AVS sources in Premiere Pro

[zambelli]

I've searched the forums for this but nothing came up that was relevant and newer than 2003. :)

I'm trying to edit a project in Premiere Pro that uses several different source formats and codecs (MPEG-2 TS, HuffYUV, DV, WMV), resolutions (640x480, 720x480, 1280x720) and framerates (24p, 30p, 60i) - and all this needs to come together to form a nice 720x480 NTSC DVD. So of course, I turn to Avisynth to level the battle field and give me uniform 720x480 29.97p sources out of everything. :)

My problem is that I can't seem to find a good and reliable method of importing and editing AVS scripts. I tried the Premiere AVS Plugin 1.5 from Video Editors Toolkit. It works well except for one huge problem: seeking in files is completely broken. Seeking or scrubbing to any point in the video lands me at a place much earlier in the video. Also, once you get into a big project with more than 30 scripts, the plugin has a nasty tendency to crash Premiere, even when you turn down the memory setting on AVS.

I have two questions, and answering either one of them might eliminate the other one (and help me tons):

1. Is there a fix or workaround for the seeking bug? The Sourceforge page appears quite stale. Has anyone worked on this plugin at all since May 2004?
2. Is there a newer, better way of working with AVS scripts in Premiere Pro? Please keep in mind that it needs to be highly scalable and reliable.

Thanks!

[Wilbert]

Either contact zettai (one of the devs of PremiereAVSPlugin i think) or convert your script to a fake avi using makeAVIS.

[zettai]

I've heard many issues with avisynth use in premiere pro but never seeking being one of them.

The plugin does not handle the seeking in any way - premiere simply asks for a frame and avisynth gives the frame to premiere.

If you are having seeking issues that make things be off by a few frames then I suspect it is a problem with your scripts not being random-frame accesible. This can be a number of reasons including:

1) DirectShowSource filters not being frame accurate and giving inconsistent results

2) IVTC methods that rely on previous frame information giving different results when going directly to a specific frame rather than processing the file linearly.

and so on.


The only other thing I can imagine is that there is some timecode strangeness which wouldn't surprise me (Adobe really broke a lot of things in premiere pro) except for the fact that I'm surprised this is the first time it has been mentioned as the plugin has been very thoroughly tested in real life uses.

[zambelli]

Originally posted by zettai

If you are having seeking issues that make things be off by a few frames then I suspect it is a problem with your scripts not being random-frame accesible.

It's far worse than just a few frames off - when I seek in the premiere timeline, the pointer usually lands several *minutes* earlier than the target. For example, I'll try to seek to 15:00.0, and it will land at 11:23.4. This only happens with DirectShowSource() and WMV sources though. See below.


1) DirectShowSource filters not being frame accurate and giving inconsistent results


I suspect this is a part of the problem, but not entirely. When I use DirectShowSource() with WMV files, seeking goes entirely wacky and Premiere *never* seeks where I want to. As described above, the seek marker will land entire minutes earlier than intended.
With AVISource() and AVI files, the situation is much better, but not perfect. I still notice that seeking isn't always accurate. Sometimes it will be a few frames or maybe even seconds off.

One question that comes to mind is: how come VirtualDub has no problem accurately seeking the same AVS files? If I request a specific frame, I get the specific frame.


2) IVTC methods that rely on previous frame information giving different results when going directly to a specific frame rather than processing the file linearly.


No IVTC processing. All sources are in their "true" framerates.


The only other thing I can imagine is that there is some timecode strangeness which wouldn't surprise me (Adobe really broke a lot of things in premiere pro) except for the fact that I'm surprised this is the first time it has been mentioned as the plugin has been very thoroughly tested in real life uses.

I'm surprised, too. I searched the entire forum and found no reference to anything similar.

If you have Premiere, could you please try importing an AVS script that uses DirectShowSource() with WMV files? I'm curious to hear if you see the same issues.

[Zarxrax]

I've used scripts like that in premiere and never had any issues.

[morsa]

me neither.

[Wilbert]

I suspect this is a part of the problem, but not entirely. When I use DirectShowSource() with WMV files, seeking goes entirely wacky and Premiere *never* seeks where I want to. As described above, the seek marker will land entire minutes earlier than intended.
I don't know. Does setting seek=true give any improvement?

[zambelli]

Originally posted by Wilbert
I don't know. Does setting seek=true give any improvement?

No, that completely breaks seeking. Premiere does nothing on seek, MPC hangs on seek.

[Zarxrax]

Maybe its a problem with something in your script. Could you post your entire script?

[zambelli]

Originally posted by Zarxrax
Maybe its a problem with something in your script. Could you post your entire script?

Sure.


DirectShowSource("foo.wmv", fps=30)
SSRC(48000)
LanczosResize(720,480)
ConvertToRGB32(interlaced=false)


The additional parameters are there because the source is a 640x480, 30.0 fps video with 44kHz audio.

[Zarxrax]

Hmmm... I don't really see anything that might be wrong there.

Perhaps try removing the fps parameter, or maybe try adding AssumeFPS(30) to your script, and see if either of those help.

Short of that, all I know is maybe try completely reinstalling premiere and avisynth and the plugin.