FFMPEG LIBVMAF segmentation fault I am trying to compare two videos using the libvmaf in ffmpeg 4.0. I have compiled and installed from source VMAF and FFMPEG and FFMPEG has built-in support for libvmaf. That's the ffmpeg configuration:

$ ffmpeg -version
ffmpeg version 4.0 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9) 20160609
configuration: --pkg-config-flags=--static --extra-libs='-lpthread -lm' --toolchain=hardened --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-version3 --disable-stripping --enable-avisynth --enable-libass --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libvmaf --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libssh --enable-libtwolame --enable-libwavpack --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdrm --enable-frei0r --enable-ladspa --enable-libpulse --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-avfilter --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --disable-ffplay --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libsrt --enable-libwebp --enable-libxvid --enable-libvidstab --enable-libopenh264 --enable-zlib --enable-openssl
libavutil      56. 14.100 / 56. 14.100
libavcodec     58. 18.100 / 58. 18.100
libavformat    58. 12.100 / 58. 12.100
libavdevice    58.  3.100 / 58.  3.100
libavfilter     7. 16.100 /  7. 16.100
libswscale      5.  1.100 /  5.  1.100
libswresample   3.  1.100 /  3.  1.100
libpostproc    55.  1.100 / 55.  1.100

My VMAF is version:

VMAF Development Kit (VDK) Version 1.3.5
VMAF Version 0.6.3

When I try to run the VMAF on both files using the following command I get a segmentation fault error and error about unknown format and segmentation fault. The syntax of my command is the following:

ffmpeg -i distorted.nut -i reference.nut -lavfi libvmaf -f null -

The NUT files in this case are both in raw format. I have tried to convert the nut to mp4 using libx264 but the result was exactly the same. I have uploaded the log file to wetransfer_link with the debug information.

If I run the VMAF manually from the VMAF install directory I got the results:

./run_vmaf yuv420p 1280 720 reference.nut distorted.nut --out-fmt json

This is the aggregated VMAF score:

"aggregate": {
        "VMAF_feature_adm2_score": 0.989985319391465,
        "VMAF_feature_motion2_score": 12.065062245699426,
        "VMAF_feature_vif_scale0_score": 0.6955497705160056,
        "VMAF_feature_vif_scale1_score": 0.956442334512976,
        "VMAF_feature_vif_scale2_score": 0.9785004960696057,
        "VMAF_feature_vif_scale3_score": 0.9873306412919364,
        "VMAF_score": 99.37877231666236,
        "method": "mean"
    }

I have checked and the library header libvmaf.h is under /usr/local/include, the library libvmaf.a under /user/local/lib and all the model files under /usr/local/share, so everything looks OK.

VMAF have changed their API yet again. Compile against 1.3.4.


Component YPbPr to VGA with monitor that supports Sync-on-Green I want to connect a YPbPr component video signal to a computer monitor using a simple component-to-VGA adapter, I know this isn't possible on most monitors as you would need a converter to convert YPbPr to RGB.

But if the monitor supports Sync-on-Green will it work?

It works for me, but everything has a green tint and the higher the brightness the less any color but green is visible.

Using a sony trinitron.


Export Markers From Vegas Studio 14? The videos below show how to export markers from v12 and v13, but I don't have the View -> Window -> Edit Details options they're showing in v14.

Anyone know how to do it in v14?

After some experimenting it's clear this is a feature only available in Vegas Pro (Edit or better). Thankfully there is a trial version which I was able to use to confirm this is the case.


How do they create the AT&T Video Bill? Last month I downgraded my AT&T UVerse service and this month I got my first bill -- including a custom video detailing all of my SPECIFIC charges. Custom animations, my own name, etc.

Apparantly, this has been around for awhile -- I found this YouTube video detailing the bill for a new customer "Brad"

Any suggestions as to how they do this?

Thanks,
Chris

I use a script for After Effects (CompsFromSpreadsheet) which generates compositions using the data from a spreadsheet. We use it to batch create graphics with different values - like in the ad.

The script can add different files into the animation at different times, so they probably have a database of all the possible phrases.

The script as it stands couldnt be used to fully automate the process as you still have to specify where the spreadsheet is, but you could easily create a simmilar script which would look for new spreadsheets, apply the data to a template and start a render.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they had their own in-house software.


Is it possible to mask out unsharp areas of footage with After Effects? Is there any existing filter/effect, that will automatically mask out the unsharp area of my footage?

Let's say I have an object in focus and a lot of depth of field. How do I show only my sharp object?

As you may know from 3d packages depth information can be represented by a 2d Depth Map:

In therory it's possible to detect the defocused area of an image via depth estimation methods and generating a depth map using this information. The algorithm splits up the image by finding all relevant edges, analizes the gradient values and compare these areas with each other. I doubt that this is accurate enough for every shot, but could work in some cases. One of the latest papers, you can find here:  http://www.sjzhuo.net/defocusEstimation/

AFAIK there is only one available plugin for After Effects at the moment: http://www.yuvsoft.com/stereo-3d-technologies/automatic-depth-estimation/, but since this process is becoming increasingly important for stereoscopic workflows, it's a matter of time when more tools will become available.


Why use 35 mm film raw stock and camera? I would like your suggestions and reasoning as this would be useful in making decisions.

Why are film makers still using traditional 35 mm film raw stock and camera equipment to produce feature films when there are digital cameras like red cam available which can produce up to 4 k image quality and can significantly reduce production costs ?

This is a debate that could go on forever. Both have pros and cons.
I think it is inevitable that Digital will overtake Film, and we can already see it happening in that article that ObscureRobot posted.

However, people will continue to use film as long as it is available simply because of its look. You can tell when something is shot on film because of its grain and general aesthetic.
Film is cinema as we know it.

I'd argue that this is probably the biggest reason. There are many others but I don't know enough about them to get into it.

I think if a filmmaker can afford to use film, they will.
This is probably the best argument for film: http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Products/Customer_Testimonials/index.htm

^ Very informative.


What free software can I use to speed up my video? I have a 90 minute video in which I want to speed up some segments, like a fast forward, preferably with some averaging of video frames to make the motion appear smoother.

What free software can do this, and how do I set up the effect?

A good option is Davinci Resolve.

It has a specific feature called Retime controls, where you put a couple of markers and select the speed of that particular segment.

90 Minutes is quite long, you probably want to make some proxy videos at smaller resolution and then render using the original clip.


Audio/video sync software for Linux (preferably open source) I'm looking for a program that can synchronize audio and video from separate files. PluralEyes does this. I'm looking for something that runs on Linux and preferably is open source.

I imagine a CLI that goes like this:

$ clappersyncoffsets in.pm4 in.wav
0s 3.876s
$

I assume that you have a sound channel recorded on the camera which is in sync with the picture. In that case you only have to find the offset between the audio channels.

This tool claims just that: https://github.com/bbc/audio-offset-finder

I never tried it yet, but I would be very interested on your experiences if you would give it a try.


ffmpeg lutrgb to create zebras I'm trying to display zebras (colorize totally black pixels one color and totally white pixels a second color) on a selected frame from a video using ffmpeg.  Using an rgb lookup table expression I'm getting a workable solution:

lutrgb=r='if(eq(val,0),0,val)':g='if(eq(val,0),153,val)':b='if(eq(val,0),254,val)',lutrgb=r='if(eq(val,255),254,val)':g='if(eq(val,255),102,val)':b='if(eq(val,255),0,val)'

The problem with this expression is that it's testing each pixel for clipping by color, then modding only if that color component = 0 or 255.  My video is largely black and white, but a slight pixel level color shift results in a two toned zebra pattern.  You can see the two shades of blue in this sample zebra frame:

If I could test for the maxval for clipping into 0 and minval for 255 I would think this problem would be solved, but this code below doesn't work:

lutrgb=r='if(eq(maxval,0),0,val)':g='if(eq(maxval,0),153,val)':b='if(eq(maxval,0),254,val)',lutrgb=r='if(eq(minval,255),254,val)':g='if(eq(minval,255),102,val)':b='if(eq(minval,255),0,val)'

The if/then code for filters is poorly documented on the ffmpeg wiki.  Any LUT experts out there?

Assuming your input is full range RGB when fed to the filter, then something like

geq=r='if(between(st(1,r(X,Y)+g(X,Y)+b(X,Y)),15,750),p(X,Y),if(lt(ld(1),15),C1R,C2R))':
    g='if(between(st(1,r(X,Y)+g(X,Y)+b(X,Y)),15,750),p(X,Y),if(lt(ld(1),15),C1G,C2G))':
    b='if(between(st(1,r(X,Y)+g(X,Y)+b(X,Y)),15,750),p(X,Y),if(lt(ld(1),15),C1B,C2B))'

Here the two colors are (C1R,C1G,C1B) and (C2R,C2G,C2B). with each component range being 0-255.

The 15 and 750 are the thresholds for selecting black and white pixels. The sum of the values of the three components for each pixel is compared to those values.

The st and ld functions are store and load functions with the first argument being the 'register no.'.

You can also try the colorkey filter.


How to deal with Youtube making videos 'pinkish'? Often my videos that i upload to Youtube turn 'pinkish' when played there. And unfortunately Youtube allows to adjust Yellow-Blue ratio, but doesn't allow one to play with any other colour after upload.

Sometimes i can counteract this 'pinkification' by using the Youtube editor and increasing both brightness and contrast, but since that implies one extra re-encoding step i would like to avoid that if at all possible (also it doesn't always work).

What i have notice is that this happens more often if the video is shot with just slightly insufficient lighting, where the video (as it plays on my computer) appears just a little darker than it should be.

Is this something that is a common problem or is it just my particular approach to recording that causes that?
Can i expect better quality if i re-encode video locally by increasing luma? Or maybe by decreasing red in RGB?

Additional details:

I am not adding any extra profiles/filters when viewing videos locally. I have tried two separate players (totem and vlc) and both play all the videos equally well. Dark ones are a little dark, but no pinkish colour is added.

The video is recorded by Panasonic HC-V500 and is directly (without any extra reencoding) uploaded to youtube. Recording mode is 1080/50p (i have also tried 1080/50i). The file format is M2TS. Here is the avprobe output:

$ avprobe 00002.MTS
avprobe version v10_alpha1-32-g9a4c10e, Copyright (c) 2007-2013 the Libav developers
  built on Jan  2 2014 23:10:46 with gcc 4.8 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.8.1-10ubuntu9)
[mpegts @ 0xa5bfb60] Non-increasing DTS in stream 2: packet 2 with DTS 170282, packet 3 with DTS 170282
[mpegts @ 0xa5bfb60] Non-increasing DTS in stream 2: packet 5 with DTS 213482, packet 6 with DTS 213482
(..... some more of these, but they are unlikely to be a cause of anything....)
[mpegts @ 0xa5bfb60] Non-increasing DTS in stream 2: packet 17 with DTS 299882, packet 18 with DTS 299882
Input #0, mpegts, from '00002.MTS':
  Duration: 00:19:09.10, start: 1.957800, bitrate: 25053 kb/s
  Program 1
    Stream #0.0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 50 fps, 90k tbn, 100 tbc
    Stream #0.1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 256 kb/s
    Stream #0.2[0x1200]: Data: [144][0][0][0] / 0x0090
Failed to probe codec for input stream 2
# avprobe output

My monitor is calibrated just fine and i have no problems playing anything else. In fact, as i've said i have no problem playing these exact videos locally before they get converted by Google (Youtube).

One way you could deal with this is to try some tests where you move the color of the video towards green until you get something that looks right when uploaded. (You don't say which editor you're using, but you could use the color board in FCPX or use DaVinci Resolve Lite, or whatever works for your setup.) Green is going to be the opposite of pink on the color wheel. You might be able to figure out the right color transform by taking a screenshot of the pinkish video and seeing if you can correct that. Then apply that same correction to some footage before uploading it and see what happens.


Remove audio tracks from multiple MKV files I've got a multitude of MKV files each containing two audio tracks that correspond to two languages. In each of the files, the English language is the second track and it's the only track I need for these MKV files. So how do I easily discard the first audio track in each of the MKV files.

N.B. My primary OS is Windows but if there really is no easy way to have it done on Windows, I could be interested in a Linux answer too.

I don't know Windows, but I have just gone through this in Mac OS X (Linux Applicable).

mkvtoolnix is your friend here, and is available for Windows.

I used the GUI to check (a sample of) my files to make sure the audio tracks that I wanted to keep and delete were in the same order in the files. Then I manipulated the options in the GUI to match what I wanted.

Finally, I used the "copy to clipboard" button to copy the command line output to the clipboard and massaged it into a bash script to run on a directory of the files I wanted strip the audio from.

I know it's quick and dirty (and maybe not to your liking), but you can probably use it as a starting point to massage into what you really want to do.

#!/bin/bash

for file in *.mkv; do mkvmerge -o "$file-noeng.mkv"  --language "1:jpn" --track-name "1:AVC-HD" --default-track "1:yes" --forced-track "1:no" --display-dimensions "1:1920x1080" --language "3:jpn" --track-name "3:AAC" --default-track "3:no" --forced-track "3:no" --language "4:eng" --track-name "4:ASS" --default-track "4:no" --forced-track "4:no" -a "3" -d "1" -s "4" --attachments "1" -T "--no-global-tags" "$file" --track-order "0:1,0:3,0:4";

done


Looking for a free dvd burning program which has basic video editing to make a menu? I just shot some video in 720 using my kodak playsport zx5. I know HD videos don't fit on DVD and i'll have to compress / edit them. I don't want to buy any advanced programs right now since i'm just starting with video editing. I'm familiar with imgburn and other dvd burning apps but I am looking for a program that will let me do basic video editing and the ability to create a basic dvd menu.

Would like the app to run on XP and or Vista

Thanks

Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. Both are free and already installed on your PC if you have Vista (go to Start > All Programs - i don't remember)


After effects: Adding visual callouts of currently playing audio files with a source text script I'm working on a short film, and I've got AE CS 6 as my editor. I have a friend who is an audio engineer, who will perform the Protools final audio mixing and editing. I've got some sound effects in my AE file that I like, and I'd love a good way to add visual text callouts about which audio file is currently playing. That way, he can save time by not having to search thru my big shared audio library to find the exact sound (.wav) that's currently playing.
  It seems like it would be a text layer with an expression on the Source text, and a for loop, but I can't imagine how to write the expression.
  I hope this makes sense.
Thanks in advance!
Geoff

You are making your and your friend's job much harder than it would have to be. Try exporting an xml (if it's possible to read audio-xlms in protools) or, which would be much easier, your friend switches over to audition. That way you can simply load your audio-timeline into audition and it's all there. Trying to recreate your mix is a terrible idea as you will risk damaging the synced audio of dialogue etc.
Alternatively, if none of that works, assign each audio channel a role (such as vox, ambient, wind, punches, etc.) and export each track on its own. He could then import every track which will be in sync just the way you had it and slice the individual tracks up if he wants to.


Possible to use sRGB as mp4 colorspace? I have an mp4 using h264 that i'm using in the background of a website. It has to blend in with the background image. I've already created ogv and webm videos for firefox and chrome and these work fine but the mp4 for safari doesn't blend properly. The only difference i see in the files is that the ogv, webm and original mov are all in sRGB color space, but the mp4 is in SDTV NTSC Y'CbCr. I've tried lots of different exporters but the mp4 is always in this colorspace. How do i get the mp4 in sRGB colorspace?

adam

You are currently probably using the Rec. 601 color space for SD video. Encode your source footage in the Rec. 709 color space.  It's the color space specified for HDTV and comes sRGB quite close.
If you need higher color accuracy you can use the Rec. 2020 color space which exceeds the sRGB color space by far. Though compatibility may not be given everywhere with this color space.


Importing multiple images into premiere, getting the same one multiple times I'm trying to import multiple images into premiere which I've prepared and exported in illustrator before. All I'm getting is the same images all over again. Even if I browse the folder through premiere I see them exactly the same. In finder they are fine

If I place them onto the timeline and render in to out, they are also all the same.

Solved by using the "Video" mode in Illustrator which you can select while setting up your file after you click "create new"


Premiere Pro: Loading Footage for Project Problem When I open my project it loads the footage in the background. Unfortunately, it stops at a certain point (close to ready) but I can't figure out which file is causing the problem since my folder paths are too long (I am only seeing something like: G:\Video\Projectx\scene1(footage)...). When I open the project it shows me this error message: Video Filter missing: AE.ADBE Aud Stereo Mixer. Since I have imported different other projects, I cannot figure out which file is causing this error as well.

I import:

a lot of .MOV files
6 AE projects
some png and jpeg

What I tried so far:

deleting the cache
changes cache's location
other projects work fine
restart PC

Any ideas how I can debug/solve the problem?

I would try following this YouTube tutorial. What they do in it is make a new premiere pro project and then import the project into it.

Summary of video:

Open premiere pro and make a new project.
Go to the media browser
Navigate to where your project is saved
Right click on it and press import
Check import entire project and tick Create folder for imported items and click ok
Go to the tab where it says project:[project name]
Expand the folder there
Find the file  which has a icon which looks like lots of tracks on a timeline
Drag that into the timeline
Save the new project


Can you render Adobe Premiere or After Effects projects on Linux using a render manager? I'm looking for a way to render Premiere or Edius projects on linux via command line.

As you may know, there are a lot of render managers like Deadline, Render Pal or Smedge in order to build a custom render farm for all kind of creative applications or 3d renderers.

These render managers mostly support all of the major platforms (Windows, OSX and Linux), but film editing software like Adobe Premiere (along with After Effects) or Edius don't support linux OS at all.

Can I use a render manager to render a Premiere, After Effetcts or even a Edius project on Linux?

No. Unfortunately Adobe only supports win or osx. Official forum post about Deadline:

  Deadline itself is a cross-platform application, but it can only render on  operating systems that the rendering software itself supports. So AE and  C4D will only work on Windows and OSX.

Also see the manual: http://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/products/deadline/7.1/1_User%20Manual/

Thus it depends on the main application, if you are able to build a render farm on linux. In the case of adobe, the only remaining option is using a Virtual Machine for now.


What codec should I edit in on Premiere Pro? I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014) with base configuration. I have a bunch of footage off a Canon 700D which is in a H.264 codec. Now obviously, a MacBook Air does not have an external graphics card, which means that Premiere Pro does not support CUDA which supports faster encoding.

I don't have a plan of changing computers anytime soon, so I was wondering if I should transcode my footage to a different codec so that it encode faster? Is there like a ProRes for Premiere? I will be encoding into H.264 most of the time to upload to YouTube.

Any tips would be great. Thanks for your time.

Premiere Pro supports the use of "proxies" that allow you to edit the video using low resolution files (and thus making edits very fast)

Once you finish, you export using the original file and thus the quality is what you expect.

It is impossible to explain proxies in a single answer. Search the official documentation or one of the many tutorials that exist on this topic.


No sound in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 I searched internet alot but after all those usless advices I feel upset..

I'm importing .mp4 file which has music in it, but in Premiere there is no audio track at all.

I have restarted pc, installed k-lite codec pack, quicktime codecs but why? Why is it so hard to simply import .mp4 file with music to the video editor..

Ok, here is answer.
Quote:

  Please clear the Media Cache (keeping Premiere Pro closed). Find
  instructions here: FAQ: How to clean media cache files?

  Navigate to the Media Cache location as specified in the Premiere Pro
  preferences and rename the folders.

   MAC: Premiere Pro menu>Preferences>Media
   Windows: Edit Menu>Preferences>Media

  Please reply if your issue gets resolved after trying these steps.

  NOTE: Premiere Pro will conform all files after opening any/all
  project(s) and will generate the peak file for the audio. This might
  take long depending upon the number of Media used in the project(s).


How can I create floating objects in After Effects? I want to create a floating object (or objects) when time freezes.

Zach king created a video that throws popcorn in the air, then when the time freezes, the camera moves around.

Search : 'Zachking Popcorn' then see the floating popcorns for more info that what I exactly saying

How can I achieve this effect?

This is accomplished during shooting and is not an editorial effect. An set of DSLRs (digital still cameras) arranged in an arc are triggered to all take a shot at the same instant. The individual frames are strung into a sequence and treated as a motion clip. There are lots of examples of this on the web.

You can do similar things using CGI, but it's not a simple task and it isn't cheap.

Edit:

You asked for a tutorial but I don't know of any, so...

Here's a demonstration

Here's a cheaper alternative


FCPX - Large MXF being broken into smaller files Hardware: MacPro (mid-2012)
Software: OS X 10.1 and FCPX 10.1.4.
Camera: XF100

When I import from CF card a single continuous 100min video interview (50mbps/1080/25p) into FCPX it imports as a single MXF file.

When I import the same file from the same CF card to an identical MacPro offsite the single MXF is broken into smaller files.

Can anyone explain this?

Looking to just import the 1 larger file.

Many thanks for any input.

Turns out FCPX displays spanning files AS WELL as a single large file when importing MXF. See example image below.

The 1st file in the browser list is a single clip / full duration.

All subsequent files are chunks of the single larger file.


How to edit the DeNoise parameters for all cut parts of a clip? I'm a newbie in video editing. I wanted to apply DeNoise filter in Adobe Premier Pro 2020, so I did so. Then I went on cutting parts of my clip, to jump cut parts of the footage.
Then I realized that I have to reduce the DeNoise level. So I did so for a cut part. Now I see that other parts do not change. And also when I cut a new part of the footage, new part has the old level and new level is not applied to it.
So I have two questions:

How to set DeNoise properties for all cut parts of a footage?
How to make Premier understand that this new level is the default level and when I cut another part, it should obey this new settings?

If you need to apply the same effect to a whole clip, you can use Master Clip effects:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/master-clip-effects.html
That way, you apply it to the file, and any clips from that file that you place into a sequence will have the same effect applied.  If you need to adjust it, you only need to do it once to the master effect.


Quick audio cleanup filters in Kdenlive I have a project where people are talking in amateur footage. That means no lava or overhead microphone. Just digital camera. A lot of outside noise is caught.

Is there a filter, multi-band equalizer, compressor, limiter or anything I can drop on all the little fragments of audio to make the end result somewhat better? There are tools that might be able to do the job, but all tools come without any presets, so it's hard to figure out sensible defaults without a more technical background in audio. Furthermore, settings that depend on current levels (i.e. "attack") seem to be reset on every audio snippet and I don't believe I can let all the audio be treated as one channel.

Once the project is complete, a more dedicated audio software can be used. But it will take a while and a lot of exports will be made. I have no time to finalize the audio externally for every export. It would be nice if there was a way to improve the audio somewhat using clever computer wizardry.

Perhaps there is a trick, like freezing all the audio into one single clip and apply some presets on that.

Currently your best bet is to extract the audio of the clip before you start editing, and then importing it into Audacity, which has a great toolbox for dealing with outside noise.
Once done, you can export from Audacity and back into Kdenlive.
It's a workaround, and very labor intensive. It would have been much nicer to be able to apply some basic audio filters directly in Kdenlive.


Converting SECAM VHS to a digital format A project I am part of would ideally require to incorporate extract of several hour longs video interviews from the 1980s. They are on VHS video tape, Stereo SECAM (French system). I have (good) master tapes and one or two copies of each tape for easy viewing. I wonder what kind of process I can use to convert them to a convenient digital format for importing and later editing while preserving the most of the original's quality.

I have also a working tape recorder/viewer for this format and a good monitor for its video output (SONY).

How can I obtain the best results?  Should I first go through PAL conversion, so I can use more conventional equipment?

Should I subcontract the converting part to a specialized company?

(Note: I do not have sufficient reputation yet to tag properly this question, please feel free to do it )

The ADVC-300 can take SECAM input: http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300

This will convert to DV format, which is quite sufficient for VHS quality.


Rolling shutter strobe pattern I'm trying to implement a vision-based "lidar" system as described here: https://hackaday.com/2016/04/04/smartphone-and-ir-line-laser-measure-distance/

the idea is to capture video at 30fps and pulse a laser at 15hz such that the laser appears in odd frames and does not appear in even frames. By taking the difference between odd and even frames we can isolate the laser line.

when I implemented this, the isolated laser phases in and out with a period of ~1 second. Looking at the raw frames, sometimes the laser is full-brightness, sometimes it is not visible, and sometimes it's at 50% brightness.

Given that the laser is either on or off, I'm not sure why the partial-brightness frames occur. My current theory is that CMOS rolling shutter might not just scan top->bottom like I'd expect, but that doesn't make much sense. I checked to make sure that I'm getting video at 30fps and I'm using a usb camera with the ov9712 chip.

No matter when the camera shutter is active, if the frequencies of the video vertical timing (the frame rate) and the laser pulse are not congruent, you'll see partial exposures as they drift apart.

The solution is to trigger the laser pulse on every other vertical sync time. The details on extracting the vertical interval will depend on the camera, and how to trigger the laser will depend on the details of that device. But some sort of forced sync is the only way to get exactly what you want.


Is video stabilization during recording better than stabilizing a shot in post-production? To save CPU overhead on my Hero 5 Session GoPro I'm debating to disable stabilization and run a stabilization after the recording is completed on the video on a PC.

Are there benefits to performing stabilization on a device like this at record time versus in post-production? Or is standalone stabilization on a PC perhaps even more effective?

I'm not sure if the stabilization is purely based on the image or uses any sort of gyro sensors.

Thank you!

I would decide by running some recording tests, and deciding which image you actually prefer - the on-board stabilisation, or doing it in post on the PC. There will be pros and cons both ways - although I wouldn't worry about things like CPU overhead, unless you've actually read somewhere of this being an issue?

This article gives a little bit of a run down of the stabilisation feature, if you haven't seen it.
https://havecamerawilltravel.com/gopro/gopro-hero5-video-stabilization/

Based on the article, it looks like the stabilisation is being done in the sensor. In a lot of cameras, the full sensor isn't used for recording, certainly not in all recording modes. For stabilisation, these cameras sample a larger area of sensor elements than what is being recorded, work out where your image has moved between frames, and record the area/window they consider to be your intended image, smoothing out your movements.

The article notes that you can't record a full resolution image in some modes when using the stabilisation, so it's almost certainly sampling the full sensor, and then stabilising by reducing the number of sensor elements being recorded, changing where the recording window is, based on your movement. Note with this method that the camera might not always stabilise in a way you consider to be "correct", and you'd have no control over that.

Stabilising with the PC will give you more control over what is done, but the PC software will also be interpolating (educated guessing) where required to create extra image data for your stabilised image. If you don't need the highest camera resolution, the stabilised visual data from the GoPro might be preferable to stabilisation corrections generated in PC software. But if you want to record in the highest resolutions, you'll be cropping images from the GoPro to do that, which may not be ideal - taking the unstabilised GoPro image and stabilising on a PC may be the better option for some resolutions.

Like I said, I would test both, and see what you think of the results for yourself. It's useful to know how both stabilisation techniques work, and other than that there's no correct answer for everyone - it will depend on exactly what you're recording, what quality it needs to be recorded in, and which method produces the best looking result to you when completed. If you don't need full resolution, and you're happy with how the stabilised GoPro image looks, I'd probably go with the camera stabilisation - but it was certainly noted in the article above that in some cases the stabilised image didn't look that great, so I'd definitely test it on what you're doing first.


adjusting the Premiere Creative Cloud sequence (newbie question) I just downloaded Premiere CC and am learning to use it. There's a big section in the sequence (I think that's what it's called?) that I'd like to get rid of.  In the screen shot below, I marked it with the white arrow.

As you can see, my footage is a little over 2 minutes long.  However, the area I can scroll is over 12 minutes long.  How can I make the scrollable area a similar length as my footage?  I want to do that so the scroll bar isn't super-sensitive (and there's not ten useless minutes of empty space in that window). BTW, I know how to "zoom in" on that timeline. But then if you move the scroll bar a couple pixels, you've jumped several "screens" one way or the other.

Thanks!

From what I can gather online, it appears that it is supposed to scale automatically and always extends 10 minutes beyond the end of the last clip in the sequence and there does not appear to be any way to change that.


How to use mouse drag gesture to position & size a still image in Premiere Pro CS6 I would like to be able to position a still image using the mouse/pointer directly on the image, to be able to drag the whole image around or resize it by dragging one of its corners or sides.

I'm sure I did this earlier but don't know which part of Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 does it.

Sure, there's the Effect Controls but this seems to only provide for indirectly resizing and positioning the image - i.e. I mouse drag on the numbers themselves and see the effect.

Simply double click the Sequence Preview and you get handles to resize the footage and you can drag the footage around in the frame.


Avoid Rendering in Final Cut Pro: Smaller Frame Size? I usually have great success in not needing rendering. I take all of my clips and make them Apple ProRes 422 @29.97fps and everything works. The clip that defines the characteristics of the sequence is imported from AVCHD, so it's Apple ProRes 422 1920x1080 @29.97fps (HDTV 1080i).

Today, one of my clips wants to be 1024x768 @29.97fps and the sequence (and other clips) are HDTV 1080i @29.97. For some reason, the smaller frame-size clip needs rendering. If I use Mpeg Streamclip and scale it up (to 720p, for instance), then it doesn't need rendering. However, I want it in its actual size (1024x768).

I've been through this before and was able to use clips that were not 1920x1080 with success. This time, I need to render. What am I doing wrong?

First off, there is no such coded as ProRes 411, so I have to assume you are using ProRes 422...which is a great start.

However it is not really worth the effort of trying to convert the clips so that you don't have to render within Final Cut, rendering in Final Cut is going to occur whether you attempt to avoid it or not.  In your case I believe it is a difference in pixel aspect ratio, if the PAR matches with a different frame size typically you do not have to render, however if they do not match even if both clips are 1920x1080 you would still need to render.


After Effects 2020 shape layer path ignoring 3D orientation when used to parent a null? I'm trying to animate a null to follow an ellipse path. The path is rotated in 3D space. When I copy the path to the position of the null, it copies and the null is animated around the path but the 3D orientation setting on the shape layer is ignored and the null's keyframes are setup to point directly at the camera as if it was in 2D mode:

In this screenshot, the red keyframe track is the position data pasted to the null and the white circle is a stroke of the path. Rotating the null doesn't do anything, of course, because it's the keyframes that are off.
I'm pretty new to this so I get the feeling I'm not describing the problem very well or there's a simple solution I haven't figured out yet. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

The shape layer's path is in layer space. In other words the coordinates are relative to the layer, regardless of where the layer is in composition space. The contents of a layer are always at 0 on the z axis relative to that layer. So when you apply that path as the motion path to a layer in composition space, it will always move on the X/Y plane, at 0 on the z Axis.
To make the null layer use the same coordinate space as the shape layer, you can simply make it a child of the shape layer. Then the coordinates will be relative to its parent. If this is not possible, you could use the toWorld() layer space transform in an expression, thus:
thisComp.layer("shape Layer").toWorld(value);

and apply that to the position. What that does is take the position value and find out where that would be in the layer "shape layer", then give the value of where that is in comp coordinates.
There's a little gotcha, in that paths on shape layers are measured in comp space. Before copying the path to the null, you might want to set the anchor point of the shape layer to the center of the content, using ctrlalthome. Otherwise you can subtract its position from the value of the copied path:
thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").toWorld(value-thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").transform.position)


Every other frame corrupted when rendering with Adobe Media Encoder I'm trying to render a video from Adobe Media Encoder, created in After Effects. We first had this problem is a larger file, so I reduced it down to a simple file the results of which can be seen in this gif.

Any thoughts as to why this might be happening?

Specs:

Media Encoder, 2015.4 Release, Build 10.4.0.26 (latest)
After Effects, 2015.3 Release, Version 13.8.1.38 (latest)
MacBook Pro Retina 15-in, Mid-2014, OS X 10.11.6 (latest) - 16 GB Ram, 2.5 GHZ i7
Source Comp; px 1.0, 29.97 fps, Progressive
Output, H.264 Match Source, High bitrate (VBR 1 pass)
Also exported as PNG sequence but the corruption was still there

As answered in this Q/A, the problem looks to be caused by the use of the CUDA renderer ("Mercury"). The solution is to switch to CPU-only rendering.


Adobe Media Encoder (Why is it not using all the available power) System Spec:
16 core 3950x
Nvidia rtx 3080
64gb of ram
1tb nvme
2tb ssd
4tb hdd

Software
AfterEffects - v17.5.1 (build 47)
MediaEncoder - v14.7 (build 17)

Problem:
So I'm outputting a fairly complex render at 1080p 30fps and the media encoder is only using 3% of the CPU and 6% of the GPU. I have always had issues with rendering but this new pc I have just bought should be rendering much faster than the old setup but they are basically identical. Can someone explain if there is something I can do to increase the performance or explain why the hell this shit is like this?

So after quite some time it turns out ame is pretty useless on using as much comp resources as you have. I did how ever find a really solid solution. Rendergarden is a third party tool that splits the output render into chunks and renders them all in parallel. I went from using no more than 3% cpu to render garden using as much as I asked ie 96%.
This axes render times by a factor I genuinely cannot believe. In real terms it cut a 3h 52min render into a 24min job. (16 CORES SMASHES THROUGH RENDERS)
It does cost money but if you are experiencing this issue this 100% removes the media encoder render bottleneck.


After Effects - Element 3D: Text arranged in a circle/ring form I need to dispose some letters extruded with Element 3D plug-in in After Effects
Like in this fast example:

I'm going crazy! Thank you in advance!

Make some text
Draw a circle mask within it and set mode to 'none'
Go text's Path option and select mask You've created
Adjust mask or/and font to get desirable result

Continue to work with Element 3D as in this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0p9gwKMSqk


HTML5 background video encoding settings I'm doing a full page background video and I'm trying to convert the original mp4 to an webm. The background will not have any audio.

I'm currently using ffmpeg.

ffmpeg -i INPUT.mp4 -b 614400 -s 960x540 -aspect 16:9 OUTPUT.webm

My question is what are the optimal settings to convert an mp4 to an webm file that will be used as a background video on a website?

There shouldn't be anything special about making a video for HTML5 video, so just look for any video encoding guide to learn about choosing how to trade off CPU time vs. bitrate vs. quality.

Hint: encode once, display many is a use case where it makes sense to spend as much CPU time as possible on the encode, to get the quality you want in as small a download as possible.


Tricky full body video conferencing I'm trying to setup a way to do video conferencing between two individuals. The tricky part is that the users need to be able to touch the screen and have the other user see their hand on their end. The only way this will work is if the camera is behind the screen filming through it. This has led us to this theoretical setup: camera + projector on one side of a transparent screen / person on the other side.
The issues that we've run into are:

we don't know of a screen material that will allow for a rear projector that will also allow the filming through it
the image being projected onto the individual

Please let me know if there are any screens that come to mind or an alternative setup or if I should stop right now.

Thanks

You will need a one-way mirror for this. It's related to something called front projection.

This setup is typically, except from the touch part, used with auto-cues (text projected in front of a camera that f.ex. a news anchor reads from appearing looking into the camera).

For example:

For a full body you would of course need a bigger mirror and you would need to project the image from top (or side), turn the mirror 90 degrees so it reflect what comes from top (or side), as well as a layer between the projector and mirror (can be as simple as a cloth)

In addition to that, you would need a video mixer so you can super-impose/mix in the interface that is supposedly touched (same as the projected image from the TV or projector) (alt. do it in post with composition/video editing software).

The tricky part is to get the overlayed video (the user-interface) synchronized with the touches from the talent. You would need initially to perform some calibration, f.ex. an image with fixed corners and a center that is projected while the talent touches these spots. Then scale/zoom/place video/camera to match the super-imposed image that is projected.

The other tricky part is the lighting conditions. The room need to be relative dark for the mirror to work properly at the same time as the talent is properly lit for the camera. You can darken the area behind and around the mirror with black colored textile in addition to turn off all none-talent lights and so forth.

Hope this helps!


get the position of a specific vertex in an After Effects shape Is it possible to get the position of a specific vertex of an After Effect shape ?

something like

var shape = parent.content("Shape 1").content("Path 1").path.value;
var vertexes = shape.vertices;
var startVertex = vertexes[0];

...

[x,y]

But this code does not work...

Thanks.

As of 2019 you can access a path of a shape or a mask like so:

myShape = thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").content("Shape 1").content("Path 1").path;

The path property is an object containing collections of points, inTangents and outTangents. It has three methods for obtaining the vertex details, points() returns the vertices, and inTangents() and outTangents() return the tangent handle positions if they have any. Each method optionally takes a time parameter to specify what time the data is retrieved. e.g.:

myPoints = myShape.points(); //you can optionally specify the time, e.g. .point(t=123)
myPoints[0]

myInTangents = myShape.inTangents();
myInTangents[0]

In addition there are other methods for getting an arbitrary point on a path not at a vertex, and for finding out if the path is closed. It's a world of fun! Read the docs here


Why does quality degrade so much if just cutting video with ffmpeg? I have tried to cut video with the following command

ffmpeg -i "Вспомнить все (Total Recall, 1990).avi"  -ss 01:07:29 -to 01:08:05 fight.avi

Output:

Input #0, avi, from '╨Т╤Б╨┐╨╛╨╝╨╜╨╕╤В╤М ╨▓╤Б╨╡ (Total Recall, 1990).avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
    artist          : Menen
  Duration: 01:53:33.69, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3660 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Advanced Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 704x384 [SAR 1:1 DAR 11:6], 2295 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 23.
98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 448 kb/s
    Stream #0:2: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 448 kb/s
    Stream #0:3: Audio: ac3 ([0] [0][0] / 0x2000), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 448 kb/s
File 'fight.avi' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Output #0, avi, to 'fight.avi':
  Metadata:
    IART            : Menen
    ISFT            : Lavf55.43.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (FMP4 / 0x34504D46), yuv420p, 704x384 [SAR 1:1 DAR 11:6], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbn, 23.98 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc55.67.100 mpeg4
    Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (libmp3lame) (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc55.67.100 libmp3lame
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg4 (native) -> mpeg4 (native))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (ac3 (native) -> mp3 (libmp3lame))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=  863 fps= 20 q=31.0 Lsize=    2690kB time=00:00:36.00 bitrate= 612.1kbits/s
video:2061kB audio:563kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 2.500957%

The resulting video has obviously worse quality, with apparent big MPEG squares visible

Why?

How to avoid?

UPDATE

Even if re-encoding, then why so drastical change? Can we re-encode so that it will be nearly invisible degrading of quality?

UPDATE 2

I guess if I use -codec copy then I will be unable to cut at precise moment. Moment precision is a priority. So I agree with quality loss but it should not be so drastical.

Re-muxing only

Use stream copy mode to just re-mux instead of re-encode:

ffmpeg -ss 01:07:29 -i input -codec copy -map 0 -to 01:08:05 fight.avi

Using -ss as an input option can be faster than using it as an output option, but it may not be as accurate.
-codec copy will stream copy (no re-encoding). Default behavior, if -codec copy is omitted, is to re-encode, and as you've noticed the default encoding settings for most encoders are not optimal (they used to be a decade ago).
Default stream selection is to select only one stream per stream type (video, audio, subtitles, data, etc). -map 0 will ensure all streams are copied in case there are multiples of each type. That being said, your input only has two different streams, so it is actually not needed here.
Development of ffmpeg is very active, so it is important to use a recent build if possible. See the FFmpeg Download page for several options.

If you must re-encode

-crf

You can target a "visually lossless" quality level using the encoder libx264 with the -crf option. CRF is just about as close as you can get to a "constant quality" option: 0 is lossless (but usually results in huge files), ~18 is usually considered to be visually lossless or nearly so, 23 is the default, and 51 is worst.

-preset

The encoding speed to compression (quality per file size) ratio. Basically use the slowest preset you have patience for: ultrafast, superfast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, slower, veryslow.

ffmpeg -i input -codec:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium -ss 01:07:29 -to 01:08:05 output

Also see

FFmpeg H.264 Encoding Guide
Seeking with FFmpeg


FFMPEG Convert video from while adding left/right bars with a specific color I've gotten a bit stuck on a manipulation that I am trying to do.

I have a 1920×1080 video.

I'd like to resize it to 1920×886, while keeping its aspect ratio, so it should add bars to the left and right. I'd like to specify the HEX color code of the side bars (#CFD3DA).

I've combined several answers to compose the following command, but it is unfortunately broken:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=1920:886:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1920:886:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:#CFD3DA@1,setsar=1 output.mp4

Was not too far!

ffmpeg -i input -vf "scale=1920:886:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1920:886:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:#CFD3DA@1" output.mp4


Downscale to "native" look I want to downscale UHD-1 videos to 1080p. According to this and on other websites the Lanczos method should give best result for downscaling.

However my goal is to downscale a video in a manner like it was captured natively in 1080p. Since there is more information available for UHD I fear that the downscaled video could result in better quality than it could have when captured natively by using a camera with 1080p resolution.

Your understanding of sampling seems to be a bit off.  When downsampling from a UHD stream you don't have more information than a native 1080p sensor capturing it, you have less.  When the 1080p sensor is capturing video, it has near infinite points and photons it can capture as it is looking at a real life source.  Each photosite captures exactly what photons hit it (within the margin of error of the photosite anyway).

With downscaling, you have a much, much smaller amount of input.  All you have is the samples available and you don't know exactly where within the pixel they came from.  If the sample is an exact multiple, then it is still possible to make an exact 1:1 mapping by combining a group of pixels in to the only pixels they impact, however if you do not have an evenly divisible number of pixels, then you can't determine the exact impact of your new set of pixels from your old and you have to apply some type of imperfect translation between them.

This imperfect translation will produce less positionally accurate information, but also can have other advantages.  One advantage of downsampling is the reduction of noise.  Since noise is random, averaging multiple samples together will generally reduce noise when all other factors are equal.  It's ideal for this to be done at an evenly divisible interval to avoid needing to translate data between pixels, but the advantage is still seen with any downscale.

Getting back to your question however, unless you are shooting an even multiple of 1080p or choose to crop your sensor input to an even multiple of 1080p, you will have some type of translation of pixels.  If you want the most "natural" look, I would encourage using a resolution and aspect that allows you to directly map pixels.


I want to digitise footage from a lot of DV tapes - should I use my camera or buy a tape deck? I have about 200 hours of footage I need to digitise. I have very little experience in the production side of video. What kind of kit do I need to digitise it, how does it work? and will it wear out my camera (sony A1) if I use that for digitising? I've got Adobe Premiere which I'm planning to use for capture.
I'm planning to use the footage for editing from to make a film.

Another option is to rent an appropriate deck from an equipment supplier. I don't know your local market so I can't recommend one, but I'm certain there are some in London. With a pro or semi-pro deck you should get advantages of speed and quality for much less cost than buying, and with no wear on your camera. You also retain the use of the camera if you need extra shots etc.

As for the 'how', that depends a bit on what software and hardware you plan to use. Maybe you could supply more details.


Is there a high-pass filter for videos in Adobe Premiere Pro? What I want to do is putting in high-pass filter effect on each image constituting a video by using Adobe Premiere Pro 13.1.2.

Premiere Pro has a high-pass filter for audios but it does not have a high-pass filter for videos as far as I can see.
Photoshop does.

I also have AfterEffects; the way to use it is welcome as well.

Any idea?

Thanks in advance.

The high pass plugin in Photoshop doesn't exist natively in After Effects or Premiere.  The Find Edges tool approximates the kind of effect you're after, but given that it's for a scientific assessment of something, probably won't work for you:

You could try something like the Unsharp Mask in After Effects or Premiere, and then apply it back to the original image using a Difference mode - gives this kind of effect:

If the high pass is what you need, I would export the video as an image sequence, then Automate a Batch in Photoshop to apply it (probably overnight).


Help with the epiphan vga2usb frame grabber I have been using the lowest level model of the Epiphan VGA2USB Frame Grabber to capture a video stream over vga.

It is an okay piece of hardware. It is just very expensive for what it is and there does not seem to be any other options.

Here is my problem:

I typically capture slide presentations in 1024 x 768, so it should default to 10 fps, using the Epiphan capture tool software that came with it. I would think that the video should be pretty seamless at 10 fps, but it is not. There seems to be a lot of horizontal lines for about two seconds after every slide change.

Here is what I am thinking it might be:

The capture tool software that came with it is junk. I notice now that they have a new suggestions section. Perhaps any verification on these would be sufficient.
The cheapest model of the frame grabber is not that good, and if I want to eliminate this problem I need to get one of the better models.

Here's how you can help:

Verify that it is the capture tool and suggest a different software to use.
Verify that it is the frame grabber itself and suggest options.

I'd first try some different software to see if it is a hardware shortcoming or not.  If it is a hardware short coming, I'd go for a different approach to getting the highest quality signal possible.

Based on your needs to operate with minimal gear, taking the fewest devices and trying to keep the best quality, I'd probably try and go with something like an HDMI capture device like the Black Magic Intensity (which will work over either Thunderbolt or USB3) and then for dealing with analog signals coming in, I'd probably pick up a scan converter to handle the analog signals.

DVI's pretty much cross compatible with HDMI, so if you can get either DVI or HDMI, you should be able to use it with the Intensity directly.


RG6 vs RG59 HD-SDI cables for live stream It seems there are lots of discussions on the web, none recently though, on RG6 vs RG59 and the distances that they can carry signal.

For situations when quality matters, such as live streaming (as opposed to something like CCTV), is RG6 the only way to go?

A 984' RG59 cable costs just about as much as a 200' RG6 cable. Assume that the signal is powerful enough to send the signal over 900'. Will the RG59 cable experience significant and noticeable signal loss compared to the RG6 cable?

There is a significant price different between the two types, so if I can get away with a RG59 cable, certainly I will.

Unfortunately there is no perfect or exact answer. Your question topic mentions HD-SDI, which is a digital signal. Those tends to degrade 'cliff-wise', unlike analog signals where degradation is gradual. It will partly depend on the quality of the receiving device -- whether or not, or how well, it can capture the signal as the eye pattern turns to mush.

Having said that, 900 feet over RG59 is bound to be trouble, even over the premium shielded variants like Belden 1505a. For 720p, that's rated for maybe 200 feet. Your footage may vary (-:

RG6 will be better, but again, shielding matters so you're better off with 1694a or equivalent. Even then, I wouldn't gamble on 900' without testing it in place.


Live preview GoPro on Android I'm using a GoPro Hero 4 black edition and a fyg4s hand held stabilizer.. in fyg4s I have the option to connect the GimBall to an analog monitor using a USB connector from GoPro (not an HDMI connector)...

My goal is to use my Android phone as live preview while I'm shooting the video. How do I connect my Android to GoPro to see what my GoPro captured using the USB connector passing through the fyg4s GimBall? Because the output cable from the GimBall looks like a 3.5 mm audio jack...

As the stabilizer got a USB female port things are lot easier. Let me break your question into these two:

In order to use your Android device as a live preview device you need a capture card.
To view what you captured from the camera, you need an application for that.

Re: GoPro Hero4 Black edition has Wi-Fi as in the specs though some cameras lack in Wi-Fi. If you have Wi-Fi you don't need the equipment, you just need the GoPro app on your phone, and it will show you the moments you captured.

Let me answer.

You need an OTG cable with a Capture card for live-streaming. You can refer to the link for purchasing the capture card. Check this link for the video.
There is no possible way to view what you have captured unless you are connected via Wi-Fi or via the USB to PC.

You can try out connecting the camera to the phone via the OTG cable, you need a USB Male-to-Male cable for that.

Recommended Answer: Use an FPV (First-person view) cable for live streaming, easy and fast. You can find all the info related to it here.

Hope this helps. Good day!


How to automatically synchronize two recordings of the same event? Let's say I have two recordings (or more) of the same event. Maybe one has been recorded slightly slower or faster (different "pitch") than the other one and has been started several seconds after or before the other one.

Let's also say, for simplicity's sake, that there are no gaps in the recordings.

I can synchronize the recordings manually in a software such as Audacity by importing the different recordings as tracks and shifting/stretching them, but is there any way to do that process automatically?

There is a plugin called vocalign that will do this. It is designed mainly for aligning vocal overdub and replacment dialog but it should work for what you are doing. You can use it as a VST in audacity. It isn't cheap but, if my memory serves me correct, it has a fully functioning demo.

http://www.synchroarts.com/index.php?PAGEID=products&ID=vocalign


Where to get codecs? I have a two part codec question.

I want upload a 100 min video to YouTube. Export size from Premiere Pro is 22GB on disk. Here are the only Codecs I have installed:

I'm new to this, and was advised to use a H 264 codec.

Is that a good codec to use for smaller file sizes without losing quality.
Where do I get this codec from?

You need to change the format from AVI to h.264. In the top of the export window there's a section where you get to choose formats:

It's a bit confusing, because it mixes container formats like AVI and Quicktime with codecs like h.264. If you chose AVI you are limited to a few older codecs, as you've seen.

Once you've chosen h.264 you can then chose a preset. The default Match Source - high bitrate preset is usually spot-on for YouTube, as it's a good compromise between quality and file size. It will automatically match the resolution and frame rate of your sequence, so you won't have to worry about other settings.

If your video is 4K or larger you could also consider h.265, which is designed for UHD. It's a lot slower to compress, so don't bother if you're exporting HD or lower.


Combine video and audio TS segments coming from HLS stream Apple HLS streams MPEG-2 TS files containing video and audio data in packetized elementary stream format. These segments (.ts files) can be joined in order to build final video.

Recent version of HLS can now produce segments with video data only in TS files, and audio data only in another TS files. This is used to serve multilanguages video.

Regardless of HLS itself, how can I process to remux TS files containing video data, and audio data, in one TS file? Joining TS files together doesn't work; I get data from first TS file combined with the same type of data from next TS files (only video or audio).

You can use tsMuxer to add the audio stream from one .ts file into the .ts file containing the video or vice versa. This is called muxing and doesn't affect the quality of the audio or video in any way.


Why filmmaking with DSLR? Adding video feature to digital camera was for their popular applications, as unprofessional users wanted to have both photography and videography at the same time. Professional cameras were exclusively divided to photography or videography. However, this situation is changing, and videography features are added to DSLR cameras too.

The interesting point is that the level professionality of videography on photography cameras are reaching the highest level, as many filmmakers use DSLR camera for professional projects. I understand that technology is advancing with better DSLR cameras, but video cameras were also advanced. Why there is such tendency to use photography camera for filmmaking?

What are the technical advantages (or even better pros and cons) of using photography DSLR camera for filmmaking?

The main advantage is cost.  Historically, there were two main types of imaging sensors, CMOS and CCD.  CMOS was historically used in digital cameras (because of the higher quality images it can capture, the lower cost, and the fact that digital cameras only have to capture a single moment).

CCDs on the other hand were historically used in video cameras, with one CCD per color (3CCD) to increase the quality.  They have been significantly more expensive and generally capable of lower resolutions, but had the advantage of capturing the entire frame at the same time.

Most CMOS sensors scan line by line rather than capturing a fixed image at a time, they exhibit an artifact known as a rolling shutter.  This appears as a distortion when the camera is moving (particularly panning) due to the change of orientation mid-frame.  Previously, the sample rates for CMOS sensors were too slow to allow their use for video, but as the technology has improved, it is now possible to sample quickly enough that, while still present, rolling shutter is not nearly the problem it was even a few years ago.  Now there are even CMOS sensors capable of offering a global shutter and they have all but supplanted the old CCD based cameras, with even major motion pictures being shot on CMOS sensors with global shutters.

The advances in CMOS technology have allowed for CMOS sensors to be used in professional level video, bringing with them the low cost, high resolution and high quality that had previously not been possible.  Global shutter CMOS still costs more than rolling shutter relative to other features of the sensor, so rolling shutter is still present in many cameras (even fairly high end cinema cameras) due to the cost savings and the fact that higher sampling speed has greatly reduced the impact of rolling shutters.

Another large advantage is size.  DSLRs tend to have less processing capability to work with the large amounts of data involved in things like 4k video, so they are more limited in capability, but they also are much smaller and more portable.  This is probably most visible in comparing the Black Magic Production Camera and the Black Magic Ursa Mini 4k.  Both use the same 4k sensor, however the size of the BMPC limits it's ability to work with high frame rate video as well as some other features of the camera.  The Ursa Mini is a much larger form factor that currently costs the exact same amount, but is able to fit more features in due to the extra size and hardware that can be included in the larger form factor.


How to change start time using ffmpeg? I am recording a live stream to .ts file. But when I run this file through ffmpeg using

ffmpeg -i myRecordedFile.ts

it gives me wrong start time which is way out of the range. For example, my file's duration is 45 minutes but ffmpeg returns start 18910.272911

Is there a way to change the start value of a video file?

FFmpeg is simply telling you the starting timestamp as parsed from the input. MPEG-TS is a transport stream format, used to convey television broadcasts..etc, having no global header, and can be sliced at ~arbitrary points. There are timestamp packets (PCR) at regular intervals, and ffmpeg is showing you the timestamp of the earliest packet.

If you want your TS to have a start time of 0, you'll have to remux it.

ffmpeg -i myRecordedFile.ts -map 0 -c copy -muxpreload 0 -muxdelay 0 newFile.ts

..but this is unnecessary.


Adobe Premiere lagging video playback Premiere Pro CC 2015 and I have not had such a smooth existence. For some reason, Premiere will playback fine with no dropped frames, and then after about 10-15 seconds it starts dropping frames. This typically starts at the beginning of a new clip, and then continues to the next. This happens far less frequently when color correction isn't applied, such as MBL 12 (not gpu accelerated) or even Lumetri (gpu accelerated), however, on occasion it does still happen. I've checked my processes and the CPU, RAM, or VRAM are not saturated. Now the kicker is, all I have to do to stop the lag is to press space to stop playback, and again to start again.

System specs: i7 3930k, 32gb DDR3 1600, GTX 980ti 6GB VRAM, SSD for Premiere, HDD for cache files and media for the project

Files: ranging from ProRes, .mxf, DNXHD, .etc.

I figured it could be the following scenario:

audio related? I've had a situation before where an audio effect (not applicable to this question) actually brought my timeline to a halt w.r.t. playback
loading up different codecs on the same timeline (hence this happens at the start of a single clip and then bogs down the timeline)
HDD isn't fast enough, replace with SSD

Has anyone experienced anything similar, and perhaps can help me find a solution?

My experience is that people that complain about choppy playback have either outdated hardware, or are using very esoteric formats, and/or have a system with a lot of crap on it, that seriously gets in the way of editing. You are definitely not in the first category, I don't know the origin of your clips and the codec used, so you could be in the second category, but most likely you have a polluted system.


iMovie Help: Transition still keeps the previous clips' audio See where the cursor/line is? One of the cast members are still talking -- in the middle of a transition, how is that possible? Considering we see it END right before it fades to black? I have made it to fade out to black but still nothing.

Generally speaking, a transition will start before the end of a clip.  You need enough video to have something to play while the transition is occurring.  The video will normally keep running until the end of the transition and that also means that the audio will keep running until the transition finishes.  You would need to play with the volume adjustments to bring down the level of the track that you don't want to have keep playing.


Sharpen DV footage after upscale to HDV I have some DV footage that I'm using in an HDV sequence and have upscaled it to mach the resolution of the HDV footage (1080i), what's the best way to get rid of the resulting blurriness?

I'm using premiere pro.

Since you're scaling 2x or more, your best bet is to upscale the DV again using Avisynth with the nnedi rpow2 filter, then scale, if necessary, to HDV.

(With some tangible details, I can provide an example script.)

Trying to sharpen the upscaled videos will produce worse results than the above method.


What's the right project profile for my WVGA60 videos in Premiere Elements 10? I'm having issues rendering a project with Premiere Elements 10. Basically it gets stuck at "Estimated Time: 00:00:05" and never does anything after that. After I click Cancel the program just crashes.

Someone had suggested I might have picked the wrong project profile for my videos. I tried various presets without much success. I even upscaled all my footage to 720p without much success.

Judging from this codec info from one the WVGA60 video I used, which profile do I need to use?

The advantage of rendering to uncompressed AVI is that you can render the project piecemeal and then join them together later on. So first, render only the entire project's audio to WAV. Then render the video (without audio) in contiguous chunks e.g. frames 0-200 to segment1.avi, then frames 201-400 to segment2.avi and so on. Once done, load the first AVI in avidemux and then do a file->append of segment2.avi and so on. Finally, from audio->main track, set source to external WAV and then browse & select the WAV. Now you can encode to final output from within AVIdemux.


Why is 4K downsampled so much better than 1080p at low bitrates? I noticed when I export my footage at low bitrates (eg. 10 Mbps, 1080p), my 1080p footage looks way blurrier than my downscaled 4K footage.

This is despite the fact that the original footage looks similar in terms of sharpness when viewed at 1080p. Anyone knows what is the problem? This issue disappears at higher bitrates.

Another weird thing is that 10 Mbps 4K downsampled is actually sharper than 50 Mbps native 1080p? I can't get my head around this. I always thought the benefits of downsampling is only visible at high bitrates. Something about the low bitrate seems to affect the 1080p footage but not the 4K footage.

Have a look at the images below - no sharpening applied - tried to get roughly the same framing. Ignore my color grading, I know it's not that great.

Also, I'm using the latest version of Adobe Media Encoder. The 1080p footage in question is 120p if that matters, and the original 1080p footage has quite a low bitrate. However, as seen in the image below, despite the low bitrate, the original still looks relatively sharp.

Original

50 Mbps Export

10 Mbps Export

10 Mbps Export (4K downscaled)

First let me explain chroma subsampling, as this is the reason why 4k -> 1080p always looks better than native 1080p

Consumer & pro-sumer camera gear, anything not super high end, cuts some corners to save on processing and storage.  You'll find this information when you look in your specs and see the 4:2:2 like number.  So what's happening is for every 4 pixels, in a square, 2 of them are being used for color (so the top 2 pixels are the same color, and the bottom two pixels are the same color) and all 4 pixels have their own brightness level so that you get the appearance of 4 different colors in this 2x2 block of pixels.  This reduces the amount of data by 1/3rd and what's even more popular even in higher end equipment is 4:2:0 which cuts the data in half.  The reason it saves so much is because a color requires 3 pieces of information plus 1 piece for brightness, so 4 per pixel, but if you throw away color information but keep half or all the brightness, you can approximate the colors.  This is generally imperceivable to the naked eye but it's still a detail shortcut and it's problematic for green screening where you now have multiple mixes of green and non green mixing together and is part of the reason why you see a green halo around people in amateur green screening.

This concept is applied at any level you are recording, so if you record at 1080p your camera is probably doing 422 or 420 and if you kick it up to 4k it's still doing 422/420 but when you down sample 4k to 1080p e, you turn a 2x2 block of pixels into 1 pixel, so now you have all the color and light detail so you are essentially at 444 quality, which is maximum detail.

You can read more about it on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling


Pinnacle Studio 17 vs Adobe Premiere Pro CC I have my own YouTube channel that I am currently developing graphics for. I use Adobe Photoshop CC to create the graphics and I have been using a trial of Premiere Pro for video editing and I love it.

However, I'm lucky enough to of got Photoshop on a year contract cheap from a special offer on Adobe but Premiere Pro will cost me twice as much each month for a year. I've seen Pinnacle Studio 17 Ultimate Movie Editor in a local store for £75 and that's a one-off cost.

So my question is: would I be able to use Pinnacle Studio as well as I used Premiere Pro?

Needs:

Accepts video formats that Premiere Pro does including .MP4
Multiple video & audio layers
Adjust position and size of separate layers
Chroma key
Accept .psd files (if possible)
Change audio layer volumes independently

Both Pinnacle Studio 17 and Premiere Pro CC will suit the needs you listed, but only Premiere Pro accepts .psd files, Pinnacle Studio does not. Furthermore, Premiere Pro has an option to directly export frames to Photoshop, edit them there, and import them back to Premiere Pro. That sounds like a feature you will find useful.


Exporting a video from Premiere spits out incorrect quality I'm trying to export a video from Premiere(CC) with the following settings:

I recorded this video in Motion-JPEG 1080p/60Fps out of Bandicam. I've recorded videos in Bandicam (same settings as mentioned) and edited said videos in Premiere, and exported those videos with the same problem. I only noticed the issue just now.

The only difference in my export settings in Premiere this time, is that I decided to use 60Mbps target, as previous exports have been in the 20-40 range.

When my file had finished rendering I checked the bitrate and file size, and was shocked to discover Windows 7 telling me that it was 12Mbps and 3GB, despite Premiere's target being 60Mbps and estimated 11.5GB.

Looking at my previous video that was 40Mbps Windows is showing an actual bitrate of 8Mbps. My current video took about an hour to render, yet only has a measly 12Mbps.

Why is this happening and what can I do to prevent it/get full quality?

When you export with h.264 in Premiere it has two bars as you show. A target bitrate, and a maximum bitrate.

The target bitrate is after all, only a target, and if your video doesn't have enough movement or fast action then you won't get the full Mbps that you've set. Even lowering it enough to only export 12Mbps because your video doesn't have a lot of movement.

Exporting a video with more movement will yield 60Mbps or more, depending on your settings.


Why is my camcorder creating 10:40 clips? I was given a used Sony NEX VG20 as a gift.  I bought this SD card for it - "SanDisk 128GB Extreme SDXC UHS-I Card - C10, U3, V30, 4K UHD, SD Card - SDSDXV5-128G-GNCIN", https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H48412Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

I tried filming with it today for just over 50 minutes straight and it produced five files - four at 10 minutes, 40 seconds and one at 9 minutes, 25 seconds.  While this is OK, for the most part, the problem is, when it ends one file and creates the new one, it doesn't capture the audio for that split second.

I was unable to find a setting anywhere on the camcorder to increase or decrease the maximum length of a single clip.

Is there a way for me to set this camcorder to capture everything as one file?

I also wondered if this is a limitation of the SD card I'm using.  Do SD cards have a limitation on the size of a single file?

Most devices use memory formatted as FAT32, which gives you a 4GB file size limit, so a recording is broken up across multiple files. For Sony products, Catalyst Browse is normally the software used to re-combine the files:
https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/catalystbrowse

Normally you would import the files off the card using that, then select the files together and right click/combine. It should make a continuous single file recording from the source files, with nothing missing.


Awful Audio in Video post-render (Premiere Pro CC) I'm trying out Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 and I have a video with three audio tracks. The quality of each track is as follows (listed as the "Source Audio Format" in Premiere):

48,000 Hz 16-bit Mono
16,000 Hz 16-bit Mono
44100 Hz - compressed - Stereo

The sequence settings for the audio is "48,000 Hz, Stereo, and Audio Samples". When I render what I'm trying to use is h.264 and for audio my settings are "AAC, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, High, 320 Kbps, Bitrate"

I've tried numerous other settings as well, including different encodings, and whenever I render out the video the audio sounds thin and echoes a ton. It is really awful. The only way I'm able to get all three tracks to play together nicely, is if I render them as an uncompressed .wav file, but obviously I'll get no video then. Another strange thing is that all the other tracks (in camera audio, music track) sound completely fine, but the one that's really important, the narrative voice over sounds awful.

What am I doing wrong?!

EDIT: Here are some pictures of the settings

Do they playback properly in Premiere before you render? If they playback fine when you export them as uncompressed wav, try exporting them to wav, then import that single wav back into your project, mute the other 3 channels, and then export your single wav and single video.


Defined Technical Specs for 'Broadcast Quality' Does anyone know if there are clear technical specs a digital file can be assessed against to confirm a valid 'broadcast quality' file?

EG: Video = certain bitrate  Audio = certain bitrate.

Obviously 'non-broadcast quality' files can be faked by resaving to meet such specs, but as a starting point are there guidelines?

This depends entirely on who you are delivering to. Different broadcasters have different requirements.  Most have a delivery spec sheet that you can request, or that they publish online. e.g. here's the BBC one.


Organizing a Multicam Clip in Premiere In Adobe Premiere Pro 2015, you cannot sub-clip a multi-camera source clip, which is a shame, because sub-clipping is the most useful way I've found in Premiere for organizing segments of an extended interview.

I have a 2-hour multi-camera clip from an interview for a mini-documentary. My normal mini-doc/corporate workflow is:

import footage
watch and tag (sub-clip) footage
create rough cut by adding sub-clips to a sequence and fine-tuning

Now that I've got a multicam interview, I want to preserve this workflow or find an alternative. I've considered creating a sequence for each interview segment, but that requires a lot more interaction with the UI, slowing down the workflow. Yet it's important to organize these clips, because this interview may get used in multiple productions over the next several months, and I only want to watch and tag it once.

Question: Is there a way to tag multicam clips in Premiere that achieves the same organizational goal as sub-clipping?

I was recently editing a 5-camera short film with Premiere. Over 7 hrs worth of footage. Lots of going back and forth over the clips. Lots of trying different angles. All that over many weeks. Yet, we never got lost or confused about what was happening or where things were.

Create your multi-cam sequence.
Log all camera angles individually by using a lot of markers and/or extended markers. Label those markers clearly and consistently: mention the subject discussed and whatever interesting thing the interviewee does (facial expression, laughter, hand movement, etc.)
Maybe use a marker-color per subject-matter.
I would make sure to keep the original multi-cam sequence cuts-free. Just duplicate it as many times as you need to: that way you can always come back to it, a clean slate, if and when the cutting gets messy.
Edit the interview by copying and pasting bits that deal with similar issues to as many sequences as you have subject matters. Duplicate those initial "sub-sequences" and edit their duplicates down, as the director and you see fit.
Make sure that you name those "subject-sequences" clearly. Let's say one is about "Boats". Call the first one "151031_Boats_E01" for the date, the subject matter and the edit number. Then the duplicate would be called "151031_Boats_E02", etc. Duplication is you friend. Use bins, etc. I'm sure you have your workflow already anyway.

That way, you should be able to get back to your edit and the various subject matters over the course of a few months without finding yourself lost.


I use FCPX, curious on how I can put a non-360 clip into a 360 video? I have some drone footage that is not in 360 that I really want to put into my 360 video. Everything else is shot in 360, is there a way to show the non-360 clip without it looking terrible?

It looks like the Dashwood 360 VR plug-ins have a plug-in called Project 2D on Sphere that allows you to put 2D footage into your 360° panorama:

  The Project 2D on Sphere plugin can be used to place logos in your 2:1 equirectangular projection

It has a variety of other useful tools, too.


What is the maximum amount of memory Adobe Premiere Pro can efficiently utilize? From my experience with programming I know that just throwing more memory against even a well paralized program will not speed it up after a certain limit due to various practical limitations (tasks can only be split in so many parts, waiting==processing or countless of other scenarios). Is there a limit at which which Adobe Premiere Pro doesn't speed up significantly anymore? Does it make sense to build a PC with 128GB or 512GB of memory? (My colleague is considering building a PC with 128GB and I am just a bit skeptical of this being... worth it, though I might be absolutely wrong as this really is not my area of expertise (and just for the record, I know that it's a 64-bit application and that it can address all available memory up to windows' limit, what I am asking is about the practical world)).

That entirely depends on what kind of footage he work with and how long his average cuts are. If we are talking hour long movies a bigger amount of RAM can be worth it.
Though 128GB would be completely useless if he only uses Premiere it just doesn't use that much RAM.
We built a high-end workstation once for huge 3D renderings that has 64GB RAM, the only times we utilize that fully is when working with gigantic 3D scenes in Cinema 4D or 3Ds Max. After Effects barley goes beyond 20GB unless you need an hour long RAM previews for some reason and Premiere is usually around 5-7GB even when cutting 60min plus movies.
So if hes only using Premiere, 128GB would be a complete waste of money. I would not recommend anything more than 32GB on a video editing only workstation.

When using Premiere a high-end GPU is a lot more worth performance wise, Premiere can render in realtime with a powerfull GPU making having a ton of system RAM a bit useless.

I can recommend using gaming cards instead of workstation cards, the only difference is support and drivers, the gaming cards are much more powerful and a lot cheaper. I have never experienced any stability differences in Adobe software with a Workstation card compared to a gaming card. A good mixture of gaming GPU and workstation GPU is the GeForce GTX Titan, its meant for CUDA development and other CUDA usage.

Alternatively in the latest Premiere version there is also full OpenCL support, so a high-end AMD card would also be a good choice.
F.e. The R9 290X or if he wants a workstation GPU for some reason the FirePro W9100 is currently the high-end model, though a waste of money in my opinion. You do not need 16GB Vram with Premiere. I would probably go for the W9000 or W8000.

Edit: As AJ Henderson mentioned, footage gets almost never fully cached in RAM so a fast SSD or maybe an SSD array will be much more beneficial than more RAM aswell.
Going for fast disk I/O and a good GPU is a good combination nowadays. Having a high-end multi core CPU and lots of RAM is getting less and less important in the graphics world.


Brightness/Contrast Difference from PC to YouTube So I have a trailer I've been working on, I did everything in Davinci Resolve 12. When I convert the video using Handbrake everything looks fine, but when I upload it to YouTube, either there's a ton more contrast, or gray is being remaped to black, not sure, but the photos below should show what I'm talking about.

I've done quite a bit of research, and the closest I've come is there might be something wrong with the way YouTube treats color spaces in conjunction with how I converted it. Any ideas? Thanks.

EDIT: Just finished uploading a version I converted with MPEG Streamclip, and the color looks great, though it was washed out on my PC. It came out as a ~200MB file for just a few seconds at 100% though, so not fun to upload. Looked just as crisp with Handbrake at ~27MB. Any way to take the color/brightness stuff from Streamclip and use it with Handbrake?

YouTube:

VLC on my PC:

Looks like Handbrake is outputting full range but flagging it as video levels, so the Handbrake output actually has Y=0 as black and Y=255 as white but the flag is telling Youtube that Y=16 is black and Y=235 is white.

If you upload a short segment (3-5s) of both your Handbrake input and output, that can be confirmed.


How to create Frame Sequential / Alternate frames 3D video from two separate one Platform is Linux, CLI tools is needed.

There are two files: one for left eye another for right eye. I search a way to compose it into single 3D MKV (or any other container) with alternate frame format.

I tried FFmpeg filter framepack and MKV metadata stereo_mode=block_lr:

ffmpeg -i input_l.mkv -i input_r.mkv -filter_complex framepack=frameseq -metadata stereo_mode=block_lr -y out.mkv

But result is short, not all frames repacked/remuxed: input files contains 500 frames, out.mkv contains only 32 one and has doubled FPS.

I expect, that output file will contain 1000 frames.

Any tools are welcomed.

Another related question: is it possible to do such muxing without frame re-encoding? Input files already well-coded and I want just repack them into 3D video format.

PS FFmpeg version 4.2.1

framepack is buggy filter. Use framepack=frameseq,settb=1/50,setpts=N, where 50 is frame rate you want to use, and it should be twice of input framerate.


Premiere: Add transition to trimmed clip In the screenshot below, I trimmed the left clip (by dragging its right edge to the left) in order to remove a couple of seconds from the end.

But the applied morph cut transition is only added to the right clip when I drag it there (which doesn't work, just shows an error in the video). How can I fix this?

Delete the transition, click on the edge between the two clips, so it goes red like this:

Then apply the transition.
If you cannot, it's because one of the clips does not have any more frames to the other side of it with which to complete the transition.  ie if your transition is 10 frames long, you need five extra frames of footage on the left and right edges for it to work.


mp4 file will not play video, only audio on quicktime, fine on VLC I have an mp4 file that will not play video, only audio, on QuickTime (10.4 on Yosemite) - and by extension does not show the correct icon in Finder not will it play properly on iOS devices.

Others play fine. Video encoding is H264, audio is AAC, so it should work. I tried remuxing it with ffmpeg, no luck.

Mac console shows "QuickTime Player: ava error: fail in SeqAndPicParamSetFromCFDictionaryRef"

Happy to remux (prefer not to re-encode, but I will if I have to) using ffmpeg, mp4box, whatever.

Below is file information:

 * Movie Info *
    Timescale 600 - Duration 02:15:51.210
    Fragmented File no - 2 track(s)
    File Brand M4A  - version 0
    Created: GMT Sun Nov 27 14:25:55 2011

File has root IOD
Scene PL 0xff - Graphics PL 0xff - OD PL 0xff
Visual PL: AVC/H264 Profile (0x15)
Audio PL: AAC Profile @ Level 2 (0x29)
No streams included in root OD

Track # 1 Info - TrackID 1 - TimeScale 48000 - Duration 02:15:51.210
Media Info: Language "Undetermined" - Type "soun:mp4a" - 382088 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 2 Channel(s) - SampleRate 48000
Self-synchronized

Track # 2 Info - TrackID 2 - TimeScale 24000 - Duration 02:15:51.143
Media Info: Language "Undetermined" - Type "vide:avc1" - 195432 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Visual Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x21
AVC/H264 Video - Visual Size 1216 x 544 - Profile High @ Level 4.1
NAL Unit length bits: 24
Pixel Aspect Ratio 1:1 - Indicated track size 1216 x 544
Synchronized on stream 1

I cannot imagine it is the order of tracks, audio before video. I have a suspicion it has something to do with the ftyp, but unsure?

EDIT:

After the suggestion by #ProfessorSparkles below, I changed the Profile Level using subler... but it still doesn't work, same problem. Sound is fine, no video. Here is the updated mp4 info:

* Movie Info *
    Timescale 600 - Duration 02:15:51.210
    Fragmented File no - 2 track(s)
    File Brand M4A  - version 0
    Created: GMT Sun Nov 27 14:25:55 2011

File has root IOD
Scene PL 0xff - Graphics PL 0xff - OD PL 0xff
Visual PL: AVC/H264 Profile (0x15)
Audio PL: AAC Profile @ Level 2 (0x29)
No streams included in root OD

Track # 1 Info - TrackID 1 - TimeScale 48000 - Duration 02:15:51.210
Media Info: Language "Undetermined" - Type "soun:mp4a" - 382088 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 2 Channel(s) - SampleRate 48000
Self-synchronized
Alternate Group ID 1

Track # 2 Info - TrackID 2 - TimeScale 24000 - Duration 02:15:51.143
Media Info: Language "Undetermined" - Type "vide:avc1" - 195432 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Visual Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x21
AVC/H264 Video - Visual Size 1216 x 544 - Profile Main @ Level 3.1
NAL Unit length bits: 24
Pixel Aspect Ratio 1:1 - Indicated track size 1216 x 544
Synchronized on stream 1

You will have to re-encode or use a tool to change your h264 level, f.e. this one http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/h264leveleditor but its windows only, there might also be a Mac tool that does the same. Your video is encoded with High Profile Level 4.1. iOS only support Level 3.1 and probably the same with QuickTime on Yosemite.


See all video layers at once in a preview/program menu - Adobe Premiere Pro I work with Adobe Premiere Pro and I am editing a wedding.  We had 5 cameras at the wedding and I am having to hide and show video layers a lot to determine the best shot for specific moments and when to fade in, etc.

I've got dual screen and I would like to be able to have all the difference layers displayed on my second screen to be able to see all camera angles as the video plays to determine which shot I want to have showing at any given time.  I need the regular "program" to be able to see what the video actually looks like LIVE.

Any way to do this in Premiere Pro?

Thanks

The short answer is YES!  The specific Adobe documentation you need to read is here: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/create-multi-camera-source-sequence.html

But the general idea is simple: given a set of clips that are all synchronized on the timeline, group them together as a single object (a multicam clip or a nested sequence), and then set your viewer's display mode from "Composite Video" to "Multicam Viewer".  The multicam viewer will show, side-by-side, the 5 clips (in a matrix) and the presently selected camera angle.  When you play the clip, you can select which angle to switch to, and when.  The first time through you don't have to be super-precise about the when, because you can always slip the edit point earlier or later in the timeline as you need.  And you can later decide "I don't want Angle 2 because somebody is photobombing from that direction, so let's cut to Angle 5 instead".  It takes a little while to get the hang of it, but it's pretty easy, once you have your clips synchronized, grouped, and displayed in Multicam View.


Tips for recording pen and paper I've got a set-up where I'm using an iPad to record myself writing something on a white sheet of paper (with less-than-perfect lighting, of course). I'm recording a video in 1080p, and would like to improve its quality.

The kind of things I'd like to do are:

Even out the paper tone or, better yet, make the paper invisible. Other objects in the frame (the writing and my hand) are 'less white', so I'd like to keep them.
If possible, get rid of my hand altogether, leaving only the stuff that's on the page. Not sure how feasible it is, but I thought that since my hand is moving, maybe it can be filtered out. (Writing is 'moving' too, but stays persistent after I move my hand away.)

I'd appreciate any ideas for how this can be achieved. I know the second-part is science-fiction (or maybe not, but not doable with stock tools). Thanks!

The old school way is stop-motion animation. You basically take snapshots of the paper at regularly timed intervals, where you remove you hand and take the snapshot, then compile a video from the stills. You can use interpolation to smooth out the framerate.

Another idea to remove your hand and pencil is to chroma-key your hand and drawing implement (green-screen). If you keep the hand and pencil away from the center of the frame, you might have some success with this, and touch up any problems with elements from earlier or later frames. Problems with this: reflectance of the mask color on the paper; cast shadows etc.

Lastly, and probably most difficult, is to use a secondary camera (such as a video camera with "night-mode") and an IR pass filter. Cover or disable the IR spotlight on the camera, and attach an IR LED (extracted from a tv remote etc) very close to the business end of the pencil. With the right setup, one might wind up with a dark video field with light area where the LED is shining. With some manipulation, and {magic}, you now have a mask of the pencil area.


Applying effects to only selected characters in Text Say I made a Text+ object with the following message:

Bold only THIS character.

How would I apply certain effects (like bolding/colors) to only certain words? Where it will end up like this:

Bold only THIS character

I am using Davinici Resolve 16.2.7

Your question doesn't mention whether you're using text+ from the Edit page, or from the Fusion page, but the answer is the same nevertheless.  You can't create one text element which contains two different styles from the Edit page.  To get individual control of different letters and words in a text+ object, you need to switch over to Fusion.  If you created it on the Edit page initially, switching to Fusion with the playhead over the clip will automatically populate the node tree with everything you need.
With the text+ node hilighted, Right-click anywhere in the text entry area of the inspector.  Select "Character Level Styling" from the context menu dropdown that appears.

You'll now be able to select individual characters and words interactively in the viewport.  Click and drag a lasso around the word you want to change.

When you release the mouse, you'll see kerning guides to indicate which letters are selected.

You'll find the controls to change character-level styling under the "modifiers" tab of the inspector.  If no text is selected, the controls disappear, which is a quirk of the interface which makes the feature difficult to discover.  But with the letters selected, Fusion exposes a ton of attributes to control or animate at the character level.  The text, transform, and shading tabs will now operate on the active selection, and you can change the active selection at any time.  You can also reset all character-level styling, or reset only selected elements by using the buttons in the inspector.

One drawback of Resolve's Charachter Level Styling modifier, is that it isn't very suited to dynamic text changes.  For example, say you meticulously style a person's first and last name, with a different style on the first name.  Say, for example you style...

JohnSmith

...and then learn that there's no "h" in his name.  For the sake of argument, you're using CamelCase, with no whitespace between first and last name.  When you correct the spelling, your styling will look like:

JonSmith

This is because Resolve's character level styling follows the letter count, including whitespace.
To fix this, and to address your question more directly, you would select the word you want to un-bold by drawing a marquis around it, click the "clear character styling on selection" button, then select the word you DO want to be bold, and change the styling in the modifier tab.
You'll find that this behavior will often encourage you to create an entirely different text+ node (to split styles in fusion) or text+ timeline layer (to split style on edit page), and obviate the use of the character-level styling modifier, which is unfortunate once you get used to its convenience.  But on the other hand, when the two elements need dynamic flexibility, they'll need separate logic control anyway.
*These screenshots show Resolve R17b2, which will look slightly different from yours, but the functionality is the same.