Convenient way to analyze DVD recordings in 60 FPS?

Edit history:

yoshifan: 2012-07-02 12:52:00 pm

2012-07-02 12:49:59 pm

I want to do some timing measurements in a 60 FPS game that I can't play on emulator (Kirby's Return to Dream Land for Wii; I highly doubt my computer can handle Dolphin). I want to test the speed of various kinds of movement, durations of various attacks, attack hitlag, and stuff like that. I'd like to do my measurements from a 60 FPS recording for maximum accuracy.

I've made some test recordings on DVD, since my computer and/or capture card don't seem to be good enough for recording 60 FPS (tried it with XSplit local recording, seems to drop frames like crazy).

I now want to analyze my DVD recordings in a program such as VirtualDub or Avidemux - something that has frame advance and timestamps for each frame. Again, I want 60 FPS, as well as a relative lack of bobbing for my sanity, but I don't need high resolution.

Here's what I've tried:

(1) Playing it on my DVD recorder: frame advance only does 30 FPS, and with no milliseconds on the time display during frame advance, it's quite hard to time things.
(2) Using Anri-chan's field order test step to analyze the recording in VirtualDub: plays in 60 FPS, but there's severe bobbing as I frame advance, making it hard to work with.
(3) Using Anri-chan's trim frame ranges step to analyze the recording in VirtualDub: plays in 30 FPS.
(4) Opening the .vob (DVD file) directly in Avidemux 2.5.4: plays in 30 FPS.
(5) Opening the .vob directly in VLC 2.0.1: frame-by-frame playing sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, and when it works it seems like 30 FPS.
(6) Encoding the video at MQ in Anri-chan and then opening the resulting .mp4 in Avidemux: 30 FPS.
(7) Encoding the video at HQ in Anri-chan and then opening the resulting .mp4 in Avidemux: 60 FPS.
(8) Encoding the video at HQ in Anri-chan with D4 (half resolution, but the game is almost certainly D1) and then opening the resulting .mp4 in Avidemux: 60 FPS, but there is somewhat bad bobbing when I frame advance, making it hard to work with.

Method (7) (Anri-chan HQ encoding) works, but it takes longer than I'd like for a simple timing test. Is there a faster way to get the video I need? Again, I don't need the high resolution of HQ, I "just" want the 60 FPS and relatively little bobbing.

Thread title:

I want to do some timing measurements in a 60 FPS game that I can't play on emulator (Kirby's Return to Dream Land for Wii; I highly doubt my computer can handle Dolphin).  I want to test the speed of various kinds of movement, durations of various attacks, attack hitlag, and stuff like that.  I'd like to do my measurements from a 60 FPS recording for maximum accuracy.

I've made some test recordings on DVD, since my computer and/or capture card don't seem to be good enough for recording 60 FPS (tried it with XSplit local recording, seems to drop frames like crazy).

I now want to analyze my DVD recordings in a program such as VirtualDub or Avidemux - something that has frame advance and timestamps for each frame.  Again, I want 60 FPS, as well as a relative lack of bobbing for my sanity, but I don't need high resolution.

Here's what I've tried:

(1) Playing it on my DVD recorder: frame advance only does 30 FPS, and with no milliseconds on the time display during frame advance, it's quite hard to time things.
(2) Using Anri-chan's field order test step to analyze the recording in VirtualDub: plays in 60 FPS, but there's severe bobbing as I frame advance, making it hard to work with.
(3) Using Anri-chan's trim frame ranges step to analyze the recording in VirtualDub: plays in 30 FPS.
(4) Opening the .vob (DVD file) directly in Avidemux 2.5.4: plays in 30 FPS.
(5) Opening the .vob directly in VLC 2.0.1: frame-by-frame playing sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, and when it works it seems like 30 FPS.
(6) Encoding the video at MQ in Anri-chan and then opening the resulting .mp4 in Avidemux: 30 FPS.
(7) Encoding the video at HQ in Anri-chan and then opening the resulting .mp4 in Avidemux: 60 FPS.
(8) Encoding the video at HQ in Anri-chan with D4 (half resolution, but the game is almost certainly D1) and then opening the resulting .mp4 in Avidemux: 60 FPS, but there is somewhat bad bobbing when I frame advance, making it hard to work with.

Method (7) (Anri-chan HQ encoding) works, but it takes longer than I'd like for a simple timing test.  Is there a faster way to get the video I need?  Again, I don't need the high resolution of HQ, I "just" want the 60 FPS and relatively little bobbing.

Sir VG

2012-07-02 01:16:02 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

I think your issue is more that DVD records at 30FPS (well, 29.97FPS), so you're either gonna have to get a recorder that records component/HDMI lines or work with 30FPS. Your HQ 60FPS is likely due to frame duping.

yoshifan

Edit history:

yoshifan: 2012-07-02 01:59:39 pm

yoshifan: 2012-07-02 01:58:41 pm

2012-07-02 01:58:12 pm

I tried frame advancing in 60 FPS through an HQ video I made, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't duplicating frames.

Also, I don't know much about DVD/video encoding myself, but I dug around the forums a bit and it seems that DVD records at 30 fps interlaced, with each frame containing 2 fields, so it becomes 60 fps with de-interlacing. Links: 1, 2

UraniumAnchor

2012-07-02 05:59:07 pm

Not a walrus

Your best bet is probably to feed it through an avisynth script and open it in virtualdub.

For simple frame analysis, yadif is more than sufficient.

Aftermath

2012-07-02 08:47:46 pm

Quits halfway

If you're able to open it in vdub, you wouldn't need to set up a script, just go videos -> filters -> deinterlace -> yadif algorithm -> bottom or top field first -> OK and either view output pane only or just do a quick encode of the video. Pretty much what UA said though.

nate

2012-07-03 05:47:38 pm

you can have any two of the following:

1) interlaced capture
2) speed
3) quality

UraniumAnchor

2012-07-03 07:35:18 pm

Not a walrus

Yeah, but for just frame timing you don't need 3 so much.

Actually I'm wondering if you've looked into mcbob at all as an alternative for mvbob. All I know is that it's more recent so I'm not sure how it compares.

nate

2012-07-03 11:52:32 pm

is that the one offered by mencoder? searching the forum reveals that we were talking about it in 2007 but nothing seems to have happened since then. maybe snow knows more. i have a very vague memory that working on anrix in late summer 2008 i considered it comparable to mvbob in quality and performance but that's about it ...

yoshifan

Edit history:

yoshifan: 2012-07-04 03:27:48 am

yoshifan: 2012-07-04 03:26:55 am

2012-07-04 03:25:42 am

Thanks for the help. I couldn't open the DVD file (.vob) directly in VirtualDub, but an AviSynth script with Yadif worked. I didn't know anything at all about AviSynth scripts, but after reading up on it, now I do. Cheesy

Here's a little dummies' guide to what I did, in case it helps any other encoding newbies. Hopefully I don't give any mis-info (feel free to correct me).

Guide:

Steps:

(1) Create an Anri-chan project for the DVD file(s), and complete the DGIndex step.
(2) Write an AviSynth script that takes DGIndex's output and produces 60 fps non-bobbing video.
(3) Open VirtualDub (it comes with Anri-chan; see the VirtualDub folder in the Anri-chan program folder). In VirtualDub, open the AviSynth script with File -> Open video file...
(4) After some time (depending on how long the video is and how your script processes it), the AviSynth'd video will open in VirtualDub, and you'll be able to analyze it.

Details for the AviSynth script (step 2):

The AviSynth script file is an .avs file. Just create the file and edit it in your text editor / programming editor of choice (Notepad++ or whatever). Doesn't matter where the .avs is located.

Resources for AviSynth: Avisynth's wiki, SDA Knowledge Base
What is deinterlacing?

Script steps:

(a) Load the plugins

Code:

import("<your Anri-chan program folder>\plugins\plugins.avs")
LoadCPlugin("<folder you downloaded yadif.dll to>\yadif.dll")

The video and audio decoders you need should already be part of Anri-chan. Anri-chan has a script for loading the plugins that Anri comes with, so just include that script within your script with an import.

Yadif is a fast deinterlacing filter that appears to be effective enough for creating test video. yadif.dll, the Yadif plugin, does not seem to come with Anri. But you can get this .dll in the .zip download at the bottom of this page.

(b) Load the source files and append them into a single video

Code:

import("<your Anri project's folder>\<your Anri project's name>_source.avs")

The script for this should already be there if you did the DGIndex step of the Anri-chan project. It should be <your Anri project's name>_source.avs in your Anri project's folder. So just import that.

FYI, the script reads in the video and audio of each DVD title and then splices the videos/audios together.

(c) Deinterlacing

Code:

Yadif(mode=<mode here>, order=<order here>)    # In my case, Yadif(mode=1, order=1)

See this page of the AviSynth wiki for what the different modes and orders are. The best mode and order to use are dependent on your DVD recorder. However, the mode should be something that says "double framerate (bob)", so that you get 60 fps. Order should be either top field first or bottom field first, depending on what you would pick for the field order select step in a normal Anri project.

In conclusion, here's the script:

Code:

import("<your Anri-chan program folder>\plugins\plugins.avs")
LoadCPlugin("<folder you downloaded yadif.dll to>\yadif.dll")

import("<your Anri project's folder>\<your Anri project's name>_source.avs")

Yadif(mode=<mode here>, order=<order here>)

Thanks for the help.  I couldn't open the DVD file (.vob) directly in VirtualDub, but an AviSynth script with Yadif worked.  I didn't know anything at all about AviSynth scripts, but after reading up on it, now I do. :D

Here's a little dummies' guide to what I did, in case it helps any other encoding newbies.  Hopefully I don't give any mis-info (feel free to correct me).

Guide:

[hidden]Steps:

(1) Create an Anri-chan project for the DVD file(s), and complete the DGIndex step.
(2) Write an AviSynth script that takes DGIndex's output and produces 60 fps non-bobbing video.
(3) Open VirtualDub (it comes with Anri-chan; see the VirtualDub folder in the Anri-chan program folder).  In VirtualDub, open the AviSynth script with File -> Open video file...
(4) After some time (depending on how long the video is and how your script processes it), the AviSynth'd video will open in VirtualDub, and you'll be able to analyze it.

Details for the AviSynth script (step 2):

The AviSynth script file is an .avs file.  Just create the file and edit it in your text editor / programming editor of choice (Notepad++ or whatever).  Doesn't matter where the .avs is located.

Resources for AviSynth: [url=http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page#New_to_AviSynth_-_start_here]Avisynth's wiki[/url], [url=http://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Avisynth]SDA Knowledge Base[/url]
[url=http://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Avisynth#What_is_deinterlacing.3F]What is deinterlacing?[/url]

Script steps:

(a) Load the plugins

[code]import("<your Anri-chan program folder>\plugins\plugins.avs")
LoadCPlugin("<folder you downloaded yadif.dll to>\yadif.dll")[/code]
The video and audio decoders you need should already be part of Anri-chan.  Anri-chan has a script for loading the plugins that Anri comes with, so just include that script within your script with an import.

Yadif is a fast deinterlacing filter that appears to be effective enough for creating test video.  yadif.dll, the Yadif plugin, does not seem to come with Anri.  But you can get this .dll in the .zip download at the bottom of [url=http://avisynth.org.ru/yadif/yadif.html]this page[/url].

(b) Load the source files and append them into a single video

[code]import("<your Anri project's folder>\<your Anri project's name>_source.avs")[/code]
The script for this should already be there if you did the DGIndex step of the Anri-chan project.  It should be <your Anri project's name>_source.avs in your Anri project's folder.  So just import that.

FYI, the script reads in the video and audio of each DVD title and then [url=http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Splice]splices[/url] the videos/audios together.

(c) Deinterlacing

[code]Yadif(mode=<mode here>, order=<order here>)    # In my case, Yadif(mode=1, order=1)[/code]
See [url=http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Yadif]this page of the AviSynth wiki[/url] for what the different modes and orders are.  The best mode and order to use are dependent on your DVD recorder.  However, the mode should be something that says "double framerate (bob)", so that you get 60 fps.  Order should be either top field first or bottom field first, depending on what you would pick for the field order select step in a normal Anri project.

In conclusion, here's the script:

[code]import("<your Anri-chan program folder>\plugins\plugins.avs")
LoadCPlugin("<folder you downloaded yadif.dll to>\yadif.dll")

import("<your Anri project's folder>\<your Anri project's name>_source.avs")

Yadif(mode=<mode here>, order=<order here>)[/code][/hidden]

bos

2012-07-07 12:32:23 pm

Quote from nate:

is that the one offered by mencoder? searching the forum reveals that we were talking about it in 2007 but nothing seems to have happened since then. maybe snow knows more. i have a very vague memory that working on anrix in late summer 2008 i considered it comparable to mvbob in quality and performance but that's about it ...

I listed QTGMC as an mvbob replacement in the anri 3.3 thread.

Yoshifan, maybe you could use the script generated during Anri's "Check for bobbing" section. It opens a vdub window with 5 different options. If you want to break out the one option that works, leave the vdub window open and find projectname_pixelshifttemp.avs in the project folder. Make a backup, and take out whatever you don't need.

Example, original:

Code:

import("C:\Program Files (x86)\anrichan3.3\plugins\plugins.avs") 
import("bob_source.avs")
converttoyuy2
AssumeTFF
SeparateFields
method1=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).subtitle("1 - no change")
method2=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_retard_bob_2.subtitle("2 - deflicker")
method3=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_alternate_retard_bob_2.subtitle("3 - deflicker alternate")
method4=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_1_pixel_bob_fix.subtitle("4 - one pixel bob fix")
method5=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_alternate_1_pixel_bob_fix.subtitle("5 - one pixel bob fix alternate")
stackvertical(stackhorizontal(method1,method2,method3),stackhorizontal(blankclip(method1),method4,method5))

...to the deflicker option:

Code:

import("C:\Program Files (x86)\anrichan3.3\plugins\plugins.avs") 
import("bob_source.avs")
converttoyuy2
AssumeTFF
SeparateFields
last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_retard_bob_2.subtitle("2 - deflicker")

[quote="nate"]is that the one offered by mencoder? searching the forum reveals that we were talking about it in 2007 but nothing seems to have happened since then. maybe snow knows more. i have a very vague memory that working on anrix in late summer 2008 i considered it comparable to mvbob in quality and performance but that's about it ...[/quote]
I listed QTGMC as an mvbob replacement in the anri 3.3 thread.

Yoshifan, maybe you could use the script generated during Anri's "Check for bobbing" section. It opens a vdub window with 5 different options. If you want to break out the one option that works, leave the vdub window open and find projectname_pixelshifttemp.avs in the project folder. Make a backup, and take out whatever you don't need.

Example, original:

[code]import("C:\Program Files (x86)\anrichan3.3\plugins\plugins.avs") 
import("bob_source.avs")
converttoyuy2
AssumeTFF
SeparateFields
method1=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).subtitle("1 - no change")
method2=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_retard_bob_2.subtitle("2 - deflicker")
method3=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_alternate_retard_bob_2.subtitle("3 - deflicker alternate")
method4=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_1_pixel_bob_fix.subtitle("4 - one pixel bob fix")
method5=last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_alternate_1_pixel_bob_fix.subtitle("5 - one pixel bob fix alternate")
stackvertical(stackhorizontal(method1,method2,method3),stackhorizontal(blankclip(method1),method4,method5))
[/code]

...to the deflicker option:

[code]import("C:\Program Files (x86)\anrichan3.3\plugins\plugins.avs") 
import("bob_source.avs")
converttoyuy2
AssumeTFF
SeparateFields
last.lanczos4resize(int((last.height*4)/3),last.height).nate_retard_bob_2.subtitle("2 - deflicker")
[/code]

yoshifan

2012-07-08 01:59:21 am

Ah, good idea. I'll definitely try using the Check for bobbing script if I encounter a recording where there's still bobbing after applying Yadif. (It turns out that Yadif alone works perfectly for my recordings this time though, with my DVD recorder + Kirby's Return to Dream Land.)