Old 05-19-2022, 12:13 PM   #1
Fabian
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Default WMF, what are the benefits...?

Recently the devs added wmf as video decoder, and inserted it at the highest decoder priority in front of vlc and the others. I guess this was done for good reasons, but can anyone give some insight into the benefits of wmf? What problem does it solve?

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Old 05-19-2022, 12:29 PM   #2
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(1) wmf is native so you don't need to download vlc or full ffmpeg
(2) wmf generally decodes and encodes more efficiently than vlc or ffmpeg
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Old 05-21-2022, 12:21 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by schwa View Post
(1) wmf is native so you don't need to download vlc or full ffmpeg
(2) wmf generally decodes and encodes more efficiently than vlc or ffmpeg
OK.
Yeah, I guess those are good reasons.
Thanks.
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Old 05-21-2022, 11:53 PM   #4
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(2) wmf generally decodes and encodes more efficiently than vlc or ffmpeg
I just noticed that the encoding is much faster than my old method of using ffmpeg. Really nice!
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Old 05-22-2022, 03:25 AM   #5
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I just noticed that the encoding is much faster than my old method of using ffmpeg. Really nice!
This is what I've found too.

My poor aging PC is having a much better time dealing with m4v than it was ffmpeg.
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Old 05-30-2022, 12:31 PM   #6
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Wow! So far synchronizing video with a soundtrack using transient guides and stretch markers is substantially faster with WMF for supported video formats. I am probably going to save a day in my current virtual choir project.

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Old 05-30-2022, 03:34 PM   #7
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Wow! So far synchronizing video with a soundtrack using transient guides and stretch markers is substantially faster with WMF for supported video formats. I am probably going to save a day in my current virtual choir project.
Wait... Are you using stretch markers on video?

I was doing that in the last ZeeKat video and it took me weeks to figure out thats why renders were crashing instantly every time.

I despaired. I'd done the edit and now it just wouldnt render.

Then I regrouped myself and finally figured it out, saved everything out by manually cutting and stretching via alt-mouse click, then rendering.

So, if youre using stretchmarkers on video, and its rendering, I would love to know. Same with reversing any video in the properties or otherwise, on the fly reversing played back fine but rendering that bit would again cause a crash.

I havent tried any of this since switching to wmf.
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Old 05-30-2022, 06:57 PM   #8
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Wait... Are you using stretch markers on video?

I was doing that in the last ZeeKat video and it took me weeks to figure out thats why renders were crashing instantly every time.
<snip>...<snip
Strange.. . I have used hundreds of them on each of the 30 chorister's videos on my last choir project and it never crashed. I just tested one a few minutes ago with WMF and it worked just fine. I haven't tried reversing in a long time but, apart from a very long render time, it worked too. In case that makes a difference, you may want to try adjusting the fade size on the item's properties to something like 100ms or more.
Also start with transient guides (alt-shift o) to save time.
In brief, there seems to be a configuration problem of some kind on your machine but since WMF does not involve third party software, you rendering problems should be solved by using this feature.
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Old 05-30-2022, 10:19 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by papagirafe View Post
Strange.. . I have used hundreds of them on each of the 30 chorister's videos on my last choir project and it never crashed. I just tested one a few minutes ago with WMF and it worked just fine. I haven't tried reversing in a long time but, apart from a very long render time, it worked too. In case that makes a difference, you may want to try adjusting the fade size on the item's properties to something like 100ms or more.
Also start with transient guides (alt-shift o) to save time.
In brief, there seems to be a configuration problem of some kind on your machine but since WMF does not involve third party software, you rendering problems should be solved by using this feature.
Nice one, thank you. I shall try this next time I'm rendering. I think I would have just done everything the long way round without this nudge.

(alt-shift o) appreciated too

Yes, you made me wonder if WMF might make all this be an option again. I've always had struggles with the VLC/ffmpeg stuff. Never quite figured it out and its not been important enough to tear everything apart, software wise, or to spend potentially hours trying to find the core issue.

How exciting!
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Old 06-05-2022, 06:27 AM   #10
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So I reversed a bit of footage at the end of a project I know renders fine, and as soon as it hit the reversed stuff, Reaper immediately crashed. This was with wmf. Same thing happens with VLC ffmpeg etc

I got an issue!

Anyone got any ideas what might be the cause of this, a likely culprit for me to start to look into?

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Old 06-05-2022, 09:35 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by maxdembo View Post
So I reversed a bit of footage at the end of a project I know renders fine, and as soon as it hit the reversed stuff, Reaper immediately crashed. This was with wmf. Same thing happens with VLC ffmpeg etc

I got an issue!

Anyone got any ideas what might be the cause of this, a likely culprit for me to start to look into?
You're not alone with issues using WMF. Rendering crashes or freezes after 5 minutes or so of video footage. It even made Chrome crash while listening to a youtube video during reaper's rendering. So I switched back to ffmpeg and then sound synch problems appeared randomly depending on the source region. Rendering the region again (and alone) with WMF solves the problem but I have to render regions one by on to prevent crashes. Also there seems to be an extra frame added at the beginning of the rendered file that makes them late in the final mix.
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Old 06-05-2022, 10:38 AM   #12
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Originally Posted by papagirafe View Post
You're not alone with issues using WMF. Rendering crashes or freezes after 5 minutes or so of video footage. It even made Chrome crash while listening to a youtube video during reaper's rendering. So I switched back to ffmpeg and then sound synch problems appeared randomly depending on the source region. Rendering the region again (and alone) with WMF solves the problem but I have to render regions one by on to prevent crashes. Also there seems to be an extra frame added at the beginning of the rendered file that makes them late in the final mix.
Yikes! You've gone from no issues to more than me! WMF is great except for reversing here, thankfully. I should try the stretchmarkers and see if those still dont work. Sorry to hear of your woes

I guess we have some bugs to report... :/
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Old 06-05-2022, 04:27 PM   #13
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Yikes! You've gone from no issues to more than me! WMF is great except for reversing here, thankfully. I should try the stretchmarkers and see if those still dont work. Sorry to hear of your woes

I guess we have some bugs to report... :/
After a more careful verification, it seems that the audiotrack desynchronization happened on a single source.
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Old 06-06-2022, 09:52 AM   #14
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Hmmm.

My system has an issue that means
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Old 12-04-2023, 11:32 AM   #15
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I am working on a film score and the MP4 video I got from the editor was 6 frames out of sync using WMF.

I was blamig the editor first but the problem was on my side. I switched to VLC and everything is ok now.

I had this problem specifically with MP4 files downloaded from Vimeo.
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Old 12-05-2023, 07:25 AM   #16
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For me the drawback outweighed the benefits:
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=277794
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