5 Methods - listed in no particular order, not the preferred order... personally I like method #5 best.

Method 1 - Xander's Video Time Reversal... a ready to use app that needs no installation beyond unzipping the small downloaded file.

The website page and app are in French... here's a translation: Video Time Reversal is a small utility making it possible to reverse an AVI video. This software functions in a very simple way, this is why it can function only on a very simple AVI. You will be able to reverse only uncompressed AVI files or ones that use a simple compression, a compression image by image. Thus, you will not be able by reverse a DIVX clip. If you want to reverse a compressed AVI, it will be necessary for you to decompress it or convert it to a type II DV-AVI file (for example, with Movie Maker 1 or VirtualDub with the Panasonic codec).

Use the Telecharger button on the page to download the free utility. Unzip it to a folder of your choice, and run the executable. Thanks to glow on the forum, here are the steps to reverse a clip

Xander's Video Time Reversal

1. Using Movie Maker, save your clip in DV-AVI format as say Untitled.AVI

2. If using Movie Maker 2.x convert Untitled.AVI (Type I AVI) to a Type II AVI file using Ulead's free DV converter If using Movie Maker 1.x you can skip this step as you already have a Type II AVI.

3. Start Video_Time_Reversal.exe

4. Click on Parcourir (Open) to browse for your clip saved in step 1 or 2

5. Click Reverse Avi - the output is Untitled.AVI.reverse.avi which you can import back into Movie Maker

6. Click Quitter (Exit)

Method 2: Save each frame of a video clip as a picture, and put the pictures back together in reverse sequence. Using TMPGEnc, VirtualDub, IrfanView or other utility...

1. Save each frame of the clip you want to reverse, as a set of sequentially numbered JPG or BMP images

2. Import the set into MM2

3. Set the option for the default image duration to it's minimum - 1/8 second

4. View the clips in the collection contents pane in detail view, and sort them by name - in order, but in reverse order from last to first

5. Select them all and drag them into the timeline - they will be in reverse sequence at 8 images per second

6. Make a DV-AVI clip from the set of reversed frames (or WMV if you don't need the higher quality)

7. Import the new reversed clip and apply a custom speed up effect at 375% for NTSC (put this XML file in your Movie Maker\Shared\AddOnTFX folder - then use the Video Effect named 'PapaJohn - Speed Up 375 percent'. Note: change the speedup to 313% for PAL to have it play at 25 fps

8. Save the reversed clip and use it in your project.

In this sample video clip, using the TMPGEnc/MM2 method, the first half plays in normal forward speed as the elevator goes up a level, and then the reverse of the same clip plays to have it go back down:

Method 3: Do it programmatically with DirectShow, as long as the video file supports IMediaSeeking to each frame. This is not a simple project, but an experienced DS programmer could do it between a couple days and a week.

Method 4: 7/25/04 - Rehan ... I found a simple way to do it using VirtualDub and AviSynth. A single line avisynth script like this will do it for you:

AviSource("mymovie.avi").Reverse()

Just convert your clips to uncompressed avi using VDub and then open the above script in VDub and Save As another AVI. More details with screen shots are available on at: Rehan's Tips and Tricks

The tutorial in Newsletter #37 used method 4 to include a reversed clip in a movie. Click the image to read it.

Method 5: I used this link to get the K-5 reversal tool, carefully stepping past a number of other links to things I didn't want...

K-5-video-reversal-tool

I tested it on my 64 bit Windows 7 laptop, needing to run the installation and open the app as an administrator or it wouldn't install or work.

I did my test with a 10 second HD 1280x720 sized wmv file made by WLMM. Here's the result - 10 seconds going forward followed by the same clip in reverse.

Selected Posts

10/15/03 - ... Newsoft VideoWorks Version 5, which came with my Canon DVM500i, has an absolutely marvellous option called Reverse Sequence. Not only does it reverse the video, it also reverses the audio...