Failure pincer attack! Avisynth, Premiere Pro, VirtualDub!

[MorseAmalgam]

So, uh. Hey. I used to come here all the time ages ago, produced next to nothing, but listened a lot and twiddled with things. Anyway.
Tried to start up again today - Figured the process was basically the same as before. Trying to use some MKVs, and learned that Premiere doesn't support them. Searching for "MKV Premiere support" brought me to the Avisynth plugin for Premiere that was made some time ago, and the more I've searched, the more locations I've found with versions of it pointing all over - same with AviSynth. I could never get the Premiere plugin working. It worked, for a while, in VirtualDubMod, which is still included in the AMVApp pack despite people saying to use VirtualDub. I fought with the Premiere plugin for some time.
1. "You may need to install it manually." I copied everything that appeared to be related to the plugin into the plugins/en-US folder, as it stated.
2. I look for more files where the installer is putting them, and realize that the installer points to a non-existent folder and apparently fails silently. I install the files to C:\ and manually move them in - They're the same files as I copied before, still doesn't work.
3. Forum posts mentioning missing Avisynth.dll files. I can't find there anywhere. I go to install the new version of AviSynth. A forum post recommended the 64-bit one for 64-bit systems. I also needed VirtualDub since it had a 64-bit version. Issues continue as previously mentioned.
4. Someone mentions that the CCCP should be downloaded. "Of course," says I, "I forgot the codec pack! I'll download/update immediately!" Now AviSynth fails entirely. I can't get it to work on VirtualDub, VirtualDubMod, Premiere, or any form of Media Player.
5. After mashing versions together for another hour, I now have the basic "colorbar.avs" working. Nothing else will, despite working before.
I don't see any option to roll back the codec pack to an earlier version, Premiere still seems to believe that I haven't installed the plugin (And I can't find any way to see what plugins are installed), and even files that were working at the beginning of the day no longer work. Is there an alternative? Some... nicer way to convert MKVs, since it doesn't sound like I can/should be using the files as-is for editing anyway?

[mirkosp]

which is still included in the AMVApp pack despite people saying to use VirtualDub.

Nah, you're just looking in the wrong place (older guide).
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... mvapp.html
Updated guide and AMVApp comes with virtualdub, not virtualdubmod.

Anyway, here's what you should do:
1) Use the 2010-10-10 CCCP. I'm not sure if you reverted to an older version or not, that part in your post wasn't quite clear to me, so I'll say it just in case, however if it's what you have atm, you're good.
2) Use Avisynth 2.5.8 32bit. 64bit version is less stable than the 32bit version and has less plugin support, and some of those that were made are less stable than the 32bit version ones.
3) Use Virtualdub 1.9.11 or 1.10.0 (1.9.11 is stable, 1.10.0 is experimental). I personally go for 1.10.0, but use 1.9.11 to be on the safe side. Make sure you pick the 32bit version.
4) Get a good lossless codec (warning: hueg filesize). The one I'd recommend you is UTVideo, an older version of which comes with the amvapp I linked. A more up to date version can be found on the author site. Since you're on a 64bit system, install BOTH the 32bit AND the 64bit versions of the codec.
5) Get ffms2 for avisynth. You can call it as ffvideosource("your file.mkv") and it will load only the video. You can download either the mt version or the vanilla version. Supposedly the vanilla version is more stable, but I've had no trouble whatsover with the mt version either.
6) Import the avs with your mkv loaded in virtualdub and encode it with the "Ut Video Codec YUV420 (ULY0)" entry on the list. Make sure you hit configure and set it to "Optimize the video for compression ratio (Predict median)" ─ checking the "Same as # of logical processors" checkbox could be a good idea too.
7) Save the avi and then load it into premiere. Yes, it is on the big side of the filesize spectrum, being lossless and all, but it's smaller than huffyuv, yet MUCH faster than it, and you will be assured to have a file that premiere pro likes and is very fast, stable, and safe to edit with.

[BasharOfTheAges]

An aside with regards to the premiere plugin (and possibly other things) : what version of premiere are you actually running?

[Rhyzel]

Hey! I hope you got it working. I am having a similar issue. My goal is to import .MKV files into Premiere without converting them to any other format. I am running CS5.5 and can't seem to import AviSynth files into Premiere.

I am currently running AviSynth 2.56 build 01062005
I have tried installing two more up to date versions (2.58 and 2.60) per your recommendation, but I get an error when running the .exe that says "error opening file for writing: C:\Windows\system32\avisynth.dll"

So assuming that the more up to date version of AVS IS necessary, could you give me some troubleshooting advice?

Assuming that the more up to date version of AVS is NOT necessary, do you have any tips for me to help out with importing .avs files into Premiere?

[Scintilla]

I am currently running AviSynth 2.56 build 01062005
I have tried installing two more up to date versions (2.58 and 2.60) per your recommendation, but I get an error when running the .exe that says "error opening file for writing: C:\Windows\system32\avisynth.dll"

So assuming that the more up to date version of AVS IS necessary, could you give me some troubleshooting advice?

Make sure you're not running any kind of program that works with video when you try to install it? I can't think of why else avisynth.dll would be locked to overwriting.

[Rhyzel]

Got it! I now have 2.60 installed, however I am still unable to import .AVS files into Premiere. Do you have any further hints/recommendations?

Thanks

[mirkosp]

CS5.5 is 64bit so you'll need a 64bit avisynth and 64bit version of the plugin to import the scripts.
However, I highly discourage 64bit builds of avisynth, as well as mt builds of it, and I don't care if other people here say they are fine to use, because I know that, for the time being, they aren't as stable as the 32bit one (and in the case of MT, due to compatibility, at the end of the day they paradoxically manage to be even slower).
So what I suggest you is to make lossless clips from the avs, but if you really need to edit with frameserving, then you should go for the fake avi files route.

[Rhyzel]

Dang. According to that link, there is no .AVS plugin for CS5+. That was a great piece of advice and I learned a lot from that page though. I've been looking for that info for so long and I have never come across that page

I will give the lossless method a shot. Thanks for you help ^_^

[Pwolf]

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/v ... 9&t=100068

But, as mirtko said already, 64bit avisynth isn't stable so its better to convert your source to lossless first.