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- AviRip - By Mike Negus
-
- This is my second installment in the quest to create an AVI to MPG converter.
- The first was the rawrip program that converts the raw file made by DMPEG to a
- series of DIB (BMP) files which can be read by Microsoft's Video for Windows,
- the full version. In the complete VFW you can edit, compress and save AVI
- files.
-
- The AVIRIP program only works on 24-bit, UNCOMPRESSED, NON-STREAMING AUDIO,
- AVI files. What you probably will need to do is to uncompress and promote
- to 24-bit, the AVI files you already have. To do this you MUST HAVE
- MICROSOFT'S VIDEO FOR WINDOWS full blown editing version.
-
- Note! A 1000+ Frame AVI and resulting TGA files will take up about 100+MB.
- Yes, that's 100+MB. If you have a problem with space then buy a bigger
- hard drive. Their cheap. Here at Egghead you can get a 540MB HD for $270.
-
- STEPS:
-
- 1. Load the AVI with the VidEdit program that comes with VFW.
- 2. Click on the VIDEO pull down menu and click on Video Format. Select 24 bit.
- 3. Click on the FILE pull down menu and click on the Save-As option.
- a. Click on Compression Options.
- b. Select HARD DISK as the target device. (no interleaving)
- c. Select FULL FRAMES as the Video Compression Method.
- d. Use a different name for your new file. Do not write over your
- old one.
- e. Click on OK to save the file.
- 4. You can copy the sound from the AVI and then paste it into the WaveEdit
- program which comes with VFW. You can save the audio as a wave file
- to be played along with the MPEG you are about to make.
- 5. Use the AVIRIP program to rip the AVI file into TARGA, TGA, files. These
- files are read by CMPEG which will create the MPEG.
- Use command: avirip <yourfile>.avi t
- Don't forget the 't' at the end, it will create targa files. Leaving
- it off will make my program create a DIB sequence. Each DIB can be read
- by any bitmap editor to view.
- 6. Go out and watch a movie, do some lawn work while my program creates the TGA
- files. Do not create the TGA files on the root directory since DOS only
- allows 511 file entries into the FAT there. Put it into a subdirectory
- and you can go 1000+ TGA files.
- 7. Use the batchfile that my program makes. It is named <yourfile>.bat. CMPEG
- and the i.ctl file must be in the current directory that the AVI is in.
- The batchfile tells CMPEG to create a XING compatible MPEG.
- 8. Go out and play.
- 9. When CMPEG is finished. You can play the <yourfile>.mpg with any MPEG player.
- I suggest using the VMPEG player. My batch file will have CMPEG create a XING
- compatible file but the XING player seems to decode the MPEG into fuzzy images.
- VMPEG will play them very fast with little loss of clarity. If you have saved
- the audio as a WAV file under the name of <yourfile>.wav in the same directory
- as the MPG then the XING player will play it along with the MPG. VMPEG will not.
- 10. Delete the 24-bit AVI and all the TGA files.
-
- Please read the CMPEG DOC so that you can understand how to edit the batchfile
- that my program makes to create better MPG files. You can use IPB frame encoding
- with the IPB.CTL file instead of the I.CTL file. To make a sharper MPEG, change the
- number in the first line of the i.ctl file from 8 to some number less (4-5 works well).
-
- My program also creates a sequence listing file for CMPEG to use. You can edit that
- file (named <yourfile>.txt) to create an MPEG from only those files you want.
-
- My program will also allow you to start ripping an avi at a specific frame or use
- a lightness factor. To use avirip with a 24-bit avi file called test.avi starting
- at frame 10 with lightness factor 25 and creating TGA files:
-
- avirip test.avi t s10 l25
-
- This will also create a test.bat file that can be run to envoke CMPEG.
-
- Using with no options:
-
- avirip test.avi
-
- Creates DIB files starting at frame 0 and using no lightness factor.
- Both commands create a test.txt file.
-
- I had a lot of fun making this program and figuring out the DIB/BMP and TGA
- formats so this is FREE to whoever wants it. If you have a program that
- creates MPEG's or does what my program does but better AND IS SHAREWARE
- then please post it on the INTERNET for others like myself to get and use.
-
- -Mike Negus
- E-MAIL: men0348@isc.rit.edu
-
- PS. The second version of avirip may allow 256 color (8-bit) and maybe
- 16-bit (64k color) AVI files. This should require much less space.