Need help using Xvid in VirtualDub

[Video Idio]

for avi LAME mp3 should suffice,...install oggds filter or haali media splitter...100% quality would mean lossless, even if it means "no artefacts" it still doesn't hold true...install haali media splitter, then do a search. plenty of tools for (de)muxing streams

OK, I installed OggDropXp earlier while waiting for a reply, but couldn't get it to show in VDub or my codecs list in audio hardware, no biggie, I just read Lame is the best. I installed Lame ACM just before checking back in here, and had to do some searching in the installed files, but found out how to get the codec to show by right clicking and hitting install on the ini after none of the exe's would work. Lame now shows in my audio hardware codecs list and VDub. So now, you say I add either oggds filter or haali? I assume either will work then to get the lame compressed file to play in WMP?

I forgot to mention, but really didn't read about it until a few hours ago that I'd prefer not to have to demux/remux to compress the audio and video. After happening upon a forum with chat from none other than Avery Lee himself though, I began to barely grasp the complexity of Mp3 and VDub, which according to Avery, is a most of the time successfull thing but not always. I'm assuming that's why many demux first, compress the WAV, then add the two after the video's been compressed too. It also makes it easier to tell just how much bit rate is going to each. Here's that chat snippet, 5 years old, but very techy, I'm sure you can understand it better than I. Of course this chat is old and reguarding an earlier build version I guess. It would be nice if the current VDub build didn't require demuxing for reliable results, but Avery seeems to be saying VDub will likely always have such problems with avi and mp3 combining.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/6/ubb.x?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=1860994311

So for a noob like me that wants something easy to learn, compatible with Windows, and good sound quality, would you say Haali is the way to go? I'd like something that won't require too many steps to use, as my video projects take up enough time just in capture and editing. If demuxing is the only way to get consistent results though, sounds like haali and Metroska would give me the most options. Short-media seems to think, at least in their '04 guide below, that eventually Metroska (.mkv) will replace .avi as the standard.

Sounds like you're saying 100% (lossless) @ 20% isn't possible then? Is the reality anywhere close to that, say 90-95% maybe, or is that too optimistic? I really don't expect lossless quality, I know the MS codecs have been giving me close to 20% compression, but no where near lossless, so any improvement at that file ratio would be acceptable as long as it's enough to warrant the extra steps involved. Movie Maker is pretty easy to use by comparison.

Just one other thing, I read through both the short-media and nesvideos guides on using VDub to compress with Xvid, and they differ quite a bit. It seems the short-media one goes by the settings you recommended for the most part. Nesvideo uses a lot of extra video settings, I'm not sure which one is more appropriate for my needs.

Nesvideo guide: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/Conv...InWindows.html

Short-media guide: http://www.short-media.com/printcont...print=r&id=267

[anonymez]

So now, you say I add either oggds filter or haali?

as far as you're concerned, they will allow playback in wmp, nothing else. (though oggds encodes/decodes ogg vorbis & allows (de)muxing). haali will handle ogm, mkv, mp4 and avi.

I'm assuming that's why many demux first, compress the WAV, then add the two after the video's been compressed too

most of us would rather not let vdub encode audio and use avisynth or belight for that

Sounds like you're saying 100% (lossless) @ 20% isn't possible then?

that's right.

[Video Idio]

most of us would rather not let vdub encode audio and use avisynth or belight for that

I only quoted this part because it's mainly what I need to ask about now, but first the good news. I did more testing last night, this time with stunning results. I followed your tips on the settings, added some that were in the short-media guide, minus the use of a custom matrix, and low and behold I wound up with better image quality at a smaller file size. I even made a no audio profile in WMPE just to directly compare the WMV9 quality and file size to that of a no audio Xvid compression, both using 1831kbps. The difference in file size between the two I calculated to be about enough to boost the Xvid compression parameters to 1912kbps. Now the difference is even more noticable in quality. Next I'm going to go for 640x480 rsolution on the Xvid compression at the same 1912kbps bit rate to see how that compares to the 576x432 WMV9 at 1831kbps. I'm hoping it will still look better, but after what was said about resizing here, I'm not going to assume that.

I also used Lame in VDub to separate a WAV at 192kbps 44kHz, but I don't know if that did any compressing or not. I know WAV means uncompressed, I just didn't see any other way to process the audio file with VDub. I later joined the two files with Nandub, which was easy. Is it correct that VDub will not compress both audio and video simultaneously? I didn't have any sync problems at all, but it was only a 27 second clip.

I saw some sites with a Lame package that has the codec and CDE for importing audio and configuring it there, but you seem to be indicating Avisynth and Belight are better? Just about every guide I've read says to just separate the WAV from the video before compressing the video, but some of what I read tends to indicate they ar compressing the audio while doing so, to avoid another step. If that method is for mostly dialouge or low quality audio, I'm not sure I'd be interested. Realistically though, the sound that I separate from the original video is only 16 bit weapon and such sounds recorded by my onboard Realtek AC97 chip. I'm not sure using Avisynth or Belight for that would give me any better compression quality factoring that in.

The only other thing related to this I will need to do is add the background music tracks I use which are already in 192kbps WMA9 using Total Recorder (The Lame codec doesn't show in Total Recorder for some reason). Will they add onto the Xvid/Lame compressed OK or should I convert them to Lame, Mp3, etc? Also, is NanDub best to add the music track with like I did in using it to rejoin the audio/video of the compressed source clip?

I have the Gordian Knot rip pack, which has BeeSweet in it, not Belight. It's Avisynth content just seems to be plugins rather than a GUI which can serve as an audio encode/decode/conversion interface. I've heard of Razorlame, but if I went with that I'd probably be limited to just Lame I guess.

A little OT, but I was wondering if you know how the current build version of Fraps works with Realtek AC97 onboard sound? There's nothing in the release notes since the 2.6.2 version I tried, which had out of sync probs for me, but a friend of mine says he's using a more current version of Fraps and it never records out of sync with his Realtek AC97, despite Fraps saying a while ago their prog has issues with that chip. Fraps has yet to answer my emails reguadring this. My friend has an Intel CPU like I do, but a bit higher speed, and his MB has a VIA rather than Intel chipset like mine does.