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Virtual Dub (Vdub) is used by many people to edit and convert AVI's of
many types. This tutorial should give you some help on using the program, The
most common faults, and what might happen when using it.
File > Open Video File
The most often warning you will get is the "Couldn't locate decompressor
for format XXXX" this means you have a codec missing, you tried to load an
AVI that was made with a particular codec, but you don't have that codec
installed. The warning you get for XXXX could be Xvid,DivX or any of the
basic codecs. You need to install that codec before you can do anything
else. See
codec guide
For more information on codecs
File > Open Video File
You tried to open a Mpeg 2 file, Vdub wont open those.
File > Open Video File
You tried to open a ASF or WMV, Vdub 1.3c will open those, but the author
got a warning from Microsoft, so all new versions wont open them.
File > Open Video File
The next error you could get is VBR this is telling you that the audio has
been made with a variable bitrate. Now depending on what you are about to
do in Vdub, will effect whether you need to worry about that warning.
If you are about to edit out parts of the home movie, or scan for bad frames,
or anything that involves a change to the original AVI then you can't !
use the normal Vdub.
If you cut a few frames out then save out the audio using streaming, Vdub
will introduce a skew, in other words you would have lip sync. If however
you just did a scan for bad frames and it found none, and you are not
doing anything to the video at all, then you wont have any problems.
Things you need to do when you have VBR
If the home movie has bad frames, quit this Vdub and use Vdub MP3
If you want to delete parts of the movie (Credits etc) Quit this vdub and
use Vdub MP3
If you want to re-compress to another codec, or use a filter, then you
first need to make the audio CBR and join it back before you use that
filter.
If your only going to save out the audio uncompressed, then you have no
worries
Audio > full processing mode
Save WAV
That will save out the audio uncompressed using CBR (Constant bitrate)
But what if you wanted to get rid of that VBR warning, and make the audio
CBR
Audio > full processing mode
Audio > SAVE WAV
Audio > WAV Audio > The WAV you just saved
Audio > Compression > Codec > MP3
Video > direct stream copy
SAVE AVI
That will save out the audio to PCM (Uncompressed and now CBR)
Re-use the saved WAV, tell Vdub to convert to MP3 and finally save the AVI
(Which will now have MP3 (CBR) and no more warning.
File > File information
This will give you basic information on the AVI you open, often this is
overlooked only to have errors when trying to get Vdub to do something it
was not designed to do
In the above example, the video is shown correctly as DivX MPEG-4
Low-Motion, but the audio is shown as 5 channels Unknown, the missing
information for the audio is because its AC3 and Vdub does not support AC3
Saving out the audio
Audio > Full processing mode
SAVE WAV
The above error is shown usually when you try to save the sound track, but
the source is usually AC3 so you are attempting to convert the AC3
sound track and save it uncompressed, or to another format.
Vdub does not have the ability to convert AC3, so you will get that error.
It is also possible to get that error when you try to convert a MP3 to a
bitrate higher than you have support for. But this is mostly shown with
AC3
In the case of AC3, you need to save the audio out using direct stream
copy, then later convert it to a uncompressed wav. So instead of full
processing mode, you need to use direct stream copy.
Audio > Direct stream copy
SAVE WAV
This will now save out your audio "As is" later you can convert with a
program like Headac.23a
See
guide on converting AC3
File > Open Video File
Play
There are bad frames, in this example its stops playing at frame 15
See guide on fixing bad frames with vdub MP3
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