How to speed up or slow down a video clip on VirtualDub

A. The full video
Example: if video fps (frame rate per second) is 30, and we wanna speed it up 5 times
Click frame rate: check "change fps to:"150.0000 and Convert to fps: 30.0000
1. Video: select "Direct stream copy"
2. Audio:
a) Select "Full processing mode" and check "Use advanced filtering" -> select "Filters": add this filter chain input -> stretch -> output
Select Stretch and click configure: ratio will be 0.5 if you want to double the speed or 2.0 if you want to halve the speed.
b) Select appropriate Audio Compression.
  Save as avi (video will not be re-encoded, audio will be)

B. A part of the video:
Example: You want the middle of the video in slow motion.
First check the video FPS and audio sample rate in the file information (example: 25fps and 44100, 128 stereo)

1. Select the first part (normal speed) and click:
Video: "Direct Stream Copy"
Audio: "Full Compression" and choose original compression (44100,128 stereo).
Save video (first part)

2. Set the new start point for the second (slow motion part) and the end point.
Video: "Direct stream Copy"
Frame rate: Change Frame Rate to FPS: 12.5;  choose "Convert to FPS" and insert 25.
Audio: click compression again and save the new clip. If you want the audio slowed down ->select "Use Advanced Filtering" -> Filters: make chain (Input' 'Stretch' 'Ratty Pitch' and 'Output')
Click on Stretch: rate=2
Click on Ratty: 2
Compress the audio
Save the new AVI

3. Select the third part:
 reset the video frame rate and turn off the advanced filter.
Video direct stream copy
Audio: recompress
Save video (third part)

4. Reopen VirtualDub.
Open part and append the rest (easy if you name them 1, 2, 3)
Direct stream video and audio.
Save the new file.

More info: link1, link2

How to set File Extensions Association on VLC Portable

    This tip is for Windows:

   After having tried to do it through VLC preferences, and manually in Folder Options with no success, I got it worked by doing this...

Step 1: Go to Start --> Settings --> Folder Options --> File Types
 There select and click remove the file extension you wish VLC opens as default player, for example: AVI.Now you'll see the icon of the AVI files has any specific.

Step 2: Right-click on an avi file --> "Open with", choose VLC or browse looking for the folder where vlc.exe is and select. Now all AVI files will open with VLC.

* This is a tip that worked fine for me, any change you make on your computer is your responsability. Steps can vary according to the Windows version

 

How to install the latest versions of applications in old versions of Windows

   Recently, I've discovered the way to install apps that only work on recent versions of Windows in computers with old versions of the OS. Believe it or not, I've been able to upgrade my browser after installing KernelEx. 

   "KernelEx is an Open Source compatibility layer with an aim to allow running Windows 2000/XP-only applications on Microsoft Windows 98 and Microsoft Windows Millennium operating systems."

  After installing KernelEx and downloading the browser or app you wish you install, sometimes it is necessary to right-mouse click on properties, click kernelex, them "use specific compatibility mode": choose Win 2000 SP4 or XP. It could be also necessary to check "Don't use these settings in child process"

  So far, I've tested the portable versions of these browsers: Opera 11 (Opera 11.5 no portable had some bugs), and Firefox 3. However, I haven't been able to make work Flash Player 10 plugin, so I'm using Flash 9.

  All what I can say is that KernelEx is a wonder and that the developers of it should continue improving it.  

  * UPDATE 20 Feb 2012

  Finally I've got to make work the last version of Flash Player in Opera! Flash Player 11 plugin is working great! The trick is: Just place the NPSWF32.dll plugin inside opera\program\plugins, now right-click on plugin --> properties --> kernelex (check "use specific compatibility mode": Windows 2003 SP1, and Accept!)

 

How to convert FLV or MP4 to Xvid with VirtualDub and join several video segments

This article is also useful to learn how to compress AVI video to Xvid, Divx or Dx50. You must take into account that VirtualDub just work with raw AVI video or its compressed formats.

A. FLV format

In order VirtualDub can open FLV, you must install "ffdshow tryouts" and "FLV Input driver":

1. Unzip FLV Input driver and put "FLVInputDriver.vdplugin" into your VirtualDub\plugins folder.

2. In the start menu click "ffdshow-tryouts" and open "VFW configuration" (not "Video decoder configuration" which is for DirectShow decoding), go to the Decoder tab, Codecs section, and make sure FLV1 and VP6F are set to libavcodec (click on disabled and choose libavcodec).

3. Now VirtualDub is ready to open FLV!

* So that VirtualDub can read/uncompress the mp3 audio from FLV and other video formats:

Options --> Preferences --> AVI --> Check "Prefer Internal Audio decoders over..."

If you wish to convert FLV to Xvid or Divx (you must have the Xvid codec or ffdshow-tryouts installed):

1. *Follow this step just if you wanna join two or more video segments later.
Click Video --> Frame Rate and choose "Change frame rate to (fps)": put the same number as current followed by double 0: If it's 29.917 fps, change to 29.91700 fps (this is important, if you wanna join segment videos later, as they must have the same video and audio sampling rate).

2. If you wanna change the video size, or recut the image: add filters by clicking on Video --> Filters (first "perspective", then "resize"). The most common sizes are 320x240, 384x288, 480x360, 576x432, 592x336, 640x480.

3. Now to compress video: Video --> Full Processing Mode --> Compression: choose Xvid Codec and click "configure". On the right of Target Quantizer/Bitrate, click "calc": Put the exact duration of the video, and the wished Target Size (for example 8000 Kb for a 3 minutes video). The bigger the file size is, the higher the target bitrate is, and the higher the quality is.
* Clicking on "Other Options" you can choose the Encoder FourCC used: Xvid, Divx or Dx50.

4.And to compress audio: Audio--> Full Processing Mode --> Compression: choose Lame MP3 (you must have installed lameACM codec) --> 44100Hz, 128 kbps, CBR stereo (for example).

5. Now go to File --> Save video as AVI. It can takes more or less depending on the file size.

How to join several AVI video segments (VirtualDub can't join FLV video segments): First you must take into account, as VirtualDub documents say,: "What is the append function for, then? It's to re-splice a movie that has been split across multiple files to circumvent file size limits, mainly from video capture. Due to the granularity of audio and video streams, particularly when audio compression is in use, the files can't be cut exactly cleanly, and thus the video stream will be slightly longer than the audio stream, or vice versa. For this reason the Append function does an unaligned splice." That means the video segments must have the same Video and Audio Sampling Rate, same target bitrate, size, etc

1. Open the first video file, then select Video and Audio in "Direct Stream Copy".

2. Move video to the last frame.

3. File --> Append AVI segment --> select the second video segment.

4. File --> Append AVI segment --> select the third video segment.

5 File --> Save old format AVI (in that way, you keep the Xvid format).

In case you get an error "Cannot append segment: Video streams have different data formats", you must get they have the same Frame Rate:

1) Open VirtualDub

2) Open the first video.

3) Set "Video" and "Audio" to "Direct Stream Copy"

4) Video --> "Frame Rate" --> "Change framerate to (fps)": put the same number as current followed by double 0: If it's 29.917 fps, change to 29.91700 fps (frames per second)

5) Save old format AVI, with a new filename.

6) Keep VirtualDub open

7) Open the second file

8) Save old format AVI, with a new filename, and so on with the rest of segments.

9) Close VirtualDub

10) Open VirtualDub

11) Open the first file with updated Frame Rate.

12) Set "Video" and "Audio" to "Direct Stream Copy"

13) File --> Append AVI segment --> select the second video segment with updated Frame Rate.

14) Save old format AVI, with a new filename, and you have a Xvid video file with all the segments together!

B. MP4 format (H.264):

VDub can open MP4 video if you install the plugin: DShowInputDriver.vdplugin in Vdub plugins folder. However VDub can't open MP4 video if it has AAC audio (AAC- LC audio type). After many experiments, I got to that point. VDub can't open H.264 AVC1- AAC LC because of the AAC- LC audio (though ffdshow has the codecs for AAC and many more, it doesn't work for Vdub, at least I haven't got yet)
Many online tools let you download YouTube videos in MP4 format with high quality. If you wanna append MP4 (H.264 AVC1- AAC LC audio) video segments with Vdub, as you can't open them in Vdub, you could use a "mp4 to AVI converter" to convert the AAC audio to Lame MP3 (take into account the loss of video quality during conversion, though you keep the H.264 AVC1 format).
To check the real codec type and other parameters, before using MP4 to AVI converter, you can use Gspot.

C. Xvid format:

Many online tools let you download YouTube videos in AVI (Xvid/Divx) too. To open it with Vdub you must be sure there is no conflick with the codecs. First from Mmview disable Xvid decoder. Then, open ffdshow (VFW) and set Xvid to livabcodec.

My piece of advice when trying to open a video file in Vdub: check both the video and audio types it contains with Gspot and check if you have the plugins for Vdub or the codecs for that video/audio file.

*TRADUCCIÓN EN ESPAÑOL by Google: "Cómo convertir FLV o MP4 a Xvid con VirtualDub y unir varios segmentos de vídeo"

How to get Xvid codec to show up in VirtualDub compression list

As a beginner user of VirtualDub, a very useful and free application for capturing and processing video, I found certain difficulty in making the Xvid codec to appear in the compression list after having installed it, and after hours of research I reached to the key.

First you should install Xvid codec in your computer: you can download the version for Windows from Xvid Binary Download Page or from Koepi's site.

Next thing you should do is check whether Xvid codec appears in the VirtualDub compression list. In the case it's not in the list, you should check if the Xvid codec is enabled, there is a very useful application to do that: MMCompView v1.10 (for older Windows versions) or InstalledCodec (for recent Windows versions).

Once you've checked Xvid is enabled but it's still not showing up in the VirtualDub list, sometimes it happens that, you can add the Xvid codec manually as it's explained in not an easy way here. Basically the steps you must follow are:

1. Search for "system.ini" file in your PC and open it (keep a copy of it before editing it, just in case...).

2. Inside, look for [drivers32] and below it you'll see a list with all the video codecs installed in your PC.

3. Add vidc.XVID=xvidvfw.dll to the list, and click save file. Then, open VirtualDub and check that the Xvid codec shows up in the video compression list.

.................................................................................................

Cómo conseguir que el codec Xvid aparezca en la lista de compresión de VirtualDub:

Como usuario principiante de VirtualDub, aplicación gratuita muy útil para la captura y procesamiento de video, encontré cierta dificultad en conseguir que el codec Xvid apareciera en la lista de compresión después de haberlo instalado, y después de horas de investigación di con la clave.

En primer lugar debes instalar el codec Xvid en el ordenador: se puede descargar la versión para Windows de Xvid Binary Download Page o en el sitio de Koepi.

Lo siguiente que debe hacer es comprobar si el codec Xvid aparece en la lista de compresión VirtualDub. En el caso de que no esté en la lista, debes comprobar si el codec Xvid está habilitado, hay una aplicación muy útil para hacer eso: MMCompView v1.10 (para versiones antiguas de Windows) o InstalledCodec (para versiones recientes de Windows ).

Una vez que hayas comprobado que Xvid está habilitado pero aún no aparece en la lista de VirtualDub, a veces ocurre ésto, puedes añadir el codec Xvid manualmente como se explica en una manera nada fácil aquí (en inglés). Básicamente los pasos que debes seguir son los siguientes:

1. Buscar el archivo "system.ini" en tu PC y abrir (guarda una copia del mismo antes de editarlo, por si acaso ...).

2. En el interior, buscar [drivers32] y debajo de ésto puedes encontrar una lista con todos los codecs de vídeo instalados en tu PC.

3. Añadir vidc.XVID=xvidvfw.dll a la lista, y hacer clic en Guardar archivo. A continuación, abrir VirtualDub y comprobar que el codec Xvid aparece en la lista de compresión de vídeo.

How to run Linux on Windows

   Many Linux distributions give you the opportunity to try it before installing, or just to take it in a pendrive to use as portable.

A. Booting from a USB drive: If you have a modern computer, you have the option of booting the OS from a USB drive, so we can install the Linux distro we want in a USB memory stick and boot from it.

* How to install Linux in a USB memory stick:
1. Download the .ISO file of the distro (Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, etc)
2. Download "Universal USB Installer" or "Unetbootin": these apps allows you to install in a easy way the Distro in the pendrive. First the app will make the USB pendrive bootable. Take into account that, by doing this, will delete all the files you had in the pendrive, so the best thing you can do is to make a backup of your files and use an empty/blank pendrive (if the pendrive is new, perhaps it's not necessary to be formatted). Then, the app will copy the linux files in the USB, and ready!
3. Now we restart the PC, we press Esc or F2, and we choose booting from the USB device.


B. Booting in other ways: In an older PC you don't have the option of booting from USB, so you could do the following.

1. Boot from a live CD: you can burn the distro .ISO in a CD if you have CD/DVD recorder and software for doing that, "CDBurnerXP" and "ImgBurn" are free. Reboot your PC, press Esc and select to boot from the CD.

2. Boot from a floppy disk to access a USB drive:

- Download the boot manager "PLoP Boot manager". You don't have to install it, just Unzip and Extract the floppy disk image "plpbt.img".
- Insert an empty floppy disk in your computer's disk drive, remember it will be formatted.
- Download and open "rawwritewin".
- Select the floppy drive from the drop-down menu and find the plpbt.img file on your computer. Now click on the 'Write' button in order to write the image "plpbt.img to the floppy disk, and so, create a boot floppy disk!
- Boot the PC using the Boot Floppy Disk:
  a) Insert the floppy disk in the drive, and a USB device with an installed Linux distro in a USB port.
  b) Restart the PC and press Esc.
  c) A "PLoP Boot manager menu" will be shown, select the USB device.

3. Boot from a CD to access a USB drive:

- Download the boot manager "PLoP Boot manager". You don't have to install it, just Unzip and Extract the ISO "plpbt.iso".
- Burn the ISO "plpbt.iso" on a CD (if you have CD/DVD recorder and software for doing that, "CDBurnerXP" and "ImgBurn" are free).
- Insert the created PLoP Boot CD, and your USB Flash Drive (the pendrive must have installed the Linux distro).
- Reboot your PC, press Esc and select to boot from the CD on the "PLoP Boot manager menu".

* WARNING: Be careful when running Linux on Windows, because the operating system you launch this way will have full access to the internal hard drive of your computer. This makes it possible for you to inadvertently damage or destroy data.


C. Which Linux distro choose?

All depends on the resources of your PC: Hard Disk size, RAM memory...

- For a modern PC: "Ubuntu" is one of the most used, but there are many other ones like "Slax", "Pinguy"...
- For a very old PC: there are distros that have a small size (lightweight) and use not much RAM memory. Many old PCs that had gone to the rubbish bin have been recovered thanks to those Linux distros. There are people who use a distro with a small size to take in a pendrive as a portable OS ("Tiny Core Linux"- 10 Mb, "Damn Small Linux"- 50 Mb, "Puppy Linux"- 100 Mb, "Slax"- 200 Mb...)
- More Info: Comparison of Linux distributions, Lightweight Linux distribution
- Anyway, before doing anything, read more info on the distro's website, as each one has its particular features on how to download, try, or install it. 

* TRADUCCIÓN EN ESPAÑOL by Google: "Cómo ejecutar Linux en Windows"