Is there any command show file extensions supported by ffmpeg? I have a MPEG-TS file input.mpg (I know, the file name does not look like a MPEG-TS file, but that is the file I received and by ffprobe I know it is a MPEG-TS file).

When I transcode the file by

ffmpeg -i input.mpg output.ps

ffmpeg says it is unable to find a suitable output format. But according to Wikipedia, .ps is a valid file extension for MPEG-PS.

How can I know which extension will be recognized by ffmpeg?

There's no single list which has all the extensions supported by muxers in ffmpeg. FFmpeg is modular so each muxer registers the extensions it supports. A utility function then traverses through all registered muxers and tries to match their extensions with that of the output filename specified.

At the command line, you can check the extensions registered to a particular muxer:

ffmpeg -h muxer=mpeg

whose output will have a line like the 2nd line here

Muxer mpeg [MPEG-1 Systems / MPEG program stream]:
    Common extensions: mpg,mpeg.
....

Note that extensions by themselves don't signify anything other than provide a basis to select a muxer. If you want a MPEG Program Stream to have the extension ps, then use

ffmpeg -i input.mpg -f mpeg output.ps

This -f option forces the output format.


Will a Youtube video with clips from a copyright protected anime website (AnimeID) be taken down even if I give credit in the video and description? This is my first post here, but I think I used the search function and couldn't find what I was looking for. This is probably a stupid question, but here goes: I'm creating an analysis of an anime just for fun on Youtube. I have fairly short clips from a free but copyright protected anime website in this video I'm making. I have already given credit in advance on my blog, and I will include credit both in the video and in the description. Is this enough, or is it not guaranteed that the video will remain up and not be removed by Youtube (because of a copyright issue)?

It would be great if someone could answer this sometime today because if this will work out alright, I want to upload it today if possible. I am also asking this question on another online forum in case no one sees this here.

Thank you so much in advance!

An algorithm decides that. It can go both directions. The system is not smart enough to correctly decide if your video meets the cirteria for fair use/citation. In case of a wrong decision you can appeal and sometimes you succeed.

If you give credit or not does not play a role for Youtube, however it's a legal requirement for correct citation.

If a copyright violation is detected, the video either gets blocked or the income will be redirected to the holders of these rights. And you get a strike.

Funny: As I write this I'm listening to an experienced Youtuber in a live stream and by chance she speaks about this topic and says: "It's a game of luck if you get a copyright strike or not." I think this confirms my point.


Delete background, change color of video Is it possible to take, for example, this video

             and somehow make dr. Manhattan's skin yellow/white? instead of blue? Is it possible to take out his figure/delete the surroundings? If yes, then how?

You can also use DaVinci Resolve.

First node: You can use a qualifier to get the basic outline of Dr. Manhattan (not the glow around him, but the darker blue parts).

Second node: You can feed one output from that first node through hue vs. hue to convert blue to yellow.

Third node: You can feed another output from the first node to a mask.

Fourth node: You can then then blur the mask (outside only, not inside and outside) and tint it to make your yellow glow.

Fifth node: you can use the mask of the 3rd node to select the output of the second node and composite that with the output of the fourth node to get a yellow body with a yellow glow, and no background.


How can I record audio with the USB mic and record with the camera without having to sync them? I want to start making some YouTube videos, but I want to work with what I have for the moment, to see how it goes and learn using them for a while.

So I have a Behringer C1-U microphone and a Samsung NX1000 mirrorless camera. Is it possible to connect them both to the pc and record video and audio at the same time?

I don't think Samsung NX1000 can stream video to PC. So you can't "connect them both to the pc and record". You shall record first, and only then copy footage on the PC.

However some cameras have audio jacks inputs, to connect external microphone to them. And your Samsung NX1000 have one. But your microphone don't have audio jack output, so it outputs only digital signal. And your DSLR can receive only analog signal. So it is impossible to connect your microphone to your DSLR directly.

You need computer to convert digital signal to analog, and then connect it to your DSLR. It can be achieved with some kind of microcomputer like Raspberry Pi. Or, if you going to record only near your PC, you can plug your mic into PC, and then connect your PC's audio output to your DSLR's audio input. Maybe some settings on the PC should be adjusted for this to work properly. But it depends on your operating system.

After recording, do not forget to copy files from your DSLR to your PC.

Good Luck!


How to rip two dvd's on the same disc? I'm trying to rip two movies on the same drive and I can't figure it out, handbrake keeps wanting to rip the first but not the second and I wanted to ask here if anyone knew how to rip the second movie, thank you.

By default Handbrake selects the longest duration track, it assumes this is the main content - usually a DVD has one main feature, and then may have a bunch of smaller tracks (extras, trailers, intros, etc).
Using the "Title" drop-down near the top left of screen, you should just be able to select the other track. You could also use the Add To Queue -> Add All option to add everything from the disc to the encode queue in one batch.


error editing a long video using VirtualDub2 I have several long video files that I need to edit (remove some initial parts, breaks and dead moments) and I always got errors when I try to save / export the edited file in mp4. The

  pcm_f32le: codec not currently supported in container mp4

message shows when I try to save the edited file in VirtualDub2 (the original file was converted from wmv by VirtualDub2). I can edit an avi file (with 4:26 minutes and 914 Mb) but the edited avi is bigger (3:22 minutes and 2.3 Gb).

I have several Webex sessions (each with 4 – 5 hours) in arf and wmv format (I export using cisco Network Recording Player application).

The WMV files have the ASF (Active Streaming Format) container format, video 1440×768, 25 fps wmv3 video codec, yuv420p, 1000 Kb/sec bitrate. The audio is in stereo s16p, 44.100 Hz, 1152 kb/sec bitrate.

I also can convert the files with VirtualDub2 to mpg4 or Xvid minconverter to avi.

If I use VirtualDub2, the mp4 have the QuickTime/Mov container format, video 1440×768, with h264 video codec, 2.29 fps average, yuv420p (709) and the aac audio codec, stereo fltp, 33 kHz, 50 kb/sec bitrate.

If I use Xvid, the avi (Audio Video Interleaved) container have video 1440×768, mpeg4 video codec, yuv420p, 5 fps and mp3 audio, stereo s16p, 44.100 Hz, 128 kb/sec bitrate.

The unedited video export sizes are similar:

304 Mb arf is converted in a 801 Mb wmv that is compressed into a 509 mb avi or a 506 mb mp4 file.

What is wrong? What settings / log files should i preset/check/validate?

Issue is with the audio track, which needs to be converted/compressed.

See

https://sourceforge.net/p/vdfiltermod/tickets/162/

for steps on how to avoid this issue.


After Effects rendering a video at base 99, but outputs as a 60 one I've got a composition with only a video that was recorded at 100 fps. Apparently 100 fps is to much for AE, but it deals just fine with 99, which is OK to me.

The composition was set with exactly the same settings as the video. But when I render this, even choosing Best Settings or Current Settings, both with base 99 (Use comp's frame rate option) it outputs a 60 fps video.

I didn't even set 60 anywhere else, I do not know from where it is coming. But the thing is, I need to output it as 100/99 fps.

And if you think, "Why can't you just stay with the original video?" Because this is just a test, and for now it is failing

Since your source is in h264 I'm guessing you are encoding to mp4/h264 again?
The format doesn't support a frame rate of 99, you will have to use a less constrained video codec like mjpeg in an avi or mov container.

Whenever you are violating certain video or audio specs After Effects will tell you that in your export settings like shown here (see the little warning triangle in the left corner). AME doesn't do that for some reason but will show the adjusted settings in the source output info field.


Premiere Pro - Unwanted Letterboxing in HD 1080p Video After editing a video in Premiere Pro CC 2015 and then exporting it, a 1080p video becomes letter-boxed on the left and right sides. I have double checked all the settings, and for some reason it continues to letter box.

Here is an example video to show you what I mean.

That can happen, when you use different Pixel aspect Ratio. Use Match Sequence Settings and use Pixel aspect Ratio in your sequence same with footage.


AVID: Mxf with Metadata After importing a mp3 file into avid a mxf file with the audio
content gets created.

Sadly all the ID3 metadata informations get lost (not transfered to the new mxf file).

Is there a way or option to transfer all id3 tags to the mxf file?

Do you care about portability of metadata? You could just add some custom columns in the bin and add your metadata there.

If you've never made custom columns you just scroll all the way over to the right, click on the column header, and type in the column name.


How do I know if a video file is encoded perfectly or not? I have to encode (transcode) many video files (usually from AVI to MP4). But to see if the encoded files are correct or not I will play all the files manually, which is rather tedious.

Is there any tool to check if an encoded file is perfect or not?

There are several methods/algorithms to compare a transcoded file against its original.

This is a good article which I believe covers what you're asking. It touches on algorithms such as Peak Signal-to-Noise (PSNR) ratio and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) used to perform objective analysis -- without having to watch the actual video.

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=110206&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=Article_Reads

  Without question, the gold standard for assessing video quality is a controlled subjective test, which, as previously mentioned, can be time-consuming and expensive to run. Objective quality benchmarks are algorithms that compare the compressed video with the source and render a value that predicts how the compressed file would fare in subjective tests. There are multiple algorithms, all rated according to how well they correspond with actual subjective evaluations. None are perfect, but some perform better than others.

Jan Ozer, the article author, even links to a demo of the Moscow University Video Quality Measurement Tool showing good and bad frame-to-frame comparisons.

Cheers,

Ian


FFMPEG: Streaming over UDP over Wide Area Network I am using ffmpeg to stream my desktop. It works perfectly over the LAN with two connected PCs; however, over a WAN, the reciever gets unviewable shearing and tearing of the desktop. We figured it was because the LAN has a 5 MB/s bandwith and the WAN has a bandwidth limitation 1 MB/s. When I checked the ethernet output of the sending PC, the bandwidth was 1 MB/s +/- .02.

The original ffmpeg script I used was within a batch file was:

ffmpeg -f dshow -i video="screen-capture-recorder"-vcodec
libx264 -preset ultrafast -pix_fmt yuv420p -tune zerolatency -r 30 -b:v 750k -minrate 750k -maxrate 750k  -f mpegts udp://ip:port

On the reciever side: 1. I opened the scream capture recorder GUI. 2. Inserted the appropriate udp address. 3. Hit "Start Recieving".

I did a wireshark analysis and noticed most of the packets I saw were MPEG TS packets with had "MP2T fragment of a reassembled package" in the description column.

My question is: has anyone been able to successful stream via ffmpeg over a wide area network with no issues of the recieving video? If so, what ffmpeg parameters did you use for consistent results?

Unless you are on a network that supports multi-cast, the host computer needs to have sufficient bandwidth to send the video data independently to every single viewer.  If you have multiple viewers, this will rapidly overwhelm any slow connection (and your connection, even on the LAN, is exceptionally slow).

What you need is a content delivery network or at least a media server with a sufficiently fast upload speed to feed the desired number of clients.  Your host would then upload to the media server or CDN and the clients would connect to the media server or CDN to get the relayed stream.


Create middle lined mask in vector shape I have a Illustrator vector shape (It has a shape path around it). But I need a mask line in the middle of the shape. The problem with with doing it by drawing a shape line over it is that I can't get the corners right.

I want to use the middle lined mask to do animations with.

Is there an easy way to achieve this?

In Photoshop (or Illustrator), in a new layer above the vector shape, create a solid shape of the mask you want (with rounded corners). Export that layer alone as an image and import into AE.

Use auto-trace to create a mask from it. See https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/creating-shapes-masks.html#create_a_mask_from_channel_values_with_auto_trace


How to add zoom transition effects using FFmpeg to a variable number of images? How can I add add zoom transition effects using FFmpeg to a variable number of images?

I am able to create video from a variable number of images but I am not sure how to add zoom in and out transition effects between images:

 ffmpeg -framerate 1/5 -i img%03d.jpeg -c:v libx264 -r 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p out.mp4

I found this,

https://superuser.com/questions/1189246/ffmpeg-image-slideshow-with-zoompan-and-fade-in-out/1190199

But problem is that images are hard coded in that example and I am not sure how to make it work for a variable number of images?

I originally thought I could handle this one, but I'm still new to FFmpeg and don't think I can solve this for you. Below follows what I came up with. Maybe that can help you move in the right direction. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

I found the following in a search:

  You can make a slideshow with crossfading between the pictures, by using a combination of the zoompan and framerate filters. "A" is the duration in seconds how long each picture is shown (without the crossfade duration), and "B" is the crossfade duration in seconds.

ffmpeg -i IMG_%3d.jpg -vf \
zoompan=d=(A+B)/B:fps=1/B,\
framerate=25:interp_start=0:interp_end=255:scene=100 \
-c:v mpeg4 -maxrate 5M -q:v 2 out.mp4

From the Superuser post you link we find:

-filter_complex \
"[0:v]zoompan=z='if(lte(zoom,1.0),1.5,max(1.001,zoom-0.0015))':d=125,fade=t=out:st=4:d=1[v0]; \
 [1:v]zoompan=z='if(lte(zoom,1.0),1.5,max(1.001,zoom-0.0015))':d=125,fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=4:d=1[v1]; \
 [2:v]zoompan=z='if(lte(zoom,1.0),1.5,max(1.001,zoom-0.0015))':d=125,fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=4:d=1[v2]; \
 [3:v]zoompan=z='if(lte(zoom,1.0),1.5,max(1.001,zoom-0.0015))':d=125,fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=4:d=1[v3]; \
 [v0][v1][v2][v3]concat=n=4:v=1:a=0,format=yuv420p[v]" -map "[v]" -s "800x450" -t 40 ./out_fade.mp4

Looking at the syntax, it seems you'd just toss it in without the [iN]...[oN] "variables".

So try:

-filter_complex \
"zoompan=z='if(lte(zoom,1.0),1.5,max(1.001,zoom-0.0015))':d=125,fade=t=out:st=4:d=1"


ffmpeg greenscreen transparent while using color palette I have a video that has a color I'd like to remove, and make into a transparent gif with ffmpeg. I first created a color palette using

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v] palettegen" palette.png=

that went fine. Then when I go to try and make a gif I do this:

ffmpeg -i Untitled.mp4 -i palette.png -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] paletteuse;[0:v]chromakey=0xE700F4" out.gif

This however gives an error and does not create anything. Am I doing something wrong here?

here's the log:

  built with gcc 9.1.1 (GCC) 20190621
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libdav1d --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --enable-libmfx --enable-amf --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth --enable-libopenmpt
  libavutil      56. 30.100 / 56. 30.100
  libavcodec     58. 53.101 / 58. 53.101
  libavformat    58. 28.101 / 58. 28.101
  libavdevice    58.  7.100 / 58.  7.100
  libavfilter     7. 56.101 /  7. 56.101
  libswscale      5.  4.101 /  5.  4.101
  libswresample   3.  4.100 /  3.  4.100
  libpostproc    55.  4.100 / 55.  4.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'Untitled.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 19529854
    compatible_brands: mp42isom
    creation_time   : 2019-07-10T05:06:10.000000Z
  Duration: 00:00:07.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 12629 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 190 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2019-07-10T05:06:10.000000Z
      handler_name    : Sound Media Handler
    Stream #0:1(eng): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 12433 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 30k tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2019-07-10T05:06:10.000000Z
      handler_name    : Video Media Handler
      encoder         : AVC Coding
Input #1, png_pipe, from 'palette.png':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #1:0: Video: png, rgba(pc), 16x16 [SAR 1:1 DAR 1:1], 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:1 (h264) -> paletteuse:default
  Stream #0:1 (h264) -> chromakey
  Stream #1:0 (png) -> paletteuse:palette
  paletteuse -> Stream #0:0 (gif)
  chromakey -> Stream #0:1 (gif)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[swscaler @ 0000008b903fedc0] No accelerated colorspace conversion found from yuva420p to bgr8.
[gif @ 0000008b8ca40540] GIF muxer supports only a single video GIF stream.
Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid argument
Error initializing output stream 0:1 --
Conversion failed!

Your command is attempting to place two streams into the GIF output (the output from paletteuse and the output from chromakey), but the GIF muxer supports only a single stream. To fix this your outputs from each filter should not be orphaned. See the filtering introduction for more info.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v]chromakey=0xE700F4,split[v0][v1];[v0]palettegen[p];[v1][p]paletteuse" output.gif

For better results use the chromakey filter before creating the palette.
With the split filter you can avoid making a temporary palette file.


How to remove empty space next to the video? I have two video which will run at the same time as you can see the image below.
But, I want to remove the blank (black) space next to the video. Is it possible?

The basic geometrical facts are that if you want to see the full images you can't put two 16:9 images inside a 16:9 frame without some empty space left over. If you want to STRETCH the images it will fill in the blank space, but it will distort the images.

Alternatively, we commonly see an effect where you take some of the left (or right) edge of the image and "copy" it into the blank space, but blur it out. That makes it appear to fill in the space without confusing the viewer with a duplicate image.  For example...


How can I make a video from pictures? How can I make a video from a sequence of still pictures in PNG format? Something like an animated GIF, just in full-color quality video format.

I'm looking for an Open Source solution for windows.

Thank you very much.

You can use ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, for this.

Syntax is

ffmpeg -framerate 25 -i img%04d.png video.mp4

where img%04d.png is the pattern mask for a list of image files named

img0001.png
img0002.png
img0003.png
...


Highest quality way to extract a still from video I have a MP4 that I really really want a still from.
I want to make a canvas from that still.
I have access to: Adobe premiere elements 12, ffmpeg and gimp.
I want the still to be the highest resolution and quality possible.
Using one or more of those tools, is there a method that will have higher quality than other methods?

I doubt there will be much difference in the rendering capabilities between any of the software you list, as long as they play the video correctly. The biggest quality loss has already happened when the video was compressed to mp4.

Use whatever is easier. This is how you do it with ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i themovie.mp4 -ss 1.23 -t 1 -r 1 -f image2 outputImage.png

where 1.23 is the time in seconds you want to capture.

How that works is it tells ffmpeg to -ss search to 1.23, then -t 1 means only export 1 second's worth of video, -r 1 means at frame rate 1 frame per second (i.e. export only one frame). If you don't do the -t 1 -r 1 dance it will complain about not being able to export the entire movie as a frame sequence. -f image2 just telss ffmpeg to export as a still frame (it's probably redundant because you're specifying a .png as your output).

Many free, video players like MPV, MPC-HC or VLC can do this from a gui, meaning you can line up the exact frame by eye. They all use high quality video renderers which share a lot of code with ffmpeg. Using one of these, the task would be basically hitting the s key (or whatever) when you find the frame you want.


ffmpeg - Trouble adding watermark + convert video quality in same command So I have found this neat guide on converting video quality https://gist.github.com/dvlden/b9d923cb31775f92fa54eb8c39ccd5a9

To convert a video to 480p I run the following

ffmpeg -i input.mov -preset slow -codec:a libfdk_aac -b:a 128k -codec:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -b:v 1000k -minrate 500k -maxrate 2000k -bufsize 2000k -vf scale=854:480 intro-480p.mp4

However currently I am doing this to transcode and add a watermark to all our videos in a directory

find /home/video/archive -type f -execdir ffmpeg -i '{}' -filter:v drawtext="fontfile=/root/FreeSans.ttf:text='www.website.com':fontcolor=white@1.0:fontsize=26:y=h-line_h-30:x=w/20*mod(t\,120)" -f mp4 -vcodec libx264 -preset fast -profile:v main -acodec aac -movflags +faststart '/home/video/watermarked/{}.mp4' \;

However I am having trouble combining these two commands into one. Whatever I try the watermark doesn't show, just the quality changes to 480p. How can I achieve both with one command? Also please add it to the command above so I can convert all files in a folder.

Use

find /home/video/archive -type f -execdir ffmpeg -i '{}' -filter:v "drawtext=fontfile=/root/FreeSans.ttf:text='www.website.com':fontcolor=white@1.0:fontsize=26:y=h-line_h-30:x=w/20*mod(t\,120),scale=854:480" -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -preset slow -b:v 1000k -minrate 500k -maxrate 2000k -bufsize 2000k -c:a libfdk_aac -b:a 128k -movflags +faststart '/home/video/watermarked/{}.mp4' \;


Recording video and audio with external input to computer with Canon 600D I like to do drum covers, but the process always takes ages. I have to record my sounds from my electronic drumset (TD-9KX) to Cubase via a Tascam US122-MKii interface. Video is captured with a Canon 600D. Afterwards I have to export the audio from Cubase and insert it in Adobe Premiere together with the video and make sure both are in sync. That takes a loooooooong while!

Because the 600D has an "external mic" input that supports stereo, I thought it might be very well possible to record from my external drumset, to the interface and via its output to the 600D to the PC. This would mean that everything is in sync. Is this correct?

It should be.  You might end up with impedance mismatches that have to be dealt with, so it might take a few other (relatively cheap) steps to get there (devices called pads, which bring down the level), but it should work.  The quality might not be quite as good though.


ffmpeg "Stream specifier matches no streams", but it exists In ffmpeg, I have the following filter_complex:

color=c=Chartreuse:s=1920x1080:d=8640.059,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[t];
[1:v] trim=start=114.149:end=124.149,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS [v0];
[t][v0]overlay=0:0:enable='between(t,0,10)' [o0];
[2:v] trim=start=118.112:end=135.112,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS [v1];
[o0][v1]overlay=0:0:enable='between(t,10,27)' [o1];
[o0][o1]concat=n=2:v=1:a=0 [vout]

But when I run the command with 3 inputs (the first one is an audio file), I get:

  Stream specifier 'o0' in filtergraph description
  color=c=Chartreuse:s=1920x1080:d=8640.059,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[t];
  [1:v] trim=start=114.149:end=124.149,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS [v0];
  [t][v0]overlay=0:0:enable='between(t,0,10)' [o0]; [2:v]
  trim=start=118.112:end=135.112,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS [v1];
  [o0][v1]overlay=0:0:enable='between(t,10,27)' [o1];
  [o0][o1]concat=n=2:v=1:a=0 [vout]  matches no streams.

What am I doing wrong?

Using a git version from ~1 week ago.

For future reference:

as specified, you cannot reuse an intermediate stream more than once so you have 2 options:

either save it, input the saved file and reuse it as many times you need in your filter;

  ffmpeg -i file1 -i file2 -i savedStream -filter_complex "..."

use the split filter and create as many outputs you need; default value for split is 2 outputs so:

  [o0]split[split1][split2]

would be your case.


Importing an .fcp file into FCPX A friend of mine created our wedding video in FCP and now that I've got the project I've been trying to import it into the trial copy of FCPX (off the App Store) but it doesn't like it.

I've read on Wikipedia that FCPX doesn't support FCP file formats, so what can I do?

Export your FCP project as a self-contained quick time video file.
Then import the QT file into X.
You'll be good to go.


Easiest way to add subtitles I'm tasked with translating and putting hard subtitles on dozens of videos. This is the only thing I will be doing to the videos and I have 0 experience with video editing. I am a programmer though. What's the most productive process/apps to accomplish this (just downloaded Lightworks)? Most video editing software can do this but isn't exactly optimized for this specific thing.
Right now I'm thinking about using a dedicated subtitle app to create softsubs and then ffmpeg to apply it to video? But as someone who's never done this before it seems easier to use the timeline function of video editors when creating the subs? Any advice please?

For subtitle timing, I would suggest Aegisub and save the subtitles file as *.srt, then you can add the subtitles and export your video with ActivePresenter


What is the best workflow solution for editing a movie in FCPX and creating specific effects for it in Motion 5? Since there is no way to send a clip directly to Motion 5 from Final Cut Pro X, only to open up general effects, transitions and generators; what is the best workflow for actually using Final Cut Pro X for a specific clip?

Let's say I have a movie that is five minutes long, and that I want to, every minute, create a floating text with some kind of motion following behavior. How am I supposed to accomplish this? Export separate clips, import them to Motion 5, do the edits, export the clip again, importing it to Fincal Cut Pro X and replace the old clip? This seems quite cumbersome.

There's no really good workflow, I think, yet. The best way I found is to export the video out of FCPX and import it into Motion. Apple thinks that you don't need to work in Motion solely, you only go there to create an effect, title, whatever and then put that thing right on top of a clip in Final Cut.

The problem there is that sometimes you'd rather want to have all the editing options Motion offers and just want to see how the video's going to look like. That problem is, to my knowledge, not solved yet. I hope this is all going to change in the future.


Why do cinema cameras cost too much? Why do professional digital cinema cameras like ARRI ALEXA, RED Epic cost that much? They record 4k so do other cheap cameras?

Look at it from a data rate point of view: a GH4 records 4K at 100 Mbps.  A RED Carbon Fiber WEAPON records at 300MBps.  That's 24x the data rate.  Look at how very much more expensive it is to purchase a CPU that's 10% or 30% faster than "normal" and you might then have some understanding of how much more expensive it is to offer 10x or 30x the performance in a camera body.


What are a Gimbal and Tripod used for? I'm a beginner in film making, and trying to take footage with my smartphones. To make it more professional, I'm thinking of using a Tripod or Gimbal stabilizer to create non shaky video.

I think gimbal will be more beneficial as I can take sliding shot, left to right movement and bottom to top etc movement with smooth footage. I think I can use it in all aspect of video production without shake. But I guess I can't use Tripod the same way, it is fixed in one position thats it?

I only have enough funds to buy one, but I don't know about the difference between these tool. Please help me to understand which one to use for which purpose.

Gimbals are good for adding movement without shake, they're brilliant for run-n-gun documentary work where lugging a tripod slows you down. They're perfect when you're in the thick of things, using a wide lens to shoot close to the action.

They take a bit of time to master, you need to practise steering them and think about the movement. You also need a camera with good autofocus and you probably want to shoot with more depth of field; while you can focus-pull on a gimbal-mounted camera, particularly with a remote motor driven follow focus, it's challenging.

A major disadvantage of a gimbal is that you're limited in terms of the weight of the camera. Unless you're shelling out a lot, the cheaper gimbals are limited to something the weight of a DSLR. So if you're looking at using a cinema camera or shoulder-mount style video camera you're also going to be spending more on your gimbal.

A gimbal is fairly useless if you're shooting interviews, unless you're a fan of the camera-always-needlessly-moving style of interview shooting, and if you are, damn your eyes, you're a disgrace. For static interview set-ups a tripod will win hands-down.

You also wouldn't take a gimbal if you were trying to get shots of snow leopards in the wild, live sports, or candid long-lens documentary footage. You can't really stick long lenses on them, not just because of the weight, but also because even with the stabilisation the constant movement is still too much.

Another consideration is ergonomics. Even though the average video tripod weighs more than the average gimbal when you're lugging it to the gig, once you're there you put the tripod on the floor. Because you have to hold it while shooting, shooting for extended amounts of time with a gimbal can be exhausting. Also, the batteries on a tripod never go flat and the software doesn't ever need resetting.

Finally, a bottom of the range gimbal is going to cost you the same as a pretty good tripod. Worth considering if money is tight.

TL;DR Both are useful parts of the kit, but they have different uses.


Reimport exported file and make all the cuts same In Premiere I am working on an hour long project with around 500 cuts from 3 cameras.

Since there is heavy grading and noise corrections to do, when I get this kind of footage my first export is only color, then I reimport the clip and do all the noise corrections.

This kind of workflow saves several hours on export and I have tried it many times so I do not plan to change it.

Question: Is there a way to make all the cuts on imported clip like they are on timeline ?

It could be done automatically with scripting, but scripting premiere is undocumented and requires a bit of experience.

A workaround is to use the keyboard shortcuts. If you put the reimported clip on a new track in the original timeline you can use the ↓ key to jump to the next cut, then hit shiftctrl/⌘k to add an edit at the playhead across all tracks. Rinse, repeat. You could even map the add edit command to a single key to make it easier, e.g. x. Then its just a matter of hitting ↓then x 500 hundred times. Something like Autohotkey (there's probably an equivalent for those still stuck with a Mac) can automate that process to make it even easier.

Or you could use a less insane workflow. Oops did I say that out loud?


After Effects - Particular Rendering I'm not really doing video production as living, just for fun. So my knowledge is very limited.

In the Trapcode Particular I'm creating a particles with simple 3D emitter:

Now, I only want particles to come from the top of the icon, so what I did is using Linear Wipe to cut off the emitter source to hide those bottom particles:

Now, my question is does After Effects actually render and process those hidden particles ? Or he is smart enough to know it will never be visible and he skips them ?

Edit:
Forgot to mention that the Linear Wipe is actually on the Particles Effect.
I also have it on the Emitter source, but for some reason it generates particles ignoring the Linear Wipe on the Emitter Source. (The Linear Wipe of the Emiiter Source is on a pre-composed of the icon)

Edit 2:
I actually went inside the Pre-composed emitter source, did a Mask Subtract and the I think that it should of solve my rendering issue ?
So, to sum up my questions, does the issue I described actually happens ? and does my solution with the mask solved it ?

I think you have answered your own question, but let me try to answer it from the perspective of a programmer (not one who wrote After Effects, but one who has written a lot of programs and seen a lot of source code).

After Effects (or any other compositing program) operates on layers.  Layers can be combined, masked, or used as inputs to transformations or operations.

The layer that contains your icon doesn't know about any processes or effects that come after it.  If you apply a particle emitter to that layer, particles will be emitted regardless of whatever masks come later.  Some particles may be masked by later layers/operations, but none of that affects what particles may be emitted due to the shape/color of your icon.

When you compose your icon with a mask, and then apply the emitter to that result, then of course the emitter is starting with the masked pattern.

Which is correct?  It depends what you want.  If you want to show lots of particles being obscured by a mask, the first is what you want.  If you want to show an alternative shape emitting particles, the second is what you want.


Why processor is "better" for encoding than GPU? I was reading this article and I saw that a CPU is better for video compression than a GPU.

The article only says that happens because the processor can handle more complex algorithms than the GPU, but I want a more technical explanation, I did some search's on internet but I didn't find anything.

So, anyone know to explain or link a site to I had a more deep explanation of this?

The article you linked is not very good.

Normally, single pass bitrate encodings convert your bitrate into a RF
value with a maximum bitrate limit and takes it from there.

x264's one-pass ABR ratecontrol is not implemented as CRF + limit.  He's right that 2pass is by far the best way to hit a target bitrate, though.
And he apparently doesn't realize that he could start x264 with threads=3 or something, to leave some CPU time free for other tasks.  Or set x264's priority to verylow, so it only gets CPU time that no other task wants.
He also mixes up threads=1 with using CUDA, or something.  No wonder you have questions, because that article has a TERRIBLE explanation.  The whole article basically boils down to: use x264 --preset veryslow --tune film --crf 26 in.m2ts --out out.mkv, or maybe use some light filtering with an input AviSynth script.  He actually recommends "placebo".  That's hilarious.  I've never seen a pirated file encoded with placebo.  (you can tell from me=esa or me=tesa, instead of me=umh for all the good quality presets, right up to veryslow.
He also doesn't mention using 10bit color depth.  Slower to encode and decode, but even after downconverting back to 8bit, you get better 8-bit SSIM.  Having more precision for motion vectors apparently helps.  Also, not having to round off to exactly a whole 8 bit value helps.  You can think of 8-bit per component as a speed-hack; quantizing in the frequency-domain and then compressing that with CABAC means that higher bit-depth coefficients don't have to take more space.
(BTW, h.265 gets less benefit from 10-bit encodes for 8-bit video because it already has more precision for motion vectors.  If there is a benefit to using 10-bit x265 for 8-bit video inputs, it's smaller than with x264.  So it's less likely that the speed penalty will be worth it.)
To answer your actual question:
edit: doom9 is up again now, so I'll tidy up the link.  Go to it for proper quoting of who said what.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1135399#post1135399
google only caches the stupid print version which doesn't properly show the quoting.  I'm not quite sure which parts of these messages are quotes, and which are attributed to the person themselves.

Highly irregular branching patterns (skip modes) and bit manipulation (quantization/entropy coding) don't suit present GPUs. IMO the only really good application at the moment are full search ME algorithms, in the end though accelerated full search is still slow even if it's faster than on the CPU.
-- MfA

Actually, basically everything can be reasonably done on the GPU except CABAC (which could be done, it just couldn't be parallelized).
x264 CUDA will implement a fullpel and subpel ME algorithm initially; later on we could do something like RDO with a bit-cost approximation instead of CABAC.

Because it has to do everything at single precision floating point
-- MfA

Wrong, CUDA supports integer math.
-- Dark Shikari

Dark Shikari is the x264 maintainer, and developer of most of the features since 2007 or so.
AFAIK, this CUDA project didn't pan out.  There is support for using OpenCL to offload some work from the lookahead thread (quick I/P/B decision, not a high quality final encode of the frame).

My understanding is that the search space for video encoding is SO big that smart heuristics for early-termination of search paths on CPUs beat the brute-force GPUs bring to the table, at least for high quality encoding.  It's only compared to -preset ultrafast where you might reasonably choose HW encoding over x264, esp. if you have a slow CPU (like laptop with dual core and no hyperthreading).  On a fast CPU (i7 quad core with hyperthreading), x264 superfast is probably going to be as fast, and look better (at the same bitrate).
If you're making an encode where rate-distortion (quality per file size) matters at all, you should use x264 -preset medium or slower.  If you're archiving something, spending a bit more CPU time now will save bytes for as long as you're keeping that file around.
side note, if you ever see messages from deadrats on a video forum, it's not going to be helpful.  He's been wrong about most stuff he's talking about in every thread I've ever seen.  His posts turned up in a couple threads I googled about x264 GPU encoding.  Apparently he doesn't understand why it isn't easy, and has posted several times to tell the x264 developers why they're dumb...


Sony FS5 border artifacts I've got a problem with trying to key the green color with some footage I shot with a Sony FS5. The main object in the frame has some kind of white/light grey border around it which makes it very hard to separate it from the green screen background. Here are some examples:

Original footage...

Trying to key with Keylight in After effects...

I shot in 1920x1080, 50 fps 4.2.2 with the internal AVC codec.
I think it could be caused by the in-camera sharpening settings, I tried to change the settings but I didn't notice any change.

Each channel isolated (RGB) not keyed:

In regards to the green and black mixing, 4:2:2 means pixels are merged and this will always happen, this is why movies shoot in 4:4:4 because then there is no merging of colors.  But I have no idea why you are getting a white halo around a black object with a black background.


Lightworks problems importing, editing, and exporting using Canon EOS Rebel T3i I'm using Lightworks 11 for Windows and I can't import the .mov files from my Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  Lightworks identifies the .mov files as "Apple / H264" but the show up in a red color.

Other .mp4 files that I have can be imported easily without problem.

(I will be answering my own question)

So after 8 hours of research, trial and error, I found a successful workflow for .mov footage from my Canon EOS Rebel T3i.

The first part is that you can't import .mov "Apple / H264" files with Lightworks without purchasing the "Pro" version.  The pro version costs $60 per year (which is actually a good price for what you get).  So I bought that and was able to import my .mov files.

The next problem I had was that playing the imported footage was horribly slow and choppy.  I wanted to "mark and park" to get clips added to my editor but when I would play the video, it would only play a few frames and then get horribly choppy (audio would still play).  By the way, I have a laptop with an Intel Core i5 (2nd gen) and 4GB of RAM.

After some research, I found the solution to this was to import the video while transcoding it to AVI format with "DVCPRO100".  This made the video playable within Lightworks for editing.

Next I had some real problems exporting my edits into a codec/format that would actually work.  Some formats would just error out (post an error and exit).  Others would succeed, but the final video would not have audio (I think this happened with MP4).  Finally I found that exporting as "Quicktime Movie" (not to be confused with the "MOV" option!) worked.  It worked with the following options:

Quicktime Movie
H.264, Quality = High, Key framerate = 24
Frame Recording = Yes, Encoding Mode = Multi-pass

Sound:  Format = Uncompressed, 44.1 kHz, Channels = 2

For the other Lightworks export options, I chose:

HD 1080, 29.97 fps, and Progressive button checked.

I sure hope this helps other people save 8 hours of frustration!  With this workflow, I can now be efficient and productive and make some great videos.


ProRes444 Codec download process to Adobe Media Encoder I am using MacOS Sierra and am trying to download the ProRes444 Codec in order to export my Adobe After Effects 4k RED footage in this format (probably using Adobe Media Encoder based on what I have seen others do). I found a download of 'pro video formats' that supposedly includes this codec, and downloaded a trial of final cut pro so that it could run ProRes444 on my computer, but am not sure how to find it in Media Encoder now. Are there other steps I'm missing? Thanks!

In Media Encoder you first need to select your destination format as Quicktime. From there you should be able to find ProRes 4444.


Re-encoding Archival Movies I have some old quicktime movies from a project I did in 2005.  The client came back recently and wants to do some changes and run off a new version, and since I've got all his media restored at the moment I think I'm going to reencode my workprint videos into something more standard.

The movies I have are Miro DC30+ MJPEG quicktimes, 320x240, which at the time was pretty standard.  I'd like to reencode them as something that's liable to be readable in 5-10 years, I got lucky that the DC30 MJPEG was readable at all.  I was thinking Apple ProRes, since so much gear seems to read this nowadays...

For such low quality footage (320 by 240 was quarter resolution even in the early 2000s), I'd probably go with DV format.  It's a major video standard that, while not used much anymore (though HDV is still used), was a major video standard and thus isn't going anywhere quickly (just look at how MPEG-1 has hung around).  It is designed for high quality video in SD formats and was one of the most common standards for that type of video even at the time of your project.

Many of the MJPEG formats were a pain even when they were new.  I know I had issues with my Matrox MJPEG format content not working without some level of difficulty even when it was current.  DV on the other hand, I've never had a problem with anywhere, including current systems.


How to make a dolly effect? I was watching vertigo last night which is directed by alfared hitchcock and I saw some scenes in which he used 'dolly effect' I was wondering how do you make that effect?

The "Vertigo effect" is achieved by zooming in while tracking out, or zooming out while tracking in. When done right the size of the subject stays the same in frame, while the perspective shifts unnaturally, giving an uncanny feel to the footage.

The effect is achieved in-camera. It could be replicated in post by separating the planes of the image along the depth axis and replicating the real-world camera movement, but it would be highly labour intensive, compared to doing it on set.

P.S. Just to be suuuper pedantic, a "dolly" is a sideways movement, a movement forward or backward is a "track".


Change output using a .jsx script for After Effects CS6 I've made a script that will loop through a (.txt) interchanging elements of a certain composition.

Within the script, I add each changed composition to the render queue and output it.

How can I pragmatically output the format in h.264 (.mp4) instead of it defaulting to (.avi).

I've discovered that you can just change the default output module via edit -> templates -> output module, but still.. is there anyway of doing this via script?

Thanks

So, the answer to your question is 'yes, but...'

It's perfectly feasible, but you have to create an output module with the settings that you want, and then save it to your computer.  You can create this by going to Edit -> Templates -> Output Module.  Click on the 'New' button in the pop-up window, and then Edit it for the settings you need (quicktime, h.264, etc).  Save it as a useful name ("H264HighQuality" or something like that).  Save the output module, and you'll be able to access it from your scripts from there on out.

In order to use it in your script, just use:
app.project.renderQueue.items.add(myComp).applyTemplate("H264HighQuality");

As long as you've made the template first, you can access it in your scripts as many times as you want.  However, After Effects does NOT allow you to programmatically create Output Modules or alter them on the fly, unfortunately.  But you only need to make the template once -- as long as you have that template on the computer you're running the script, it should work just fine.


Why is my Premiere timeline scrollbar thumb non-proportional? In almost every app on Earth, the width of the scrollbar thumb (aka scroller or knob) is proportional to the amount of content present in the window, relative to total content.

Yet in Premiere Pro CS6, it seems to follow a totally different logic. For example, in this simple one-clip timeline, I'm scrolled all the way to the left, and the clip pretty much fills the timeline.

But dragging the scroller right just a little bit (as seen below), the clip flies offscreen, even though the scroller area is clearly overlapping its previous area.

What's up with that?? Is my install bugged, or is this just a bizarre UI oversight by Adobe?

UPDATE: More screengrabs and descriptions

The image below shows 4 states:
1) Fully zoomed out. TONS of empty space.
2) Zoomed to fill the timeline with the clip.
3) Scrolling until the end of the clip is just in sight.
4) Scrolling all the way right.

The scrollers of states 2 & 3 have a 50% overlap, which means the clip should also be ~50% visible. It seems like Premiere thinks the timeline is twice as big as it actually is, as demonstrated by the 50% overlap. I was using dual-monitors, so I thought perhaps my dual-monitor setup was the cause, but disconnecting the 2nd prior to Fred Rick's reset didn't help.

Any more suggestions out there?

Well this is not my Direct Answer but tried this?:

trash the preferences and then create a new project. Then go to window>workspace and uncheck the import workspace from the project and reset it again. Then try opening your project and check.

My Buddy Google gave me that:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5796914

Cheers


A/V Crash Course for Church With COVID-19 shutting down the whole world, our church is now broadcasting our services on YouTube. Last Sunday we used a WebCam because we only had 48 hours notice, and it just worked.

Given that this is likely to extend to Easter and beyond.  We need to improve the sound and video quality as much as possible, but without a huge capital investment.

We have a PA system, but I am not sure how to pull the audio out of it into the computer (4 wireless microphones, 3 corded microphones) and that system is 80 ft away from where our video source needs to be.  Our highest priority is to capture the Pipe Organ which is generally not fed through the PA anyway (that thing need no help being heard even across the street). I have a collection of good corded microphones but all plug into the XLR Jacks around the building then into the audio closet and out to the speakers.

The video from the webcam was good.  In the future we would like to add additional video sources. I am working on coming up to speed on OBS Studio which knows how to mix multiple video sources, but again my question is how to connect them to the PC. USB max run length is 5 meters.

What would be helpful:

A web site giving the basics of how audio works. (I know how to plug a mic into a chord and plug that cord into the wall. I have no idea how the things actually work.)
Same thing for video.
How to get the Pipe Organ to sound good, or at least not terribly distorted. (I understand that I'll never get HiFi out of a live stream) Can I use one of out existing mics or do I need something different?
What do I need to know if I want to purchase a video camera, and how to connect them to a PC that is not directly adjacent to it?

Did you watch the webcam feed? What did / didn't you like about the quality of that? For some applications, webcams do "just work", and that might be good enough. Installing a "professional" setup can get real expensive real fast.

For audio, if the PA system is of high enough quality, picking up the audio from where you pick up the video might be good enough. The webcam mic likely isn't great for this, but there's lots of mics out there designed for video cameras that will also plug into your laptop to improve that. Get a USB audio interface as needed (google audio interface as suggested, I've used the ATR2USB, works fine), there are more specialist devices like the Rode AI-1 available if you want to use an XLR input. Getting a feed direct from the audio closet will be highest quality, but based on the distance, you'd either need to run a long cable, or invest in a wireless transmitter / receiver. So it all depends on your current webcam quality, versus how much you want to spend to improve that.

For video, do you need more than one camera angle? Do you have existing video cameras available? Again, something that can get expensive quick, depending how far you want to go. You can interface via something like the ATEM Mini (haven't got one myself, and no one currently has stock!), some cameras do have direct streaming available as well. If it's a fixed shot and the camera doesn't move, the webcam might even be fine. Maybe post some more detail about what does/doesn't work with the current setup, to get some more specific suggestions.

Also try browsing this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/makeradventures - he's basically doing exactly what you are, and possibly has some content of interest.


How to set up a Livestream from SJ4000 Wifi? I own a SJ4000 action cam with WIFI function. The latter allows it to connect the camera to my phone.

I would like to livestream a sports event. Is it somehow possible to stream the video from my phone? If it is easier to set up with a laptop, this would also be an option.

Thank you for your help!

You have two choices...

The wireless way:

SJ4000 WiFi has a built-in RTSP streaming server, supporting one client at a time with a limited resolution at 640x360.

This can be viewed locally by connecting your phone or laptop to the camera's access point, start a RTSP+H.264-capable media player (e.g. VLC Media Player), and instruct it to open following URL:

rtsp://192.168.1.254/sjcam.mov

However, if you would like to allow multiple people to watch the stream, you would need to install a live streaming software (that supports RTSP video source) on your phone or laptop.

VLC Media Player (at least the desktop version) can do a self-hosted live streaming in this scenario, but is awkward to set up.
Open Broadcaster Studio is known to support this configuration as well as broadcasting into services like YouTube, Twitch, or Dailymotion.

The wired way:

SJ4000 WiFi is capable of acting as a USB webcam with HD-ready 1280x720 resolution.

Once the camera's USB port is connected to laptop or OTG-capable Android phone, choose "PCCamera" mode on camera's screen; and you can view the stream locally with any webcam application.

As you are going to re-broadcast the stream, any live streaming software should work (anything ranging from Google Hangouts, LINE, Facebook Live, Youtube app, to specialized ones like Open Broadcaster mentioned above).

Caveat:

As far as I have tested with my firmware version, the camera does not provide audio streaming in both RTSP and USB webcam mode. Since you are broadcasting sport event, you would have to insert live audio on-field in the live streaming software (optionally, with proper A/V delay compensation). Which in this case, the wired way is recommended, as there are more choices on software you can use.

If you are not particularly picky with the 0.6+ sec A/V desync, using wired mode with video chat applications mentioned above should suffice; they will pick audio from laptop/phone's microphone. However, if you need A/V delay compensation, use Open Broadcaster Studio or other specialized live streaming software of similar ability instead.

Hope this helps.


Monetizing YouTube Channel with Videos Containing CC-Licensed Content I have a YouTube channel that I eventually hope to earn ad revenue from, however some of my videos use CC BY-NC licensed content.

I realize monetizing those particular videos is off the table (obviously), but does having them prevent me from monetizing my videos that don't have such content (CC BY/royalty-free)?

In other words, can one video with CC BY-NC content taint my entire channel?

I'm still new at this and I want to study up on the best practices for running my channel to avoid doing something I shouldn't.

No, one offending video won't taint your entire channel.  At my workplace, sometimes the youtube algorithms will mistakenly flag some music to which we own the rights as copyright protected.  When such an event occurs, the video is automatically un-monetized, and we are asked to demonstrate that we have rights to the music. The video still plays, we just don't make any money off of it. The rest of the channel is unaffected.


How to record a video with different background without having a green screen? I'm wondering if there is a way to change the video background while recording with a different background , It doesn't have to be chosen by me , Just a different background .

Is that's possible?

If it's a static shot, you can try using a difference matte. It doesn't work as well as a chroma key, but it might do the trick. The idea is you'll set up After Effects to key out everythi


Should I expect worse video quality with GoPro using lens protectors? Will the video quality be noticeable worse with tempered glass lens protectors on GoPro ?
if so, is it better to use housing for protecting the lens and display?

Thank you

If you use lens-protection of any kind, same with autocue or eyedirect, the additional glass in front of your camera will have some effect, yes. The magnitude of which will vary depending on your uses. Autocue glass usually has a slightly murky / milky look to it and the image might seem a little but soft upon close inspection - I assume the same will go for GoPro lens-protectors, since they are made of similar transparent material. The absolute worst that could happen is to get your protector dirty. If you have splotches of water or dirt on that protector, they will be very visible and distracting.

tl;dr: If you keep the lens-protector clean, you should experience very little effect. If absolute sharpness is a must for you (when you're filming with green-screen for example), then I would not recommend using it.


Batch replace green-screen? I have a video which uses a green screen in it. I have 1000 images which I want to be put onto the green screen, and each exported as unique videos. So, 1 image per video. 1000 images = 1000 unique videos (all from the same base video).

Obviously, doing this by hand is impractical. Assuming the green screen is perfectly green so there is no manual work involved, what is the best software / method to achieve this?

FFMPEG has colorkey and chromakey options, it does something likes
Overlay a greenscreen-video on top of a static background image

Using a shell script to loop through your thousand images on the ffmpeg command would be helpful.


Static on Mic line in when using EOS Utility on 600d I've noticed quite a loud static noise on the line in of my camera when recording with EOS Utility. I've tried using different cabled for everything, and it works fine when the computer is not plugged in, or when it is, internal audio works fine. This one really has baffled me, and no matter what I do, it seems to persist. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

The computer is probably inducing interference on the unbalanced mic cable. Try putting a ferrite bead/choke on the tethering cable.


Is it possible to make a movie with todays smart phone? I have LGv30+ which is capable of recording video at 2k & 4k resolution and most smart phones available in market have capable of recording video in 2k resolution.

Is video shot with these  mobiles good enough to display on theatre screens without pixel out and can you make cinema with smart phone?  if it possible, why do most movie maker still using dslr cameras which can do same as phones?

Movies shot with smart phone are Unsane(2018) and Tangerine

Most movie-makers use the best tools for the job.  For some people that tool is an inexpensive camera they can afford to blow up (crash cam).  For some it's light enough they can fly it on a drone.  For some, it has a large sensor so they can get shallow depth of field.  For some, it means being able to synchronize with other cameras so that edits are aligned to whole frames.  For some it means being able to use a specific lens that provides a specific look, or flare, or angle of view, or zoom ratio.

Merely capturing 2K or 4K resolution doesn't begin to describe the requirements for making a film.  The script, the actors, the wardrobe and makeup, the set design, the props, the lighting, the color scheme, the use of contrast, color, transitions, music, sound design, etc., are all as important, if not more important, than the camera.  When the time comes to bring all these elements together and make an actual movie, it becomes readily apparent what sort of camera, camera operator, and camera department will do the movie justice.


most efficient pipeline for rendering large documents in after effects I've been making a lot of videos using multi-page A4 size PDFs in AE.
What's the most efficient way to do this? The renders take a while.
Things I've tried:

1) Split PDF to 1 file per page
2) Convert to PNG? Or jpg? (which is more efficient?) At high dpi (like 600 dpi so I can zoom in nicely on them).
3) Paper texture beneath, then pre comp
then parent all the pre-comps together so I can scroll up and down.

I think this is faster and looks as good as Collapse Transformations on a PDF file layer, but I'm not sure.

Final output is HD 25fps - turnaround time on the videos is an issue, so any speed up would be welcome!

Any advice welcomed - some examples of the videos below:

I believe that using pngs from the pdf is the best compromise between quality and speed. Your main concern being the render-time? If so, (I am sure you have, but just to be sure) have you checked if you're using Hardware-acceleration? You should also purge your cache frequently and have both the footage as well as your cache-directory as well as the project files on a fast medium, like an ssd.

I'm not certain with how familiar you are with those standard optimization techniques, so I'm just throwing this out there. If there's a different problem, please elaborate.


ffmpeg bgr vs rgb and other similiar pixel formats I was wondering about the difference between rgb and bgr pixel formats available in many codecs.

It reminds me in some way the Big Endian and Little Endian flavours of computer processors.

While I always guessed that the big / little endian was more a matter of patents rather than performance, why we have both rgb and bgr?

It's still a matter of patents?
Have something to do with Subpixels Rendering ?
Why some codecs has alternate support of them like this huffyuv example here:

  Encoder huffyuv [Huffyuv / HuffYUV]:
  Threading capabilities: no
  Supported pixel formats: yuv422p rgb24 bgra

It has rgb24 but then not rgba as I could expect. It jumps directly to bgra!

Could be again a matter of patents that the codec author could not break ?

Please feed my curiosity with some extended explaination here if possible, i want to know something more about this various pixel formats!

While I always guessed that the big / little endian was more a matter of patents rather than performance,

Nope little endian was developed as a performance optimization whern moving to multi byte words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness#Optimization

Nothing to to with patents. Different representation have different advantages and disadvantage. Hence different situations may use different representations. Codecs suffer from network effect. Nobody wants to use your encoder if nobody uses your decoder. And vice-versa. So codec designers go for maximum compatibility, and often support several formats. But the usually don't support them all, because there are dozens. So they use a combination of the most common, and easiest to include into the design.


How can I convert a video to BPG format? BPG= Better portable graphics I am trying to embed video into my site. And since loading time is important, I want to implement it using BPG.
The author of this post implemented it https://eek.ro/why-bpg-will-replace-gifs-and-not-only/

How can I do the same? I can find ways to convert jpeg to bpg, but when it comes to making a video in bpg format, I'm clueless.

It looks like BPG is at quite an early stage of development.

To use it, you would need to install an encoder, to convert your video to the BPG format.  At the moment, all of these encoders are command-line only.  You can find links to the encoders on the official site.

Note that the format doesn't include audio currently, so it may only be useful in some circumstances.

You might be better using a more conventional video format (h264, mp4, webm), but concentrating on encoding it with the most appropriate bandwidth and quality settings for your needs.


Even though Apple Motion is used with FCP could I still use it with iMovie? I don't want to get FCP just yet but I still want effects from motion.

You can use Motion to create video that you would import into iMovie. That video could be things like lower thirds, titles, or other graphics with a transparent background, where you place it over other video. But Motion templates you create aren't seen or used by iMovie the way they are in Final Cut Pro.


How to match output parameters with input ones in Adobe Premiere? I have some clip from which I want to cut out tiny fragment. It is in WMV format. Unfortunately, AP apparently plans to totally reconstruct the video.

How to force it not to do this thing?

I checked "Match Seuqence Settings" and got pure correspondence:

As you see, output parameters are totally different from input: frame size is different, frame rate is different, compression is different and so on.

The option you are talking about matches the export settings to the sequence settings, not to the source material. So my guess is that your sequence does not match your material. You can create a sequence that conforms your source clip by right-clicking on the clip in the project panel and selecting "New Sequence From Clip". Then the export should work as intended.

However, keep in mind that this will reencode your entire video, which will always result in quality loss. If you want to cut out a piece of your video while leaving the rest untouched, you could probably do that with ffmpeg.


How to resolve ffmpeg error "input contains (near) nan/+-inf"? I'm trying to convert some old WMVs into MP4s, but ffmpeg will not do it. I keep getting the following error:

 input contains (near) nan/+-inf
 audio encoding failed

Exact command used is:

 ffmpeg -i input.wmv -vf "scale=320:240,setsar=1" -crf 24 -c:a aac -b:a 48k -ac 1 -movflags +faststart output.mp4

If it helps, ffprobe gives the following:

Users\name>ffprobe input.wmv
ffprobe version N-90143-gb6652f5100 Copyright (c) 2007-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 7.3.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libmfx --enable-amf --enable-cuda --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth
  libavutil      56.  7.101 / 56.  7.101
  libavcodec     58. 12.102 / 58. 12.102
  libavformat    58.  9.100 / 58.  9.100
  libavdevice    58.  2.100 / 58.  2.100
  libavfilter     7. 12.100 /  7. 12.100
  libswscale      5.  0.101 /  5.  0.101
  libswresample   3.  0.101 /  3.  0.101
  libpostproc    55.  0.100 / 55.  0.100
[wmv3 @ 0000020416485e40] Extra data: 8 bits left, value: 0
Input #0, asf, from 'input.wmv':
  Metadata:
    WMFSDKNeeded    : 0.0.0.0000
    DeviceConformanceTemplate: MP@LL
    WMFSDKVersion   : 11.0.5358.4827
    IsVBR           : 0
  Duration: 00:27:02.46, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 205 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: wmav2 (a[1][0][0] / 0x0161), 32000 Hz, 2 channels, fltp, 32 kb/s
    Stream #0:1(eng): Video: wmv3 (Main) (WMV3 / 0x33564D57), yuv420p, 320x240, 168 kb/s, 14.99 fps, 14.99 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
[wmv3 @ 00000204164fe740] Extra data: 8 bits left, value: 0

If you have a ffmpeg build with libfdk_aac then you can use that encoder since it doesn't report that error.

With your current build, you have to convert the audio to 16 bit integer samples first.

ffmpeg -i input.wmv -vf "scale=320:240,setsar=1" -crf 24 -af aformat=s16p -c:a aac -b:a 48k -ac 1 -movflags +faststart output.mp4


Premiere Pro - Animation - rotate question mark about its "dot" I would like to create a simple animation effect in premiere pro where a question mark (text) is rotated about its dot. However, what I can only manage to accomplish is to rotate the question mark about its center.

Question

What is the least pain-staking method for rotating a question mark about it's dot? Or, equivalently, is there a way to configure the axis of rotation for an object (text or otherwise)?

The least pain-staking method? Open After Effects, press "y" to move the anchor point and drag it over the dot. If you rotate now, the rotation is happening from the anchor-point.


Can I run davinci resolve without openCL capable GPU? Hey I'm currently using my old macbook pro 13 and i just found out it doesn't have/support any openCL GPUs and therefore i can't run davinci resolve. Is there any way to go around it? If not, are there any other video editing apps that doesn't require openCL capable GPUs? premiere pro maybe?

I don’t think there’s a way round it. Premiere can operate using CPU only.


Follow focus on cinema camera? I would like to purchase a Blackmagic camera but it doesn't have any follow focus system. When searching further, I noticed that many professional cinema cameras doesn't have an integrated follow focus system (Arri, Red...), while a basic Sony A7sii does have one.

I would like to know please how do these cameras work. I saw that they are used with a separate follow focus system (be it wired or wireless) but technically when an object is moving, should the operator grope and try to match the focus on the moving object or is there any automatic recognition system ?

Thanks,
Cheers

On professio al sets with a camera crew, there is an extra person which pulls the focus.
We don't really use automatic focus.
This needs some training, but it's not so hard to pull off.

Normally, you attach 15mm rods to the camera body, on which you then mount the FF system, "wired" systems start at around 20$, useable ones at around 100$.

Wireless you could take a Tilta Nucleus Nano for 230$


How do I change the start/end time of a clip in Final Cut Pro X without changing the duration? Imagine I made a bunch of changes to a project, I have a bunch of videos lined up like [clipA][clipB][clipC]. Now I want to tweak clipB's start/end times without changing it's duration such that the audio for all the other clips is still aligned properly.

I know I can drag the left/right edges of clipB, but that'll mess with the audio and where all the other clips start/end. All I want to do is adjust the start time of clipB.

I'm assuming there is a way to specify the timecode for the start via typing it in, but I want a way to do this with the UI.

iMovie has this feature. You just go to Window > Show Clip Trimmer. Then you drag the clip left and right to change its start time while keeping the duration intact.

I couldn't find a way to do this in Final Cut Pro. The closest I could find is I can go Clip > Open Clip, and then there is an interface that looks like it would allow me to drag the clip to adjust the start time, but the text always shows +00:00.00, and after dropping it, it resets back to the default.

How can I adjust the start time of a clip via the GUI without affecting its duration?

Update: Here is a screengrab from iMovie that shows exactly what I'm trying to do. Notice how I can tweak the start/end times of the clip without affecting the clip's duration:

How do I do the same thing in Final Cut Pro?

With the Open Clip option, the reason that it's not taking any of the changes is because the Arrow tool is selected. Hit the tool icon and choose Position and it'll start taking your changes.

The Clip Trimmer feature in iMovie does not seem to have an equivalent in Final Cut Pro.

This is unfortunate, because one of the other really cool features of the clip trimmer, is that it shows you the start/end frame as you drag the clip which saves you time.


What video formats should I support (as of 2014)? I run a website that has offered downloadable instructional videos for 7 years. We have traditionally supported both mp4 and wmv formats.

I would like to simplify my life by just offering one format if possible. Do I still need to support wmv format? Or is this still an issue?

If I could support one format, which would it be?

Thanks

MP4/h264 is widely supported today. I'd even say it's the most supported video format since the existence of digital video (without having actual statistics to back that claim).
There is really no reason to deliver .wmv anymore when targeting a multi platform audience, the version of Windows Media Player that came with XP doesn't support MP4 but newer versions definitely do and the market share for that version should be very very low. Most users have adopted third-party players like VLC and even companies usually install at least one third-party video player on their computers that will very very likely support MP4. MP4/h264 has wide hardware playback support (unlike wmv and its possible codecs) and runs without any issues on any platform (unlike wmv).

So yes, in my opinion it's absolutely safe to only deliver MP4 videos as long as they are properly encoded. Using Level 3(.1) would be a safe bet, its supported by practically any software and hardware that is capable of playing MP4/h264.

If you deliver for web it is also a good practice to also deliver a .webm encode as well. If it only targets local playback I would still stick to mp4/h264. While we now have h265 it is very badly supported in comparison.
It will probably take another 8-10 years until we have the same rate of consumer adoption.


Does recording desktop audio reduce quality? If I record audio (say, a 320 kbps mp3) that's playing through my desktop audio (in, for example, Audacity with loopback, or OBS) is the quality going to be reduced if I compare the recording to the original file? For the sake of this hypothetical lets assume the compression level of the rendered recording is also 320kbps mp3.

Does the act of recording the audio in this manner inherently reduce the quality? (regardless of compression method e.g. .wav to .wav)
Does reencoding/compressing the audio from 320kbps mp3 to 320kbps mp3 result in a measurable quality loss?

Audacity would grab the digital data for recording in this case and since it uses a lossless format for recording you would not lose any information. I don't know about OBS but it would be surprising if they do things differently.

There will be a very slight loss of quality with 320 kbps mp3s. I doubt any human would hear a difference, though. This may become noticable at some point if you keep re-encoding the file again and again, for example for editing the audio later. If you use a low quality source, say 128 kbps mp3, the degradation will be much more pronounced.


Exporting on the same sequence settings as the clip doubles the size of the output file I am trying to create an edit/archive render of my videos captured from Sony A6000. The recording format is: 1080p 50FPS H.264 Codec.

I am creating a sequence from the clip and exporting the clip to match the sequence settings. But the file size is double.

I basically want an uncompressed edit or archive render to save the video without any compression or downscaling or without reducing the FPS as well.

Here is a sample file if you want to try it out: Link

Basically, to replicate the issue you just have to create a sequence from clip and export to the sequence settings and the exported file size is double the original size.

Any idea, What I am doing wrong or What should I do to get the correct file size?

Ok there's a few different aspects to this, so here goes.

  I am trying to create an edit/archive render of my videos captured from Sony A6000. The recording format is: 1080p 50FPS H.264 Codec.

Not sure what you mean here, but I assume you want to prepare your footage for archiving purposes? The best way to archive your footage is to leave it as it is. I can't stress this enough. Compressing your footage to save a few gigabytes is a very bad idea. Storage is cheap, you can get an external HDD with 2~3 TB for less than a hundred bucks. Or unlimited cloud storage on Amazon for 70 bucks a year. There's really no reason to compress your original footage, but there are many downsides. If you want to save space at all, you will need to use a lossy codec with a lower bitrate than the original. That means you get artifacts in your video, temporal interpolation (meaning not every frame in your video is saved as a whole, which is quite bad if you want to edit the footage later on and overall reduced quality. You also get chroma subsampling which reduces the available color information, which is bad if you want to color grade your footage later on. So in general, if you want to archive your footage, always archive the original files.

On the other hand, if you have no use for your video files because they are kind of bad and you want to keep them 'just in case', throw them out. You won't look at them again and they are just wasting space.

Anyway, rant over. In case I misunderstood your intentions or you still want to proceed, here's the actual answer.

  I basically want an uncompressed edit or archive render to save the video without any compression or downscaling or without reducing the FPS as well.

If you actually use a lossless or visually lossless codec, you will only increase your filesize massively. H.264 (the format of your original footage) is a lossy codec meaning it's heavily compressed. The thing is, while exporting to an uncompressed format will increase your filesize, it won't actually increase the video quality, as the information already lost in the compressed H.264 files can't be magically recovered. So there's really no reason to export to an uncompressed format except for editing purposes (formats with temporal interpolation can be laggy during editing, because only I-frames are saved in full, B-frames are stored as the difference to the last I-frame or preceding frame).

So there's really no reason to convert your footage to either an uncompressed or a heavily compressed version. Anyway …

  Basically, to replicate the issue you just have to create a sequence from clip and export to the sequence settings and the exported file size is double the original size.

Your final video output is dependent on your sequence settings and your export settings. If you created the sequence directly from a footage clip, they will match the clip parameters, so you're good here.

Regarding the export settings, the output file size is mainly dependent on the bitrate (which is literally the amount of information, i.e. bits per second of your video). To change the output size, you will need to change your Target Bitrate (the setting may have a slightly different name if you use formats other than H.264). Depending on your version of Premiere Pro, the steps to change the bitrate while using the Match Sequence Settings option differ. For completion's sake, I will include instructions for both CC and older versions.

Premiere Pro CC

The Match Sequence Option can be toggled on and off for every parameter individually. So you simply need to uncheck the option for the Target and Maximum Bitrate setting, then you can change the bitrate to whatever you want.

Premiere Pro CS6 and older

Unfortunately, with older versions you only get the Match Sequence Settings options in the form of a checkbox at the top that looks most export settings when checked. I'm actually not sure if that includes the bitrate (it's been a while since I had to use non-CC versions of Premiere). I would have said it does not (as claimed by stib in the comments), but since you said that option is locked, try unchecking Match Sequence Settings and see if the bitrate options become available. Unfortunately this will also reset the rest of your settings to your selected Preset, which might not be what you want. So you have to adjust the Export Settings. You will want to match most of those to your original footage parameters, I wouldn't change to much unless you know what you are doing. To find out all technical parameters of your footage, download something like MediaInfo and inspect one of your video files in it. For example, the video you linked was shot at a 1920x1080 resolution, 50 fps, progressive (not interlaced) and with an audio bitrate of 256kbps. Change the export settings accordingly, and then change the bitrate setting to your liking.

You will notice that the estimated filesize correlates directly to the chosen bitrate. Your original footage was shot with a variable bitrate, at 26Mbps average. If you want to compress your footage down, use a lower bitrate. If you want to preserve as much quality as possible, use a bitrate at least as high as the original bitrate. But again, I can't recommend either of those things, just keep your footage as it is.

If you export for viewing purposes, experiment with different bitrates to find the lowest one that still yields a quality that is acceptable to you for your specific purpose. Here's some math that will help you understand the relation between bitrate and resulting filesize.

Update in response to your comments

  I don't want to store the actual recording because it's not consumable without editing. I want to do my editing save it as one big file and archive it, later I can use this edited ready to go archive file and can export or reencode it to medium

The problem is that those are two very different purposes and it's not really practical to do both with only one file.

For your edited output video that you want to show to the world, you'll want to trade off some amount of quality in return for a reduced filesize. Whatever you intend to do with this video, having huge files (like, gigabits of data per minute) is pretty detrimental. You can't send them to people with slow internet connections, you can't transport them on small USB sticks ... and people with slower computers might actually have trouble viewing your video at all, because their hardware can't keep up. So you want to find the lowest possible bitrate that still yields acceptable quality. On a related note:

  If you pause frames of original footage and rendered footage, the original one looks sharper.

Yeah, but who is gonna do that? You are probably paying closer attention to your video than anyone in your audience will. Of course, you also gotta take into consideration the purpose, target audience and medium in which your video will be displayed (I can only make assumptions here), but for general prosumer-ish/home productions, my point above stands.

  later I can use this edited ready to go archive file and can export or reencode it to medium I want or even do further editing If need be

That's a very bad idea. The thing is, you're exporting from a compressed format to a compressed format. If you use the exported file to export to another format, your final video will have gone through three export cycles already. It's just gotta hurt your overall video quality. Just keep your original files, your Premiere Pro project file, and everything else that is part of your project in one folder and back it up somewhere safe. If you in 20 years from now decide you need your video in H.269 for some reason, open up the original project and export from that (assuming Adobe's SaaS model hasn't crashed by then, just saying). Of course you can also export a version of your video with a visually uncompressed codec, or as an image sequence or something like that (in fact, depending on your production workflow this might be an intermediate step, but not as the final version). However, that file will be huge, so you won't have really achieved anything in terms of filesize.

  It produces as acceptable file size but the quality is definitely not the same.

If you used a bitrate that is close to the bitrate of your original files (~26 Mbit/s) and 2-Pass encoding, I find that hard to believe. I usually use like 6~8 Mbit/s for my exports, and I rarely spot any artifacts in the output at all. I think it's much more likely that you messed up some other setting in your Sequence or Export Settings, and that is what's causing the problems with your output quality. Feel free to open a new topic regarding this problem, this thread is really getting out of hand …


Advanced Low Cost Editing Software I am looking for a cheap (not necessarily free) editing software.
At the moment I have to work with Serif MoviePlus X6 but I find this too basic.
I have a lot of knowledge of video editing but am usually restricted by the limitations of the software I can afford. I need something as advanced as After Effects - and similar to Blender's layout which is NOT designed for ease of use but rather to offer as much flexibility as possible - for general video editing; but for a lower cost than Adobe products.
Any suggestions?

ANSWER
Of the amazing answers I received I found the best suggestions were:

BlackMagic Davinci Resolve 12
Lightworks

Hitfilm has a free express version and a paid version.
It's a video editor and a compositor.


Set Matte not masking layers the same I am trying to use a shape layer with set matte to mask off everything behind the screen, but it does not appear to be working here is a video

Please help

Not sure about Set Matte, but you could try setting the transfer mode of the shape layer to Silhouette Alpha? That will cut out everything beneath that layer.

(You currently have the transfer modes hidden. Right click on the title bar above your layer names, click to Columns->Modes)


Cropping 2048x1152 (16:9) to 1.85:1 removing black bars for the past 48 hours I tried to crop the black bars of a 2048x1152 (16:9) video to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio (which is 2048x1107) so that the encoded video shows exactly what is meant to be.
First problem:
2048x1107 (1.85:1) is not common but is it basically possible to create?
Can i encode with libx264 with an odd number value like 1107?
Second problem:
If not, how can I make a crop & resize encode in one sitting?
Means...
Cropping 2048x1152 (16:9) to 2048x1107 (1.85) AND resizing the 2048x1107 (1.85, uncommon) to 1998x1080  (2K DCP FLAT)
I only manage to get a 1998x1080 (1.85:1) with too much cropped on all sides... :/
Thanks for you help, guys!

You can carry out the changes in one command by chaining the respective filters.
Basic syntax is
ffmpeg -i input -vf "crop=2048:1107:exact=1,scale=1998:1080,setsar=1" -c:a copy out.mp4


Automatic conversion/encode video for Video On Demand streaming I need an automatic solution to convert video clips for html5 (mp4/x264, webm/vp8) and flash (mp4/x264) video-on-demand streaming. For a site like Youtube, just much smaller.

The input files are mostly h264/x264 but sometimes others (like divx/xvid) and have different resolution and sometimes contain subtitles (.ass) that need to be hard-burned. The output resolution should be 720p and 480p for >=720p video, 480p for 480p-720p and the original resolution for everything else.

The server is running debian.

I couldn't find any open source project, just some cloud services (SaaS) that offer this kind of conversion. I tried working with ffmpeg but each video needs a different bitrate to be still in a good quality and have a file size that allows video-on-demand. If the input video is bad the output video shouldn't be larger. I have no idea how to set the x264/vp8 params right and obviously I can't do that manually.

Do you know of any (linux) tool for this? There are many video sites out there, how do they do this? I looked at video files from youtube and they all differ in bitrate and file size. Or do you know any website or tutorial that could help me? I've spend much time searching for tips but I just can't find anything, maybe I'm searching for the wrong terms..

For a server, you definitely want ffmpeg. I would also strongly recommend compiling it yourself (those are Ubuntu instructions, but should work for Debian as well AFAIK) - the best AAC encoder available for ffmpeg (libfdk_aac) cannot be redistributed alongside x264 (because of the GPL), and the version of ffmpeg in the repositories is probably too old for some of the things I'm going to list here.
MP4
To convert an arbitrary video to an MP4 using libx264 and libfdk_aac:
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 24 -preset veryfast \
-ac 2 -c:a libfdk_aac -vbr 3 -movflags faststart output.mp4

Control the quality of the video with -crf: a lower number is better quality, but larger file. 18 is visually lossless under most circumstances, and 24 should be more than good enough for online streaming. Use a -preset to control the speed/size of the video: a slower preset means a smaller file (the presets are ultrafast, superfast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, and slower). See here for more detail.
Control the quality of the audio with -vbr: the scale is 1-5, where 5 is best quality. Actually, even a vbr of 1 should be good enough for your purposes. See here for more detail. -ac 2 means that ffmpeg will output 2 audio channels, mixing down if necessary; you only really need to use it if you think people will send in 5.1 surround sound audio or something.
-movflags faststart is required for internet MP4 video.
WEBM
.webm is a little more complicated. libvpx (the VP8 encoder) should have a crf mode that will work in a similar way to x264's, but it is currently broken. Unfortunately, you'll have to target a bit rate instead. For standard definition, 1000kb/s should give very good quality (in fact, that is probably overkill). For full 1080p HD, about 5000kb/s will give really good quality (again, you can probably go lower - try it out and see). About 2200kb/s should do it for 720p.
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libvpx -b:v 1000k \
-c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 -ac 2 output.webm

NOTE - make sure you use libvorbis (the xiph.org encoder lib), NOT vorbis (the inferior internal ffmpeg encoder). Set the quality with -q:a: the range is -1-10, where 10 is best quality, and 5 is indistinguishable from an original CD. 3 or 4 should be adequate for online streaming purposes.
Subtitles & scale video
To hardcode subtitles, you have to first extract them from the original file, then use either the ass filter or the subtitles filter to encode them. Using the subtitles filter:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:s:0 -c:s ass subtitle.ass
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -filter:v 'subtitles=subtitle.ass' \
-c:v libx264 -crf 24 -preset veryfast \
-c:a libfdk_aac -vbr 3 -movflags faststart output.mp4 \
-filter:v 'subtitles=subtitle.ass' \
-c:v libvpx -b:v 1000k \
-c:a libvorbid -q:a 4 output.webm

To scale videos, use the scale filter. -1:480 means 'for the width, keep the input aspect ratio, and scale the height to 480'.
ffmpeg -i input.avi -filter:v 'scale=-1:480' \
-c:v libx264 -crf 24 -preset veryfast \
-c:a libfdk_aac -vbr 3 -movflags faststart output.mp4 \
-filter:v 'scale:-1:480' \
-c:v libvpx -b:v 1000k \
-c:a libvorbid -q:a 4 output.webm

You can combine the scale and subtitle filters like so:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -filter:v 'scale=-1:480,subtitles=subtitle.ass' \
-c:v libx264 -crf 24 -preset veryfast \
-c:a libfdk_aac -vbr 3 -movflags faststart output.mp4 \
-filter:v 'scale:-1:480,subtitles=subtitle.ass' \
-c:v libvpx -b:v 1000k \
-c:a libvorbid -q:a 4 output.webm

You'd probably want to use a bash script to detect the input height and test the existence of subtitles; I'd personally use mediainfo to find that information, it's pretty amenable to regex.
That should be enough to get you going.


Millisecond stopwatch for visual stereo video synchronization measurement I am trying to get 2 video streams into sync at low cost. I would like to visually measure how good can I synchronize my cameras by pointing them to a millisecond capable stopwatch.

Does anyone know what is the refresh rate of an "old style" monochromatic LCD stopwatch (example)? I don't have one so I haven't tried to capture these yet. Wikipedia says an LCD could have a refresh rate as high as 200Hz. If LCD is slow, LED probably would be faster depending on circuity used.

So far I used online stopwatch, but these are limited by (usually) a 60Hz refresh rate of a computer LCD monitor. 60Hz lowers the resolution to about 16ms (1s/60Hz).

You can only sync video to an accuracy of a frame, or somewhere in the area of 15-40 mSec depending on frame rate. So as long as whatever you're shooting can update and refresh at least that quickly, it's not important to do much better. Even shooting a mechanical metronome will probably get you as close as anything else. The refresh rate of the display shouldn't be a factor, if you're examining both clips on the same screen.


Wireless audio from P.A. System to DSLR I do video-taping of my company's events and I have been asked to find a better way of getting audio into the DSLR video. Currently, I am using the transmitter and receiver from a Sennheiser lapel mic in order to get the audio into my videos. We connect the transmitter to the P.A System and the Receiver is hooked up to the DSLR. This works, although audio quality is a bit low.

I was wondering if there is a better way to do this. Priority is on convenience. The reason we are not using an audio recorder is because editing the sound into the video is not worth it for our purposes.

Do give your suggestions on how I can wirlessly get audio into my DSLR video (preferably, without having to edit sound in). Alternatively, if you know of a type of long cable I can use to connect my DSLR directly into the PA system, do let me know

Regards,
Aaron

There are a lot of variables in this equation, and any one of them could be the culprit.  These include: the quality of the audio picked up by the lapel mic, the quality of the PA preamp, the quality of the PA signal output to the wireless transmitter, the quality of the wireless transmitter, the quality of the wireless receiver, and finally, the quality of the DSLR's audio preamps.

I would start eliminating variables by feeding a known test signal (such as an NPR podcast) into the DSLR audio port, and if that's good, feeding the same signal to the wireless transmitter/receiver pair into the DSLR.  If those, too, are good, then your PA system is the problem.  If, on the other hand, you cannot get decent audio into your DSLR from a known good source, you are not going to get decent audio into your DSLR from your PA.  Which is perhaps why so many DSLR shooters use external audio recording devices--not because they want to go crazy editing audio, but because they don't want to go crazy editing audio.

Regardless, the most reliable way to solve this problem is to introduce and eliminate variables one at a time.


How to stabilize exposure in After Effects? I have a footage which was shot by a mobile phone. Phone was put on auto exposure, and mobile was not able to calculate exposure correctly in video.

First half of the video is exposed correctly, the second half is underexposed.

I am not able to fix the second half of the video. I tried some of the effects but all of them apply on all of the footage. So if I correct the second half of the video, the first half is over exposed.

I am using After Effects CC.

The under exposed section will never have as much detail in the shadows as the correctly exposed section, so you will never be able to make the second section look as good as the first. Having said that:

You need to duplicate your layer, then correct the exposure in the second half using level controls, or colour correction effects.

As you correct, switch the layer on and off, to compare it with a good part of the first layer.

Once the second half is looking better, then work on the transition point.

The second layer should be on top of the first layer.

Make some Opacity key frames on your second layer, starting at 0% and building up to 100% when the poor exposure section has fully begun.

You may find that a dedicated application like Davinci Resolve (the free version) is better for colour correction than After Effects.