Input Options

Input options primarily deal with stream analysis. Video and audio in a single file are stored as separate streams. Most of VideoReDo's options for input files are related to ensuring the video and audio streams are the same length and synchronized with each other.

Stream Parameters

The top section of Stream Parameters includes many settings for reading streams from your source files, starting with the settings for video/audio sync detection and correction. Synchronization errors can be caused by missing or corrupt video or audio frames. VideoReDo Plus can't repair or replace audio information, so instead it will automatically remove video frames. If, on the other hand, the missing or corrupt frames are in the video stream, you have some options regarding how it will be handled. The first option is to have VideoReDo ignore the errors. If you select Ignore for Detect/Resync Missing Frames VideoReDo will ignore errors until it reaches the point where its internal buffers would overflow; in other words, until there are so many errors they can't be ignored any more. At that point audio or video frames will be removed as necessary.

Normally you should keep it set to one of the Resync options instead - Insert Extra Video Frames or Remove Audio Frames. The first one, Insert Extra Video Frames, will duplicate surrounding video to add missing frames. Depending on your destination format and playback equipment, adding extra video frames may cause playback problems unless you specify the maximum GOP size (in Output File Options) when you save the video. Remove Audio Frames tells VideoReDo to trim the audio to match the video instead. The Delta Frames setting to the right indicates the number of frames that must be out of sync for correction to occur. For NTSC video the default value of 3 amounts to 100 milliseconds. For PAL video it's 120 milliseconds. The Maximum Audio Frame errors box indicates the number of audio errors required for VideoReDo to give up on reading the file.

Other Input Options

Discontinuity Checkpoints indicates the number of points in a file being opened will be checked to make sure they're sequential. If they're out of order VideoReDo will make it's own frame index to read them correctly. Convert all I frames to GOPs makes sure that everywhere there's an I frame with no P or B frames following is still in a GOP. Most of the time your source file won't have a problem with this. This is just an extra safeguard to maintain maximum playback compatibility. Double Video Buffer Memory should only be checked if you get a Video Buffer Overflow Error when opening your source video.

Ignore Transport Stream Maps

Normally VideoReDo will attempt to find all the video and audio streams in an MPEG transport stream by reading the Program Maps. If VideoReDo doesn't seem to be able to see all the streams in your file you can check Ignore Transport Stream Maps. This forces the the first 10,000 packets of the file, trying to identify streams itself. If VideoReDo isn't having any problems it's best to leave this unchecked. Otherwise there's a possibility that VideoReDo won't find streams that it would have if it checked the stream maps.

Enhanced Plus Features

Many of the options in Enhanced Plus Options deal with handling multiple input files as a single source. Checking the box next to Auto Combine Sequential Filenames tells VideoReDo Plus to automatically open all files in the same directory that have a name that forms a pattern of the same description with sequential numbers. In other words, if you have the DVD files VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, VTS_01_3.VOB, and VTS_01_4.VOB you can open all of them as a single file by opening any one of them individually. Besides DVD files, you also may run into DVR files that are captured to multiple files. Even if you don't have Auto Combine set, you can select multiple files with sequential filenames in the Open Video dialog to have them combined.

You can also open completely unrelated MPEG files as a single source file. Unlike opening a series of files intended to be read as if they were one big file, opening multiple unrelated files can have unexpected results if you simply attach the beginning of each file to the one before it. That's why there are two different options listed for Multiple File Open or Drag - Combine and Join. Combine is for multiple files that are continuations of each other. Join basically does the same thing as creating a project to join multiple files and the resulting source file is the output of that operation. That's what you should use for unrelated source files. If you set the option to Prompt you'll be asked whether you want to Combine or Join every time you open multiple files together.

Other Multiple File Options

Siemens M740AV DVR MPEG files have to be opened using a special CRID file that contains information about both the contents of the MPEG streams and the location of the MPEG files. When you check the option for Auto Processing of .CRID files a special interface for opening those files is added to the File menu. There's also an option to specify the directory where the CRID files are stored so VideoReDo Plus can read them when you select Open CRID file from the File menu. You can open CRID files in different directories by manually navigating to them. The final CRID option, Allow CRID Deletions and Renames gives VideoReDo Plus the ability to modify the original DVR files after you do your editing.

VSLT File Options

When you open a group of files together as a single source, a VLST file is created. A VLST file is a list of video files to be opened as a single source. You can open up a VLST file just like an actual MPEG file and edit it normally. Keep in mind that if you move the files referenced in a VLST file, the file will be no good. If you look at the contents of a VLST file with a text editor (like Notepad) you'll see that it's just a text file with a line at the top indicating it's a VideoReDo File list, followed by a single line containing the full path to each file that will be part of the source file when the list is loaded. By default VideoReDo Plus writes the VLST files to the same directory as the source files being opened. If you're opening files from an actual CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, or even a virtual optical drive, you'll need to change the option from Store VLST In Source Folder to Specify Folder. Make sure to enter the path to a folder where you want the files to be stored or else it will continue to use the original source path. Click the button to the right of the box where the folder should be listed and browse to the folder you want to use.