Resuming a partially-completed encode with FFmpeg Summary
Given a partially completed encode that:

Was encoded using h264 in the Matroska container
Was cut short by manually stopping FFmpeg by typing 'q' in the console

...what are the ways to resume encoding this file, preferably by appending the extant file?
Details
I have some large encoding projects that I do that can take up to a week of encoding in some cases. In ideal circumstances, the computer doing the encoding can stay on, uninterrupted and left to do the work. In realistic situations though, sometimes that computer needs to stop encoding and be shut off or restarted for a multitude of reasons. Because of this, I'm looking for a way to make encoding using FFmpeg on that computer more "bullet-proof" by anticipating possible interruptions and having a way to use FFmpeg by itself to pick up where it left off later.
What I'm Doing Now
When this happens, I recover what I can of the encoded file, examine it in video editing software, find a good splicing point, then use AviSynth to create a script that will start encoding a new segment where the previous one left off. I then use other software to trim the existing encode so that the splice will be seamless, then use FFmpeg's demuxer to combine the individual h264 segments later into a completed file.
This is all a lot of manual work that can be very slow that I'd like to avoid if there exists a more automated solution.
Ideas
Segmenting: This seems like the most promising solution, but there are gaps I'm not sure how to fill. This answer seems to cover a lot of it. You can tell FFmpeg to output segments, broken up at I-Frames at rough intervals, that can be remuxed later. What I don't know from looking at that answer and at FFmpeg's documentation is how I would start encoding again at a specific segment. It seems like there might be a way to give FFmpeg a file that tells it where each segment should start via frame or timecode, but how do I make it start somewhere in the middle of that list?
This option is not ideal, however, in that I will need to effectively have double the space of the resultant encode (which will frequently be in the 100s of gigabytes in size) available since I will need to mux the segments into a single file. It would be nice if I could somehow cleanly cut off an ongoing encode and have FFmpeg reopen that file and continue where it left off.
Virtual Machines: This has the potential to work since I could just freeze the machine's state before a restart, but all of my encoding space exists on network-attached storage, which I'm not sure will work in the context of a virtual machine being suspended and resumed, since the VM doesn't actually control the drives.

I've come up with a "good enough" solution to this problem, as it doesn't appear possible at the time of writing to actually pick up a partial encode that was cut off arbitrarily and accurately concatenate the rest of the video to it.
A Solution Using Segmenting
First, use FFmpeg's segmenting functionality to output segments at some interval for which losing such an interval is an acceptable loss. Also output a .csv file with segment start and end times. An example command that achieves this is:
ffmpeg.exe -i .\source.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -pix_fmt yuv420p -f segment -segment_time 30 -segment_list segments.csv -reset_timestamps 1 seg%03d.mkv

Assume that during the encoding of the fourth segment (seg003.mkv), it becomes necessary to stop the encoder and reset the machine. Sending a q keystroke to FFMpeg during the encoding of a segment stops it arbitrarily at some point and leaves that segment incomplete.
The segment that was interrupted is effectively lost and can be deleted. Opening the segments.csv file reveals
seg000.mkv,0.000000,33.390000
seg001.mkv,33.390000,62.586000
seg002.mkv,62.586000,91.782000
seg003.mkv,91.782000,98.655000

Using this information, we know that seg003.mkv started at 91.782 seconds into the source. In order to pick up where we left off, we use the same command as above to encode segmented output, but also seek (-ss) to the start of our fourth segment, and change the numbering (-segment_start_number):
ffmpeg.exe -ss 91.782000 -i source.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -pix_fmt yuv420p -f segment -segment_time 30 -segment_list segments2.csv -segment_start_number 3 -reset_timestamps 1 seg%03d.mkv

FFmpeg will pick up at the beginning of the fourth segment, and correctly name it seg003.mkv. Notice that the name of the output .csv file has been changed so that the original does not get overwritten. This new .csv file will start at 0.00, so further interruptions will require adding times in this file to the previous file to find a starting point.
Finally, when all segments are ready to be concatenated, we construct an .ffcat file as outlined in the examples on the wiki page:
file seg000.mkv
file seg001.mkv
file seg002.mkv
file seg003.mkv
file seg004.mkv
file seg005.mkv

and run this command:
ffmpeg.exe -f concat -i .\segments.ffcat -c copy output.mkv

This outputs the full, concatenated encode. The option -fflags +genpts is mentioned in the linked answer of the question, and may be necessary to achieve perfect output, but I have not found it to make any difference in my testing.


Split subtitles to line up ends of files? I'm on a windows PC and have two files of a movie that's been split into those two pieces. I also have a subtitle file, but it's in one whole piece. Is there a way, using Subtitle Workshop(what I have now) or any other free program to split that one subtitle file into two pieces such that the subtitles end at the same time the video does, and it's cut at the beginning?

I can already split it so they start at the same point and split at the end, but is there any way to do to the opposite? I'd usually just split it at the end of the first video so that the second one should already line up correctly, but I think there's an extra intermission/credits/etc. somewhere that the subtitles don't account for, so that wouldn't work. Also, the files are .ogm's, which I have converted into .mp4's of the same length, but they're of terrible quality. VLC player can play ogm's, so I figure if I can split them like this using another format I can then apply the subtitles tot the .ogm's, right?

Anyway, all help is appreciated.

Don't transcode your video, there shouldn't be any need to do that.  You might be able to concat the two ogm videos into a single ogm, or mkv, without transcoding, just remuxing.  (e.g. with ffmpeg's concat filter, and -codec copy)

http://www.nikse.dk/SubtitleEdit has a split feature.  You'll have to edit the 2nd file after splitting, since the split dialog box doesn't have anywhere to add in a gap.  But it's easy to apply the same time-shift to all subs in a file, with it.  I haven't actually used that editor much, I think last time I had to mess around with subs I used gaupol or ksubtile, forget which, (on GNU/Linux) to stretch the timecodes in a .srt to correct for a 25fps / 23.976fps speed difference.  But anyway, I think Subtitle Edit is good, and it's cross-platform.  (Runs on GNU/Linux under WINE, with mono.)


Flicker in the Capture, LED light source Incident:

I'm trying to capture small particles at about 20-30 cm distance to the camera at ~60-70 fps. Was using SMD32 LED with rechargeable battery as light source. By using that light source, there was no flicker in the video (almost no light intensity variance between frames), but the scene was a bit dark.

SMD32 LED with rechargeable battery

To increase intensity, I tried cheap light bulbs of all kind, such as Philips Classic Tone 60W, and Energy efficient Philips Economy Stick 23W. As expected, intensity levels were quite reasonable, but the flickering was quite obvious and problematic in the captured video. Then I tried 2 LED light bulbs:  Wiselite Warmwhite LED A60 8W, and GoldMaster 9W LED. Interestingly, LED light bulbs DID flicker too.

Energy efficient Philips Economy Stick 23W, Philips Classic Tone 60W, Wiselite Warmwhite LED A60 8W

Please note that voltage levels in the region is quite fluctuating, sometimes electrical home appliances stop operating and lights dimming although the electricity is on.

Question:

What made SMD32 LED non-flickering compared to LED bulbs? Is it the battery, or multiple light sources, or the type of the LEDs? What should I do for a non-flickering but enough intensity capture environment?

Edit :

After the responses, I have further investigated the SMD32 LED, by only capturing the light projected from SMD32 LED on to the screen. Fps was variable between 59-61, exposure time was 1.5 ms, CV_8UC1 color scheme (grayscale) was used. I have saved 0th, 40th, 80th, 120th... frames and combined them to build animated gif images. Each gif image consist of 35 jpg images. As side note, each animated gif image below is at 4 fps.

1st animated gif one on the left is captured when SMD32 LED is not plugged into mains power (while it is only using battery power). It is almost steady.

2nd one on the right is captured when SMD32 LED is plugged into mains power. Overall intensity compared to first one increased but the flicker is quite obvious.

Consequently, there is something with the mains power. And I still don't know how to obtain the desired lightning conditions in a cheap way.

[
[

Here is a blog posting from one of the leading LED fixture manufacturers, SORAA.  (Their chief scientist won the Nobel Prize for the invention of the blue LED.)  One of the design problems is that a rippler-suppressor reduces LED output efficiency by 2%-3%.  If you are a consumer looking for absolute Lumens from a given form factor, or highest Lumens per Watt, you'll end up buying a product that compromises on flicker in favor of output.  Moreover, while the industry used to agree on a definition of a flicker index, they are walking away from that and going to very application (and person)-specific definitions.  In the referenced article, mention was made that in the state of California, the only recognized flicker test is performed by the person sensitive to the phenomenon.  Finally, if you are using these lights for anything other than scientific motion studies, i.e., if color is actually important to you, Color Rendering Index (CRI) may also be important.

Obviously, cameras have very different sensitivity than humans.  And specialty instruments (made for high-speed video) exist, with more expensive power supplies and lower lumen/watt output.  I have been impressed with the SORAA lights I've purchased (CRI 95, and no visible flicker at framerates I've used).  If they don't test out for you, the best alternative is to get a specialty light that does specifically advertise flicker-free (usually by using a true DC power supply).


Is there a way to add text captions/subtitles to my videos on MacOS? (burn in) I'm looking for a way to burn captions into videos without using Adobe Premiere (too expensive).

Any tips?

Video Caption Maker is free (with watermark). Otherwise you can hack together title screens and png's in iMovie which takes a bit of work.


How to make an effect last for only a certain amount of time I feel like I've done 50 google searches now, and still haven't figured this out. I am new to after effects, and have been unable to make my effects last for a certain amount of the timeline.

For example:

  I want the effect to start, and then stop a while later on the
  timeline.

I've pressed every button and done every google search to try and figure that out. I've also done every stack exchange search.

  How can I do this?

The correct way to do this is to animate the effect. Whatever effect values you are altering, those need to be set to zero or null result value 1 frame before your intended start time. In the next frame set it to the desired value for the effect. Set a key for the desired value at the last frame of your intended range. Then set a key for the zero/null value the next frame.

The crude way to do this is to split the layer at the start frame and end frame Ctrl+Shift+D. And remove/disable the effect on the layers outside the effect range.


After Effects Expression, layer not found or missing I'm using a plugin called Duik 15 to rig a character to turn the right arm into an IK controller, and it has produced an expression that is unable to find one of my layers.

I'm not sure why it's not able to see it, but I'm wondering if anyone has encountered the issue before within their expressions?

Here's the expression that Duik generated, with the problem being on line 2.

//Duik.twoLayerIK
layer1 = thisComp.layer('M R Bicep'); // Not finding me
layer2 = thisComp.layer('M R Forarm');
controller = thisComp.layer('C_M R Hand');
endPos = layer2.effect('IK End')(1);
ctrlEffect = controller.effect("IK M R Forarm");
limit = effect('IK Limit')(1);
FK = ctrlEffect(4);
IKFK = ctrlEffect(3) == 0;
cw = ctrlEffect(1) == 1;
function getWorldPos(L) {
    return L.toWorld(L.anchorPoint);
}
function ik() {
    A = getWorldPos(layer1);
    B = getWorldPos(layer2);
    C = layer2.toWorld(endPos);
    E = getWorldPos(controller);
    a = length(B,C);
    b = length(E,A);
    c = length(A,B);
    x = (b*b + c*c - a*a )/(2*b);
    alpha = Math.acos(clamp(x/c,-1,1));
    D = E - A;
    delta = Math.atan2(D[1],D[0]);
    result = radiansToDegrees(delta - (cw ? 1 : -1)*alpha);
    V = B - A;
    adj1 = radiansToDegrees(Math.atan2(V[1],V[0]));
    IK = result - adj1 + value;
    if (IK < limit) IK+=360;
    return IK;
}
IKFK ? ik() : FK;

And also a screenshot of some of my layers, with the offending code situated inside M R Bicep's rotation expression.

I don't know if this counts as an answer so much as a workaround but I was getting the same error message when I was manually typing in the layer name. There was no typo; the layer definitely existed. It was maddening.

But when I used the pickwhip to link it to the layer, After Effects would automatically generate the 'thisComp.layer("Layer Name Here")' code. Then I just built the rest of my expression around that line. That seemed to work fine.


video format for pre-demosaic'ed stream As we all know individual cells in CMOS sensors are essentially identical. The only thing that differentiates them from each other is the thin filter layer (turning them into R, G, B sensor cells). The most standard pattern for that "coloring" is the RGGB "Bayer filter".

In essence those individual cells produce grey-scale image which is then turned into color by the process called demosaicing.

Here's my question:
Is there a recognized (standard?) video format for streaming/storing that kind of video stream?

N.B.
Please note that a naïve answer "this is grey-scale!" doesn't work since a simple parameter like windowing will affect the image, completely changing its colors. Also there's definitely a need for "sensor sensitivity" information to be able to properly reconstruct the original color. And so on and so forth...

Turns out the answer is yes. Such format is called CinemaDNG and is used for professional video production since 2009.

Here's the spec for the format: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/cinemadng/cinemadng_p1_spec_091009.pdf

Among other things it supports:

Integer sensor values of any bit depth from 8 to 32 bits
Arbitrary size color filter arrays with up to seven color channels
Black level, white level, and linearization parameters for scaling of sensor values
Color-processing parameters for mapping camera RGB to CIE XYZ color space

Adobe's Creative Suite supports CinemaDNG on both Windows and Mac OS platforms since version 4 and the codec (at least for Windows) is available from Adobe's website: http://supportdownloads.adobe.com/product.jsp?product=194&platform=Windows

There are other products out there that process video in CinemaDNG format, some even with GPU (CUDA) support.


Output via Compressor comes with bad quality audio (no problem via Share of FCPX) Synopsis

I use Compressor to export my FCPX project to h264 .mp4 files.

Playing the file I exported today, the audio quality was bad (sounds muffled). This problem appears only in the output via Compressor.

Playing on the FCPX timeline -> OK
Playing the output exported via "Share" feature and "Apple Devices 720p" setting -> OK
Playing the output exported via Compressor -> NG

There were no problem two months ago. I don't make any changes in the export settings.

Any ideas or solutions?

Environment

Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Marvericks)
Final Cut Pro X 10.1.4
Compressor 4.1.3

Setting of Compressor

Output of ffprobe

audio of previous output (good quality)

Stream #0:0(jpn): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 63 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-11-29 10:42:07
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio

audio track of this time output (bad quality)

Stream #0:0(jpn): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 44 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-07 14:28:54
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio

Looking at bitrate above, it's less than one of the previous output.
I retried the encoding with setting the audio bitrate to 128kbps.

Stream #0:0(jpn): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 86 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-07 13:15:43
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio

However the problem was not solved.

FCPX project -> Play through timeline = OK
FCPX project -> Compressor -> ProRes422 = NG (muffled sound)
FCPX project -> Compressor -> AAC Mono = NG (muffled sound)
FCPX project -> Compressor -> AAC Stereo = NG (muffled sound)
FCPX project -> "Share" -> Master (h264) = OK (but the size is too large)
FCPX project -> "Share" -> Master (h264) -> Compressor -> AAC Mono = OK

These are sum-up of results in my trial and error.
The 6th trial resolved my problem, although it is not a perfect solution.


ffmpeg overlay image moving is choppy Using overlay to move a image from left to right feels very stuttery, as if it's moving every 0.5 second instead of per frame.

Complete:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -y -loop 1 -r 2 -i 'bg.png' -i 'centerpiece.png' -t 30 -c:v libx264 -filter_complex "[1:v]scale=iw*2.2:ih*2.2[scaled_cen],[0:v][scaled_cen]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/3+(t*10):(main_h-overlay_h)/2,format=pix_fmts=yuv420p" -r 30 output.mp4

The important part is this:

[scaled_cen]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/3+(t*10):(main_h-overlay_h)/2

According to the ffmpeg docs, t is evaluated in seconds, but I've read elsewhere that its evaluated in MS, in any case I'd like my centerpiece to move a little bit every frame.

Here's the result of the command showing the choppyness:

https://i.imgur.com/PN4Ji1P.mp4

So far i've tried things like the blur filter and minterpolate but I'm guessing the problem resides in getting t more granular or doing tricks with the fps.

===EDIT====

After applying the answer of Mulvya it still seemed a bit jittery, but adding:

tblend=average,framestep=2,setpts=0.25*PTS

at the end of the filter but before the format filter seems to do the trick.

The overlay filter draws on each base or 'main' frame as given; it does not create new frames.

In your command,

ffmpeg -hide_banner -y -loop 1 -r 2 -i 'bg.png' ...

The -r 2 sets the main video's framerate to 2, hence the result.

Use

ffmpeg -hide_banner -y -loop 1 -framerate 30 -i 'bg.png' ...


What is the easiest, no-frills way to produce a simple video on Windows 10? This question is basically the same as one I posted 2.5 years ago here, except that now I am using a different laptop that runs Windows 10 instead of Windows 8.

My laptop has a camera. Since it can obviously take video of me (a la Skyping), it should be easy to create a video of myself practicing a presentation.

My laptop runs Windows 10.

This is going to be a long video -- 1.5 hours. What is the easiest way to accomplish that using apps that come with Windows or something free that I can download?

I would look into using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software). It's free, and allows you to capture from a webcam and/or your actual monitors or windows. Many people use it for streaming to sites like Twitch, but it also has built-in options for recording to a file.


Freeze frame effect with ffmpeg I am currently fiddling with ffmpeg to achieve a freeze frame effect and so far have been unsuccessful. I have been able to do this with adobe after effects shown here. However I would like to achieve a freeze frame effect(of 5 seconds duration) at the beginning of the video. How can I achieve this in ffmpeg?

EDIT

ffmpeg -i "/media/test/test.mp4" -loop 1 -i "/media/sf_linux_sandbox/hashtag_pull/video-downloads/test/test.png" -an \
-filter_complex "[1:v]trim=start=0:end=5[ol];[0:v]setpts=125+PTS[nv];[nv][ol]overlay=eof_action=pass[final]" \
-map '[final]' -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -q 1 "/media/test/out.mp4"

First you need to extract the frame that you wish to freeze. This is easy:

avconv -i test.webm -vf "select='eq(n,1)'" out.jpeg

Then you want to put that frame for the appropriate time interval.

avconv -i test.webm -loop 1 -i out.jpeg -an \
-filter_complex "[1:v]trim=start=0:end=5[ol];[0:v]setpts=125+PTS[nv];[nv][ol]overlay=eof_action=pass[final]" \
-map '[final]' -c:v libtheora -q:v 8 outtest.ogv

Firstly you will see that i didn't want to mess with audio, but if you'll find it too difficult, let me know and i will look into the quick way to align it as well.

Now what i'm doing here consists of several strange things. Firstly i am taking that frame that was generated before and i am creating a continuous loop video from it. And afterwards i cut first 5 seconds of it with the first filter trim. Then i do a quick and dirty move of all the timestamps of the main video by 5 seconds (125 frames). And finally comes an overlay filter, which places the grabbed frame entirely over the blank screen that was generated by shifting the video 5 seconds into the future.

Tested with avconv version v12_dev0-680-g3a724a7 built on Jan 22 2015 18:13:02

How to build avconv:

In terminal go to any directory where you are comfortable to place libav's code
run git clone git://git.libav.org/libav.git libav
enter into libav direcotry
run --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-encoders --enable-encoder=mjpeg --enable-encoder=flac --enable-encoder=ffvhuff --enable-encoder=libspeex --enable-encoder=libtheora --enable-encoder=libvorbis --enable-encoder=libxvid --enable-encoder=libopenjpeg --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libxvid --bindir=/home/USERNAME/bin

Note that here i am assuming that you have ~/bin directory, that is added to your execution PATH. If you don't just remove that option

Run make

It is possible that you will not have some libraries, if you encounter such errors either install them or remove "enable" options for those libs. Keep in mind that removing those options can make it impossible to generate files with some codecs.

Run make install (or if you chose to not place binary within your user directory, sudo make install).

Edit: Unfortunately due to a bug, video becomes shorter than it should have been. I have reported it https://bugzilla.libav.org/show_bug.cgi?id=858


ffmpeg zoompan filter zoom value limits Does ffmpeg zoompan filter has a cap for z value? I tried a simple test that stops zooming up at 10.5. Is it that 10.5 is the maximum value for the z parameter or is there a limit for maximum frame dimensions?

zoompan=z='print(zoom + 0.5)'

Output:

2.000000
2.500000
3.000000
3.500000
4.000000
4.500000
5.000000
5.500000
6.000000
6.500000
7.000000
7.500000
8.000000
8.500000
9.000000
9.500000
10.000000
10.500000
Last message repeated 26 times

If there is such a limit its worth mentioning in the docs as well as the minimum of 1. That matters when choosing the tool to implement a certain effect.

I wish ffmpeg had some versatile capability of arbitrary zoom and positioning video input without limitations, like in any compositing software.

zoom value is capped between 1 and 10.

I wish ffmpeg had some versatile capability of arbitrary zoom and positioninig video input without limitations

Patch welcome.


What is the best settings in handbrake for 640x480? I tried the default setting of the handbrake but generated video's size get greater than the original video itself. My video files are generally in between 100mb and 1.5Gb
I was wondering is it possible to detect the size before starting comprassion in handbrake and what is the best settings in handbrake for 640x480?

My current setup is as follows:

One thing you can certainly do is lower the bitrate. 23 is quite a high bitrate, even more so for a h.264 .mp4. You should get away with a bitrate of 5-7. Also, you're encoding using the preset of 720p, which would be 1280×720 pixels. However, you stated that your resolution is only 640x480, so matching those settings will do a great deal in filesize aswell.


Configure CQP (CRF) for h264_nvenc Encoding on CPU can be done via:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec h264 -crf 23 -acodec copy h264.mp4

GPU's alternative for the codec is h264_nvenc. How can I pass the same options to it?

I googled and came to following command:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec h264_nvenc -rc constqp -qp 23 -acodec copy h264_nvenc.mp4

But the file I get is much larger. And with other options quality is much worther.

PS: Same question in Russian.

from reading:
ffmpeg -h encoder=h264_nvenc

and the nvidia nvenc examples at (https://devblogs.nvidia.com/nvidia-ffmpeg-transcoding-guide/), I've arrived at:
ffmpeg -vsync 0 -hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i test_input.mp4 -c:a copy -c:v h264_nvenc -b:v 0 -cq 1 test3.mp4

where:
-b:v 0 over-rides the default 2mbps bitrate as noted by Gyan
-cq 1 means target quality level 1 (highest)
 range of 0-51.
 0 means automatic (in my case around 15mbps)
 1 gives about 15mbps, 26 results in around 5mbps, 51 results in 0.5mbps


two pass encoding Cannot write log file 'ffmpeg2pass-0.log' for pass-1 encoding I'm trying to execute a two-pass encoding with compiled ffmpeg library in android.

I'm running my app on a device that is not rooted. So after executing below commands I get :

  Cannot write log file 'ffmpeg2pass-0.log' for pass-1 encoding:
  Read-only file system

List<String> testEncodeList = new LinkedList<>();
testEncodeList.add("-i");
testEncodeList.add(inputPath);
testEncodeList.add("-pass");
testEncodeList.add("1");
testEncodeList.add("-f");
testEncodeList.add("null");
testEncodeList.add("-");
// cmd.add("/dev/null");
runSingleFFmpegTask(this, testEncodeList, new ExecuteBinaryResponseHandler() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(String message) {
        super.onSuccess(message);
        SRLog.i("FFMPEG_PASS1:" + "onSuccess" + "\n" + message);

        List<String> cmd = new LinkedList<>();
        cmd.add("-i");
        cmd.add(inputPath);
        cmd.add("-pass");
        cmd.add("2");
        cmd.add(generateOutput(MP4_FORMAT));
        runSingleFFmpegTask(AudioComp.this, cmd, new ExecuteBinaryResponseHandler() {
            @Override
            public void onSuccess(String message) {
                super.onSuccess(message);
                SRLog.i("FFMPEG_PASS2:" + "onSuccess" + "\n" + message);
            }

            @Override
            public void onFailure(String message) {
                super.onFailure(message);
                SRLog.i("FFMPEG_PASS2:" + "onFailure" + "\n" + message);
            }
        });

    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(String message) {
        super.onFailure(message);
        SRLog.i("FFMPEG_PASS1:" + "onFailure" + "\n" + message);
    }
});

Can I force log file 'ffmpeg2pass-0.log' be written in a custom path where a non-rooted device could access?

You have to set the -passlogfile option e.g. -passlogfile my/folder/path/fileprefix. ffmpeg will then write logs to files starting with fileprefix- in my/folder/path/. Set the option and same value in latter passes. The folder path must already exist.


Possible to reconstruct video from mbtree file? I have a large mbtree file and found out it was used for video transcoding. Is there any way to reconstruct the video from the mbtree file or is it just (useless) metadata?

It’s useless without the original media file.


How to make a 3D animated video from video games as realistic as possible? I am thinking about using The Sims game or any of the similar kind to capture video and then I would use the recording to add my own audio input. My friend and I are trying to make a kind of comedy show that would be using animated video sequence, which I would like to look as visually realistic as possible - in particular clothes and skin textures would be most important.

Creating and recording video from a game engine isn't a problem. Problem is the editing / processing of the recorded video.

What you are talking about doing is an example of an art form known as Machinama.  It is where you use a video game engine to play out the actions of a script and voice over it to produce content.  One widely successful such project is Red vs Blue which is based around the game engines used in Halo.  There are also quite a few different examples of machinama based around the World of Warcraft engine.

For your particular objectives, you would want something that makes it easy to setup camera positions and position actors.  Gary's Mod, while a bit dated, is one option for such a sand box.  There is also the slightly more advanced Source Filmmaker which is based on the same engine (Source) which is what Half Life 2 was based on.  It's a bit dated by today's standards, but both are pretty easy to use and might make a good introduction.

Once you get comfortable with those, it would just be a matter of moving to a more up to date game engine that features realistic motion and rendering.  Crytek's engines are pretty well respected for their flexibility and I believe they have pretty good support for things like custom camera positions.

If these turn out to be too complicated, using something with multiplayer and an observer mode can work as a camera as long as you can remove the UI.

Video editing itself is unfortunately a crap in/crap out kind of process.  You can't magically enhance the footage you get from the game and make it look more realistic.  You can do color grading (adjusting white balance, contrast, color balance, etc) to try and make more realistic tones, but if the textures and lighting and motion are inherently unrealistic, you aren't going to make them look significantly more realistic after the fact in post.


Can I manually change an .mp4 to .m4v by changing the extension in the Finder (mac) or explorer (win)? I need to change an .mp4 (h264, AAC-Audio) to an exactly same .m4v. Can I just rename it from "X.mp4" to "X.m4v"? By renaming, I mean clicking on it in Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Win) and renaming it.

Yes.

M4V is a slight extension to the MP4 container format. M4V is Apple's version, which adds optional DRM-encryption.

So if the video is DRM-protected (i.e. came from the iTunes store) it should stay as m4v (and will open by default in iTunes). If it's not, it can be used with either extension, and many players will be happy either way. By default, .m4v files will open with iTunes, which may be convenient.


after affect delay layer animation I am new to AE and I am trying to edit a Photo Album template ( its a video of a photo/videos album flipping pages ).
I managed most of my requirements, but failed to make some of the transitions longer. ( I need the page to delay the turn because the videos are longer than the current duration ). Thanks

In the composition where you drag and arrange individual pages. Pick the layer of the page you want to make longer, then click and drag that layer in the timeline to the desired length.


Search mpeg / avi frames in linux I might have an unusual problem for this site; among other duties, I manage the wireless network for a large corporate campus.  As part of an upgrade to our wireless access-points, I used a metal bracket to mount an AP on a rail about 10 feet off the ground.  When it was mounted, the bottom part of the access-point was parallel with the floor.

A week later, our cabling technicians noticed that someone had bent the AP about 70 degrees upward; given the strength of the bracket, it took a lot of force to do this.  We have a security camera about 90 feet away from this AP, but the relevant area I care about is about 3% of the camera's image area.

Due to the fuzziness and small area in the video, our security team said it would take about 30 man-hours to search the video (one person watching it for 3.5 days... given restrictions in playback, they can't zoom in during fast forward); as such, they weren't interested in going farther.

QUESTION:

It seems like there might be some way to build a list of candidate time slots in the video, where this 3% area drastically changed from normal for a given time-frame... let's say at least 20-seconds.

TBH, the bracket is only $30; however, since our old-crusty security guy swore it couldn't be automated, I took it as a point of curiosity to see whether that's true.  Obviously there are commercial solutions... I'm looking for "free" in linux.

The file would be about 6GB.  Is there a linux CLI solution to this problem?  I just need to reduce the times we look at to something manageable.  Even if I had to use a python image analytics library like OpenCV-python, that's a possibility but I'm hoping to (ab)use something like ffmpeg for this purpose.  If there isn't such a tool, which Open-CV function would be best for this job?

FFMPEG doesn't really have the tools to do motion detection out of the box. You can certainly do the cropping using the crop filter: -vf crop=w:h:x:y where w:h is the size of your cropped area and x:y its coordinates in the original image. So your ffmpeg script might look like:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -vf crop=123:45:67:89 output.mp4

Then you could find a frame of the output that contains no movement, export it to a still image, invert it and add it back to the video using overlay so that only parts of frames that are different would show up. Then use the blackdetect filter to find frames that are black. Then you could use some shell-fu to delete those parts of the video and finally concatenate the remainder into one clip. Whew.

…or you could use openCV. Here's a ready-rolled script that does motion detection: https://github.com/RobinDavid/Motion-detection-OpenCV


Template based video storage / online programmatic video editing tool? Is it any template based video format? Wants to create an animation video able to use for Facebook ads. Aim is to do direct marketing with videos, so video content is based on the target audience. The video is composition of a template, static background, and some photos that are moving in the video. Video needs to render for different advertisement with different photo set. Is it possible somehow? Is it a format i.e. I put template video and photos in one folder and when "starting" video, video "loads" photos in? Or I need to use an online / cloud based video editing tool which allows programmatic video edition?

As well as @ElderGeek's suggestion of ffmpeg, Adobe After effects can be used to generate bespoke video for the web. It can be fully scripted using Adobe's extendscript on the server and run as a headless process. You can thus programmatically create video templates and alter such things as text, image content, or insert clips, then render and deliver.

Note that the rendering does take time and CPU (for both ffmpeg and AE). To achieve real-time customisation you may want to consider using the HTML canvas element, which can support video and animation, working on the client side.


How to tune a musicbox I want to try to make my own musicbox. The picture below shows what I mean:

I was wondering how to determine the length of the metal tone generating plates (shown in dark grey). I assume it is a function of the length and thickness, I just don't know the exact relationship.

Could someone please provide me with a formula relating the plate dimensions with the frequency?

The tuned teeth (or lamellae) of the steel comb is typically set to a chromatic scale. To change the tuning would require adding or subtracting material to an individual tooth with some trial and error and a good ear. Changing the length would cancel the action of the pins on the revolving cylinder so that is not a good idea.

If you think the scale you have meets your tuning definition then it would be far easier to make a new scroll to change to the melodic and harmonic content you desire. If you are starting from scratch and have the tools you should make a system to be able to change the scrolls so you have a diversity of songs.

Here is a reference to tuning the reeds on a harmonica since this is adding and subtracting material related:

http://www.angelfire.com/music/harmonica/mikesretuning.html

Information on how to tune lamellae as used in a Karimba:

http://www.nscottrobinson.com/mbiratunings.php

Here's a place where you can make your own music box tunes by using
punchable paper strip musical movement:

http://www.deanorgans.co.uk/order_musicalmovements_mbm30hp.htm

Math part:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuning_fork#Calculation_of_frequency

UPDATE:

I am not entirely certain that using tuning fork math is the right place for a series of metal bars as found in a music box comb so I have done some more searches and found a reference that covers much more here:

http://windworld.com/features/tools-resources/exmis-free-bar-length-calculator/


Motion capture and 3D model formats I have a light background in CAD and modelling, and I want to use some virtual sets with motion capture.

I'm trying to determine what program/platform my next 3D model should use if I want to work with someone to place an actor in there, with camera movements.

I have some models I've already built, but I can rebuild them if I need to use a new program.

Q: Are there standard model file formats that mocap systems use?  What are they?

Q: what about the camera mocap data?

I am just now learning about the pipeline for this, so if I've made inaccurate assumptions somewhere here, please feel free to correct me.

I believe it goes like:

the "live" crew captures footage of an actor, either with a mocap suit on, or not

somehow there is camera motion data captured from this process
if a mocap suit is used, somehow it is captured from this process

the "virtual" crew builds models for sets, lighting models, and possibly character models to use the mocap data
once both are finished, a renderer composites the motion with the models for a finished product

You are a little confused in the MoCap process.

Most mocap is captured live on either a soundstage or direct to your computer with a webcam/video camera with specialized software. This software converts the action footage with markers into data (usually xyz coordinates for each marker on the model for the time of the motion. This data is then used to move the 3D model with the motion file (there are several file formats, 'bvh' being the most generic).

You can also purchase motion data of a variety of actions from certain companies that sell their data online. The motion data will only work with models that have a 'skeleton' file embedded with the object file. There are several file formats that ave used for this. Models by 3D Studio, Maya, Poser, Daz Studio have their models available with the 'skeleton' file available.

Learning this on your own will be quite a challenge! I used to teach whole classes in college dedicated to these individual parts of 3D computer graphics!

I would recommend going to the Daz Studio site, or the Poser site for a ton of information about this subject. Have fun!


Preserving Frame Rate I'm a physicist with no experience in video production.

I work with satellite imagery and I have created timelapses where one frame corresponds to one minute. It matters I preserve the time/frame rate. However, I am finding this difficult

Using Adobe Premiere Pro I track features on the satellite imagery using a coloured dot (using timeframes etc), then export this as a movie which I analyse using a script I have coded. I then get data regarding where the coloured dots are, their velocity and the interactions between them. However, my velocities are meaningless at the moment because of the frame rate issue - I can't preserve the 1 frame for one minute issue. Sometimes premiere pro skips frames or doesn't update the whole frame, etc.

I cannot get the frames to be preserved though my animation process. I have a counter on the timelapse which increases by 1 for each frame. In the finished video, this no longer increases by 1 for each frame.

I really want to maintain the frame rate and stop "interlacing", i.e. where the whole frame doesn't update. I just want the original video with my animations on them - no other changes.

Edit with examples

The interlacing problem:

This frame is repeated twice in the resultant video:

Full video (2Mb) can be found here. (https://www.dropbox.com/s/x0dmj9j8br2j4y3/AL_202_Tracking%20copy.mov?dl=0). When going frame by frame, note that the frame counter of the original timelapse at the bottom right hand of the screen does not match that of the resultant video with animation overlay. The solution ideally needs to have each frame of the original timelapse match that of the resultant video. i.e. each time you move forward a frame, the counter increases by an integer.

If anyone is interested what you are looking at; its x-ray imagery from the Hinode satellite (NASA/JAXA) pointing at the sun, looking at eruptions from the sun.

At first I did not understand your question, after you have supplied the example video I understood what your problem is.
The issue is that when you import the Images, Premiere Pro assigns a default Frame Rate to them, which might be different from what you desire.
Changing Sequence Frame Rate does not change Images default Frame Rate when you import them, to fix this you can do the following:

Create a new Project
In Project Window right click > import > select first Image only and check Image Sequence.

Right click on Image Sequence in Project Window > modify > interpret Footage.

check "Assume this frame rate" and set desired FPS and click OK.

Drag Image Sequence from Project Window to Timeline. Then Render/Export as usual and make sure the Frame Rate at export matches the one you set up earlier.

NOTE: Image Sequence imported, Sequence in Timeline and Export Settings have to have the same Frame Rate.
That is all. You should not have any Skipped or Extra Frames in output video.


M2TS as a format / container is not able to store chapter information itself. On Blu-Ray disks, the chapter data is stored in the playlist files. Therefore you won't see chapters when you just load an M2TS file in a player.
I am actually a total newbie to this, so I have no clue whether tsMuxeR creates appropriate playlist files when producing the ISO file. If so, you should see the chapters when you load the playlist file into the player, not the M2TS file.


How do you dramatically reduce the size of a video while keeping the quality as much as possible? I'm very surprised how the video i have recorded with my camera are so heavy for small length (i have 4GB for only 20min). I've been trying compression softwares like handbrake, but it doesn't reduce the size enough IMO, and decreases the quality when i want to compress too much.

Just aside, you know those 700MB movies that last 1h and whose quality is still better than my video how come ? how do they do to compress ? do they use some professional expensive equipment ? or its just a matter of software ?

please help me to understand this, and to find out a way to compress my videos to the maximum.

I'm not familiar with handbrake, but this is basically a math problem.

First, you have to decide on a codec. One of the 'best' codecs in regards to quality/filesize-ratio as well as device-compatibility is H.264, so I would recommed you go with that.

I've done a quick search on handbrake and it appears you can set the quality in two ways, either by choosing a Rate Factor (RF) or by setting an Average Bitrate (see screenshot, correct me if I'm wrong).

Source: Wikipedia

Since you want a ratio of 700 MB per 1 hour of video, let's do the math:

700 MB = 700 x 8 Mb =  5600 Mb
5600 Mbit / 3600 s = 1,56 Mb/s = 1560 kbps

So to achieve this filesize average, set your Average Bitrate to 1560 kbps. This is quite low for HD video, so make sure to check the 2-pass encoding option, which will increase the quality at the cost of a longer encoding time (it does so by doing a first check or pass on the video as to how high a bitrate is needed for every part of it, so the encoder can better adjust the bitrate accordingly over the course of the video).

One final note, the video you linked recommends you change the audio bitrate to 128 kbps. This is a bad idea. Given that we are already using up 1,56 Mbit per second for the video, the few additional bits per second that are needed for the audio won't make much of a difference regarding the resulting file size. And 128 kbps will sound bad; we are much better at detecting flaws in audio than in video. I highly recommend you set the audio bitrate to at least 256 kbps.


The -itsoffset parameter of FFmpeg is having no effect When rendering my animation video with ffmpeg, I want my video to start with 28-odd seconds of silencebefore the soundtrack begins.

(Well, I really want it to be 0.28 seconds but making it longer makes debugging easier.)

That's easy enough. According to the manual and SuperUser and others, it is all about adding the -itsoffset parameter before the audio input you wish to delay.

Here's my command line:

ffmpeg -y -itsoffset 28.84 -i soundtrack.wav -framerate 30 -i %d.png -r 30 -vcodec mpeg4 generated.mp4

It generates the video, but the soundtrack starts immediately.

I am stll new to FFmpeg, so I assume I am missing something obvious.

You can use the adelay filter for MP4.

ffmpeg -y -i soundtrack.wav -framerate 30 -i %d.png -af "adelay=28840|28840" -r 30 -vcodec mpeg4 generated.mp4


Does raising the framerate while not changing the bitrate result in quality loss? AFAIK, the bitrate is the number of bits per second. So let's say I have two videos, both using the same codec, bitrate settings and resolution. If the first one has a framerate of 25fps, but the second one runs at 50fps, does that mean that the second one will have a drastically lower quality since the available bits for each second of the video have to be divided amongst twice as much frames?

Or is this effect diminished by motion compensation (e.g. by having more P-frames and less I-frames) or something like that?

If the result of increasing the frame rate is that more pixels are displayed per second, then yes, keeping the bit rate the same will almost certainly mean a loss in overall quality. Not all such losses are objectionable or even necessarily noticeable. For example, if the bit rate is 30 Mb/s and you reduce it to 15 Mb/s, probably not many people would notice.


How can I make videos like this? (mostly samples pitched into iconic pop or meme melodies) Are there any explanations or tutorials? People don't seem to discuss how they're done in the comments at all and google doesn't help either.
I looked up some sheet music and pitched and adapted the horn sample to it in Audacity but 1) it takes unbearably long, 2) it does not help with the video and 3) made mistakes are difficult to correct. So what would be a better and faster way?

I can't think of a quick way to do this. It's probably going to be, as you said, an unbearably long process. I'd create the music separately from the video. That is:

First, compose some the background parts of all the songs you want to use (without the melody line). Sample the car horn.  Include that sample in a musical keyboard. Use that keyboard sample to play the melody line over your background music. Keep a recording of that.
Then bring that track into your video editor. Remove the video's sound and only allow the music you wrote. Then, cut up little tiny clips of your video - like the cat mid-air for a few frames. Pick 1-2 clips per "song". Repeat that same clip every time the sampled horn plays a note from the melody, and occasionally vary the clip a little (zoom in, reverse it, or some other variation).

That's going to be a very tedious project as you suspected. It took me hours to make this video, but I used the 2-step process above (though step 2 was obviously somewhat different).


Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height ffmpeg -i test.mp4 -acodec libvorbis -vcodec libvpx out.webm
ffmpeg version N-57647-g1880294 Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Oct 30 2013 19:25:44 with gcc 4.4.7 (GCC) 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-3)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local --enable-version3 --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libvpx --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libxvid --disable-ffplay --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-nonfree --enable-avfilter --enable-pthreads --extra-cflags=-fPIC --arch=x86_64
  libavutil      52. 48.100 / 52. 48.100
  libavcodec     55. 39.100 / 55. 39.100
  libavformat    55. 19.104 / 55. 19.104
  libavdevice    55.  5.100 / 55.  5.100
  libavfilter     3. 90.100 /  3. 90.100
  libswscale      2.  5.101 /  2.  5.101
  libswresample   0. 17.104 /  0. 17.104
  libpostproc    52.  3.100 / 52.  3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'test.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf55.19.104
  Duration: 00:01:47.16, start: 0.023220, bitrate: 273 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 320x180 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 192 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 74 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
File 'out.webm' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
[libvpx @ 0xc4bd00] v0.9.0
[libvpx @ 0xc4bd00] Failed to initialize encoder: ABI version mismatch
Output #0, webm, to 'out.webm':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf55.19.104
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: vp8, yuv420p, 320x180 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 200 kb/s, 90k tbn, 25 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: vorbis, 44100 Hz, mono, fltp (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 -> libvpx)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac -> libvorbis)
Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

Is my CLI wrong? Do I need to specify more commands.

This is an issue with your ffmpeg installation.  You have a mismatch between the version numbers of the libraries you are trying to use.  Most likely, your version of the webm libraries is not built on the same version of ffmpeg as you are using.


Graphics Cards that have SDI outs I am looking for a medium to high end graphics card that has SDI outputs. I have a home studio with a SDI matrix switch and I want to hook my Gaming Computer into this rig. I am planning on doing some gaming livestreams, and I want to use my studio m/e switch to control the stream.

My other idea was to use some DVI to SDI converter, but since I have multiple monitors, it would probably be cheaper to replace my graphics cards

You are best off to convert from a supported format (DVI, HDMI, maybe even DisplayPort) to SDI.  SDI cards are not designed for gaming, they are designed for workstations and video.  You aren't going to get a good quality gaming graphics card with SDI outputs.


How does TV video quality remain same on both small and large TVs? Suppose I have a 32" and a 64" television. Now if I use SD dish connection(like Tata Sky) for both, I will get almost same same video quality on both, right? I was wondering how this is possible. I mean, any shows on TV are aired at 640x480 res(for SD), so why doesn't the video get distorted for a larger TV?

The quality does differ. If both TVs have the same resolution and specs, the image on the bigger one will be more pixelated if viewed from the same distance. The last part of the sentence is the key. You will probably sit farther away from the 64" television. The recommended viewing distance increases proportionally in relation to the screen size (for example, here is a calculator).
If you watch the same source video from the same viewing distance on both TVs, you will notice more pixelation on the bigger one.

You can also notice this effect when looking at any (pixel-based) image on your screen. Open any image on your computer. Looks smooth? Good, then zoom in by a few hundred percent. Now you will notice pixelation to the point where you can make out the individual pixels. Conversely, if you have a pixelated image and zoom out enough, it will look smooth. The same thing happens when you move your chair farther away from/closer to your TV.


Adobe CC Post-Production Workflow (Story, Prelude etc.) I've never understood the post-production workflow Adobe has designed.

I understand the steps from the editing stage onwards (assume this is a large enough production to require all steps):

Premiere: Ingest footage into bins, assistant edit, possible assembly edit
Premiere: Edit to picture lock-off
After Effects: VFX/Grading

Alternatively, use SpeedGrade for grading

Audition: Sound Mix
Premiere: Bring final grade, sound mix together
Media Encoder: Render project

However, I don't understand the workflow of Adobe Story, Prelude, and how they enhance the established workflow.

Update 1:

I should mention, I have done some research previously, but Adobe's site is delightfully dense and explanatory.

From Adobe's site, Prelude is described as:

  Metadata, megafast

  Work faster with smarter video ingest and logging.

How does this help the workflow, what does it add to the process?

Under our rules for asking questions a constructive question that "inspires answers that explain “why” and “how”" is acceptable.

Your workflow is a little off from how it is designed by Adobe.

Step 1: Adobe Story: You build your script and can break it into shots that you need to capture before you even start shooting.  This can then work as the blueprint to plan out shooting of the project.

Step 2: Adobe Prelude: I believe you can preconfigure a shot list that needs to be captured with meta data about the scenes.  Prelude can either be used for live capture or can be used to Ingest and organize footage on site during shooting.  Think of it a bit like Lightroom for Video.  It's intended to organize the shots so that they can more effectively be reviewed and pulled up during shooting and post production.

Step 3: Premiere: Rough edit, start laying out clips and getting the flow of the piece together.

Step 4/5: After Effects: any touch up or effects work that needs to be done on individual clips can be processed through After Effects and sent back to Premiere.  This could also be done before rough editing, but is probably easier after/during.  This may also include color grading or SpeedGrade may be used.

Step 4/5: Audition: basically the same thing as After Effects, but on the sound track/audio side on a clip level.

Step 6: Premiere: Once assets are finalized, final edit can occur to produce the finished timings for the video.

Step 7/8: Audition: Mastering, finish the audio and sound-tracking for the entire finished video to make sure it flows well from one clip to another.

Step 7/8: After Effects or Speed Grade: Perform final color grading to ensure the entire film flows well together.

Step 9: Media Encoder or Encore: Prepare final output format, either encoding for the web or building a DVD and/or Blueray disk for release.


How to use cloning effect if the clips are overlapping themselves? I have tried to combine two video clips, but it feels impossible. In the first clip there's one character running around the screen. In the second clip the character is just standing (still being animated however) and the first clip's character should be running around him. When I tried to use the basic cloning effect by using a mask to the second clip, the first character simply disappeared from the screen when it reached the mask of the second one. How do I combine them so that the first character won't ruin the scene?!

I'm using Sony Vegas Pro 11.

If the character runs in front and then behind the other character then either a depth map or a manually adjusted mask is going to be necessary.  I'm unfortunately an After Effects guy, so I don't know how you would do that in Vegas.

If nothing else, you might be able to creatively do it by putting one layer of the character running around on top and another layer of the character running around underneath the character that is standing still and then cutting back and forth between them.

That is of course assuming that the animations have alpha channel support and that Vegas properly interprets the alpha channel.


Scrolling text on video I want to take an mp3 podcast and its transcript and create a video of the text scrolling vertically on the screen with the audio.

I need to scroll 10~20 lines of text so that I don't have to sync each line.

I used MS MovieMaker for this job but now I want to automate the process.

What tool do you recommend, ffmpeg, AviSynth? Also startup tips and examples would be very helpful as I don't have any experience in video processing.

I hope after 3 years you managed to solve it. But here is an option anyway.
Use any decent video editor.
Some editors have "text" effects, like an "end credits scene". On Davinci Resolve (which is free) you simply add this effect and control the speed, font, color.
Some other programs simply allow you to import an image file with a transparent background and move it around the frame.
You can prepare this PNG file in Gimp, add the text there and import and move it on the editing program.
Some programs that allow you to move elements (Keyframing) are Hit film express and OpenShot, besides Davinci Resolve.


How much SSDs to use on computer for DaVinci Resolve Studio? I want to build a computer for DaVinci Resolve Studio. I want to choose how much SSD to use in it.
I thought of two variants. In both variants I will not store archive files on computer on which I will work in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Only current project work files will be on computer on which I will work in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Archive files I will store in NAS or another computer with RAID.

Variant 1. On computer for DaVinci Resolve Studio one SSD: M.2, PCI-E x4, NVMe.
Two logical disks on it: disk C, disk D.
Disk C: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, applications including DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Disk D: current project work files.

Variant 2. On computer for DaVinci Resolve Studio two SSDs. Each SSD: M.2, PCI-E x4, NVMe.
First SSD. Disk C on it. On disk C: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, applications including DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Second SDD. Disk D on it. On disk D: current project work files.

What is better for DaVinci Resolve Studio's performance, stability, data safety?

Variant 2 is gonna use 2 SSD Simultaneously, Which means IF one SSD can read Data upto 500MB/s then Both of them is gonna use Double that!
Feels Awesome, right?
But, That is not the fact.... Disk C is Only Gonna Send Huge Amount of Data to RAM when A Software Located inside Disk C is Starting.... When Finished loading It's Gonna be Back to It's idle mode....

That 1-3MB/s Doesn't Really Matter at all to The scale of 500MB/s.
So You can go with 1 Big SSD rather than 2 SSDs.
I would Suggest Doing that, You can Save Some bucks!

Also in my case, I was Downloading a File in Disk C. That's Why it Jumped to 14MBp/s But Usually, Even when Resolve will be Running Speed will be Jumping around 1.8MB/s
I was Worried about Performance Just Like you, Months Ago... I changed my build, Switched to AMD R9 then... My Solution was... Giving the SSD it's Very Own Disk rather than Storing C:Local Drive On it! i Store Local drive in HDD, all The Small and Not-So-Performance-Needed Software in there... The Softwares on which I needed Performance (eg: Blender, Cinema 4D, Fusion) I Installed them inside a Folder In Disk X (Disk X is on SSD)


Understanding Region of Interest selection in a Camera I want to understand how ROI selection actually happens inside a camera? I have an ethernet camera, that can capture and send images to the PC, based on user defined ROI. The advantage of this is that I transfer only useful/relevant data from the image to my PC which will process it, instead of processing on the complete image.

The manufacturer has given a user guide, that gives very little details. The user guide says that ROI Selection-1(see figure below) is a valid ROI, and the ROI Selection-2 is of no use, in the sense that it will be still sending the complete image (though with some 0 values or garbage). That is the ROI selection-2 will not give any advantage of having only useful data transfer.

In support of his arguments he has given the following figure(without any explanation)

Horizontal scanning

Vertical scanning

Can someone help me understand why the selection 2 is invalid. I am really facing problem in understanding these pulses. Is there any link giving details about these pulses?

The image is scanned (and data stored) with an imaginary cursor starting at the upper left, working across horizontally to the right, then the cursor pauses to move down one line and resetting to left edge. One could think of the rectangular image as a single string where the "carriage return - line feed" is merely implied by keeping track of the timing (or counting pixels). In most image storage formats, the width and height are tags in the header and the data itself is a long stream without demarcated frame extents. Since the figures speak about clocks and blanking however, file storage is probably not implicated here.

I think that the horizontal scan lines can be skipped (or at least started and then reset arbitrarily), but cannot be started at an arbitrary distance from the left edge.

Selection 1, is optimal for this behavior: you send a minimal set of commands to skip down to the proper horizontal position, and scanning can start at the upper left of the desired viewport scan what is desired and then skip the rest.

In Selection 2, we must scan every single line to at least the rightward extent of the part we are interested in, at which time we can send a command to move to the next line and reset.

Very roughly: if you have a 99w x 99h "units", and are interested in 1/3 of the image centered as in the examples, in selection 1, you scan 99w x 33h units while in selection 2, you must scan 66w x 99h units minimum. It is unclear to me, but the supporting figure looks to me to be speaking about selection 2 only, and the horizontal "2,592clk 1H" implies to me that the right-side mask is skipped for scanning.

Note that if the camera cannot start a horizontal line without scanning the complete line (i.e. can't stop and reset at an arbitrary distance from the left edge), then the selection 2 scenario must scan 99w x 99h units.


Does SSD reduce render time significantly? I wanted to know if it is worth it to buy SSDs to improve render speed?
By what percent can SSDs reduce render time?

P.S. I ask this because, some time ago, I accidentally changed hard drive cables and after that my Sony Vegas render time has increased 3 times. I couldn't solve it back after that, then I concluded that hdd speed might be problem.

It depends entirely on the type of rendering you are doing and the specs of your computer.  Bottle necks can occur in many different parts of the rendering pipeline.  Generally speaking, rendering is very GPU or CPU intensive, depending on if the render engine is CUDA (or similar) enabled.  If the renderer is able to utilize a GPU, then GPUs and/or dedicated encoding cards will generally provide the largest boost to performance if they have not already been optimized, if not GPU enabled, then CPU becomes the biggest factor if not extremely fast or doing very light rendering.

Memory is a potentially large factor as well and would compound with the hard drive.  If there is not enough storage space for the CPU or GPU to work on the video stream, then it will have to spend much more time moving data on and off the hard drive.  In this case (if the memory is showing high utilization during render) then increasing the amount of memory is likely to yield a significant improvement in performance.

Data transfer rate is still potentially a bottleneck though.  If rendering is very minimally CPU/GPU intensive and/or the system already have very high performing CPUs or GPUs, then it is possible that a HDD would not be able to keep the render engine supplied with data to process.

An easy way to tell if your disk drive is a problem is to look at how long the render takes relative to the rate at which you can playback video in the editor.  If you are encoding to a different drive than your source material is on, then if the HDD is a bottleneck, it would be expected that render speed should move at the same rate as you are able to playback.  If you can playback footage at 20fps, then your HDD is capable of feeding at least 20 frames per second (with no effects applied).  If the render engine is processing less than 20 frames a second, the processing speed is the limit.  If it is processing 20 frames a second, then it is entirely possible that the HDD is failing to keep the render engine supplied with data to process.

If you are storing the render on the same drive you are reading your source from, it becomes much harder to tell as a HDD requires moving the read/write head between where it is reading the source data and writing the render results.  This extra seek time will drastically slow the performance of the drive.  As a rule of thumb, I'd say to consider looking in to disk related solutions if your render time is better than 1/3 of the playback rate when reading and writing to the same drive, though I'd encourage trying to do a test on different drives for source and output to be more certain.  So, if you are reading and writing to the same drive and you can play back 30fps, then if your encoding is running at 10fps or higher, an SSD might be helpful. (As might more memory as that would reduce how often the system has to switch between reading and writing and help cover the gap.)


Maintaining thumbnails in Premiere CC When I open a bin containing video files in Premiere CC on a Mac, if I want to view the video files as thumbnails, I have to wait quite a few seconds every time.  Is there a setting so that I can cache these thumbnail views somewhere?

Allocate as much RAM to Premiere as possible (in the settings), and, as Kazanaki suggested, learn to use proxies (lower resolution copies of your master files).


how do 4k or 1080 images look like on a 720p monitor? I try to display higher resolution images (2400x1600) on my smaller 1366x768 monitor. I've noticed in 'normal view' (without zoom), it looks like some details are washed out, however when I zoom into a certain extent I notice that these details appear very clearly.

I believe that there are missing pixels, which not displayed properly on my monitor because of the difference between the pixel scale of the image and the monitor...

Would this 2400x1600 image look better on a monitor of the same pixel scale?

Thanks in advance to all your help!

When displaying an image whose pixel sizes are larger than your monitor, you loose some information and your graphic card is doing some processing to fit the large image in a smaller screen. You will get the best result when watching the image on a monitor whose native pixel sizes are equal to the image pixel sizes.


Sync presentation with video of the speaker I'm wondering if there is a quick and easy way to synchronize a video of a conference speaker with the slides that the speaker shows without having to manually edit them in Premiere or Final Cut. The result should look something like this: https://youtu.be/o12-90Dm-Qs?t=699
Also I want to avoid another camera just to record the presentation.

Without having to do anything? No, that's probably impossible. How would the computer know when to switch to the next slide? What you could to is capture a video of the screen of the computer used to show the presentation using some software like fraps and synchronize the screen capture and the camera recording. However, this has two downsides; screen capture software tends to produce very large video files, which could fill up a the hard-drive of a normal laptop really quick. Also, your video quality would be far from perfect.

What I would probably do to minimize working hourse is capture a small (i.e. SD) version of the presentation and use that to insert the slides manually in Premiere (or whatever you're using). If you have the screen capture as an indicator as to when each slide was shown, inserting the original ones in another video track at the right times should be a matter of minutes ...


Why did a 10 minute video take up 32GB of space? (Canon 1200D) I have a Canon 1200D DSLR camera and last night I was recording a 20 minute live show but my 32GB card filled up in just under 10 minutes. I was shooting at 1920x1080 50FPS.

I had checked the manual before hand and it said I should have had 44 minutes on a 16GB card which equates to roughly 88 minutes on my 32GB card.

So why did this happen? Cheers!

For one thing, that chart doesn't list 1920x1080 @ 50 fps, which is what you're shooting.  It lists 1920x1080 at 24, 25, and 30.  You can assume that you'll get around half the recording time listed when you double the frame rate.   But that should still get you around 44 minutes on an otherwise empty 32 GB card.  The fact that you didn't suggests that your card didn't have 32 GB of free space.  You probably had other pictures, movies, or files on the card already.  To get the full available recording time, you'll need to follow the manual's instructions on "formatting" the card.  Formatting a card erases all of its contents, so make sure you copy anything you want to keep over to a computer first.


Ffmpeg error: 2nd pass has more frames than 1st pass I'm recording video in windows 10 with gdigrab so want the capture as fast as possible in pass 1 and encode to a smaller file in pass 2.  No matter what I do I always get this error when executing pass 2:

  [libx264 @ 000000000084ca60] 2nd pass has more frames than 1st pass
  (460)

  [libx264 @ 000000000084ca60] continuing anyway, at constant QP=4

Pass 1 command:
    ffmpeg -y -rtbufsize 1500M  -f gdigrab -framerate 29.97 -draw_mouse 0 -offset_x 224 -offset_y 232 -video_size 1280x720 -i desktop -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -r 29.97 -pass 1 -an -tune zerolatency -preset ultrafast -b:v 2600k -crf 0 -f mp4 NUL

Pass 2 command:
    ffmpeg -y -rtbufsize 1500M  -f gdigrab -framerate 29.97 -draw_mouse 0 -offset_x 224 -offset_y 232 -video_size 1280x720  -i desktop -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -r 29.97 -pass 2 -an -tune zerolatency -preset ultrafast -b:v 2600k -crf 22 C:/myVideo.mp4

I've tried setting -crf to 0 on the second pass but always get the same error.  Also the video that does get written by the second pass just has the first frame of the first pass.
EDIT:  Also tried adding -passlogfile to no avail.

What am I doing wrong?

Two-pass is meant for when you have a fixed input and you wish to analyze the file beforehand, so that the encode is optimized for the target bitrate and other encoder parameters.

Your 1st command is discarding the capture. And so your 2nd command is using the stats from pass 1 to apply to a new capture, which obviously won't match.

Use

ffmpeg -y -rtbufsize 1500M -f gdigrab -framerate 30000/1001 -draw_mouse 0 -offset_x 224 -offset_y 232 -video_size 1280x720 -i desktop -c:v libx264 -r 30000/1001 -an -tune zerolatency -preset ultrafast -crf 0 Capture.mp4

and then

ffmpeg -y -i Capture.mp4 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -pass 1 -an -b:v 2600k -f mp4 NUL

ffmpeg -y -i Capture.mp4 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -pass 2 -an -b:v 2600k myVideo.mp4


Premiere Pro: Multiple bit depths in same timeline? all...

I want to do a two camera shoot but one camera records 10-bit 4:2:2 and the other 8-bit 4:2:2. Can I put clips from both cameras on the same timeline in Premiere Pro?

Thanks

Steve

Yes. Premiere can handle different codecs, dimensions, frame rates, and bit depths etc. just fine.


ffmpeg: Normalize audio in an avi file Ι have an avi file that has different levels of audio. Is there a way to decrease and increase appropriately where needed the audio of my file using ffmpeg?

You can use ffmpeg with the compand audio filter (a port of sox effect filter of same name) to "compress or expand the audio's dynamic range", but admittedly this is one of the more complicated audio filters.
Example from the documentation
Make music with both quiet and loud passages suitable for listening to in a noisy environment (whatever that means):
ffmpeg -i input -filter_complex \
"[0:a]compand=.3|.3:1|1:-90/-60|-60/-40|-40/-30|-20/-20:6:0:-90:0.2[audio]" \
-map 0:v -map "[audio]" -codec:v copy output

The video is stream copied (re-muxed) in this example since you probably don't want to touch the video.


Can someone suggest a software for video format conversion for Mac? I am newbie to this video world and have started using a Canon G7X to shoot video (I shoot casual video of my babies, family outings etc). Could someone help me find a good software which I can use to convert the video (codec, frame-rate, aspect ratio etc.).

Why I need such a software? Because G7X allows me to shoot 60p video and my TV (Samsung smart TV) does not play anything beyond 30p.

I also understand that I can shoot 30p video directly from camera; however, I would like to create some slo-mo videos as well.

Also, I am planning to buy a Nikon D810 this holiday; so I will be taking good amount of video.

I use MacBook pro retina (15") laptop, so, kindly suggest Mac compatible softwares.

Thank, NN

Free: MPEG Streamclip

Paid: Movavi Converter


Do cartoon creators have to pay software owners? Do they have to pay Adobe if they use Flash to animate? Do they have to give them money in production, broadcasting, or otherwise?

As a media creator, you pay for use of the tool, not for the use of the result from using the tool.  Different companies have different systems, but you either buy the software up front or pay a fixed subscription to have the tool available to you.

It does not matter if you are using it for personal use (though sometimes educational copies will get you a discount for non-commercial use), making a video for your ad supported youtube channel or producing the super bowl.  The cost of the software remains the same.

It's similar to buying any other tool (say a hammer).  You can either buy the hammer or rent it from a hardware store, but you don't pay for every house you sell that you build with the hammer, you just pay for the hammer.


After Effects is not seeing CUDA in my GTX 1060 GPU I've got this weird problem. I have the latest After Effects 2020 and this is how my "GPU Information" window looks like.
As far as I remember, this is not how it should normally be. It must have CUDA details and other options. Why are they missing?
I've spent 3 hours and still got nothing.

I think that's the wrong place. Please go to File -> Project Settings -> and into the first tab: Video and Rendering Effects. There you should find "Mercury GPU Acceleration (CUDA)" as can be seen in the screenshot below.


How can I reduce the size of a webm to 2MB? Let's say that I have a webm of XMB, and I want to resize it to 2MB in order too upload it to some websites. How can I do it?
Is there a website? Can I downsize them in mass?

Use Avanti with ffmpeg. The former has a job control manager where you drop in multiple files at once and go. You can find webm encoding guide for ffmpeg here: http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VP8

Use crf mode encoding and experiment till you get desired size. Set b:v high like 10M and tweak CRF value and if you have no audio, use -an in place of -c:a libvorbis.

Your Avanti GUI should look like this:

Change the crf number (30 in that pic) till you get the size you want.


How to get audience audio in a small conference/training for 40-80 people? What is the best way to record/capture audience audio when questions asked or interacted with the presenter without passing secondary mic hand to hand?

Currently we have a presenter's mic that is going through audio board and on camera mic that captures general audience audio. But it creates a bad audio as camera is placed at the back at the room.

Has any one tried placing mics around the room to capture it? Any solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a video that covers everything you need to know about sound recording for video: http://nofilmschool.com/2015/08/24-sound-basics-will-help-you-lay-sturdy-foundation

If you don't have 18 minutes to spend, the specific answer to your question is that basically you cannot capture well the human voice when a mic is more than 3 feet away.  Even if you use a high-quality mic and a high-quality pre-amp, the quality of your audio will drop precipitously as you break the 3-foot rule.  (There are exceptions such as professional singers and actors hitting PZM stage mics, but even that is not great.)

If you place mics around the room in such a way that nobody has to throw their voice more than 3 feet to reach a microphone, then you might have a solution.  But that might require 20-40 microphones, and an audio system capable of recording 20-40 inputs simultaneously.  Impractical.

Alternatively, you could have 3 mics, one for each zone of 15-30 people, which you can rapidly run to whichever audience member is trying to speak.  When they hold the mic (at least 1-2" from their mouth and at most 3 feet away), you should get fairly good results.  That would require an audio system that can record four tracks simultaneously (one for the podium mic and 3 for the audience mics), which is very simple nowadays.


How to inserty custom background or second plan footage using dynamic mask in After Effects? I need to change the sign contents in the clip

The problem is that in some parts gets "blocked" by walking in front of it Minions. How would you solve this challenge?

Screenshots:

Something like that is solved with "Rotoscoping". After Effects has several features that make this process easier. F.e. the "Roto Brush", you can find a tutorial about that here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/roto-brush-refine-matte.html

Then you will have to track the translation and rotation of the sign as its carried around. When you have that you can add a layer that follows the movement of the sign that holds your new content.


Saving audio while streaming video using ffmpeg While I was checking streaming guide, I noticed that I can stream my webcam and mic using a command like the following:
ffmpeg -f dshow -i video="screen-capture-recorder":audio="Stereo Mix (IDT High Definition" \
-vcodec libx264 -preset ultrafast -tune zerolatency -r 10 -async 1 -acodec libmp3lame -ab 24k \
-ar 22050 -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -maxrate 750k -bufsize 3000k -f mpegts udp://192.168.5.215:48550

But wonder if I can save audio in a file while streaming video. The reason is that I want to use opencv to process video stream and then merge the result of opencv processing with the audio file. Any idea if it is possible to save audio in a file while streaming video alone?

Firstly, you should stream webcam and mic through the udp multicast address i.e. 224.1.1.1:10001.
Secondly, you execute ffmpeg -i udp://224.1.1.1:10001 out.mp3 or more options of the FFMPEG audio to do the audio extraction on another command prompt.


How to make a fake 3d effect (The Matrix 3d rotation style) from 2 video sources? I have two sources from differents points of view of the same scene. I'd like to start the video from one camera, stop it, and make a rotation to the second source just like a famous The Matrix scene. They made use of several cameras, but I only have two sources, just like bellow:

Is it possible to make it using an "easy" way ?
If yes, can you link a tutorial or sum up the steps ?
Does this technique have a name ?

I'm a real beginner, so please try to detail as possible your answer.

This is possible, though it wouldn't look real at all.. If you use Adobe After Effects you can just put both sources in one composition. Then you would turn on the 3D-mode on each of the layers. There is a button on each layer. If you click it there should be a small picture of a cube where you clicked.

Then you press P on each of the layers to bring up the position sliders. Then you animate the first layer until it "matches" the position of the second camera. (The axis that goes from the top of the image and downwards.) Do this for both the layers and just blend them together. I don't remember if you have to insert a camera into the scene too. So you basically move the layers to simulate movement. Oh, and add motion blur too with the motion blur button next to the 3d-button. Remember to switch on the master blur button too. This will make the camera movement (or in this instance the movement of the layer itself) look more natural. Remember to zoom in a bit into the comp to compensate for the 3D.

Please post your video so we can see how it looks! :)


What is the minimum camera requirements to create professional quality videos? We are hiring videographers and we noticed that some of their videos have colors that appear extremely far away from accurate color reproduction as well as highly pixelated/grainy quality despite 1080p resolution. It reminds me of my old cellphone cameras where it has a low megapixel value and it would end up very grainy.
It was most likely that they used wrong compression or a wrong file format or it because they had bad equipment to begin with. We are looking for professional quality videos similar to the one shown below where it has good color accuracy and the video looks HD with no flickering and pixels flying around:
Taste Show Video
Budget constraints are taken into consideration as extremely high end camera equipment is probably too way off the budget. What we are looking for is a good enough camera that can reproduce quality similar to the sample video shown. It is very difficult to have an idea of which camera can produce quality videos given there are a lot of options in the market and first hand experience is needed to tell if it is good or not. But there may be a criteria that video production people look for to know which equipment can produce quality videos.

The camera only plays a part in what makes a good, clean image. The most important parts are Lighting, Lenses and Knowledge of the person operating the camera.
If you film in a dark location and have to crank up the iso, you will get noisy images even with a 20k$ camera. If you have proper lighting and use a low iso, a 1k$ camera can look really clean.
I understand that you are looking for DOPs to work for you. If their reel leaves a good impression, ask then which camera they used and what gear they would recommend to shoot your project. Many social-media clips are shot with cameras such as the Sony FS7 or even the Pocket Cinema Camera in some cases. These are relatively affordable cameras (compared to feature-film equipment) and are certainly capable of creating images such as the ones you posted.
Don't be cheap on lenses as well. A 20k$ camera will look worse with a 50$ lens, compared to a 2k$ camera with a 750$ lens.
Usually, it's the DOPs job to recommend and pick out the equipment they use. If they insist on 20k$ worth of gear and claim that a slick production is impossible otherwise, maybe look around some more. However, do listen to their reasons when they recommend expensive gear as it might actually be reasonable and in your favour.


What software is used to produce this video? Any suggestions for the software used to make this video?

http://vimeo.com/65571323

The drawings can be made in illustrator, but I can't figure out how to animate it.

It honestly looks hand animated to me, however the digital equivalent would be to start with vector graphics and animate them in something like Flash or After Effects.  Either product is capable of keyframe animation of various assets including vector graphics.

Personally, I'd rank them by likelihood as by hand and scanned, followed by Flash, followed by After Effects as the possibilities.  Keyframe animation allows for objects to be set at a start point and an end point and the computer fills in the values in-between.


Insert pictures randomly into a video I have a lot of pictures, which I want to randomly insert all of them into a movie.

I have a mac but also can use windows if needed. don't have any software for it yet and of course prefer a free software but if not possible I don't mind to buy a software for it. Thanks
Background: It's my partner's birthday and I would like to project her photos inserted randomly (doesn't matter where in the movie) into the movie which is related to the party theme.

You can use HITFILM EXPRESS. Its absolutely free non-linear editor.
Get Hitfilm Express here : https://hitfilm.com/express

You can drop a sequence of images at once. For this you can refer this YouTube tutorial :

Then you can apply some transitions between the pictures and add a music track to complete the video.
Tutorial on how to apply transitions in Hitfilm Express :


Does DVD support non-interlaced formats (576p)? I have an old VHS homevideo that has been converted to DVD (PAL-576i) in a photo-shop.
I have decided to add some menus and edit some things in Premiere Pro CC/Encore and maybe convert the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 (by adding black bars in the sides) since it probably will be shown on widescreen hdtv's before burning copies to the rest of the family.

Since I will be working on it, I thought i might as well try to remove scan-lines by de-interlacing it in the process, to improve viewing on non-CRT displays.
I know some DVD-players have progressive scan capabilities, but some doesn't and I don't know which type of player will be playing the dvd.

So... I guess my question is:

  "Will it make any sense to de-interlace/re-encode the video to 576p,
  or will the dvd-players not care at all?"

Here is a file analysis output of one of the .vob files

 ***** Analyzed File Results *****

*** General Parameters ***
- Name:  VTS_01_1.VOB
- Container:  Mpeg Program Stream
- Creation Date:  2006-01-01 01.00.00
- Size:  1
- Duration:  10s 753ms
- Bitrate:  798 Mbps
- Fast start:  Not available
- Encoding Library:  Undefined
- Encoding Application:  Undefined

*** Video Track Parameters ***
- Format:  MPEG-2 Video
- Size:  1
- FourCC:  0x10000002
- Track number(s):  0
- Bitrate:  Max.: 9 282 Kbps
    Average: 782 Mbps
    Min.: ---
- Frame rate (fps):  Max.: Undefined
    Average: 25.000
    Min.: Undefined
- Bitrate mode:  Variable
- Encoding profile:  Main@Main
- Resolution:  Undefined
- Width (Pixel number):  720
- Height (Pixel number):  576
- Pixel Aspect Ratio:  Undefined
- Display Aspect Ratio:  4:3
- Chroma subsampling format:  YUV 4:2:0
- Standard:  PAL
- Interlacing:  Interlaced - Top Field First
- Encoding library:  Undefined
- Additional Parameters:  BVOP: Yes
    Matrix: Custom
    GOP: M=3
    Bits/(Pixel*Frame) ratio: 75.438

*** Audio Track(s) Parameters ***
*** Audio Track #1
- Format:  AC3-A52
- Size:  499,7 KB (0%)
- FourCC:  0x2000
- Number(s) and language(s):  189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80): Undefined
- Details:  Undefined
- Profile:  Undefined
- Bitrate:  384 Kbps
- Bitrate mode:  Constant
- Resolution:  16 bits
- Rate:  48.0 KHz
- Channel(s):  2 (stereo)
- Position:  Front: L R
- Encoding Library:  Undefined
- Additional Parameters:  Not available

I had this issue come up a few months ago, and what I found out was that the video stream frames, irrespective of source properties (field or full frames), are stored as field pairs in authored VOBs, although the scan mode and order is correctly noted in the metadata for benefit of players.

I've had multiple DVDs of progressive source accepted by Amazon Createspace. So you can go ahead and deinterlace.


How do I crop a video with a particular point of the video always in the centre of the frame? Suppose I have a drone video not properly shot, but the subject is always in the frame but not a constant point. Now, I want to crop that 16:9 drone video to a 4:5, and have the subject always in the centre of the video frame.

Is this equal to motion tracking or, perhaps, the reverse application of motion tracking? How would I go about this?

The action you're trying to perform is called “stabilization,” which is usually performed by analyzing the entire frame when the goal is to eliminate camera shake, but when you want a single object to stay in place, you'd track a single point, or small area of the target, and apply the same counter-movement that you would to eliminate shake.
In AE, point trackers are under the animation menu→Track Motion.  After you analyze the subject, click the “Stabilize Motion” button on the “Tracker” tab.
If you don't have AE, the free version of DaVinci Resolve can do the same thing, and there are several ways to do it.
Either:

On the Color Page, go to the “Window” tab, add a shape to track, then switch to the “Tracker” tab, select “Stabilizer” from the dropdown, and click “Stabilize.”

or

On the Fusion Page, hit shift-space to call the select tool menu, and start typing “tracker.”
Click OK, hold Shift and drag this new node onto the line connecting “Media In” to “Media Out.”
Move the green box that appears over the area of the footage you want to track, click the “Track Forward” button.
When it finishes, switch to the “Operation” tab and select “Match Move” from the dropdown.

The Fusion method won't zoom in on the result by default, so you'll see black boarders around the edges as the footage moves to compensate, but you can easily zoom in on the edit page, or do it “properly” in fusion by adding a Transform node, and scaling there.


Kden live window freezes and does not respond? Hi guys I am just getting started with video editing and I have no previous experience with video editors. I use ubuntu, I have read in a blog post that kden live is the best video opensource video editor. It's freezing up whenever I am trying to use it. Can some one suggest a solution. FYI processor usage - 20%, mem usage - 40%. I have recorded these right at the time the program got stuck. I was looking at project monitor on a secondary display(I do not know if that's causing the issue).

I don't know much about Kden Live specifically, but a lot of times loading freezes are related to issues with either plugins or codecs.  If you just installed it, the most likely problem is probably an issue with codecs not loading.  Without a startup log though it's not really possible to give a better guess as to what is going on (and I'm not sure how you get that from Kden.)


Convert 360 to flat video is there any method to cut part of 360 video and convert it to plain video? I want to take half, or less of 360 footage and then edit/view as plain one.

Yes, I believe the latest versions of Premiere CC can do this natively.  It's a little bit tricky since the video needs to be unwrapped, but it is a fixed distortion to be applied depending on the size of the sphere map.  360 videos are actually rectangular videos that are texture mapped on to a sphere.

Software that wants to convert can either look at the size of the sphere and use a fixed distortion to get the correct output or actually execute the spherical mapping and then shoot a flat image of the mapping in a 3d translation.  The later approach is more complicated by a bit, but allows for easy manipulation of the camera within the 360 sphere.

I'm not particularly aware of any other applications that directly support working with 360 video yet.  I know Fusion has VR capabilities now, but have not had a chance to work with the new features yet.


How to reduce eye strain when video editing? I'm fairly new to editing large video projects, and I notice my eyes get fatigued after editing for a few hours.  Is this common?  How can I minimize eye strain?  E.g.: best monitor settings, specific display models you recommend, break frequency, specific break activities, etc.

For what it's worth, I'm using Premiere Pro CC 2014 on a Mac on a Samsung SyncMaster 244T LCD monitor.  A lot of my footage is shaky, though, and some of it shot in low light.  I'm not sure if either of those make a difference.

I think my monitor is a healthy distance, and I've tried computer goggles like these, but they don't seem to make a big difference.

First, I have never seen anyone use one of those goggles; if you ask me, that's utter nonsense, but go ahead and do your own research. Or just try them, 18 $ is not that much, and you can always return them if you order from Amazon (even though that's not ecologically responsible) ...

There are a couple of problems related to staring at a monitor for a prolonged time, which include depletion of your eye's Rhodopsin stores (cause of several vision-related problems), a lowered blink rate which will dry out your eyes (which in turn is bad for you in a couple of ways) and a reduced melatonin production (which causes sleeping problems). There are a couple of things you can do (I don't make any promises that this list will be exhaustive):

The 20-20-20 rule. For every 20 minutes of staring at a computer, look at something that's at least 20 feet away from you, for at least 20 seconds. I also find it useful to focus on different things at varying distances. This will prevent tunnel vision and give your eyes a break.

Massaging. Sounds stupid, but I find massaging my eyes every now and then quite relaxing on the eyes. What I do is rub my hands to warm them up, then press them on my closed eyes, rotating them slowly. There are more techniques out there, you should go ahead and google a bit, try out different techniques until you find one that works for you. There's also a couple of other exercises that come down to use your eyes for something other than staring at your monitor from time to time.

Vitamin A. Vitamin A is supposed to prevent several vision problems for reasons. While I'm not sure if it will have any noticable effect on your eyes and it certainly won't keep your eyes from getting exhausted, eating a carrot every now and then won't hurt anyway.

Monitor temperature. The problem with computer monitors is that they mostly emanate blue light which is also bad for us. This has for example been shown to cause sleep issues. To reduce that effect, use f.lux or similar software that will adjust your monitor's color temperature. I have used it for some time and find it increases the time I can spend in front of a computer screen (especially at night) before my eyes start to hurt. A little warning: This will conflict with color correction / grading. I once color corrected a video that turned out completely blue and cold, because I compensated for an overall warm look that was actually caused by f.lux, so make sure to turn it off before doing color-sensitive work. For smartphones, there's Twilight. (f.lux and Twilight look curious at first, but you'll forget they're even there after a couple of days, so stick with it through this initial awkwardness.)

Distance to your monitor. Maintain a healthy distance between your head and your monitor. This means at least an arm's length (though some sites will tell you it should be more or less; there isn't an exact answer, really).

Take breaks and listen to your eyes. Even if you do all those things, eventually your eyes will tell you to take a break. When they do, listen to them! We're just not made for spending 8+ hours looking at a computer screen, so make sure to take regular breaks and do something else every now and then. You can also monitor your screen time and note how long it takes for your eyes to start aching, and then adjust your break frequency accordingly.