.h264 issues with vdub. Settings are all right.

[Ikasu]

This question has probably been asked to death. I apologize for bringing it up again. I'm attempting to run a .h264 format file via virtualdub with no success. I've installed and been using FFDshow for a while. I've set up the VFW correctly and also have the video decoder settings set up as well. I took MKVextract via Mkvtoonnix and extracted the video stream from a .mkv file. I was left a .h264 format file that will not at all open in virtual dub. If I attempt to open the file in mpc it plays normally..without fetching FFDshow to decode it which is odd. It plays perfectly fine. If i pop it into vdub or vdubmod. it fails with a "cannot detect file type" error.

I don't need audio at all since I just need the video source for a music based editing project. I've even run through regedit with a with a vidc command for "vidc.h264 = ff_vfw.dll" with no luck. I've run the file through avisynth with a "directshowsource" command and I can open it fine...in vdub and vdub mod. But It is driving me nuts that I can't just open the file by itself in vdub mod or vdub while others have gotten it to work. I'm running the latest build by clsid of FFDshow. attempting to open the MKV container which the .h264 originated from in vdubmod just brings up a file with corrupted video that displays a black signal with a rainbow of colorful lines in a tight compacted vertical sequence.

Any ideas?..I could bare with running it through avisynth..But having it run through it and eating up some more resources is a bit annoying. Also the fact that others have gotten it to work is the biggest issue for me. Is there something wrong with my software configuration? Or does h264/x264 simply despise me to no end?

Current specs/software:

3.2 prescott (I know..I need a new rig)
4 gigs of ram (3.2 useable)
Xp pro SP 2
latest FFDshow by CLSID
Halli media splitter 1.7.189.11
directvob sub 2.37
real alternative
MPC 6.4.9.0
vdub 1.6.19
vdub mod 1.5.10.2

[foxyshadis]

You can use avc2avi, but you'll have bad frame desync problems. Using Avidemux on the original mkv would probably be more reliable overall, but it's up to you.

[Ikasu]

I actually attempted AVIdemux while I was waiting for a reply. On the mkv and the .h264 video source file as well. It fails on the .h264 file completely and won't launch. If I run the mkv container it does indeed work. When I seek though it displays corruption...But plays fine once a scene changes. Of course that won't effect the export...just a seek problem..

But is there anyway to get a .h264 to open directly into vdub or vdubmod? If not it's allright. I can always run it directly through AVS into premiere since I'm planning to edit these .h264 files directly (size is an issue...Don't have enough hard drive space since each files is 24 minutes long and there are 76 files, that would end up being way too large of huffyuv files for me...lol). But yea...Is there anyway to just open the .h264 files by themselves in vdub/vdubmod?

[foxyshadis]

The corruption issue is a FAQ, you have to rebuild keyframes after you load the video. It's not automated yet.

The only thing you can open a raw stream in is elecard streameye and and dgavcdec, pretty much. Everything else requires it to be muxed into avi, mkv, mp4, ts, ps, etc. Demuxing is generally a bad idea, in case it has special timecodes or moving audio delays; it can be very frustrating to try to compensate for that. Even more frustrating will be trying to edit h.264 in avi in premiere, though; frames will jump back and forth in the timeline because of the way b-frames are decoded in vfw.

Supposedly Premiere now has support for mp4, which is probably by far the best solution (use haali's gdsmux to make it from mkv).

If you're using avisynth anyway though, just use ffmpegsource on the mkv.

[Ikasu]

Hmmm...Would it still run into issues running the .h264 as a directshowsource into premiere? Or will ffmpegsource be a better suited method in premiere? I will for sure be running them through avisynth since I need to modify the videos via scripting...That way I can add them in later once the project is done for enhancing quality and such. But do b-frame issues occur via Directshowsource or ffmpegsource? If so then I might have timing issues when editing...

I'm also using premiere pro cs3...Although I'd love to still use premiere 6.5..I think it's about time I switched over.

[foxyshadis]

Directshowsource will probably have even worse seeking than avisource - it'll work better seeking back and forth a few frames at a time, but often changes around completely with long seeks.

ffmpegsource has complete frame accuracy all the time (aside from a few bugs, pretty rare now), and will work with mkv and others, but not raw streams. dgavcdec also does, and only works with raw streams.

[Ikasu]

fantastic man. You've been a huge help. Just downloaded and gave it a test run. I was expecting some more documentation with some more extensive scripting. But it seems that just loading the .dll with ffmpegsource on the mkv does everything. Is that so?

Also, reading the documentation. It states that files with audio will be cached in a raw stream. I'm checking the directory of the source/avs files. There is a ffv cache file which would be the video indexing. I'm using a dual audio source. Although I really don't need audio all together. I'm planning to just run these .avs files directly into premiere for editing along with a separate music source. I don't notice the ffa cache file which is stated in the documentation as the audio caching....Yet the documentation states that files with audio will always be cached in a raw stream which eats up space. Is the audio cache file only created if I use a string command for "acachefile"? A bit confused on this regard since there is no ffa audio cache file yet it states "always" in the documentation...Sorry to be a bourden.

Any ideas?..it completely contradicts itself..lol..

[foxyshadis]

Oh, checked the docs and it turns out you have to set atrack to something. (default -2 = disabled.) That one's documentation is a bit perfunctory, the thread has more detail, but it's really just another source filter; not a whole lot of variables.

If you need to process more than one audio stream at a time, you can do that with more than one ffmpegsource (or demuxing and loading otherwise), with vtrack set to -2 and a different file for the audio cache. Avisynth isn't really set up for multitrack audio editing though, it'd be simpler to edit with the main track, save it to wav/mp3/etc, then reopen with a different track and save that one.