Introduction

Notes: This guide and the file downloads are for Windows 32bit and 64bit systems running later than Windows XP. Be aware though that AVISynth functionality on 32bit is limited due to the lack of some filters/plugins and also reduced available system memory. Following this will guide install AVISynth+. All references in this guide to “AVISynth” mean “AVISynth+”. There are other versions of AVISynth. It will also guide you to installing a collection of common AVISynth plugins/filters, including all the files for QTGMC, the high-quality deinterlacer. Due to the need to manually add files to some folders in the Program files (x86) folder and Windows folders, you will need to be logged on to Windows as an Administrator. Some of this process may require access to the full Windows right-click menu. There is a link at the bottom of the modern RC menu that will take you to the old-style complete menu. I take this opportunity to thank @Cholla from VideoHelp for their assistance in preparing this page.

Caution

This guide requires pasting four files into Windows system folders. Please exercise care to prevent deletions of Windows files. You follow this procedure at your own risk.

Why this guide?

I’ve written this guide and created the downloads because I found that the majority of the difficulty in AVISynth and QTGMC is actually setting it all up. Arcane resources, located in cryptic folders such as CLANG and MSVC, make life a misery. But when it’s all set up, provided you’re happy with a bit of texting to make up your AVISynth (AVS) scripts, it is reasonably straightforward to use and the results can be astounding. The trick comes in knowing what plugins/code to use, but at least when it is set up, you can concentrate on the usage part instead of sweating, grumbling and possibly losing interest over what is, where is and/or how to make, an AVSI or a DLL that is reported to be missing.

What is AVISynth?

AVISynth is a video processing environment which operates by using a script file system (.AVS files), also called a “frame server” because it “serves” the video, after being processed, to the program that has opened the AVS file. At this point, the video hasn’t been rendered or encoded. That will only occur when you do a Save action. The script files are opened in third-party programs such as Virtual Dub which display the filtered video which can then be edited further and/or exported in your desired format. QTGMC is arguably the best deinterlacer around. QTGMC is a taxing process on your computer and on slower machines, may take a long time to encode videos. While this guide will get you going with the very basics of AVISynth and QTGMC, I would urge you to consult the AVISynth and QTGMC wikis to broaden your knowledge of how they work, in particular the various settings for each filter. While I use the basic QTGMC (preset=”fast”) filter here, QTGMC actually has many sub-settings which are put in the brackets. For example, a QTGMC line could be: QTGMC (preset="slow", matchpreset="slow", matchpreset2="slow", sourcematch=3, tr1=2, tr2=1, NoiseTR=2, sharpness=0.1)

AVISynth Components

There are three components to AVISynth: The program files themselves, which are installed into the Program Files (x86) folder on your system drive using the installation file; The various plugins/filter files, sometimes called dependencies, which go into the plugins folders in the AVISynth parent folder in Program Files; AVISynth scripts, created by you, which are opened in various programs such as Virtual Dub, and which produce the results of the filters you’ve added to the scripts. The installation is very simple. The main hassle with AVISynth is getting all the plugins/dependencies set up. I have made that easy by including all the common dependencies in a ZIP folder.

Bitness 32/64

One confusing aspect of using AVISynth is the plethora of 32 or 64 bit versions and plugins/filters. In a nutshell: AVISynth+ will run in 32bit or 64bit environments; the same install file works with both. A 32bit computer will not run 64bit programs meaning, for example, that VDub2 64bit will not run on a 32bit computer. However, 32bit programs will run on a Win64bit computer. In most cases, there are separate 32bit and 64bit versions of plugins, hence the 2 separate plugins folders. The program that opens the AVS script determines what bitness is used. For example, if you open an AVS script in Virtual Dub 2 32bit, AVISynth+ will access the 32bit plugins. If you open an AVS in VDub2 64bit, AVISynth+ will access the 64bit plugins. Which to use? Some plugins are 32bit only, and some are 64bit only. If there is a particular plugin you need to use, you will have to open the file in the appropriate bitness (32bit or 64bit) program. That said, in my experience, every script I have run has opened OK in 64bit. In other words, all the plugins I’ve needed have been available in 64bit. A 64bit workflow will mean that much more memory is available. I have had occasions where, with 32bit VDub2, I have had memory halts with QTGMC when combined with other plugins. On 64bit VDub2, I have had no such issues.

Installation

Downloads

Download these files:

AVISynth Plus

https://github.com/AviSynth/AviSynthPlus/releases/download/v3.7.3/AviSynthPlus_3.7.3_20230715_vcredist.exe

QTGMC files and other Plugin/Filter files

This zip file (53MB) contains all the plugin/filter files you’ll need to set up and run QTGMC and various other common filters. It is your responsibility to keep them updated or to add other plugins as required by your scripts. AVISynth Plugins Package 20241105 Download this zip file to a suitable location; it doesn’t matter where, as long as you can find it later.

Files Set up

AVISynth Program File

Note: If you already have AVISynth installed, this installer will prompt you to keep or remove the previous version. You can keep the previous version of AVISynth. If you choose to remove the previous version, I suggest you copy the plugins folders from that version and store them for possible use with this install of AVISynth+. I haven’t done this myself, so I am theorising but it would be better to be safe than sorry. Run (DC) the AVISynth+ exe file to install AVISynth+. AVISynth installs on your system drive into the “Program Files(x86)” folder. The AVISynth+ main folder has the two “+” plugins folders. “plugins+” and “plugins64+”. This is what a standard installation looks like on the system drive. There may be “non plus” plugins folders as well, but we won’t be using those.

Plugins Folders

Locate the downloaded ZIP file, RC on it and choose Extract All… and click Extract…. A folder will open, containing the various plugins folders. Note: the plugins included here are only the common ones I have collected. There are hundreds of others that are available, having all sorts of functions/effects. If a script tries to call a plugin that isn’t installed, you’ll get an error message describing what is missing, which should be enough to find details on it on the AVISynth homepage. Assuming Windows is installed on the C: drive:

32bit Windows

1. Copy the two files in folder 1 to your C:\Windows\System32 folder 2. Copy all the files in folder 4 to your C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth+\plugins+ folder.

64bit Windows

1. Copy the two files in folder 2 into your C:\Windows\System32 folder. 2. Copy the two files in folder 3 into your C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder. 3. Copy all the files in folder 4 into your C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth+\plugins+ folder. 4. Copy all the files in folder 5 into your C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth+\plugins64+ folder.

FFTW Library files

If you’ve done the above correctly, skip this section. Probably the most confusing aspect of setting up, especially for QTGMC, is the bitness of the FFTW3.DLL and libfftw3f-3.dll files and where they reside. The 32bit versions are 2336KB and must be in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder. The 64bit versions are 2708KB and must be in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. Yes, those locations do seem the wrong way round but they are correct. Here are the FFTW files (they are also included the above package). Download and unpack the zip to get access. Annoyingly, both versions have the same name, hence the reason I’ve given the file sizes so you can work out which one is which. Those of you with an attention to detail will observe that the two files appear to exactly the same. That’s because they are! By some twisted logic, libfftw3f-3 is simply a renamed fttw3.

Virtual Dub Setup

Set up Virtual Dub, as per my instructions here. VDub is used to open, or display, the AVISynth AVS files. Other programs can also open AVS files, including advanced AVISynth programs such as AVSPMod and some media players such as Media Player Classic. VDub allows you to edit the AVS on the fly to adjust your AVISynth output. You can then perform further operations such as editing/trimming, cropping, resizing, and export to MP4 all from the one program. Or you can Losslessly export the video so that it can be edited further in a more fully-featured video editor.

Using AVISynth

That’s it. You don’t actually open AVISynth as a program. What you do is create a script, and when you open that script in VDub, the script will use the parts of the AVISynth installation and plugins it needs to process, as per the filters you set up (such as QTGMC) and then display your filtered file in VDub. You can then do further editing or save it into another format for further editing in an external editor, or for distribution in, for example, MP4. For example, my typical workflow for a VHS capture is: Capture with AmarecTV, Create an AVISynth script with the captured AVI file (as I show below) to deinterlace with QTGMC, Open that AVS file in VDub and apply other filters such as cropping, resizing, colour and level adjustments, “Save As…” the video into AVI format, Import that AVI into my NLE for titling, fades, cropping and exporting to my final format such as MP4.

Typical AVISynth+ script to run QTGMC

A “script” is actually just a plain text document, written with Notepad, but saved with the AVS file extension. A typical AVISynth script which uses QTGMC to deinterlace an AVI video and double the framerate follows, with explanatory comments following. SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2) AviSource("H:\racwa\aeroclub-int.avi") ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true) AssumeTFF() QTGMC(preset="Fast", EdiThreads=8) # set EdiThreads to half the system cores you have Prefetch(24) # set to the number of Logical Processors in your CPU Explaining the various parts: SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2) Tells AVISynth what multi-threading mode to use. AviSource("H:\racwa\aeroclub-int.avi") Tells AVISynth what “source filter” to use to open the file, and it’s location. Always wrap the full name in quotes. If the AVS file is saved in the same folder as the video file you’re processing, you don’t need the drive and parent folder in the name. Tip: use the Windows RC menu “Copy as Path” item to copy the complete file name, then paste it in. There are other source filters for opening other types of files eg MPEGs, MOVs, MP4s. For example, you cannot use “AVISource” to open an MP4. Other source filters are shown lower down this page. ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true) Converts file to the required colour space. AssumeTFF() Tells QTGMC what the interlace status of the file is. Almost all analogue captures are Top Field First; DV files are almost always Bottom Field First. QTGMC(preset="Fast", EdiThreads=8) Tells AVISynth to execute QTGMC using the “fast” preset and to use the extra threads in your CPU to speed up processing. Set the EdiThreads to half the system cores you have (Task Manager>Performance has the number of cores in your CPU). QTGMC defaults to double-framerate mode. Prefetch(24) Tells AVISynth to use the available cores in your CPU to speed up the process. Set it to the number of Logical Processors in your CPU, available from Task Manager. If you have issues, reduce the number progressively. You save the script text, using a basic editor such as Notepad, as a text-format file with the AVS file extension. All that is then necessary is to open the file in Virtual Dub and the result (meaning your original file, after processing by the script) will be displayed. Give it a go. Copy the text of the script, paste it into a TXT/Notepad document, change the name of the file to be opened and save the file as an AVS file. Here are some sample full-interlaced files for you to experiment with (not all files have full-interlacing; for example, converting telecined movies to progressive video require different treatment. See my page on Deinterlacing for details).

AVI

f18 aeroclub

MPEG 2

aircraft MPEG2 Open your AVS file in VDub and, fingers crossed, you’ll shortly be looking at a crisp, smooth, deinterlaced AVI. You can now continue editing it, perhaps trimming and deleting parts, and/or exporting it in whatever format you wish to either continue editing elsewhere or save as an MP4 for distribution. If you have problems, run the AVISynth Info tool, which will report any issues with your installation.

File-Opening/Source Filters

There are many different file types and AVISynth does not have a common source filter which will open them all. To that end, here is a list of filters that will open the various noted file types. All of these sources work with 64bit; some don’t work with 32bit. For files with no audio, the a = and AudioDub(v,a) lines can be commented-out or deleted. Copy the source filter you need from here and paste it into the top of your script. AVI (32 and 64bit) AviSource("H:\Video Tapes Albums\Video Album 2 Tape A3\Leroy.avi") no need for a separate audio source filter. MP4, AV1 (32 and 64bit) v=LSMASHVideoSource("F:\Flying\F18\F18 Movie - Fish\Sting of the Hornet.mp4") a=LSMASHAudioSource("F:\Flying\F18\F18 Movie - Fish\Sting of the Hornet.mp4") AudioDub(v,a) MPEG2 (error messages) v=FFmpegSource2("S1E2 (PAL) 25i.mpg").AssumeTFF() a=FFmpegSource2("S1E2 (PAL) 25i.mpg") AudioDub(v,a) MPEG 2, VOB (32 and 64bit) Note: m2ts out of sync 64bit on some files v=ffms2("boating.mpg") a=LWLibavAudioSource("boating.mpg") AudioDub(v,a) MPEG2 (32 and 64bit) , MKV, MOV, MP4, FFV1 and others v=LWLibavVideoSource("sample.VOB") a=LWlibavAudioSource("sample.VOB") AudioDub(v,a) Others (this is the least preferable source filter) DirectShowSource("title00.mkv")

AVISynth Tricks and Tips

On Windows, there should be a RC option for copying the file name “Copy as Path”: very handy when copying your video’s filename into a script. Text case is not important. To “comment-out” or disable a line of text in the script, place a # symbol at the start of the text you want to comment-out. The # will also work on text part-way along a line. For example: Prefetch(24) # use the number of logical processors from Task Manager means that AVISynth will run “Prefetch(24)” but not run the text “use the number of…”. This is good for putting comments after the actual code on a line. You’ll see I’ve done this in the sample script for the EdiThreads and PreFetch. To comment-out a number of lines, on the line before, put in /*. On the line after the last line you want to comment-out, put */. For example: /* this is a block comment; we can write a lot here and also comment out multiple lines of code SubTitle("Hello, World!") - this code won’t be processed because it is in a block comment */ AVSIs, a type of filter/plugin, are generally not downloadable as a file. They may be presented on their download page as the actual text characters, so if you need to find or install an AVSI, copy all of the text given into a Notepad text file and save it, then change the file extension to AVSI. An example of “make your own AVSI” is here. When you click on the link to the AVSI at top right, all you get is a bunch of text. Copy all of that text into a text file, then rename it with the “AVSI” extension, and then you will have your AVSI to put in your Plugins folder.

Miscellaneous Filters

RIFE

Note: Use of RIFE is optional and only operates on a 64bit system. RIFE is a high-quality frame interpolation filter, meaning it will smooth out videos by re/creating frames that are missing, such as after duplicated or blended frames have been removed by other filters, for example when processing cine film that has been captured by a video camera (telecine). The RIFE filter comprises two parts: the filter files themselves, which are included in the plugins folder in the above zip package, and the RIFE models, which are a 1GB collection of files and folders which detail the various models. I haven’t included the models folder in the above download because of it’s size; if you would like to use RIFE: go to the Github RIFE page click on the “Latest” button on the right click on the link to the models to download the zipped models folder. Assuming you have set up AVISynth as I have described above, the models folder needs to be placed in the avisynth+\plugins64+ folder: The actual model number to be used in the AVISynth script is shown against the folder number is shown lower down on the Github page linked-to above. For example, folder 4.6 (True) is model number 24. Note: only models using 4.1 and above will allow adjustment/manual setting of the frame rate. Lower models will only double the original framerate.

Further Resources

The Videohelp forum has a number of very knowledgeable users of AVISynth. If you have any issues or questions on the use of the various filters/plugins, I suggest you post a topic there to seek help. If you have any issues with the setup described here, please send me an email at the address on the home page.

Introduction

Notes: This guide and the file downloads are for Windows 32bit and 64bit systems running later than Windows XP. Be aware though that AVISynth functionality on 32bit is limited due to the lack of some filters/plugins and also reduced available system memory. Following this will guide install AVISynth+. All references in this guide to “AVISynth” mean “AVISynth+”. There are other versions of AVISynth. It will also guide you to installing a collection of common AVISynth plugins/filters, including all the files for QTGMC, the high-quality deinterlacer. Due to the need to manually add files to some folders in the Program files (x86) folder and Windows folders, you will need to be logged on to Windows as an Administrator. Some of this process may require access to the full Windows right-click menu. There is a link at the bottom of the modern RC menu that will take you to the old-style complete menu. I take this opportunity to thank @Cholla from VideoHelp for their assistance in preparing this page.

Caution

This guide requires pasting four files into Windows system folders. Please exercise care to prevent deletions of Windows files. You follow this procedure at your own risk.

Why this guide?

I’ve written this guide and created the downloads because I found that the majority of the difficulty in AVISynth and QTGMC is actually setting it all up. Arcane resources, located in cryptic folders such as CLANG and MSVC, make life a misery. But when it’s all set up, provided you’re happy with a bit of texting to make up your AVISynth (AVS) scripts, it is reasonably straightforward to use and the results can be astounding. The trick comes in knowing what plugins/code to use, but at least when it is set up, you can concentrate on the usage part instead of sweating, grumbling and possibly losing interest over what is, where is and/or how to make, an AVSI or a DLL that is reported to be missing.

What is AVISynth?

AVISynth is a video processing environment which operates by using a script file system (.AVS files), also called a “frame server” because it “serves” the video, after being processed, to the program that has opened the AVS file. At this point, the video hasn’t been rendered or encoded. That will only occur when you do a Save action. The script files are opened in third-party programs such as Virtual Dub which display the filtered video which can then be edited further and/or exported in your desired format. QTGMC is arguably the best deinterlacer around. QTGMC is a taxing process on your computer and on slower machines, may take a long time to encode videos. While this guide will get you going with the very basics of AVISynth and QTGMC, I would urge you to consult the AVISynth and QTGMC wikis to broaden your knowledge of how they work, in particular the various settings for each filter. While I use the basic QTGMC (preset=”fast”) filter here, QTGMC actually has many sub-settings which are put in the brackets. For example, a QTGMC line could be: QTGMC (preset="slow", matchpreset="slow", matchpreset2="slow", sourcematch=3, tr1=2, tr2=1, NoiseTR=2, sharpness=0.1)

AVISynth Components

There are three components to AVISynth: The program files themselves, which are installed into the Program Files (x86) folder on your system drive using the installation file; The various plugins/filter files, sometimes called dependencies, which go into the plugins folders in the AVISynth parent folder in Program Files; AVISynth scripts, created by you, which are opened in various programs such as Virtual Dub, and which produce the results of the filters you’ve added to the scripts. The installation is very simple. The main hassle with AVISynth is getting all the plugins/dependencies set up. I have made that easy by including all the common dependencies in a ZIP folder.

Bitness 32/64

One confusing aspect of using AVISynth is the plethora of 32 or 64 bit versions and plugins/filters. In a nutshell: AVISynth+ will run in 32bit or 64bit environments; the same install file works with both. A 32bit computer will not run 64bit programs meaning, for example, that VDub2 64bit will not run on a 32bit computer. However, 32bit programs will run on a Win64bit computer. In most cases, there are separate 32bit and 64bit versions of plugins, hence the 2 separate plugins folders. The program that opens the AVS script determines what bitness is used. For example, if you open an AVS script in Virtual Dub 2 32bit, AVISynth+ will access the 32bit plugins. If you open an AVS in VDub2 64bit, AVISynth+ will access the 64bit plugins. Which to use? Some plugins are 32bit only, and some are 64bit only. If there is a particular plugin you need to use, you will have to open the file in the appropriate bitness (32bit or 64bit) program. That said, in my experience, every script I have run has opened OK in 64bit. In other words, all the plugins I’ve needed have been available in 64bit. A 64bit workflow will mean that much more memory is available. I have had occasions where, with 32bit VDub2, I have had memory halts with QTGMC when combined with other plugins. On 64bit VDub2, I have had no such issues.

Installation

Downloads

Download these files:

AVISynth Plus

https://github.com/AviSynth/AviSynthPlus/releases/ download/v3.7.3/AviSynthPlus_3.7.3_20230715_vc redist.exe

QTGMC files and other Plugin/Filter files

This zip file (53MB) contains all the plugin/filter files you’ll need to set up and run QTGMC and various other common filters. It is your responsibility to keep them updated or to add other plugins as required by your scripts. AVISynth Plugins Package 20241105 Download this zip file to a suitable location; it doesn’t matter where, as long as you can find it later.

Files Set up

AVISynth Program File

Note: If you already have AVISynth installed, this installer will prompt you to keep or remove the previous version. You can keep the previous version of AVISynth. If you choose to remove the previous version, I suggest you copy the plugins folders from that version and store them for possible use with this install of AVISynth+. I haven’t done this myself, so I am theorising but it would be better to be safe than sorry. Run (DC) the AVISynth+ exe file to install AVISynth+. AVISynth installs on your system drive into the “Program Files(x86)” folder. The AVISynth+ main folder has the two “+” plugins folders. “plugins+” and “plugins64+”. This is what a standard installation looks like on the system drive. There may be “non plus” plugins folders as well, but we won’t be using those.

Plugins Folders

Locate the downloaded ZIP file, RC on it and choose Extract All… and click Extract…. A folder will open, containing the various plugins folders. Note: the plugins included here are only the common ones I have collected. There are hundreds of others that are available, having all sorts of functions/effects. If a script tries to call a plugin that isn’t installed, you’ll get an error message describing what is missing, which should be enough to find details on it on the AVISynth homepage. Assuming Windows is installed on the C: drive:

32bit Windows

1. Copy the two files in folder 1 to your C:\Windows\System32 folder 2. Copy all the files in folder 4 to your C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth+\plugins+ folder.

64bit Windows

1. Copy the two files in folder 2 into your C:\Windows\System32 folder. 2. Copy the two files in folder 3 into your C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder. 3. Copy all the files in folder 4 into your C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth+\plugins+ folder. 4. Copy all the files in folder 5 into your C:\Program Files (x86)\AviSynth+\plugins64+ folder.

FFTW Library files

If you’ve done the above correctly, skip this section. Probably the most confusing aspect of setting up, especially for QTGMC, is the bitness of the FFTW3.DLL and libfftw3f-3.dll files and where they reside. The 32bit versions are 2336KB and must be in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder. The 64bit versions are 2708KB and must be in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. Yes, those locations do seem the wrong way round but they are correct. Here are the FFTW files (they are also included the above package). Download and unpack the zip to get access. Annoyingly, both versions have the same name, hence the reason I’ve given the file sizes so you can work out which one is which. Those of you with an attention to detail will observe that the two files appear to exactly the same. That’s because they are! By some twisted logic, libfftw3f-3 is simply a renamed fttw3.

Virtual Dub Setup

Set up Virtual Dub, as per my instructions here. VDub is used to open, or display, the AVISynth AVS files. Other programs can also open AVS files, including advanced AVISynth programs such as AVSPMod and some media players such as Media Player Classic. VDub allows you to edit the AVS on the fly to adjust your AVISynth output. You can then perform further operations such as editing/trimming, cropping, resizing, and export to MP4 all from the one program. Or you can Losslessly export the video so that it can be edited further in a more fully-featured video editor.

Using AVISynth

That’s it. You don’t actually open AVISynth as a program. What you do is create a script, and when you open that script in VDub, the script will use the parts of the AVISynth installation and plugins it needs to process, as per the filters you set up (such as QTGMC) and then display your filtered file in VDub. You can then do further editing or save it into another format for further editing in an external editor, or for distribution in, for example, MP4. For example, my typical workflow for a VHS capture is: Capture with AmarecTV, Create an AVISynth script with the captured AVI file (as I show below) to deinterlace with QTGMC, Open that AVS file in VDub and apply other filters such as cropping, resizing, colour and level adjustments, “Save As…” the video into AVI format, Import that AVI into my NLE for titling, fades, cropping and exporting to my final format such as MP4.

Typical AVISynth+ script to run QTGMC

A “script” is actually just a plain text document, written with Notepad, but saved with the AVS file extension. A typical AVISynth script which uses QTGMC to deinterlace an AVI video and double the framerate follows, with explanatory comments following. SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2) AviSource("H:\racwa\aeroclub-int.avi") ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true) AssumeTFF() QTGMC(preset="Fast", EdiThreads=8) # set EdiThreads to half the system cores you have Prefetch(24) # set to the number of Logical Processors in your CPU Explaining the various parts: SetFilterMTMode ("QTGMC", 2) Tells AVISynth what multi-threading mode to use. AviSource("H:\racwa\aeroclub-int.avi") Tells AVISynth what “source filter” to use to open the file, and it’s location. Always wrap the full name in quotes. If the AVS file is saved in the same folder as the video file you’re processing, you don’t need the drive and parent folder in the name. Tip: use the Windows RC menu “Copy as Path” item to copy the complete file name, then paste it in. There are other source filters for opening other types of files eg MPEGs, MOVs, MP4s. For example, you cannot use “AVISource” to open an MP4. Other source filters are shown lower down this page. ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true) Converts file to the required colour space. AssumeTFF() Tells QTGMC what the interlace status of the file is. Almost all analogue captures are Top Field First; DV files are almost always Bottom Field First. QTGMC(preset="Fast", EdiThreads=8) Tells AVISynth to execute QTGMC using the “fast” preset and to use the extra threads in your CPU to speed up processing. Set the EdiThreads to half the system cores you have (Task Manager>Performance has the number of cores in your CPU). QTGMC defaults to double-framerate mode. Prefetch(24) Tells AVISynth to use the available cores in your CPU to speed up the process. Set it to the number of Logical Processors in your CPU, available from Task Manager. If you have issues, reduce the number progressively. You save the script text, using a basic editor such as Notepad, as a text-format file with the AVS file extension. All that is then necessary is to open the file in Virtual Dub and the result (meaning your original file, after processing by the script) will be displayed. Give it a go. Copy the text of the script, paste it into a TXT/Notepad document, change the name of the file to be opened and save the file as an AVS file. Here are some sample full-interlaced files for you to experiment with (not all files have full-interlacing; for example, converting telecined movies to progressive video require different treatment. See my page on Deinterlacing for details).

AVI

f18 aeroclub

MPEG 2

aircraft MPEG2 Open your AVS file in VDub and, fingers crossed, you’ll shortly be looking at a crisp, smooth, deinterlaced AVI. You can now continue editing it, perhaps trimming and deleting parts, and/or exporting it in whatever format you wish to either continue editing elsewhere or save as an MP4 for distribution. If you have problems, run the AVISynth Info tool, which will report any issues with your installation.

File-Opening/Source Filters

There are many different file types and AVISynth does not have a common source filter which will open them all. To that end, here is a list of filters that will open the various noted file types. All of these sources work with 64bit; some don’t work with 32bit. For files with no audio, the a = and AudioDub(v,a) lines can be commented-out or deleted. Copy the source filter you need from here and paste it into the top of your script. AVI (32 and 64bit) AviSource("H:\Video Tapes Albums\Video Album 2 Tape A3\Leroy.avi") no need for a separate audio source filter. MP4, AV1 (32 and 64bit) v=LSMASHVideoSource("F:\Flying\F18\F18 Movie - Fish\Sting of the Hornet.mp4") a=LSMASHAudioSource("F:\Flying\F18\F18 Movie - Fish\Sting of the Hornet.mp4") AudioDub(v,a) MPEG2 (error messages) v=FFmpegSource2("S1E2 (PAL) 25i.mpg").AssumeTFF() a=FFmpegSource2("S1E2 (PAL) 25i.mpg") AudioDub(v,a) MPEG 2, VOB (32 and 64bit) Note: m2ts out of sync 64bit on some files v=ffms2("boating.mpg") a=LWLibavAudioSource("boating.mpg") AudioDub(v,a) MPEG2 (32 and 64bit) , MKV, MOV, MP4, FFV1 and others v=LWLibavVideoSource("sample.VOB") a=LWlibavAudioSource("sample.VOB") AudioDub(v,a) Others (this is the least preferable source filter) DirectShowSource("title00.mkv")

AVISynth Tricks and Tips

On Windows, there should be a RC option for copying the file name “Copy as Path”: very handy when copying your video’s filename into a script. Text case is not important. To “comment-out” or disable a line of text in the script, place a # symbol at the start of the text you want to comment-out. The # will also work on text part-way along a line. For example: Prefetch(24) # use the number of logical processors from Task Manager means that AVISynth will run “Prefetch(24)” but not run the text “use the number of…”. This is good for putting comments after the actual code on a line. You’ll see I’ve done this in the sample script for the EdiThreads and PreFetch. To comment-out a number of lines, on the line before, put in /*. On the line after the last line you want to comment-out, put */. For example: /* this is a block comment; we can write a lot here and also comment out multiple lines of code SubTitle("Hello, World!") - this code won’t be processed because it is in a block comment */ AVSIs, a type of filter/plugin, are generally not downloadable as a file. They may be presented on their download page as the actual text characters, so if you need to find or install an AVSI, copy all of the text given into a Notepad text file and save it, then change the file extension to AVSI. An example of “make your own AVSI” is here. When you click on the link to the AVSI at top right, all you get is a bunch of text. Copy all of that text into a text file, then rename it with the “AVSI” extension, and then you will have your AVSI to put in your Plugins folder.

Miscellaneous Filters

RIFE

Note: Use of RIFE is optional and only operates on a 64bit system. RIFE is a high-quality frame interpolation filter, meaning it will smooth out videos by re/creating frames that are missing, such as after duplicated or blended frames have been removed by other filters, for example when processing cine film that has been captured by a video camera (telecine). The RIFE filter comprises two parts: the filter files themselves, which are included in the plugins folder in the above zip package, and the RIFE models, which are a 1GB collection of files and folders which detail the various models. I haven’t included the models folder in the above download because of it’s size; if you would like to use RIFE: go to the Github RIFE page click on the “Latest” button on the right click on the link to the models to download the zipped models folder. Assuming you have set up AVISynth as I have described above, the models folder needs to be placed in the avisynth+\plugins64+ folder: The actual model number to be used in the AVISynth script is shown against the folder number is shown lower down on the Github page linked-to above. For example, folder 4.6 (True) is model number 24. Note: only models using 4.1 and above will allow adjustment/manual setting of the frame rate. Lower models will only double the original framerate.

Further Resources

The Videohelp forum has a number of very knowledgeable users of AVISynth. If you have any issues or questions on the use of the various filters/plugins, I suggest you post a topic there to seek help. If you have any issues with the setup described here, please send me an email at the address on the home page.
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