Useful Utilities

Skull · Nov 3, 2003, 07:05 AM

Any video editors in our midst? A new release of the awesome Virtualdub.

VirtualDub is a video capture and processing program. It features fast capturing, process files larger than the 2 gigabyte limit, optimized for linear editing, support for Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1 video and layer 3 audio, real-time and near-realtime video processing, video job queues, and much more.

What's New in This Release:

Features added:

DirectDraw support is disabled when Terminal Services or Remote Desktop clients are detected to work around a DirectX clipping bug. Re-enabled places bar on open and save dialogs. Disabled FPU state warning and made the fixup silent. WAY too many drivers are screwing up the FPU unit. Edit lists can now be omitted from configuration files without needing to close the source file.

[bugs fixed]
* Main window is disabled during MPEG-1 scan to prevent crash if main window is closed.
* Previous-key and next-key movement commands were not correct for B-frames in an MPEG-1 file.
* Fixed decoding of MPEG-1 B-frames at the start of GOPs with broken_link set.
* Palette change blocks no longer appear as garbage video streams. In-stream palette changes are still not supported, however.
* biSizeImage was incorrect when using fast recompress in YV12 mode.
* Sequence appends failing on the first file now throw an error rather than a warning.

[regressions fixed]
* A race condition in the fast write code occasionally resulted in spurious write errors.
* Fixed swapped 00db/00dc tags in AVI output.
* Fixed display of 8-bit paletted video.
* Program starts under Windows 95 again.

Download directly here

brc64 · Nov 4, 2003, 11:08 AM

For DVD ripping, the two best programs I have found are DVD Decrypter and SmartRipper. Best of all, they are completely free!

DVD Decrypter
DVD Decrypter is one of the most powerful DVD ripping programs available. It has just about any option you can imagine, and it's generally the ripper of choice among the pros. The only downside is that if you are new to DVD ripping, this program can be a little confusing.

You can download the latest version of DVD Decrypter here:
http://www.dvddecrypter.com/download.asp

SmartRipper
If you're looking for an easier to use DVD ripper that works just as well, you may like SmartRipper. It doesn't have all of the features of DVD Decrypter, but it has a much more intuitive interface. You can download the latest version of SmartRipper here:
http://www.riphelp.com/downloads/smart-ripper.html

Feel free to add to this thread any other useful utilities for video editing and encoding! Please be sure to indicate if they are freeware, shareware, or something else.

- Me

Skull · Nov 4, 2003, 11:28 AM

AVI to VCD/SVCD/DVD Converter
http://www.boilsoft.com/ SHAREWARE

AVI to VCD/SVCD/DVD Converter is a powerful Batch AVI Converter, it allows you to easily convert AVI files to VCD/SVCD/DVD format files that can be played on your VCD/DVD Player. It allows to specify NTSC or PAL format of output file, PAL-to-NTSC conversion and vice versa. Supports for AVI, Divx, MPEG1, MPEG2, and MPEG4 formats. The very user-firenldy interface lets you easily preview video files and batch convert.
Please note that this is a general multimedia player for playing back AVI files. Different AVI files may be encoded with different "codecs" (compressors and decompressors ; COders and DECoders), so by having an AVI player does mean you can play every single AVI file in the world (you'll need to separately download and install the codec for the AVI file as well).

Skull · Nov 4, 2003, 11:33 AM

AVI JOINER Shareware

AVI Joiner is an easy-to-use tool to join multiple AVI files into one larger AVI file.
AVI Joiner designed to join AVI files without recompression that allows you to join AVI files quickly and without reducing quality. But only files with identical parameters (such as frame size, frame rate, video codec) can be joined.

The current version does not support the AVI files larger than 2GB.

Latest version: 1.0 (released 5-April-2003).

Available here

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AVI SPLITTER Shareware

AVI Splitter is an easy-to-use tool to split AVI files.
AVI Splitter allows you to split a large AVI file into smaller AVI files, or to extract manually selected segments of an AVI file to new AVI files. The program can quickly split larger AVI files without recompression or use any installed VFW codec including MPEG-4 or DivX to compress or decompress video streams.

The current version does not support the AVI files larger than 2GB.

Latest version: 1.21 (released 25-April-2003).

Available here

Dyre Straits · Nov 4, 2003, 12:59 PM

RadTools -- Totally Free!

Great for compressing large video files.

"Bink is a "better-than-MPEG-II" class codec - it compresses with more quality than MPEG-II at up to three times the playback speed! Bink uses up to 10 MB less memory at runtime than other codecs. It has been licensed for over 2,000 games since 1999!

Bink is a hybrid block-transform and wavelet codec that can encode your video using 16 different compression techniques (wavelet, DCT, motion compensation, a variety of vector quantizers, Smacker-style, etc). With all of these techniques in one codec, Bink can handle any type of video."

RagGameTools

Furious · Nov 5, 2003, 01:18 AM

A program I've used a lot for copying DVD's is DVD Shrink. http://www.dvdshrink.org/

Very useful, powerful and FREE!!!

mike2h · Nov 5, 2003, 01:55 AM

ditto! my ripper of choice! i use v2.3 extensivley. the 2 times it did not work, whipped out dvd decrypter & was back in business. i prefer shrink because it is more user freindly but decrypter NEVER fails(so far).

Furious · Nov 5, 2003, 09:17 AM

Agreed. They're both very useful utilities.

***Zardon*** · Nov 7, 2003, 03:01 PM

unmissable for all your calculations

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 21, 2003, 05:57 PM

here is a nice tool for everyone.....
this is gspot tool .... it will tell you what codecs a video file needs to play, what u have installed and were ther are missing files! can come in real handy!

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/gspot221.rar

Vampyromaniac · Dec 26, 2003, 12:48 AM

Friends, we mustn't forget the front-end for DivX/XviD encoding, Gordian Knot.

With ripping, audio demuxing, frameserver setup, cropping/resizing, bitrate/resolution calcuation, compression estimation, encoding options selection, batch job processing, one-step encoding and ultimately muxing of video, credits (if doing a movie,) and audio . . . all in one control panel, it's a well put together program that comes with an array of all the tools needed for getting the job done (eg. DVD Decrypter, DVD2AVI, BeSweet, Nandub & VirtualDub, and DivX, XviD, ffdshow, AC3Filter.)

It might not be too "user-friendly," but it puts everything you need in one place.
I've used it many times, and have never been disappointed.

EDIT: forgot to say the whole package is free

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Dec 26, 2003, 01:47 AM

Totally i use Gordian Knot and love it!!!!!!

RIV@NVX · Dec 26, 2003, 06:45 AM

Media Player Classic - http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
Excellent media player, supports many formats, even RM/QT thru ActiveX.

peterosesbookie · Mar 21, 2004, 05:50 PM

Nero VisionExpress

TMPGEnc DVD authoring software to turn your MPGs into dvd format

DVDShrink to shrink all your home movies made with TMPGEnc and store bought DVD's.

PicVideo codecs to capture and compress all your MJPEG AVI needs with ATi MMC

Vidomi to turn your ripped dvd's into Divx files (does not work well with Nero VisionExpress installed - codec mismatch)

just my 3 cents

later

pete

RIV@NVX · Mar 22, 2004, 05:57 AM

VLC (formerly VideoLAN Client) - http://www.videolan.org/
Excellent video player, crossplatform, plays many formats without codecs installed into windows, and also a decent free DVD player. It's opensource, GPL license.

MindlessOath · Jun 16, 2004, 01:12 AM

www.doom9.org if u havent checked it out ... you have too! it has all the tools you need and of course reviews of codecs, and many many many guids. .... would also like to add AutoGK... the easy way to backup DVD's to divx/xvid. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64266

DMNXS · Sep 18, 2004, 07:23 PM

The wonders of SourceForge...

flaherrc · Sep 30, 2004, 12:03 PM

IMHO, TMPG is the best encoder of MPEG-2 for the price.

I like MediaChance's DVD-Lab for very flexible and easy DVD authoring.
Check it out!.
The pro version is nearing completion and will allow multiple VTS's and subtitle selections - all for under US$200. The basic ed. is under US$100!

Highly recommended.

bob

MindlessOath · Oct 1, 2004, 01:16 AM

i am going to recomend something that works when other things dont. it will convert many differnt files types without problems either, like for instance real media files

yay you cant find any real good working ones that do that :P and all around its easy to use.

http://www.eo-video.com/

Ðamage™ · Jun 29, 2005, 01:21 AM

The best audio editing tool I've found is "Goldwave" its simply amazing for converting audio in any channel, audio decompression along with AC3, and mp3. It can be found over here @ goldwave.com

g35x · Nov 14, 2005, 09:20 PM

nice thx for all teh links guys some nice programs