Comparing PSNR/SSIM of two videos with different fps/bit-depth I have a 720p, 30 fps, 8-bit source video. I'm downscaling it to 480p, and I want to measure quality using PSNR/SSIM under two scenarios:

Keeping crf/speed settings same, I want to encode in 8-bit(yuv420p) and 10-bit(yuv420p10le). I want to measure SSIM/PSNR using ffmpeg's filter. Now normally I'd do something like

ffmpeg -i reference.mkv -i distorted.8bit.mkv/distorted.10bit.mkv -lavfi "ssim" -f null -

where reference.mkv is 480p lossless ffv1 from the same source. Now the problem here is, that reference.mkv is 8-bit but one of the two distorted videos is 10-bit. Can we compare a 10-bit distorted video with an 8-bit reference?
I create two videos, with the same crf/speed/bit-depth settings. The first has the same fps as the source (30 fps). The second is downsampled to 18 fps. I want to measure the deterioration in quality (if any) caused purely by downsampling the fps.
Again, the problem here will be that the reference lossless ffv1 is 30 fps, but one of the distorted videos is 18 fps. How do we compare objective metrics for two videos that differ in frame-rates?

PSNR and SSIM are image quality metrics. Their use on videos involves calculating the metric for each pair of frames and then applying some aggregating operation to the series of frame scores, typically the arithmetic mean. What this means is both inputs must have same frame count with each encoded frame paired with its source frame.  So, deterioration of subjective perception caused by downsampling the fps isn't measured. For a valid and useful comparison, your best bet is to downsample the source to the same FPS using the same methods as used on the distorted video before carrying out the comparison.

As for the bit depth, both operands must have the same pixel format of which bit depth is one factor. I would recommend converting both inputs to the higher bit depth. This will allow you to preserve the details in the distorted input if you applied any filters to it after the bit depth increase.


How can I resize Final Cut Pro X to fit on the screen with the dock on the left visible? Sometime after upgrading to MacOS 10.14 Mojave, FCPX has resized wider and seems to have a minimal width. I can't make the main window smaller than the screen width. This means it either hides behind the dock (located on the left side of the screen) or part of it disappears on the right side of the screen. I don't want to move the dock to the bottom, I don't want the autohide, and don't want the full screen option.

How can I resize FCPX to fit on the screen with the dock on the left visible?

Try under the ”Window” menu the ”Zoom” function. That should resize the FCPX window (and any other Mac OS window) so that all is visible.


Appear and disappear effect with camera movement I was watching a Lil Skies music video produced by Cole Bennett and noticed an effect. It had Lil Skies singing in front of a car, and he would vanish and the car would also vanish and reappear at random times. It seems like an easy task if it was shot on tripod and then masked/layered, but with all the camera movement it makes me curious as to how its pulled off. Perhaps where its shot in 4k he just blew up footage in post and made artificial movement while still keeping it 1080p? For anyone curious the video is Lil Skies - More Money More Ice and the scene is early in video.

That is simply greenscreen compositing.

These days it is relatively easy to track a camera movement from a random video clip, you can for example film the yard and composite a 3D car over it.

On this case, I would film the person on a green screen room with markings and even render the yard itself.

One more complicated way to do it would be a robotic arm controlling the camera, some can even receive the movement from another source, for example, tracking from a handheld camera. The movement can be repeated several times, one with the car other without it.

But the equipment would be more sophisticated and expensive. I would go for the green screen and Blender.


Windows not finding Kdenlive files Recently I started creating videos for work, by using OBS Studio to record my screen. Today I downloaded Kdenlive (I run a Windows machine), and followed this tutorial.

Long story short, I am able to edit and render videos inside Kdenlive, I have also saved the project. However, when I try to find anything Kdenlive has produced, Windows cannot locate it.

A specific example:

I open directory X from Kdenlive, for example so as to open a project or add a video. There, I see the project (.kdenlive) and the video (.mp4). Video is playable (right click => Open with VLC...)
I navigate to and open the same directory from Windows. There is neither a .kdenlive project, nor a .mp4 video.

Even viewing the directory's Properties from Kdenlive and from Windows shows differences in size and file number. The same happens from e.g. GitBash (ls and du).

I've also tried to move the .mp4 (accessing it from Kdenlive) to another directory, which is also a Git project. The Git GUI does not find it either.

I could not find anything related in any forum (including this SE). My Kdenlive version is 20.04, and my Windows is set up to show hidden files and directories. Any help is appreciated, I can add images if needed.

Thanks in advance!

If anyone happens to have this problem:

from inside kdenlive, copy the video (even better: make a .zip and copy it)
also from there, navigate to a folder which is inside a Git project
paste the video or the archive there
still from inside kdenlive, open a Git Bash, then commit and push the pasted file
exit the file explorer and kdenlive
navigate to the same folder normally and open a Git Bash
git pull
your file will be there.


Simple program for trimming video I have a video of a concert, and a list of timestamps (5:06-15:49, 17:56-29:14...) that correspond to songs I would like to make into separate videos. Can anyone recommend a simple program I can use to do this? The one built into windows is troublesome to use and I can only make one clip at a time.

Depending on the format you have your video, one option is VirtualDub2.
It is a free linear editor, but it is good to trim a video without recompression.
Go to the Video Menu and choose direct stream copy. Do the same with the audio.
You need to do it one by one. Make a backup first. Open the video, cut the end of it first so you do not need to recalculate the timing and then cut the start of it, and save with a different name.
If you want to automate it and you are fine with command lines, try FFmpeg.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ffmpeg+batch+trim+video
If you need to do a bit more, like adding fade in and out, and control a bit more the trimming, you can use a free nonlinear editor, but most of them will recompress the video. Davinci Resolve, Hit Film Express, Open Shot for example.


Create cuts automatically by audio wave form in Premiere Pro CC I always cut my videos of the trips I'm doing. And I noticed that it is often the same that I cut out the parts where nothing is said and keep only the parts where somebody is talking.
Is there a plugin or a way in Premiere Pro CC to automatically create the cuts in a sequence where the audio changes from a lower to a higher value than a certain threshold?

Not that I've heard of, however, you could add Dynamics / Compression to your audio track and essentially compress out the low gain sections.

On your Audio Mixer Window, drop down the the filter section at top for the track all your audio resides on.

You will want to add Compression, not Expansion. Add some Gain MarkUp, 5-10 dB. Check Limiter, set to -2 dB.  Then adjust the ratio/gate/threshold so that the compressor will do as follows:

Add 5-10 dB of Gain to the entire track; depending on your source, you'll need to adjust that by levels/ear.

The gate/ratio will then if set correctly, only allow anything "Above" "X dB" to pass through the threshhold.

Loud sounds will be MarkUped as well, however, the compressor will not overmodulate if you adjust correctly and use the Limiter.

So if your video is nothing but low "breeze" noise, it will be cut to zero. Audio will need to "pass" the threshhold, and the attack setting will adjust how fast it allows passable audio to become audible and how fast it closes the gate after the audio falls below threshhold.

It sounds more complicated than it really is. If you follow the steps, play with the settings, you'll get it.

The filter is called DYNAMICS


ffmpeg: is it possible to have a text slideshow with a static image in background? I am trying to create a simple video with ffmpeg with a single static image in background and a few text lines that change every 10 seconds like a slideshow. However I am not able to do that using ffmpeg options. Is it actually possible?

Use ASS or SRT subtitles. You can make them with Aegisub or manually in a text editor. Then use the subtitles filter:

ffmpeg -loop 1 -i image.foo -vf subtitles=your_subtitles_file.ass -t 60 output

You did not mention your desired output format so I made a very generic example.


Which options exist for exporting music used on the timeline? I'm trying to get an overview of which options I have to get a list of audible music used on a Premiere Pro, Avid Media Compoaer and Final Cut Pro timeline. I mention audible, because I would not be interested in music on the timeline which is e.g. muted - and thus not audible.

I would be interested in knowing e.g. the filename, start and stop positions to build a summary of the music used - and audible - on a timeline.

Such a list could simply be the name of files (containing the music) used on the timeline.

I know these applications can extract EDL lists, but I am uncertain how precise these are. Is this the best I can get in terms of timeline summaries, or do I have other options?

I am not interested in 3rd party applications, but only functionality provided by the applications themselves.

What is the best way to extract a summary of e.g. filenames, start and stop positions - and how can i make sure that these extracts only include audible music?

To my knowledge FCPX does not have anything built in for this. You would need 3rd party.
If you willing to use 3rd party my best bet would be Producer’s Best Friend


Opening WMV files in Virtual Dub Is there an easy way to open WMV files in Virtual Dub ? I came across this tutorial but the plugin used in it if unavailable (page offline).

There is a mirror for the plugin used below:

http://gral.y0.pl/~fcchandler/

And an alternative plugin based on ffmpeg :

http://code.google.com/p/ffinputdriver/downloads/list


Is there a product(s) to stream recorded videos, all at same given point in time I've been searching for a hardware or software product that can stream up at least 17 time stamped video recordings, all at the same point in time.  If I had 17 separate recordings of 17 different flight simulations for example, I would like the ability to fast forward/rewind to a given point in time and have these channels all stream the recordings from that point in time.  Any products I've come across so far can only work with a small number of channels.

I did find a product called Calypso by Haivision

http://www.haivision.com/products/record-stream/calypso

I've spoken with their tech support and they claim it can do the time sync functionality I desire.

I recognize this product will be out of the price range for some looking for the same sort of thing.  The multiscreener app screaming drills mentions above looks promising, as does some other software products that website mentions.  I just do not have the time to check them out.


How do I change the center of a 360 video within Adobe Premiere so that there is always a front side (or main point of interest) in each video? I am trying to make my video so that the main point of interest is always in the same direction. How do I chose which area of the video is in front for each scene?

Go to Effects > Immersive Video > VR Projection > Pan.

Here you can change "pan" to whatever point you want to focus on.


Extracting video fields Respectively Extracting individual video fields is my previews question.

Based on the Mulvya's answer I can extract the top fields (only) or the bottom fields (only) individual.

Now, I need to extract the video fields In the following order:

TopField1 , BottomField1 ,TopField2 , BottomField2 ,....

Is it possible?

my source format: DV PAL 720x576i

Sure, you have to combine the field extraction with interleaving.

ffmpeg -i video.avi \
       -filter_complex "[0]field=top[t];[0]field=bottom[b];[t][b]interleave" -r 50 fld%d.png

where the r value is double the original frame rate (or the same as the field rate).


How to move clips without loosing transitions? Any transition disappears when one of the two joined clips are moved in the timeline.

In Vegas you can reposition clips without loosing the transitions. Can this be done in Premiere as well?

The "Slide Tool" tool makes it possible to move a single clip without loosing the transition connected to another clip.


Title not updating after creation in premiere pro I'm having this strange issue where I have created a title and when I try to update it (position or stroke) nothing happens. Either on or off the timeline, the title stays in its original position (off center) and it won't apply my changes.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

I'm running PP CC


After Effect: How do I achieve the smoke effect? I am trying to make the smoke after as seen in the picture attached. I have tried to search for the tutorials but there isn't any tutorial that teach me exactly the effect I wanted to create.

It's difficult to tell from your question exactly what you're trying to do.  If you could link to a video of the effect you're trying to reproduce, or phrase your question more specifically, you will get more helpful information.

If you're looking for realistic smoke, fluid dynamics simulation isn't really something that After Effects can do on its own.  You'll need to get the physics right in another package, and probably render it elsewhere too, then maybe composite it in After Effects.  This is an extremely complicated topic, and there isn't one tutorial that covers it all.  But you might want to look into some other software like this.

But if you just want to "fake" it, you can just use different layers of fractal noise attached to particles.  For this type of effect, search videocopilot.net for tutorials on  Red Giant's Trapcode Particular.


Does music under CC-SA license require the same license for video? If I use music, that is released under Creative Commons Share Alike license as background for my video, does that fact cause whole video to be derivative work, thus requiring it to be released also under CC-SA license?

Can soundtrack and video be treated as two separate works (if they are contained and released as single file)? Can different license be attached to image and sound?

It's obvious to me, that if soundtrack music is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-commercial, Share Alike), whole work cannot be used commercially, because that would break the Non-commercial clause of soundtrack. And then I would like to release video part with ND (No Derivatives) clause, so it could only be used unaltered.

From the by-sa legal terminology:

  Section 1 – Definitions.

  Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.

In other words, using it as a sound track in a video makes the video a derivative work and requires share-alike unless that provision of the license is unenforceable in your local jurisdiction.  (ie, still see a lawyer, but you most likely must share alike the video.)


Is automatic switching of audio stereo balance while cutting between camera angles possible? I'm about to introduce video in my podcast. There will be one main camera angle that show all the hosts as well as one angle for each of us. We are using individual microphones to be able to stereo separate us according to we're seated in the different angles.

All in all we will have three audio tracks (one for each of us) and four camera angles available in Adobe Premiere Pro 6. We would like to define a separate stereo balance between the three tracks to each of the different angles and have it automatically switching when we change the camera angle.

Is it possible?  Sure, just setup each source clip as a sequence that has the audio feed you want for that shot and leave the tracks linked so that you cut between both video and audio.

Is it advisable?  Probably not.  People are far less used to changing of the audio scene they are watching.  Video creates kind of a disconnect between the scene we are seeing and the audio we are hearing and it may be a bit jarring and break continuity to try radically changing the audio image every time you make a cut.

Go ahead and try it, I may be incorrect on how it will come off since I have not personally tried it, but in my experience with both video and audio, it doesn't seem like it will work well.


beginning of old VHS tape unreachable I was recently given a 27-year-old VHS tape to transfer.

While I'm happy that most of the tape is transferring smoothly (right now), the beginning of the tape is inaccessible.  The player's auto-rewind stops before reaching the beginning of the spool.  I naively attempted to rewind the tape manually (unlocking it first), and either the player or I stretched part of the tape.

Is it true that an old tape will "fuse" at the ends?  What do you think has happened here?  While the stretched part is probably destroyed, I wonder if the bit ahead of it is salvageable, by a professional service or me.

Thanks for your advice!

27-years old?! Forget it. Tapes need to be regularly forwarded and rewound, fully, for them not to stick. If that tape of yours remained unused for so many years, it might be too late.
Talk to a transfer pro... but don't expect miracles.


Can I output video from my DSLR to a smartphone or iPad or laptop? Pardon my ignorance on the subject; I have recently bought Sony A6000 to take video of my new borns. I have a question related to uncompressed output from this camera through HDMI. I know we can output video through this HDMI to a recording device like ATOMOS Ninja (or similar), but can we do same thing (output video) to a laptop or a smartphone or tablet (like iPad)?

I tried looking for similar question on StackExchange, but failed to find one which discusses on this exact matter. If there is any such discussion, could someone point me to that; I will try to understand from that discussion.

Thanks, NN

You can to a laptop using an adapter (Blackmagic make some).

If you want something a bit more portable the Atmos Ninja (or similar) would be your best options.


Combine -vf yadif,format=yuv420p and -filter_complex for watermark I have an ffmpeg command using -vf to deinterlace videos and produce pixel format with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf yadif,format=yuv420p \
-force_key_frames expr:gte(t\,n_forced/2) \
-c:v libx264 -crf 23 output.mp4

Also I have another ffmpeg command to put on my watermark:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png \
-filter_complex "[1][0]scale2ref=iw/5:ow*450/450[wm][vid];[vid][wm]overlay=W-w-W*3/100:H-h-H*1/100:enable='gt(t,30)'" \
-c:v libx264 -crf 23 output.mp4

I tried to put them together and got this error:

-vf/-af/-filter and -filter_complex cannot be used together for the same stream

I read that -filter_complex can be used for simple filters, and we can chain the filters together, separated by commas, so I created a new command without -vf:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png \
filter_complex "[1][0]scale2ref=iw/5:ow*450/450[wm][vid];[vid][wm]overlay=W-w-W*3/100:H-h-H*1/100:enable='gt(t,30)',yadif,format=yuv420p" -force_key_frames expr:gte(t\,n_forced/2) -c:v libx264 -crf 23 output.mp4

Is this the right way to combine these two filters?

The console doesn't show the above error but a new error:

Missing ')' or too many args in 'gte(t\,n_forced/2)'
Invalid force_key_frames expression 'gte(t\,n_forced/2)'
Error initializing output stream 0:0 --
[aac @ 0000022fbe6eacc0] Qavg: 118.000
[aac @ 0000022fbe6eacc0] 2 frames left in the queue on closing
Conversion failed!

Please help!

Use

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i logo.png \
-filter_complex "[0]yadif,format=yuv420p[main];[1][main]scale2ref=iw/5:ow*450/450[wm][vid];[vid][wm]overlay=W-w-W*3/100:H-h-H*1/100:enable='gt(t,30)'" \
-force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced/2)" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a copy output.mp4


Adobe Premiere Pro no H265 export option? I am using the trial version of Adobe Premier Pro (also tried Elements) and I noticed that there is no option to export as H265. Is there something i should do in order to enable this functionality? Seems really strange that this is not supported, especially for such a suppoded high-end video editing application.
I am running the following specs:

OS: Windows 10
CPU: i7 11700K
GPU: RTX 3070
RAM: 32GB DDR4 @ 3200mhz

It should be there, "HEVC (H.265)", selectable under format. If it's not there the codec may not be installed on your system. Adobe describes how to check and install it here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/premiere-elements/using/hevc-decoding-on-windows.html
For the last laptop I bought, it was preinstalled. For my desktop PC I had to manually install it, using the free version. I've never understood the concept behind this codec and it's payment. Right from the start they offered the exact same codec as a free and a paid version. At some time they noticed this and removed the free version from the store search. Somehow it's still there, just hidden.
If you still want the free version, use the direct link:

open the Edge browser
input ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq
Click on Redeem Code and it should eventually install (without any need for a code)

(Source: Reddit, beware, I haven't tested that method, not sure if it works.)
And if it doesn't work, you probably have to buy it.


Can I shoot in 16:9 then change it to 4:3? I'm trying to get the old film look with Canon 600D, so I will be shooting in 640*480 25 fps. But what if I shoot in 16:9 at 24 fps, will I be able to get the same 4:3 after editing? (The reason I'm asking this is films are 24 fps, 600D doesn't have 4:3 at 24 fps)

Of course you can set your project up so that it will output a 4:3 video. However, keep in mind that there are only two ways to achieve this:

Nr. 1 You crop the video, which means you will lose stripes of the video at both the left and the right side.

Here's an example:

Nr. 2: You resize the 16:9 input video so that it fits in the 4:3 output video. I wouldn't recommend this though, since the video and everything in it will be deformed, which looks completely aweful.

So if this is your input:

It will result in this output:

Both options result in a quality / information loss. How about shooting in 4:3 at a higher framerate? You could easily lower the framerate in editing to achieve your desired effect ...


Problem of overview with my created closed caption in Premiere CC When I create a new closed caption on my video, nothing appears on my images. (I can see the overview on the closed caption monitor but nothing appears on my video)

Closed captions are not sub-titles.  They are supposed to be encoded to be able to be turned on as an option by the final viewer.  If you want sub-titles you will need to do things a little bit differently.  Historically I've just used titles for further control over positioning and formatting.


How to Stretch Video Vegas Movie Studio So I filmed with my Go Pro with a Stretched screen for 16:9 when I resized it to get everything. Is there a way to stretch the video instead of moving the camera to adjust to the 4:3 the video is in a the moment?

I am using VEGAS Movie Studio 15.0 Platinum

If there is another way I can do things that is more efficient I would like to know what as well.

There is a third option which is to stretch the 16:9 event to be taller so that it matches the 4:3 ratio. This must be done at the Track level. Open up Track Motion and disable Lock Aspect Ratio and resize the 16:9 media to fill the 4:3 frame. Everything will be tall and thin but there will be no black bars from letterboxing and no loss of picture data from cropping. (i think it looks bad but some people watch TV like this all the time)

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/24/976641#976651


Captured video in Adobe Premiere - is the next step to make subclips? I've captured a lot of mini dv tape footage in adobe premiere which now sits in the library box in the bottom left. I've logged time in and out points of clips I want to keep with pen and paper. Should my next step be to do that by creating sub clips? Or is there another way?

Workflow is really up to whatever works for you.  Unfortunately, you kind of did things backwards from the workflow I would have used.

With mini-DV tapes, the fastest thing I've found is to do the clip logging with the batch capture tool and then run a batch capture to have each clip captured as an individual file. It does take a little bit of practice to get good at using the batch capture tool for logging, but it makes it easy to recapture a particular clip down the road and organizes clips much more easily for you.

After the fact, your best bet is probably just to drop each clip in its own sequence or simply insert them all on to your timeline and work from there if you have a decent idea of how you want the rough edit to look.

You could also split the clips if you wanted as long as you are using DV format which will not lose additional quality in each additional export.  It really comes down to whatever will be the easiest for you to work with though.  Everyone can be a bit different when it comes down to how they want to organize their stuff.


h264 and h265 keyint params settings Fiddling with the h264 and h265 params I found both keyint and min-keyint settings.

Setting keyint shouldn't force the codec library to use exactly that frame interval?

Do min-keyint have something to do with scene detection and if set it take priority over keyint plain setting ?

TL;DR: I found that h265 default settings are keyint=250 and min-keyint=25 ... what I should expect from that? A fixed length GOP or a variable length one?

See these two links:

1) MeGUI/x264 Settings for an explanation of the parameters like keyint.

2) About --keyint --min-keyint and --scenecut for a discussion at Doom9 about how they interact, specifically

  --keyint is the maximum interval. x264 will insert key frames earlier if it deems them beneficial, e.g. due to a scene change. From my
  experience the majority of key frames are in place because of the
  properties of the video, not because keyint was reached. The larger
  --keyint is the smaller the impact on overall key frame placement should be.


What does the information on DSLR lenses mean in terms of filmmaking? What does the information on DSLR lenses such as the mm range and the f/stop mean in terms of filmmaking, specifically relating to depth-of-field.  Lenses are the only aspect of filmmaking I don't understand and I want to be able to make informed decisions about them.

They mean the exact same thing they do in the photography context.  The mm measurement is the focal length.  It determines the angle of view the lens produces (ie, how "zoomed in" it appears.)  Lenses with a range are zoom lenses where the angle of view can be adjusted.  "Zoom" is otherwise not a meaningful thing.  Optically, zoom just means you can change the focal length.  The x numbers associated with consumer zoom lenses are meaningless as they just describe the relationship between the smallest and largest focal length, not how much magnification a lens provides.

f/ numbers are measurements of how far the aperture of the lens can open.  The smaller the number, the more light the lens lets in and the smaller the depth of field is.  If there is a range of f/ numbers, it means that the lens' maximum aperture (the smallest number it can go to) changes over the focal length range of the lens.  Generally, the largest aperture (smallest f/ number) will be at the wide end (the smallest mm number) and the smallest (largest f/ number) will be at the telephoto end of the lens (largest mm number).  This can actually be a desirable feature to have on lenses used for video as it allows for smooth lighting and depth of field adjustments on the fly without needing to use third party firmwares to make smooth adjustments from the camera.

On many modern lenses, the f/ selection is done on the camera and the aperture is electronically adjusted.  There are, however, lenses that include manual aperture rings that include both notched and unnotched aperture values (ie, they either move freely between different aperture values for smooth adjustments to aperture (sometimes called iris in video) or to be able to precisely select specific values.

Note that most photographic zoom lenses will not exactly hold focus as you zoom (parafocal), so that is also something to be aware of when zooming optically with a photographic lens.  This is also a big part of why cinema lenses (which are parafocal) cost so much more than similar quality photographic lenses.  You can do just fine using a good photographic lens that is nearly parafocal, you just need to remember to make focus adjustments along with your zooms.


V-mount and D-tap power problems I might have f-ed up. I’m a producer for an in-house agency and I had the sweet idea of consolidating all battery types and to power everything off of D-tap (p-tap) using v-mount batteries. Here’s what I bought:
Batteries: Here
Vmount plate for camera: Here
Follow focus: Here
Monitor: Here
Wireless transmitter: Here
So I have all of the appropriate d-tap cables and whatnot, and my plan was to power all of this off of one v-mount battery, but it’s looking like I might not be able to do it. When I plugged in everything, I got a spark somewhere on the cage of my c300, but nothing fried. What am I missing? How do large productions run tons of accessories off of one battery? I’m hoping I didn’t get in over my head with this. Any advice or critique is welcome.

To anyone who has similar questions, I think I solved it. Pay attention to voltage inputs to your devices. The blackmagic monitor I was using has a power input of 12v using the two-pin barrel connector. The barrel connecter d-tap cable I was using was unregulated therefore it was pushing out more than 12v. What I need is a l-series dummy battery connected to d-tap regulated down to 8v or so, which do exist. The only reason my entire system didn’t fry was because my battery was only about a quarter charged. If it was full, I would have sent almost 18v to the monitor, probably killing it and maybe some other stuff along the way. Check input voltages on everything you’re planning on connecting to your battery.


How long should the maximum length of an exr sequence be? I'm wondering if there is a maximum length for an exr image sequence or an image sequence in general. In After Effects I'm having trouble to load long exr image sequences

The Image sequence is loading fine to a certain length and then it doesn't load the following frames it either shows them like the footage is not connected (colored test screen) or it shows the last frame that was successfully loaded.

Maybe check the frame after it stops loading, it could be a corrupt file that causes After Effects to stop loading the rest of the files.


Does having a gimball mean you can disbale stability on action camera It's common for action cameras to have a lower frame rate when the electronic stability function is turned on.

My question is if you have a gimbal, is it useful/do you need to have electronic stability enabled on the camera itself?

As Michael Clark pointed out when the question was on photography, it depends on the type of gimbal, how good the gimbal is and how skilled the operator is.

An inertial gimbal works by giving the camera assembly a larger size and mass and then having the operator hold the assembly near the center of gravity.  When the operator moves, inertia slows changes in the orientation of the camera, resulting in smoothing of angular changes.  This requires the gimbal to be very near frictionless to minimize the impact of the operator's movement on the rotational inertia of the camera assembly.  A low quality or poorly maintained gimbal won't properly isolate the assembly and an unskilled operator may improperly balance the assembly or cause excessive motion do to the added weight and complexity of operation.

A robotic or motorized gimbal, such as a Ronan, acts on a slightly different principle.  They do not require the finesse of the operator to execute changes in camera direction as this is accomplished by a joystick (less direct control, but easier to operate).  Additionally, they are not quite as balance sensitive as the orientation correction is provided by gyroscopes and motors which can tell what's actually happening vs a simple passive physics based system.  Additionally, counterweights aren't needed for stabilization so the rig can potentially be lighter overall making it easier to handle.  The down side is the previously mentioned lack of direct control and the power requirements.  Additionally, the quality of the gimbal still becomes a major factor.  If gyroscopes are not sensitive enough or the motors are too imprecise or laggy, then the quality of the stabilization will be greatly reduced.

Both of these types of gimbals are designed for correcting 3 degrees of orientation and do not handle any lateral movement on their own (adding things like vest & arm systems can add some position stabilization as well, but weren't specifically mentioned in your question.)

Image stabilization on the camera depends on the camera.  Some use movement of lens elements (optical image stabilization) to correct the direction the lens is pointed as the orientation changes.  Others use free floating sensors that are able to move in response to motion to keep the sensor in the correct orientation and location in the image circle.

The amount of correction that either of these in-camera systems can provide is extremely limited since they don't govern the actual aiming of the camera body, but they can help with a degree of hand shake.  There is one noteworthy distinction though.  For the floating sensor types of camera stabilization, it is possible to correct of a limited degree of positional stabilization, not just orientation as the sensor can move up and down and side to side a bit.

In general, I would expect that with a half way decent gimbal and even intermediate experience as an operator, you should get much better overall results with the gimbal, but depending on your shooting situation, you may still gain some additional benefit from the camera's built in stabilization if it has a floating sensor particularly.  You really need to try messing with it either way though as the movement may be sufficient to throw off the balance and cause issues with the gimbal as well.

Certainly the effects should be pretty minimal, so if your primary concern is recovering the higher frame rate, then using a gimbal and turning off the in camera stabilization won't give you a major sacrifice in stabilization quality.


How to reduce noise in old, low-light DV-8 video I have some old, low-light, pretty noisy DV8 video that I'd like to clean up. What is the best tool/technique to remove noise from low-light scenes?

I also want to change the gamma correction to bring out the details - should I do that before or after I run any noise reduction?

I saw that Photoshop CS5 had some pretty amazing noise reduction capability, and that the new CS6 allows you to edit video, so my original question was "can I use CS6 to reduce the noise?"  But I'm ok with making the question more general.

Yes, as DragonLord said, with the extended edition.

And assuming it's in a format (AVI, MOV etc. that Photoshop supports.

Once open, select Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.   Then run any filter, including noise reduction, and it will apply it to all frames.   Then Export > Render to Video.


Problem with video playback of AVI (Xvid) on Sony BDP-S186 [solved] I'd like to play an AVI on my Sony BDP-S186.
The user manual states: Supported Codecs and File Types: including Xvid (.avi) (http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4290282312.pdf - in German).
I'm trying to play the file from an USB stick.
The video file's codec is MPEG-4 Video (XVID).
The device says "Die Datei ist verfälscht oder unbestätigt," which means that the file is corrupted.

Sometimes it works for AVI files, sometimes it doesn't and I actually do not know what's the reason for the issue. The issue seems to be well known by the internet, but I didn't find an appropriate solution for now.
This forum deals also the issue: http://www.cczwei-forum.de/cc2/thread.php?threadid=6317 (in German)

I'm buying the capability of playing files with that format/compression and not the capability of not playing them.

I would also be interested in the legal side of this issue. I don't think the cause for not playing specific videos is caused by copyright protection or anything related, even if Sony qualified themselves always for being a bad example of copyright protection guards.

I changed the file system on the USB stick from FAT32 to NTFS. The video playback works now.


create subtitles track by automatic timing of existing text 1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000

I am using Adobe Premiere to produce videos in English by gluing together multiple clips put together from lots of different footage or sources. I do have a text transcript of what is being said though, in English, so talking about word-for-word English subtitles for the voice in English.

2
00:00:04,250 --> 00:00:06,250

How would I go about creating a subtitles file for the final video?

I do not wish to render the captions into the video
The transcript I have does not have any time information and that is the crux of this question - what is the easiest way to generate semi-accurate timing records, as automatically as possible?
So the question is NOT about how to sync existing subtitles with existing timestamps
I could do it in Premiere, or Adobe Audition, or Subtitle Edit, Subtitle Workshop or any other subtitle editor that may provide relevant synchronization functionality?
The end result I'm hoping for is a flv file with closed captioning (.sub, .srt or similar) that could be turned on or off in a web-browser / Flash player
Like this lecture, for example, when you click on CC and choose the embedded English subtitling (not the automatic captions that YouTube offers)

If you select your clip and go to the Clip menu, then choose Analyse Content, Premiere will attempt to identify speakers and even attempt to dictate what is being said.  You can assist this analysis by providing a script file to it by adding either an Adobe Story Script file or a TXT file to the Reference Script option.  I don't have any experience with how well this feature works, but it's certainly worth a shot if you already have an accurate script file to try it with.


Is the high-framerate crop mode in the Red Scarlet camera practical? I'm pretty excited by the new Red Scarlet, but one point seems very limiting about its (high-)framerate capacity:

It's actually cropping the image on the frame when shooting at framerates higher than 30fps  (see its tech specs

This of course will reduce the resolution, but that's acceptable. Even the Vision Research Phantoms do so - yes, starting with extremly higher resolution/framerate ratios of course!

The problem is that cropping means that if you have to match another scene angle of view you'll have to move your camera and/or change lens.

There's a nice graphic on the Red Forum that shows the cropping and I'm reading here:

  The "usefull" motion modes on the Scarlet are 4K and 3K. 5K at 12fps
  max is for timelapse and stills. 4K uses less of the sensor, making
  your lenses, "longer." The ratio goes from 1.3 to 1.6. A 30mm lens
  goes from, effectively a 39mm to a 48mm.

  But a lot of us want to use 3K to get raw capture without huge files.
  3K captures a 4.97MP frame using 36% of the 5K sensor area. The file
  size will be 56% the size of 4K.

  However, the increasing crop factor makes a 35mm lens into a 70mm. So
  we are looking at options.

  We need to know if S-16 glass is an option here. Some say it is. Some
  say some of it is, but not all.

I'd like to underline that 4K is the highest available resolution for video.
It might be also important to point out that the there is also a limitation in the extremely useful HDR-X as well explained on this phil bloom post. It's okay, I think I can live without it if I get a good camera for a decent price.

What I'd like somebody to shed a light about is to: clarify what lenses would reasonably work for high framerate modes, and what should be done to ensure normal speed vs. high speed shots for the same scene will edit nicely together..

Also would be nice to have a real hands-on in the answer not only theoretical, about quality of the cropped videos and practical issues with the cropping factor, but it's not mandatory!

This question is pretty obsolete by now. The new SCARLET-W cameras support 5K WS (2.4:1) video at 60 fps, 4K WS at 150 fps, and 2K WS at 300 fps.  Matching field of view is a simple matter of mathematics, not magic.  If you want to match a 50mm lens on a 6K RED camera using a 3K crop, a 25mm lens will do well.  And the price of the SCARLET-W is now below what the price of the original SCARLET was in 2011, so you get a lot more camera, as well as more sensor, for less money.

It is relatively well-known that when shooting slow-motion footage, it is often useful to use an even lower compression level than for normal motion footage, which is unfortunate.  But the DRAGON sensor, in a WEAPON body, makes SCARLET-W 10:1 as good as SCARLET DRAGON 8:1, which in turn has been estimated to be as good as SCARLET MX 6:1.  You will want to use special noise reduction techniques if you shoot at the limit of the SCARLET-W, but if you shoot 4K WS at 60 fps, the 6:1 REDCODE is really quite good.  And 5K WS at 60 fps REDCODE 9:1 is also not bad, either.


How to de-flicker (anti-flicker) video? My camera recorded flickering (black flashing) video, maybe due to low-lightened room.  I cant purchase the de-flicker plugins to fix the that video.
is there any free solution to fix that, with plugins or filters?

(p.s. I use Sony Vegas )

Wow, I have found interesting solution:
Method 1 (bad approach):

duplicate main video streams and put over the main stream, just off-seting them 1 frame after

change the opacity of the top video to 31%, second to 51%, (leave third at 100%)

and the flickering will be gone out. However, it has a downside - the motions will be seen a bit stretched (because of 3-frame repeated).
Method 2 (Better):
No need to reinvent wheel, there are priced plugins for it. I can't remember but there was a good plugin in market, named "de-flicker" or "anti-flicker" with free trial to test, which did excellent job!


Sony Vegas Pro 12 - 4/3 video wrongly considered as 16/9 I am digitalizing Super 8 film with a dedicated Somikon scanner.

It outputs H264 - MPEG-4 AVC films in 4/3 (1440x1080).
When I open these films directly with VLC, there are displayed in 4/3, which is fine.

Then I add them in Sony Vegas Pro 12 to edit/modify them, but Vegas Pro believes that they are 16/9 clips: although the Project [Projet] and Visualization [Visualisation] fields are in 4/3, the Display [Affichage] is in 16/9 (600x338) by default:

I have to uncheck the Simulate the peripheral image ratio [Simuler le format d'image du périphérique] item to get back the original 4/3 aspect ratio:

When I render the project, Vegas generates a video in 4/3 with the right resolution (1440x1080), but the video player sofwares (VLC for example, see capture below) believe it should be displayed with a 16/9 aspect ratio.

In conclusion, the resolution is good all along, but the default aspect ratio is wrongly set to 16/9 by/in Vegas Pro.

Is there a way to avoid that in the first place?

Or is there a way to correct it afterwards (once the rendered file is created)?

I did not manage to solve the source problem, but I found how to overcome the consequences.

It is indeed possible to edit the aspect ratio of the rendered video using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i <INPUT_FILE> -aspect 4:3 -c copy <OUTPUT_FILE>


I have a .mkv video file I need to use but it is apparently infinite So I'm trying to make a YouTube video and I have recorded some gameplay and some facecam footage. When I went over to edit in Kdenlive (my video editor of choice) I tried to import my facecam footage (.mkv formatted) which was shot using the default camera app on my Chromebook. It crashed Kdenlive but before it crashed I looked at the time it predicted to be the end of the video which seemed to be extraordinarily long! Just dragging the clip to my timeline caused my computer to freeze up and then the program to eventually crash. I opened the clip in VLC and the playhead doesn't even move. In fact, VLC says that the video is 0 minutes and 0 seconds long even though I know for a fact that it is 42 minutes long. Attempting to move the playhead makes strange artifacts appear on my video clip and then the playhead jumps to 0:00 and it plays fine. This is extremely frustrating because I don't know how I can convert this so that it has a correct start and end time. I cannot edit the video of course because my video editor tries to import an infinite (or at least really massive) video. Strangely enough it plays fine in the Google Drive video player and I believe the native Chrome OS video player.

So I've found the issue to be related to inconsistent framerates. I found that running the video through ffmpeg with ffmpeg -i yourfile.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy -r 30 newfile.mkv actually fixed the issue entirely. Now I can open the file correctly and it appears to be 42 minutes as expected. More information here.


Final Cuto Pro X sort by modified date I have few videos in one event. The problem is, that for some reason (probably because of moving them from disk to disk), Modify date is the original one (the correct one) rather than Create date.
In the finder, I can do: sort by -> Modified date, and everything is correctly in order. But when I import those videos into the event in the FCP, it keeps sorting by Content Created.
I cannot see an option in FCP that would allow me to sort videos in the event by "modification date", is it even possible ? (or at least keep the order imposed by the finder?)

Seems like the question is asked on other places as well, with no answer so I will propose a workaround as I don't think FCP X gives you option to sort by Modified metadata field.
Bash script that adds a modification date at the beginning if each file in the directory in epoch. Then sorting in FCP by name.

Open terminal and go the the directory you want to apply changes (in my case a directory with videos).
do cat > script.sh
Enter: for f in *; do mv -- "$f" "$(stat -f %m "$f")-$f"; done
Hit enter and then ctrl + D
Now type: bash script.sh
Open FCP X and do Sort by: name

Note:
In order to revert the process, all you have to do is to replace what is in the point 3 to: for f in *; do mv -v "$f" "${f#*-}"; done


Canon C100 mk1 AVCHD vs MP4 I recently bought a Canon C100 mk1 after lots of comparing, specs etc.

Now I have a question which I cannot really find a final answer for on the interweb.

The Canon C100 can record in either AVCHD or MP4. Which one is better to use?
AVCHD is a single wrapped file with all the clips in
MP4 is just all the clips (Currently like my Canon 7D)

Most people seem to use the AVCHD, but I have seen screenshots or images of the cameras that are set to MP4, and I am unable to find a reason why people choose one over the other.

I shot a wedding in AVCHD and edited it with FCPX (not the most recent version), and I have done all the options of trans-coding, changing the 50i to progressive, etc. that others have recommended online, but some of my shots are still giving me interlacing.

Would shooting in MP4 eliminate these issues? When I shoot on my Canon 7D, it is not there - only a bit of jello.

The most I can find is a comparison between AVCHD and MP4 for quality (to which I cannot see much difference) or a comparison between the mk1 and the mk2 which is not really answering my question.

I have a wedding coming up next weekend and would like to shoot with the best option. I don't think I'm going to have enough spare time to do a test using both codecs.

Well first off, the C100 Mk I DOES NOT offer an MP4 option, only a AVCHD option. I'm assuming you meant the MKII as you said 'recently bought'.

If you look at the specs of the C100 MK II you'll see in MP4 mode you can't record interlaced, but in AVCHD you can (but you don't have to if you are at 28 mbps). So basically you can't go wrong (aka get interlaced files) with MP4, with that being said, you can also use the AVCHD wrapper @ 28 mbps and not get interlaced files (look out for the 'i' next to the framerates).

People primarily use the MP4 wrapper in the C100 MK II because it has the capability of recording at a higher bit rate (35 mbps) which means you have more information to work with when you get into the editing room, its good for color grading, and in some cases has less noise. I also find that MP4 works better inside of PP CC.

Also shooting in MP4 will probably not have much an effect on jello (although its never something I've experience in my C100's) but not shooting in interlaced will definitely help due to the way interlaced works (capturing every other line).

I'm a C100 MK I & MK II user ;)


What is KeyInt and min-keyint and no-scenecut I am absolutely new to video processing, I am building a video streaming site and worked with ffmpeg to generate the formats I need for ShakaPackager.

Sadly I don't understand some of the options being provided, especially keyInt, min-keyint and no-scenecut.

Below you will find the code I use to generate the required formats for my videos.

ffmpeg -y -i ${1} -c:a aac -ac 2 -ab 256k -ar 48000 -c:v libx264 -x264opts "keyint=24:min-keyint=24:no-scenecut" -b:v 1500k -maxrate 1500k -bufsize 1000k -vf "scale=-2:720" "${2}/${3}720.mp4"

I did a bit of research and they talked about IDR-frames I don't even understand those, maybe my needs go way more than that?

The frames in your H.264 video are grouped into units called GOPs (Group Of Pictures). Inside these GOPs frames are classified into three types:

I-frame: frame that stores the whole picture
P-frame: frame that stores only the changes between the current picture and previous ones
B-frame: frame that stores differences with previous or future pictures

Additionally, I-frames can be classified as IDR frames and non-IDR frames. The difference is that frames following an IDR frame cannot reference any frame that comes before the IDR frame, while in the case of a non-IDR frame there are no limitations.

Every GOP starts with an I-frame, also called a keyframe, but may contain more than one. To create further confusion, a GOP can start with an IDR frame or with a non-IDR frame. This means that frames in the GOP can sometimes refer to previous GOPs (in this case the GOP is said to be "open"), and sometimes not (in this case it's closed).

It's common to see the structure of a GOP represented as in this example: IBBBPBBBPBBBI. Here the length of the the GOP is 12 frames, with 3 B-frames between each P-frame.

Now your questions:

keyint specifies the maximum length of the GOP, so the maximum interval between each keyframe, which remember that can be either an IDR frame or a non-IDR frame. I'm not completely sure but I think that by default ffmpeg will require every I-frame to be an IDR frame, so in practice you can use the terms IDR frame and I-frame interchangeably
min-keyint specifies the minimum length of the GOP. This is because the encoder might decide that it makes sense to add a keyframe before the keyint value, so you can put a limit
no-scenecut. When the encoder determines that there's been a scene cut, it may decide to insert an additional I-frame. The issue is that I-frames are very expensive if compared to other frame types, so when encoding for streaming you want to disable it.

A couple of other related parameters:

bframes specifies the number of consecutive B-frames
ref specifies the number of references frames that are used when encoding. It means that when encoding a picture, ref previous frames are looked at for encoding the current frame


Wirecast recording lagging from a video file source I have a recorded video in HD format with the source file being about 2GB for 30 minutes of footage. I added it as a new Video Shot in WireCast intending to edit it, however, I got two problems. First, the quality drop tremendously regardless of what kind of output options I use and second, the output video is lagging and that is of course recorded in the final version.

I first tried to compress the video to reduce its size and I got it down to about 300MB but the results where exactly the same.

I then tried to stream the video from another computer on the same network using Desktop Presenter to reduce the load on the one where Wirecast was actually working, however, I got exactly the same results, if not worse.

Any tips on how I can deal with this issue?

It sounds like your input is too compressed.  Your current quality level is already below what Netflix uses for their full quality HD streaming and is right around Youtube's recommended settings for final output of video.

The problem is, this is already a very highly compressed level.  Both compressing and decompressing an h.264 file take a lot of processing power.  The more compressed the video, the more processing power it takes.

Since the file starts highly compressed, your CPU has to work hard to decode the video and then has to try to re-compress it for the stream.  If it can't keep up with the frame rate, then you start getting quality drop and lag as it does it's best to keep up with the stream.

Further compressing the source video just amplified this problem, though if you have already pre-recorded the video, why not edit it offline and then export the video so that you can stream it without having to re-encode on the fly?

Wirecast isn't designed for editing, it is designed for streaming.


Premiere: Renaming cameras in a multi-camera sequence Is it possible to rename cameras in a multi-camera sequence?

Why I need this:
I have a multicam sequence that shows footage that has to be synced with audio for certain people. However it is hard to tell which person's camera it is from what can be seen on the footage. In order to be able to quickly figure out who's view is being shown and what audio to sync with it, it would be nice to be able to rename those cameras to something more descriptive than "camera 1, camera 2, etc ..."

When you create a Multi-Cam sequence, the prompt will give you the option to name the cameras based on the track or clip name.

I don't believe there is a way to rename the cameras after setting up Multi-Cam.

One other option would be to put each clip into a sequence with a text layer as an overlay. After you have finished arranging your Multi-Cam composition, the text layer can be hidden or deleted.


Using FFmpeg loop filter makes audio disappear If I loop a video like below the audio is missing from test 1. If I omit the loop, it is there. What am I doing wrong?

E:\Videos\Loops>ffmpeg -re -f lavfi -i "movie=filename=ShortLoop.mpg:loop=0, set
pts=N/(FRAME_RATE*TB)" test1.mpg
ffmpeg version 3.2.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx -
-enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei
0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-li
bbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --en
able-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb
--enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-li
bopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --e
nable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc
--enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable
-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --e
nable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
  libavutil      55. 34.100 / 55. 34.100
  libavcodec     57. 64.101 / 57. 64.101
  libavformat    57. 56.100 / 57. 56.100
  libavdevice    57.  1.100 / 57.  1.100
  libavfilter     6. 65.100 /  6. 65.100
  libswscale      4.  2.100 /  4.  2.100
  libswresample   2.  3.100 /  2.  3.100
  libpostproc    54.  1.100 / 54.  1.100
Input #0, lavfi, from 'movie=filename=ShortLoop.mpg:loop=0, setpts=N/(FRAME_RATE
*TB)':
  Duration: N/A, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo (I420 / 0x30323449), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1
 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
[mpeg @ 00000000002df920] VBV buffer size not set, using default size of 130KB
If you want the mpeg file to be compliant to some specification
Like DVD, VCD or others, make sure you set the correct buffer size
Output #0, mpeg, to 'test1.mpg':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.56.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg1video, yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31
, 200 kb/s, 25 fps, 90k tbn, 25 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.64.101 mpeg1video
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/200000 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo (native) -> mpeg1video (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[mpeg1video @ 0000000003786d40] [mpeg1video @ 0000000003786d40]

The loop option can't be used if you're ingesting multiple streams via the filter.

Use

ffmpeg -re -f lavfi -i "movie=filename=ShortLoop.mpg:loop=0"
       -re -f lavfi -i "amovie=filename=ShortLoop.mpg:loop=0"
       -vf setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB -af asetpts=N/SR/TB     test1.mpg


Replacing footage to a video with different frame rate - how to make timeline clips not slip? When I replace a footage to another video file which has got different frame rate from the old, the clips on the timeline slip because of the frame rate change.

If I go to Modify -> Interpret footage, and set the frame rate back to the old value on the new clip, it solves the problem, but I don't know if it's the right way to do it, or if it affects the final quality of my movie. After all, I want the clip to have its own frame rate in my sequence (the sequence frame rate matches the new clip's value).

How can I overcome this problem?
Thank you for your help!

Not sure I get what you're describing, but here are some ideas:

Right click on your clip in the timeline and select the "Speed/Duration" option. Have fun.
If you want that added clip to have its own frame rate within your sequence, perhaps you should start seeing it as an effect. So treat it as such: once your edit is done (picture lock), import it in After Effects, treat the portion of it that you need as you see fit. Export it thus transformed. Import that new clip in your timeline, place it over its old version and never worry again about a change of frame-rate.


What does a Cube LUT offer over a PNG HALD? Basically what the title says.

My current view: The Cube LUT appears to be a bulky, uncompressed text file with little more to offer than what is can be encoded in a lossless PNG. That the main difference is the Cube's 17 times larger size (based on a single comparison with 64 dimensions), and that the Cube is more computationally demanding to parse than the PNG.

In addition, the PNG is a visual representation which gives the user an impression of the LUT even without importing it into an editor.

Why I think I'm wrong: The sheer number of LUT formats out there suggests that they offer more than what a PNG, or a combination of a PNG and a metadata file, can provide.

What am I missing?

They're essentially the same thing with different storage layouts.  A 2D LUT is just slices of a 3D LUT laid out in an image.  People use formats like Cube becasue that's what the software supports.  Because formats like Cube were invented before hardware acceleration it was probably just easier to load data already stored as 3D because the color transform was all done on CPU anyway.  You need extra math to transform an RGB value in 2D space instead of just a 3D array lookup: LUT[R][G][B] plus you have to interpolate between 3D points of your LUT is smnaller than your color space.  The file size difference is mostly due to cube files being ascii not binary.

LUTs are also used extensively in Game development to apply looks in realtime using the GPU.  Here LUTs can be stored as 3D (volume) images.  An advantage to 3D image storage is you can take advantage of hardware pixel interpolation in 3D.  I suspect any video editing/compositing/coloring software with hardware acceleration would transcode Cube/Hald LUTs to 3D images for the actual lookup on the GPU.

Look here for info on hardware color conversion.


How do I add an effect on certain length of the original clip in Premiere Pro CS6 using Keyframes? Example: I have a clip of 2 mins in my timeline and I only want to add blur effect to certain length (say 45 seconds to 50 seconds) of the clip.

The easiest way to do this would be to cut your clip where you want the blurring effect to start/end.


Need to locate documentation of FCPX XML ver 1.9 I have found a description of version 1.8 of the FCPX XML. It is not globally searchable - only section by section and is not for the latest version.
I have an XML file recently emitted from FCPX and it has a version tag "<fcpxml version="1.9">".

Apple didn't update all the documentation. Found it only here: Link


What are the differences between the three bundled ffmpeg prores encoders? I'm using ffmpeg and while looking through the list of codes with ffmpeg -codecs I realized there are actually three different prores encoders:

prores
prores_aw
prores_ks

What are the differences between them?

I found the following explanation on the ffmpeg wiki:

  Fmpeg comes with 3 different prores encodes: "prores", "prores_ks"
  (formerly named "prores_kostya") and "prores_aw" (formerly named
  "prores_anatolyi"). In our testing we've used the "prores" and the
  "prores_ks" encoders and found "prores_ks" to be the best encoder to
  use. It is the only one that supports the 4444 colorspace and although
  it may be slightly slower. The color quality of the videos produced by
  these two codecs was visually indistinguishable Because of the 4444
  support we've decided to go with Kostya's version of prores.

So, if you want to do 4444 and need alpha channel support, prores_ks is the way to go.

This blog post also suggests that prores_ks has a smaller footprint, and that prores and prores_aw are basically the same.


Handbrake CLI command not working I am trying to get the HB CLI to run this command removing the framerate (as the default ATV2 is 30fps and in the UK that looks rubbish, I want it to use the source fps

./HandBrakeCLI -i DVD -o ~/Movies/movie.mp4 -e x264  -q 20.0 -a 1,1 -E faac,copy:ac3 -B 160,160 -6 dpl2,none -R Auto,Auto -D 0.0,0.0 --audio-copy-mask aac,ac3,dtshd,dts,mp3 --audio-fallback ffac3 -f mp4 -4 -X 1280 -Y 720 --loose-anamorphic --modulus 2 -m --x264-preset medium --h264-profile high --h264-level 3.1

This is the default I changed the Bold well removed it

./HandBrakeCLI -i DVD -o ~/Movies/movie.mp4 -e x264  -q 20.0 -r 30 --pfr  -a 1,1 -E faac,copy:ac3 -B 160,160 -6 dpl2,none -R Auto,Auto -D 0.0,0.0 --audio-copy-mask aac,ac3,dtshd,dts,mp3 --audio-fallback ffac3 -f mp4 -4 -X 1280 -Y 720 --loose-anamorphic --modulus 2 -m --x264-preset medium --h264-profile high --h264-level 3.1

but it doesn't seem to work, I don't know if I have missed something, any help would be useful

figured it out by the looks of it

{{{
   ./HandBrakeCLI -i DVD -o ~/Movies/movie.mp4 -e x264  -q 20.0 -a 1,1 -E faac,copy:ac3 -B 160,160 -6 dpl2,none -R Auto,Auto -D 0.0,0.0 --audio-copy-mask aac,ac3,dtshd,dts,mp3 --audio-fallback ffac3 -f mp4 -4  -4 -X 1280 -Y 720 --decomb --loose-anamorphic --modulus 2 -m --x264-preset medium --h264-profile high --h264-level 4.1
}}}

I was missing the {{{ }}} which there was nothing about in the manual unless I missed it


ffmpeg input from images stream out video I am using ffmpeg to capture a video recording device and would like to add an overlay to it .

I have images being rendered on the fly and I would like to use them as the overlay .

How can I take a set of Images as they are being rendered and use it as an overlay to a video stream ?

Couldn't wait! Figured it out:

I saved an image to the file out.png at a fixed frame rate from processing.

Created a fifo:

mkfifo fifo

Then in one terminal:

tail -f out.png  > fifo

Then in another terminal:

cat fifo | ffmpeg  -f image2pipe -r 1 -i pipe:0 spo.mp4

Making sure to close tail first allowing ffmpeg to write the last bit of the file.


How to repeat an action against all clips in a sequence in Premiere Pro CC I have a large number of individual clips in one sequence of varying lengths. I want to shorten them all, regardless of where in the footage to a certain length (lets say 0 to 10 seconds. If it less than 10 seconds, lets leave it or cut). Going through all of these clips and shortening them manually would take a lot of time.

What I'm looking for is a way to apply the an action (in this case shortening the video, but the action could be arbitrary) to all of the clips, either by selecting all of the clips at once, or by running each clip through a macro where it applies the action with one click (or shortcut).

Is there a way to do this in Adobe Premiere or should I look for a different tool and perform this batch action outside of Adobe Premiere?

Here is a screenshot example of the series of clips.

Edit:

I was able to do what I wanted using ffmpeg and a Ruby script that I created. Here is a video showing the script in action:

Although I was able to solve the problem at hand, I think the original question still stands:  Can you repeat and action (somewhat complex action) against multiple clips in Adobe Premiere in batch or select multiple fashion?

Adobe has included a scripting framework in most of its apps, (you may have noticed a tool called extendscript toolbox, that's the IDE for it). Unfortunately they neglected to document Premiere's scripting API, so you have to work it out yourself / using the internet.

So yes, you could indeed develop a script to do this within Premiere. After all, why spend hours doing something by hand when in only a few weeks you can develop a script to do it automatically?


Fast Zoom Effect to New Camera So I'm trying to recreate an effect that was used quite a bit in the first Hulk movie. I've seen it other places, but Hulk sticks in my mind.

So the concept is that there are two cameras, one recording a relatively wide angle, capturing two subjects and a bit of background, and another camera recording a closer crop of one subject.

This is a common setup, but what I'm focusing on is the transition between these two cameras. Normally, something as simple as a dissolve is used, but I've also seen a transition which looks like a fast zoom, but is actually a transition. This is what I'd like to know how to do.

If I can find an example, I'll edit this post. Thank you!

On the outgoing footage add a qucick zoom at the end, on the incoming
footage add a quick zoom at the beginning (animate the scale of the
clips using whatever tools your NLE has for this). If the outgoing
zoom is a zoom in, then zoom out, and vice-versa.
Add a dissolve between the two clips that is the same length as the
zoom. The whole thing needs to be very quick, 12 frames or so tops.
A radial blur can help as well to simulate motion blur.

I wrote a FCP (version 7 or lower) plugin that did this as a transition effect. I can dig it out if you want it.


Adding graphics into video real time (lightweight) In a nutshell I want to place a basic object, specifically a line, over a live feed of video from camera.

Use case scenario: Simple camera connected to Arduino is capturing scenery which is displayed on LCD screen with simple line placed in fixed "height" of the screen.

I have done practically no video production before.
I tried searching but everything I found was either big hardware solution or it would not be possible to run on Arduino.

I would be really grateful if someone can give me some clues.

I doubt an Arduino or Raspberry Pi solution would be practical, or even possible, due to the limited processing power of those units and the processing power required to do what you want to do: Add an Overlay

Overlays are acheived using Alpha Channels. An Arduino, may be able to handle video, do certain encoding, input/output functions, but adding an overlay which requires the use of a larger bit-depth and different approach to color space due to the 4th Channel: The Alpha Channel, in addition to the Primary RGB Channels.

Your best bet is a simply HDMI capture card, or using a GPU that has HDMI capture, in conjunction with a software package like Livestream, which can handle overlays, logos, etc. They have different options, but their Producer / Studio Software, which goes from free to paid plans depending on usage and features, can do what you want.

There are others out there. You can also look at Bandicam. Bandicam is a great Screen Capture application, and it may have the abilty to apply its features, such as adding overlays to its recordings, to a camera input feed.

Its also very user friendly. Supports H264 and other codecs, and is very affordable (I think $30).

Worth looking at.


Why does Adobe Premiere Pro modify original footage/asset files (e.g. mov)? (CS6) Background:

A colleague had given me a large 33Gb .mov for use in a project, I
put this file on a backup drive.
I made an identical copy of this 33Gb .mov file and placed it in a folder that I'd use to work on a Premiere Pro Project.
I ran Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and dragged in the 33Gb .mov file into the Sequence (imported it)
Premiere Pro CS6 started conforming the file.
After it had finished, I noticed that
it's Modified Date was just now i.e different to the Modified Date
on the original copy of the file on the backup drive (see step 1)
I ran a BeyondCompare check between the .mov file on the backup drive
(see step 1) and the one that the Premiere Pro project was using
(step 2, 3) and Beyond Compare reported they were different.

I had initially thought it was unrelated file corruption of some kind, but I have checked this several times and got the same outcome, so it's definitely Premiere Pro deliberately modifying the file.

So I am puzzled: these are supposed to be the same file.

Why would there be a need for Adobe Premiere Pro to modify the footage?
What does it do to the file?
Would it not be better to create a separate file if necessary?

I can accept this if that's how it works and it's good to know that it was Premiere Pro deliberately modifying the files and not corruption (so my hardware ought to be healthy). But it makes more sense to me if Premiere Pro made separate modified copies for its own use. Modifying the file as it does hinders my process for checking the integrity of backups; if the original asset footage files were the same as earlier copies then it would be easy to know that the backups are OK.

Thoughts?

It's all about this setting, "Write XMP ID To Files On Import" - which confirms that Adobe Premiere Pro is deliberately modifying the .mov file: http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/preferences.html#WSE3BD4A43-7022-4fe6-97F5-95313935347B

These posts give some background as to why having this setting enabled would be beneficial: one benefit being to be able to skip conforming files by matching the conformed file with the original using the embedded XMP tag :-

http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/preferences.html#WSE3BD4A43-7022-4fe6-97F5-95313935347B
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-creative-suite/498627-why-premiere-modifying-video-files.html
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/205/876064

(Found using Google search term "adobe premiere pro date modified")

(will accept this answer, when 2 days has elapsed)


How to recreate these effects I found on IG? It is some kind of body glow, either blue or red with big 'chiaroscuro', everything else being black

https://imgur.com/gallery/INHDlt6

that'd be mega helpful for me, you'd make my day :))

You need a video editor that let you add curves to your video. Davinci Resolve is a great option.

Convert it to grayscale, you can simply reduce the saturation to 0.
Invert the curve. Augment the contrast making the curve more vertical.

Bring the green and Blue channels all the way down

Play a bit more. But that is the idea.

Option two for the final color is to add a color rectangle with different blending mode in the editor.

https://pixabay.com/es/photos/verano-flor-cabello-retrato-cara-4246927/


How can I keep my project-specific Motion elements together with my Final Cut projects? I'm producing a video with several graphics animations, and some of them need to be done in Motion. What's the best way to store a Motion animation that will only be used in one place in one FCP project?

Motion appears to want me to save it as a FCP template, but then it'll be in that template list for all time. I want to keep it with the project, ideally in an Event. It's media, just like my video and audio.

Is there any good way to handle this?

FCPX has currently no way to link Motion Projects to FCPX Projects. To place Motion Projects in another directory than the default one, you have to create symbolic links using Terminal (see below). Motion Projects can only be used in FCPX as Templates.

From Apple's PDF "Managing Media with Final Cut Pro X Libraries":

  Motion templates are not managed as assets within the library but are instead stored in ~/Movies/Motion Templates/. If a project is dependent on custom titles or other Motion templates, these must be handed off separately.

I. Managing Motion Templates Manually

FCPX searches for Motion Templates in ~/Movies/Motion Templates/Type of effect/Category/Name of effect/.

~/ means your home directory
Type of effect is one of: Compositions, Effects, Generators, Titles, Transitions.
Category, Name of effect: the name and the category under which the effect will appear in FCPX.

Within Finder you can :

Change the names of categories and effects
Create new categories and rearrange the effects inside them
update: New templates are detected without restarting, removed templates will show as offline until restarted

You can for example put all project-specific effects in a category named after that project. When you archive your project, you move the category's folder along and it will disappear in FCPX.

Update:

II. Templates Outside Templates Folder (Requires Terminal)

Find your Template (see above) and move it using Finder
In the Terminal create a symbolic link to your Templates new location (while aliases from the Finder are not recognized, symbolic links created in the Terminal are)

ln -s /Volumes/ExternalHDD/Untitled.fcpbundle/MyTitle.moti \
      ~/Movies/Motion\ Templates.localized/Titles.localized/MyCategory/

Change the above folder names to reflect yours.

In this example the Template is inside a Library on an external drive! See the next section on how to get it there.
To use this drive on another Mac, repeat the Terminal command there.

III. Templates Inside Library

To make sure a Template stays with the project it belongs to, you can place it inside the project's .fcpbundle:

In FCPX control-click on your library and choose Reveal in Finder

In Finder control-click on your library and choose Show Package Contents

Find your Template (see I.) and place it here. Then create the symbolic link (see II.)

Credits for Terminal inspiration go to MacBreak Studio.


Restore Video from Audio in Premiere Say I add a bunch of Audio/Video clips to a sequence, then replace the video with an After Effects composition, that was currupted. Premiere was closed and re-opened. The audio is still there but the video is missing.

Is there any way to restore the video to the audio clip that was deleted?

I tried this solution for deleted audio, but it didn't work for deleted video.

If the audio track was from a video clip in premiere, and was not replaced by the after effects comp, it should still be present in your project, and you should just be able to use the Match Frame command to find and resync the video to your audio.

Even with thirty clips, it shouldn't take that long if you use keyboard shortcuts.

Something like:

Select the first piece of audio in your timeline.
Set your in point on your timeline "i"
Press "f" to match frame
Press "." to replace the video at the correct point

(and repeat)


Why two focus controls on Canon KT14X44KRS? Apologies if this is a video camera question rather than a video question.

My JVC GY-HM700 camera lens, Canon KT14x44KRS has both a focus control, that goes from relatively close to infinity, and a macro control that shifts the entire focal range closer, starting somewhere inside the lens hood.

This means that if I'm filming something moving towards the lens, at some point I have to take my hand off the focus control and quickly adjust the macro control, then go back to the focus control.

Is this so that you have finer control of the focus when focusing on something that doesn't move too far toward or away from the lens? I guess I just find it a confusing control scheme, as I would have expected one focus control to cover the entire range. Is it because it's implemented with multiple Independent lenses?

Many lenses of different types have separate Macro modes that allow the photographer to focus on objects that are closer than they normally would be able to. Generally this Macro mode would apply if the object is within 1' of the lens.

There are plenty of ways to work around this limitation creatively, and nicer and more expensive lenses may offer better performance.

I did check the manual for camera, and it doesn't have any information about the Macro mode unfortunately.


Color calibration with a color chart Even if I set up a custom white balance in my software (with the traditional way to do it, using a grey card or white balance card, etc.), sometimes the colors are not exactly like I would like.

I would like to be able to :

shoot a color chart with normalized colors (example: GretagMacbeth)
import this video in Premiere (or any other software), and match all colors between left and right panel :

Then the colors would be really calibrated.

Does such a tool exist?

I'm not aware of any that work directly in Premiere, however I can use my Spyder Checkr24 to either adjust my videos in Adobe Lightroom or DaVinci Resolve.  For Lightroom, I use the software that came with my Spyder Checkr to make a preset I can apply.  In Resolve, there is actually built in native support for working with the swatches.

There are also other third party tools available that I haven't really looked in to, so I can't say for certain that there isn't a way to do it directly in Premiere with a third party tool, but the way I've been doing it has worked well enough that I have not bothered to look any further in to doing it directly in Premiere.

For more details on how things work in Resolve, you can check out this video or if you have a decent idea about how to use Resolve already, take note of the steps in this screenshot.  Start with 0 by choosing the target you are using on the Color workspace.  Then select the color match grid tool on the preview screen(1).  Position the grid over your color target during a portion of the clip that has the target visible (2).  Finally, hit Match(3) in order to have it generate the color correction profile for the clip.


Adobe Media Encoder render videos with fixed file size I often need to send people the raw material with mail, Whats App or other size-limiting services.

Adobe Media Encoder can limit the file size with Max Bitrate, but if I have a que with 100 videos, I don't want to calculate the max bitrate for every single video.

Is there a way to set a maximum file size for multiple videos so that AME calculates the max bitrate automatically?

Thanks.

Well you can select every output option for each file, selecting the first and holding shift, then clicking the last one. That way, you can change the max filesize for each file. For example, when you have a max of 12gb and must encode 173 files, the max file-size must be roughly 12000/173 mb for each one. You'd only have to calculate that once, alternatively, if you don't even want to do that, you could jam all your timelines in a new one, which you could then limit in filesize. Wouldn't recommend that though, as you'd have to slice them after rendering to get seperate files again.


Wirecast to wirecast I am running a broadcast and would like to include content from 2 locations, each location has the ability to stream from wirecast.

Is it possible to stream from wirecast at location 1 to wirecast at location 2?

I would use skype from the remote location into the local computer running wirecast then use their screen capturing option to capture the skype video.

The pro version of wirecast allows and input to be RTMP, Web streams and IP cameras. Assuming you have that, you could stream from the remote wirecast and bring it in as a source on the local system.

You may already be aware, but this will add a major delay in the remote feed. Because it will have to be encoded twice. Once from there to local then again locally on your main feed. Just something to be aware of.


How to create a x264 (mp4) video with the smallest size using ffmpeg that has just 1 image through entire video? I'm creating narrated mp4 (x264+aac) videos for books. Each video has just the book's cover as the background.

I wonder what would be the most effective way to create such videos with ffmpeg?

I've tried using framerate of 1fps and that created small videos, but there were problems seeking in the video, and some video playing libraries for web browsers got confused with such videos.

Do you have any recommendations for creating small mp4 videos with just 1 static frame?

ffmpeg will do it for you - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5887311/ffmpeg-1-image-1-audio-file-1-video

If you want to provide good seeking ability, you will need to provide key frames at certain intervals in the encoding, which will increase the size of the video. The codec will encode the whole frame at each of the keyframes but greatly compress the intervening frames. By playing around with the value of the key frame interval, you can arrive at a good compromise for your needs.


How to export a .AVI as a sequence of images in Avidemux I'm trying to simply export every frame of an .AVI movie as a sequence of images (.tiff) or a folder of .jpeg images.

This web page says I can simply select all frames in Avidemux, then go to:

File --> Save --> Save JPEG image

But that only ends up saving one frame instead of the entire selection. Any thoughts?

I'm using Avidemux version 2.6.10

You need to downgrade to 2.5 since 2.6 does not support image sequence export.

Alternatively, you could download FFmpeg and run

ffmpeg -i input.avi -q:v 1 in%d.jpg

ffmpeg -i input.avi in%d.tif


Windows software for recording multiple video/audio sources? I'm looking into options for recording video game sessions, including multiple different video and audio sources. I'm only at the planning stage of this, but here is basically what I want to set up:

Have PC set up as recording hub for gameplay sessions either on same PC or on nearby game console
Capture game footage, both audio and video, either capturing PC game footage or via capture hardware for console games (PCI or USB connection)
Capture footage of players, probably via webcam attached to PC
Capture both game and players feeds simultaneously

I'm fairly new to a lot of this stuff, so I'm not particularly sure what I'm looking for here. Can anyone provide some recommendations of software/hardware that would work for what I'm trying to do?

UPDATE: I've just discovered Telestream's Wirecast. It seems to be the sort of software I'm looking for, and I can use it to stream or save it to disk. It also has support for some Blackmagic Intensity capture hardware, which I was already looking at. Has anyone had experience with it or seen a similar, possibly cheaper alternative?

If it were me, I would try using a video recording interface with RCA connectors, as most TVs have an RCA audio/video output. Most of these connect via USB and come with some sort of software. For the video of the players, use a second software program and webcam/etc. to capture this. If you had a Mac, this could probably be sync'd in Final Cut Pro. I'm not familiar with all the software for Windows.

The main part I don't think you'll be able to accomplish (without expensive software) is capturing all of this in-sync with each device. This would require some sort of video-switcher software, similar to what TV stations use for live broadcasts. The method above is probably your cheapest route, if you can handle syncing it after the fact.


How to camera match move for moon/clouds/stars? I have found the way to replace green screen and match camera move with background footage, but I don't understand how is it done for sky because the markers on green screen moves way faster than the objects in sky. Please share your experience.

You can assume celestial bodies are infinitely far away, as the amount of parallax you can achieve in anything except a space ship is infinitesimal. So that means that the moon and stars stay fixed to a point of view, as long as you're not panning. If you're panning then the moon and stars can be on layers a long way from the camera, but scaled up to fill the frame.


DVD burned through Nero has only .nrd file A DVD was given with a .nrd file alone on it (Nero was used to burn videos from a camcorder to the DVD).

Is it possible to recover the video and convert to a mpeg format? Assume acquiring software is not a problem.

I have tried using Nero Burning ROM 2014, but cannot see an option to convert to mpeg format.

I believe NRD is Nero's version of ISO.  Someone likely created the NRD file when authoring the DVD and rather than burning the NRD file to the disk, they burned the file itself on to a disk.  Try doing a burn image with Nero Burning Rom and select the NRD file as the image.


Any tips how to increase editing speed on Premiere Pro? I'm using old notebook, which has a bit trouble with editing fottage highier than fullhd.

Is there any approach, how I can, for example work with small files first and than final export will process originals ?

I don't mind longer final render as long as I can do the edits, cuts, colors, effects smoothly without lagging.

Thank you!

I use Cinegy Daniel2 codec for editing in Premiere Pro. This codec take more space on disk, but work veeeeery fast compare to H264. Also it work more fast for me compare to ProRes.

Cinegy Daniel2 can be replaced with DNxHD MXF OP1a or MXF OP1a. Try these codecs. In Premiere it works very good.

You can convert all your raw files to one of this codecs before work, and then you will have more smooth workflow.
With this codec I could edit multicam 4K video with more than 3 cameras and it worked smoothly.
I have i7-4770K, 24gb RAM and GTX970 GPU. It's a PC from 2013 year (approx).

Also you can convert your videos to lower resolution and link them in Premiere Pro as Proxy files. Then you will edit files with proxy preview, but when you will render them, Premiere will use original full resolution files. When you need you can switch in one click between proxy and original resolution files.

For better understanding you can goole "Premiere work with Proxy files", "Premiere Cinegy Daniel 2", "Editing codecs for Adobe Premiere".
I can't google for you, because I will have most of materials in Russian.

Link to Cinegy Daniel 2 codec.


How to get Youtube Editor spotlight annotations to show up once uploaded on Vimeo I have added spotlight annotations to a Youtube video by using Youtube editor. I tried uploading it to Vimeo and the spotlights disappeared. Can someone please tell me how to get the annotations to show up in Vimeo after being made in Youtube? Thanks.

You can't. Vimeo doesn't support such a feature like the YouTube annotations.
You also can't export your YouTube annotations, YouTube doesn't offer any method for that.


How to make an animation of light in After effects? I need such a result, as in this image: http://i.imgur.com/7zBO1i1.gif
I want to animate the light in the hand of the girl. I was looking for a video on this topic on the Internet, but found nothing. Please help in this matter.

Well, there's a lot that would go into that effect, especially if the girl's hand is moving. Here's the basics so that you can better know what kinds of tutorials to search for.

To create the light you'd probably use what's called a "particle generator" combined with a star glow or shine effect (e.g., Trapcode Starglow.) If you don't want to shell out for that plugin, search for how to do "light streaks effect" or "shine effects" in AE "without plugins."

To make it look like it's within her hand (i.e., sandwiched between her fingers and her palm) you'd need to understand how to "animate mask paths" (in order to mask her fingers into their own separate layer.)

To make the light follow her hand around you'd need to learn about "motion tracking."


Good place to learn about every option/button in Adobe After Effects? In particular, right now anyway, I want to know what the following under Animation menu do:

Track Camera
Track in mocha AE
Warp Stabilizer
Track Motion

Looking for a text-based explanation.

The User Guide has all this information.

Online, visit the Adobe After Effects Help pages here and read the Animation and Keyframes section. As an example, the Track Camera page says:

  3D camera tracker effect

  The 3D camera tracker effect analyzes video sequences to extract
  camera motion and 3D scene data. The 3D camera motion allows you to
  correctly composite 3D elements over your 2D footage.


Only the first video clip I drag to timeline has audio Running premiere pro on windows 10.

I'm importing 3 videos into my project. When my timeline has nothing in it, the first video I drag in will have audio. However, the second one will never bring in the audio with it. This is the case even if I'm dragging the same clip twice. If I delete all clips and the project clip that shows up at the bottom of the media pane (forgive my lack of terminology) then I can drag another video and have it show up with audio.

The only solutions I've found involve deleting the cache file in appdata, which does nothing for me. I don't know what triggers this problem, or how this could possibly be desirable behavior. What could I be doing wrong?

I have seen this before with camcorder clips. It was a bug in the codec used for avchd files. The workaround was to extract the audio with Adobe encoder,  and add it separately. I have not seen this since spring 2017. You might see if your deployment is up to date.


Losing audio/video sync in Adobe Premiere with mp4's I have two videos to combine in Adobe Premiere. They play okay in a video player, but putting them into Adobe Premiere CS6 suddenly makes the audio unsynced with the video (even in the Source Monitor).

The videos are:

4GB each
1080p @ 60FPS
48 kHZ audio
Codec ID: avc1

Googling indicates this is a common problem. I've tried various fixes that did not fix the issue, such as renaming to .mov.

It records from NVIDIA Shadowplay. I suspect this has to do with the variable framerate. My goal is to keep them 60FPS.

How can I fix this so my audio & video are not out of sync? Even after exporting to a final clip, it's still out of sync.

[EDIT] I'm seeing mentions of using Handbrake to convert the source video first. Is there a way to solve this without having to convert every single video using Handbrake?

Download the 32-bit static build ffmpeg from here and try either of the two methods:

1) regenerate the timestamps

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy -fflags genpts new-input.mp4

2) Extract audio, import that separately, align starts in timeline and then check

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vn -c:a copy input-audio.mp4


Imported video is extremely choppy in Premiere Pro CC 2019 Ok, so I've imported a QuickTime movie file into Premiere, and when I played it in the preview window, it was really choppy, and it played the first three seconds over and over for the entirety of the video. I put it into the timeline and the same thing happened, the audio worked perfectly, but the video kept lagging behind and cutting up periodically, I've had this problem to a lesser extent with after effects, but nowhere near as bad as it is in Premiere, I'd appreciate any help.

Try setting the playback resolution to a lower setting. Depending on your periphery and the footage you're handling, it is quite normal for premiere to lag behind the realtime playback. Solutions for fluent playback might be:

Lowering the playback resolution (1/2, 1/4 or 1/16)
Using Proxies (smaller files, usually half the resolution. A quick google search tells you how to do that.)
Giving Premiere more RAM to play with and cleaning your cache.

-> You might need to go to edit -> purge and select purge all. Cached frames are frames that sit on a harddrive on your pc, so they don't have to be calculated every time they're played. Other then caching on the harddrive, premiere also caches into the RAM (random access memory) which acts like a very fast harddrive (although much smaller). Depending on how much RAM you can afford to assign to premiere (usually half as much as your total ram, preferably more than 8GB) you should up the amount dedicated to premiere. This setting sit in the memory section of the settings.


How can I save clips that I cut? All I want to do is take large videos, cut them up into small clips, and then reorder those clips into a new video. Yet this seems completely impossible to do with Final Cut Pro X… it can't be impossible because this must be a common need but it won't let me copy the cut clips into the media library and if I can't do that how can I do this? Why is this so hard to do?

The clips you cut in your timeline can’t be copied into the media pool because technically these aren’t individual clips yet. Just references to the original media. You can rearrange these easily in your timeline. Just drag and drop clips in your timeline. Everything will move around the clip you change position.


ffmpeg - blend video with images So I want to create videos that had a red overlay, effect and I assume that blend is the right options filter for this. Here my command :

ffmpeg -i dogs.mp4 -i red.jpg -filter_complex '[1:v]scale=1280:720[ckout];[0:v][ckout]blend=all_mode='multiply'[out]' -map '[out]' output.mp4

But when i tried this I always got :

Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[swscaler @ 00000263f19a9560] deprecated pixel format used, make sure you did set range correctly
[Parsed_blend_1 @ 00000263f192fa20] First input link top parameters (size 1920x1080, SAR 0:1) do not match the corresponding second input link bottom parameters (1280x720, SAR 1:1)
[Parsed_blend_1 @ 00000263f192fa20] Failed to configure output pad on Parsed_blend_1
Error reinitializing filters!
Failed to inject frame into filter network: Invalid argument
Error while processing the decoded data for stream #0:0
Conversion failed!

What is the right command for this?

The blend filter requires both inputs to have the same resolution. You can use the scale2ref filter to resize the overlay.

ffmpeg -i dogs.mp4 -i red.jpg -filter_complex '[1:v][0:v]scale2ref[ckout][vid];[vid][ckout]blend=all_mode='multiply'[out]' -map '[out]' output.mp4


What makes iMovie 11 crash when exporting a project? I'm making a short movie with iMovie.

From time to time (more than once per day) I export it in medium format.

I did it with my last version, then I refined the video and when exporting again iMovie started crashing.

After lot of hacking, reading (this great post for instance, which gives multiple very useful solutions), I understood that the cause was some corrupted video.

I crashes probably in the part where I included some video produced with iMovie itself. So, I create a temp project with iMovie, and I export it to use the exported video in my MAIN project.

I removed it and now it works. If I include it again it sometimes crashes, and it is the weird thing:
I never changed this video, and when I include it again some time the project is exporting well, sometimes not (it seems a not-reproducible issue! crazy!).

Hence I have the following questions:

is it possible to 'repair' the video which make the project crash?
is there a way to understand, from the error report, WHICH WAS THE PART CAUSING THE CRASH?
iMovie is great but I think it is still somewaht a toy. So if I buy final cut pro x, can I import iMovie videos without getting crazy?

-- UPDATE --

The followings are not  possible solutions:

Removing the "organic" title (I'm not using it)
clean the preferences entry in the library folder (com.apple.iMovieApp.plist), I've already tried it

You can try to convert the defunct video to a different codec. Use something Lossless like ProRes, if you can, or Motion JPEG. Then put the clip back into your project.

I had this problem once in FCP7 for about a week. It didn't go away until I re-recorded that video (which was painful, but in my case, doable). I wouldn't suggest such a radical solution in your case though. There's a lot you can still try. Read the linked post. Basically what I did was: "circumvent or force media conversion at different production stages".

You can also open Console and take a look at the log when the app is crashing. That normally gives hints what is going on in the background.