What program will report field order of AVI's

[crjackson]

I need a program that will look at the avi file and tell me what the field order is. I'm tired of screwing up media because of the wrong selection in my encoder.

Also, how come a file that works perfect with CCE setting of Upper Field first, must be set to Lower Field first in TMPGEnc (latest version)?

Which program is backwards? CCE or TMPGEnc?

[Richard Iredale]

I am new to this message board so I haven't gone back into the previous threads very far (yet). My recent experience, however, is that CCE gets field order backwards. I am dealing with DV, and every program I touch advises "lower field first," but as a test I did an encode with CCE with both lower and upper. Surprise--the "lower" encode showed the shakes on an NTSC set, while the "upper" came out fine. I think CCE has them mixed up.

[crjackson]

Thanks for the reply. CCE works pretty good, but it's a shame such an expensive program has a bug like that. I guess it's not a big deal as long as I'm aware of it. I wish it had some of the features that TMPGEnc has like cropping, but I love it's speed.

[Richard Iredale]

If by "cropping," you mean changing the beginning or end points, CCE can do that. Load an avi, double-click on it, and click on "settings." On the window that comes up, double-click again on the name of the file, and yet another window comes up, allowing you to set the begin and end points.

[crjackson]

No, I'm talking about croping off pixles of the image size. I know about triming the clip (in/out points).

[auenf]

Originally posted by crjackson
I need a program that will look at the avi file and tell me what the field order is. I'm tired of screwing up media because of the wrong selection in my encoder.

Also, how come a file that works perfect with CCE setting of Upper Field first, must be set to Lower Field first in TMPGEnc (latest version)?

Which program is backwards? CCE or TMPGEnc?

ok, what i do to work it out before encoding is to use an avisynth script to change from 25fps interlaced to 50fps progressive (half height) and then step thru frame by frame in virtualdub and see if the panning is smooth, and doesnt jump back and forth.

i dont have it handy (i only use it at work) but it goes something like this:


AVISource("D:\Movie\Movie.avi")
AssumeFrameBased
ComplementParity <-- use this line to swap fields
SeparateFields


i think AssumeFrameBased defaults to lower field first (check the avisynth docs) but opening that avs in virtualdub gives a half height double fps clip (i use it for PAL, should work in NTSC too)

Enf...

PS, any avisynth knowledgable peoples that see any errors with my script of the top of my head, let me know thanks.

[crjackson]

Thanks for the replys. I have it worked out here now though. I have Ulead Video Studio 6, and Ulead DVD Workshop. I find that if I load the AVI into either of those programs, and click on file properties it tells the field order.

There's got to be a simple (small) utility out there somewhere that will read/report the file properties though.

Now, does anyone know how to get Vdub to output to MS DV Format avi's?

I want to use the Vdub filters to clean up movies before converting to MPG2, but all the other CODEC's produce files that are too large.

A typical DV Format (MS) avi file is about 30GB for 2 hrs. Using other CODEC's the file is about 500GB (I can't live with that, I only have 160 GB to work with).

[auenf]

Originally posted by crjackson
Thanks for the replys. I have it worked out here now though. I have Ulead Video Studio 6, and Ulead DVD Workshop. I find that if I load the AVI into either of those programs, and click on file properties it tells the field order.

There's got to be a simple (small) utility out there somewhere that will read/report the file properties though.

Now, does anyone know how to get Vdub to output to MS DV Format avi's?

I want to use the Vdub filters to clean up movies before converting to MPG2, but all the other CODEC's produce files that are too large.

A typical DV Format (MS) avi file is about 30GB for 2 hrs. Using other CODEC's the file is about 500GB (I can't live with that, I only have 160 GB to work with).

the MS DV codec is a DirectShow .avi, virtualdub doesnt export in directshow, only avi2.

what i usually do is export from virtualdub in lossless MJPEG then export a MS DV from prem6.

Enf...

[crjackson]

I've got an idea that may work for me, but I can't really test it until Vdub get's through prossing a 20GB file from Studio 7 into an Indeo 4.5 file.

My biggest complaint is that nearly ALL captured video is very grainy. I relly like the ability of Vdub to apply a smoothing filter that I can adjust on screen, ans smooth to my desire for nearly perfect result before encoding.

If I encode the AVI as it, CCE will clean it up a bit, but for the most part I'm stuck with a grainy looking final product.

As I was sleeping last night it occured to me, that when I have a grainy picture (still photo) it's usually the result of my adjustment being too sharp, and I use photoshop to reducess the sharpness which is nothing more that a bluring tool (aka: smoothing filter).

I think that in Studio 7, it does have controls that will allow me to adjust blur/focus amoung other things (I usually leave them all at default of 0).

I'm going to try a SHORT/GRAINY clip where I would want to use a Vdub filter, and gradually adjust the BLUR to see if I can get similar results to Vdub.

I'll let you know how it works out...

Thanks for the TIP about Vdub vs. DirectShow. That would explain why other programs don't give me access to it either...