videoVST thread

[sinkmusic]

I start this thread as the plugin looks great, but the mpeg1 limitation is a bit a bad point...
So i wanted to know if anyone had found a way to bypass this limitation ?
I am a bit surprised that the mpeg-1 codec was the only "free" one...
Xvid is free, too, and as there is already a free plugin reading .mov (quicktime), quicktime implementation should be possible...

So maybe that opening here a dedicated thread for ressources sharing for a possible improvement of the plugin could help ?

[metamorphosis]

Xvid is "free" but not "legal". It's based on the MPEG4 spec, same as DivX - unlike DivX however, the Xvid crew do not pay royalty fees to the MPEG consortium- hence it's technically illegal to download an Xvid encoder or decoder, which is why there are no encoders or decoders on the Xvid's official site, and their heavy, heavy disclaimer...

For the record, you have no idea how difficult it is to implement a buggy, huge SDK like Quicktime- also, it is a proprietary format, and not free to use-
the 'free' plugin which plays quicktime (MoviePlayer) doesn't work on the hosts I've tried it in and uses "Pluggo", an SDK and runtime library which allows Quicktime playback, via Cycling '69 who've paid Apple for the rights to do so. I'm not going to use Pluggo.
I'm not too worried about the MPEG1 limitation- as I've noted on the official site, there are quite a few free (and excellent) MPEG1 encoders out there, so converting is pretty easy.
m@

[sinkmusic]

ok, thank you for the info.
Video codecs is a real hell !

[metamorphosis]

Too true dude-
m@

[eidenk]

Xvid is just one codec for the avi container.

What is certainly needed for such a plug to have any real use is at least avi support IMO.

Mpeg1 is outdated and of poor quality.

[shamann]

I really like videovst, it should come in handy since I use a lot of hosts without video support.

I have noticed that it tends to crash a lot if you mess around too much with the host's transport timeline. I've also found that the video will keep playing if I stop the host's audio engine, and then needs to jump back when I restart it (which also often leads to a crash).

It would be extra cool if there was some way to relay the audio out "in host" rather than externally through Windows. That way you could use videos as an audio source.

But still, it's one of those ideas that's so good they make you wonder why no one ever tried it before (I'm guessing the video codec hell might be a reason). And +1 for AVI support for the future if at all feasible.

[toine6]

Ha, I found something very very very interesting that seems to have gone under the radar. I havn't actually tried it yet, but it seems to be the business.

Control Winamp from your VST host
I just finished a little plugin (two plugins actually) so you can control winamps payback from you VST host. The playback position of your host is sent to winamp so when your press play in Audiomulch, Winamp should start playing. If your transport is at 30 seconds in Audiomulch when you press play then Winamp should start playing at 30 seconds into the current track. This should be handy if you want to score movies using hosts that don't have built in media players. http://dmi.smartelectronix.com/

[jobromedia]

Sorry if I sound ignorant here, but why would you use a Video VST anyway?

[androidlove]

Sorry if I sound ignorant here, but why would you use a Video VST anyway?

This should be handy if you want to score movies using hosts that don't have built in media players.

[metamorphosis]

Xvid is just one codec for the avi container.

What is certainly needed for such a plug to have any real use is at least avi support IMO.

Mpeg1 is outdated and of poor quality.

RTM.
Neither of those are relevant when scoring music for film/tv - because all you need is accurate timing guidelines- which is what this plugin is for. Also, while MPEG1 is older, it is also much less CPU-intensive. I disagree that MPEG1 is of poor quality - some of the videos on the net are, but if you're encoding your own video, using one of the programs mentioned in the manual, it can look very good.

Tell you what-
how about You write a plugin which plays back AVI, and then come and tell me how easy it was to do. Okay?
Cheers-
m@

[metamorphosis]

Ha, I found something very very very interesting that seems to have gone under the radar. I havn't actually tried it yet, but it seems to be the business.

Control Winamp from your VST host
I just finished a little plugin (two plugins actually) so you can control winamps payback from you VST host. The playback position of your host is sent to winamp so when your press play in Audiomulch, Winamp should start playing. If your transport is at 30 seconds in Audiomulch when you press play then Winamp should start playing at 30 seconds into the current track. This should be handy if you want to score movies using hosts that don't have built in media players. http://dmi.smartelectronix.com/

RTM - try it. I did. It doesn't work on any of the hosts I've tried-
m@

[toine6]

Cool to know.. (EDIT) Oops... It doesn't work... well... that's good to know, but not cool...

Wonder if it's because you're using a newer version of winamp or something... bummer.

[metamorphosis]

I really like videovst, it should come in handy since I use a lot of hosts without video support.

I have noticed that it tends to crash a lot if you mess around too much with the host's transport timeline. I've also found that the video will keep playing if I stop the host's audio engine, and then needs to jump back when I restart it (which also often leads to a crash).

It would be extra cool if there was some way to relay the audio out "in host" rather than externally through Windows. That way you could use videos as an audio source.

But still, it's one of those ideas that's so good they make you wonder why no one ever tried it before (I'm guessing the video codec hell might be a reason). And +1 for AVI support for the future if at all feasible.

Hi there-
I agree with you on the relaying the audio to the host - that would be super-cool, but unfortunately the libraries I'm using don't allow that, and it would be hell for me to try and make them do it, so that features off the cards, at least for the moment.
Re: the not stopping when your host stops, you read the manual (RTM), right? If your host has an option to keep fx running when muted/stopped, that'll need to be turned on, otherwise VideoVST won't recieve the 'stop' signal- most FX don't need to worry about this but for video playback it's critical-

The crashing is a known bug, it happens during the restart/resync routine, but I'm damned if I can figure out what's causing it- I think it's an issue in the MPEG player library itself. It only seems to happen on some hosts (dead-stable in tracktion 1) so hopefully I'll be able fix that, at some point.
The problem with AVI playback is the patenting/licensing issues associated with the different codecs- each of which (bar Xvid) is owned by a specific company-
it would also stop me porting the plugin to Mac if anybody ends up helping me do that.
Cheers-
m@

[metamorphosis]

Cool to know.. (EDIT) Oops... It doesn't work... well... that's good to know, but not cool...

Wonder if it's because you're using a newer version of winamp or something... bummer.

Tried both 2.91 & 5.04 - could get it to start but not to stop or sync-
Cheers,
M@

[shamann]

Re: the not stopping when your host stops, you read the manual (RTM), right? If your host has an option to keep fx running when muted/stopped, that'll need to be turned on, otherwise VideoVST won't recieve the 'stop' signal- most FX don't need to worry about this but for video playback it's critical-

I had read the manual, but hadn't devoted any appreciable thought to that section, since it was foreign to the host I use (Audiomulch doesn't have a run FX option). I might suggest it to the developer, see if he can add it in.