Creating test clips

[ubermensch]

I'm wanting to test out different matricies and xvid settings, and so far the only way I know how is to encode a full movie (via the Gordian Knot tut).

I've searched the forums with all sorts of strings and can't find a tutorial or how-to on how to set up a test clip..

Can anyone point me to a tutorial or anything that'll show me the best way to create sample clips with different settings?

[niamh]

If you use gordian knot, you can simply use the trim function in the provided avs script
trim(startframe,endframe). 2000 frame tests are really fast and I'd use them to get an idea of what I'd get in the end

Use edit script button, enter a start and end frame, and save the avs. You can use that manually through vdub, or if you're very lazy and want to use gknot for it, load the avs like you would load a d2v, set the ratio to 1:1 and alter the bitrate and size accordingly, that works. Set no audio (pointless) and off you go :)

[CWR03]

Even easier, when loading the file in DGIndex, scroll into the movie a bit until you have picture and click the [ button at the bottom right corner. Press F5 and let it play for a few seconds, then click the ] button. You have effectively selected only a few seconds of the movie. The blue indicator bar across the bottom will show what's selected. Once you save it, load and encode it with Gordian Knot as usual. You'll still have the option to load audio tracks - I like to confirm which tracks are which this way before a full encode.

If you're wanting to test bitrate settings, select a full minute of the movie - the timestamp is in the right window - then do some math to determine your intended target size compared to the full movie. For example: 90 minutes at 700 MB = approx. 8 MB for 1 minute. It may take three or four minutes to encode, but it's better than running the entire movie as a test.