dick balaska <dic### [at] buckosoftcom> wrote:
> On 07/07/2018 11:56 AM, Chuck wrote:
>
> > The originals as
> > produced by PovRay are PNGs. Then since I use VirtualDub to produce an
> > uncompressed AVI from the frame sequence I assume that all of the
> > original bits are still present (at the cost of a huge file).
> >
> > Now I use ProShow to load in the AVI file and to add music and perhaps an
> > introductory black slide. Then there are many output options: BlueRay, DVD,
> > AVCHD, MPEG-4 (1080p (full HD), 4K UHD, and others.
> > [snip]
> > SmugMug then re-encodes the file for presentation...

I still use VirtualDub as well, for certain videos (and follow a similar
two-or-three-stage final encoding process as you do-- although I presently use
Avidemux in place of your ProShow and SmugMug.) The interesting thing about
VirtualDub-- whether for a compressed file there or an uncompressed one-- is
that the video is saved as all keyframes, by default. My experience in playing
back such a 1920X1080 video as-is, is that it stutters on my own computer--
probably because that's a LOT of video information to decode on-the-fly. When I
later transcode the video in Avidemux (usually as an h.264-encoded file in am
..mp4 container format), I can 'reduce' all those individual keyframes to a
keyframe only every 25 frames (for example), which greatly-reduces the
stuttering. SO... maybe your ProShow/SmugMug transcoding process is keeping
*all* the original keyframes intact? Which might be the cause of the stuttering?
>
> If you are comfortable with the command line, you should try ffmpeg.
> It's pretty much the standard these days.

I think Avidemux makes use of ffmeg as it's 'engine' (although I'm not sure);
but I've not yet used ffmeg itself as a command-line tool. It does seem that
many folks here in the newsgroups are comfortable with it. (BTW, thanks for the
ffmeg example code you posted here.)
> >
> > If reading between the lines above leads you to the conclusion that I am a
> > neophyte to video you would be correct.
>
> Aren't we all.
> You seem to have a good handle on what you're doing.  That puts you
> light years ahead of (100 - ℓP)% of people.

Ain't it the truth! Trying to clearly understand all the different file formats,
encoding options, container formats etc. could be a full-time job! ;-)  And apps
like Avidemux-- as good as they are-- seems to have their *own* little quirks
that take some getting-used-to. (When a new version comes along, I dutifully
download it-- then I find that my workarounds for the previous version have to
be modified for the 'new' quirks. Aarggh!) It's the same with other video
encoders/transcoders that I've used-- except VirtualDub(!), which seems
rock-solid and consistent with its .avi-output files.

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