I want to join several AVIs together and have a simple, short title sequence introducing each one. The AVIs are deleted scenes from a movie which don't give the scene name. I want a short sequence before each movie that gives the name of the scene - nothing fancy, just white-on-black text with the scene name displayed for 5 seconds or so.
What's the best and easiest way to do this, whilst keeping the quality of the original video? I looked into using Virtualdub's Logo filter but this overlays the video - I want the title sequence to appear before the video begins.
I've did this using a group of free programs.
The only encoding required is for the still image(s) - the rest of the files are appended as required and saved.
These are the notes I made for myself (not a tutorial) however if you have used VirtualDub previously you should be able to figure it.
Audacity and Avidemux can be downloaded from Afterdawn
The latest version of Audacity can export ac3 and mp3 if the plugins are installed - else it's wav output.
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Using a paint program, create a still image with the same resolution as the AVI files (e.g 576x320)
Add the text and save as .png or bmp
The still will need an audio stream - the same as the avi files.
Open 'Audacity' and click the (red) Record button.
A silent audio stream is created.
Stop it at approximately five seconds.
Select/highlight exactly five seconds (use the right/left arrows on the keyboard) then export the clip.
The clip must be the same format as the avi files (48000 stereo mp3 etc) - or export as a wav and have VirtualDub convert it.
Load/drag the still image into VirtualDub.
Assuming the avi files are 25 fps and it's a five second video:
Under 'Frame rate Conversion' > 'Convert to fps:' insert 25
Click 'Audio' > 'Audio from other file' and load the audio stream that was saved from Audacity.
(optional: Audio > Full processing > Compression > Lame mp3 48000, 128, stereo, cbr)
Click 'Video' > 'Compression' and select 'XviD' or 'DivX' or whatever the avi files use.
Click 'File' > 'Save as avi'.
Run Avidemux and load or drag the still onto the window.
Append or drag the first avi onto the window.
Repeat for still and subsequent avi.
Save, giving the joined files a new name including the extension ( e.g joined.avi)
There is no recoding so original quality is preserved.
Clever. I tried something similar to this, using a free program to turn images into AVIs but got stumped when VDub said they had a different frame rate - didn't have a clue what to do about that, so tried something else.
I eventually got it done, albeit with a somewhat bloated final filesize that's four times the size of the sources.
I'll try your way when I have to do it next (sometime soon, I should think, as I'm converting my DVD collection).
Is there any reason for using AVIDemux at the end, as I've always used VDub for joining AVI segments and it seems to work very well.
Thanks for the detailed response, much appreciated.
