Avid Quicktime Reference files

Questions and answers on how to get the most out of FFAStrans
draldos
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2015 7:40 am

Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by draldos »

Hi there

Is there any way to get FFA to see and transcode to MP4 Avid Quicktime reference files? Which is a quicktime wrapper pointing to the media relatives within the avid Media files folder structure?

Thanks S
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1658
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:39 pm

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by admin »

Actually, I don't know. I have yet to try any qt reference files on Windows. In the Processors/FFmpeg in the FFAStrans main folder you have a copy of ffmpeg.exe so you can try on your own. F.ex.:

ffmpeg.exe -i d:\your_video\your_input_qt_ref.mov -an d:\out\qt_ref_ouput.mkv

If you then got video on your output file then I guess there's a big chance FFAStrans will be able to use you qt reference files as well.

-steipal
sonicmotion

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by sonicmotion »

I've never been able to get QT reference files to work with FFMPEG, that seems to be the limitation. You may try wrapping the ref file in a AVISynth file to see if that works?
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1658
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:39 pm

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by admin »

I'm happy to announce that the upcoming FFAStrans 0.7.0 can easily be configured to transcode QuickTime reference files. Stay tuned for more info.

-steipal
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1658
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:39 pm

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by admin »

Here's how to set up FFAStrans 0.7.0 to transcode QuickTime reference files. Attached to this post you will find a package that contains an example workflow and a "Custom AviSynth-script"-preset to make it all happen. This example also demonstrate how the "Custom AviSynth-script"-node can act as a custom decoder: You may add a filter directly after, or a "A/V Media"-decoder for increased decoding reliability, or connect directly to an encoder.

Installation instructions:
1. Make sure you have no less than version 0.7.0 of FFAStrans installed
2. Install the QuickTime package from Apple: http://www.apple.com/quicktime
3. Unpack the attached "QT-ref_example.7z" to your FFAStrans folder. Overwriting does not destroy your installation.
4. Insert your own paths in the "Folder" monitor and delivery node.

Please note that the importand node here is the "Custom AviSynth-script"-node with the "Add support for QT reference"-preset. The rest is just for creating a working example.

A big thank you must go to Tateu for creating the QTSource.dll!
Please visit http://avisynth.nl/index.php/QTSource for detailed info on how to use QTSource.

Please enjoy

UPDATE 30.10.2018:

* Updated the package for version 0.8.0 and newer. Should now work better with 64bit windows.
* Added the QTSource.dll to the package.

-steinar
Attachments
QT-ref_example.7z
(83.26 KiB) Downloaded 804 times
vijm1972
Posts: 128
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:35 am

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by vijm1972 »

Hi Steipal,

As per my understanding QT reference file is reference file to play source file. I am not sure about QTSource function.

If I used above attached example I am getting output as per my encoding setting. I am not able to to play my original hi-res source file using QTReference file.
I have attached media info of source file and QT reference file which I have created using FCP. If you compare both the media info's you will get all the parameters equivalent to each other. Only difference I have observed is file size and one line added in reference file which is source file location. If I play QTReference file created using FCP I am able to play source file.
Reference.jpg
Reference.jpg (231.12 KiB) Viewed 38996 times
Source path.jpg
Source path.jpg (125.17 KiB) Viewed 38996 times
Please correct me if I am missing anything.

Thanks,
Vijay
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1658
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:39 pm

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by admin »

The QTSource function is needed to read QT reference files. It uses the QuickTime SDK to open the files, that's why you need to install QuickTime from Apple. FFmpeg cannot do this by itself, that's why QT reference files requires special treatment, because they are special.

Now, I'm not sure I quite understand what your post actually is about because the way I understand it, the workflow does what's expected. Is that right? Also, you seem to have a playback problem with our QT reference files?

-steinar
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1658
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:39 pm

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by admin »

Important notice:

In the latest 0.9.2 release, the users of the QT reference approach might need to add "color = 0" (RGB24) or "color = 1" (RGB32) to their QTInput string. The latest AviSynth+ release(s) does not deal well with the default YUY2 output coming from the QTSource plugin.
From the example workflow in this thread:

m_clip = QTInput("%s_source%", audio = 2, color = 0)

-steinar
Ghtais
Posts: 157
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 11:06 am

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by Ghtais »

Hi !

I have decided to try this new feature and I need some help to instal it.
I'am running Windows 7 and I have already Quicktime 7.76.80.95 instaled on my machine.
I have FFtrans 0.9.0.4 and I have donwloaded the QT-ref_example.7z file juste above.
Now I have the error "Cannot load file C:/FFAStrans0.9.0 ... etc ... /AVS_plugins/qtsource/QTSource.dll"
The question Is : Where can I find this QTsource.dll file because it is not present on my machine
Sorry if my question is so basic, perhaps I missed a step

P.S . I have downloaded Quicktime SDK package and instaled it, no effect

thank you for your help.
Best
Ghtais
Posts: 157
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 11:06 am

Re: Avid Quicktime Reference files

Post by Ghtais »

Ok, after some search I finaly found the file on http://avisynth.nl/index.php/QTSource, put it in the right folder and everything has become ok :)
I found only 32 bit version, is that all right ?
Anyway it works very well, thank you for this feature
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