"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> 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.

Dick - thanks for the ffmpeg parms. I feel that a number of similar programs are
expert friendly. I don't mean that as negative at all. These programs just give
the user a whole lot more knobs to turn when using them. The challenge is
knowing what the knobs are supposed to do.

Key frames - I know what a keyframe is (perhaps), just not how to identify them
in a video editor. I'm not sure but don't think ProShow gold will identify them.
The prog seems to read in the large uncompressed AVIs produced with VirtualDub
with no problems.

Now rendering a new animation (much less complex than before) just to see how a
30 (or 20) FPS video will look. The previews do look much less "choppy" as
expected. The first attempts had about 30,000 objects in the image which PovRay
handled quite well but the resulting image did not look so good so reduced the
maximum number of objects to 2,000.

A year ago wrote an interface to DirectX12 and ported the code logic to the
program. Instead of waiting quite some time for a render the visuals were
instant. I went back to PovRay and quite like it. PovRay seems to be the best
system for what I want to do. Have used it for a long time. I like blender but
don't know python at all and I believe that would be necessary to do the same
sort of animation. Could be lack of knowledge talking here. The Blender physics
model is awesome though. The glass funnel animation on the web site was created
with that. I would take a closer look at progs like AvidMux but ProShow provides
copyright worry free music for slideshows and videos and that sells it for me.

Chuck

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