Why are my AVI files in Premiere coming out black?

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:19 am

@ Gox777: ffdshow is long-past bye bye, that codec is the source of more ills than a kettle full of baby ladybugs. (Random, weird tip: if you can't get video to play in Adobe Bridge, uninstall ffdshow - this one stumped even the tech support guys at Adobe!).
That's right, the files were converted and it still isn't playing nice. The frame rate is whacked out, I noticed that right off and took steps to repair it with the AVS script, but it didn't seem to make a difference in Premiere or improve playback in VDM.

@ Willen: I didn't try telling it to drop some frames, though, so I'll definately give that a shot and report back. Thanks!

These are not HD files, btw, I don't want to perpetuate that growing shadow over the quality of available raws. I had a difficult time choosing between my raw sources and ended up going with these because of their larger size (pixel-wise), despite their accompanying problems.

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:39 am

All right, I got the frames to drop down to a nice 23.976 range (VDM seemed to like that best), however, my AVI files are now coming out bigger than ever - a whopping 7 GB from a 400 MB file. Is this new framerate not "sticking" when VDM makes the new AVIs? I wish I could just edit with the AVS files, but the video I needs to be un-divxed. (I haven't confirmed that the video now plays properly in Premiere, btw, I'm kind of stuck unless I can get these file sizes down; Premiere and my computer like to bicker about RAM allocation.)

I suppose I should ask straight up what folks with MOHS raws from SOS-Dan used to get these files into shape. If they did, I should be able to do it, it's just a matter of figuring out how. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:58 am

This is the script I'm using:

Code: Select all

DirectShowSource("C:\path\SHnY_Episode_xx(1280x720_DivX521).avi", fps=119.88, ConvertFPS=true)
KillAudio()
FDecimate(29.97)
BilinearResize(852, 480)

Of course, you can replace FDecimate(29.97) with the other filters I mentioned above. Resize the video to whatever resolution you prefer, adding letterboxing or cropping as needed. And add any other filters you deem necessary.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:20 am

Oh, just to add, 7GB for a whole episode in Huffyuv from a 400MB raw is plausible to me. I edit with Huffyuv clips instead of AVS files and I tend to make them a bit on the longer side than they need to be. I'm up to 2.67GB in my clip folder for a video that still needs much more footage.

You could try to edit with the AVS file you currently have for the SHnY episode(s) you are using. Hopefully the added complexity of decoding the DivX video and the added filters in the AVS file isn't too much for your computer.

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:03 pm

Hrm...well... 7GB still seems burdensome. For some reason, VDM won't let me set in/out points on my AVS file, either, so that's why I was exporting the entire AVI file, rather than smaller clips.

The real issue is whether I can even use the resulting files in Premiere, I need to check and see if they're not coming out black anymore. I assumed it was the Divx messing things up, but it could have been the FPS rate. *salutes* I will report back (again)!

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:45 pm

I'm not sure how that script works for you, I either get the error message "VDM doesn't know WTF FPS means" or the program crashes.

I'll work on some alternatives, I guess.

DriftRoot · Post by **DriftRoot** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:57 pm

Jeez, someone needs to install an edit option around here. VDM will take the fps=119.88 parameter, but not the ConvertFPS=true one. The program is of the opinion that you can't use it with DirectShowSource.

Btw, Willen, I don't know if your file is doing this, but with the FDecimate setting you have, MY file was dropping way too many frames to the point where hunks were missing. I only noticed because I'm running the same section over and over again to see what works best - mine's set on SelectEvery(5).

Of course, this could all be some grand conspiracy to ruin my MOHS AMV plans and you're giving me a bad script on purpose in hopes I can't work it out for myself and will give up in despair. Ha! Not going to work!

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:32 am

DriftRoot wrote:I'm not sure how that script works for you, I either get the error message "VDM doesn't know WTF FPS means" or the program crashes. I'll work on some alternatives, I guess.

It will probably work without the ConvertFPS=True just fine for DivX and XviD AVIs. I stuck that in because I was using a version of that script for the WMV9 AVI versions at one point and never took it out. I used to get that error message, but I installed the latest AviSynth version and it stopped complaining. AviSynth 2.5.6a