reject by an overly aggressive input validation algorithm.

The problem with WME9 is that it has its own internal source plugins to deal with AVI, MPEG, capture, etc sources. Even though .avs inputs are accepted by the Encoder and end up getting handled by the AVI source filter, the source filter (for some reason) fails to retrieve the Duration property from the .avs file in some scenarios. That's the real cause of the failure.

The workaround is to specify "Both device and file" as an input source in WME9, then browse for file and point it to the .avs file. This causes WME9 to ignore the Duration attribute (like it would when sourcing from a device).

In the command-line script encoder (wmcmd.vbs), this can't be done. For this reason (and some others) we have updated wmcmd.vbs and will try to make it publicly available on the web soon. I'll talk about that more when it's ready - I don't want to jump the gun again. :)

[zambelli]

With the old stuff it's not working and I have problems to understand how it can be useful for us without AviSynth support. If it's possible I will add VC-1 support to StaxRip.
I'm not familiar with StaxRip. If you plan on using the WM Encoder SDK to do WMV encoding, just remember to avoid querying for source duration and you should be fine.

If you're using the command-line script encoder, see my response above.

If you're using the WMV Encoder DMOs directly, then this is a non-issue anyway.

You're more than welcome to add WMV9/VC-1 Advanced Profile support to your application. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/codecadvancedsettings.aspx for a list of advanced settings. The new WMV9 builds are way more flexible than the old WMV9 codec as far as performance/PQ tweaking.

[Valeron]

@zambelli:
will MS release an all-in-one decoder DMO or even VFW one for vc-1 stuff from SP to AP?

[zambelli]

@zambelli:
will MS release an all-in-one decoder DMO or even VFW one for vc-1 stuff from SP to AP?
DMO = Yes. In WMP11.
VfW = Don't know. Seems unlikely, but that's just my personal opinion.

However, now that's VC-1 is standardized, there's no reason somebody else couldn't produce a VCM encoder/decoder.

[popper]

I still believe it won't be "just a DLL" that will be released.
Based on that note in ExtremeTech, I think we'll see the codec, WME Studio (beta) and WMP11 (probably beta) released at the same time (I understand that WMP10 as of now plays VC-1).
WMP11 might even have AACS approval to play back HD-DVD content. There are still no HDMI video cards and PC drives, but those must be out shortly (the NEC drive in the Toshiba HD-DVD player _is_ a simple IDE PC drive that will get a XP driver).
Vista is 8+ months away, I think MS can't afford not to give XP users an option (and a cheap one at that) to play HD-DVD content - they will risk to lose momentum. And announced Toshiba (laptop) and Sony (desktop) products prove it can be done on XP.

Or may be it's just wishful thinking ....
If releasing "just a DLL" takes this much time, there is something really wrong at MS...

Diogen.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=14831

GECUBE X1300 and X1600 HDMI Graphics Cards Released
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5305

[bond]

why does m$ not release one vc-1 encoder that does all profiles? why release different dlls/dmos or whatever?

[zambelli]

why does m$ not release one vc-1 encoder that does all profiles? why release different dlls/dmos or whatever?
We have several release vehicles for WMV9 updates. Vista and WMP11 in general will have all WMV/VC-1 profiles in one DMO. However, since both of those products are in beta right now, we're also trying to release a standalone Advanced Profile DMO for those people who want to try the updated AP codec but don't want to install a beta product.

[bond]

:thanks:

[snowcrash]

Avisynth input - good question.

The workaround is to specify "Both device and file" as an input source in WME9, then browse for file and point it to the .avs file. This causes WME9 to ignore the Duration attribute (like it would when sourcing from a device).



I regularly use WME9 in this way to encode from .avs files and it works ok. There does seem to be one problem though, and I wonder if you're aware of it. After closing WME9 in the normal way, the wmenc.exe process continues to run. I have to go into task manager and end the process, otherwise after using the encoder a few times I'll end up with mutiple instances of wmenc.exe running and eventually it'll start acting weird and crash. This only happens when I encode from an .avs file within WME9. I'm using Windows XP, btw.


In the command-line script encoder (wmcmd.vbs), this can't be done. For this reason (and some others) we have updated wmcmd.vbs and will try to make it publicly available on the web soon. I'll talk about that more when it's ready - I don't want to jump the gun again.

That sounds good. Then I guess I'd be able to use the script encoder to do batch encodes from .avs files which is something I've always wanted to do but could never get to work. I'll be looking forward to getting my hands on this new version of the script encoder.

[fccHandler]

After closing WME9 in the normal way, the wmenc.exe process continues to run. I have to go into task manager and end the process, otherwise after using the encoder a few times I'll end up with mutiple instances of wmenc.exe running and eventually it'll start acting weird and crash. This only happens when I encode from an .avs file within WME9. I'm using Windows XP, btw.
Wow, I thought I was the only one with this problem...
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=721165#post721165

The impression I got from IanB is that it's an Avisynth problem, but it's hard not to point a finger at WME9 since Avisynth works perfectly well with everything else I have.

[zambelli]

The impression I got from IanB is that it's an Avisynth problem, but it's hard not to point a finger at WME9 since Avisynth works perfectly well with everything else I have.
I have a fix/workaround for both the hanging process problem and the AVS duration problem in the updated wmcmd.vbs script. I'll let you guys know when it's officially available for download.

[trbarry]

I have a fix/workaround for both the hanging process problem and the AVS duration problem in the updated wmcmd.vbs script. I'll let you guys know when it's officially available for download.


Good deal. Thanks.

- Tom