VP3 encoding guide

dbloom · Post by **dbloom** » Sun May 11, 2003 2:47 pm

I wrote a guide pretty recently for encoding VP3, and decided to share it with this forum. It's designed for somebody who knows what bitrate they need, how to use Virtualdub, and how to encode audio. It covers how to encode CBR and two VBR methods using the codec's very unusual interface. I wrote it originally for the folks at the ProjectMayo PocketMVP forum (which also covers DCDivX), since they all hated VP3 almost entirely because of its difficult interface, but I think it can be helpful here too. Enjoy

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Sun May 11, 2003 11:09 pm

VP3?

Oh, that VP3! That's a nice video codec.

I'd like to see what the guys at Xiph have managed to do with it though, since they adopted it as the base for the OGG project's video format, and started adding all sorts of stuff that worked well for Vorbis audio. The first version of that should be released in about a month, I think.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Mon May 12, 2003 8:30 pm

Nice!

Thanks for sharing!

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Mon May 12, 2003 11:16 pm

Now, if only I could get it to multiplex with OGG audio into an OGM file correctly. The only software I have to do that uses DirectMedia to do it, and it's sloooooow. It also seems to want to load the entire file into RAM before it starts, which is real clever since I only have 256MB of RAM, and there's no way that can ever hold 700MB of audio+video.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Mon May 12, 2003 11:20 pm

You try VDub Mod? I'm pretty sure you direct-stream in an OGG audio with it.

Azra_Blackmoor · Post by **Azra_Blackmoor** » Tue May 13, 2003 7:45 am

It looks lie a great codec/guide,thanks for the info

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Tue May 13, 2003 9:50 am

I tried VDub Mod, and a command line tool. Both created an (apparently) correct file, with all the soundtrack and video data there, but it would not play the video at all. It just froze. It would seek to any point in the file fine, but it just wouldn't play.

And VDub Mod keeps crashing on the OGG files I created with the official Vorbis encoder. It wasn't doing that earlier, but it is now. Grr...

Maybe VP3 doesn't like working in a non-AVI file, which means I'd have to try another codec or wait for the release of Theora. Which is a shame, since the video quality is really good, and it took me 6 hours to encode the darned thing. Good thing I left it running overnight, I suppose.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Wed May 14, 2003 2:10 am

When I have some time, I'll mess around and see what I can figure out. I'm sure I used VP3 in an OGM file before, but don't remember how I did the audio. I've been meaning to experiment with OGM anyway, but school took up too much time.

Audacity will export OGG audio and is available for just about any platform you can think of. It can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net It's a pretty sweet utility. I've used it a lot. If you're having trouble with files encoded with the official OGG encoder, might be worth giving this a try.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:16 am

Actually, I'm having trouble with any program that uses DirectShow or Video for Windows, including all video compression software for Windows. Aaargh!

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Wed May 14, 2003 10:19 am

Do to the excessive cluttering of the HBA main page, I will probably regret this, but...

TOPIC STICKIFIED!

dbloom · Post by **dbloom** » Wed May 14, 2003 12:45 pm

It is my honor to partake in this sticificinarinationalicy.
Or something like that.

dbloom · Post by **dbloom** » Wed May 14, 2003 4:41 pm

Here's a sample VP3 file (640x480, 60 seconds, 8,327,168bytes, 224kbit/s MP2 audio, VBR VP3 video) for all the nonbelievers out there

. You can find the source file (in MPEG1 format) here.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Wed May 14, 2003 9:35 pm

az_bont wrote:Do to the excessive cluttering of the HBA main page, I will probably regret this, but...

TOPIC STICKIFIED!

You beat me to it. I had been thinking this deserved a sticky. Don't know why I didn't do it myself.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Sat May 17, 2003 12:13 am

Well, I found out what was wrong before - it's not VP3. It's the audio. I can not use OGG Vorbis as audio, no matter how I try. Which is very irritating. I tried it with no audio, and a single MP3, and it worked fine. Using two different MP3s, the second one gets corrupted, but when I open it in VDubMod, it works perfectly. I try three MP3s, and WMP thinks it's an MP3 file, although VDubMod reads it perfectly again.

What the heck is wrong with it?

VP3 encoding guide

VP3 encoding guide

Yay

VP3 sample file!