AviSynth + Premier = don't need VirtualDub?

[glowie]

Hi people. First off, great community! great guides! great help! Thanks!

This is the first time I'm doing an AMV and have been reading the guides around here since this afternoon... it's 3am now and my butt's killing me.
To be honest, I haven't really read enough but I need assurance that my basic is correct.

Assuming I have AviSynth and Adobe Premier, I don't really VirtualDub yes? (Of course... I should use it to test out the avs b4 loading them into Premier but assuming there's nothing wrong with the avs script...)

I just wanna start with a simple project (before I black out...err... I mean sleep) but am finding myself being overwhelmed by the wealth of details. @_@

So err.. if I understand this correctly, I just need to use notepad and output a .avs file and then open it in Premier.
eg.
DirectShowSource("X:\mytest.mkv", audio=false, fps=23.976)
Info()
ConvertToRGB32()

btw, what does FieldBased (Separated) Video represent? (Interlaced or non-Interlaced?)
What about Parity: Bottom Field First and Video Pitch?

Thanks in advance! Any help/info is greatly appreciated.

~glowie

[glowie]

Sorry... can't find the edit post option.

I wanted to add... if my source is mkv with 23.97 fps... whereas I wanted to create an NTFS project in premier which uses 29.97 (as per the guide)... I should convert the fps yes? If that is the case, should I be using AssumeFPS or ConvertFPS?

Thanks again!

~glowie.

[Kariudo]

technically, you wouldn't need vdubmod...but it's still a good idea to use it.
.avs editing isn't as fast as using normal clips (it becomes more apparent when you import more scripts)

you probably want to take info() out of your script (info prints stuff to the screen...which I'm pretty sure you don't want)

Field-based video is interlaced, and bottom field first tells you that the interlaced frames show the bottom lines before the top lines. This doesn't mean a thing if Field-based video says no

Video pitch, I have no idea...doesn't look like it's important for editing.

assumefps() just changes the playback rate (frame count before and after are the same)
convertfps() can change the framecount to achieve the framerate change (though it tries not to).
...assumefps sounds like what you want (it's the safer of the two in terms of not making motion look jerky).

that said, 23.97 is fine most of the time. Unless you need to have a specific fps for entering in a contest I'd just edit at whatever framerate you have (might want to assumefps(23.98) for premiere though)

[Qyot27]

A) If you're gonna open the script in Premiere, you don't want to use DirectShowSource - it's not frame accurate, which means it has the potential to screw up your edits. You'll want to use either FFmpegSource or DSS2 instead (although I have no clue how to use DSS2).

B) AssumeFPS simply changes the playback framerate, but keeps all the frames intact and doesn't add or subtract any. ChangeFPS will insert duplicate frames or drop frames to match the desired framerate while maintaining audio sync. ConvertFPS, when the framerate given is below the fps of the clip, will blend frames to achieve it rather than drop them altogether. I would assume for framerates that are higher than the input clip's, that it operates roughly the same way ChangeFPS does.

B2) If you use DirectShowSource (which again I stress you don't if you want to edit with the scripts), then you can use the convertfps=true option (this is different than the ConvertFPS listed above). It looks like this:

Let's assume you have a 23.976 fps file but want 29.97 fps.

Code: Select all

DirectShowSource("testvideo.mkv",fps=29.97,convertfps=true)

In which case it will add frames to make the clip 29.97 while maintaining audio sync. Without convertfps=true, the fps parameter works more like AssumeFPS does. The major benefit of the convertfps=true option is when dealing with variable framerate files, in which case you can use it to standardize the fps while keeping the audio correctly aligned. Contrary to the opinion of some (read: crazy RAW cappers), you don't need 120fps video streams to standardize the framerate - you only need to add frames to the 23.976 sections to make the entire thing 29.97. It serves the same purpose, without causing all the headaches and confusion.

[glowie]

Ahh... I understand it better now. Thanks for the help guys.

I don't mind converting the vids into a better format for editing purposes but because I'll be grabbing footages from quite a lot of vids... it'll take too long for me to convert all of them just to get a few mins (secs!! maybe) from each of them. My plan was:
1. using AviSynth so I can open those MKVs in Premier for me to cut out those selected scenes that I want. (feasible?)
2. output these selected scenes into a format more suitable for the eventual editing in premier. (new project, fully NTSC 29.97 compliant)

As for the syncing issues... it's related to the audio yes? So if I don't intend to include audio... is it ok? Or should I still use FFmpegSource? From the guide it advice against using 23.976 fps for our Premier project which was why I was asking on the AssumeFPS switch. Thus, if I were to keep the fps to it's original (23.976 fps ... mkv), I shouldn't have problems in my 1st step (AviSynth -> Premier -> output AVI) yes?

My next question will be... when should I convert [insert suitable word here] the framerate to be NTSC standard (ie. 29.97)? Should it be right before 2nd step? or should I be making Premier export it as 29.97 at the end of 1st step?

Thanks again for taking the time and trouble to help out this AMV virgin. *blush*

~glowie.

[Qyot27]

1. using AviSynth so I can open those MKVs in Premier for me to cut out those selected scenes that I want. (feasible?)

Yes, it's feasible, but rather cumbersome, especially considering 2).

As for the syncing issues... it's related to the audio yes? So if I don't intend to include audio... is it ok? Or should I still use FFmpegSource?

The syncing issues are related to the audio, yes. Frame accuracy, however, is not - which is the reason I advise using FFmpegSource. FFmpegSource doesn't load audio or subtitles by default, just in case you were to ask. Unpack the .rar and stick the .dll file(s) in AviSynth's plugins folder.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127037

Just be aware that there are two versions of FFmpegSource, 1.21 and the 2.00 beta - if you want to use 1.21, then FFmpegSource("video.mkv") will work fine in the script (obviously replacing video.mkv with the actual filename). If you want to use the beta, then you also need to fetch the wrapper function from either one of the last pages on the Doom9 announcement thread, or from the AMVapp beta thread's last page. Using that wrapper function, then you can use FFmpegSource2("video.mkv") instead of trying to figure out the proper syntax for it otherwise.

From the guide it advice against using 23.976 fps for our Premier project which was why I was asking on the AssumeFPS switch. Thus, if I were to keep the fps to it's original (23.976 fps ... mkv), I shouldn't have problems in my 1st step (AviSynth -> Premier -> output AVI) yes?

It may say not to use 23.976, but the recommendation in those cases is actually to use 24, with or without the audio resampling trickery* before- and after-the-fact so that the distro version can be 23.976. You can still do that with AssumeFPS, though.

*The trickery is question:
A) Take your WAV file, load it into BeSweet. Choose the 23.976->24 conversion profile, and tell it to convert. Keep the original WAV around - you'll need it later.
B) Use AssumeFPS(24) while cutting your footage. Edit the video in Premiere using 24fps (in both the project and export settings).
C) After exporting, use AssumeFPS(23.976) to adjust the exported video back down (you can choose to convert it to H.264 or XviD, etc. at this point), and then join it with the original WAV (or the MP3, AAC, Vorbis, or whatever else you've used the original WAV to encode since PCM is a waste of space for distribution versions).

My next question will be... when should I convert [insert suitable word here] the framerate to be NTSC standard (ie. 29.97)? Should it be right before 2nd step? or should I be making Premier export it as 29.97 at the end of 1st step?

If you're going to make the video 29.97, then do it before you cut any clips - in other words, while working with the original video file. If you use AssumeFPS, then the video will play back faster than it did (although you can slow it down during the editing phase).

[glowie]

Ahh... thank you so much for the step-by-step. *bow*
It's definitely much easier and productive than my original plan. *relief*

Thanks again!