Problem when rendering clips with no audio

[_Ingchelio_Ingchelio_]

Hi.

Newbie here. This might be a dumb question but please help.

I am debugging an AE plug-in to be able to import, edit, and export a type of modified AVI file. I did some checking at InitInSpech (or something similar, sorry I don't have the code with me right now) to check whether the clip has any audio or not. If the clip does not have audio, I set IO_FileHeader.hasAudio to 0. Then AE understands that the clip has no audio.

Problem is that when a composition is made with the clip and added to render queue, as you all know there is a check box user can use to choose whether to render with or without audio. If rendering a clip that has no audio with the check box not checked, everything is fine. If rendering the clip that has no audio but the check box IS checked, AE will crash.

When doing my function of AEGP_StartAdding (or something like that), I cannot get my InSpecH so I cannot tell the OutSpecH that there is no audio from the input file. I feel really tempted to make the InSpecH global but I just don't like the idea.

Is there any way to tell AE to disable the check box when rendering ?

Thanks,
Ingchelio

[Bruce Bullis]

You need to NOT set AEIO_MFlag_AUDIO, and After Effects will never ask you to supply audio.

Note that overriding _some_ but not _all_ .AVI files is not supported, and is guaranteed to cause problems.

[_Ingchelio_Ingchelio_]

Thanks Brooce.

Yeah I know, but I have no other choice.

[_Ingchelio_Ingchelio_]

I noticed that the AEIO_MFlag_AUDIO must be set at AE Startup.
I want to support audio, but only for clips that really has audio,
and then for clips without audio, I don't want to support audio.

Is there any way I can do that, without declaring any globals ?

[Bruce Bullis]

AEIO_MFlag_AUDIO means you support audio in at least some of the files you plan to import.

For files that really don't contain any audio, you would zero out the audio settings using AEGP_SetInspecAudio... calls.

[_Klarinda_]

Brooce, you said that "Note that overriding _some_ but not _all_ .AVI files is not supported, and is guaranteed to cause problems."

So does it mean that it is possible to override After Effects file handling as long as I provide support for each file type?

Currently, I'm writing IO plug-in for h.264 video, but it seems that by default After Effects is using the following: MPEG (*.mpeg, ..., *.264). So if I want to change the default to my IO plug-in, do I have to provide support for each file that MPEG support? Is there any alternative because I only want to support *.264?

Thanks,
Klarinda

[_Klarinda_]

Currently, if I want to open *.264 file using my plug-in, I need to do the following:
1. Import File
2. Select Files of Type: All Files (*.*)
3. Browse the file I want to open
4. Format: the format of my plug-in.

Is there any shorter way? Not doing this will default to opening using After Effects default file handler.

I also tried adding a menu & command hook and do the following:
suites.FootageSuite3()->AEGP_NewFootage( ... )
but it always open using After Effects default file handler. Can I specify AEIO signature or AEIO file type so that it will use my plugin instead?

Thanks and sorry for the trouble,
Klarinda