| VirtualDub | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Developer | Avery Lee |
| Initial release | August 16, 2000; 25 years ago (2000-08-16)[1] |
| Final release | 1.10.4.35491[2]  / 27 October 2013 |
| Written in | Assembly language,C++ |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Video editing software |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Website | www |
| Repository | |
VirtualDub is afree and open-sourcevideo capture andvideo processing utility forMicrosoft Windows written by Avery Lee. It is designed to process linear video streams, including filtering and recompression. It usesAVIcontainer format to store captured video.[3] The first version of VirtualDub, written forWindows 95, to be released onSourceForge was uploaded on August 20, 2000.[4]
In 2009, the third-party software print guideLearning VirtualDub referred to VirtualDub as "the leading free Open Source video capture and processing tool".[5] Due to its "powerful"[6] versatility and usefulness especially in the field of video processing (see below),PC World has referred to VirtualDub as "something of a 'Photoshop' for video files",[7]PC Perspective recommends it for its lowoverhead,[8] andnextmedia'sPC & Tech Authority particularly praises it for itsDirect stream copy feature to avoid generational degradation of video quality when performing simple editing and trimming tasks and the fact that VirtualDub "offers several valuable features that other packages lack, and helps you get quick results without any fuss or patronising wizards".[9]
VirtualDub is recommended for use by professional computer and tech magazines, guides, and reviewers such asPC World,[7]PC & Tech Authority,[9]PC Perspective,[8] technologies guide websiteMakeTechEasier,[10] freeware and open source software review siteGhacks,[11]Speed Demos Archive,[6] as well as third-party professional video production companies,[12] and the creators ofWine.[13]
Several hundred third-party plug-ins for VirtualDub exist,[14][15][16][17][18][19] including by professional software companies.[20][21] Furthermore,Debugmode Wax allows use of VirtualDub plug-ins in professional video editing software such asAdobe Premiere Pro andVegas Pro.[22]
VirtualDub is designed forMicrosoft Windows but may run onLinux andMac OS X usingWine (for example, to use it with the popular Deshaker plugin).[23] However, native support for these systems is not available.
VirtualDub was made to operate exclusively onAVI files; however, a plugin API was added from version 1.7.2 which allows the import of other formats.[24] Appropriate video and audiocodecs need to be installed.
VirtualDub supports bothDirectShow andVideo for Windows for video capture. Capture features include capture to any AVI variant, audioVU meters,overlay and preview modes,histogram, selectablecrop area, videonoise reduction, auto stop settings (based on capture time, file size, free space, and/or dropped frames), and designate alternate drive(s) for capture overflow.
VirtualDub can help overcome problems withdigital cameras that also record video. Many models,[weasel words] especially Canon,[which?] record in anM-JPEG format incompatible withSony Vegas 6.0 and 7.0. Saving AVI files as "old-style AVI" files allows them to appear in Vegas.
VirtualDub supportsDV capture from Type 2 (VfW)FireWire controllers only (It cannot work with Type 1). There is no DV batch capture, still image capture, or DV device control capability.
VirtualDub can create a video file from a series of image files inTruevision TGA orWindows Bitmap file formats. Individual frames must be given file names numbered in sequential order without any gaps (e.g. 001.bmp, 002.bmp, 003.bmp..). From those, the frame rate can be adjusted, and other modifications such as the addition of asoundtrack can be made.
VirtualDub can also disassemble a video by extracting its soundtracks saving its frames into Truevision TGA or Windows Bitmap files.
VirtualDub can delete segments of a video file, append new segments, or reorder existing segments. Appended segments must have similar audio andvideo formats, dimensions, number ofaudio channels,frame rates andsampling rates. Otherwise, VirtualDub is incapable of mixing dissimilar video files or addingtransition effects between segments.
VirtualDub comes with a number of video editing components known as "filters". They can perform basic tasks as arbitrary resize, converting the video tograyscale, arbitrary rotation, crop, or changing simple values like brightness and contrast. Filters may be used during the video assembly as well. Filter plug-ins further extend VirtualDub's capabilities. A plug-inSDK is available for developers to create their own video and audio filters.[25]
Besides those basic features, its many third-party plug-ins make VirtualDub a "powerful"[6] open-source tool when it comes to linear video processing, and in fact most of the hundreds of third-party plug-ins available for VirtualDub are filters related to either aesthetic effects or cleaning, fixing, and restoring image quality, such as various denoising and sharpening methods targeted especially at analogue and digital video signal and film defects (be they related toVHS, faulty cables, a distorted analogueterrestrial orsatellite TV reception, ordigital compression),deinterlacing andfields manipulation,colorspace conversion and manipulation,reverse telecine aka IVTC, deflickering, deshaking, adding and removing logos and subtitles, analysis of video content, etc.
All of these processing features are fullybatchable to apply the same effects on a large number of files.
VirtualDub isfree software, released under theGNU GPL-2.0-or-later and hosted onSourceForge.net.
VirtualDub was originally created by the author, then a college student, for the purpose of compressinganime videos ofSailor Moon.[26] It was written to read and writeAVI videos, but support for input plug-ins was added, enabling it to read additional formats includingMPEG-2,Matroska,Flash Video,Windows Media,QuickTime,MP4 and others. Development stopped as of 2013[27] and the site's forums closed down in 2015.[28]
VirtualDub has spawned severalforks, includingVirtualDubMod andNandub.[29]
The latest fork is calledVirtualDub2 (formerly VirtualDub FilterMod).[30] It has all the features of the original VirtualDub, plus support for high bit-depth (i.e.,deep color). It is no longer limited toVideo for Windows (Video Compression Manager) codecs, and AVI format limitations (such as limited VBR support, H.264/HEVC minor incompatibilities etc.).
VirtualDub2 has built-in encode/decode of any container and video and audio compression formats supported byFFmpeg (H.264, HEVC, VP9, AAC, Opus and other formats) and can open and saveQuickTime File Format (MOV),MP4,Matroska,WebM, AVI based on FFmpeg or only the audio from a video in M4A, Opus in Matroska, Ogg Opus, Vorbis, AAC or MP3 formats.[31][clarification needed]
It also has improved navigation, display and user interface (e.g. pan display when zoomed in, color format selection), improved performance, and support for high bit-depth color formats.[32]
Early versions of VirtualDub supported importing ofMicrosoft'sAdvanced Systems Format, but this was removed in version 1.3d following an informal phone call from a Microsoft employee in 2000 claiming that it infringed one of Microsoft'spatents. Microsoft never identified any specific patent numbers that it believed to have been infringed, but speculation by others is thatUS 6041345 (expired in 2017) might be relevant.[33]
In August 2006, VirtualDub's German users who hosted copies of VirtualDub, or even linked to them on their web pages, began receivingcease and desist letters from a private individual that claimed to have Germanword mark on "VirtualDub".[34] However this issue has been resolved: the word mark in Germany has been deleted[35] and an injunction has been granted against the former owner of said word mark.[36]
Sorry, the VirtualDub forums have been closed, and as of this date (22 Oct 2015), it's now down
