AviRip - By Mike Negus

This is my second installment in the quest to create an AVI to MPG converter.
The first was the rawrip program that converts the raw file made by DMPEG to a
series of DIB (BMP) files which can be read by Microsoft's Video for Windows,
the full version.  In the complete VFW you can edit, compress and save AVI
files.

The AVIRIP program only works on 24-bit, UNCOMPRESSED, NON-STREAMING AUDIO,
AVI files.  What you probably will need to do is to uncompress and promote
to 24-bit, the AVI files you already have.  To do this you MUST HAVE
MICROSOFT'S VIDEO FOR WINDOWS full blown editing version.

Note! A 1000+ Frame AVI and resulting TGA files will take up about 100+MB.
      Yes, that's 100+MB.  If you have a problem with space then buy a bigger
      hard drive.  Their cheap.  Here at Egghead you can get a 540MB HD for $270.  

STEPS:

1.  Load the AVI with the VidEdit program that comes with VFW.
2.  Click on the VIDEO pull down menu and click on Video Format.  Select 24 bit.
3.  Click on the FILE pull down menu and click on the Save-As option.
	a.  Click on Compression Options.
	b.  Select HARD DISK as the target device.  (no interleaving)
	c.  Select FULL FRAMES as the Video Compression Method.
	d.  Use a different name for your new file.  Do not write over your
	    old one.
	e.  Click on OK to save the file.
4.  You can copy the sound from the AVI and then paste it into the WaveEdit
    program which comes with VFW.  You can save the audio as a wave file
    to be played along with the MPEG you are about to make.
5.  Use the AVIRIP program to rip the AVI file into TARGA, TGA, files.  These
    files are read by CMPEG which will create the MPEG.
	Use command: avirip <yourfile>.avi t
	Don't forget the 't' at the end, it will create targa files.  Leaving
	it off will make my program create a DIB sequence.  Each DIB can be read
	by any bitmap editor to view.
6.  Go out and watch a movie, do some lawn work while my program creates the TGA
    files.  Do not create the TGA files on the root directory since DOS only
    allows 511 file entries into the FAT there.  Put it into a subdirectory
    and you can go 1000+ TGA files.
7.  Use the batchfile that my program makes.  It is named <yourfile>.bat.  CMPEG
    and the i.ctl file must be in the current directory that the AVI is in.
    The batchfile tells CMPEG to create a XING compatible MPEG.
8.  Go out and play.
9.  When CMPEG is finished.  You can play the <yourfile>.mpg with any MPEG player.
    I suggest using the VMPEG player.  My batch file will have CMPEG create a XING
    compatible file but the XING player seems to decode the MPEG into fuzzy images.
    VMPEG will play them very fast with little loss of clarity.  If you have saved
    the audio as a WAV file under the name of <yourfile>.wav in the same directory
    as the MPG then the XING player will play it along with the MPG.  VMPEG will not.
10. Delete the 24-bit AVI and all the TGA files.
    
Please read the CMPEG DOC so that you can understand how to edit the batchfile
that my program makes to create better MPG files.  You can use IPB frame encoding
with the IPB.CTL file instead of the I.CTL file.  To make a sharper MPEG, change the
number in the first line of the i.ctl file from 8 to some number less (4-5 works well).

My program also creates a sequence listing file for CMPEG to use.  You can edit that
file (named <yourfile>.txt) to create an MPEG from only those files you want.

My program will also allow you to start ripping an avi at a specific frame or use
a lightness factor.  To use avirip with a 24-bit avi file called test.avi starting
at frame 10 with lightness factor 25 and creating TGA files:

avirip test.avi t s10 l25

This will also create a test.bat file that can be run to envoke CMPEG.

Using with no options:

avirip test.avi

Creates DIB files starting at frame 0 and using no lightness factor.
Both commands create a test.txt file.  

I had a lot of fun making this program and figuring out the DIB/BMP and TGA 
formats so this is FREE to whoever wants it.  If you have a program that 
creates MPEG's or does what my program does but better AND IS SHAREWARE
then please post it on the INTERNET for others like myself to get and use.

-Mike Negus
E-MAIL: men0348@isc.rit.edu

PS. The second version of avirip may allow 256 color (8-bit) and maybe
16-bit (64k color) AVI files.  This should require much less space.