What is 'frame serving' and Avisynth?

[rodgreen]

I have seen some postings about the above using Premier 5/6 to encode a file with TMPG encoder directly from the editor.

I presume this negates the need to edit a file to AVI then re-encode to MPEG1/2.

Can someone explain what the heck this all means and how you do it?

Rod

[Dr Mordrid]

First some givens:

The Ligos encoder plugin is expensive and delivers poor quality

The Panasonic encoder plugin is reasonably priced ($80) but only does MPEG-1. Useless for DVD or SVCD

The CinemaCraft encoder plugin delivers very nice quality, but is also expensive

TMPGEnc is free, delivers great quality but isn't available as a plugin

What to do....

1. Install the AVISynth Premiere plugin (this is the frameserver software).

2. Install the proper version of the VFAPI plugin into TMPGEnc 12a (they're on the same DL page). This allows TMPGEnc to "read" the frameservers output.

3. Create a blank text file named "frameserver.avs" and save it where you'll be keeping your video files.

Doublecheck that Notepad didn't save the file as "frameserver.avs.txt". If it did, rename it. Keep Notepad open, you're going to need it.

4. Edit your project in Premiere (duh).

5. When you want to create the MPEG select File/Export Timeline/Movie. Name the "video" frameserver.avi and click the "Settings" button.

6. In "Settings/General/File Type" select "Link to AviSynth". In "Settings/General/Range" select "Entire Project".

7. In "Settings/Audio" select the proper values for your files but with an "Interleave" of 1 frame.

8. A "Premiere Plugin" page will appear with a command for AVISynth. This will read something like "IPCSource("frameserve.avi0")". Copy this command into notepad and save it to the blank frameserver.avs file (see....that'w why you kept it open".

9. Now Open TMPGEnc and click the "Browse" button next to "Video Source File". In the dialog select a filetype of "All Files" and load the frameserver.avs file into TMPGEenc. The first frame should appear in the preview window.

10. Click the Load button to load a preset (VCD, SVCD, DVD etc.).

11. Click the Configure button to enter the custom setups for tweaking. Crops, color correction and noise reduction are on the "Advanced" tab. Just doubleclick on the filter you want to use.

12. Give it an output name and encode your masterpiece.

13. I keep the frameserver.avs file on my editing drive and just keep recycling it.

AVYSynth main page & docs:

http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/avisynth.html

TMPGEnc 12a, VFAPI:

http://www.jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/

Premiere AVISYnth plugin;

http://www.videotools.net/

On the VideoTools.net download page there is a single archive with both the latest beta of AVISynth and the Premiere plugin named "Avisynth 1.0beta31 + plugin 0.28beta 37". Use this instead of the "real" AVISynth program at the main site. This one has some updates.

As it is the Premiere plugin is named to be used in FLASK MPEG. Just change the extension from *.flask to *.prm and copy it into the Premiere's Plug-ins folder.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 26 February 2001).]

[rodgreen]

Thanks Doc - but is it really worth all the trouble?

[wkulecz]

Not if you are on windows 2000 using NTFS disk format where you can just create a >4GB final output file to be encoded by TMPGEnc assuming you have the disk space.

But on win9x its the only reliable way to encode >4GB input files without glitches (particularly audio) at the joints.

You can try TMPGEnc's "join" on seperately encoded <4GB chunks, it works for some. For me VCD encodings joined correctly but SVCD encodings locked up TMPGEnc when I tried :-(

For VCD or SVCD you may be happy with small chunks put together with Nero after setting the "delay between files" to zero.

This stuff is not ready for primetime, you have to be willing to experiment. But the info provided by Doc and others will save you loads of grief and wasted time.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

If you have separate *.avi's then you can use AVISynth to frame serve those segmented files from the disk to TMPGEnc instead of frameserving from Premiere. This also works with MSPro6 since there is no AVISynth plugin for it. To do this you write a *.avs script using the SegmentedAVISource command;

SegmentedAVISource("base-filename"[,...])

This command will allow up to 100 files with seqentially numbered names to be processed by TMPGEnc in one gulp. Great for AVI_IO captures.

Dr. Mordrid

[cjyo~]

Doc,

Since we're on the subject...I was just playing around with avisynth (downloaded from the main site) exporting a 10 second segment of an MPEG2 I-frame capture in Premiere 6 (RT2000 MVT3b4) in Win2k. Everytime I tried it, I got an "IPCSource audio misalignment" error around 2-3 seconds into the 10 second clip.

I ended up just exporting the test segment audio to WAV and pulling that in seperately, but I'm wondering if you have had the same problem. And more importantly, have you been able to get around this error?

TIA.