kente
I did a search on video compression and alot of the solutions I found are pre VirtualDJ 4. I've been ripping promoonly dvds to vobs and they've always worked fine for me. I've finally run out of room on a 750gig harddrive and have come to the conclusion that I've got to start looking into some kind of compression. I tried H.264 and although the files looked and sounded good at half the vob size in VDJ, I got a series of stills once tried to do any kind of looping or playback from anywhere other than the start of a song. This was using the video decoder built into VDJ. I'm using Windows Vista and Windows media player doesn't have a codec to play these files. Before I start downloading codecs for windows media player, I'd like to hear what others are doing at this point to preserve quality and allow video looping. I have a projector in my set-up and the files need to look good when projected on a large screen. What's the current concensis on Xvid and DivX?
Thanks in advance,
Earl
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5300
2048MB DDR2 SDRAM
nViia GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB DDR dedicated
Windows Vista Home Premium
Thanks in advance,
Earl
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5300
2048MB DDR2 SDRAM
nViia GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB DDR dedicated
Windows Vista Home Premium
Mensajes Mon 16 Jul 07 @ 7:58 pm
Andrew87
If quality is the game then you will want to stick with h.264. You can try installing CoreAVC through this QuickTime Alternative link. It's the fastest avc decoder available and may let you continue to use VirtualDJ and looping fine. Strictly speaking, you should buy CoreAVC as it is a commerical product - if you find that this method works fine for you, you will want to head over to their site and purchase the decoder. XviD works well with VirtualDJ but I've never done anything extensive with video so it may not be as good as I think it is.
Mensajes Mon 16 Jul 07 @ 8:10 pm
kente
Thanks for the insight. I read the reviews on the freeware ... 'Quicktime Alternative' which includes CoreAVC and people were complaining about how buggy 1.81 was. Would the lite version be enough? Then I went to CoreAVC to read the reviews and purchase, but CoreAVC sales have been suspended at least for a few days... no prices listed, what's up with that? Any idea how much CoreAVC Professional goes for?
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 12:54 am
Andrew87
QuickTime Alternative lite comes without media player classic, so will work just as well. You only need to install the CoreAVC codec when running the installer. Disable all other options when installing and you should be trouble free. I'm not sure how much CoreAVC costs to buy, I use the free alternative provided by FFDShow although I'm not sure how well this works in VirtualDJ. I will give it a go and post back about the performance. According to their claims, CoreAVC should be the quickest decoder.
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 1:08 am
Andrew87
Encoded a 5:30 file to h.264 (640x480@23.976fps) with mp3 audio. Bitrate for the video (QT compatible Main Profile) was 1500, mp3 audio compressed using lame vbr 1.
Result? Cpu usage 20-30% to play one video sped up 23% with no video effects. Seeking times were slow, from ~200ms to a second. Rewinding a deck would result in frozen video passed about five seconds. This is using libavcodec (ffdshow's decoder). CoreAVC may give you good results so is worth trying. Otherwise my recommendation would be to go with xvid or DivX if you need the Dr. DivX interface (or whatever the replacement is these days).
Result? Cpu usage 20-30% to play one video sped up 23% with no video effects. Seeking times were slow, from ~200ms to a second. Rewinding a deck would result in frozen video passed about five seconds. This is using libavcodec (ffdshow's decoder). CoreAVC may give you good results so is worth trying. Otherwise my recommendation would be to go with xvid or DivX if you need the Dr. DivX interface (or whatever the replacement is these days).
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 1:48 am
kente
I must be doing something wrong. I downloaded Quicktime Alternative lite. Installed just the CoreAVC component but I still get visualizations when I play a h.264 file in Windows media player. I tried configuring the CoreAVC component but none of the settings seem to work. I'm assuming that I am trying to get this to work in Windows Media Player so that I can then choose it as the video decoder for mpg in VDJ, right? I looked at my Video Codecs in Windows Media Player 11 and I don't see CoreAVC listed there.
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 6:47 am
andytaylor125
Hi, yeah, from the sound of things you've got the right idea.
Personally I use the 3ivx codec. The reason I went for that is because of the lag problems I had with other codecs (yet to try core AVC).
It's not perfect though! Definately more responsive than others I've used, but I get lip sync problems, (I think if I didn't alter the pitch, it might stay in time, but I havn't properly checked).
You can download it for free off their website (see my blog for address), but it's a 30 day trial, if it works for you you can buy it for $6 i think.
Anybody else got a good solution for H.264 playback yet!?
Personally I use the 3ivx codec. The reason I went for that is because of the lag problems I had with other codecs (yet to try core AVC).
It's not perfect though! Definately more responsive than others I've used, but I get lip sync problems, (I think if I didn't alter the pitch, it might stay in time, but I havn't properly checked).
You can download it for free off their website (see my blog for address), but it's a 30 day trial, if it works for you you can buy it for $6 i think.
Anybody else got a good solution for H.264 playback yet!?
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 3:32 pm
Andrew87
kente, you may need an mp4 splitter such as Matroska Splitter before mp4 files will work properly in applications which do not have their own parsing abilities. Your h264 files also need the mp4 extension (or mkv if you've been muxing to the matroska format); in either case, Matroska splitter can deal with both of these formats. If you're using the extension mpg for h.264 (and it sounds like it) something is very wrong! h.264 should be in either an mp4 or mkv container, not avi, not mpg etc. I don't think it's actually possible to mux an mpeg4 stream into an mpg so this will just confuse whatever programs you try to load it into. Try renaming it to .mp4.
The code which is used in the container also needs to be valid, such as AVC1, H264 X264 and not something like MPEG4.
Try playing the file in Media Player Classic, if that works for you then it was a splitting problem. Otherwise, CoreAVC probably isn't installed properly. However, I've tried CoreAVC with VirtualDJ and it's results weren't any better than using FFDShow.
h.264 isn't designed as a low resource video compression. It supports many advanced features which are a big drain on resources; this is how it's able to surpass xvid and other encoders by far at low bitrates below ~1500. VJing with it as a format may not be a wise solution for a long time, and maybe never on current hardware setups - but then again, this depends on what settings you use to encode the video; even the PSP can decode 480p h.264 and the Ipod 5.5G can decode h.264 at upto 640x480 @ 30fps.
Maybe it's possible to encode your videos using a basic feature set, but if you're going to go through the trouble of reencoding, perhaps it is better to just use XviD.
The code which is used in the container also needs to be valid, such as AVC1, H264 X264 and not something like MPEG4.
Try playing the file in Media Player Classic, if that works for you then it was a splitting problem. Otherwise, CoreAVC probably isn't installed properly. However, I've tried CoreAVC with VirtualDJ and it's results weren't any better than using FFDShow.
h.264 isn't designed as a low resource video compression. It supports many advanced features which are a big drain on resources; this is how it's able to surpass xvid and other encoders by far at low bitrates below ~1500. VJing with it as a format may not be a wise solution for a long time, and maybe never on current hardware setups - but then again, this depends on what settings you use to encode the video; even the PSP can decode 480p h.264 and the Ipod 5.5G can decode h.264 at upto 640x480 @ 30fps.
Maybe it's possible to encode your videos using a basic feature set, but if you're going to go through the trouble of reencoding, perhaps it is better to just use XviD.
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 5:12 pm
kente
The program I used to encode the vobs to h264 is a batch encoder called 'CyberLink PowerEncoder MPEG-4 AVC Edition'. It created the output extension of mpg. I used a template that encoded the video to h264 and the audio to MPEG-1 Layer 2 Stereo. They play fine as mpg's in my XP machine which has Windows Media Player 11 installed. According to the properties when the video is playing in WMP, it's using the 'Moonlight H.264 Video Decoder' and the 'Elecard Audio Decoder'.
I'm thinking that something's not right with either the CoreAVC install or WMP ability to access the codec. Is there a way in WMP to choose a video codec? I guess I'll try installing it again. One thing is for sure, the audio and video won't play at all after changing the extention to mp4.
Is there a batch program for XviD that I can test to see how it works. I have about 5,000 videos and I obviously can't be encoding them one at a time or I'd go crazy and I want to research this and do it right so I don't have to go through this again in the near future.
I'm thinking that something's not right with either the CoreAVC install or WMP ability to access the codec. Is there a way in WMP to choose a video codec? I guess I'll try installing it again. One thing is for sure, the audio and video won't play at all after changing the extention to mp4.
Is there a batch program for XviD that I can test to see how it works. I have about 5,000 videos and I obviously can't be encoding them one at a time or I'd go crazy and I want to research this and do it right so I don't have to go through this again in the near future.
Mensajes Tue 17 Jul 07 @ 11:38 pm
Andrew87
That cyberlink encoder sounds rather strange. mpg containers shouldn't be used for h.264 files and mp2 audio streams are outdated. I use MeGui for my h.264 conversion (it uses the free x.264 encoder) and you can specify what audio you want, e.g. lame mp3 or nero aac - both free formats.
CoreAVC is installed fine by the sound of it. The problem is the h.264 file being in an mpeg container. You could try changing the file extension, but I doubt this would work. The file may have to be demuxed and then muxed again into mp4 format. But to be honest with you, it's not worth the effort as I don't think CoreAVC does a much better job than Atomix's implementation in VirtualDJ. h.264 compatibile video is just too resource hungry for realtime video mixing.
You can research a tool called AutoGK to batch encode your files to XviD. It's a popularly used program, free and has good community support across various message boards.
CoreAVC is installed fine by the sound of it. The problem is the h.264 file being in an mpeg container. You could try changing the file extension, but I doubt this would work. The file may have to be demuxed and then muxed again into mp4 format. But to be honest with you, it's not worth the effort as I don't think CoreAVC does a much better job than Atomix's implementation in VirtualDJ. h.264 compatibile video is just too resource hungry for realtime video mixing.
You can research a tool called AutoGK to batch encode your files to XviD. It's a popularly used program, free and has good community support across various message boards.
Mensajes Wed 18 Jul 07 @ 12:10 am