Why is image stabilization in my smartphone so much better than in post production? I recently bought Google Pixel and have gotten into blogging. Occasionally I'll turn off image stabilization when using a tripod, but if I forget to turn it back on it drastically affects the quality of videos.

I recently filmed an entire evening worth of un-stabilized video and tried to fix it in iMovie with the "stabilize shaky video" feature, but it did a bad job and couldn't match what the Pixel is ordinarily capable of.

How is it a tiny smartphone can do such a better job in real time compared to post production? Is it all just algorithms, or is something else going on in hardware?

The smartphone has acceleration sensors it needs for various things: knowing its orientation (so that it can keep the display content upright), interpolating between GPS fixes in order to give better navigation (and compass readings) than GPS alone would.  These acceleration sensors tell it how much it needs to compensate.  Dedicated cameras tend to use the acceleration signals for then either moving either a compensation lens (optical image stabilisation) or the sensor appropriately which means that they can still work with long continuous exposures on the same pixel sensor and compensate for sub-pixel shakes.  I don't know whether smartphones do that kind of thing: they probably just shift by multiples of whole pixels and read out faster.

At any rate, they don't need to rely on image processing in order to get reliable data for how much should be shifted where in case both smartphone and observed scene are in movement (and if they weren't, why would we be recording a movie rather than a still image in the first place?).  They can just use their motion sensors.

Even if they do the compensation purely digitally, they will do it at a faster rate than the final frame rate.  And since you are recording not raw but with a motion-optimized lossy encoder, the encoder can well decide "I'll just record a smear here since people will not be able to tell the difference to the details of the blur I have".  Except that after motion compensation, the details of the blur might become the details of a static scene and if they have been thrown away, you cannot reconstitute them just because they would be more visible than the encoder reasonably expected them to be.

So for one, the smartphone has better information what motion it should compensate and what not.  And for another, it has the raw input before reduction to the frame rate and lossy perception-based encoding to work with.


Where can one find a current and definitive reference for video quality as it pertains to hosting HTML5 Videos? At my job, I have encoded our sites videos for a couple years by using X-Media Re-encode:
MP4  1024x576 VBR 1500kbps
WebM 1024x576 CBR 1200kbps

I never had complaints about quality or buffering, I came about with those parameters by trial and error. Now my bosses want 3 qualities, which are:
MP4/WebM 1280x720
MP4/WebM 1920x1280
MP4/WebM 3840x2160

I warned them that the last one (4K) isn't mainstream as AFAIK. They think everyone has iPhone 6 I guess and that tomorrow every device will be Retina capable. I simply need a solid reference I can show my bosses the extra time in downloading, uploading, and encoding 4K will be. I assume the best way to do that is by the numbers (bitrates most importantly), without even considering the other factors such as limitation of broadband/DSL/Wifi, mobile, etc. Thanks in advance.
EDIT
To clarify my question a bit more, my company's server is PostGres RoR S3 to store media, and infrequent use of CloudFront due to our content may need revisions and CF's invalidation process is a deal breaker. So we don't use You-Tube or any third-party platforms as of yet. I'm the front end developer (you probably can tell by the way I described my company's server :P ). So we use HTML5 and a in-house video player we developed. No Flash, no HLS, etc.

What could do is show that Youtube transcodes to 4K at bitrates of ~20 mbps. You can use a tool like youtube-dl to check. Run youtube-dl -F URL So, your upload and download times will increase by a factor of 13-14, compared to the 1.5 mbps stream for 576p that you currently use.

Youtube is best placed in terms of expertise and motivation to minimize bandwidth use i.e. to determine the lowest bitrate that yields acceptable quality.


Split HLS TS segment at specific timestamp I am currently using ffmpeg to segment/transcode a longer transport stream into HLS with 10s segments. Now I want to grab the second segment from the following section:

#EXTINF:10.041667,
bbb_fhd_50s_000.ts
#EXTINF:10.041667,
bbb_fhd_50s_001.ts
#EXTINF:9.666667,
bbb_fhd_50s_002.ts

and split that into two chunks at 3s, result would look like:

#EXTINF:10.041667,
bbb_fhd_50s_000.ts
#EXTINF:3.008000,
bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut1.ts
#EXTINF:7.104000,
bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut2.ts
#EXTINF:9.666667,
bbb_fhd_50s_002.ts

Now, I got this to work using the following commands:

ffmpeg -i bbb_fhd_50s_001.ts -ss 00:00:00.0 -c copy -t 00:00:03.0 bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut1.ts
ffmpeg -i bbb_fhd_50s_001.ts -ss 00:00:03.0 -c copy bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut2.ts
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration   -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 -sexagesimal bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut1.ts
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration   -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 -sexagesimal bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut2.ts

Now when playing back the new m3u8 the transition between bbb_fhd_50s_000.ts and bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut1.ts works smoothly, but the transition back to the next uncut segment does not (from bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut2.ts to bbb_fhd_50s_002.ts). The video hangs for a couple of seconds after bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut2.ts has finished after which it continues. If I run the following sequence it works fine as well:

#EXTINF:10.041667,
bbb_fhd_50s_000.ts
#EXTINF:9.666667,
bbb_fhd_50s_002.ts

Anyone got any idea what goes wrong at the ending of bbb_fhd_50s_001_cut2.ts, and how to cut it correctly?

Try inserting EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY between those splitted ts


How to precisely synchronise an audio and video track from separate devices? Yesterday I recorded a full day event with a Panasonic HC-V700 Full HD Camcorder and I also captured the audio with a Zoom H4n Handy Recorder using the audio feed provided by the venue.  At the start I captured a "clap" in front of the venue microphone and the video camero to synchronise the two sources.

How do I precisely synchronise the audio and the video tracks using the "clap"?

I am using Adobe Premiere CC.
I have got the two tracks almost synched.
My Adobe Premiere skill level is basic.
I can't work out where the nudge tool is to move the audio track via the keyboard.

First off, if you have audio with your video (that you want to replace with your high-quality audio recording), then step #1 is to nudge the Zoom audio track to line up the impulse of the clap with the corresponding impulse of the scratch audio from the video file.  To do that, you need to change the Timecode Display Format to Audio Samples.  Once you do that, audio can be nudged a sample at a time, which makes it possible to get two audio files to agree, rather than a frame at a time, which makes it impossible.

To learn the keyboard shortcuts (which include the Nudge commands), print and study this page from the Adobe manual.  TL;DR: Nudge right is Alt+Right on Windows and Cmd+Right on OSX.  To nudge five frames at a time, add a Shift.  To nudge left instead of right, change from the Right Arrow to the Left Arrow.

Once you have your high quality audio aligned with your principal video, it's time to sync all the rest of your video with your principal video.  If you shoot at 24fps and capture audio at 48kHz, a single frame of video is 2000 audio samples, which is a lot of samples to sort through looking for the start of the clap!  But don't worry about that.  Once you have established principal video, all other video should be aligned based on video frames, not audio samples.  Unless you shoot with genlock, your video frames are not going to be perfectly in sync, which means that other video tracks could be as much as a half a frame early or late when aligned on a frame boundary.  Such is life.  Audio that's off by half a frame is not unlike sound that's coming from 21 feet away instead--about a 20ms delay.  There's nothing to do about that because (1) video needs to sync to video--you cannot slip it half a frame, and (2) you're not using audio from the other video tracks, you are using your Zoom audio, and that can only be locked to a single reference point.

If you are really OCD about timing, you can average your video offsets, weight them according to which is most prevalent/important, and align the audio so that lies at that weighted average point.  I don't know anybody who does this, but if you have two video streams that are 1/2 frame apart (worst case) and you split the difference with the audio, your audio/video error changes from 1/48th of a second worst case to 1/96th of a second worst (and best) case.  Only you can tell if that's preferable to you.


How should I encode my 4K video stream? I'm capturing uncompressed 4K video from my Sony A7R II via a video capture device, and am using ffmpeg to save the video.

My problem is I don't know what codec to use. The two options I tried are:

Uncompressed: this takes up too much space, something like 1Gb every few seconds.
h264: this very quickly starts skipping frames. I've tried libx264, nvenc and qvx and they all essentially fill up the buffer and then start skipping frames after less than a minute of shooting.

I'm doing all of this on a laptop, so I have little scope for adding hardware encoding, especially considering that Intel's and Nvidia's solutions - at least on my machine - are clearly insufficient for 4K.

My requirements are that the codec allows:

About 4-5 hours of captured footage reliably fit on a 500Gb SSD
Encoding can happen in realtime without frames being dropped
The codec is postprocessing-friendly

Just in case it's useful, my laptop has an i7-4710MQ and 32Gb RAM.

Update: some clarification: I record at 30FPS, my capture device is INOGENI, sampling is 4:2:0. And no, I don't want to lose more quality than I have to. If I have to spend 100Gb/hour for recording, I'm OK with that.

As mentioned by @Mulvya, I think the issue is the "slow" preset.

One option is encoding a compressed stream that is also lossless. For example, the x264 encoder can do this using "-preset ultrafast -qp 0". This will probably result in failing your 3rd requirement (compatibility), but since it's lossless, you can transcode later onto cheap spinning disks. You can also look into using the huffyuv lossless encoder, which might be better supported. There are some gotchas with this method, so you definitely want to test your workflow from beginning to end. In particular, see this question:
Using h264 in loseless mode brings small unexpected results

If you do go this route, I would also experiment with dropping subsampling and encode at 4:4:4. It may not increase your file size by that much and will help you if you plan on doing any post-production work.

Another option, depending on your budget, is purchasing an encoder. I love FFmpeg, but it's meant to work everywhere, not to take full advantage of your hardware. Mainconcept isn't too expensive and will better be able to use that i7 processor you already shelled out for. (See https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/using-the-intel-media-sdk-within-mainconcept-h264avc-encoder-for-intel-quick-sync-video for example.) They also offer an HEVC encoder which would further shrink your file size. I can't vouch for the quality, however, as my experience is with Ateme. But I believe you can at least evaluate it out for free.


Multiple masks in adobe premiere and RAM I am editing a video clip of 5 minutes length. I am using multiple masks on it to blurry the face of a subject. I got to a point in which I cannot keep working because my RAM (8GB) it's getting saturated and I believe it is because I am using so many masks (12 masks). Is there a way of merging them all together or solving this problem?

Sadly combining them wouldn't help that much. The problem is you need more memory. I have 64gb for AE and I still use all of it at times. I would say a base line is 16-32gb. I could easily use 128gb though.


How to delete a gap in an After Effects timeline ...without having to carefully select everything after the gap, and shift it all up.

All articles/videos I see only talk about  trimming the timeline at the beginning or end, but I can't find anything about cutting out a piece in the middle.

Basically, I want the inverse of Trim Comp to Work Area. I want to remove a piece of the full comp in the middle of the timeline.

Is that possible?

There's a script that does it for you (I just wrote it). You can get it (free, open source, WTFPL license) here on my blog. With the playhead in a gap, run the script and it will pull the layers after the gap along so the gap disappears.

BTW all care, no responsibility. It works on my machine, but I've tested it like, twice. Save before using.


Getting Started with Webcasting and Video conferencing Our church is trying to move into the 21st century.  We have the opportunity to apply for a grant of up to $20,000 ($10,000 would be more likely to succeed) for equipment purchases.

We need to be able to accomplish two things. First, to stream our Sunday morning service along with recording for our archive.  Second, to host video conferences as a remote site. The Diocese (bigger entity over us) is already setup with MegaMeeting, we just need the equipment to send and receive audio and video to MM in real time.

Given the above, I know I need a Video Camera (or two), a few more Mics, a dedicated computer, and the equipment to hook them all together.  It is the last part that I am not sure about.

I'm fairly certain that once I get audio and video into the computer I can get it out to the web, what I need to know is how to mix it all together.

Blackmagic and Livestream are your friends :)

You probably want to get 3 cameras - one for the priest, one for roaming action shots and one for the audience. You'll need a whole bunch of microphones and an audio mixer. But you probably already know all this.

Buy a Blackmagic TV Studio and buy a Livestream Broadcaster - plug the TV Studio's HDMI output into the Livestream Broadcaster and plug a computer into the TV Studio's ethernet port. You use the computer to control the switching between cameras and the Livestream Broadcaster spits it out to the Internet using Livestream's servers. Make sure where you're broadcasting from has a fast Internet connection.

Lots of churches seem to have projectors these days, so you can plug the output from your projector's source (use a splitter of some sort, and a scaler to match the frame specs as the cameras) into the TV studio too, and add what's on the projector into the mix as well.

You can replace the Livestream Broadcaster with a computer, but the Livestream Broadcaster is cheaper, more flexible and more reliable, in my opinion.

I guess this is a starting point - but if you want more info, just post and I'll answer any questions :)


How do you batch merge many clips in a premiere pro timeline? I'm sure there are other use cases for this as well, but the major one that I can think of is creating a bin out of the synced sequence pluraleyes creates.

When pluraleyes syncs your footage with audio, it will create a sequence that looks like this:

To get these clips into a bin, one method, (documented here) is for each clip in the timeline, you have to shift click on the footage + the layers of audio underneath. Select merge clips and then it'll create a merged clip in your project.

This can go from tedious to impractical, depending on how many clips you have. Is there a way to speed up this process?

There are at least two ways I have found to do this so far.

Out of the box method

The easiest possible way to speed this process up is to set a few keyboard shortcuts and close the project window.

Open the keyboard shortcut manager. Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts
Search for merge and set Merge Clips to a shortcut. I picked Ctrl+Shift+Y

Search for select next clip and set Select Next Clip to a shortcut. I picked Ctrl+Down

Close the project folder pane. This will make things 10X faster. Without doing this every time you merge a clip, focus will be given to the project pane. If you don't do this, the process will be. ctrl+shift+Y > enter > ctrl+down > click back to timeline. If you do this you never have to leave the keyboard you can just do ctrl+shift+Y > enter > ctrl+down > ctrl+shift+Y until the end of your timeline.

If you do all of that, and close the project pane, the process would look something like this:

https://i.imgur.com/7Yyy1T4.gifv

Super hacky, but I guess it works, method

While the above does work fine, and will probably speed up doing this with a mouse by a factor of ten. If you have a timeline with hundreds of clips, this is going to get really tedious.

So, all we need to automate this, is something to do these keyboard shortcuts for us while we go and... do something else

If you can't find a rocking bird. The next best thing is going to be autohotkey. I don't know what the MacOS equivalent of this is, but at least on windows the process would look something like this.

Estimate how many clips are in your timeline 100ish, 200ish?
Download and install AutoHotkey
Download this Autohotkey script

    ^j::
    Loop, x ; Set x to estimate of clips in timeline, 100, 200, etc.
    {
    Send, ^+y ; Merge clips shortcut
    Sleep, 100 ; Wait for dialogue
    Send, {Enter} ; Press enter
    Sleep, 100 ; Wait for merge
    Send, ^{Down} ; Select next clip shortcut
    Sleep, 100 ; Wait for next clip
    }
    return

Right click on mergeclips.ahk on your desktop > select edit script
Set x to the number of clips you want to merge. Save the file.
Double click on the script on your desktop. This will listen in the background for your keyboard shortcut press.
Go to premiere, make sure your project pane is closed
Make sure your premiere keyboard shortcuts are set to the ones I listed above.
Select the first clip on the timeline you want to merge.
Press ctrl+j to start the script :)

Demo: https://i.imgur.com/N4hD09d.gifv


Reading material for technical aspects of timecode and alignment I'm a sound engineer with extensive live and recorded experience. My electronics and acoustics are pretty strong IMO but I've never had any extensive interaction with video/film production and post timecode hardware. What's the best book/website/whitepaper to learn the nuts-and-bolts technical aspects of that stuff. Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook gives some discussion of it, but it's short and out of date.

This doesn't cover the applications, but it gives a succint view into the nuts and bolts:

Phil Rees


Can I export keyframe settings in OBS? I exported my settings and got a file like this:

[General]
Name=Adobe RTMP

[Video]
BaseCX=1920
BaseCY=1080
OutputCX=1920
OutputCY=1080
ColorSpace=601
ColorRange=Partial

[Panels]
CookieId=CB44DC4848BD02DB

[Output]
Mode=Advanced

[SimpleOutput]
VBitrate=4000

[AdvOut]
VBitrate=4000
TrackIndex=1
RecType=Standard
RecTracks=1
FFOutputToFile=true
FFFormat=
FFFormatMimeType=
FFVEncoderId=0
FFVEncoder=
FFAEncoderId=0
FFAEncoder=
FFAudioMixes=1
RescaleRes=1680x1050
RecRescaleRes=1680x1050
FFRescaleRes=1680x1050

I know I had to add [SimpleOutput] myself, to ensure 4K bitrate for people using advanced or simple UI. I am wondering how I might be able to add a specific setting for Keyframe Interval. I want people to download my settings to have keyframe interval of 2, rather than auto (which is 8.3).

Yes, you can! In your streamEncoder.json add the following.

{
...
      "keyint_sec": 2
...
}


Changing suffix of template in after effects I am totally new to after effects and I make teaching videos. I want to change suffix "K" to "%" but I am having a hard time removing it from the template I have bought from an online store. I have tried to contact them through the mail but I have not received any email yet so it's getting delayed.
What I see is when I delete the value control layer they get removed but inside that layer, I am not able to see any option of changing it so there must be something inside of it.

Google Drive Link for reproducibility. I am using slide 14. Please guide me.

The text labels are all controlled by a simple expression that takes the value of a slider, converts it to an integer and adds the letter "K" at the end. Even without programming skills you can see where the "k" part happens (but I put in some magic sparkles to give you a hint). Simply replace the letter "K" with "%" and you're golden.

I wrote a script that finds and replaces text in expressions. You can get it here. I'd suggest if you use it that you search and replace the whole line (x + "K"), as just replacing the letter k with % may ma%e other expressions stop wor%ing.
Also, I hope that the project you linked is just a dummy project. I doubt the client would be happy with you posting details of their presentation on the public internet without their approval. At the least it could get you fired.


Do blanking intervals appear on both sides of a frame or just the top and left? I've been learning about the blanking intervals in video signals and often see diagrams like this:

(Ref)

But, I often also see the blanking regions describes as being on both sides of the image:

(Ref)

Which is correct? I would have thought the latter as I would have thought for CRTs the electron beam would be blanked at the end of a line so it can return to the start of the next line and then un-blanked. Same for vertical.

Which image/description is correct?

They are both right, depending on the context and level of detail. The latter accurately describes what happens within the waveform. If you look further down in your reference, it shows that there is a "front porch" and "back porch" of the horizontal and vertical intervals.

However, the former describes what happens practically, especially in terms of the useful parts of the vertical blanking interval (VBI). Closed captioning, teletext, VITS, VITC, AMOL all use the blanked lines at the top of the field to transmit their data. (You should also note that your reference intentionally chose this layout in order to draw parallels with digital VANC and HANC, which are only at the top and left of the picture.)


How to demux MPTS to SPS I have a live multi-program MPEG-TS stream [MPTS] over IP, I'd like to select just one program from the stream, and output a single-program MPEG-TS stream containing just that program.
is there any software, either open-source or for sale that can do that?

Adobe Media Server appears to support the functionality you are looking for.  There is a free starter edition or the Extended or Professional editions also support live stream splitting.


After Effects experience with virtual choir 3D environment Is there anyone in the forum with After Effects experience related to the production of a virtual choir, such as that of Eric Whitacre (e.g., see video below)?

I would like to get some advice on how to set up  the AE 3D environment for a similar production.

This is a tricky video production technique. Anyway, try the following steps:

First, create 4 black solid layers. Then, add a Lens Flare to them.

Place one flare in the bottom right corner.
On another solid, make the lens flare on the fare right middle.
For the third color solid's lens flare, make it on the top. With different color flares, it will look closer to what you are after.
Then, add a Ramp behavior to the last black solid and make sure it is on the bottom of the other layers.

Also, make the top a light gray and the bottom a dark gray.
Add an Adjustment layer above the black solids.

Add a Fast Blur to it and set it to around say 60, making the lens flares blurry.

Select all of the layers and create a pre-comp.
Meanwhile, try to add another color solid and make it white. Then, add a mask to it and make it an oval shape. Make the feather big like 250 or more. Move it so it is where the floor would be.


UHD video sample in 4:4:4 For my project I need to find or short video (1 min) of a UHD video in 4:4:4
I coudn't find any thanks to google.
I am now considering making one from 4 full HD stream in 4:4:4 but I don't know what tools I could use.

And by the way, although I read it's possible to make a full HD 4:4:4 stream from a 4K 4:2:0 I didn't find any sample available.

Any advice?

You can use ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, to generate some synthetic videos in the required size and pixel format:

Mandelbrot fractal

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "mandelbrot=s=3840x2160:r=24" -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv444p -t 5 mb444.mov

This will generate a 5 second UHD video @ 24 fps. You can experiment with the various parameters detailed here, such as coloring methods or amount of zoom.

There's also filters to generate patterns as per Conway's Game of Life or a custom cellular automaton, although those will be very 'noisy' with default settings.

You can also use a test pattern as a source:

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "testsrc=s=3840x2160:r=24" -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv444p -t 5 test444.mov


Working on multi-camera edits using proxy files in Premiere I want to be able to make multi-camera edits using low res proxy files, then be able to recreate those edits using HD footage. I'm using CC 2019. Here's my workflow:

Import HD files into Premiere, and create a multi-camera source
sequence
Select the clips, right click them and create proxies

When I open the Multi-camera Source Sequence in Timeline, I can toggle the proxy files by clicking the Toggle Proxies button.

When I create a Sequence from my Multi-camera Source Sequence, and open it in the timeline, I am no longer able to Toggle Proxies.

Is this the expected behaviour, or am I doing something wrong?

I have found this workaround, but it involves duplicating the multi-camera sequence, and swapping out the footage for the low-res footage. I'd prefer Premiere to manage toggling the proxies itself if possible.

If you globally turn on/off proxies in the preferences does that work?

Because premiere sometimes drops resolution while playing, it can be hard to see whether a proxy is enabled or not. You can test it by rendering a proxy with a watermark and seeing if it goes away when you turn off proxies.


Automatic Motion Detection in existing GoPro video files I have quite some hours of footage stored on disc. It's all static video of a bird's nest.

Is anybody aware of an application that makes it easy to automatically scan these files and to jump ahead to the next sequence in which motion is detected?

Thank you very much,
J.

iSpy Connect may be able to help you here. I've haven't played about it with it much but I know you can load an existing video file into it and it will detect motion.


Can't move imported images I'm using Adobe Premiere CS3 and I can't determine how to move an imported image around. To move text I double-click on the text item on the items panel. I've tried hiding the text layer that keeps moving (the website URL that is displayed for the full length of the video) though a white box gets moved instead. Double-clicking on the image in the items panel doesn't do anything. This has nothing to do with animation or movement, I just need to change the image's position (it's dead-center by default).

How do I move an image to a different position in the Timeline panel?

Apparently I had to move the image to "Video 5" (if there are four video layers) to be able to move the image around. Obnoxious though effective enough. If someone knows how to still move images around while avoiding having to add tons of video layers I'd appreciate it though.


pause video with overlay ffmpeg I'd like to overlay a png onto a video at a certain timestamp and have the video pause (loop) on that frame for X seconds with the overlay.  What would be the best method to accomplish this?

Let's call the video frame rate F. And the start time of the overlay t

Use

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -i ol.png -filter_complex
         "[0]trim=0:t,loop=X*F:1:t*F,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB[fol];
          [0]trim=t,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB[post]
          [fol][1]overlay[pre];[pre][post]concat" out.mp4

The loop filter accepts frame index numbers, so you have to convert your start time and loop time to frame counts and substitute with those values.


What is the best way to capture PC footage? I'm trying to capture footage from a Desktop PC, I don't want to use FRAPS as the quality isn't good enough for what I need and it adds a load of overhead.

I've tried a BlackMagic H.264 but when I click capture and click it to finish my clip doesn't appear to save (It seems the software is pretty unreliable).

Is there a better solution for this? I'd like to capture 1080p with multichannel audio.

Just to clarify, I am using the HDMI out of a Radeon HD5800 card so I'm looking for a hardware solution.

There are many applications which do this, some free, some not - FRAPS should certainly be able to cope if your CPU/GPU is powerful enough (and in fact this may be the limiting factor for whichever application you choose)

So your question title - "what is the best way" - is easy to answer: use a screen capture application, and ensure you have sufficient power to cope.

In the body of the question it looks like you are asking for recommendations on which application to use. This is not really an answerable question - it will vary depending on your exact needs, but many applications will do just fine, given the prerequisites mentioned above.

update - I have been using WeGame, and it works really well, and is lighter weight than FRAPS.


Indexing audio for video editing What tools would you recommend to index the audio track for video editing? I'd like to be able to do a text search for words in the dialog to more easily locate video snippets. I'm using FC and/or Premiere.

Premiere CS4+ has a feature called Speech Search. I haven't used it personally, however, so I'm not sure of the quality. However, this site has a sample of video, and also a PDF of the transcription Speech Search provided (they describe it as "eh").


How to keyframe a crop in Premiere Pro CC I am working on a school project, and it starts off with a 5 second count up that takes up the full screen. I am using the prebuilt insert timecode effect built into Premiere. What I have done is cropped all but the minutes and seconds out of the view.

What I would like to do next is to transition it to the bottom right corner while shrinking it.

Any help/advice would be welcome. If theres another program that does it easier, then feel free to let me know.

EDIT:

Here is what I have:

Here is it without the crop:

Here is what I would like to have the timer transition to:

Here is the non-cropped version of the smaller timestamp:

Before I start I'd like to mention that this would be much easier in After Effects. If you plan on doing this more often, you should consider learning AE to be able to do things like that faster.

So, to follow your approach I created a transparent layer, put the timecode effect on it and cropped it using the crop effect. It looks like this right now:

Since you want to resize and move it, you'll need to activate the animation for two parameters in the effects panel: The "size" parameter of the timecode effect and the "position" parameter under the motion effect (which is applied to each clip by default). You can do this by clicking the clock symbol next to the parameters name (see the next image). Make sure that your playhead (in the timeline) is at position 00:00, since activating the animation will create a keyframe at the current position.

Now, move the playhead to the point where you want the animation to end (i.e. the timecode has arrived at your desired position and size). First, alter the percentage value of the "size" parameter of the Timecode effect. A keyframe will automatically be created (see the small diamond shape in the timeline next to the effect settings panel). Then, adjust the "position" parameter of the motion effect. Again, a keyframe will automatically created. Adjust both parameters until you're happy with size and position. Then you're basically done.


Does canon EOS 1000D support video recording? I want to buy an entry level DSLR and EOS 1000D seems like a good buy but I have some doubts regarding it. Does it support video recording?

Do I need to install some software for the video recording to work? If yes, does that record the videos with sound? If no, how can I record video with sound on the Canon EOS 1000D?

It cannot officially record video, but there is an open source project to allow recording direct to a computer.

Source

Given that it doesn't support video natively then there won't be a built in microphone to record sound. If you went with the open source software you'd have to record the sound separately and sync it afterwards - which is not a straightforward process.


How are frames in 59.94 drop-frame timecode dropped? The pattern for dropping frames in 29.97 drop-frame SMPTE timecode is well documented (2 frames at every minute except when minute is a multiple of 10).

I was wondering how it works with 59.94 fps drop-frame timecode? I guess it needs to be twice the amount of frames dropped, but what is the exact pattern?

Apparently, the frames are dropped at the same cadence, but with double frequency.

From FFmpeg's timecode drop function,

if (fps == 30) {
    drop_frames = 2;
    frames_per_10mins = 17982;
} else if (fps == 60) {
    drop_frames = 4;
    frames_per_10mins = 35964;
}
....
d = framenum / frames_per_10mins;
m = framenum % frames_per_10mins;

return framenum + 9*drop_frames*d + drop_frames*((m - drop_frames)/(frames_per_10mins/10));

and the string is

ff = framenum % fps;
ss = framenum / fps      % 60;
mm = framenum / (fps*60) % 60;
hh = framenum / (fps*3600) % 24;


Scene change detection What off the shelf (COTS or OpenSource) have scene change detection? I would really like one that is not a fixed algorithm, but can either use motion vectors, audio, or static analysis depending on our needs.

Is there something beyond what is already talked about in:
Split one video file into small files made up of its scenes

Or with the matlab tool:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/vision/examples/scene-change-detection.html

Both Speedgrade and Davinci Resolve have scene change detection.

Davinci Resolve is also free. I am not sure however on how exactly it detects scenes changes.


What happens when there is a "movie within a movie" or a "film within a film." Suppose there is a movie set in early 1991, around the time of the Persian Gulf War. The camera pans on a film clip of President Bush declaring war on Iraq, and then a month later (in movie time), there is a another film clip of General Schwartzkopf reporting on the outcome.

What is this technique called and how is it effected?

It's usually just called "film-within-a-film," "movie-within-a-movie," "play-within-a-play," "play-within-a-movie," or whatever's most appropriate to the situation.  There's a french term which describes it (mise en abyme), but as an english speaker, it's often more practical just to describe the technique however it appears.  The Wikipedia entrance on story within a story gives many examples from film, theater, and literature.  The first example that comes to my mind is Nation's Pride, the film within Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.  Personally, I would call Nation's Pride a film-within-a-film, and I think many other writers would too.


Frame difference mask What editing software for MacOS allows mask selection based on frame difference?

I have video footage taken from a tripod and I wish to create a tracking mask covering people and cars moving about the frame, using a frame without the people in it as reference.

Ideally I would like the software to ignore the objects that were already in the reference frame but moved away from it later (i.e., objects that are not part of the background).

Is this is a common feature in video-editing software or perhaps there is a plugin available for it?

The effect is known as a "difference" key. It's also known as a "not very good" key, because unless your footage is shot on a rock-solid locked off tripod and you're shooting uncompressed 4:4:4, it works a lot less well than you'd think.

After effects has a Colour Difference Key effect, as does Premiere, and this forum post explains how to do it in Apple Motion - though the principle will work in most compositing applications.

And of course, if you're after free as in speech as well as in beer Blender has a difference key node too.


How to create this effect? In most of the official screen-recorded Adobe CC tutorials, they use a [bubble kinda popping up] effect as in the screenshot below.

Video link

How could I recreate this effect in Adobe Premiere or After Effects?
Is there a plugin or script involved in this?

It looks like the contents of the bubble is a zoomed in view of a video clip or a series of still frames.

The animation uses manually set keyframes to alter the position of the clip to create a pan effect. The cursor is also animated using manual keyframes. The acceleration of the pan is smoothed, probably with 'Easy Ease' transitions.

The video is then masked using an ellipse graphic with a shadow included, which can be easily be created in Illustrator.

It is possible to replicate the effect by taking a clip of a screen recording and tracking the motion of the mouse cursor to directly follow the action. This would be a lot easier to do (provided the cursor does not change and is always visible) but the results would be very rough.

The best way to replicate this effect would be to add manual keyframes as shown in the example video.


Good app / process for organizing video snapshots into a storyboard? I have many hours of footage from a friend's wedding I want to set to a music video.  I'm using Adobe Premiere.  I already have the main story arch, and now I want to fine-tune the sequence of shots per scene/act.

I think what'd work best for me is to grab snapshots of the candidate clips and lay them out in an app that lets me sort and organize. After that, I want to run through the storyboard along with the song to see how well it fits.

Does someone know a good process or app for doing this?  Ideally, I want to replicate the process of using storyboard index cards and organizing them manually.  I imagine it's easier to do this all in software since the source material is all digital.  Free is preferred but I'll consider paying for something nice.

Left to my own devices I'll probably pull screen caps using Premiere or VLC and sort them manually in Windows Explorer.

I ended up using Trello.  It was nice in that I can lay out shots scene by scene, with each scene as a list.  Dragging and dropping individual frames (as png's or jpegs) for card cover images was super handy, as was being able to move around and organize the cards later on.

Being able to write longer descriptions and comment on each card allowed me to document why I wanted to use a shot, or decided against it.


How many NVIDIA NVENC engines a particular GPU have? There is a NVIDIA VIDEO CODEC SDK APPLICATION NOTE - ENCODER in which we can read the following:

  While Kepler and first generation Maxwell GPUs had one NVENC engine, certain
  variants of the second generation Maxwell GPUs and Pascal Generation GPUs have two/three NVENC engines physically present on the silicon.

So, does anyone know how to determine the number of NVENC engines in a GPU or already know the numbers? Because there is no information in NVIDIA datasheets and they are annoyingly silent in their own developer forums.

Since you are actually more interested in performance (Frame Per Second) than in the NVENC engines count, please consider my below rounded up figures.
I've compared GTX 1060 and GTX 1080 only.

H264, GTX 1080 encodes 70%  faster than GTX 1060
HEVC, GTX 1080 encodes 140% faster than GTX 1060


Video of typing text on an angle I saw this video (https://pin.it/119U75R) and I want to do something like it but I don't know what it's call to search about it, so can you help me how I can search about it?
I would like to make text like typing in this way with an angle.

There are a few different techniques going on in this shot.
First the text was all made in 2D:
The hand-drawn text was probably made in 2D first, then revealed with a mask either line by line or using a plugin like QuickDraw.
The printed text is being animated on character-by-character using text animators.
Then that 2D layer has a paper layer added behind it, some drop shadow added to it as a Layer Style maybe.
Then all of it is placed into 3D, with some camera moves on it (this is an old tutorial, but the whole set is great for getting to grips with After Effects)
There's other stuff going on in that clip, but that's the basics of the text effects.


How can I see each frame of a mpeg transport stream under windows? I am looking for a tool, preferably free, that will allow me to see and save each frame from MPEG-2 Transport Stream (video/mp2t).

Take a look at MPEG Streamclip for Windows. It's a very usefull converter. It's free. You can step frame-by-frame thought your TS-Streams, and you can export frames.


Microphone suggestions or software to avoid background noise in audio I am afraid this is a bit off topic but I really need to find a microphone recommendation to record home videos without background noise. If this site is not the place and there is a site for searching these specific microphones, please let me know.

I have tried Microsoft LiveChat LX 3000 microphone but it is adding a wierd background noise into my video recording.

Also if there is a known software that reduces background noise, please share its name.

Your most critical need is going to be a professional low noise analog to digital converter and pre-amp with a decent quality microphone to go with it.  There are a few options you can pursue for this depending on your interests.

Since you are currently working with a computer directly, you could go for any of a number of professional audio capture devices with XLR and phantom power capabilities, such as the X2U adapter from Shure that you were talking about or a device like an MAudio audio interface unit.

Since these only provide inputs you would also need a microphone.  Depending on how close you mind the mic being, something as simple as an SM58 would produce nice clean audio for you, this has the added advantage of being usable really close to your mouth and focusing the pickup in a cardioid pattern that mostly picks up stuff in front of the microphone, thus it will pick up less background noise.

Alternately, you could use a condenser mic or shotgun mic that could be placed further away, however a condenser mic would pick up more of the room sound and a shotgun mic would require careful aiming in order to make sure it picks you up and not the room.  A Lapel mic or LAV is also an option.  A lapel mic is a type of condenser that can clip to your shirt and therefore pick up a little less noise, but will still be in the shot, though it is less obvious than a dynamic mic like an SM58.

Yet another option to get additional flexibility is to go with a device like an H4n recorder.  This is what I use for my video work.  It is a stand alone recorder which can also be used as an audio interface for the PC and also has built in stereo condenser mics.  The device runs a little bit more expensive than an audio interface, but is normally a bit cheaper than an interface and a condenser mic pair.  It also can be used away from a computer for any project.

Additionally, the H4n includes XLR and 1/4" inputs so that it can be used with any of the mics you could use with an audio interface if you later decide to upgrade or change to a different kind of microphone for a particular recording task.


Opteka CXS-2 vs Glidecam HD-2000 Recently I have been looking at a lot of reviews of these two video stabilization products and now I simply can't make up my mind - which one is better for me, which one should I buy?

I mean, the Glidecam is amazing, but is it really worth the price? Perhaps Opteka shoulder rig would be enough if I'm filming just camps, public events and such things.

Perhaps you have had a similar experience. Perhaps there's something else that you can suggest for a low-budget starter in DSLR film making?

Ps. - I already have a really great tripod, but I would like to be able to move around while recording.

Opteka CXS-2: http://cheesycam.com/optekas-new-cxs-2/

Glidecam HD-2000: http://www.glidecam.com/product-hd-series.php

A few years ago, I invested in a Fig-Rig. The price is right (under US$300) and I love the look of the footage. Because it's hand held, there's still a little bit of the organic movement that you lose with the perfect stability of a GlideCam.

Versatility is awesome...high shots, low shots, travelling shots, I can attach it to a tripod, and most of my accessories...eye-lights, mic receiver paks, cabling...can attach right to the frame. Google for "Fig Rig Demo videos", & watch them to see what it can do.

I originally picked it up for my Panasonic DVX100B, but recently switched over to DSLR. For the latter, it's a wonderfully compact support package that does everything I need it to do except make coffee.  :)

Designed like a steering wheel where the camera creates a low center of gravity, it self-stabilizes like gyro stabilizer, without having to fight as much as you do against a gyro stabilizer.

Which should you get? Whichever one you like. Personally, I don't like SteadiCam/glidecam shots; they're TOO perfect. I like to see a little bit of human frailty in the image that reminds me of the hard work the operator puts into the film.

I'd recommend finding friends, rental houses or production companies in your area that may own these or similar devices. Try them out for a weekend by borrowing or renting them. Analyze the footage. More likely than noe, you'll find something you LOVE, and then you have your answer.

One thing that I will note, is that there are a TON of DIY plans on the 'net to make these things on the cheap. One of my first stabilizers was made for under $10.00 with iron pipe and some fitness weights.


Tracking in Premiere Pro: Keep an object in a zoomed-in video in place I am working with Premiere Pro and am trying to use tracking to keep an object in frame.

I'm zooming in on a video that has a moving object; in this case it's the neck of a guitar.
Because the guitarist is moving around, the neck goes up and down.
Sometimes it will move out of its frame (the zoomed-in image).

I'd like to keep the neck in the frame; thus move the zoomed frame.

Is this at all possible with tracking?

I've seen some amazing tracking effects like blurring a moving face or car license plate.

Of course I can do this manually, by moving the frame around.
But man..... would this save me a lot of work :-)

You'll need to use AfterEffects to effectively track camera or object motion.

There are tutorials on YouTube, my advice is do the tracking last, so you only track the footage frames used in your project.

Put all the shots you plan to track on a dedicated track in premiere while editing.

Export that video track with all other tracks off and import that video into AE, then track the sections that appear in the video.

Or you can use Bridge with Dynamic Link.

I say this because the tracking feature in AE is "intelligent" and will do a lot of the work for you, to a point, but many times you have to make corrections, do manual frame by frame track points... It's time consuming.

Hope that helps.


How to make interactive video presentation? I need to make presentation, which will be used as background for stage play.

I work with After Effects and Premiere better, than with PowerPoint. And I see more possibilities in them. I can make better result in video editing software, then in PowerPoint. So it wold be great to find way, to make presentation in them.

Because it can take different amount of time for actors, to reach next "slide" in my "background presentation", I can't just make seamless video.

How I see it, each presentation "slide" can be made with endless loop of video, and at the click/keypress video should go to the next video-loop.

One variant is to make PowerPoint presentation with separate video in each slide... But PowerPoint work with videos pretty badly, how I remember.

What is the best way to accomplish my goal?

Thank you in advance!

Quickest way is to create each video with multiple repeats rendered in one file, enough to cover a worst case scenario. Queue these in a playlist in VLC, Potplayer ...etc and manually advance as necessary.

You may also want to look at video jockey (VJ) apps like LiVES. Since those are meant for interactive video manipulation and playback, they may have this functionality.


Scan Library for music track Hope, I got the right forum for my question.

I'm a Podcaster and publishing podcasts since 2005. In my first few episodes I used a Music Track as an opener which seems to have a copyright on it, so I got a mail from a lawyer. First of all: Yep, i didn't check the license in detail so I have to pay for this now. I appreciate the work of musicians and I never wanted to do piracy - the website I got the track from seemed to have free tracks and so I used them.

Anyway: I have to commit myself to never ever republish this copyrighted track again. But in The mass of episodes I have created it would be hard work to check of I used the track even after changing the opener to a (real) free track. Is there a possibility to scan my library automatically against a short part of the copyrighted track?

If this is the wrong section, please refer to the correct one.

Thanks in advance

Phil

https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/5339/match-two-sounds-with-a-level-of-certainty/5344#5344

Similar post, but the conclustion was that while the technology exists, it is mainly used to confirm what a song is etc...but you could for sure look into the Shazam or Soundhound APIs to see if you can create a code/script that would do it for you

However if the song, has a point in which the song is literally the only thing playing, you could use a software called pluraleyes, to sync your podcasts to that song, if they find a sync point, most likely it will be that song...

This may or may not work to some degree, there is obviously a high level of error while trying to make it match, the more of the song playing that is not mixed with anything else, the higher the likelyness of this working.


Handbrake x265 Optimal settings for ripping DVD I want to rip DVDs(MPEG2) to MKV using Handbrake for viewing on PC, and currently i am not sure about the settings of the x265 encoder.
Can anyone suggest the optimal settings for:

CRF : 19 ? 23 ? 25 ?
8-bit or 10-bit (Main or Main10) (Has 10-bit any advantages for low-res like DVD ? )
Encoder tune - none / SSIM / Grain ?
bframes or other parameters ?
CFR or VFR ?

Also i am open to any suggestions for tuning of an other parameteres.
I have searched by google but all guides are not specific enough for the case of DVDs.

The resolution is 700x574 , source MPEG2 bitrate is 3Mbps

Additional question - are there any good guides for general parameter tuning x265 like bframes ?
Thank you very much.

Summary response for summary question :)

CRF 20 will look really nice
8-bit (no advantages over 10-bit)
No tuning. Grain tuning is for grainy source (old content). SSIM is for testing.
No additional parameters needed.
VFR (same as source)

I could really, really, reallly go down the rabbit hole with a more detailed answer, but I'll leave it at this for now.


Is it possible to encode MP4 video with VP9 codec? Does MP4 support VP9 codec or is it exclusive to WebM?

ffmpeg v4.0.2 or higher can encode/transcode VP9 in mp4.
Commandline (when transcoding):
ffmpeg -i INPUT.MKV -c:v vp9 OUTPUT.MP4
Commandline (when remuxing (Super fast)):
ffmpeg -i INPUT.MKV -c:v copy OUTPUT.MP4


video renders well on mac, but has bizarre effect on windows I have been editing a video which has rendered fine up until recently, I had it in a .mp4 format on a windows machine editing using wevideo, and I sent it to my friend who edited it on a mac, I think using aftereffects, and converted it to a .mov and now it has this strange effect, but only when I download it to the local machine (by the way the black bars are fine, what I am confused about are the horizontal lines):

before:

on my phone after:

on my computer after:

What could be going on and how should I fix it?

thanks!

Those horizontal lines you're seeing are what you would call Interlacing and it's usually done in an attempt to increase a video's frame rate without using more bandwidth (in other words, make it play smoother and take up less space).  You can easily get rid of this by running your video through a program like Handbrake and using their "Decomb" filter.

There are other, more advanced methods to clean this up as well.

I personally use Davinci Resolve and I've read that you can even do it in VLC Media Player, but I think handbrake is the quickest and easiest way to accomplish deinterlacing your video.


Workflow of editing in Premiere and Color Grading in Davinci I am new to color grading in Davinci Resolve (Studio) and am not sure about how the workflow should go.

As far as I understand there are three options:

Color Correct all Clips and render in losless codec (More work as unused clips get processed too)
Edit the film, than only grade used clips and relink them in premiere (Not so nice as you can't see the hole think while grading)
Somehow import the Premiere Project to Davinci with all cuts

I am not sure how the third one would work, espacially while using many Nested sequences.

So what is the best/official way to do this?

Thanks!

What works for me is the following:

Sync audio in PluralEyes and export to Premiere.
Edit in Premiere before color correction or grading. Yeah, log footage looks crap, but you should be able to edit just fine. Apply a LUT temporarily if you absolutely can't stand it.
Export to FCPro XML from Premiere and import into DaVinci.
Color correct in DaVinci
Color grade and add any other color effects
Correct audio in DaVinci using Fairlight (yum!)
Export

That's what works for me. YMMV and others may have a totally different flow. But this lets me use PluralEyes which does way better and more complex syncing based on audio than DaVinci or Premiere. It also gives me my hotkeys for editing in Premiere and the best color grader in the biz which is DaVinci along with Fairlight which is great for audio.


Blackmagic Hyperdeck Recorder? I'm running an event next weekend and I'm in crunch time with planning. I've done dozens of these events but this is the first time I'm travelling so far to do it and with the clients equipment. I was thinking about purchasing a hyperdeck and a couple of 512mb ssds to record our event and make sure I've got a good high res version of the program feed. I've not used one and I'm wondering if I'm going to run in to any issues with recording in DNxHD on the device then editing on my win7 edit bay in premiere.

I was thinking about taking my atem studio to use a mixer (we're doing 2 or 3 cams and they already have an edirol hd mixer) then running program out of it, in to the hyperdeck to record, out of that in to my computer for final edit with wirecast and archiving it there and also putting it up on the video screen. Final destination is the web.

How can I add the live audio to the hyperdeck feed to archive as well?

As long as your audio is coming over HDMI/SDI with your video stream there is nothing you have to do to record audio aswell. If audio is coming in separately you will want to use an HDMI audio injector or a more expensive SDI audio injector depending on what you use.

And no, there is nothing holding you back of using the hardware in the way you intend to. Though with every new hardware you take to live events, do a dry run before actually using it live and before driving to the event, or you can end up with a nasty surprise.


Track Object in Premiere Pro / After Effects This may be kind of a beginner question, but how do I track the position of an object inside a video and set another video's position accordingly, so that e.g. a circle will be shown on top of a jumping ball? I'm searching for something similar to the tracking with for example the mosaic or blur, but for video footage, not for effects... (A way to copy a mask's path over to another video's position)

Thanks in advance!

Right click on your footage layer (either in the comp window or the timeline) and choose track motion from the context menu.

That will open up the layer in the layer viewer

and add a motion tracker to the layer.

It should also open the tracker pallette window. If it doesn't, open it from the window menu. Alternatively if the Tracker pallette is already open you could start tracking the layer by selecting the layer and hitting the Track Motion button in the pallette. Or you could choose Animation>Track Motion from the menu.

In the Tracker Pallette there are a few controls. The Motion Source drop down determines what layer we're tracking, the Current Track drop down lets us choose if there are multiple trackers on the layer (you can have as many as you want), and the Track Type drop down lets us choose what to do with our tracking data when we apply it. You shouldn't have to change any of these for your purposes, but it's good to know what they do.

Transform will apply the tracking data to the positon, rotation and scale properties of the target layer, depending on the checkboxes below. The other modes include stabilise - to use the tracking data to stabilise the layer, or the perspective and parallel corner pin modes which let you apply the track to a corner pin effect on a layer, which is useful when you're doing something like putting in the contents of a screen, or covering a graphic on a wall. Raw tracks just give you the track points as they are, without transferring it to the position/rotation/scale of another layer.

Finally the Edit Target button will determine to which layer the track is applied. This should be the only setting you need to change.

So for your purposes you need just the position checkbox checked. This will give you only one track point. In the layer window drag the trackpoint to the object you're tracking. Find a unique feature if you can, and preferably one that doesn't get obscured. It's also best if the entire area of the trackpoint is on the tracked object, and does not include any background. You can drag the corner handles of the inner box to increase or decrease the size of the tracked point.

The outer box is the search area - it defines where the tracker will look for the trackpoint. Make this box big enough so that the movement between frames will fit into it, but no bigger than you have to: making it too big will not only make the tracker go much more slowly, but can also cause false positives, where it sticks to something else in the frame that looks similar. If it's too small however the tracker will lose the trackpoint. You can stop and adjust it as you go, that is often the best way.

The little cross is the actual attach point. It is the point whose movement the tracker will output to the target. It doesn't have to be inside the track box - sometimes this can be useful if you're tracking something that gets obscured.

So once you've adjusted the tracked area, the search area, and the track point if necessary, hit the track forward (or backward, it works bothe ways) button and the tracker will start its magic.

You can as I said start and stop the tracker and if it goes wonky you can go back to the last good frame, adjust it and start again. If you hold the alt key when you move the track box it will move the track box without moving the attach point, meaning that you can keep the motion of the track point stable while changing the part of the image you're tracking. This is very useful for tracks where the track point is obscured.

Weirdly enough in this shot the next zebra appears exactly where the first one was. But as you can see, the motion tracker has nicely followed the zebra's nose to the edge of frame.

Now it's time to apply this track to something. Choose the layer you want to apply the track data to by hitting Edit Target. This will bring up this dialog - as you can see you can either use the track data to move a layer, or to move a point control for an effect (of course with expressions you can also use the data for anything your heart desires, but that's beyond the scope of this answer).

Choose the layer and hit OK, then hit Apply to apply the data. You'll get asked if you want to apply the data to x and/or y, and then the tracking data will be written to the position property of the target layer.


1080p video partly pixled after rendering So I'm pretty new to video production and I'm struggling with properly rendering 1080p game footage. My main problem is that multiple frames of the output video are pretty pixled, looking like this

I'm working with footage recorded using fraps and I'm editing with Sony Vegas pro 12 atm.
My project settings are matched to the footage I'm using in this particular project:

No doubt I messed up the rendering options somehow, since the raw footage looks okay. Here are the render settings I used for the shown output:

Can someone help me get those pixled scenes out of the video? Desired output format is MP4 since it seems easier to handle for youtube uploads.

Thanks in advance, I hope someone can help me with this.

Best regards,
Rickyfox

Edit:

I just discovered that about a minute of the output video just turned out black with the scene settings being exactly the same as the rest - anyone have a clue what that could be?

It honestly looks like something got corrupted with your export.  Have you tried encoding it more than once?  12 megabits per second with a 24mpbs peak should be more than sufficient for high quality 1080p video.  If anything, it may be excessive.  The quality you are getting looks more like what I'd expect at sub-1 mbps video for this quality level.  As an aside, it is worth noting that 2 pass will produce better results, thought it will extend encoding time.

One other thought is to try watching it in more than one viewer.  It is possible that the viewer you are using is struggling to decode the high data rate fast enough which could also result in the block issues you are seeing.  Basically, it looks like some of the blocks in the H.264 file are not encoding or decoding properly and that either means file corruption or insufficient decoding speed.

I guess to rule out data rates, you could try increasing it to 30mbps with 45mpbs peaks.  It shouldn't have to be that high (that's the high end of bluray data rates), but it should rule out the data rate entirely.

Update: From some additional reading, I would try turning on 2-pass and turning on the deblocking filter.  It supposedly should help.


Best transition to fast forward video I have about 17 minutes of footage which I would like to preserve "as is" as it has lots of authenticity to it.

The problem is that some scenes are just boring to watch, but I don't want to cut them. Ideally, I would like to fast forward them. But when I increase the  speed of the video, it just does not look very nice or natural. The video is from my motorbike, so some passages are interesting and some are not. But I would like to have whole route on the resulting video.

My question is, do you know of any transition which I can apply for such a situation?

I'm using Adobe Premiere and the footage is in Full HD 60fps. I can reduce the frame rate or resolution, if transition effect requires.

Thank you

There is no magic transition that will help you. Simple cuts usually work best. A fade through black may help convey a sense of time passing. The most important thing is to think about the story you want to tell. Select the material that is important to telling that story, edit it together with cuts, and then add complex transitions only if you need to work around something awkward like a jump cut. People won't want to watch the uninteresting parts if you keep everything.


looking for some advise on setting up a sports event livestream with local playback I have recently been tasked with setting up a live stream for a Karate Tournament.  Never did anything like it before but I'm the organization's technical wiz so its landed on my lap.

I'm looking for some advise on where to start equipment wise.  I have a cropped sensor Nikon d3400 with a 35mm lens.  So looking on advise on whether to use that or to look at a goPro or similar camera.

My other requirement is to have a laptop available that if the referee would like to see a replay of recent footage to determine if there is a foul we can do this without interrupting the live stream.

So really I am looking for advise on the following.

Should I stick with the entry dslr or investing in a sports camera?
Will there be any issues with streaming and also recording for instant playback from the same camera.

I have almost a year to get this setup working so really just looking for a bit of advise so i can get started.

Yes, there will be problems trying to stream the live-image from a dslr. Usually, you would use a multicam-setup for a livestream such as this, including scenes for intermissions, transitions, etc.

Normally, you would use a mixer like the ones from black-magic, here's a link to it. Using it, you would want to feed an sdi signal from the camera into the mixer and send the image from the mixer to a distributer (like a pc or laptop) which will then be able to stream the image.

Unfortunately, you can't just plug a gopro into your pc and press "stream image".


How can I copy-paste audio effect to other audio clips in VideoPad? I took quite an effort to specify an Amplify audio effect with changing levels (in and out). I have more audio clips there for which I would like this effect too. Is it possible somehow copy-paste the audio effect to those audio clips?

I know it is possible to set the effect for multiple clips at once, but it is too late, the effect is already specified for only one clip now.

Ah, found it!

Click the disquette icon: "Save template" to save the audio effect template.
In the clip(s) you want to copy the effect to, click the green plus icon to load the template.

The effect will be then added to the clip(s) with all its settings.


Premiere Create custom frame size I have downloaded a video from youtube to my laptop. It is 640x360px mp4 format.
I'd like to edit it a little bit with Premiere CS5. How do I create a new project with the same resolution of my video?

It looks like there are a lot of preset but not customizable.

What you want to do is make a sequence with the same frame size as your source file (in Premiere and other NLEs your project doesnt have a specific frame size, as you can have multiple sequences with different frame sizes in one project)

Open Premiere and Start a new Project (File > New > Project)
Give the project a name and click ok (dont worry about any of the options)
In the New Sequence window click Cancel - this will take you straight into the project without making a sequence
Import your footage (file > Import)
Create a new Sequence from clip by either:

Dragging the footage down to the New Sequence icon (in the project panel) OR

Right click on the footage and select New Sequence from Clip

This will create a sequence that matches the attributes of your footage (frame size, frame rate etc)


How to export many small clips in a sequence out as separate video files in Adobe Premier? I have a video that I've chopped up into many small segments within the main sequence:

You might notice that I took one main video and then used markers to select exact frames and then used the razor tool to slice it up and then deleted the parts I do not want to export

Instead of putting all of these segments together into a single video, I need to export each clip or segment (sorry not sure of the actual term of these clips in Premier) as a separate video file.

Is this possible with Adobe Premier and if so, how might I do this?

Sounds like you want to create sequences for each of your clips and batch export those sequences.


Davinci Resolve: How to flip horizontal a short scene (visually flip every frame, without reversing play) I have a video with a short scene that somehow got flipped horizontally. I need to flip the short clip (within the larger video) horizontally--not so that the short clip will play backwards, but so that every frame is flipped horizontally. Not rotated 180 (as that would make it up side down). The clip is flipped like a mirror. Hope that makes sense.

First, cut the longer clip into 3, to separate the reversed part from the rest of the clip. Then bring the clip into fusion, link the input to a transform node, then to the output. The transform node can flip horizontally on the right hand side panel options for it.

A shortcut to do this quicker is you can do it in the edit page also, by just selecting the clip and using the 'transform' attributes on the right hand side.


Cant change stroke Brush Size via Composition, only via top bar. AECS6 I am trying to do this tutorial:

When I try to change the Brush Size of the Stroke via the left panel (the guy in the video does it at 2:04 - 2:09) it does not cover the text (PIC 1), it only covers the text when I use the "Stroke Width" in the Upper Bar (PIC 2).
Am I missing something?

https://imgur.com/a/PwPGd (PIC 1 and 2)
I am using Adobe After Effects CS6

That happens because in the video path is added to the Text layer, but you have it on separate shape layer.

Try to move you path to the text layer.


Even out fluctuating exposure on old video I'm trying to restore this old Charlie Chaplin snippet:
https://imgur.com/45Fhb6O
I have trouble with the exposure of the clip, it fluctuates from brighter to darker. I want the exposure have an even consistency over the entirety of the clip.
How would you go about fixing this? I'm new to video editing and am trying to find right words to google. I have tried de-flickering plugins with no success, as it seems to be mainly designed for time-lapses or high frame rate flickering.

You could try GBDeflicker to see if it improves the footage.
They have a free demo. It is designed for smoothing out time-lapses (and is good at this), but it might work on archive video?


How to make 1:1 ratio video in Davinci Resolve? I want to make 1:1 ratio Instagram videos using Davinci Resolve. But I am unable to find how to change the aspect ratio to 1:1 using Davinci Resolve.

You can do this by going to File>Project Settings...  Under the Master Settings tab on Timeline resolution choose Custom and change For 1920x1080 processing to For 1080x1080 processing.


Collapse Transformation not working in Adobe After Effects CC I'm following a tutorial on AE and it is completely confusing to me as I cannot get the desired result.

Here are the steps in the tutorial:

Select a group of comps
Pre-compose them into new comp
Collapse transformations on the new pre-composed comp (press the starry button)

The desired result I want is the transformation view being snapped to just around the rocket, but somehow it doesn't work as I expected. What am I missing here? Screenshots below:

The area should fit just around the rocket but it doesn't.

I get the feeling you think collapse transformation means something that it doesn't.

What Collapse Transforms does is to leave all the transformation properties in the subcomp intact and available to the comp that it's nested in. It's basically like you've got all the layers still in the outside comp, just grouped into one layer for ease of organisation.

Without collapse transforms on the subcomp is pre-rendered and treated like a single piece of footage. So, for example if any of the layers of the sub-comp extend off the edge of the sub-comp's boundaries they won't be cropped with collapse transforms on.

Here are two subcomps, both contain text that extends past their outside edges:

And here they are in the outer comp. Top one is collapsed, bottom aint.

If you scale down a raster layer in the subcomp and then scale it up to its original size in the outer comp, without collapse transforms on it will be pixelated, because it gets pre-rendered to the resolution of the subcomp, and then scaled up in the outer comp.

Here they are scaled down in the subcomp:

And here's the outer comp with both layers scaled back up:

Another effect of collapsing transforms is that you lose the ability to change the transfer mode of the subcomp in the outer comp. The layers in a collapsed transform-ed subcomp apply whatever transfer mode they have inside the subcomp, again, like they were actually in the outer comp, just grouped together.

What Collapse transforms doesn't do is automatically crop the subcomp to fit its components. Is that what you were expecting?


Shooting in 4:3 Aspect Ratio I'm a filmmaking student planning to shoot a shortfilm, I want to give it a special visual style that's why I will try to shoot it as if it were square aspect ratio, the problem is, since it's an independent project, my budget will only allow me to use cameras like Blackmagic Cinema Pocket or Sony Alpha A7 so, if any of you knows techniques or resources that could help on this task it would be very helpful for me.

Use the frame guides built into whichever camera you use, and set the guides to 4:3.  Both cameras you mention have them.  When you're shooting, compose your image inside the frame guide.  The camera will record outside of that area, but when you edit, you'll crop the image back down to 4:3.  The extra pixels around the edges allow you to do things like; recompose if necessary, correct your horizon, add or remove lens distortion, add or remove camera shake, etc.

I haven't used the A7 enough to remember where the frame guides are in the menu structure (Sony menus are famously awful.  I still have nightmares about switching to/from HFR RAW on the FS700.), but on the BMPCC4K it's dead simple, just tap the reticle icon on the top left corner of the screen, and select 4:3 from the menu that appears, and flip the toggle on the bottom left to "ON".


How to zoom and pan a video fluidly I have a video that I would like to zoom in/out and pan to keep my subjects centered. I tried to do this by splitting the video and cropping the individual segments, however that will be too choppy. I know there has to be a feature to move the frame of zoom live, while playing the video so it is smooth and the zooms are fluid. New to this so any suggestions for software would be much appreciated.

Keyframes
Most video editors have some kind of keyframes feature. By using keyframes, you can change the values of the position and scale of the video for a single frame and have different values for another frame. The video editor will then calculate what the values should be for all the frames between these two keyframes so that these change gradually over time. This way you can make subtle and continuous changes to the framing of your video and you could use this to make your subject stay in the center of the frame without it being too distracting.

Tracking
In the case that manually setting all the values is too much work, professional video editing software often have some kind of tracking tool which can track the subject for you. You can then let the position of the video follow the path of the subject. But for just keeping the subject in the center, tracking would most likely be too much of a hassle.

So what kind of software could do this?
This would be possible to do in most modern professional video editors. But for example, you could do this in Premiere Pro. Make sure to check the documentation and help forums of the software for the specifics on how to do this and I also suggest looking up a tutorial. Also bare in mind that cropping part of the video will result in a loss of quality since there will be less pixels to be displayed, no matter what software you use.


How to take an object and pause it in a moving video? I understand that this question doesn't make much sense, so allow me to explain.

I have seen many videos, most of them involving sports and cars, where a person/car is frozen, and the object that was frozen is moving somewhere in the video will approach the frozen object and when it makes contact, the object that was frozen will now move with the object in real time/delete itself and the video keeps playing.

I use After Effects and I wanted to know how this is done. If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it.

I just spent an hour trying to find a video to at least give an example as to what I was talking about and I just can't find one, but I know I've seen it before.

In simple terms you split the video at the frame you want the objects to join up at, then also make a still image of the object at that frame (Layer 1 = video end of sequence, Layer 2 = still image Layer 3 = video beginning of sequence). If the camera is moving you will have to track the still object to match Layer 3. So the still image gets closer to the moving object as Video/Layer 3 plays, then when the objects join video/layer 1 cuts in and continues.


FFmpeg Media Source Extension Examples and Adaptive VOD and Live Streaming I have a quick questions. Has anybody examples or links for the use of FFmpeg with the Media Source Extension for pure JavaScript adaptive VOD-, or Live-Streaming? I mean really pure not HLS or DASH.

I prefer the chunkless, so say inline-container-segmenting:). So that i have a full files like so:

video_1080p_5000k.webm
video_720p_5000k.webm
video_480p_5000k.webm
audio_128k.opus
audio_256k.opus
and so on ...

What I search are JavaScript snippets and FFmpeg examples for a pure mse-js-adaptive-vod-player;).

Thx

Edit: A deeper explain why i not use DASH or HLS? I try to understand the deeper functions that JavaScript chunk the Videos on the fly, to prevent and memory low error and make a very simple and basic adaptive streaming.

I can load small Videos and Music files into a blob/string. Cool thing but when I try to use the chunking functions I have many problems with some things. That is why I search compact FFmpeg encoder params and JavaScript examples preferably links to sites with that preferably for all free codecs that I can use.

Chunkless and Adaptive is a contradiction. You can concatenate chunks, and request with a byte range however. Both HLS and DASH support that mode.


How to read frames which are separated by a specific number ? [ffmpeg] I have around 1000 frames in *.png format, which are named like frame-0.png, frame-1.png, frame-2.png and so on. I read them and generate a movie by following command :

ffmpeg -f image2 -r 20 -i frame-%00d.png -vcodec mpeg4 -y movie.mp4

Let's say I just want to read frames like frame-0.png,frame-20.png, frame-40.png and make a movie out of it. How can I achieve that ?

One possible way I know, is to make movie from all 1000 frames then generate a new movie by skipping frames from the following command :

ffmpeg -y -i movie.mp4 -filter:v "select='mod(n,20)'" out.mp4

Is there any direct method ?

The direct way to do this is by using the concat demuxer, where the text file only mentions the selected files. Besides being a hack, you no longer get to use the image2 options. The better way is to combine your present commands.

ffmpeg -framerate 20 -i frame-%d.png -vf "select='not(mod(n,20))'" -c:v mpeg4 -y movie.mp4


ffmpeg Color Correction: Gamma, Brightness and Saturation How is ffmpeg used with a video filter circa 2017 to adjust gamma/contrast, brightness and saturation?

Stack Exchange resources that are a few years old point to the filter mp=eq2=, but it seems to be deprecated1 and replaced with just eq=. The link does not reveal a good understanding of the setting ranges, however.

How is eq= (or equivalent filters) used? E.g., what is the format and appropriate settings/ranges?

For my personal usage, I'd like to keep gamma where it is, while increasing brightness and saturation a fair bit, for a dark video.

1Throws error message: No such filter: 'mp'

These settings helped me to lighten up a dark video using the filter eq, with some added saturation.
Syntax:

filtername=option1=value1:option2=value2:option3=value3... These can be in any order.

Filter ranges and all options:
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#eq
Preview:
ffplay -vf eq=brightness=0.06:saturation=2 INPUT.MOV
Render:
ffmpeg -i INPUT.MOV -vf eq=brightness=0.06:saturation=2 -c:a copy OUTPUT.MOV

Alternative filters: curves and pp.


I'm trying to match a title effect, and can't work out how it's done? Can anyone point me in the right direction? Im trying to match the title and information background from a how to video...

It's the light beam background from 0:05 - 0:09 and also the animated light background from 0:10-0:17

I have tried experimenting with lens flare, and have searched the net, but can't find any help on how to achieve it. I'm quite new to After Effects, and am looking to learn, but I just need pointing in the right direction on what to research to achieve the effect.

Any help you guys could give would be much appreciated

Many thanks
Ben

Looks like a standard preset from the Optical Flares Plugin from VideoCopilot. You have a lot of control with that plugin, shouldn't take long to replicate the effect with that.

https://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/


Video MP4 file stops and starts I'm new here, and a pretty new video editor, but I'm having a few problems.
One of my clients sent me some plain mp4 clips of some action video. Both he and I when we watch them remark one thing. The video freezes at a few points, but then starts off where it stopped. I'm running Windows 10 and downloaded the videos from a wetransfer link. I'm supposed to make a video out of them, but in one of the best clips, it freezes for a second and then starts back, which is quite annoying. Just wondering if any of you have had this before, or know of any tools to fix it. I use Final Cut Pro on a computer at my dad's office, so I haven't been able to look at them on an editing program yet; just on my windows laptop on films&TV.
Thanks all so much

Drag the clips into your editing software and go frame by frame. If the freeze doesn't occur, the playback of the video might have lagged behind, causing the freezes. If the freeze still persists when going through it frame by frame, it is likely that something about the clip is broken (perhaps the i, p or b-frames are mangled, assuming the mp4 uses h264 compression.)
If so, try to edit out the section in which it freezes and export the clip as a prores4444, which doesn't overtly compress the clip further, so you can work with the pores-file from that point on.


Resize target layer in perspective tracking I created a perspective corner pin tracker in After Effects. I selected a target, and applied it.
Unfortunately, the target is not of the same aspect ratio as the virtual rectangle that I tracked.Therefore, it is horizontally scaled.
What I want to do, is correct the scaling and position, within the corners.
When I resize the target layer, init expands beyond the corners.Which makes sense, but it it not the sense I'm looking for.
What would be my strategy?

Pre-comp the replacement layer (using the option to keep all the settings in the outer comp), and match the aspect ratio of the pre-comp to the rectangle you're tracking. Then adjust the replacement layer so that it fills the comp as you wish.


What would be a good video editing computer? Would a late (2013), retina display, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB HD, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5, MacBook Pro be suitable for editing video?

Yes, it's powerful enough, even to edit features ... as long as:

you use low-resolution proxies (copies) for long projects.
you edit from an external drive with USB3 or better and not from your computer's HDD (avoid stuffing your HDD with large data files anyway).


What is the best way to distribute an audio/video feed from a computer to TVs over existing indoor coax cable? We have existing coax cable in our office building and we'd like to put displays in our lobby and some other rooms in the office (where there are existing coax jacks).  We'd like these displays all controlled by a single PC.

What is the best way to accomplish the distribution aspect of this?  I have found ZeeVee's products and they seem like they will work, but I am wondering if there is a better solution?

ZeeVee's ZVBox solution is designed exactly for this - hotels, airports, companies etc use this. They can scale massively, they can take video or feeds from PC's and distribute one or both on different channels to existing HDTV's.

So what are you looking for that would be better?  It appears to cover all your bases.


ffmpeg - resizing .mp4 changes the timebase (tbn & tbc) I have been trying to write a script to merge multiple .mp4 videos using ffmpeg. As part of this process, while trying to alter the size found that it alters the timebase. However, for ffmpeg - concat demux all streams should be same or else after merge only the first part of the video plays well and stops abruptly.
I have tried both terminal way and also using fluent-ffmpeg. But unfortunately both gives same result.

Original video Ex, org_video_1280x720.mp4

Stream #0:1(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720, 812 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 30k tbn, 60k tbc (default)

after scaling down to 640x360 via terminal ffmpeg -i org_video_1280x720.mp4 -strict -2 -vf "scale=640:360" new_video_640x360.mp4

Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360, 256 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc (default)

The fluent-ffmpeg way of sizing

ffmpeg(`/path/to/org_video_1280x720.mp4`).size(`640x360`). autopad().output(`/path/to/new_video_640x360.mp4`)
          .on('error', function(err, stdout, stderr) {
              console.log('Error: ' + err.message);
              console.log('STD Err: ' + stderr);
         })
         .on('end', function() {
              console.log('Split & Resizing Completed!');
         }).run();

Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360, 253 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc (default)

Notice the tbn & tbc changes after resizing; Actually I have to merge this with other video only by changing the resolution (as they were with these 25 fps, 25 tbr, 30k tbn, 60k tbc stream values); However as it alters the time_base, I was unable to do it. Hope, I am missing something in the process, as I am bit new to audio/video process. Looking for some tips/guidance to get this done!

Add -video_track_timescale X to manually set a timescale of X.
ffmpeg -i org_video_1280x720.mp4 -strict -2 -vf "scale=640:360" -video_track_timescale 90k new_video_640x360.mp4


How to silence or mute part of a clip in Adobe Premiere? One of my favorite parts of Final Cut Pro is the ability to select part of a clip and silence it with a single shortcut (which adds 4 keyframes automatically):

Is it possible to do this in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020?

Okay, the closest thing that I've found so far is to:

Make a cut with the razor tool
Select the audio part with alt + click
Toggle Enable clip with shift + command + e (to disable the audio)


Is there a way to pause and resume FFmpeg encoding? I record a few hours of video footage every day, which I set in queue for encoding with ffmpeg. I use the veryslow preset with x265, so a single hour of video may take up to 20 hours or more to encode.

Since my computer is working day and night, I'm wondering if ffmpeg has a way to pause and resume encoding? I'm using Terminal for OS X.

If so, can I also continue encoding even after shutting down Terminal and rebooting the computer? I think the Terminal session is restored when you log in again in OS X, at least the Terminal history is.

Suspend

A simple method is to suspend it with ctrl+z. Or you could get the PID with pgrep ffmpeg then use kill -s SIGSTOP <PID> to suspend.

Then resume with fg command or kill -s SIGCONT <PID>.

Unfortunately this will not survive a reboot.

VM

If you use a virtual machine, with something like VirtualBox, you could perform your encoding in a guest VM. It will allow you to "save the machine state" at any time which can survive a reboot. It can also allow you to assign max CPU resources for the guest so your host will always have available resources.

Possibly overkill, but if you're familiar with VMs or using one already it is a possible solution.


Combining two live RTMP streams into another RTMP stream, synchronization issues (with FFMPEG) I'm trying to combine (side by side) two live video streams coming over RTMP, using the following ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i "rtmp://first" -i "rtmp://first" -filter_complex "[0v][1v]xstack=inputs=2:layout=0_0|1920_0[stacked]" -map "[stacked]" -preset ultrafast -vcodec libx264 -tune zerolatency -an -f flv output.flv

In this example I actually use the same input stream two times, because the issue is more visible this way. And the issue is in the output two streams are out of sync by about 2-3 seconds. That is - I expect (since I have two identical inputs) to have exactly the same left and right sides in the output. Instead - left side is behind right side by 2-3 seconds.

What I believe is happening is ffmpeg connects to inputs in order (I see this in output log) and connection to each one takes 2-3 seconds (maybe it waits for I-frame, those streams have I-frame interval of 3 seconds). Then probably, it buffers frames received from first (already connected) input, while connecting to the second one. When second one is connected and frames from both inputs are ready to be put through the filter - first input buffer already contains 2-3 seconds of video - and result is out of sync.

Again, that's just my assumptions. So, how can achieve my goal? What I basically want is for ffmpeg to discard all "old" frames received before BOTH inputs are connected OR somehow put "empty" (black?) frames for second input, while waiting for that second input to become available. I tried play with various flags, with PTS (setpts filter), but to no avail.

I got it working by adding -fflags nobuffer -flags low_delay -strict experimental before all the inputs.
Got helped reading this thread


Importing an unsupported file type into Premiere Pro CS5 I am trying to import some footage into Premiere CS5. The footage was recorded on a Sony Z1 as HDV 1080i. My camera man captured the video into a series of files for me. He claimed they were in "native HDV 1080i" files. The files play fine in VLC.

When I try to import them I get an error claiming the file is unsupported.

I used ffmpeg to get the information about the file. It claimes it is mpeg2video (Main) (hdv3 / 0x33766468):

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'part i':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt
    creation_time   : 2011-10-26 07:09:12
  Duration: 00:15:05.36, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 26541 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: mpeg2video (Main) (hdv3 / 0x33766468), yuv420p, 144 0x1080 [SAR 4:3 DAR 16:9], 25000 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 50 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-10-26 07:09:12
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: pcm_s16le (sowt / 0x74776F73), 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-10-26 07:09:12
    Stream #0:2(eng): Data: none (tmcd / 0x64636D74)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2011-10-26 08:06:48

Obviously I am going to need to install a codec, or convert the videos. But I'm not sure how to d this.

I had a go at using ffmpeg to convert:
     ffmpeg -i "part i" -s 640x360 -sameq -acodec copy part_i.avi
That didn't work. It created a file that I could import as an audio file, but with no video.

Any help would be appreciated. If it turns out I need to re-encode it would be great if you could make a suggestion of what codec to use and what tool to use.

Thanks!

I've had a bit of account trouble, so I now have a different account and I can't log in to modify this question. So.. I'm going to answer my own question with what I have learned:

The video files I had were not supported by Premiere Pro. However I was able to play them (in VLC) and transcode them (in FFMpeg).

The real question I was asking above was: What codec should I transcode to? And How do I do the transcode?

After quite a bit of research it seems that the best editing codec for PP on Windows is DNxHD. This codec is not provided with Windows or PP, and must be downloaded here. There are other editing codecs out there, but they are either expensive (CineForm) or only work on Apple (ProRes).

It is important to note that files for editing should not e stored as H.264, even though you might capture them in this format, and you will probably release the video in this format. This is because H.264 is very slow for editing files, and with really thrash your hard drive and CPU.

I found a nice tutorial that describes how to do the transcode using free tools.


Can a camera like Nikon D810 support 4K video with firmware update? Is it possible to update the firmware of a camera (like Nikon D810) to enable 4K video? Or, such features are built into the hardware?

Thanks, NN

Yes and no.  Any camera with a sensor larger than 8mp (and the correct aspect ratio) is capable of recording 4k video frames.  Firmware can grab frames off the sensor as fast as the sensor can read out.  The ability to record video at a given frame rate is a limitation of the sensor's ability to read fast enough, the processor's ability to encode fast enough and the card reader that can write the data out fast enough.

Practically however, most cameras that don't have 4k are unlikely to have fast enough performance in all these areas to be able to hack 4k resolution in.  It's simply too much data to move and most cameras didn't design that kind of over-engineering to be able to deal with all 3 of those conditions.  Even the Canon 5D Mark iii, which is a high end professional DSLR which can be hacked to shoot RAW video at decent frame rates at 2 to 2.5k ends up having to be dropped down to around 12 or fewer FPS for trying to hack it in to shooting 3k or 4k video.

This is also partly compounded by the fact that most of the real time encoders are built for particular resolutions.  For example, the previously mentioned 5D Mark iii hack works by recording raw frames which takes a huge amount of data rate for storage.

So, in some cases, there may be ways to get some level of 4k support from a third party firmware, but for the most part, you are limited by what hardware was originally put in and often (most of the time) it simply isn't going to be possible to increase to 4k by third party hacks.

As for the Nikon D810 specifically, I'm not aware of any highly developed third party firmwares for Nikon bodies that are similar to Magic Lantern, so I don't think there is anyone really exploring that in depth at this time for Nikon bodies.  That series is similar in spec to the 5D mark iii, so it may be possible to get low framerate 4k video on very fast cards, but that's purely speculation.  I wouldn't count on seeing it any time soon or having it be highly usable though.


Compile FFmpeg example code I was trying to compile an FFmpeg example code HERE that illustrates how to use filters using it's C APIs.

I compiled the code (throuh a universal make). As the usage suggests, I'm doing this:

./filtering_video test.mp4

But it produces some jumble output on the screen. I was expecting it produces an output .mp4 file that can be played.

How to run it correctly?

And does it work with any given video filter that is passed to FFmpeg through -vf, if I simply change the filter description specified?

const char *filter_descr = "scale=78:24,transpose=cclock";

It does not produce any output file.

After filtering, display_frame() is called, which simply outputs to the console.

/* Trivial ASCII grayscale display. */
p0 = frame->data[0];
puts("\033c");
for (y = 0; y < frame->height; y++) {
    p = p0;
    for (x = 0; x < frame->width; x++)
        putchar(" .-+#"[*(p++) / 52]);
    putchar('\n');
    p0 += frame->linesize[0];
}
fflush(stdout);


I can’t resize anything in After Effects I’m currently working on animating a PSD file on after effects. I imported a video into after effects and manipulated it, I’m not sure what I did but out of nowhere the video disappeared. So I went into a subfolder and re added the video there. But once I went back to the whole document, the other video appeared but now I can’t resize them, none of the little square in the corners appear. But when I go into the sub folder it works there, I can resize things. What can I do to be able to resize everything again?

maybe you pressed cmd+shift+H ? This toggles the wireframe views around each object on or off?
Also, you might find this beginner's guide to AE helpful. It's old but it definitely helped me:
https://www.videocopilot.net/basic/


Proper command to remux mpeg-ts to mp4 with FFmpeg? Should I just use plain command like this:

ffmpeg -i C:\video_input.ts -c:v copy -c:a copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc C:\video_output.mp4

but I have seen many using -copyts to it, why is this needed I do not completely understand it's documentation?

ffmpeg -i C:\video_input.ts -c:v copy -c:a copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -copyts C:\video_output.mp4

and also every time I use -copyts there is an added delay before the first frame starts, so to fix this is it safe to use -start_at_zero or it breaks the point of copyts to some degree (if that makes any sense)?

ffmpeg -i C:\video_input.ts -c:v copy -c:a copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -copyts -start_at_zero C:\video_output.mp4

Thanks!

Unless you know you have a specific need to preserve timestamps, there's no need to use -copyts. MPEG-TS, being a format, used for remote viewing, will have some start time offset, by default, to allow for buffering at the player's side. MP4 for local playback, doesn't need that, copyts will preserve it.


Yongnuo YN 160S - how to get inside? My light has developed an intermittent power switch. I've never liked the pushbutton switch anyway, and would like to replace it, but I'm ashamed to admit that I can't figure out how to pry this thing apart without destroying it. Anyone ever done it?

Well, I'm an idiot, or was just really tired the first time I looked things over, because after taking another look today I realized that the shallow circular indentations at the corners of the face piece weren't molding marks, but screw channels with small, well-matched rubber plugs. I'll just leave this answer here for the next dummy... :D