Importing DivX 4.12?

bjornkn wrote on 2/8/2002, 6:27 PM
I'm trying to use avi files generated by a 3D program using the DivX 4.12 codec with no sound. Vegas 3.0 doesn't give any error messages, but the frames are all black.
Sometimes I get a thumbnail for it in the Media Pool, and once I even got visible frames in the timeline as well as when rendering. Unfotunately I can not get it to work now at all.
How can you work around this problem?
Is it a known problem?
I'm running Win9SE with an Athlon 1.33GHz and Radeon AIW.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/9/2002, 10:00 AM
DivX is not a very stable codec, and there appear to be several different (and not entirely compatible) versions of it floating around. Can the 3D program output to a different codec? If your 3D clips aren't too long, you should probably use uncompressed AVI. If that makes them too huge, try cinepak or something like that.
Cheesehole wrote on 2/9/2002, 10:20 PM
most 3d animators render to sequentially numbered still images (TGAs or PNGs usually since they can carry an alpha channel and can compress losslessly)

Vegas 3 can use them now. (VV2 couldn't)

another good codec for animation is Indeo RAW, which you can use if you download the Intel Indeo codec pack and install the development package. if your target format is DV, this is no good, since frame rates are limited to 15 or 30fps. resolution seems to be limited to 640x480 too...

i wouldn't try to use a highly compressed format like DivX.

- ben
bjornkn wrote on 2/10/2002, 3:04 AM
I usually render to a PNG sequence for the final renders too. But this time I had a rendered a preview avi that I wanted to edit slightly in VV3, which I just got installed BTW. That is often necessary to get the timing right.
The advantage of rendering to a compressed avi format is that it can be viewed directly without having to fire up a video editor like VV3. I was hoping that VV3 would be able to edit it, adding a few stops here and there, with no need to recompress. The few times I've been able to work on it at all in VV3 it did a very bad job decompressing and recompressing it, ending up with a very bad quality that I couldn't possibly show to my client, not even as a preview.
VV3 seems to have no problems using Indeo and Cinepak codecs. Why not also DivX?
IMO DivX creates better and smaller files than any of the other codecs. Too bad it can't be used in VV3.
BTW, I always thought that it was the codec that did all the hard work decoding the frames?

Is there a utility around that can export an avi to a sequence of stills?
It would be nice if VV3 (and the Batch Converter) could expert to a sequence of stills too.
It takes many hours to render such a 3D video clip - that's why I'm trying everything to avoid having to rerender it...
PKowald wrote on 2/10/2002, 6:46 PM
I use DivX 4.12 all the time. I found the best results by rendering in normal DV PAL (or DV NTSC) mode, then render the completed DV AVI file using the DivX codec. Excellent results.

Peter
Cheesehole wrote on 2/10/2002, 7:45 PM
It takes many hours to render such a 3D video clip - that's why I'm trying everything to avoid having to rerender it...

---------------------------------

you hit the nail on the head there... that's exactly why we never render to a compressed format. the 3d renderer takes all that time to create a perfect frame... the last thing you want to do is crunch it down after all that, at least not right away.

there are utilities out there to do what you need. try searching on AVI Convert or AVI to TGA. i think Premiere can do that... afterFX can definitely. 3dsmax could easily do it too. i don't know how well those programs will handle the DivX4.1 though. they might act like Vegas.

i'd just re-render it and chalk it up as 'lesson learned'. uncompressed AVI is the fail-safe format to use if you don't want to render to stills right away.

ACDSee does a pretty good job of flipping through a series of stills at a high rate so you can see a preview of your animation without rendering to avi, or loading up a big program like VV3. just turn the slideshow delay to 0. you could also load up your stills in a ram player within 3dsmax, or maybe whatever 3d software you are using has a similar feature.

- ben
bjornkn wrote on 2/11/2002, 2:00 AM
>I use DivX 4.12 all the time. I found the best results by rendering in normal DV >PAL (or DV NTSC) mode, then render the completed DV AVI file using the DivX codec. >Excellent results.

That's why I want to use DivX too - good results and small files :-)
But what is the trick to get the sound to play in Windows Media Player?
I rendered a DivX test with sound (mp3 sound) in VV3, but it did not play the sound right in MP7.1 - it just kept the first tone during the entire video.
It plays fine in The Playa, but I need to make them play in MP too.
I've noticed this is a problem with some of the DivX files available on the net too. Is it because of the mp3 sound?
bjornkn wrote on 2/11/2002, 2:43 AM
>you hit the nail on the head there... that's exactly why we never render to a
>compressed format. the 3d renderer takes all that time to create a perfect frame..
>the last thing you want to do is crunch it down after all that, at least not right
>away.

Well, this was just a preview to get the timing right. As rendering duplicate frames is a waste of render time I prefer to duplicate them in a video editor, as well as adding sound. If I want quality, like for the final result, I never render to a compressed avi format. It will take several days to render the final results.
The point is that VV3 doesn't handle DivX very well. In fact - rather badly...
At least when it's a DivX without sound.

>there are utilities out there to do what you need. try searching on AVI Convert or
>AVI to TGA. i think Premiere can do that... afterFX can definitely. 3dsmax could
>easily do it too. i don't know how well those programs will handle the DivX4.1
>though. they might act like Vegas.

I ended up "rerendering" by using the DivX as a background in my 3D app (trueSpace) and saving as an Indeo compressed avi. tS had no problems at all decoding the DivX frames. I can't see what VV3 can't do the same? I thought that the codecs were doing all the job - thus it should only be a matter of extracting the data right.
I could have rendered to stills now, but I chose not to. BTW, Indeo was twice the size of DivX.

>i'd just re-render it and chalk it up as 'lesson learned'. uncompressed AVI is the
>fail-safe format to use if you don't want to render to stills right away.

The lesson learned is that I need to make smaller tests with VV3 before I assume that it can import anything at all. IMO uncompressed AVIs is not an option for a preview, at least not in bigger sizes like 640x480, because it cannot be played without dropping frames. Neither is flipping images in an AcDSee slide show (I do use AcDSee a lot too, but not to get the timing right) an option, as you can't avoid dropping frames there either (not really dropping, but rather extending the time).
Using compressed avis works great for previewing animations. The only problem here is really that VV3 can't handle the DivX codec.
This is for a fly-through into and around inside a building, with several stops where things are happening, and it has to be exactly 1:50 mins long. It is pretty difficult to get the right speed all the way, as it is very easy to move the camera either too fast or too slow, or to get the stops too long or too short. It is very important to view it at the exact speed that it will be played. The velocity envelopes in VV3 seems to be a very useful tool here :-) The resampling seems to be doing a vey good job.

I do appreciate that you're trying to help me out though :-)
But I do wish that SF does something with their importing of DivX files for v 3.0a.