Doctor M's Guide to HD Editing with Womble MPEG Video Wizard.

Doctor M's Guide to HD Editing with Womble MPEG Video Wizard

version 1

So yeah, I was pretty surprised to find out this old work horse for the lazy editor is perfectly capable of being useful in the 21st Century.

It's probably better if you already know a bit about working with audio/video streams and the basics of Womble first.

A DigitalMan's Guide to MPEG2/AC3 Editing will also answer a lot of questions.  Be sure to check that out if you haven't already: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/ADigitalMans-Guide-to-MPEG2-AC3-Editing/topic/3444/

1) Prepare your source.

Womble is capable of working with just about any source type your PC can play. You may have to demux a format for optimal results though.

Typically it's better to work with raw streams, but that's not always the case.  I was able to get an .H264 file to load, but there was no preview and I've never seen XviD/DivX as a raw stream.

So HD formats in .MKV containers are fair game as are AVI files, etc.  You may want to experiment and see what works and what doesn't.  MP4 didn't work for me but that may change with an update.

MPEG2 can be found in .MKV container too, but you will not be able to losslessly edit it that way.  Demux it first (with MKVExtractGUI) and you can treat it like a plain old DVD mpg video clip.  .TS and .M2TS may or may not need the same treatment. 

If you are editing mpeg video, it wouldn't hurt to run Womble's MPEG GOP Fixer on it first (using the option (Fix GOP time code and PTS errors (Read + Write)).

NOTE: Womble CANNOT handle DTS audio (at least in the version I tried).  You'll want to re-encode that to AC3, WAV or FLAC before continuing (see Appendix 1).

2) Edit in Womble.
Plenty of guides for this.  You don't need me.

Remember though, if you are working with HD mpeg2 video and don't add effects, mix resolutions or format types, you can output losslessly just like when editing DVD video.

3) Output.

If you've been editing HD mpeg video, you really didn't need this guide.  Export the streams just like you would with standard definition.

So here's the real trick.  For everything else, save your project file and remember the name and close Mpeg Video Wizard.

Create a new AviSynth file:

LoadvfapiPlugin("(location of MVW installation)\MPEG Video Wizard DVD\WbpVFAPI.vfp","womble")
womble("(location of project file)\MyProject.wbp")

flipvertical #Video is always inverted to start with.
converttoyv12() #Output is RGB from MVW.

Most programs you'll go to to encode the video will want YV12 color.  If for some reason you're going mpeg2, CCE for the longest time required YUY2, color I don't know if that's still the case from SP3 and newer.

If you are going to convert this to standard definition after all this, you'll also want to add: ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601").

I have found that the vfapipugin will assume a single resolution for the source.  It probably chooses what the first clip is.  In my tests I used 1080p with a bit of DVD video mixed in.  The DVD content was automatically upscaled to match.

If you are going to resize your video, the endlessly useful Aspect Ratio Calculator Tool from Citizen is your next stop: http://www.haku.co.uk/ARCT.html

I do recommend using Spline36Resize() over Lanczos4 for it's neutral sharp resizing.

MeGUI is probably your best answer for an x264 encoder.  It has BD5/9 (listed as AVCHD), Blu-Ray and numerous other presets.  You can plug your script right in, use a default (or make some tweaks) and encode.

Once your video is encoded, export the audio track in Womble, then mux it however you wish.  MKV is pretty much net standard or author a shiny Blu-ray and feel superior.

Appendix 1. DTS Audio source

If you're starting with DTS and you are doing anything to change the number of frames in the video source, you have to re-encode.

You can convert to a good bitrate AC3 before starting or you can go to a lossless format if you want to re-encode back to DTS or a Dolby Plus format later.

It is important to know that Womble can only output at best AC3 5.1 and PCM 2 channel.  If you require anything higher you're pretty much out of luck.

I recommend Eac3to for all audio encoding.  It's pretty straight forward to use.

eac3to inputfile.ext outputfile.ext -options

So if you are starting with DTSHD and going to AC3:

eac3to audio.dtshd audioout.ac3 -640

Gives 640kbps Dolby Digital and pretty much your best option.

eac3to audio.dtshd output.wav -downDpl

Will give you a Dolby ProLogic II stereo downmix (or skip the -downDpl if your source is 1 or 2 channels).

More details and options about Eac3tocan be found here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Eac3to/How_to_Use


This is just a first draft, but I was impressed that Womble MVW-DVD could be used for more modern editing purposes.  I welcome suggestions for changes and corrections.