What is a good stabilizer for Y axis? I'm sorry, if it's not the right place to ask this question.

I have tested many times the Zhiyun crane 3 lab camera stabilizer. It really works well except for the Y axis...

If you use it while walking, you clearly see the steps movement in the shot. Also sometimes it hard to move the camera in any direction freely.

Does anyone know any good professionnal solution for image stabilization ? I wish I had an Arri Trinity but... my budget is around 2000-3000€.

I'm open to any technology as long as it works and you can have a free movement.

My camera is a Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and I mount an Atomos Ninja on the stabilizer.

Thanks.
Cheers,

A 3-axis gimbal can reduce rotation but not translation - ie it will twist in 3 axis to smooth the motion, but it can't physically move to account for your movement up and down.

I think there are three ways to resolve this:

Use a body mounted stabiliser that compensates for movement.  These are expensive and cumbersome, but they work. They also reduce arm strain as the weight of the camera is taken by the body straps.

Practice compensating for the movement yourself. The best way to imagine this is to move as though you were carrying a hot drink instead of a camera. This is free, but requires some time to practice.

Shoot at a higher resolution than you need to deliver, then use digital stabilisation to try and improve your video.  This works to some extent, but any motion blur due to camera movement will still be visible, depending on the shutter & frame rate you shoot at.


Are there any downloadable samples of 48 fps video? I would like to compare 24fps to 48fps video, but haven't been able to find any video samples.

Does anyone know of such samples?  Being able to compare the same video at several framerates would be lovely!

Here's a short mov to demonstrate the difference, that's all I've been able to find:

http://www.stopmotionpro.com/media/video/48fps_cameramove2.mov


Too much bass in desktop sounds with a headset, but not during recording, only afterwards I recorded some video footages with my voiceover, both with Fraps and OBS. (Also streamed with the latter)

While I was playing everything was fine. (I played with a headset)
When I played the videos on my notebook speaker, they were fine.
But when I played them with my headset on, they had too much bass. But only the desktop sounds. The mic input was fine.

Any ideas?

The fact that is sounds fine on your laptop speakers is probably because they do not reproduce much bass anyway.
To be sure that there is a difference in the recording, and the "live" sound, you could directly compare your recording after doing something like listening to a song on youtube, without changing volume. This allows you to go back and forth. If you're sure there is a difference you could post the example here.


What's the benefit of using an external audio recorder compared to an internal one? Lately, my friends have been prompting me to buy an external audio recorder. They said that the quality of the sound is way better. I have always been using the internal audio recorder of my DSLR.

As for the gears, I own a prosumer Nikon DSLR and a 20 cm shotgun microphone with an XLR output. I don't think syncing would be a problem for me. I am thinking of the Zoom H4n as recommended by my friends. Is the audio quality of the audio that different?

There are a variety of reasons to have an external recorder depending on the size of your production.  A big advantage is the number of audio inputs and the ability to record each of those inputs as separate tracks, allowing you to do the mixing in post.  I'm not sure about the H4n, but I know the H5 and H6 support multiple inputs as well as interchangeable capsules.

Another advantage is quality and control over quality.  Most audio devices have a switch for uncompressed .WAV or compressed .MP3.  You always want uncompressed audio unless you are tight on space.  External audio devices also give you better control over gain and have better support for audio monitoring.

The final advantage I'll list here is portability.  When your mic is tied to your camera, you'll need to string cables from the mic to the camera.  This isn't an issue when the mic is sitting on the camera, but if you want a distance shot this becomes a problem.  External audio gives you much more freedom of movement to place your mic in the best position to pick up sound.


What factors are important for DSLR lenses for shooting video? I'm about to upgrade my DSLR camera from a Canon XSi (450D) to either a Canon 7D or T3i (600D).  I'm largely interested in the video features of the camera. I have several mid/high-end lenses that I already use for still photography, but I don't have any "general purpose" zoom lenses (since I prefer to use a prime lens for most of my stills).
So, I'd like to get a general-purpose zoom lens (something that covers at least the 20-70mm range, or so) to use for shooting video.
My primary question is, how important is lens quality for videography? I know that "quality" can mean many different things, so let me break this question down a little bit more.

How important is sharpness? 1080p video is barely 2 megapixels, so it would stand to reason that an ultra-sharp lens is not really necessary to get sharp-looking video. Is this an accurate assumption?
My approach for buying lenses for still photography has usually been to buy the best lens I can afford for the application I'm interested in. I'm wondering/hoping that it might be reasonable to buy a cheaper lens for video, and not feel like I'm sacrificing image quality, since the output resolution is so much lower than with stills. Is this just wishful thinking?

Obviously a large aperture is a bonus for video, since long exposures can't be used. But when shooting in low-light, again, it would stand to reason that I might be able to use a higher ISO to compensate for a slower lens, with less noticeable impact, since I'm recording at a much lower resolution than I would be for still photography. Is this also true? How fast of a lens do I need to be able to record in an average indoor lighting setting (no studio lighting), without a high ISO becoming noticeable?

Is image stabilization a pro or a con for hand-held video recording? I can imagine the sound of the motor might be a nuisance if picked up by the microphone. What impact does it have on the video itself?

I'm guessing a USM for auto focus probably won't matter a whole lot, since what I've read suggests that live auto-focus doesn't work very well in video mode. But even so, I suppose a USM AF would be a bonus, if/when it does work.

The ability for a lens to retain focus when zooming seems like it might be of particular importance when shooting video on a zoom lens.

Are there other factors I ought to consider when selecting a lens specifically for video?
I'm not really interested in pointers on which focal lengths I ought to use for what type of shooting, or specific lens recommendations... I'm interested in more general pointers, that will apply to all video shooting.

How important is sharpness? 1080p video is barely 2 megapixels, so it would stand to reason that an ultra-sharp lens is not really necessary to get sharp-looking video. Is this an accurate assumption?

It depends on the way the DSLR is capturing it's video from the sensor. The first method is the most obvious one, take the image and scale it, but there's also another; use only the pixels across the sensor's area that approximately "line up" with the pixels in the final resolution. I.e. in a 1080p image only every third or fourth scan line would be used resulting in one sensor pixel being used to produce one pixel in the video image.
I would hazard a guess that an "acceptably sharp" lens would be okay for video, though not ideal and probably for more reasons than image sharpness.

My approach for buying lenses for still photography has usually been to buy the best lens I can afford for the application I'm interested in. I'm wondering/hoping that it might be reasonable to buy a cheaper lens for video, and not feel like I'm sacrificing image quality, since the output resolution is so much lower than with stills. Is this just wishful thinking?

As my above answer suggested, there are other aspects of the lens you need to keep in mind when choosing a video lens and these may be:

Maximum aperture for low-light.
Fixed aperture for consistent exposure when zooming.
Image stabilisation is especially useful when not using a steadicam or other stabilising rig or device.
Ease of use, especially when it comes to the focus ring. Canon USM lenses in particular have a very smooth, usually well placed and grippy focus ring. Kit lenses aren't so good in comparison.

Obviously a large aperture is a bonus for video, since long exposures can't be used. But when shooting in low-light, again, it would stand to reason that I might be able to use a higher ISO to compensate for a slower lens, with less noticeable impact, since I'm recording at a much lower resolution than I would be for still photography. Is this also true? How fast of a lens do I need to be able to record in an average indoor lighting setting (no studio lighting), without a high ISO becoming noticeable?

I think you'll find with most typical video DSLR's is that the ISO performance for video isn't quite as great as you might assume, but it in no way bad. I'd say ISO 1600-3200 lives up to most expectations on the 18mp APS-C sensors, but beyond that it's quite noticeable.

Is image stabilization a pro or a con for hand-held video recording? I can imagine the sound of the motor might be a nuisance if picked up by the microphone. What impact does it have on the video itself?

For music videos and other videos where sound is not used, IS is fantastic and goes a long way to ensuring the video is jitter free, but if you need the sound and it's potentially a quiet environment, it might be prudent to use an external, higher quality mic attached to say, the hot shoe via a mount.

I'm guessing a USM for auto focus probably won't matter a whole lot, since what I've read suggests that live auto-focus doesn't work very well in video mode. But even so, I suppose a USM AF would be a bonus, if/when it does work.
The ability for a lens to retain focus when zooming seems like it might be of particular importance when shooting video on a zoom lens.

As above, Canon USM lenses (whether L or standard) have very usable focus rings. Provide good grip and are very smooth to focus with.

I personally use a Canon EOS 60D with an EF-S 17-55mm F/2.8 IS USM lens and find it a great combination at those focal lengths. The IS in that lens is quite remarkable and the USM focus ring makes it very smooth and accurate to focus. When I turn the IS off, I can instantly see the jittery movement from my hands trying to hold a 2kg camera setup.


Logo overlay with Windows Movie Maker I am currently editing a video with Windows Movie Maker. I am trying to insert an overlay of my logo (which is transparent) on the upper right hand side of my video, but I don't know how to do that. If it is not possible (I heard of some comments saying it's not possible to add a logo in WMM), is there any software which can complete the task?

There is no way to do this with WMM, it doesn't support video compositing.  Filelab Video Editor is a free, online program that can do this for you.


How do I make a new clip from in & out points on my sequence in Premiere Pro CC? When I'm editing a sequence in Premiere Pro CC, I want to be able to create a new sequence from my in & out points on the sequence I'm editing.

What's the simplest way of doing that?

create new sequence and treat the "old sequence"  as a normal cips & how you import it from projects bin.

\\ Just like you set In/out points for a normal clip.

or watch


Can't import some .mov files into Adobe Premiere, it says "Codec missing or unavailable" I am trying to import some .mov files into Adobe Premiere project, but I keep getting the following error message "Codec missing or unavailable", this only happen for certain .mov videos which have been recorded with certain camera, but videos from other camera like canon with the same extension .mov can be imported without any trouble.

I've tried to install K-lite codec package but it didn't make a difference in Adobe Premiere.
I've read somewhere on the web that not all the .mov files are the same and that the .mov extension is only a wrapper. The inner formation of the file may differ from one .mov file to another.
I've opened the file with the GSpot tool to get some info and here is the output:

qt  : Apple QuickTime (.MOV/QT)
File Type: QuickTime (.MOV)
Mime Type: video/quicktime
Recommended Display Size: 1920 x 1080
Created:     2013 Jun 06   17:53:53
Modified:    2013 Jun 22   01:10:47
codec:xdvc name: unkown
frms:146
kbps:36774
qf:0.709
pics/s: 25000
sar:1.778 (16:9)
dar: 1.778 (16:9)

First off, codec packs are often more problem than they are worth.  They tend to cause conflicts as much or more than resolve them.  You are far better off targeting the particular codec that is needed.  If you look at the information about the clip, it should indicate the codec that is used within the MOV and you should then be able to get that particular codec for your machine.

From the info you listed.  It appears to be an XDCAM format.  I would recommend going to the camera manufacturer's website and looking for their XDCAM codec.  If you can't find it, I suggest posting the actual camera model here.


Animating shapes vs masks in After Effects Can anyone tell me how I'm going to get the best performance out of AE - I have a number of circles I need to animate expanding which are essentially stroked lines.  Just made some paths with very thick strokes and it seems to be chugging a bit.  I'm wondering if I would be better off with a Solid, with a circular mask on it, if that's faster to render - more over, I'm looking for a document that explains how Shape layers are rendered vs Masks.

Is there any reading anywhere on performance for this kind of thing? Have any of you come across this?

Edit

I'm running a iMac, 27-inch, Mid 2011

Processor  3.4 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory  8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics  AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB

Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63b)

Rendering a series of expanding circles (say less that 20) should not be a particularly slow task.

Check this page about how to improve performance in AE. http://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/improve-performance.html

AE doesn't render the same way as non-linear editors like Final Cut or Premiere, so rendering can take longer (but users are usually working on shorter sequences than in FCP).

When you are preparing your work, try to work at lower quality settings, ie at 25% zoom, or quarter resolution, only zooming to 100% to check specific frames - get the motion working correctly at a lower res - this will save you a lot of time.

I don't think animating paths rather than masks will make a particular difference to the speed.


ffmpeg: pillarbox 4:3 to 16:9 I'm confusing myself over how the video filters work, particularly how they work together, I think.  I have two MKVs, pulled from DVD, that are respectively 16:9 and 4:3.  What I would like to do is ultimately combine them (mkvmerge widescreen.mkv + fullscreen.mkv) and to do that I need matching display aspect ratios.

So I would like to pillarbox the 4:3 video as I encode it, and then hopefully append it to the 16:9 video.  I've tried a number of filters to accomplish this, and the closest I was able to get was a slightly wider than expected video, otherwise pillarboxed properly.

ffmpeg -i fullscreen.mkv 4:3 -vf "pad=853:480:66:0,scale=720x480,setdar=16:9" [etc.]

The pixel dimensions are 720x480, the display dimensions are 853x480, and the two MKVs can be successfully merged (after reencoding the widescreen.mkv to the same video codec, but without video filters).

However, the resulting display of the fullscreen video is pillarboxed, yet slightly horizontally stretched.  In 1:1 pixels it measures 720px across, not 640.

I figure I'm doing the math wrong, or misunderstanding how the filters are supposed to operate, or something simple, but my understanding of ffmpeg video filters is basically nothing.

Assuming both MKVs are rips of NTSC DVDs, these are the commands you need:

For 4:3 video

ffmpeg -i "input43.mkv" -vf "scale=640x480,setsar=1,pad=854:480:107:0" [etc..]

For 16:9 video

ffmpeg -i "input169.mkv" -vf "scale=854x480,setsar=1" [etc..]

(Note H.264, the codec you are likely using, needs dimensions to be even, so specifying 853 as width will lead to ffmpeg feeding 854 pixels to the encoder and then auto-setting a funky SAR.


I want to compare two video files using FFPLAY One of those videos lower resolution, another one is higher

ffplay.exe -i [PATHTOFILE][org] -i[PATHTOFILE][enc];\
[org][enc]blend=all_mode=difference"enter code here

but i got error

    No such filter: [filename1][org][filename2][enc];
[org][enc]blend=all_mode=difference: Invalid argument

I Just want to compare my videos utilizing FFPLAY with many inputs to save some memory.

ffplay is designed to play a single input. So, a workaround is needed.

ffplay -f lavfi "movie=org[a];movie=enc[b];[a][b]blend=all_mode=difference"

A filtergraph is created and movie source filters used to open the files, then blended.


Why effects flow during camera movement in After Effects 2020? I have a few vector layers that are parent to Null Object. If I apply Rough Edges or Turbulant Displace to any of these layers, and then animate the scale on my Null, my layers begin to move/flow/leak.
What is the problem and how can I fix it?
I want them to remain static after applying the effects.

I think it's because the Roughen Edges effect is a pixel-based effect applied to the entire display of your comp.  If you pre-comp the effect first, it won't display the animating edges.
Or you could try applying this expression to the Roughen Edges offset (transform) property, as explained here:
parent.position * 400 / effect(“Roughen Edges”)(“Scale”)


Convert video from 9:16 to 1:1 with blurred box using ffmpeg? The Original video resolution is 720:1280 and I want to:

copy the original video, scale to 1080:1080 and blur.
again copy the original video and scale to 608:1080.
Finally move blurred to 1080:1080 box and move second(608:1080) scaled copy above the blurred copy.

Structure:

Box(1080:1080)
  Blurred(Original -> 1080:1080 -> Blur)
  Scaled(Original -> 608:1080)

ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i tmpVideo.mp4 -vf -filter_complex \
"split[main][copy]; \
[main]scale=1080:1080[container]; \
[copy]scale=-1:1080,split[content, copy1]; \
[copy1]gblur=sigma=20[blurred]; \
[container][blurred]overlay=0:0[mix]; \
[mix][content]overlay=W/2:0" \
output.mp4

The error I'm getting:

Unable to find a suitable output format for 'split[main][copy]; [main]scale=1080:1080[container]; [copy]scale=-1:1080,split[content, copy1]; [copy1]gblur=sigma=20[blurred]; [container][blurred]overlay=0:0[mix]; [mix][content]overlay=W/2:0'
split[main][copy]; [main]scale=1080:1080[container]; [copy]scale=-1:1080,split[content, copy1]; [copy1]gblur=sigma=20[blurred]; [container][blurred]overlay=0:0[mix]; [mix][content]overlay=W/2:0: Invalid argument

How should I proceed?

You're missing the input to the filtergraph, for example 0:v. There are other issues though, so this is what works for me:

ffmpeg -i VID_20190619_205627.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]scale=1080:1080,setdar=1:1,gblur=sigma=20[bg]; \
[0:v]scale=-1:1080[ov]; \
[bg][ov]overlay=(W-w)/2:0[mix]" \
-map [mix] -r 25 out.mp4 -y

the first chain of the filtergraph scales the input video to 1080 x 1080, forces the display aspect ratio to 1:1 and blurs the video. This is the background (bg)
the second chain takes the input video again and scales it to ? x 1080. This is the video that will be overlaid (ov)
the last chain overlays the scaled video (ov) on the blurred background (bg), and produced the output (mix), which is then chosen as the output with -map.

Note that the blurred background is stretched in this way.

Depending on the type of input, you might want to force the frame rate with -r 25 or similar, and to copy the audio track with -map 0:a -c:a copy.


How can I crop a video with ffmpeg? I have an MP4 file of a screen recording that I need to crop down. How can I accomplish this without using expensive tools like Adobe Premier or Final Cut? I prefer ffmpeg because I have used it before.

Use the crop filter:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter:v "crop=out_w:out_h:x:y" out.mp4

Where the options are as follows:

out_w is the width of the output rectangle
out_h is the height of the output rectangle
x and y specify the top left corner of the output rectangle

Original image

Original 320x240 image
Example 1

To crop a 80×60 section, starting from position (200, 100):
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter:v "crop=80:60:200:100" -c:a copy out.mp4

The audio is stream copied in this example, so re-encoding is avoided.

Example 2

To crop the bottom right quarter:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter:v "crop=in_w/2:in_h/2:in_w/2:in_h/2" -c:a copy out.mp4

This is the same as:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter:v "crop=320/2:240/2:320/2:240/2" -c:a copy out.mp4

Which is the same as:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter:v "crop=160:120:160:120" -c:a copy out.mp4

You can refer to the input image size with in_w and in_h as shown in this first example. The output width and height can also be used with out_w and out_h.

Example 3

Crop 20 pixels from the top, and 20 from the bottom:
 ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -filter:v "crop=in_w:in_h-40" -c:a copy out.mp4

The filter will automatically center the crop if x and y are omitted such as in this example.

Previewing
You can take a crop (heh heh) and preview it live with ffplay:
ffplay -i input -vf "crop=in_w:in_h-40"

This way you can experiment and adjust your cropping without the need to encode, view, repeat.
Notes

crop filter documentation

Default encoder for MP4 is libx264 (H.264 video) or mpeg4 (MPEG-4 Part 2 video) depending on your ffmpeg build. See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 Video Encoding Guide for more info.

Instead of cropping and re-encoding, consider cropping upon playback. This is possible with any player worth using.

Ancient ffmpeg builds used -croptop, -cropbottom, -cropleft, -cropright options instead of the crop filter. If this is the case for you then get a modern ffmpeg. Development is very active and there is no reason to use an antique.


Export an image frame with FFmpeg This article describes how you can use ffmpeg to export a frame of a video file as a PNG image using the following command:

ffmpeg.exe -i input.mkv -vf select=gte(n\,360) -vframes 1 output.png

My question is what -vf select=gte(n\,360) really does and how it works. I could not find any documentation on this, neither in the official documentation or elsewhere on the internet.

From the context I know this tells FFmpeg to use the 360th frame, but I would like some further documentation on how to use this. What does gte mean and what is n\,?

In

-vf select=gte(n\,360),

-vf declares a video filterchain i.e. a sequence of one or more filters to be applied to the video stream.

The select filter allows the user to keep or discard individual frames, based on the result of the expression presented to it. For each frame, the expression is evaluated. If the result is zero, the frame is discarded, else kept. Here, the expression is gte(n\,360) which checks if the index i.e. presentation serial number, of the current frame is equal to or greater than 360. So, this expr will result in all frames with index 0 to 359 to be discarded, and all frames with a higher index to be selected.

See https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-utils.html#Expression-Evaluation for a list of functions available.

See the docs for the select filter to see the list of variables which can be tested.

Since -vframes 1 is present, ffmpeg will stop after one frame has been received from the select filter.


Make videos still and stable? There's a great app for iPhones called "Motion Stills". It can make a handheld "Live Photo" with a minimal movement, totally stable. You can see original Live Photo here and edited with the app here.

The only problem is that the application works only with previously mentioned iPhone's "Live Photos". Can I find there any program for Mac to make the same results with videos? Is it possible in Adobe Premiere?

You should be able to use any software for video stabilization. With ffmpeg you can use either deshake, or vidstabdetect/vidstabtransform.

Depending on how shaky the original video is, you can get rid of the black distracting margins by zooming with the zoompan filter, or cropping with the crop filter. See the links for examples.

You'll probably have to experiment a bit to find out what works for your material. Use ffplay with the same syntax to see directly how the filters work.


How to divide the video into four parts at once? I'm trying to make a custom video wall so i need to split some videos and I'm diving video into N parts at N times using ffmpeg.

There is any way to divide videos at once?

ffmpeg -i coolpron.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]crop=iw/2:ih/2:0:0[tl];[0:v]crop=iw/2:ih/2:iw/2:0[tr]" -c:a copy -map [tl] -map 0:a -y 111.avi -map [tr] -map 0:a -c:a copy -y 222.avi

This produces 2 video files at same time, but you can add other parts.

But use it only if you have no other choice for your video wall. Better solution: write your own custom player.


How do I insert the program requested bitrate from YouTube Recommended Uploading Encoding Settings? I'm about to do some screen recording with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) and I've just been checking the YouTube Recommended Upload Encoding Settings to get the best quality without overkilling the end file size.

So basically. I know I'm going to be recoding in 640x480 window running at 50 FPS. Which is 480p High Frame Rate option. Which is 4 Mbps. Now OBS is asking for video bitrate, how do I convert 4 Mbps to bitrate OBS is asking for?

Also, I presume I be recording in Stereo which is 384 kbps. However, the only bitrates available are: 64, 96. 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 288 and 320. Mono is 128 but I hadn't seen anything higher than 320 for mp3 audio bitrate and I don't know if the value it's after is in kbps.

I've been doing many searches in Google like "Mbps to bitrate" and "kbps to bitrate" with no success even after checking the calculator pages.

My knowledge in bitrates are low and I just know 128-160 are average for mp3 and I don't know if this is correct that 320 is lossless or close to it.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Since Mulvya's habit of answering questions in the comments ruins our answer rate statistic, let's put this into an answer °v°

  Which is 4 Mbps. Now OBS is asking for video bitrate, how do I convert 4 Mbps to bitrate OBS is asking for?

Bitrate is the general term for the amount of bits per second (1 bit = 1 unit of information). Mbps stands for Mega bit per second, which is the unit in which the bitrate is measured (not to be confused with MBps, which would stand for Mega Byte per second. One byte consists of eight bit). Both the audio and the video stream have a bitrate, which correlates directly (though not linearly, depending on the codec used) to their quality.

1 Mbps = 1000 kbps = 1.000.000 bit per second
4 Mbps = 4000 kbps = 4.000.000 bit per second

  Also, I presume I be recording in Stereo which is 384 kbps. However, the only bitrates available are: 64, 96. 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 288 and 320. Mono is 128 but I hadn't seen anything higher than 320 for mp3 audio bitrate and I don't know if the value it's after is in kbps.

320 kbps is the highest audio bitrate available for MP3, as defined in the MP3 standard (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III). If you are still not satisfied with the resulting quality at that bitrate (which I find unlikely), use a better codec. For example, MP3's successor AAC is generally considered to yield better results than MP3 while using the same bitrate. But really, 320 kbps MP3 is all you need.

  My knowledge in bitrates are low and I just know 128-160 are average for mp3 and I don't know if this is correct that 320 is lossless or close to it.

128-160 kbps are acceptable if you use a variable bitrate (VBR). For a constant bitrate (CBR), I wouldn't go lower than 256 kbps.

But realistically, you can just use 320 kbps for everything and not worry about it. The thing is, if your video will take up 4 megabits or more per second, the added 320 kilobit per second for the audio won't add considerably to the overall file size. So really, there's no reason to go with a lower audio bitrate.

Also, MP3 is by definition a lossy codec. However, whether any human will be able to hear a difference between 320 kbps and a lossless codec such as FLAC is questionable (I maintain they are not, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion).

  I've just been checking the YouTube Recommended Upload Encoding Settings to get the best quality without overkilling the end file size.

Don't pay too much attention to the recommended bitrates. In my opinion, those recommendations are way too low. The thing is, YouTube reencodes all videos you upload anyway. So if you encode your video at your end first, you have two lossy encoding cycles. If you use a low bitrate, your video will contain artifacts after the first encoding cycle already. Those will only be made worse in the second cycle. So if you use a higher bitrate for the encoding on your end, the endresult on YouTube will also look better. I would only go for a lower bitrate if you have a metered internet connection or your connection is so slow that your video uploads take an annoyingly long time.


Converting WMV to MP4 I just joined this community and hope my question is acceptable since it is quite "noob" like.

I have a .wmv video file that is 1280x720 and causes windows media player to abort after excessive memory usage. I converted like 5 minutes of it to .mp4(x264) and it played nicely.

The file is 1.55gb when i converted the whole thing to mp4(x264) it went to 809mb, using Any Video Converted app. Does this sound like im losing quality or is it because mp4 has better compression ratio?

Do you guys know what is the the best mp4 video codec to output the file to preserve quality if the above is an issue. If i should use a different codec or format please let me know what the best would be to preserve quality?

Also what would the right bitrate setting be for the codecs? My options are (xvid, mpeg4, x264) Bitrate 768? or 4000? (these seem to be default)

All that matters is if the MP4 looks good to you. Of course, you may be able to compress more. There is no set bitrate to use. More complex or rapidly changing visuals require greater bitrate. Most converters use x264 to generate the converted video stream, and x264 offers a CRF mode which adjusts the bitrate based on the visual content complexity. If your app allows you to apply that mode, select a CRF value between 20-28 with lower values producing better looking but larger files.

I suggest switching to Handbrake, which is a better pedigreed tool for casual users. I also suggest using Potplayer or VLC to play video files - both are more robust than WMP.


Converting from 3/4" video to digital. Our company has approximately 27,000 hours of video stored on 3/4" video tapes. We have begun the process of converting the video digitally with the current setup:

Sony U-MATIC VO-5850 & Sony UVW-1800 Betacam
AJA FS1 & AJA Io XT
Macbook Pro

We are going through the process tape by tape and need to choose a vendor to assist us in the digital conversion process.

My questions are

Does anyone have experience with or can recommend a service provider in the New York Metro area?
Are there any recommended steps / equipment we should consider incorporating into our current and future process?
Is there additional information we should incorporate that would help with selecting a Media Asset Management system?
How should we go about storing the digital files inexpensively?

Any help is appreciated.

All the best,

Kevin

Assuming DVD quality would be enough, you may consider archiving 720p mpeg-4 files with a bitrate of 2 Mbits, which would equate roughly to 1 hour = 1 GB data.

That would mean 27,000 hours = 27,000 GB = 27 Terabytes.
So you need to consider a 50 TB storage system (including redundancy and overhead) and a tape backup system as well (LTO-6 has an uncompressed capacity of 2.4 TB per tape, so that would be relatively easy and cheap, the entire archive would fit into 13-14 tapes).

Higher quality requirements would increase the bitrate, hence the GB/hour ratio, and all values should be adjusted accordingly.

The tough part is the actual acquisition... analog video tapes have to be read at normal speed so 27,000 tapes, assuming 1 hour each, means 27,000 hours = 675 weeks = almost 10 YEARS... !!! To hope finishing this in a reasonable time (say 2 years), your company would need to set up at least 5 acquisition stations each with its own tape unit and computer (and operator). The operators, while saving, should monitor that there are not problems with the cassette and fill the metadata into the DAM system.

DAM systems, there are many, also open source, the choice depends on the use that will be made of the resulting digital video archive.


How can I generate voice as someone elses voice? I dont know if its possible but I would like to create voice similar to Gandalf from Lord of the rings. Is there some app or program which can help me? I know that I can use google translator but it is not same as human voice
Sorry if this question was asked before.

I have used Real-time Voice Cloning for this purpose. The quality isn't great, but it works for US accented voices better than UK in my experience (Gandalf = Ian McKellen = English).  Maybe this would be better in Sound Design?


How to drastically reduce size of very simple video? I've got a series of videos that I'm looking to drastically reduce in size. The video content is very simple: text animating on white background with a voice track on top. The text is mostly just subtitles and occasionally an image pops up, sort of like a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation, and it needs to play on iPad at Retina resolution.

In terms of size, here's an example of one of the video files:

Size: 20 MB
Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Duration: 5 minutes, 18 seconds
Codecs: H.264, AAC
Color profile: HD (1-1-1)
Audio channels: 2
FPS: 25

If there were a video format with variable frame rate, that would be ideal because so much of the video holds a constant frame for a second or so (like a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation).

The reason is to reduce download size of a video-intensive app.

(This may not be considered a complete answer, no matter the Rigid policies. This may be better as a comment.)

You can try using:

H.265 video codec (very efficient — 100-second video of 1080p @60fps was just 6-7 MB even with audio, when recorded with Bandicam screen recorder, which is free).
Mono audio channel
Use a lower bit depth and bit rate for audio as well as color/video.
Take a look at how Khan Academy compresses their vids ohh, sorry, they drop the resolution
Explore the free software HandBrake. It offers variable frame rate compressions.


What is a projector's "pixel frequency"? I am looking at the specs of a BenQ projector and trying to understand it's output frequency.

On page 74 of the manual, there are specs for vertical, horizontal and "pixel" frequency. What does pixel frequency mean?

Pixel frequency, also known as dot clock is referring to the bandwidth of the projector's controller chip.

For a resolution a certain data rate is required to display all the data (not pixel frequency, see later) - it can be for example:

A resolution of 800x600 at 60 Hz would require:

800 x 600 x 3 (RGB) x 60 Hz/2 (interlaced frame rate) = 43 200 000 bytes per second

or divided on 1024^2 = 41.2 Mb/s, as data rate with full 8-bit color-depth.

To calculate the projector/monitor's bandwidth you will need accurate timing measurement available, but you can get close by using the vertical frequency and compensate for VBLANK (vertical blanking which is a sync feature) with about 5% and HBLANK with about 30%:

So with 800x600 resolution at 60 hz:

800x1.3 x 600x1.05 x 60 = approx. 39 Mhz

The closer these two results get the better it is as that will tell that the projector/monitor is capable to handle the needed data rate to get full resolution, color depth as so forth.

The bandwidth becomes a factor when showing video in particular.


How to record video locally during a video conference on a mac When I record video interviews over Hangouts / Skype / Zoom, I often ask the guest to record the audio locally using QuickTime Player, then get them to send me the audio file afterwards. I also record the video conference "in the cloud" using Google Hangouts record feature.  This means I get better quality audio that I can resync afterwards.
Is there a good way to do the same thing with video as I do with audio on a Mac? When I try to record their webcam in Quicktime Player, it stops the video stream working.

I found Kazam amazing in Linux but it ain't mac app; hope the link Kazam Alternatives for Mac would help. Good luck


Width and Height troubles I am new to AE, and hope this question makes sense for you and is easy to answer.

On my website I have some images in portrait format with 2085 × 2560 px. Now I will add a mp4 video file, which will be a simple animation of a logo.

The problem is that the exported file is not in the desired format (2085 × 2560 px); the width seams to be correct but the height is smaller than 2085px.

I tried out different Pixel Aspect Ratios and different data for the height; unfortunately I just could not achieve my wanted result.

What do I have to do to get a video which has the exact format like a 2085 × 2560 px image?
Or did I something wrong while exporting?

Thanks in advance!

I just found out how to solve my problem. The H.264 codec is the issue, it somehow does not work with it and AE gives you a warning: Output file will be resized from 2085 x 2560 (1.0 PAR) to 2000 x 2000 (1.0 PAR) to meet format constraints.

Solution:

I went with the MPEG4 codec and it worked as I wanted.


What's the best before editing format to convert to? I am making a production for my companies trade show booth.  We're going to be running 2 40" inch TVs one cycling a few videos of our products in production and one cycling through a bunch of product pictures.  Anyway...

I have a bunch of videos we want to use but they're all in different formats and resolutions (Taken with different cameras over the years).  Some 720p, some 640x480, some MOV, some MPG, mp4, avi, etc, etc...  I am trying to get away with free on the video editing (VirtualDUB, Handbrake, etc...) so I am forced into using different tools to do different things.  Well in my experimenting I am finding that some video tools open mp4 and some don't.  Some open mov but most not.  I'd like to keep the videos as "RAW" as possible because they're all going to end up on a 40" screen eventually.  So you can see where I want to lose as little resolution as possible in the conversions.  I like mp4 (H.264) because it's the format that my player (Roku 2 XS) requires, but there isn't much as far as free video editing tools that will open those video files.  What format should I convert everything into before I start doing my editing?

Thanks
-Craig

I would recommend downloading the trial version of Adobe Premiere Pro, and cutting the videos together in there. The trial lasts 30 days which should be enough to get the job done..

Premiere Pro can take almost any file you throw at it (so you can leave all your videos in their original format). This way you wont be loosing any quality by converting your videos to one uniform codec before you edit.

Otherwise as a completely free solution Id suggest converting all your videos to 1920x1080p h.264 files. Then you can bring them into iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to order and export one final file.

If you dont need the all the videos combined into one file (ie. if your player can play all the files on its drive continuously) then all you need to do is convert them to 1920x1080 h.264 files and load them on the drive.


What is the video codec name of videos made through the Canon 600d DSLR I need to know the name of the codec?
They have the file extension of .mov  but i need to know what codec that is.

What is the video codec name of videos made through the Canon 600d DSLR?

All Canon DSLRs, including 600D use the same video codec:

Codec: MPEG-4 Part 10 / AVC / H.264
Profile: Baseline
Level: 5.0
Bitrate mode: CBR ± 40 Mbit/s maximum average
PAL: 1080p25, 1080p24, 720p50, 480p50
NTSC: 1080p30, 1080p24, 720p60, 480p60
Colorspace: 8-bit YUV 4:2:0 Rec. 709

Many of the higher-end models have an additional All-I mode:

Profile: High (without CABAC)
Level: 5.1
Bitrate mode: VBR ± 100 Mbit/s maximum average


Concatenate two video files with a dip to white with FFmpeg Is there any way to concatenate two video files with a dip to white (0.03 sec) with FFmpeg?

Assuming input0.mkv is 10 seconds long:

ffmpeg -i input0.mkv -i input1.mkv -filter_complex "[0]fade=t=out:d=0.015:st=9.985:c=white[v0];[1]fade=t=in:d=0.015:c=white[v1];[v0][0:a][v1][1:a]concat=n=2:v=1:a=1[v][a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" output.mp4

Note that using your values with typical input frame rate will result in only a few frames being white which will appear as a flash instead of a dip to white, so I recommend increasing the fade duration.
All inputs must have the same parameters (width, height, etc).
See FFmpeg Filters for more info on fade and concat.


How can I quickly reduce .mpg files? I recently imported a few personal videos I had on VHS or video 8mm tapes using Roxio Easy VHStoDVD equipment and software.

But here's the thing: the files are in .mpg format, very large, and I am wondering how I could possibly reduce them.

I tried placing them in an After Effects or Premiere Pro timeline to export in a mp4/H.264 file, but neither AE nor PP would understand the file.

I opened one of them with QuickTime, thinking the Export feature might work, but it was incredibly slow and would have taken me several weeks to get it all done.

I'm looking for a solution that can be quick (or even batched) and that would output a H.264 / mp4 file - ideally somewhere around 5-10 Mbps and deinterlaced.

On a Mac.

If you're comfortable with the command-line, FFmpeg will do the job.

Since these are VHS rips, 5-10 mbps is way overkill when using the H.264 codec.

Suggested command:

ffmpeg -i rip.mpg -vf yadif,scale=iw*sar:ih,setsar=1 -crf 18 -c:a aac -b:a 128k rip.mp4

This will deinterlace the video, then convert it to a square pixel representation. Audio codec is AAC @ 128 kbps. Video bitrate control method is CRF, which strives to allocate bits as per content complexity i.e. tries to maintain uniform quality throughout. 18 is a good value for SD content. Lower values produce better quality (and larger files) but shouldn't be necessary here.

You can create a batch file to automate the conversions or use a GUI like Avanti, which has a job control manager.


How to split an object in a video I trying to find a way to do the animation of separating different components of a computer window as it is done in the following video using adobe premiere pro.
Could somebody help me to put some light on how to achieve this in premiere pro

the time of the animation starts at 3.11

I'd typically tackle something like this in After Effects, but since Premiere Pro is the restriction here, lets give it a go;

Screenshot/Screen Record the application you wish to deconstruct.
Import the footage into Premiere.
Count how many components you'll be splitting the footage into and duplicate the footage that number of times.
On each duplication, use the rectangular mask in premiere to isolate the different components of the application.
You now have control over the position of each components you isolated. Use positional keyframes to animate as you wish.


How can a similar effect to the one seen here be obtained? I was re-watching for the upteenth time this video.

10 seconds in, when they start performing, the effect I would like to talk about is evident: the band members seem to move as if the video was sped up, yet their movements are in sync with the song (look at the drummer and most noticeably the singer lips).

It does not seem to me that they where filmed at a lower speed (i.e. also the song was being played slowly), so I am wondering, how can such an effect be obtained? Am I mistaken and the method is indeed the one I am discarding, or is there some more clever video editing process at play here?

It looks like a mix of factors to me.  Certainly re-timing (speeding up and jumping frames around) is a part of it, but mostly, I think they had a lot of wind on a green screen and then cut it over an environment where it doesn't make sense.  It's hard to tell how much the excess blinking is the wind and how much is re-timing, but some of it does appear to be retimes.  They vary the retiming of the composited content while keeping the background constant though which gives your brain less to latch on to.

As far as retiming in sync with the music, there is an easy trick to pull that off for songs.  You simply slow down a recording of the music by the desired amount and have them play along.  When sped back up, things match perfectly.


Why do weathermen and amateurs use green screens when professional movie makers use blue screens? I've seen a lot of "low budget" green screen setups. However, when I watch things about professional filmmaking, it seems everyone is using blue screens instead. (e.g. I've seen Industrial Light and Magic called "the blue screen boys", and the recent TF2 "Sentry Sabotage" video was filmed using a blue screen)

Is there some technical reason for this distinction or is it merely personal preference/inertia?

Professional film productions use neither only green nor only blue for chroma keying, but switch between both depending on the scene. Each can only be used when there are no objects of the same colour in view, otherwise it takes extra work to un-remove these objects. Blue and green are the usual colours because the human skin, which is what will almost always need to remain visible, is very different from both, but this is not the only thing shown in chroma key scenes!

In most situations, you have neither blue nor green objects in the foreground so both colours will, in principle, work. But they may not work equally well. The main reason why green is predominant in digital productions: digital cameras can resolve green light best, so it's possible to do proper green chroma-keying even with a cheap camera that might have problems to resolve a blue screen accurately enough. But that's not a concern in professional film productions. Analog cameras actually resolve blue better, but the difference is not really significant.
Especially blond hair will sometimes reflect much of the light coming from a greenscreen behind, which can lead to weird and somewhat ill-looking green shades. Blue is less problematic in that aspect. On the other hand, clothing will more often feature blueish colours than greenish ones.


ffmpeg export video to 1 image In the process of creating a preview of what ffmpeg, is streaming i came up with this command:

ffmpeg -i colony.mkv -c:v libx264 -f mpegts udp://127.0.0.1:1234 -vf fps=1 -s 320x240 d:\preview\out%d.jpg

This is great, but it is outputting to a series of image files that are difficult to track:out1.jpg, out2.jpg ... etc...

When i remove the %d parameters, it throws an error saying

[image2 @ 00000162c6a3d840] Could not get frame filename number 2 from pattern 'd:\preview\out.jpg' (either set update or use a pattern like %03d within the filename pattern)
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Invalid argument

Is there a way to do this please?

You have to use the update option.

-vf fps=1 -s 320x240 -update 1 d:\preview\out.jpg

This will rewrite onto the same file.

To avoid a possible read op in the middle of the updating, you can add -atomic_writing 1


What is "Key Frame Distance" in Adobe Media Encoder? How does changing the Key Frame Distance control (as seen below) work in terms of quality and speed?

This is an answer I found on the adobe forums after googling it:

The keyframe distance is the maximum number of frames before the encoder inserts an i-frame, which is the highest-quality frame of an MPEG stream (ie, it has all the information for a single frame of video inside of it rather than relying on the frames around it to reconstruct). In between the i-frames are b-frames and p-frames, which are "difference" frames that reconstruct that frame of video by looking at the nearest i-frame and applying all the "difference" frames from that point forward (or backwards). The collection of an i-frame and all its connected p-frame and b-frames is called a GOP, or "Group of Pictures". So in essence the "keyframe distance" value determines the length of each GOP.

Note that Premiere automatically inserts a new i-frame for scene changes, irrespective of the keyframe distance value. This is to assure video quality at the start of a new scene since there wont be enough in common from previous b-frame and p-frames.

Generally speaking, the more i-frames you have, the higher the image quality of video, but also the larger the size of the video. So the value you choose for keyframe distance is a balance between the file size you want the video to fit in vs quality. If you're not concerned with file size or the file size generated is within reason then you can just leave it to its default value. Otherwise you can tweak it as part of the process to get the file size down to where you want it to be (in combination with the other encoder parameters such as bitrate).


Include portion of youtube video How do I add a portion of a youtube video in my project? An answer could be for any video editing software because I am curious about how the answer will differ from software to software.

Do people use screen recording? If they do, will that include sound?
Do they actually download whole youtube videos to disk just to get a quote or something on 2 seconds included in their project?
Do they just input an url and select a start and an end and then have it automatically added to the timeline (being able to drag start and stop timestamps afterwards)?

The proper way is to download the entire original video, in the highest available quality, using a tool such as YouTube-DL, and then edit that clip like you would any other. Please make sure to consider whether your usage of other people's content constitutes "fair use" under the laws of your jurisdiction.


Diminished effects in final rendered Adobe Premiere Pro CC video I'm using the ProcAmp effect to significantly boost the contrast in my video project (I have multiple ProcAmp effects layered on the same clip). In the preview in Premiere, as I'm working on it, it looks great. But when I view the final rendered version, the contrast isn't carrying over.

Is this because of the layered effects? Or inappropriate export settings? Or something else?

Are you layering the ProcAmp Filter onto the same clip?

It's possible theres a bug with that... there are bugs.

You could try taking your base clip and putting it on a sequence. Add your ProcAmp.

Then right click the sequence in your Project window -> Create New Sequence from Clip.

Now you have a nested sequence of your original.

Try applying the ProcAmp then to that "clip" which is actually a nested sequence.

The results should appear the same, but you wont be applying the proc-amp to the same clip, rather, each nested sequence will have its own.

You can repeat and re-nest etc.

Secondly, you might just be better doing the effect in after effects, and using dynamic link to bridge the clip in. It acts much the same way but will add render time.


Is it possible to relight filmed footage with NUKE or After Effects? I have a Video of a face that I filmed with soft lighting and almost no shadows. The camera is a static portrait shot. Now I want a spot light to move slowly around the head. Is something like this possible in NUKE or After Effects?

Note: Only the light should be done in post. The head should be real footage filmed by a static camera.

I suggest build a real lighting rig and maybe stabilizing her neck.

If you decide to do it afterwards you have to:

Modeling the head and her hair (scan it if this is possible)
Tracking the shots with blender or pftrack
Replacing the head in your favourite package

There are some obstacles:

To get realistic shadows and highlights you probably need a better rendering engine for nuke
Detailed modeling is necessary to get the shadow right (espacially for the nose and the hair)
Modeling her hair can be a very difficult task


Create motion lines in After Effects How can I create waves like these which follow the user's motion?

This will most likely require motion tracking.  In this case, you attach many tracking points to the character's arms and hands.


Background color of MP4 rendering incorrectly in QuickTime I am converting a .MOV file into .MP4, .OGV and .WEBM for web use. I have found that the background rendered by QuickTime and Safari is not white although the same MP4 has a white background when viewed with Windows Media Player.

The video is compressed using http://www.mirovideoconverter.com/ which uses ffmpeg (conversion parameters used are listed https://develop.participatoryculture.org/index.php/ConversionMatrix#Output_Formats)

Can anyone tell me why this is and how I would correct the output for QuickTime?

it is a problem with  gamma settings youre using and QT has its own gamma settings, dont bother. it will display only in QT that way...

also check for alphas, but im not so sure that mp4 can support alpha channels... only qt mov with animation codec has alpha.... as i know...


After Effects automation and annotation tools (scripts) for student work I need a professional advice for self-assessing among students. I am searching for a tool (script or scripts) that helps annotating very long videos in After Effects. I also would like to automate the process without repeating myself.

I have long speeches (narrations) of students with subtitles. Subtitles are edited in Subtitle Edit. In Subtitle Edit at the beginning of some words or sentences I add symbols like [#] or [$].  After importing video and subtitles (pt_ImportSubtitles) with added [#] and [$] symbols I would like a specific lower third (simple text annotation or feedback) to be automatically activated (appeared on screen) (for 3 sec) for each imported word or group of words (marker or timestamp) with specific symbols.

Let us say that I have two lower thirds. First lower third is associated with words starting with а [#] (valid argument ) symbol and other set of words are associated with any words starting with [$] (invalid argument).

Examples
[#] Moscow is the capital of Russian Federation
[$] Moscow is not a capital of Russian Federation

If [#] is repeated 30 times then the firt lower third must also be appeared 30 time. Same logic is for [$] symbol.

Texts for lower thirds preferably must be stored outside of AE in a spreadsheet for example (Text2Spreadsheet)

Please let me know if a tool (script or a set of scripts) that I am searching is indeed exists or not.
If not. How can I do it manually with scripts that I mentioned above ?
Thank you all

As I've written on my blog, you can use the function evalFile to load the contents of an external file as data or executable code.

So if you have a file called titles.txt that looks like this

var titles={
    {startTime:1.23, endTime:2.23, textContent:"this is the first subtitle"},
    {timestamp:2.34, endTime:3.45, textContent:"this is the second subtitle"},
    {timestamp:4.56, endTime:5.55, textContent:"and so on…"}
}

…you can evaluate it as part of the source of the expression, so that the titles array is now available to the expression.

So you could do something like this with the source text property of a text layer:

try{
    myPath = “/path/to/my/titles.txt”; //obviously the path to the file
    $.evalFile(myPath);
    for (var i=0; i < titles.length; i++){
       if (time > titles[i].startTime && time < titles[i].endTime){
           titles[i].textContent;
       } else { ""; } //blank text
 }catch(err){
 “ERROR”;
}

What that does is:

load up the subtitles file,
scan through the titles and look at each one to see if the current time is between its start and end points
if the time is right for the subtitle to display then it sets the source text to the subtitle content, if not sets it to a blank string.

Other layers could use the startTime and endTime variables to drive other properties such as opacity or anything else you can animate.

If your subtitle time stamps are represented as smpte timecode you'll have to add a converter to the expression. There's one here.

You can use a capable text editor (notepad++, atom, sublime text, vim etc) to reformat the subtitles file, or you could use JS text processing tools (eg. regex, string.split, string.replace etc) in the script to parse the subtitles file. I'd recommend against the latter, they're going to be a lot slower. Remember that the expression is evaluated every time the frame is rendered, which includes reading the subtitles file from disk. If you have motion blur on, that could mean dozens of times each frame.


How do I recover truncated AVI/DV video? Short version: I believe I have truncated but otherwise valid AVI/DV files that won't play in any player I've tried (Adobe Premiere, MPC HC, VLC). I assume the stream data is intact but truncated, and the container is damaged. Are the files still recoverable and how would I accomplish this?

Long version: Having finished a recording from a Sony AnyCast workstation with two cameras to a FireWire hard disk drive, I accidentially unplugged the hard disk drive without "disconnecting" (unmounting) it first.

The result was a corrupted ext3 filesystem that would not mount under the Windows Ext2 IFS setup I was using to download the videos, so I connected the hard disk to a Linux laptop and ran e2fsck on it. After this, I was able to list the directory and copy the files, but the files appeared corrupted.

I'm working under the assumption that I've only lost some data at the end of the two video files. (This might prove false as e2fsck might have wrecked havoc on them.) That would mean I have 1,5 hours (x2) of unscathed DV stream. Unfortunately, my layman analysis concludes that these lost bits must have contained some information vital to the container format.

Note that all I have are the files copied to an NTFS volume from the fsck'ed ext3 volume. I no longer have access to the original hard disk drive.

Dear StackExchange, please help me find a way to recover and reconstruct these files! I suspect what I would need is some software that would guess or be told the information usually contained in the container header, copy the stream data and write it into a new, valid container file.

Edit: I believe the format is DV instead of MPEG2.

Edit2: It seems that the broken files do not in fact have an AVI header at all - they should begin with the bytes "RIFF" which they do not. ffprobe does recognize the stream format, though:

[dv @ 0xefb8a0] Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, dv, from '120610-1-001.avi':
  Duration: 02:08:36.84, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 28799 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: dvvideo, yuv420p, 720x576, 28800 kb/s, PAR 64:45 DAR 16:9, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s

Edit3: Thanks to Matti "Lumpio-" Virkkunen, we've finally got the video files fixed. He wrote a good 400 lines of C that did exactly what @JEEB suggested: crafted an AVI header and searched for things that look like AVI chunks, copying them over to the output file. A long AVI file needs a new header between every gigabyte or so, and the program simply fixes the broken first section and then copies the following sections as-is. The source code for fixavi.c can be found on Gist.

Please note that details such as codecs, audio sample rate and video frame rate are hard-coded in the source, so if you need to replicate this process, please adapt the source to your needs. I found Alexander Noe's AVI format guide a good reference on the AVI file format.

Edit4: And as fixavi.c does not create an index at the end of the AVI file, I simply used ./fixavi broken.avi recovered_without_index.avi; ffmpeg -i recovered_without_index.avi -acodec copy -vcodec copy recovered_with_index.avi to make one.

First of all, if I remember correctly, the DV format is intra-only, and thus if there is various damage that has happened to your video, there should be a relatively big chance of getting at least something out -- given that the file isn't completely broken in the most relevant of places.

A good way of checking if there's at least some kind of sanity left in the file is indeed by the aforementioned ffmpeg|avconv -i input.avi or ffprobe|avprobe input.avi. If ffmpeg/avconv and/or the related probe application can 'see' the format as well as other information there's at least some hope that the file actually still contains some of the things you're hoping it contains.

As for actual recovery attempts, I would actually first make a copy of the file (backups are generally useful, even if it's a backup of possibly broken data), and try to open it with Avery Lee's VirtualDub, as I remember it having one of the good general AVI reconstruction mechanisms I've seen so far. If you are lucky and there's enough data for VirtualDub to actually do something with the file, it should ask if you want to repair/reconstruct the index and so forth. After that you can set both audio and video to 'Direct stream copy', and just remux with another file name, and see if that works.

Another way to try and salvage it is to use ffmpeg/avconv, and use the stream copying function there (of course this might not work at all in case ffmpeg/avconv or the related probe application cannot see what container/video/audio format the file is). ffmpeg|avconv -i input.avi -vcodec copy -acodec copy out.avi

A yet another way to try and salvage something is by trying out the now-discontinued AVI-Mux GUI. I have not tried it myself, but I have some hazy memories of people fixing their broken AVI files by remuxing with it a few years ago.

Edit:
And of course the so-called final destination would be to see if there are any chunk-like entities in the file, and manually recreating the AVI header and friends before it either via scripting or with a hex editor, looking at the related technical documentation.


Collapse Transformation and Layer Styles (bug) AE 2017.2 Release. I'll try to be as clear as possible:

I create a comp with two text layers:

I precompose those two text layers and set Nested Comp's Opacity to 30%:

In Nested Comp I apply Bevel and Emboss to the upper text (setting Shadow's and Highlight's Opacity to 0%, so B&E is effectively nonexistent):

In Containing Comp I switch Collapse Transformation On and upper text's opacity goes to 100%:

The end.

Add 1. It's not like upper text's Opacity is not affected by Nested Comp Opacity parameter. More like it becomes binary. If I set it to any value >0%, upper text will be 100%. If I set it to be 0%, upper text becomes 0%.

Add 2. In Layer Styles it's not about B&E but rather Blending Options. I may delete B&E and everything remains the same:

Add 3. Upper text's Opacity on the Containing Comp is not just 100%. It actually equals to the Fill Opacity parameter of Blending Options of Layer Styles of upper text in the Nested Comp:

Add 4. The whole issue disappears if a dummy Transform Effect is applied to the Nested Comp. Moreover, not only the Transform Effect may be dummy, you can actually SWITCH OFF all the effects for the Nested Comp but the very existence of that not-applied effect fixes the problem:

Due to the Add 4 I assume, it's a bug. Looking forward for your comments and explanations on how does it happen and further insights on how Collapse Transformation works and Layer Styles place in rendering hierarchy.
Thanks.

it's not a bug, it's the nature of collapse transformation switch, and when you've added this dummy effect you simply have disabled the collapse transformation.


after effects slider control code help I'm trying to make a slider that basically can act as a crossfader between a bunch of different layers (so as the slider goes up, it fades through several layers). This is what I've written, and I'm getting the error "Error: SyntaxError: Unexpected Token )" on the first line and I'm having trouble telling where the problem is.
My code:

if(thisComp.layer("Null 1").effect("Slider Control")("Slider") <= 5)
{
    if(thisComp.layer("Null 1").effect("Slider Control")("Slider") <= 2.5)
    {
        out = linear("Null 1").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"), 0, 100, 0, 2.5);
    }
    else
    {
        out = linear("Null 1").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"), 0, 100, 2.5, 5);
        out = 100 - out;
    }
    }
}
else{
    out = 0;
}
out;

Thank you!!

The error message is telling you that you've got a stray bracket, so count your brackets and see if the (s match the )s. Spoiler alert: they don't.

I can see two cases: after each linear function call you have a closing bracket after the "Null 1" string that isn't matched by an opening bracket. And "Null 1" on its own is just treated as a string, not a layer, so that's another problem.

I'm assuming you mean thisComp.layer("Null 1") which is a reference to a layer. So

out = linear("Null 1").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"), 0, 100, 0, 2.5);

should be

out = linear(thisComp.layer("Null 1").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"), 0, 100, 0, 2.5);


video not showing full screen I have video from multi videos, when I import it in after effect, one of them not showing full screen.
I think when see image will understand my problem
in video player:

in after effect after imported:

Any advise?

Make sure the size of your comp in After Effects is the same as the size of your original video clip. Make sure the clip in your layer is set to scale 100%.


My converted videos look bad... what am I doing wrong? I am a software developer. I understand the video concepts, but I am no expert.

I have a Sony Action Cam AS-15. It records ate 1080/60fps/25Kbitrate. The 60FPS videos just dont; play smooth maxemised on my pc, xbox, ps etc.

I am looking for the best way to drop some bitrate, but keep decent video quality.

I have tried numerous converters/settings, but I just cant get a decent quality video going... I can, for instance, in no way, get videos to look as good as the uploaded videos for the Action Cam, on the Sony action cam youtube channel, for instance. Not even to mention nearing in any way the gopro uploaded video quality.

Sony Youtube Video:

My Youtube Videos:

This Last upload was: 13 minutes, 1GB, 720p, 30fps, 9259kbps, MP4 (Windows Movie Maker), Gopro Black, Sony Action Cam, Fuji xp-100 cameras

The little AS-15 is not as good as the gopro, but the "professional" post videos uploaded to Sony's channel, look damn good. I am not talking about saturation, effects etc. I am talking purely about (pixelation/artefacts)

The original 1080/60 videos look pretty good, but I cant keep them looking good in a more usable format... I would like to keep 60fps, but just lower the bitrate.

I have tried:

Any Video Converter Software, convert to 30fps/24kbitrate
GoPro Studio (Best quality)
Keep high original bitrate, converted to 720p
.h264
.mp4
I don't really want to buy Vegas Pro, or Adobe premier, as this is a small hobby.

I see decent quality movie (feature films) encodes, running at 1080p, with only 2K bit-rate...? Which makes for a decent file size of 1.5gb/90 minutes. My encodes are 1GB for 15 minutes, and look just terrible.

What am I missing?

P.S. I know from research, and observation, that the Sony AS-15 totally messes up with video compression. There are quite a lot of artefacts on very detailed scenes... Can this be the problem, that the source just isn't good enough to convert / work with?

If this is the case, are there any software to keep the original file bit-rate and FPS, but just scale down to 720p, in order to keep the initial quality as it was recorded, but make it a bit more usable..

Taking a closer look at the footage now that I'm at home, it's mostly the level of activity and motion in the shots.  Even in the Sony video, the quality absolutely falls apart any time that there is high motion and unstable video.

The way video compression works, it depends on predictable and smooth motion to achieve good compression results, especially for on the fly recording like a camera has to do since it can't look forward in time and see how things are going to move any further than it can buffer, which is generally not going to be very far (probably sub-second).

There are two places you could get quality loss.  The first is in the recording itself.  If you aren't recording at sufficient data rates, then if there is too much motion, fine detail is going to get lost.  Uncompressed video is absolutely massive and even most video cameras record with moderate to heavy compression already applied.  If your source footage lacks detail (and isn't out of focus) then you need to work on stabilizing the camera to ensure it can better compress the video.  There are a number of different ways you can shock mount a camera to help provide some stabilization, though they also generally add weight.

If the source footage is ok, then the problem lies in the final compression for web/end-user consumption.  The fundamental problem is still the same, but we now have the option of using digital video stabilization to help make movement less random.  We also can use VBR 2-pass compression since we can now look ahead and see how thing move in the future as well as the past, which allows for far more accurate compression and more efficient use of bandwidth.

Additionally, some of the footage could use color grading to enhance the contrast.  Ideally footage should make full range of luminosity (brightness).  Your blacks should be dark black, but without obscuring detail in the shadows.  Your whites should be bright, but without fine detail bleeding in to pure white.  You can start with a white point and black point, but really, using something like curves is the best way to tweak the video to make the most use of the available range of luminosity.  This can also be quickly, but sloppily accomplished by increasing the contrast, but results often look far more artificial that way.  Color grading is best learned by doing it and it can vary throughout a clip.  It takes time and practice to get good at it.


Animating vectors to audio in After Effects Hi i have the following graphic

Which i want to animate to the music. I would like them to animate like traditional volume bars but have each one animate at separate levels. I have tried using wiggle expression on the positison but it didn't give the desired effect. Does anyone know how to achieve this?

I would build one of the "stacks" as a comp.  On the first frame of the comp, I'd have the first layer in the stack, and on each progressive frame I'd add the next layer.
Then in my main comp, I would put the music track, and use something like Sound Keys from Trapcode or generate keyframes from the audio using a technique like this:
https://www.surfacedstudio.com/blog/vfx-vlog/after-effects-audio-to-keyframes/2

Once you have the audio keyframes, then you could use an expression to display a specific frame of your comp based on how loud the sound is on that frame.

once you've got that working, then I would think about applying this to more than one stack, and thinking about how to apply different behaviours to different stacks, either based on different EQ settings or maybe on a time delay, so the audio appears to ripple across the stack.


How do I dynamically reposition part of a sentence based on the width of a word in the middle of the sentence that will change? I am looking to build an animation where in the middle of a sentence, a word gets deleted by character, then a new word is retyped on-screen and the back half of the sentence repositions as each letter is typed on. I tried to do some research and have a feeling this animation may need to utilize sourceRectAtTime or Delta expressions along with the type-on character text animator. What are your thoughts on accomplishing this?

I think you could achieve this just by key-framing the Source Text control in your text layer.
Unless you have hundreds of them and need to do it programatically, I would just keyframe the changes of text, and the repositioning would happen automatically.
If I have misunderstood what you mean, please add some screen shots to explain what you need.


Lighting a chalkboard COVID has forced online delivery of my courses for which some of my content lectures/office hours I now will do on a chalkboard with a video stream.  But I get a bright glare from the lighting that makes parts of the board hard to read and removes the ability to use half the board.  I have invested in a cheap umbrella light which youtube advice convinced me was better lighting, but the effect remains.
What are the likely causes of glare on a chalkboard? Bad lighting, bad lighting placement? Bad camera placement?
What is an inexpensive/low effort solution?

Bad lighting and/or bad camera placement are the cause.  If you can't move the lights or the chalkboard, such as in many typical classrooms, the first thing you should try is moving the camera.
You can think of the chalkboard surface like a mirror.  In fact, if you hung a mirror flat against the chalkboard, you'd see that the position of the chalkboard "hot spots" corresponds exactly to the position of the reflection of light sources in a mirror.  The difference is that microscopic abnormalities in the surface of the chalkboard scatter the light more randomly, which effectively "blurs" the reflection.
If you can't avoid the glare by moving the camera, or by moving/dimming the lights, then there is one other way to fight glare:  Use a polarized lens filter.  These work the same way that polarized sunglasses work to cut glare.  There are screw-on variants made for photography cameras called CPL's or "Circular Polarizing Lenses," which let you adjust the polarization angle for best effect.  Polarized filters don't work for all reflections though, and their efficacy depends on the polarization of both the light source and the reflective material.
CPL's are fairly cheap.  You can probably pick up a used one for $15-ish, and new ones are usually below $100.  Just make sure you buy the right size to fit your lens.  Either inside the camera's lens cap, or written on the lens, you'll see a number next to the symbol "ø".  This is the filter size, and should match whatever you buy.
If you wanted to go totally shittyrigs cheap, you could tape one of the lenses of a pair of disposable movie theater 3D glasses in front of your camera lens.  The 3D variant filter polarized light like any other camera filter or sunglasses on the market.  The difference is that the polarization of the left and right eye is offset by 90º.


ffmpeg: how to ignore an EDIT LIST? I've got a 10-minute long mp4 file which plays just fine with VLC. Apple Quicktime however plays only the first 6.5 seconds, stops and can't be convinced to jump past that.

Similarly, when I try transcoding it with ffmpeg, it stops at precisely frame 336.

I have figured out the following: when I run ffmpeg with 'loglevel 48' it tells me that there's something called an 'EDIT LIST' inside the file which tells it to drop all frames beyond 336:

ffmpeg -i VIDEO.mp4 -t 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v rawvideo -loglevel 48 output.avi
(...)
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] Processing st: 0, edit list 0 - media time: 0, duration: 6719
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6727 @ 336
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6747 @ 337
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6763 @ 338
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6786 @ 339
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6803 @ 340
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6816 @ 341
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6847 @ 342
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6863 @ 343
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x5617d7c1a880] drop a frame at curr_cts: 6884 @ 344
(...)

Question: is there a way to tell ffmpeg to ignore this EDIT LIST and carry on regardless?

Yes, there's a private option for the MOV demuxer.

ffmpeg -ignore_editlist 1 -i VIDEO.mp4 ...


FFmpeg : Error occurred while encoding audio stream from ac3 to aac I am using following command to encode my video to h264 and aac audio codec :

ffmpeg -i sample.mp4 -codec:v libx264 -profile:v high -level:v 4.0 -codec:a libvo_aacenc -b:a 128k output_file.mp4

Following is a trace of the error i am getting at the console.

Input #0, mpegts, from 'sample.mp4':
  Duration: 00:00:58.08, start: 1.000033, bitrate: 17290 kb/s
  Program 1
    Stream #0:0[0x1011]: Video: h264 (High) (HDMV / 0x564D4448), yuv420p, 1920x1
080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
    Stream #0:1[0x1100]: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fl
tp, 448 kb/s
    Stream #0:2[0x1200]: Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle ([144][0][0][0] / 0x0090)
[libx264 @ 003dc660] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 003dc660] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX
[libx264 @ 003dc660] profile High, level 4.0
[libx264 @ 003dc660] 264 - core 130 r2274 c832fe9 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Cop
yright 2003-2013 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 de
block=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1
me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chr
oma_qp_offset=-2 threads=12 lookahead_threads=2 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1
 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=
1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scen
ecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmi
n=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
[libvo_aacenc @ 03c3c640] Unable to set encoding parameters
Output #0, mp4, to 'output_file.mp4':
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264, yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 90
k tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), s16, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 -> libx264)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (ac3 -> libvo_aacenc)
Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:1 - maybe incorrect parameters
such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

I am really not able to find what possibly could be wrong. I dont want to copy audio codec , i wish to encode it from ac3 to aac

Also any suggestion to make it lossless

You're using an ffmpeg with a 2-year-old version of libx264.  It's been mostly feature-complete for a while now, but there are still small improvements and fixes happening.

As Mulvya says, get one built with libfdk_aac, since you should update your ffmpeg for libx264 anyway.  Your current ffmpeg is trying to use the VisualOn aac encoder.  That's a terrible choice.

Check the video encoding guide on ffmpeg's Trac wiki, too.  You should probably use -preset slow at least, to get more quality per bitrate. -crf 23 is the default target-quality, which might be more or less than you want.


How do I fix my corrupt video files? I have multiple video files that have been taken on an iphone, put onto the PC and then deleted off the phone without being tested (yay colleagues!). None of these video files will work and I've tried everything I can think of/find to fix them and nothing has worked. The issue I'm having is that the files seem to have no information, when i click on properties there is no length/resolution/bit rate.

The video properties http://puu.sh/cBvBL/45128864ed.png

The files are all .MOV but no programs seem to recognize them as such, VLC won't play any of them, and none of the repair programs will work as they don't recognize the files as .MOV's. The only success I've had with this issue is on mp4repair.org which has seemed to recognize the file as a video, but only recognizes 2 minutes of footage, when i know that the video is at least 10 minutes long.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm Stumped.

If they are MOVs, the first thing I would do is find a computer with Quicktime correctly installed, to see whether they play on there.  If they do, it could be a codec issue on your machine.  Any Mac with Final Cut installed should do it.


Avidemux "too short" error I'm trying to encode clips with x264 in avidemux. Problems come when I set video length to 10 seconds while I resample output to 1 fps (without changing duration): avidemux report "Too short" error and produces an invalid file.
There is no problem if I resample to 2fps or if select a clip 20 seconds long. I have also tried different GOP settings with no luck.
Any idea of the reason of this error?

That is way out of the h264 specs. According to Adobe After Effects the format constrains for h264 are at min. 10fps so even 2fps are (not, see below) out of spec and could result in issues with some players. So Avidemux seems to allow out of spec settings, that 1 fps isn't possible, is very likely an internal issue with how h264 gets encoded in Avidemux.

Edit: It seems this is indeed an Adobe only constrain and or constrain for MP4, when using the QuickTime format with h264 I can render with 1 FPS.

Still, I recommend you interpolate your video to be longer instead of decreasing the FPS unless you have very specific technical reasons for encoding with 1 FPS.
Showing every frame multiple times per second instead of just once per second doesn't make a visual difference.


Is is possible to copy the viewport to clipboard within Adobe After Effects? Is there a way to copy the recent frame to clipboard to paste it in any other program?

I know there is an exporting script from Video Copilot but somehow it doesn't seem to work with my version of After Effects (CC).

I get the following error message after starting AE:

  After Effects Error: Couldn't find main entry point for Comp2Clip.plugin

I am using After Effects on an iMac late 2013.

Are there any other ways to copy the viewport, or does anyone know how to fix the error?

The free Copy Image plug-in should work. The plug-in is executed via Edit -> Copy image. As the readme states,

  The image is copied as an 8bits per channel image. If the active
  project is 16 or 32bits per channel, downsampling is performed.


Software for Live Video Overlays I have recently been working with a trial of Boinx TV, but would like to go pro. I am trying to create a live overlay with a logo, weather, and some live RSS feeds.

Thanks in advance.

As mentioned before Open Broadcast Software and or XSplit seems to be the standards. Both are fully functional with plugins to customize your live stream output. Though OBS is free to use and available of multiple platforms while XSplit has three different range for pricing depending on the functionalities you intend to use during production. For a more complete comparison between the two software please visit here.


Matching a camera in a 3D scene based on a photo I have a Sketchup scene with a 3D model and a geolocation, but I also have a photo for the scene.

How cam I match/create a virtual camera in the 3D application to match the viewpoint of the physical camera's viewpoint ?

Would be cool if the solution is also in Sketchup, but can be done using other 3D packages as well.

Thanks!

Production Software Used:

PfTrack, PfMatchit, Boujou, Syntheyes, Nuke Camera Tracker...

Student free use:
Autodesk Matchmover

All of the above software is used to 3D Match Move Cameras to video sequences. Most of them are very expensive. PfTrack is my personal favorite.

Although all of the above mentioned software is used to solve cameras for video sequences they work just as well with stills. PfTrack has tools to orient a scene based on hints that you give it about scale, x-axis, y-axis,z-axis, FOV and so on. The solve is easier with more reference images that have been taken from different angles looking at the same scene.

As was mentioned above looking for key signs in the photo that give hints for y-axis and z-axis will help you align your scene. If you Place grids down you can try to ballpark the perspective of the shot and give yourself a good horizon line. You can also place proxy geometry of some of the objects in your scene to guess depth and so on. Many of these techniques are what is used to match CG to video.

In the end the more information you have about the original physical scene is what will make matching CG easier. such as actual dimensions of the scene and as many measurements as possible. If you have access to any of the above software you can undistort your stills and have assistance on producing good solutions to your scenes 3D camera.


Color changes after video to single frame images back to video using ffmpeg Given master video in mov rle:

Video: qtrle (rle  / 0x20656C72), rgb24(progressive)

Converted the video to a serie of single .bmp frames.

ffmpeg -i source.mov $FRAMES/f%03d.bmp

Frames from unchanged parts I recompiled to mpeg ts intermediate files:

ffmpeg                   \
-framerate 25            \
-start_number $i         \
-i "$FRAMES/f%03d.bmp"   \
-vframes $n              \
-c:v libx264rgb          \ # libx264
  -preset slow           \
  -tune animation        \
  -crf 20                \
  -pix_fmt rgb24         \ # yuv420p
-bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb  \
-f mpegts                \
-y -an -hide_banner      \
"$FOLDER_TS/_${i}_${o}.ts"

To other part of the clip I applied filters like pad, zoompan, format. Overlaid PNG with transparency, animated. Output to the same format h264 .ts

Concat the .ts parts to mp4 movie file.

Color seems to have changed a little. Can be noticed when joining source movie with the processed one.

What stage of the process could affect the slight changes in colors?

Is it the pixel format conversion or BMP format usage?

How to convert movie file to sinlge frame images preserving exact color?

Solved the problem by setting colormatrix conversion using swscale lib. Added to my filter chain:

scale=in_color_matrix=bt601:out_color_matrix=bt709

and

-colorspace bt709

to the output.

References

ffmpeg scale filter
ffmpeg colormatrix filter
colorspace on ffmpeg wiki
question on video.stackexchange

Credits

Found the advice on VideoHelp forum reply from 2017, which in turn references the question on this video.stackexchange.  Thanks again, Gyan!


If I use Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing, does it matter what screen capture software I use? The reason I ask is because I’m choosing between these two screen capture software packages: Camtasia ($250) and FilmoraScrn ($19.99). I will capture my screen to a great extent in the months ahead.

Camtasia has more advanced editing functionality than FilmoraScrn, however it may not make sense to use either of them for editing in the long run. I want to avoid potentially over-spending by buying Camtasia if I find its editing functionality unsatisfactory compared to Adobe Premiere Pro.

So if I use Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing, does it truly matter what screen capture software I use?

If you are going to use Premiere for editing, there is no point in looking at the editing advantages, they won't be higher than Premiere's capabilities for sure.

Some polls have Filmora lower in rating, but the only issues were with editing.

I was making screen capture for programming videos, and on Mac, I wasn't using anything but quick time player, since 100% of editing goes to Premiere, where you can do literary everything.


What type of equipment can I use to record a live rock performance as a member of the audience? I've been attending some friend's concerts and using my phone or my DSLR or my high end point and shoot the audio quality is extremely poor. I assume if I wanted the best quality I'd need to plug in directly to the amps / mixer for all the performers but I'm not doing this as a pro. I just want to be able to record a few 30 to 120 second clips and later post them on facebook / youtube. BUT, the audio at the events is extremely loud (I usually wear ear plugs) and on top of that it often sounds off key even though it didn't sound so off key live.

Is there certain easily portable equipment I can say add to my camera (a certain type of mic or mic + amp) that would let me record and get reasonable audio quality (for some definition of reasonable)? Are there special kind of mics specifically for loud situations or mic attachments? Do I need my own equalizer on the input or can I adjust the audio later in something like Audacity (or some more professional software). For example I noticed in one video the singer's voice seems louder than everything else but at the actual performance the instruments seemed louder than the vocals.

Note: I specifically listed a rock performance because they tend to be much louder than say a jazz performance. Also have friends in an industrial band and they are so loud I have no idea what they sing (haha). I just put my ear plugs in and enjoy the spectacle but I'd love to be able to record them too just as a member of the audience, not someone who has access to the stage (too much work and coordination, especially since usually many bands are playing). These are small venues that usually hold less than 50 people and usually each performer or band only does 3-6 songs and then the next group is on.

I want to make it clear I'm not trying to record concerts it would be illegal to record. Besides, my experience is those types of concerts confiscate all high end equipment on the way in. At least that's my experience. Example, you can take your smartphone in but you can't take your DSLR and I'm sure they'd check for mics etc. The places I'm talking about are small venues where I'm a friend of the band hanging out and taking pictures for fun etc. Here's a picture from last March 25th 2017 if you want some idea of the type of venue. That's literally 1/4 of the venue. Another 1/4 is the bar leaving space for about 15 viewers.

You can use portable recorder like Zoom H4n or similar. Recorders like this usually have XLR input that could be plugged directly to mixer. You'd then set input type on your recorder to line-in and set its sensitivity to have your levels not too quiet but not clipping (exceeding the scale).
You can also plug in microphone and try to do the same however investment into microphone + recorder seems pretty high considering the fact, that your recording might be better, but still very much sub par.

Higher quality recorders might have a jack for headphones so you could monitor audio quality of your recording or even line-out you could plug into your DSLR audio-in for easier audio-video sync in post.

Apart from Zoom recorders, another popular brand is Tascam. If you don't want to buy, they can be usually rented in rentals for videographers and filmmakers.


Adobe Premiere Pro CC editing/playback performance Dropped Frames and Latency Woes
I recently switched from Final Cut Pro X to Premiere Pro, and I've run into a performance issue. To be clear, I've seen several questions about Premiere's rendering performance, but none about its editing performance. Since I started adding clips to the timeline, it has started dropping way more frames than I'm seeing during playback. And its latency for "play" and "pause" when I hit the spacebar has become very noticeable. None of these issues were present when I was sub-clipping.
Storage
All of the footage is located on my 1 TB SSD boot drive, where the application is installed. I realize this would be a problem if I was using an HDD, but with my SSD, I'm not sure it is. Full hardware specifications below.
The Question
What are the best practices for increasing Premiere's performance while editing and playing back in the application?
Hardware

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:   MacBookPro11,3
Memory: 16 GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB
Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Storage: 1 TB SSD (55% full)
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.6 GHz
Number of Processors:   1
Total Number of Cores:  4
L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB
L3 Cache:   6 MB

There are a couple factors which can be giving you lagy playback.You don't specify your bit rate or codec. If you are editing a processor intensive codec like h.264 (not a good idea) -the processor could start to be a bottleneck. If you are editing a less compressed format like ProRes your drive or RAM can start to become the bottleneck. Since that is the most likely, I'll address that:

Because you have only one hard drive; Premiere is running off it, the OS is using it, preview files are trying to run off it at the same time. Easiest thing to try first is adding a hard drive or two. Ideally: Drive#1: OS/PPro, Drive#2: Project/Source Footage, Drive#3: Previews/Final Exports. If need be: put your Project and Source footage on an external drive and put your Previews on the local (fastest) drive. Once your previews are created, the project won't need to access the project and source very much. Use an "uncompressed" codec like ProRes or DNxHD for editing -a good SSD should be able to handle several streams at a time.

16Gb may be enough RAM, but it's not a given. It depends on the number of streams, bit-rate, size, length of the timeline, etc..


What do different types of SDI mean? My DataVideo kum-100 supports a number of different SDI specs.  What is the difference between Quad SDI,6G Link SDI,and 3G-LINK SDI?

SDI stands for Serial Digital Interface.  Over time, the bandwidth needs of video have changed drastically, and so SDI has gone through a number of revisions and different solutions for handling the ever increasing bandwidth loads.

3G, 6G and 12G SDI all refer to single conductor bandwidth specs.  They refer to the maximum data rate supported.  3G is capable of 3 gigabit transmission, 6G up to 6 gigabit and 12G up to 12 gigabit.  Each standard uses progressively higher grade cables and more rigorous transmission standards to enable the higher data throughput.

Dual and Quad link SDI take an alternate approach.  They use the slower SDI cables, but run multiple cables to the same device.  Using this approach, it is possible to split the data and achieve higher throughput with lower grade (and potentially pre-existing) cabling, but multiple conductors are required.

The standard you use will be determined by the feeds that both your source and destination devices can support and based on the wiring constraints you decide on (length of run and cable costs being the main two factors, as well as any existing wiring).

Much more technical detail on SDI is available on Wikipedia.


How can I add fade in and fade out effects to a video? I tried searching for freeware on Google which can do this. But I have not been able to find a software which clearly mentions fade in or fade out in its specifications.

I wanted to have a scene with music in the background. At fade out both the music and the video should fade out (or grow darker to be

Windows Live Movie Maker is a free app that can do both audio and video fades (both in and out).  You probably already have this application installed on your computer, and if you need further help I would imagine you can find a number of YouTube tutorial videos.

Once you import your video, click on the Edit tab and you'll see the audio fades immediately.

Then, click on the Visual Effects tab, and click the down arrow at the right of the single row of effects to expand these.  Scroll down to "Motion and Fades".  In this group you'll find what you're looking for.

If you don't already have WLMM on your computer, there are a jillion places where you can download it.  Incidentally, the latest version is called "Windows Movie Maker 2012", for Windows 7 and 8, so you'll want to look for that unless you're still running Vista or XP.


Tracking in After Effects After tracking camera and clicking on one of the tracker points, I added "null and camera" then I attached a picture to it.

So I want the picture to be steady in a place when I move my recording camera, but the picture shakes in every frame.The film itself doesn't have any shake but the picture is not steady. I think the problem is with the tracker but what is it?

Help me.

A few things to try:

Make sure your camera footage is at the same frames per second as your comp.

Instead of selecting a single track point, try drawing a lassoo around several points.  You'll get a target plane instead.  Make sure it's facing the right way (if it's not - redraw your lassoo around some different points).

Open the Advanced triangle in the camera tracker's effects settings, and check the box marked "Detailed Analysis".

Make sure you do your tracking at 100% zoom level in the display.  (This definitely used to cause issues - maybe they've fixed it now).

If there's something weird in your footage that will damage the tracking quality, try masking it out and precomping the footage before you start tracking.

Hope it helps.


Is there a way to do both Extruded Text and Layer Modes natively in After Effects? I followed Video Copilot 3D Shadows tutorial to create a nice shadow on my text. Because of the angle I'm doing though which is much more ... perspective I suppose you could say it could really use a little depth to it. I looked up if AE could do extrusion (also since I've been told some basic 3D is built-in to AE by members of this exchange) and found How to Extrude Text in AE. The problem is this tutorial tells me to change my Renderer to Ray-Traced 3D as a prerequisite for extrusion but if I do that it tells me Blending Modes don't work and clicking okay anyways seems to agree as my ground on Multiply goes back to Normal with no option to change.

Extruded Text

Extruded Text moved into scene

Extruded text when I try to make it 3D for shadows, light and placement in scene

Is there a native way in After Effects to combine both Layer Modes and Extruded Text?

You can work around it using multiple compositions.  Do one composition to generate the 3d layer and then use that composition within another to handle the blending (or vice versa depending on your needs).