I need a frame by frame dvd video player software.

[kartal]

I need to watch some reference dvds and videos and I am in need of a good frame by frame viewer. Most of the players fail to do frame accuracy(kmp, vlc, Gom etc). And I do not want to convert whole dvd set to sequential tgas or pngs.I would like to scrub the videos back and forth as good as possible.


thanks

[4wd]

AVIDemux

Not a player as such but able to read, edit and playback DVD, (and more).

For any MPEG source it just needs to be able to index it first, (which means the source needs to be on a writable drive), and then you can step by frame, key frame, black frame or just scroll back and forth using the slider.

Off to the right of the slider is a control wheel that allow you to step backwards/forwards at whatever rate you like, (from 1 frame every few seconds to a few times normal play rate), just click and pull it backwards or forwards.

As a bonus it's free, standalone and SMP aware.

[yksyks]

I'd suggest VideoReDo Plus, which is not just a player, though. It's a full featured MPEG-2 editor, but very fast and you can scroll by frames freely. You can run several instances to compare movies frame by frame, set bookmarks, etc.

I'm not sure, but probably the trial version doesn't allow to save movies after its expiration, however, the browsing functionality should remain. Anyway, you can try it for free.

[housetier]

I want to suggest mplayer, which is a rather simple but powerful mediaplayer. VLC and mplayer share a lot code; I prefer mplayer because it doesn't have a gui.

To view a film frame by frame just play it and pres ".", each "." will move to next frame.

mplayer has options to generate screenshots too, but I haven't used that feature yet so I can't say much about it. mencoder can be used to convert, or encode, from one format to another. I believe ffmpeg can do this as well.

It is a very simplistic if not cryptic media player. Which is fine by me because it does what I want: it plays any media I throw at it. Don't expect a usable GUI.

What does "scrub back and forth" mean?

[yksyks]

I just noticed that you need to view movies from DVD, not the individual MPG or VOB files, so in that case you'd need VideoReDo TVSuite, which is capable of importing the DVD.

Anyway, I'm not sure if players can do what you need--in my opinion the players allow to step frame by frame in forward direction only as they can't interpret the B-frames backwards, but if you need to get back they usually skip to the GOP start, i.e. the closest I-frame.

[4wd]

What does "scrub back and forth" mean?

-housetier (July 04, 2008, 02:59 AM)

The ability to move back and forth, (at speeds ranging from frame by frame to many times normal play rate), through a video, usually by just dragging a slider backwards and forwards.

Most players only go forward frame by frame, you usually need a video editing program to do this rather than a simple player - hence why I suggested AVIDemux.

[kartal]

For some reason avidemux cannot open the vob files(other players can play no problem). That means that I need to convert vob to avis then try avidemux. I will also try virtualdub.

Thanks for suggestions.

[4wd]

For some reason avidemux cannot open the vob files(other players can play no problem). That means that I need to convert vob to avis then try avidemux. I will also try virtualdub.

-kartal (July 04, 2008, 11:53 PM)

Strange, AVIDemux opens VOBs fine here and offers to append them together if they're in the same titleset, (VTS).

Does it open "Index MPEG files" dialog, (you have to answer "Yes" - it creates an idx file so the VOBs need to be on writable media)?

[kartal]

Yes it is asking me to index but fails to index. I had used Avidemux successfully in the past. I will try to investigate little more, probably something is weird with the .vob I am using.

[4wd]

Yes it is asking me to index but fails to index. I had used Avidemux successfully in the past. I will try to investigate little more, probably something is weird with the .vob I am using.

-kartal (July 05, 2008, 02:37 AM)

The only time I've had it fail to index is when the VOBs are on a DVD, you need to rip the DVD to the hard drive first removing any protection in the process.

Otherwise, try opening just a straight MPEG file, (example.mpg), off of the hard drive and see if it works.

AFAIK, VirtualDub can't handle MPEG2, (due to licensing IIRC), that's why VirtualDubMod and NanDub were created - both rather long in the tooth now.

[kartal]

4wd I did not know about licencing problems that Vd was having. Thanks for letting me know, that should save my couple hours easily

Vobs are on my hd at the moment and yet having issues. Other players can play them except avidemux. I will try to grab the latest version and see if that makes a difference.

[4wd]

4wd I did not know about licencing problems that Vd was having. Thanks for letting me know, that should save my couple hours easily

-kartal (July 05, 2008, 03:23 AM)

It wasn't actually licensing problems, the original developer just made the decision not to implement to avoid any problems.

At this point I'm not sure if it's been implemented lately or not - the release notes imply it has MPEG-2/4 support since about version 1.6+ but my version 1.71 won't import a VOB complaining that it's possibly MPEG-2.

Guess I'll download the latest and see what happens.

Regarding AVIDemux, try toggling: Preferences->Input->Use libavcodec MPEG-2 decoder

BTW, I'm using AVIDemux 2.4.1 (r3791).

EDIT: VirtualDub still doesn't accept a VOB as input as at 1.8.1.

[kartal]

I have managed it to work.

First problem was a dumb one. There was a failed idx file in the folder and Avidemux probably was trying to write over and was failing so it could not import the vob.
Seond one was about appending files. It was asking me if I wanted to append multiple files for some reason. At first I clicked yes failed couple times. Choosing no leads to successful import,

thanks for the settings tip 4wd.


Btw here is a simple AHK script to use your mouse wheel for frame back and forth inside avidemux:)


;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Avidemux xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

#IfWinActive Avidemux
{

WheelDown::Right
WheelUp::Left
Return

}   

[4wd]

I have managed it to work.

First problem was a dumb one. There was a failed idx file in the folder and Avidemux probably was trying to write over and was failing so it could not import the vob.

-kartal (July 05, 2008, 12:06 PM)

Cool, glad you got it to work.

Seond one was about appending files. It was asking me if I wanted to append multiple files for some reason. At first I clicked yes failed couple times. Choosing no leads to successful import,
thanks for the settings tip 4wd.

If it sees VOBs that are part of the same VTS set, (eg. VTS_01_x), then it will ask if you want to append them - so you can import a whole movie off of a DVD without processing each VOB separately and then appending them.

Btw here is a simple AHK script to use your mouse wheel for frame back and forth inside avidemux:)


;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Avidemux xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

#IfWinActive Avidemux
{

WheelDown::Right
WheelUp::Left
Return

}

Thanks, I tend to use the keyboard for fast navigation but this will come in handy for scrubbing over small sections.

I tend to use AVIDemux over all other editors now, especially for MPG4 encodes because it's SMP encoding is faster than any other program I've tried without resorting to command line encoders and their options.

[kartal]

Avidemux is definetely amazing application.

Btw qt version cannot save image sequence. Maybe they have forgotten to put in the interface because gtk version has it.

[mikiem]

Nothing against avidemux, but IMHO there's a better way...

Use DGIndex on the VOB files to generate an index file (.d2v) - should take just a few minutes. With AviSynth installed Create a simple Avisynth script: line1) loadplugin("[Your Full Path Here] \dgdecode.dll")     line 2) mpeg2source(".\your_d2v.d2v")  -- note that DGIndex can create the .avs file for you... an .avs file is a simple text file with the .avs extension. Last, open that .avs file in video software - I'd recommend VirtualDub.

This will generate full frames from the [usually 14] partials every 1/2 second (NTSC), let you filter, resize etc., save entire or portions of video, including stills & image sequences, dynamically de-interlace and so on -- long story short you can view frame by frame, advancing with the arrow keys on your keyboard, or play the video, or jump anywhere in the video instantly with a click of the mouse.

The programs are free, very small, & DGIndex & VirtualDub have next to zero footprint on your PC. All 3 are also standards in video circles.

[mikiem]

@4wd: totally FWIW...

I've never used it, but I'd venture a guess that avidemux uses code from DGIndex that's pretty much the std for that sort of thing, used in all sorts of video apps & ft ends. Reason I mention it is you might well be able to do the same thing, without having the restriction of writable media. Since you use it you'd be the best judge of course, whether or not you could incorporate DGIndex d2v files in your avidemux projects. There's also a version for avc streams if that's of any interest.

RE: V/Dub... originally mpg2 codecs were all payware, & not necessarily cheap - then import became a non-issue pairing DGIndex & AviSynth. With Avisynth you can do tons of stuff not possible anywhere else - loads of pros use it - & combined with DGIndex mpg2 import just isn't/wasn't necessary... in fact almost any native import is inferior to the DGIndex methods. Loads of folks prefer to get mpg2 into apps like Prem Pro that way. Only with version 7 did Vegas begin to import mpg2 with quality & performance approaching DGindex on the time line [Vegas requires an extra step, either frameserving from V/Dub or using VFAPI on your .avs file to create a fake avi]

Outputting mpg2 is IMHO best handled with payware like TMPGEnc, CCE, ProCoder, MainConcept code etc, though there are a couple of free alternatives: Qenc & HCenc. V/Dub can either frame-serve to your encoding software, or there are ft ends that handle all of it for you, often incorporating AviSynth, DGIndex, V/Dub, HCenc etc.

Finally, and again if it's of interest, several apps including DGIndex can strip out the audio & video files from a VOB set. PGCDemux is another I often use. TMPGEnc also includes very good muxing in it's Mpeg Tools section [I *believe* everything but the mpg2 encoding is free]. Many programs will only import VOBs, .m2v mpg2 video streams, or muxed mpg mpg2 files, so if you need to convert without re-encoding it's not that much of a hassle.

[kartal]

Mikiem, thanks for alternative solution. I will give a try.