JPEGs 2 AVI
March 8, 2010 2:52 AM Subscribe
What's the simplest, most foolproof utility to convert a stack of JPEGs to AVI?
Asking for a (smart but technically unskilled and somewhat impatient) colleague who doesn't need exposure to the inner dealings of video conversion. We have a prototype imaging device which --stupidly-- saves a movie as a load of jpegs, one for every frame. I offered to help her convert this to something she can view in mediaplayer. Ideally something that will
- let the user open a folder of images
- select frames to use
- adjust the order if not sorted right
- and convert to AVI using a sensible default codec and other settings.
Maybe an explorer extension even, who knows?
Googling turned up lots of video-to-video conversion, a tool called AVI Slide Show, and Jasc Animation Shop, which I know. The latter works, in principle, but seems like overkill, and has some UI issues that I am afraid will generate a lot of glitches and frustration. AVI Slide Show is a dud so far, keeps crashing and generating empty files.
Before I start writing my own tool -- someone must have done this, right?
Asking for a (smart but technically unskilled and somewhat impatient) colleague who doesn't need exposure to the inner dealings of video conversion. We have a prototype imaging device which --stupidly-- saves a movie as a load of jpegs, one for every frame. I offered to help her convert this to something she can view in mediaplayer. Ideally something that will
- let the user open a folder of images
- select frames to use
- adjust the order if not sorted right
- and convert to AVI using a sensible default codec and other settings.
Maybe an explorer extension even, who knows?
Googling turned up lots of video-to-video conversion, a tool called AVI Slide Show, and Jasc Animation Shop, which I know. The latter works, in principle, but seems like overkill, and has some UI issues that I am afraid will generate a lot of glitches and frustration. AVI Slide Show is a dud so far, keeps crashing and generating empty files.
Before I start writing my own tool -- someone must have done this, right?
Windows Movie Maker will do that. If you don't already have it on a relatively recent XP or better PC you can download from Microsoft for free.
posted by COD at 5:42 AM on March 8, 2010
posted by COD at 5:42 AM on March 8, 2010
Windows Movie Maker can indeed to this, but I would warn that it will hang your system if you try to add too many frames at once.
What resolution are your JPEGs? How many are there? Do you know the framerate of the original video?
posted by jozzas at 5:47 AM on March 8, 2010
What resolution are your JPEGs? How many are there? Do you know the framerate of the original video?
posted by jozzas at 5:47 AM on March 8, 2010
Best answer: Install a Windows version of mencoder.
Make a desktop shortcut to mencoder.exe, with the following in a single line in the Target box and nothing in the Start In box:
- let the user open a folder of images
Double-click it in Windows Explorer.
- select frames to use
Click the first one, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the rest.
- adjust the order if not sorted right
Click Copy. Right-click on the desktop, select New Folder. Double-click the new folder. Click Paste. Add numeric prefixes to the filenames so they sort by name into the order you want.
- and convert to AVI using a sensible default codec and other settings.
Copy the mencoder shortcut into the same folder as all the jpegs, then double-click it.
posted by flabdablet at 5:48 AM on March 8, 2010
Make a desktop shortcut to mencoder.exe, with the following in a single line in the Target box and nothing in the Start In box:
"C:\Program Files\mplayer\mencoder.exe" "mf://*.jpg" -mf fps=25 -o output.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4
- let the user open a folder of images
Double-click it in Windows Explorer.
- select frames to use
Click the first one, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the rest.
- adjust the order if not sorted right
Click Copy. Right-click on the desktop, select New Folder. Double-click the new folder. Click Paste. Add numeric prefixes to the filenames so they sort by name into the order you want.
- and convert to AVI using a sensible default codec and other settings.
Copy the mencoder shortcut into the same folder as all the jpegs, then double-click it.
posted by flabdablet at 5:48 AM on March 8, 2010
As always, my favorite utility for this is VirtualDub.
You just put all your images into one folder, then open VirtualDub. Go to File>Open Video File. It will open every image in the folder in sequence.
Then go to Video>Framerate and choose a framerate. Next go to Video>Compression and select your avi container. I suggest Xvid or Divx .
And you're done. I'd suggest you resize the images though, otherwise the movie will be a ridiculously huge resolution.
posted by sanka at 6:07 AM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
You just put all your images into one folder, then open VirtualDub. Go to File>Open Video File. It will open every image in the folder in sequence.
Then go to Video>Framerate and choose a framerate. Next go to Video>Compression and select your avi container. I suggest Xvid or Divx .
And you're done. I'd suggest you resize the images though, otherwise the movie will be a ridiculously huge resolution.
posted by sanka at 6:07 AM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you want this to be easy for your colleague - Quicktime pro $30 will open a series of images as a single movie and then you can save it to anythign you want.
posted by filmgeek at 6:22 AM on March 8, 2010
posted by filmgeek at 6:22 AM on March 8, 2010
Response by poster: thanks, all.
They're hundreds of images, so adding them one-by-one (which VDub seems to do, or I am stupid) is a nono. Resolution 1024x1024; original framerate (I think) 20 fps, but not essential and easy enough to adjust.
They _are_ numbered sequentially, thankfully, so they should sort themselves in windose explorer.
Will try to go the mencoder route first, and check out QT if I cant get that to work.
posted by gijsvs at 7:25 AM on March 8, 2010
They're hundreds of images, so adding them one-by-one (which VDub seems to do, or I am stupid) is a nono. Resolution 1024x1024; original framerate (I think) 20 fps, but not essential and easy enough to adjust.
They _are_ numbered sequentially, thankfully, so they should sort themselves in windose explorer.
Will try to go the mencoder route first, and check out QT if I cant get that to work.
posted by gijsvs at 7:25 AM on March 8, 2010
Huh. If the images are sequentially numbered, all I usually do is File>Open Video File and select the first image. The rest go in line behind it.
posted by sanka at 8:05 AM on March 8, 2010
posted by sanka at 8:05 AM on March 8, 2010
You can actually use quicktime pro as well. There's File->Open Image Sequence, which will grab ordered image files that are numerically sequenced and generate a video. You can save in several formats, frames-per-second, and resolutions this way. I used it to create a timelapse of my drive from Portland to Seattle, and it required pretty much zero video creation knowledge.
posted by anotherfluke at 8:20 AM on March 8, 2010
posted by anotherfluke at 8:20 AM on March 8, 2010
It's been a while, but I think I used jpg2avi and it was relatively painless.
posted by alexei at 9:56 AM on March 8, 2010
posted by alexei at 9:56 AM on March 8, 2010
Related AskMe and my answer to it. Also if you need to crop/resize your picutures en masse use this.
posted by exhilaration at 12:03 PM on March 8, 2010
posted by exhilaration at 12:03 PM on March 8, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
You should be able to find a windows version with some googling. Every GUI-based app I tried either died because I had too many images, wouldn't do what I wanted or was expensive. Good luck!
posted by jozzas at 4:03 AM on March 8, 2010