Do you people know a decoder for a h264 avi files?

[DJ_Izumi]

Yes, h.264-> Lossless for AMV editing would do quite nicely.

[Hero2u0]

Yes, h.264-> Lossless for AMV editing would do quite nicely.

? Why not h.264?

[DJ_Izumi]

h.264 is a PLAYBACK codec. It, like XviD and DivX are not ment to be used in editors. Convert the video to something useable.

Ugh, we need an easy linkable comprehensive 'How to edit with downloaded stuff' guide. I mean, the actual tactics to do it arn't that hard, it's easier than using DVD footage even.

[Up In Flamez]

what everyone is basically saying is that H.264, will crash your editing as much as XviD/Divx. Convert to lagarith and edit with those.

[DJ_Izumi]

what everyone is basically saying is that H.264, will crash your editing as much as XviD/Divx. Convert to lagarith and edit with those.

Probably more so. And seeking is a cruel and slow with h.264.

[Gepetto]

Ugh, we need an easy linkable comprehensive 'How to edit with downloaded stuff' guide. I mean, the actual tactics to do it arn't that hard, it's easier than using DVD footage even.

For some reason, the admins still want us to keep a clean legal facade going here so we can't really have that on the org. However I bet there's a guide somewhere out there just waiting to be TinyURL'd and put on my signature space instead of this stupid binary junk.

[DJ_Izumi]

We don't have to say 'Downloaded'. We just have to say how to use XviD/DivX/h.264/WMV/Whatever as source and not speak about where it CAME from. Just how to get it editing happily in Premiere and other programs.

It can mostly all be done wit AVISynth and VirtualDubMod anyway.

[Gepetto]

We don't have to say 'Downloaded'. We just have to say how to use XviD/DivX/h.264/WMV/Whatever as source and not speak about where it CAME from. Just how to get it editing happily in Premiere and other programs.

It can mostly all be done wit AVISynth and VirtualDubMod anyway.

This is where the storm of fire and sulfur comes in, right?

It is pretty easy, though, especially when compared to the mess of deinterlacing PAL footage. And if you don't care about pre-processing, even VirtualDub is unnecessary. DirectShowSource() alone does the trick of loading int editors without mayhem.

[DJ_Izumi]

It is pretty easy, though, especially when compared to the mess of deinterlacing PAL footage. And if you don't care about pre-processing, even VirtualDub is unnecessary. DirectShowSource() alone does the trick of loading int editors without mayhem.

I've always found that uncomfortably laggy. For XviD and DivX source, I just used VirtualDub straight up and I exported 5-30 second long segments to Huffy and later Lagarith for easy editing in Premiere. It had the advantage of still being hard drive efficent and I just personally found seeking in Vdub easier than in Premiere for large lengths of video. But that last part is just personal taste.

h.264 came out and it's as easy as using the VirtualDubMod DirectShowSource templete to get in and to export segments to lossless. And some of these h.264 files you can get are as good as DVD, sometimes a lot better if you considder that some R1's are aweful or just bad transfers. No inverse telecine because it's done for you. No filtering, it's done for you.

Let's face it, most of the noobs arn't going to be using DVDs and using DVD footage right isn't a simple thing to teach, especially when someone doesn't have a general knowledge of computer video.

The current state of things is a lot of fansubs being used in WMM with DivX logos in the corners and subtitles at the bottom while confused people ask on the forums every day 'How do I shot h.264???' The answer to the question is easy but no one's done anything to make the answer accessable. Instead we tell them to 'Read the guide!' like a lame priest saying 'Just look in the good book' so he doesn't have to do any real work. I don't think they necessarily need to be taught color spaces and frame rates first off when what they should be learning first is 'How to composte your video' not 'Advanced Placement DVD Ripping' which is what the guide basicly is.

[Gepetto]

I agrre with every word, except the comments on the DirectShow metrhod. Laggy, sure. But a person with little hard drive space (low total or too much stuff on disk) won't be too comfortable with the Lagarith/HuffYUV/MJPEG Lossles method.

If someone wants to try making their first video, they should just be able to pop up whatever file into the editor they have and play around with them, or they'll be disencouraged by the apparent complexity of the thing from day 1. When I did my first one in Premiere, it took me a week to figure out that it was 2GB big because I didn't compres it myself. Then I asked here and someone directed me to a very sucint "XviD for Dummies" kind page. But that hapens less than always. Instead, we tell them to install AviSynth and run a bunch of test scripts, and direct them to guides that are way over their heads. Then when the videos are done and they show us, most people will throw mud at their faces instead of giving constructive critic, resulting in this same critic being mixed up with the insults and lost.

But I do see a tendency among the newer users to look for beter quality footage, even if they still stay in the realm of fansubs. Surely you too have noted that questions about how to use .rm and .rmvb files have practically disappeared around the .org, and I haven't seen them much elsewhere either. So I think the trick to "teaching" them how to go for the DVD footage is to wait until they decide on their own that they want a better image quality.

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This is a little off-topic but it's a productive discussion. Maybe someone will do us the courtesy of splitting this thread?