VirtualDub Video Editor Review

Jul 13, 2010 by Shivendu Madhava

VirtualDub (VD) is an advanced video editor (only for AVI files) and packs in a lot of tweaks to satisfy the needs of users of all skill levels.

VD excels in handling AVI files. Cut, join, filter, encode, capture, etc., are some of the processes it can put an AVI file through. It bundles along a host of features and add-ons to customise every aspect of processing AVIs. Various monitoring tools are also available which can make VD an AVI connoisseurs pet. VD doesn’t pack an installer, just unzip and it is ready to go. The extensive help file which describes all the options of VD is quite useful. One drawback of VD is its intolerance of VBR (Variable Bit Rate) encoded Audio streams. When presented with such video files, VD will personally re-encode the entire audio to CBR before moving ahead.

Edit

Editing an AVI file is child’s play. Open the relevant file in Virtual Dub by using the File > Open Video menu. Select the start and end of the clip you want to edit. It is highly recommended to use the Key frame button to mark these points. Since an AVI file has audio and video data interleaved, random cutting could lead to orphan audio or video data chunks causing the resulting file to be out of sync or difficult to seek. Cutting at a key frame precludes these problems.

If this clip is to be removed from the rest of the movie, Choose Delete from the Edit Menu. If this clip needs to be placed elsewhere, do a cut and paste after positioning the marker at the place where the clip needs to be inserted (again position marker at Key frame). After all necessary manipulations are over, set “direct stream copy” in the Audio and Video Menu. Then choose Save As AVI in the file menu and select a destination.

Join

If you would like to join two AVIs, VD will play ball on one condition:the two AVI files must have the same resolution and frame rate and have been encoded with the same codec. OK, three conditions.First open the first file, then select the File > Append file segment option and add all segments you want to merge. Then Select File > Save as AVI and choose a destination file.

Synchronise Audio and Video

Sometimes encoded audio and video are not in sync. VD offers a painless way to correct this. Load the video file. Set “direct stream copy” in the Audio and Video Menu. In the Audio menu, under Interleaving, set the required audio delay—positive if the audio precedes the video and negative if the audio follows.Since the figure is in milliseconds, you need to multiply the seconds with 1000 to get the relevant value. After entering the required figure, save the AVI from the File menu.

Direct Stream Copy Mode is the fastest working mode since the data is not passed through the codec. Most functions of Virtual Dub require the use of other Processing Modes (especially when dealing with non-AVIs since VD will not output in any other format). This means that the source file is decompressed, and the processing is done to the uncompressed audio/video and then the audio/video is recompressed. Undoubtedly, this takes more time.

Create a Compressed AVI

Uncompressed AVIs take up a lot of space. If, while trying any of the procedures mentioned here, you see that the final file size is too large, you can assume that you have not applied any compression.To apply compression, select the Video > Compression option(will remain grayed-out if Direct Stream Copy mode is selected).

Here you can see all the codecs

installed in your system and can choose which codec to use. The selected codec can be configured to suit your needs. The requirements of each codec are also specified. Unless the movie meets these specifications, the encoding will not take place. The Audio stream also can be compressed by using similar options under the Audio menu. If you would like to compress an MPEG file, open the file then apply the relevant codec from Video > Compression and select File > Save as AVI.

Capture Video

To begin a capture select File > Capture AVI. In the capture window, select a device to capture from, this can be a webcam or TV tuner.Assign a file name for the captured file under File > Set Capture File. Under Video > Capture Filter, you can further tweak the settings for the device output like brightness, contrast, etc.

If the video has a lot of noise, use the Video > Noise Reduction menu to improve the image. You can also crop the video from the Video > Cropping menu. You can choose to compress the file by using the Video > Compression menu. Compression on the fly may cause some frames to be dropped, unless your PC is fast.Under Capture menu you can set the capture frame rate (Capture > Settings) and the conditions under which you want to stop capturing (Capture > Stop conditions) like time or file size.

If the settings are satisfactory, use the Capture > Capture Video menu to start, and the Capture > Stop Capture option to manually stop capturing.

Adding filters

Virtual Dub offers advanced tools to manipulate the video screen in the form of Filters. This is another name for special effects like blurring, embossing etc. You need to be in Full processing mode to manipulate the movie.

To add a filter, first load a movie, then select Video > Filter. Here you can see the various effects at your disposal and a preview of the effect of each filter can be seen. One point to bear in mind is that you can apply more than one filter at one go, but the order of application of filter will influence the final results. So if you have a logo filter first (adds a logo to the movie) and a blur filter next (blurs the movie), if carelessly done, you would end up blurring the logo you just applied. So, in this instance, the logo would be the last filter to add.

After all filters have been added, choose File > Save As AVI for the job to begin.

Audio Filters can also be applied similarly. They can be accessed under Audio > Filters when in full processing mode.

Virtual Dub offers a lot more advanced features than just application of filters. The included help file is extensive in describing how to exploit these.

Concluding Remarks

For: Advanced editor catering to novice as well as experts.Formidable array of features which are well documented making it easier to use advanced features.

Against: None.

Use: AVI editing. Convert AVI/MPEG to AVI

Platform: All Windows

Home Page: www.virtualdub.org

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