Virtual Dub + ASF

[Stormblade]

Hey all,

I read in a thread that there was an unofficial version of Virtual Dub (1.4c) with ASF support. I went to the downloads sections and saw it but was unable to download it. I got a page listing three possible reasons:

The file you are looking for doesn't exist
We are currently updating our files, so some files may be reported as missing, please try again later
You did something that is not allowed on this server

I made sure I turned off Getright and I've tried in Opera, Netscape and IE and get the same results. I can download other files just fine.

Does anyone have this version? I tried loading up an ASF file in Virtual Dub 1.3c and all I got was black screen. I converted it anyway and I got sound (Which was a direct stream copy) but no video which didn't surprise me at all.

[Deus]

Yea its hard to find old versions like that on web sites. I Think I downloaded it from Kazaa. but of you just want to convert it I just use TMPGEnc. You have to first convert tjust the audio and then just the video and combine them again but it works.

[Stormblade]

Yeah tell me about it. Well, so far I've been able to convert .wmv files using TMPGEnc. I convert them to mpg and then edit/join or whatever. Virtual Dub 1.3c also allowed me to do this but I've had 100% success with TMPGEnc so far.

I haven't tried the .asf files yet but I'd heard that they were similiar if not the same format as .wmv? We'll see.

[Stormblade]

Yep. TMPGEnc works with .asf files just fine. Just converted a small clip and worked just fine so that's good. Now to tackle .mov and .rm files. I've done .mov conversions before using QuickTime Pro and such but .rm files were a whole different story.

I had a command-line program around somewhere that was supposed to convert them. I think it worked ok except the files I wanted to convert were .rm files that had problems.

[Apnoea]

I just downloaded this link

http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Editing/VirtualDub14c-asf.zip

I haven't tested it yet, but looks good so far!

Apnoea

[Stormblade]

THANKS. You did more than you suspect I'll bet. First off clicking that link didn't work and so I went to their site and found it and clicked there. I then got an extensive error page that not only said why it wasn't working but told me how to set getright so that I could use it if I wanted (I had it turned off) and ZoneAlarm. My ZoneAlarm and Getright settings have probably been the cause of me not being able to download many a file and they just didn't bother explaining.

So thanks a bunch! I was able to download the file. I'll have to test it out on an asf file later today.

[Apnoea]

Just tried out the asf VDub but I didn't have the suitable codec...
'Couldn't locate decompressor for format 'MP42' (Microsoft High-Speed MPEG-4 V2)'
So I think next step is to install the latest mediaplayer and hunt through my codecs collection...

[Stormblade]

Since I use a codec pack I generally don't get those type of errors. But I was able to load and convert a .asf file just fine in Virtual Dub 1.4 with ASF support and I think I was able to do it in TMPGEnc as well.

One thing I learned though spending hours converting some .mov movies to another format is if the original source is crappy I can be converting it many times. With one I'd planned to use TMPGEnc to convert to mpg then use Virtual Dub to convert to DivX. I played around with the setting enough that the convertiong to mpg resulted in resonable size/quality but the quality loss was noticeable. Converting that to Divx resulted in even more quality loss and the quality wasn't great to begin with.

[Apnoea]

What do you use for .mov & .rm?
I have an extensive list of .rm I'd like to convert.

Tinra didn't work- it kept crashing as soon as i tried to convert anything.
Any screen capture doesn't seem to work- I get audio but no video... something about overlay perhaps?
Apnoea

[Stormblade]

For .mov I use TMPGEnc along with the QT plug-in. I had to search around for a working link but I got it. This plug-in allowed TMPGEnc to read .mov files.

If worst came to worst I could have used Adobe Premiere but that thing is a beast sometimes and I'm just a bit above newbie. Not much. Still can be mistaken for one

As for .rm files that's my next target. To see if I can find a decent tool to do this. Perhaps someone has reversed engineered it and produced a plug-in for TMPGEnc? Hehe probably not.

I too tried to use TinRa and had mixed results. I believe premiere might do it but I haven't tried that. So my project today will be to see if I can find a reliable way to convert .rms. Even if I have to use a combination of software like perhaps extracting audio and video seperately, converting those to something that TMPGEnc can combine or Virtual Dub.

[Stormblade]

Just letting you know that I just downloaded TinRa 005 which is a much newer version than the one I'd used previously. Along with their stabilizer (Which is new to me) and the TinRa GUI 1.4.

I just grabbed a .rm and converted it to a .avi using the DivX 5.0.1 codec and I was impressed. The file size was a little over twice the size of the original .rm but that I can change by messing around with the bitrate but the quality loss was minimal. In fact, I couldn't see a difference.

I even went back and converted some old rms that it used to choke on and it converted it just fine. The resulting file was about the same quality (At least to my eye) as the original so I'm impressed.

If the 005 is causing crashes you might wanna contact the author and see if there are any known problems.

I know that you have to have Real Media player 8 or earlier. I had to go back into my archives to get this. I happily got rid of RealOne Player which I'd wanted to do anyway.

[Tetsu]

Stormblade, i've downloaded VirtualDub 1.3, and VirtualDub1.4c+asf already, but i've got a problem. I could open an asf file, but I just can convert the first sec of it. Some files even couldn't convert just a sec. have you got that problem?
And, is there another way to convert from asf to avi, or mpg?

[silentshadow420]

asf tools

after the pressure from windows for virtual dub to remove asf support there has been nothing but errors.
try this tool
asf tools
works on wm8 and no difference in quality

http://www.geocities.com/myasftools/

i'm assuming how anal windows is this tool will not be around much long so grab it while they are still doing updates
this will let you cut, join, convert, repair, etc.
it works great in wmp
your system will not recognize it as wmp files on older players
but if you chose the file it will still play it on any version of windows media player
tell me what you think
post results
ss420

[Stormblade]

I haven't done much asf conversion. So far the Virtual Dub 1.4c + ASF worked when I did. I use ASFCut to chop them up if need be. I don't like asf and hope people won't use them more.