VirtualDub is a powerful video editing tool that allows you to do almost any operation with AVI video files. Its interface is quite simple, but it is easy to get confused in it due to the large number of configurable parameters.
Downloading and Unpacking VirtualDub
Download the program from the developer's official website. After that, unpack the resulting archive using the archiver program installed on your computer. Go to the directory where you unpacked the program and run the VirtualDub.exe file by double-clicking on it with the left mouse button.
An interface will open in front of you, which can be conditionally divided into 3 parts. The first part is located at the top of the window and is a context menu, the choice of options in which will be carried out to perform a particular operation. In the central part of the program there is a window in which this or that video file will be played. At the bottom there is a control panel for playback and video editing parameters, as well as information about the video frame rate and the bitrate of the audio track.
To open a file for editing, click File - Open Video in the context menu area of the upper part of the program window. Select the AVI file and click Open.
Cropping video files
Virtual Dub is often used to extract fragments of video files. The functionality of the program also allows you to reduce the recording duration. To crop a single segment, move the video playback slider to the desired position. Then adjust the exact position of the frame from which you want to start cropping using the corresponding rewind buttons. Once you have found the frame you want, click on the parenthesis icon, which looks like an L to mark the starting point. After that, in the same way, move the slider to the end of the desired fragment and click on the bracket, expanded to the other side, on the toolbar.
Capturing video stream
If you decide to use virtualdub to capture video, run the program, then click on the File - Set capture file menu. Then select the video source via the Video - Source menu. In the list that appears, define your video tuner and adjust the display parameters - brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. In the Video - Format option, specify the format of the future video image when capturing, i.e. video resolution and codec used. In the lower right corner of the video, set the frame rate to a higher one (for example, 30 fps).
Press the F6 button to start capturing. To end video recording, press the Esc button, after which you can start saving the resulting video file.
Saving the edited clip
When saving a video file, you can also choose several options: compressing audio and video simultaneously, compressing only video, and only compressing an audio track. To select one or another parameter, you can use the Video section. Direct stream copy is responsible for keeping the video stream unchanged, and Full processing mode is responsible for its complete processing. Similar operations are available in the Audio section: Direct stream or Full processing mode. After selecting the necessary parameters, go to the File - Save section to save the result obtained as a result of the capture.
