As many people know Virtualdub has a built in frame server. Unfortunately, this frame server is not compatible with many programs. Premiere is one of those programs that is not compatible with the default frame server of Virtualdub. With my new Link2 tool you can solve this compatibility problem, and allows you to frame serve directly from Virtualdub to e.g. Ulead Media Studio Pro

If you never used the frame server of Virtualdub before, please install it. This can be done by running the AuxSetup.exe that is included in the Virtualdub package. When this program is launched, please click on the "Install handle button". If you ever used the frame server before, make sure that the proxy server is disabled. This proxy server is NOT enabled by default. If the proxy server is enabled, you can disable it by running the proxyoff.reg file included in the Virtualdub package.

To simplify this guide, I also provide a sample stream (AVIsample.AVI) to registered users. This file can be downloaded in the members only download section to limit traffic on my site. If you registered one of my programs, you can retrieve your password and login in the member section. One of the main advantages of having this same sample stream is, that it allows you to follow this guide exactly. Of course you can use other streams, but you will not get exactly the same output.

1) Launch Virtualdub and select File->Open and open the file from c:\videofiles\AVIsample.AVI file. (make sure the file is not in the root)

When the AVIsample.AVI is loaded into Virtualdub, we add a rotation filter. This filter rotates the input AVI over 90 degrees.

If you move the slider to another position you can see that the input is rotated over 90 degrees.

Now we setup Virtualdub and start to frame serve the AVIsample.AVI with the selected processing options to Ulead Media Studio Pro. First we start the default frame server of Virtualdub. This can be done by selecting File->Start frame server.

Save the frame server file as AVIsample.vdr. When you entered the file name, please click on the save button.

If everything went O.K. Virtualdub wrote the AVIsample.vdr file and started the frame server. If Virtualdub is serving, the normal Virtualdub window disappears and the frame server window appears. Do NOT close this window. The Virtualdub frame server should be running during the WHOLE process. 

Now it is time to launch the Link2 program. This program will wrap the Virtualdub frame server file into an AVI file. This enables you to read the Virtualdub frame server file in any program that is able to read AVI files. 

The first step is to load the AVIsample.vdr file into the link2 program by clicking on the browse button.

WARNING: The total length of the filename is limited (including the path). So please use short file and path names for the input files for the link2 program. If the length is to long, the link2 program will report this. If you receive such an error please reduce the length of the filename and path.

When you are frame serving long video streams, you can disable the RAW audio feature. As a result the WRPR AVI files will be a lot smaller.  I successfully tested the combination Virtualdub and Ulead Media studio Pro running Windows XP . If you still run into problems please enable the RAW audio feature again.

Now you are ready to wrap the AVIsample.vdr (virtualdub frame server file) into an AVI file. This can be done by pressing the Wrap button. After the program has created the avisample.avi file, you can close the Link2 program (leave the Virtualdub frame server running). Please make sure that you are not overwriting the original AVI file (It was also called avisample.avi file, so if you would have put the original file in the root you will overwrite this file). 

Now the link2 program wrapped the Virtualdub frame server file into an AVI file. As Ulead Media Studio Pro can read AVI files, it can read the AVIsample.avi.  In the next section were are going to load the avisample.avi file into Ulead Media Studio Pro.

Launch Ulead Media Studio Pro and select on the Timeline: Insert Video File

open the wrapped virtualdub file (c:\avisample.avi).

Now you can place the "c:\avisample.avi" file on the Time line. 

After the sample stream in placed on the Timeline can see the Begin and End frame of the stream.

Now you are ready to use the file within your project. The figure below will give you a global impression.

If you want to stop frame serving please close the file in Premiere before closing the Virtualdub frame server.

The End