Problem editing restored video?

[pnoyes]

I recently sent you a VHS video that needed some cleaning up. I received the video yesterday (AVI format) and played it in Windows Media Player. It looked much better. The problem started when I tried to load it in my video editing software, Pinnacle Studio 17. The video would not play, but the sound would. As it was AVI and 22GB I wanted to convert it to MPEG 2 so I could fit it on one disc. I opened it in a video converter software I have used many times, CuCuSoft Video Converter. Would not open, but the program sent me to a web page with various Codec's. I down loaded the K-Lite Codec program with many different Codecs. I still could not get it to open. Any suggestions?

[kpmedia]

The file uses the lossless Huffyuv codec.

You may simply need to install that codec, and you should be good to go.

The downloads are at the bottom of this first post: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...lters-pre.html
It's NOT the multi-threaded version used here.
If using x86 Windows, install the normal version. If using x64 Windows, install the 64-bit version.

K-lite is a codec pack, and codec packs are NOT suggested. They usually make a huge mess on a system.

CuCuSoft is really not an ideal tool to process video high-quality source video (ie, lossless AVI)
Pinnacle Studio is not the best of editors, but it can work if needed.

Avidemux is a good way to convert Huffyuv AVI to MPEG-2 for DVD. We have a guide on it:

- How to Encode MPEG-2 with Avidemux (Freeware) – Part 1
- How to Encode MPEG-2 with Avidemux (Freeware) – Part 2

If you have any problem, just ask. We'll help you.

[pnoyes]

I converted the VHS file that you cleaned up for me to MPEG4 (Quicktime) and Pinnacle accepted it. After reading your post I deleted the K-Lite Codec pack. I will try the Huffyuv later.
If I am able to use the AVI file in Pinnacle, wouldn't I need a Blu-ray disc to accomodate the 22GB? Would I get significantly better resolution? Or would it just be lipstick on a pig?
Can you recommend a better video converter than CuCuSoft?
Agree, Pinnacle is not the best, but for old low resolution files that I do it's OK. A problem that I have is that most people have converted their old Super 8 movies to VHS back in the '80's or '90's. If they have the old original Super 8 films I can convert them to digital and have a much better product. Unfortunately most no longer have the original films.

[kpmedia]

A Blu-ray spec version of a VHS tape is MPEG-2 @ 15mbps -- not Huffyuv AVI (which is for editing). The reason for BD-R is not resolution, but the bitrate. At 15mbps, it's mostly transparent to the tape. No artifacts, or low artifacts. DVD had a max of 10mbps, but realistically was usually closer to 5mbps. So it's much better.

Avidemux is better than CuCuSoft, and it's freeware.

Yep, I know all about film. Indeed, it is sad, as the source film was much better than the VHS copy.

Just be sure to NOT deinterlace when editing. You want an interlaced 720x480 MPEG for the DVD or Blu-ray. Otherwise, you're throwing away 50% of the quality by deinterlacing.

[pnoyes]

I completed my editing this am and burned a DVD. Quality was pretty poor. I noticed on your last reply that you said to be sure the source was interlaced. I checked back under properties and on interlacing it said "none". This was the mpeg copy. I looked back at the AVI (which I was unable to use) and it said next to interlacing "top field first". Would I have had a better result had I been able to use the AVI?

[lordsmurf]

What did you use for the editing?
And what did you use for the burning?

Something happened in the that degraded the quality.

[pnoyes]

I used an mpeg4 for editing.
I used Pinnacle for burning to a single layer Taiyo Yuden disc. My DVD was playing back at about 7-8 mb.
When I checked Interlacing in the Pinnacle library for the mpeg4 it said "none".
The AVI say's "top field first". I also have a mpeg-2 version that also says "top field first". I didn't notice that when I was editing. Should I use the mpeg-2 or AVI for editing?

[sanlyn]

Hm. Lot of confusion here. I'm about ready to give up on this thread, but thought I'd give it a try.

When someone asks what you used for editing, they're asking about the software and/or the encoder that was used. From what you posted above, you have an MPEG4 that is being edited, which is odd if you started with lossless huffyuv AVI. You should be editing the lossless AVI, then when you're finished with your modifications you encode and author it to DVD or some other format using somebody's software.

If your original huffyuv was interlaced, it usually would be encoded as interlaced for DVD or BluRay.

I would find something other than Pinnacle for video work, but suit yourself if you can live with its bugs and quality issues. If you used Pinnacle to deinterlace (ouch!), hopefully you still have your huffyuv AVI intact and available. If you encoded to MPEG2 with Pinnacle (ouch #2), well......

You can use whatever software you want, but I find your reply to be confusing. Sorry if I'm reading something incorrectly here. For instance, you say your final output is "low quality". Can you give us a little more detail about that? What kind of "editing" are doing? Is it just cut and join and maybe adding a few titles? Are you using subtitltes or text overlays, color correction, denosiing...?

[pnoyes]

I decided to try the AVI version so I followed the directions for installing Huffyuv. I was able to download it and unzip both files. Then tried the directions for installing from the command prompt. Nothing I did resembled the results you showed on the instruction page. I got to the DOS page, but there was a command there C:\Windows\system32>. I could not erase it or pressing enter just duplicated it on another line. When I tried typing in "rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 0 c:\huffyuv.inf" and pressed enter I got an error message stating that "InstallHinfSection" was incorrect. Tried it several times with no luck. The unzipped files are sitting in Documents. I opened them again into Pinnacle and tried the AVI file there but nothing happened.

[pnoyes]

I believe I followed your directions to the letter but I cannot get my system to take the codec. I downloaded it and was able to unzip it, (BTW, why compress a 39KB file?)but could not get it to go by following the directions. Any suggestions?
(I don't see the screen shot I attached but maybe it'll show up once I post).

Huffyuv error message.JPG

[sanlyn]

Most people install huffyuv in Windows by right-clicking on the huffyuv.inf file and left-clicking "install" from the popup menu.

[kpmedia]

Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8?
And then 32-bit vs 64-bit?

Each is somewhat different. We need to know what we're working with.

[sanlyn]

True. pnoyes hasn't yet told us what OS is in use.

[pnoyes]

Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64Bit

[kpmedia]

Did you unzip that file to c:\ ?
The reason the file is zipped is because .dll files are not safe to attach online. Same for .exe and others.

And did you try just the 64-bit version, and right-click and "install" it?

[pnoyes]

Both files are in folder at C:\HuffyUV.
Yes, I tried right click/install on the file.

[kpmedia]

Did you try to simply right-click install the 64-bit version?

[pnoyes]

Yes, I did a couple of times. A dialogue box opened and closed so fast I couldn't read what was in it. BTW, these files are both dated 1/21/2005. Assume they're up to date and will work in Win7?

[admin]

Read through all of the posts in this thread: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...l-huffyuv.html
It has several tips throughout.

First, copy that file to the root of C:\ and try again. Remember that your DOS session must have admin privileges.
That's for the 32-bit version.

If you use the 64-bit version, again, put both files in the root of C:\ and double-click the INF to install.

[pnoyes]

Progress of a sort. Different error message and progress bar that stopped at this point.

Huffyuv error message 2.jpg