Info Wanted: Colorized Classics - is anyone preserving them? — Page 3

So, let's say I have a standard definition, feature length, colorized film, say from a VHS tape or a laserdisc..... I also have a restored, black-and-white version of the same film on DVD or BluRay..... I have the means to rip both to my computer and have done so numerous times......

Now, How would I go about superimposing the color signal from the former over the latter and exporting it in a file suitable for burning to DVD, and with what software?

Forgive me if I sound dense,, but this is something I am very interested in. I am not familiar with the software you mentioned.

If it is not too much trouble, I would greatly appreciate an in-depth explanation of how to do such a project from start to finish.

Thanks in advance!

@ SilverWook

I came across an article years back when I was interested in how they did that "colorization" thing on some classic B&W movies. It was research for what I was planning to do in the future of my Master Timeline For World Domination® and didn't want to re-invent that wheel.

Clearly pre-dating computer processing (1960's and onward), I read of a photo-stencil process -- copy the B&W film through mosaics of colored stenciling to color film (an optical-printer/animation-stand set-up). Unfortunately, all I can find now, in a few quick searches, are references to stenciling that applies tinting directly to film -- not the process of which I once read.

If I come across that info again, I'll post it.  BTW, I, too, prefer the computer methodology. 

.

@ larkofam

I'm posting this info across a few entries ... as I do it myself and ready screenshots. Included will be info on Avisynth and a script to do what I'm demonstrating in my paint program -- if I can figure out the corresponding functions and/or find plug-ins to do same.  :)

Avisynth is what I, and many others, use for involved, video & audio manipulation. It outputs a stream of video/audio to a video encoder of your choice to create a movie file. That file, in turn, can be played directly on your computer and/or encoded to disc for a DVD/Blu-ray player. (Most of that is beyond the scope of this posting. See other forum threads for that information.)

BTW, if you have a decent paint program, that's an easy and interactive way to quickly visualize and test the procedures I'm describing.

Spaced Ranger said:

@ larkofam

I'm posting this info across a few entries ... as I do it myself and ready screenshots. Included will be info on Avisynth and a script to do what I'm demonstrating in my paint program -- if I can figure out the corresponding functions and/or find plug-ins to do same.  :)

Avisynth is what I, and many others, use for involved, video & audio manipulation. It outputs a stream of video/audio to a video encoder of your choice to create a movie file. That file, in turn, can be played directly on your computer and/or encoded to disc for a DVD/Blu-ray player. (Most of that is beyond the scope of this posting. See other forum threads for that information.)

BTW, if you have a decent paint program, that's an easy and interactive way to quickly visualize and test the procedures I'm describing.

I have just downloaded AVIsynth, and, when you get the time, would greatly appreciate a rundown on how to use it, and, if possible, a script to do what we are talking about.

I have PhotoShop, which seems to be an excellent paint and all-around image manipulating program. I am still learning how to use it but am amazed at what I have been able to do with it thus far.

Thanks!

Garrett.

SilverWook said:

... the colorized Fleischer Bros. era Popeye's were done in a non digital way as well. They couldn't deal with the intricate "live" three dimensional backgrounds some of the shorts had at all. ... they were real abominations.

Leonardo said:

 Yes, if I do recall correctly, those were sent to Japan and they just retraced and colored some of the animation. That's why they look kinda choppy.

That's one of the things I came across looking for my remembered stencil colorizing technique:

THE STRAIGHT DOPE - Cartoons: Max Fleischer vs Walt Disney
Originally Posted by mobo85:

Originally Posted by CalMeacham:

Much later on, some company redrew the Betty Boops and had them done with colored cels out in the orient somewhere. (the VHS box says "electronically colored", but you can't fool me -- and I heard about it elsewhere).

The Popeye cartoons were redone in the same way as well, as were some black-and-white Looney Tunes. Instead of colorizing the old cartoons, they actually had foreign animators redraw the entire cartoon by hand, thus causing a lot of errors, and also depriving viewers of seeing the patented Fleicher live-action background process. The Looney Tunes were later re-colorized by using a computer to colorize the actual black-and-white original, but the redrawn Popeyes stayed on TV for at least a decade after.

can someone colorized the deleted black and white scenes from star wars?

that would be great.

I rung-up the overseas sweatshops and ...

... done!

Seriously though, there was this paper at the 2002 SIGGRAPH entitled
Transferring Color To Greyscale Images; Welsh, Ashikhmin, Mueller
that looks like it was made for colorizing movie dailies long after the fact. It described the research into a semi-automated process of transferring color from a source to a similar, even though B&W, destination.

The technically minded will find the available over-10-years-old .PDF an interesting read. The rest of us can just watch the pretty demo videos. 

benduwan said:

can someone colorized the deleted black and white scenes from star wars? that would be great.

Unfortunately, in the present state of colorization, that would be only fair. The reason is the computer is being used only to speed up the same old, mediocre procedure of tinting. (I had high hopes for Legend Films but, alas, they too are stuck in the past.) Rather, the computer should be used to recreate color.

How? Instead of overlaying a tint directly on an object for it's color, the tint-color is considered as the base of that object's color. As the luminance of the object varies (from highlights to shadows), calculations are made for how the tint-color would look in those varying lighting conditions and the object is colored accordingly. [Another one of my pet projects.]  :)

Below is an old, crude proof-of-concept using only low-medium-high new-color generation (by hand) instead of continuously variable new-color generation (by computer). I blanked out the color in the center section and "colorized" portions of it (uniform and head only) for comparison with the true-color sections:

;)

To revisit Post 47, I just wanted to include my paint program settings for the optional clean-up with which I started this demonstration. Keep in mind there are many ways to achieve this same clean-up, if one's goal is more than just putting a colorized movie (videotape, DVD) into a higher definition one (HD, UHD).

First, I took the YouTube SD video (originally from videotape?) and color-temperature processed it to remove the "green fog" (yellow shows those values changed from the program's defaults):

Next, I used the HSL color-wheel to strengthen the colors and normalize the hues, by eye (yes, I am shooting for "Santa's" red suit, and the skin-tones in general):

Due to YouTube compression (?), this resulted in a splotch of aqua showing through on the jacket. For this particular problem (I wouldn't expect it from a direct videotape capture or a DVD rip), I added a lowered color strength for just the Blue color-wheel segment and readjusted it's hue to match the rest of the jacket:

It looks pretty good and, since colorization is a pretty flat application of color, these settings should work across the entire movie.

Off-hand, I don't know the one-to-one translation from paint program to Avisynth for these settings without devoting more time than I have for this. Instead, let's just say I'm a purist and I simply want to transfer lo-rez colorization to hi-rez luminance for a colorized high-definition (Blu-ray), as-is. I'll restart from there in the next post.

Haven't had time to respond here sooner as I've been busy with my projects, but a HUGE thanx to Spaced Ranger for explaining the process. The paint program looks very familiar to me (PSP, I believe) and those settings worked nicely when I tried to "test" your method.

I own both, the Colorized DVD and the new (very nicely transferred) B&W Bluray. Unfortunately, my DVD is cracked, but I do still have a DVDrip (at 1.8GB) of it backed up on my HDD. EDIT: just found an iso of the DVD on one of my backup HDDs:)

If you want, I can either post some usable screenshots from both and/or results using the technique you described;)

This is interesting stuff and I'm wondering how this can be done easily using something like Sony Vegas. (reason I mention that is because I like to be able to have a real-time preview of the effects of the plugins as you make adjustments) I will see if I can follow your guide but, instead, using the various plugins in the app. If someone knows an easy way to do this and can save me time, I welcome that BUT I intend on figuring it out regardless and if I see no post concerning the matter, am happy to share my process for others to use:)

You're welcome, and to all! Glad to share my research and ideas at the forum. And, please, anyone, jump in at any time to add his input.

I'll complete the demonstration with these poor sources, as a worst case scenario. Thereafter, I'd like to finish with the result from your good sources. If you could post/link a matching pair of SD & HD snapshots, of your choice, that would be great!

I can duplicate the paint program's Histogram Adjustment, if I don't use it's Midtone: compress expand (contrast adjustment), with Avisynth's built-in Levels() function. And a quick looks at the Avisynth docs indicates that I should be able to use MergeChroma() or MergeLuma() for HSL split & recombine in a single operation. I'll work out something.  :)

[EDIT: Fortunately, no one posted while I was working on the Avisynth script. It turned out be simplicity itself. I'll just re-edit this starting post to include all the info.]

I'll do this HSL Sources Recombination as a parallel demonstration. As each step is developed in the paint program, a parallel step will be implemented in Avisynth. Those new to one or both of these venues can see how things work and work through it themselves.

.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
COLOR TRANSFER BETWEEN MEDIA
This demonstration shows how to transfer the "color" of a colorized standard definition video to a B&W high definition video, creating a colorized hi-def video. This technique can also be generally use to transfer color between any two videos.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Create a new folder and put all the project resources in it (for the simplicity of not dealing with paths to files.

Get these SD (Standard Definition) and HD (High Definition) YouTube-video snapshots ..

SD: YouTube 480x360
http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss96/spaced_ranger/YTMO34thScolorizedSD360.jpg
and save this image in your work folder as
YTMO34thScolorizedSD360.jpg

HD: YouTube 1280x720
http://s8.postimg.org/gzpsk6ieb/YT_MO34th_S_B_W_HD720.jpg
and save this image in your work folder as
YT_MO34th_S_B_W_HD720.jpg
(sorry to use another picture service but PhotoBucket won't distribute this image full-sized)

Note: For an HSL split/recombination, the color part (Hue & Saturation) is not as critical as the resolution part (Luminance), for human perception. This has been known and used in both analog and digital processes for compression. So the smaller, fuzzier SD color image is just fine to use with the cleaner, more detailed HD resolution image.

.

PAINT PROGRAM

It's easy enough to view these images in a paint program.

.

AVISYNTH

How to do this in Avisynth? If you don't have it installed already, get Avisynth here ..
http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Main_Page
I'm running one a couple versions older but the core functions remain mostly the same. See it's documentation file for further info -- you'll be referring to it, allot, when writing a script or reading this one.  :)

Avisynth is controlled by user scripts that tells it what to do.  Throughout is demonstration will be sample script from sections of the full script that displays these assorted images as video in a media player.

NOTE: The full script is at the bottom of this post. When we arrive there, select and copy that entire text and paste it in a text file in your work folder. Name the file something like
HueSatLum transfer.avs
and see that the .avs extension is associated to Avisynth text scripts in your computer's Operating System. You can use any names you want -- I just used and tested the script with these.

##----------
## setup images path & name
##----------
clipSD = "YTMO34thScolorizedSD360.jpg"    # insert your image names
clipHD = "YT_MO34th_S_B_W_HD720.jpg"

##----------
## get the images
##----------
vSD = ImageReader( clipSD )    # creates a still video
vHD = ImageReader( clipHD )    # creates a still video

The comment character "#" means "do not process anything hereafter on this line -- it is a comment". These can be used to add descriptions (as I do) of what's going on. They can also be used to make changes to the code without deleting other code for alternate actions. Here, I've "commented out" the video inputs lines because we're using still images (when loaded in, they become mini-videos for processing).

In this script, note that most line-statements starting names (of your choosing) are variables that take the form something = something else. However, when one of these variable names is on a line-statement by itself (usually the last line of a script), Avisynth takes that as the video to show.

##===============
## Display procedures ("uncomment" to use)
##  uncomment only one statement at a time
##===============

##----------
## original sources
##----------
vSD
#vHD

When you right-click on this .avs text file and select Open With, choose your media player or Choose Program to find one. Your media player will then play Avisynth's processing of this script for several seconds (or forever, if you loop the videos in your player). Notice that this would show the SD image as a video -- it is not commented out as it the HD image. If the SD image is then commented out and the HD image is uncommented, the HD image would show ... in a 2nd player simultaneously. Avisynth keeps that previous version of the script in memory to run in the 1st player.

Avisynth is mostly non-interactive. After each change in script, be sure to "save" your .avs text file before viewing each new result in a new instance of your media player.

.

PAINT PROGRAM

To make this HSL split/recombine work well, the SD image must be resized and repositioned to exactly (or near enough) overlap the HD image. It's a hit-or-miss process with lots of adjusting.

In a paint program, a good guesstitmate can be had by zooming the SD-image window to come close to the full sized HD image. That will give the initial value for actually resizing the SD image.

For this one (and hopefully for the rest of the movie), we can start the resizing at 200%. So, copy the SD image into a layer of the HD image.

Initially, it is best to set the opacity of the SD image at 50% so we can see how it lines up with the underlying HD image. Later we can set back to 100% and, instead, click the visibility off-and-on for fine tuning.

Starting at the SD's 100% size ..

.. resize to a uniform 200%.

To quote a certain nerf-herder, "Here's where the fun begins."

It's best to find some point in a corner to make the first resizing adjustments vertical (or horizontal) to some opposite point. With that accomplished, then make horizontal (or vertical) adjustments to another opposite point. I usually make an adjustment, guesstimate a correction, step-back to 100%, then move forward with the new, total resize ... until it's right. Here's the short story:

width x height
100% x 100% -- start
200% x 200% -- window-zoom estimate (step-back to try ...)
200% x 218% -- vertical adjustment (looks good; step-back to try ...)
192% x 218% -- horizontal adjustment (needs both; step-back to try ...)
194% x 220% -- vert. & hori. re-adjustment (needs vert.; step-back to try ...)
194% x 221% -- vertical re-adjustment (bingo!)

.

AVISYNTH

The resizing and repositioning procedure in Avisynth is similar to that in the paint program. The masterful function that does all the hard work is Overlay() and it has extra options to do the final recombination in a single step. (I like this function!)

Instead of resizing by percentage, Avisynth goes by pixel count (although it could be done this way in the paint program, too). In this section of code, previous resizing code-lines are kept in the script, commented out for non-active reference. The last line is the active code for the final resize. Like with the paint program, the SD image is resized double to begin ("*2" means "times 2") and adjustment continues from there ..

##----------
## resize SD-image to fit HD-image
##
## these were the steps taken:
##  vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, 480, 360 )    #original size
##  vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, 480*2, 360*2 )    #guesstimate
##  vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, (480*2)-24, (360*2)+78 )    #final resize
##----------
vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, (480*2)-24, (360*2)+78 )

At the same time, just like in the paint program, each newly resized SD image is repositioned to align to your selected anchor points. Opacity is reduced slightly to better see the alignment (like with the paint program) ..

##----------
## simultaneously to resizing, reposition SD-image to HD-image
##
## these were the steps taken:
##  vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=0, y=0, mode="blend" )    #original size
##  vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=180, y=-25, mode="blend" )    #guesstimate
##  vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=194, y=-34, mode="blend" )    #final position
##----------
vHD_blnk = Levels( vHD, 0, 1.0, 255, 0, 0, coring=false )    #blank HD-mage for base
vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=194, y=-34, mode="blend" )    ## SD into base

The resize-reposition is then incorporated into an automatic on-and-off of the SD image in the video output to better see the alignment (set your media player to infinitely loop the video) ..

##----------
## for an assist,
##  this joins the short video of orig. HD-image
##  to the short video of SD-HD-overlay with transparency
##  for alternating images
##----------
vSDHD_alternating = Overlay( vHD, vSD_siz_pos, mode="blend", opacity = 0.7 ) + vHD

With the SD and HD images aligned, there is one more step before the HSL split/recombination. In the paint program process, all the SD edging causes artifacts. It must be wiped away. It is handled differently in Avisynth and the result is no artifacts (but it wouldn't hurt to do a similar clean-up).

.

PAINT PROGRAM

In the paint program, on the SD layer, use the rectangular Selection Tool to select the acceptable image area right up to it's edges (this will entail losing the useless fading-out picture areas). Then choose Invert to reverse the selection. That will allow the painting of all the unacceptable image area with black (do that with your Paint Brush). Be sure you do not have anti-alias ticked for any of these operations ..

Deselect the image and it is complete, at full HD size. Copy-and-paste each of the two layers as individual images (in the paint program) for HSL processing.

For the SD image, perform a Split Channel > Split to HSL. Of the three resulting B&W splits, only Hue and Saturation will be used. Delete the Lightness split ..

Do the same thing for the HD image. Of the three resulting B&W splits, Hue and Saturation will be the ones deleted. Only the Lightness split will be used ..

The three remaining splits may now be recombined with Combine Channel > Combine from HSL ..

Done! Let's get a (full-sized) closer look, shall we? :)

.

AVISYNTH

As in the paint program, the garbage area of the now re-sized and re-positioned SD image will be wiped to black. Using Letterbox(), the coloring will be temporarily set to green while adjusting the new image-edge. Keep in mind that edges of the original image may have fading out or haloing -- those should go black, too.

##----------
## replace the "garabge" SD-image areas with black borders
##  NOTE: Avisynth seems to do something similar internally in
##        "recombination", but I don't know how that works.
##        In the meantime, just doing this for completeness
## these were the steps taken:
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 0, 0, 0, 0, $00FF00 )    #start
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 2, 2, 200, 150, $00FF00 )    #guesstimate
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 2, 200, 150, $00FF00 )    #TOP fine tune
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 200, 150, $00FF00 )    #BOTTOM fine tune
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 216, 150, $00FF00 )    #LEFT fine tune
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 216, 168, $00FF00 )    #RIGHT fine tune
##----------
vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 216, 168 )    #final black borders

Don't worry about the green showing in the above picture. I just wanted to show off the now-clean edges. Without specifying a color, as in the script, the default for this function is black.

Remember all that splitting and deleting and recombining in the paint program? Well, this one Avisynth statement does it all ..

##----------
## combine SD "color" media to HD "luminance" media
##----------
vSDHD = Overlay( vHD, vSD_siz_pos_lb, mode="chroma" )

The trick in not in the wrist ... it's in the mode. And it produces the finished colorized and high-definition video.

Here is listed the completed Avisynth script for this demonstration. I've noted all those lines that can be changed to make it work. The rest can be left alone. Also, I've tested all the various combination of uncommenting (to allow the script to do it's assorted tests). Feel free to play with it to understand it's functioning.

## HueSatLum transfer - source color to destination luminance
##====================


##===============
## Prepare media
##  everything in the same folder helps during troubleshooting
##===============

##----------
## setup images path & name ("uncomment" to use) ...
##----------
######  v v v COMMENT/UN-COMMENT THESE STATEMENTS v v v
######  v v v UPDATE THESE VALUES v v v
clipSD = "YTMO34thScolorizedSD360.jpg"    # insert your image names
clipHD = "YT_MO34th_S_B_W_HD720.jpg"

##----------
## ... or setup videos path & name ("uncomment" to use)
##----------
######  v v v COMMENT/UN-COMMENT THESE STATEMENTS v v v
######  v v v UPDATE THESE VALUES v v v
#clipSD = "YT_MO34thS_colriz_SD.mpg"    # or insert your video names
#clipHD = "YT_MO34thS_BW_HD.mpg"


##===============
## Get media
##===============

##----------
## get the images ("uncomment" to use) ...
##----------
######  v v v COMMENT/UN-COMMENT THESE STATEMENTS v v v
vSD = ImageReader( clipSD )    # creates a still video
vHD = ImageReader( clipHD )    # creates a still video

vSD = vSD.Trim( 0, -10 )    ## use only 10 frames for processing
vHD = vHD.Trim( 0, -10 )

##----------
## ... or get the video ("uncomment" to use)
##----------
######  v v v COMMENT/UN-COMMENT THESE STATEMENTS v v v
#vSD = DirectShowSource( clipSD )    # for video
#vHD = DirectShowSource( clipHD )    # for video


##===============
## Process media
##  optional - make the SD & HD look better
##===============


##===============
## Align media
##===============

##----------
## resize SD-image to fit HD-image
##
## these were the steps taken:
##  vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, 480, 360 )    #original size
##  vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, 480*2, 360*2 )    #guesstimate
##  vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, (480*2)-24, (360*2)+78 )    #final resize
##----------
######  v v v UPDATE THESE VALUES v v v
vSD_siz = Lanczos4Resize( vSD, (480*2)-24, (360*2)+78 )

##----------
## simultaneously to resizing, reposition SD-image to HD-image
##
## these were the steps taken:
##  vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=0, y=0, mode="blend" )    #original size
##  vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=180, y=-25, mode="blend" )    #guesstimate
##  vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=194, y=-34, mode="blend" )    #final position
##----------
vHD_blnk = Levels( vHD, 0, 1.0, 255, 0, 0, coring=false )    #blank HD-mage for base
######  v v v UPDATE THESE VALUES v v v
vSD_siz_pos = Overlay( vHD_blnk, vSD_siz, x=194, y=-34, mode="blend" )    ## SD into base

##----------
## for an assist,
##  this joins the short video of orig. HD-image
##  to the short video of SD-HD-overlay with transparency
##  for alternating images
##----------
vSDHD_alternating = Overlay( vHD, vSD_siz_pos, mode="blend", opacity = 0.7 ) + vHD

##----------
## replace the "garabge" SD-image areas with black borders
##  NOTE: Avisynth seems to do something similar internally in
##        "recombination", but I don't know how that works.
##        In the meantime, just doing this for completeness
## these were the steps taken:
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 0, 0, 0, 0, $00FF00 )    #start
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 2, 2, 200, 150, $00FF00 )    #guesstimate
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 2, 200, 150, $00FF00 )    #TOP fine tune
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 200, 150, $00FF00 )    #BOTTOM fine tune
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 216, 150, $00FF00 )    #LEFT fine tune
##  vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 216, 168, $00FF00 )    #RIGHT fine tune
##----------
######  v v v UPDATE THESE VALUES v v v
vSD_siz_pos_lb = Letterbox( vSD_siz_pos, 13, 4, 216, 168 )    #final black borders

##----------
## combine SD "color" media to HD "luminance" media
##----------
vSDHD = Overlay( vHD, vSD_siz_pos_lb, mode="chroma" )


##===============
## Display procedures ("uncomment" to use)
##  uncomment only one statement at a time
##===============
######  v v v COMMENT/UN-COMMENT THESE STATEMENTS v v v

##----------
## original sources
##----------
#vSD
#vHD

##----------
## fine-tuning assists
##----------
#vSDHD_alternating
#vSD_siz_pos_lb

##----------
## finished SD-color into HD-luminance recombination
##----------
vSDHD


##====================

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

^ ^ Fortunately, no one posted while I was working on the Avisynth script. It turned out be simplicity itself. I'll just re-edit that starting post, above, to include all the info.  :)

Spaced Ranger,

Thank you for the info.

I downloaded the images and followed your instructions to the letter and for whatever reason it will not play in my media players. What could the trouble be?

Thanks in Advance!

Garrett.

First verify that your Avisynth script text-file ends with extension".avs" and that the script file icon is the Avisynth icon  . That means that Avisynth is properly installed and your text file is recognized as an Avisynth script by your operating system (BTW, what system is that?).

When all that is so, and a script "fails", the media player trying to show it will display an Avisynth error message. Did you get an error message? If so, what was it?

The file appears to be good, however, With Windows Media Player I get "Script Error: Syntax Error", and with VLC Media Player, a random picture (not related to the file) just flickers on the screen.

As I said IDK what I am doing wrong.

Thanks!

Garrett.

Try again, this time copy your script text into Notepad and save that as an ".avs" file again. If you didn't use Notepad the first time, it's possible that non-text characters (like text formatting) were also copied in and those are confusing Avisynth and/or your media player.

If that still returns an error, let me know your versions of:

* Windows operating system
* Avisynth
* Windows media player

and I'll look into it further.

OK, Now it says the script is missing the closing quotation mark. So I add a quotation mark at the end, and now it says "The script's return value was not a video clip"

My operating system is Windows XP SP3

My version of Windows Media Player is 11.0.5721.5280

My version of Avisynth is 2.5

Thanks!

Garrett.

For that script, there should be quotation marks around the two image names only. Quotation marks after a comment character # don't count because all text thereafter is ignored for the rest of it's line.

If there are any other lone quotation marks, don't add to them. Rather remove them. Oh, and be sure a comment character wasn't inadvertently turned into a quotation mark. If so, turn it back. Then try again, and report back.  :)

BTW, all your version numbers look fine (close enough to mine not to be any source of trouble).

Tried all that. Still getting "The script's return value was not a video clip".

I've got an idea...... Since I already have both the pictures downloaded..... why not send me your actual script (the .avs that you created that works for you that enabled you to do this process) as an e-mail attachment (that is, as opposed to me cutting and pasting). 

If yours works for me, not only will I have a working script but also a good template to experiment with.

If you are willing to do this, please send me a private message, and I will give you my e-mail address.

Thanks!

Garrett.

I compressed everything down to it's basics. Just type this into Notepad. Save it with "save as text" if there are multiple save options in Win-XP. Duplicate the image files and rename them with these shorter names (for easier typing).

vSD = ImageReader( "SD360.jpg" )
vHD = ImageReader( "HD720.jpg" )
vSD
#vHD

That's all of it. This script will display the SD image. To display the HD image, put a # in front of the vSD and remove the # from #vHD.

This must work (it does work for me). After that, you must see what could be wrong in your copy-and-paste. That problem will stop you from using Avisynth.

No dice...... Entered everything exactly as you gave it..... Saved it as an .avs file.

This time, the error message is 'could not open file' in DevIL library.

I just can't imagine why/how this won't work on my end when it works on your end.

Sincerely,

Garrett.

This new problem (it can't read the file) is probably not related to the original one (it reads the file but can't display it). A quick search brought up one hit:

Doom9's Forum: Imagesource doesn't work for some reason
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130519

Check it out and see if it helps. Be sure all your files are in the same work-folder so that there is no file path problems.

I know it's a pain. It's a programming language ...

.

BTW, if anyone knows of something that might work for one or both of these issues, please suggest it.