Nuke particles escaping bounce node with geometry input I created a sphere emitting particles in Nuke. Around that sphere is another sphere connected to a particle bounce which is set to kill the particles. Some particles seem to slip through though. Why is this, and how can I fix it?

    #! /Applications/Nuke9.0v3/Nuke9.0v3.app/Contents/MacOS//libnuke-9.0.3.dylib -nx
version 9.0 v3
define_window_layout_xml {<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout version="1.0">
    <window x="0" y="23" w="1440" h="873" screen="0">
        <splitter orientation="1">
            <split size="910"/>
            <splitter orientation="1">
                <split size="34"/>
                <dock id="" hideTitles="1" activePageId="Toolbar.1">
                    <page id="Toolbar.1"/>
                </dock>
                <split size="872"/>
                <splitter orientation="2">
                    <split size="497"/>
                    <dock id="" activePageId="Viewer.1" focus="true">
                        <page id="Viewer.1"/>
                    </dock>
                    <split size="350"/>
                    <dock id="" activePageId="DAG.1">
                        <page id="DAG.1"/>
                        <page id="Curve Editor.1"/>
                        <page id="DopeSheet.1"/>
                    </dock>
                </splitter>
            </splitter>
            <split size="526"/>
            <dock id="" activePageId="Properties.1">
                <page id="Properties.1"/>
            </dock>
        </splitter>
    </window>
</layout>
}
Root {
 inputs 0
 name /particle.nk
 frame 47
 format "2048 1556 0 0 2048 1556 1 2K_Super_35(full-ap)"
 proxy_type scale
 proxy_format "1024 778 0 0 1024 778 1 1K_Super_35(full-ap)"
}
Sphere {
 inputs 0
 display wireframe
 render_mode off
 radius 3
 name Sphere1
 xpos -417
 ypos 81
}
Sphere {
 inputs 0
 name Sphere2
 xpos -410
 ypos -50
}
Sphere {
 inputs 0
 display wireframe
 render_mode off
 name Sphere3
 xpos -266
 ypos -144
}
push 0
ParticleEmitter {
 inputs 3
 name ParticleEmitter1
 xpos -261
 ypos -50
}
ParticleBounce {
 inputs 2
 out_bounce_mode kill
 in_bounce_mode kill
 object input
 name ParticleBounce1
 selected true
 xpos -261
 ypos 77
}
Viewer {
 frame 47
 frame_range 1-100
 name Viewer1
 xpos -261
 ypos 176
}

This looks like a bug in Nuke's ParticleBounce node. The geometry input is new to Nuke 9, which was released pretty recently.
That said, the bug seems to manifest only in this idealized environment of two spheres. The first sphere (radius 1) emits the particles, and the second sphere (radius 3) kills them. It is likely because of the exact alignment between vertices that causes it to penetrate.
Rotating one of the two spheres 0.1 degrees on each axis solves the problem
In theory, the "real world" wouldn't see this bug as frequently, but I've submitted this bug report to The Foundry.

Response from The Foundry

Thanks very much for providing reproduction script, we can see the
problem easily. Your comments and script are logged:
Bug 47417 - ParticleBounce - Leaks with static primitive geometry
input in some cases
We recommend checking upcoming release notes for updates on this
issue.


How to live stream 4 cameras to a flat screen TV I wanted to live stream different views from 4 cameras at the same time on a flat screen TV or monitor. What materials would I need for such a project. I have seen home security surveillance setups in which 4 cameras are streamed live to a monitor, however two things that are very important to this project are:

1.) live stream quality

2.) monitor size (need ~50inch display)

3.) placement of stream views on display

If there are surveillance packages that accomplish these goals (especially flexible positioning of the 4 live stream views), feel free to point me to them. Also, I am new to this website so If this question is not a good fit for this thread, then where would it be a good fit? Thanks in advance.

You need something like the Blackmagic Multiview: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/multiview or Matrox Quad-Split http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/microquad/ or Decimator MD-QUAD http://decimator.com/Products/MultiViewers/MD-QUAD%20Quad-Split%20MultiViewer/MD_Quad.html

These units take HD-SDI input and can then display it on a HDMI (or SDI) display however you like.

So grab as many cameras as you need - you can decide what quality camera suits your needs. Get cameras with with SDI output for long cable runs. If they don't have SDI, you can get HDMI to SDI converters. If an SDI cable isn't long enough, you can get SDI/HDMI to Fibre converters that let you run fibre optic cable between your cameras and a multiview.

Any half decent multiview will let you use a computer to re-arrange the placement of the images on the screen.

Good luck!


Software to create transparent GIFs? I have to create high quality GIFs with transparent backgrounds for a gig, Blender can render transparent videos with the quicktime codec, but do you know a tool to convert them to transparent GIFs, without quality loss? The only one I heard about is Photoshop, all online tools lower the resolution, and Virtualdub reduces the colors and doesn't convert to transparent GIF.

Export at ProRes 4444 "millions of colors+" with Alpha.
If you’re not on a Mac you can still use QuickTime based on these settings:
￼
More info here:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2050/any-video-formats-that-render-with-alpha-channel
Use something like GIF Brewery to make the conversion. GIF Brewery is free and available for Mac.
On a PC you could try https://www.screentogif.com/ or an online gif converter such as https://ezgif.com/optimize (if you don’t have access to Photoshop).
GIFs are an old format, and the quality for the file size is never great... Choices about resolution, file size and palette size can improve quality considerably. Examples based on Photoshop: https://blog.bannersnack.com/reduce-the-size-animated-gifs/


Are there any Windows video players that don't stutter when looping? Title. I have spent the past few hours trying to smoothly loop a short 6-second animation I made in Blender. No matter what I use (VLC, Windows Movies and TV, heck I even tried installing MPlayer), there is always a few-frame delay. GIF format doesn't work for me because the animation is 60fps and not heavily compressed. Any ideas?
P.S. I have read about 30 pages mentioning Linux/Ubuntu players that don't have this stutter, but is there anything for Windows 10?

As mentioned, if all players stutter for you then the issue probably isn't the players.
Check the clip to see if the last GOP is 'ragged'. Looping works best when the clip ends cleanly, that is, exactly at the end of a GOP.
ETA:
Many modern codecs are very good at minimizing file size and bandwidth, but one of the things they assume is that the material will be played straight ahead. A clip as short as yours may in fact have only one I-frame (complete frame), at the beginning.
Try encoding in an all-I-frame codec like MJPEG and see if you have better luck.


Major issue importing and exporting mp4 with AE and Media Encoder This is what my footage is looking like after importing into a composition:

Here's what I've learned so far:

Any mp4 file looks like this when imported. h264 or 265. I'm trying to get screen recorder footage to work, but both Android and Win10 sources are having the same issue. Mostly tried importing 4k, but having the same issues with 1080p. Portrait or Landscape makes no difference.

Now, when previewing the footage file in windows or android, all is looking fine.

In AE, when right-clicking on the video object in preview and setting quality to "draft", it temporarily looks okay, but the issue remains when exporting.

Changing any of the settings in " Interpret Footage > Main " doesn't do the trick.

Importing and exporting in Media Encoder creates the same issue, so I can't go with re-encoding to another file type and then trying again in AE.

Adobe software is all up-to-date via Creative Cloud.

Both video cards' drivers are as up-to-date as they can be: Internal Intel driver is kinda old from last year, but as good as it can be with my Lenovo product. Geforce 940MX driver is up-to-date.

I've tried disabling the Intel card and running exclusively off the GeForce (and visa versa). AE actually crashes when running only on GeForce.

Phew!  : )

I'd love and appreciate some guidance if anyone feels they may know the source of the issue.

Thanks,

Brendan

Hmm very strange, never seen this before. Here are some things I would try to figure out what is causing the issue:

Try re-encoding the file with ffmpeg into both the same container (mp4) as well as other containers such as .mov, .mkv, .wmv, etc. Maybe there's a problem with the codecs for Adobe on your machine.
Which version of AE and Media-Encoder are you using? (is it a legal copy?)
Have you tried uninstalling all codecs such as quicktime, etc. and reinstalling them?
Have you tried uninstalling the Adobe software and reinstalling it?

Since you said that on draft quality the preview looks fine momentarily, I assume that the problem is rooted in the Adobe-Software. Maybe switching off hardware-acceleration might also do the trick. Make sure to keep us updated, I'm genuinely interested what's causing this weird issue.


Show create date on video How could I display the create date on videos using a video editing program, such like Adobe Premiere or After effects? Is it possible? I wan't do it automatically!

I have a bunch of videos and want to create a one large video with all the clips AND display the create date of each video OVER the clips.

I found this program, but it costs 80$ and is no option for me: http://dvmp.co.uk/

Rather than render out one large video file, you can use your existing video files after a batch rename as Ambo100 mentioned previously with Advanced Renamer. A title rendering process, such as with Adobe Premiere or other editing platform, would also take time to render, especially if it's a large archive of clips.  The model below keeps them intact, and the original filename can be prefixed with your create date, which means you'd be able to keep the original filename included as a suffix.

VLC can display the filename being played, which means you'd only need to merely save the playlist of your chosen video files versus making one video large file of all your videos.  If a user decides to stop the video once the desired video is found, VLC will also stop on that video listed in the playlist. A right-click will allow you to go to the file directly. I put nine-9s in my time for showing the video title, which equates to a video length of ~278-hours.


Loss of Colour Detail After Premiere Pro Render I've been struggling with this issue for a while now as I record and upload video game footage onto YouTube. I record using OBS Studio then usually edit/render the video in Premiere Pro before uploading. I have noticed the video on YouTube looked a little washed out and I always thought it was just YouTube compressing things. However, recently I did a test where I uploaded the OBS Studio recorded footage directly to YouTube and realised it looked a lot better and upon closer inspection there seems to be a loss of colour or vibrancy going on. It's not just a flat desaturation though, as upping the saturation on the Premiere Pro render just makes all the colours look overly saturated while some points still look under saturated.

Here is an image that includes the two footage samples that were screenshotted off of YouTube after uploading, not in any media player on my PC, along with a detail comparison and my Premiere Pro render settings: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/282488029346791424/480420735580635136/Video-Render-Colour-Issue.jpg

Video is recorded to h.264 in OBS Studio and exported to h.264 from Premiere Pro.

I don't know if there is a solution to this or not but I would love to know why this would be happening in the first place. If anyone has an idea of what's going on I would greatly appreciate hearing your input or idea.

Thank you!

First, Youtube re-encodes anything you upload to it's own streaming format(s), creating multiple down-res'd versions from the file you upload.

So it's possible that:

1.) OBS is outputting a higher-bit rate or better codec than what you're outputting using Premiere.

2.) Browsers ignore for the most part (Chome), color profiles for video and photos, this can cause a lot of frustration wondering why colors look different in Photoshop/Premiere vs in Chrome. That said:

3.) From Bridge make sure your Color Settings are synced across all programs under the Edit Menu.

4.) Set to Web Color sRGB.

In the end, the hard truth is that you CANNOT control the "end result" in terms of how your video will look on youtube on any given computer. Because people have different monitors, different browsers, their monitors may be setup to non-sRGB profiles, etc.

It's very much the same as handing someone a Blu-Ray, that you've quality checked on your studio reference monitor to get the tonality you're aiming for. You have no idea what TV they will use when they take it home, and what Picture Profile they will have set, which can drastically alter the image they see.

Obviously however, whatever OBS is outputting is being converted into a format that Youtube is re-encoding to a file which you are more pleased with. The only solution is to try different output settings from Premiere. But honestly, it's a bit of a fruitless endeavor, as you have no control over how other people will see it; due to browser, color profile, monitor setup, etc.


How do you reduce wind gust sounds from video? So I've looked at a bunch of videos and all they describe is how to remove ambient wind sounds so that you can hear someone talk.  Or how to remove the low hum of wind.  And if it's the wind sound is too loud, it's impossible to remove.  That's not what I am looking for.
I have an outdoor video and I would like to keep most of those sounds.  My only issue is that when the wind gusts, it is really loud.  I'm afraid it would hurt someone's ears if they have headphones plugged in.  I would just like to tone it down.  When my video is soft, there is nothing changed.  When my video is loud, that is reduced a bit.
Additionally, is there also a way to round out or smooth the wind noise a bit? I would imagine reducing how loud a video gets while keeping the video the same when it's quiet would solve this issue as well.
I have Adobe Premier.

Two possible ideas. When writing this answering I'm thinking in terms of the capabilities provided by Audacity but I think the same concept will work with other software.

Pick a silent part of the video with only the wind sound but no other sounds that you would like to keep, select that as the noise profile then apply noise reduction whenever there is the wind noise.

Apply a high pass filter to the audio. This will help reduce the effects of the wind noise. Again consider only applying this when there is wind.


render farm newbie questions What are the main considerations in setting up a render farm?  We're considering adding an internal render farm to our workflow (we have both Avid and Adobe).  I'm seeing that there are cloud based services, and I'm wondering if it makes more sense to go that route rather than make a significant investment in hardware. Thanks!

I'm not an economist, but I have built and run a small render farm. I'd make the decision on a ROI basis: will you get back a return from your investment? I can't answer this for you, you'll need to add up all the costs for both options and compare.

Costs for a physical render farm are mostly fixed - i.e. the capital outlay, but you have to factor in depreciation, maintenance and electricity, and the price of housing it. Costs for a cloud-based solution are all on a usage basis.

So a cloud-based solution would work if you only need it occasionally, especially if you need massive render power that would cost a lot to set up and run. Commercial render farms can have thousands of processors, meaning that rendering a sequence takes only as long as it takes to render the longest frame. So cloud farms have the edge in terms of scale. A con with cloud based systems is that you have to trust a third party with your intellectual property. There's also the overhead of sending and receiving the files, depending on your internet connection (a bit of an issue here in Australia).

A physical render farm makes sense if you're using it all the time, and you can afford the upfront cost for the size of farm you need. It has the advantage that it's always available, and using it is (almost) free, so you can use it for things you wouldn't bother sending to a commercial render farm. After all, the more you use it, the more your return.

An inexpensive way of building up a render farm is to retire workstation machines to the farm, thus adding extra value to them. The downside of using older machines is the energy cost - generally they do less computing per watt-hour than newer machines.


How to remove background from video without using green screen I've started work at a company doing video work and trying to create videos that are consistent with their previous videos.  However, the more I look at the previous videos, the less I'm sure about one of the techniques, so want some help.  It was an external video company that created them so it's possible they used some fancy techniques.

In the image below, it shows a toolbox: in the video it zooms in on this and it's definitely a video because the perspective changes as it zooms in.  What i'm not sure about is how they clipped the toolbox out so neatly?  My colleagues that worked with the company previously said they didn't use green screen, although they used a white backdrop at times.

The second image is another example, someone picking a worktop off a bench, but background is perfectly keyed out.  I can get it this perfect with a green screen but I don't have any luck in doing it any other way - how would they have cut the products out so well?

(I can provide links to the videos if it's helpful - let me know)

Looking at your first example, I woul guess green screen, and not a particularly good one. It looks like they really need to increase the spill suppression, judging by the green spill evident on the feet of the bin.

An alternative approach is to shoot in a studio with an infinite white cyc, for example something like this one (randomly selected from a duckduckgo search, not necessarily endorsed). When lit correctly it will look like the second example, though that too could totally have been done with greenscreen—the forearms look a lot like there's spill that's been corrected.

The reason for shooting against green, rather than shooting against white or black is when you want to do background replacement. If you know that the background is going to just be white, then shooting against white is the way to go. But if you want to replace the background and you use white (or black) then any highlights (or shadows) are going to become transparent. It's much easier to keep green out
of your foreground than stopping it having any highlights or shadows.

Another approach is to use rotoscoping. This is where masks are drawn around the foreground to cut it out from the background. While software like After Effects includes tools to automate this task somewhat, it is still a very time and labour-intensive process, and generally the results are inferior to other techniques. I would use rotoscoping only as a last resort, and I don't think I'm alone here.


how to get realtime output from ffmpeg I am currently grabbing a live stream video with the following command:

ffmpeg -i https://urlToTheStream/playlist.m3u8 -f image2 -q:v 30 C:\pathToOutputFolder\%01d.bmp

video is running in 24 fps.

I am then live-processing the bmp files with a self written java program.
My processing program is a bit faster than the output of ffmpeg. i can see that ffmpeg produces packages of bmp files. Around 25 and then pauses.

Is it possible to tell ffmpeg not to buffer anything and instead just producing "in realtime"?

At first I used jpg format which was clearly slower than bmp. I changed quality to 30 which helped too. But I still have a latency about 0.7 seconds compared watching the stream in the browser. I also tried the no buffering option with no efford.

Thanks for any tips!

edit: code format settings in text

ffmpeg -i https://urlToTheStream/playlist.m3u8 -f yuv4mpegpipe -

Read from stdout pipe, The format is documented here https://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php/YUV4MPEG2


Better LUT directions for Canon dSLR? A year ago I came across a web page describing how to set up a better “pro use” LUT on the camera, that would get better shadow detail recorded.  This was a LUT used in more professional situations and is (as I recall) known to Adobe Premiere already.  I understand that this will make watching the as-saved camera files look bad, and it needs the corresponding LUT selected in Premiere.

I can't find that again now.  Can someone point me to what I need?  The web page featured video stills of chickens. I have a Canon 70D camera.

I think this must have been “Cinestyle” by Technicolor, whose home is this page at the Technicolor web site.  The chicken instructions was probably this video


Injecting/embedding/adding/writing metadata to a .mp4 file so it's recognised as 360 I'm working on a library that injects/embeds/writes metadata into a .mp4 file to allow the video to be displayed correctly as a 360 video. The input file is a standard .mp4 file in the equirectangular format which I need to inject the proper metadata to get it to display as a 360 video. I know tools like Google's Spatial Media Tool exist but if possible I would like to do it with FFmpeg.

The metadata injected by the Spatial Media tool looks like this and is what I am trying to achieve:

<?xml version="1.0"?><rdf:SphericalVideo
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:GSpherical="http://ns.google.com/videos/1.0/spherical/"><GSpherical:Spherical>true</GSpherical:Spherical><GSpherical:Stitched>true</GSpherical:Stitched><GSpherical:StitchingSoftware>Spherical Metadata Tool</GSpherical:StitchingSoftware><GSpherical:ProjectionType>equirectangular</GSpherical:ProjectionType></rdf:SphericalVideo>

These are all the things I have tried which did not work:

Method 1

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -movflags use_metadata_tags -metadata Spherical=true -metadata Stitched=true -metadata ProjectionType=equirectangular -metadata StitchingSoftware=StreetviewJourney -codec copy output.mp4

I have tried many variations of it like adding GSpherical: and xmp: to the metadata tag.

Method 2

When I extract the metadata using ffmpeg it contains the spherical tag in the logs but not when I output it to a ffmetadata file. This was the command I used: ffmpeg -i injected.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -f ffmetadata data.txt

This is the output of the log:

 fps, 60 tbr, 15360 tbn, 120 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Side data:
      spherical: equirectangular (0.000000/0.000000/0.000000)

Method 3

I also tried to get the metadata using this command: ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_streams -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 injected.mp4

This was the logs it outputted:

TAG:handler_name=VideoHandler
side_data_type=Spherical Mapping
projection=equirectangular
yaw=0
pitch=0
roll=0

I then tried to use this command but it didn't work:

ffmpeg -i chapmanspeak.mp4 -movflags use_metadata_tags -metadata side_metadata_type="Spherical Mapping" -metadata projection=equirectangular -metadata yaw=0 -metadata pitch=0 -metadata roll=0 -codec copy output.mp4

Metadata is not the same as frame side data. FFmpeg tool currently cannot do this, you need to program own thing using available API.


How to change framerate with HandBrake without side effects I'm making the 3rd instalment of my Sand Wars series (Sand Wars II) and I shot the majority of my footage at 60p (which I think means 60fps and progressive rather than interlaced).  I do not want to rotoscope lightsabers 60 frames per second and would much rather do 30. The footage is currently at 59.94, which I think is close enough to 60. I know I can lower the frame rate using HandBrake, but I don't want to have to lose more quality than I already will, as each clip is probably going to be run through Blender a few times.  What settings can I enable on HandBrake to take an entire folder of my footage (I don't want to have to do this hundreds of times for each video file) and output it into another folder with each video having a frame rate of 30 fps (or 29.97) with as little quality loss as possible?
Thanks,
Anson

FFMPEG is probably a better tool for the job, if you are prepared to deal with the command line. Install ffmpeg from the packages found here. These are all ready-built and should have all the included libraries you need.

Once you've installed ffmpeg you will need to run it from the command line. Since there's different ways of doing that depending on your platform, the one safe bet is that if you drag the ffmpeg icon into the command line window you should get the path to the ffmpeg executable auto-filled for you. Next you type out a command like this:

<ffmpeg executable path> -r 60 -i <input path> -preset ultrafast -crf 0 -r 30 -c:a copy <output path.mp4>

for a lossless mp4 file or

<ffmpeg executable path> -r 60 -i <input path> c:v prores -profile:v 3 -r 30 -c:a copy <output path.mov>

for a prores encoded quicktime file (ffmpeg will encode prores on Windows and Linux, but whether ProRes is readable depends on what software you're editing on. Alternatives are DNxHD/DNxHR and Cineform, but that's beyond the scope of this answer).

In both instances the <ffmpeg executable path>, <input path> and <output path.mp4> means the path to the respective files, i.e. what you get when you drag them into the terminal. So to fill out the path to the input file, just drag it into the terminal. Since the output file doesn't exist, copy the input file and change the name and extension to whatever you want. On Windows it will be something like "c:\users\stib\folder\another folder\movie1.mp4" on a mac it will be /Users/stib/folder/another\ folder/movie1.mp4 Linux will be similar to mac (though the home folder will vary depending on your distro. But anyway…).

The first example use h.264 compression with the Constant Rate Factor -crf (inverse of quality) set to 0 or lossless. Since you're not looking for small file sizes the preset is set to ultrafast and the audio codec -c:a is set to copy (this is assuming you're using an mp4 as input) so that the audio will not be re-encoded.

The second uses prores compression with the -profile:v 3 setting it to ProRes HQ, a very solid codec for editing work on Macs or Windows machines using Adobe Premiere. You could change this to Avid DNxHD or other codecs of your choice, with ffmpeg there are literally hundreds to choose from.

In both examples I changed the video frame rate using -r 30, this will drop input frames to output a constant 30fps. Since your input is 59.94fps.

I also used -r 60 before the -i input flag to force ffmpeg to treat the input file as 60fps (although it doesn't add or remove frames, just changes the way they are interpreted). You could instead change your output to 29.97 fps by using -r 30000/1001 instead of -r 30 for the output, and not bother putting a -r rate flag before the input.

Applying this to a whole folder of files involves using the shell. How you do that depends on your OS.

on a Mac or Linux machine, here's one way

cd "/path/to/my folder of media/"
mkdir "30FPS_converted"
for i in *.mov; do
ffmpeg -i $i <ffmpeg options here> "./30FPS_converted/${i/mov/mp4};"
done

change directory to the folder using the cd command, e.g. cd "/Users/stib/my media/folder1" once again, you can drag the folder onto the terminal window.
Create a new directory for your output files with the mkdir command (or do it in finder / file browser of your choice.
create a loop with the contents of the folder using the for command, and use that to provide the input for the ffmpeg command. The command above creates a list of all the files with the suffix ".mov", creates a variable $i and every time the loop goes round it changes the value of $i to the next file in the list. The ${i/mov/mp4} is called brace substitution. It substitutes the letters "mov" in the value of $i with the letters "mp4"

On Windows here's how you'd do it with Powershell (you could do it it with batch scripting, but I refuse to learn batch scripting):

set-location "c:\Users\me\my media files\"
new-item "30FPS_converted" -type directory
get-childItem*.mov | foreach {
ffmpeg -i $_ <ffmpeg options here> (".\30FPS_converted" + $_.name.replace("mov", "mp4))}

change directory to the folder using the Set-Location command (though usually cd works too), e.g. Set-Location "C:\Users\stib\my media\folder1" once again, you can drag the folder onto the terminal window.
make a new directory using the new-item command (mkdir usually works too). In the example above the path for the output folder is . (a full stop), this means "the current directory"
list the files in the folder (get-childItem, though usually ls works too) that end with the suffix you're after, and pipe | the output to a foreach loop. Inside that loop the variable $_ takes on the value of the file objects in the list one by one. Then use the name.replace() function to create the appropriate output name, and append that to the directory name.

Obviously if your source files aren't .movs you change the .mov bits in the command to whatever you've got, and the same for the output file extension.


How does ARRI saturation formula differ from the ASC-CDL spec? In the context of ASC-CDL, saturation is applied as:

luma = 0.2126*iR + 0.7152*iG + 0.0722*iB
oR = luma + saturation*(iR-luma)
oG = luma + saturation*(iG-luma)
oB = luma + saturation*(iB-luma)

However, in the ARRI Look Files in the ALEXA Camera whitepaper they say:

  Note: The ALEXA saturation parameter differs from the ASC CDL
  saturation.

But they don't specify in what way, and I can't find that information anywhere.

Does anybody know?

I would imagine it has something to do with the white point/primary chromaticities are Alexa Wide Gamut vs. Rec709.

http://www.arri.com/camera/alexa/learn/log_c_and_rec_709_video


What is the best method to record a home video of multiple players? What is the best method to record a home video of multiple players?  I see people doing this all the time on the internet but I want to pick the easiest one.  For example, I want one video that has 2 video tracks on it, one for rhythm guitar and one for lead guitar.   Another example:  generate a video of 4 different musicians playing together.

For example, how was this done, and is there a better way?

Here is what I do (for my videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/killergege).

Tools :

Software : Reaper for audio recording, Sony Vegas Pro for video editing
Hardware : a camcorder, an audio interface (POD HD500 in my case)

Process :

I create a new project in Reaper and Vegas and setup everything to record audio properly on Reaper through my audio interface.
I add a backing track in Reaper.
I record myself playing each instrument (video & audio) at the same time, Reaper takes the sound, the camcorder takes the video. I might do several takes, Reaper handles pretty well takes and the camcorder just keeps recording.
When finished recording I then have a track for each instrument in Reaper (with maybe several takes in each track), and a video for each instrument.
Then I select the audio takes and mix the tracks with the backing track (changing volume, adding fades, etc.)
I export the audio mixed and import it in Vegas
Then I edit the videos in Vegas, cutting the unused takes and mixing with effects (I use chroma keying to remove the background, fades, camera movements) and to place the videos like you want. Editing the video to do a "splitscreen" like in the example is quite easy and a lot of other editing software can do that.
The hard part is syncing the audio with the video. I try to sync the videos' audio with the Reaper mixed audio I imported just before removing the videos' sound.
I also do it visually (trying to match hand movements with audio).

If you need more details, just ask.


What's the encoding difference impeding playback on iOS? A video used on a website doesn't want to play on iOS devices. The video was encoded by another person using Sony Vegas, with settings similar to what I used before (although I used Adobe Premiere). The video I encoded works, the one from Vegas won't.

I used ffmpeg to compare the specs of the videos, and can't spot what's the difference that is impeding playback.

Input #0 (1.mp4) is from Vegas, not working. Input #1 (2.mp4) is from Premiere, working. Any clues? What do we need to change to make it playable?

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '1.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : MSNV
    minor_version   : 19529847
    compatible_brands: MSNVmp42isom
    creation_time   : 2013-04-16 18:40:45
  Duration: 00:02:31.85, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2617 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 127 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2013-04-16 18:40:45
      handler_name    : Sound Media Handler
    Stream #0:1(eng): Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 720x480 [SAR 40:33 DAR 20:11], 2483 kb/s, 59.94 fps, 59.94 tbr, 60k tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2013-04-16 18:40:45
      handler_name    : Video Media Handler
      encoder         : AVC Coding
Input #1, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '2.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: mp42mp41
    creation_time   : 2015-09-03 18:55:57
  Duration: 00:00:10.05, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2256 kb/s
    Stream #1:0(eng): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1938 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 30k tbn, 60 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-09-03 18:55:57
      handler_name    : ?Mainconcept Video Media Handler
      encoder         : AVC Coding
    Stream #1:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 317 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-09-03 18:55:57
      handler_name    : #Mainconcept MP4 Sound Media Handler

The Vegas export is

60 fps
NTSC sized raster but with a non-square and weird pixel aspect
Audio track is first
File major brand is Sony-specific.

Many confounding factors here.

First try to rewrap

ffmpeg -i 1.mp4 -c copy -map v -map a -movflags +faststart 1new.mp4

If not, render in Vegas at 30 fps and Main profile using the Mainconcept encoder.


ffmpeg **doubled** my duration I'm using ffmpeg to convert a PNG image sequence into a .mov file with alpha channel for us in my NLE.

The PNG sequence was rendered out of DashWare where it was generated in sync with a 4m35s (approx) 1080p50 video clip.

As expected the image sequence consisted of just over 13,750 images.

I used the following command to convert these into the required PNG encoded, uncompressed RGBA (rgb32) .mov file.

ffmpeg -i imageSeq-%06d.png -vcodec png -r 50 -pix_fmt rgb32 -y video.mov

And the file converted OK but it's duration came out at 9m10s - exactly double what it should have been.

By my reckoning 4m35s at 50fps is: ((4x60)+35)x50 which is 13750 frames/images. So why did the duration double in conversion with the above command?

By default, ffmpeg treats image sequence and raw video inputs as having a native rate of 25 fps unless told otherwise. So, the -r 50 duplicates each frame.

Use

ffmpeg -framerate 50 -i imageSeq-%06d.png -vcodec png -pix_fmt rgb32 -y video.mov

You can skip the -r 50 since ffmpeg will use the input's framerate.


Adobe After Effects CC - stabilize lighting I have a video of an interview. The lighting of the video keeps bouncing light and dark. Would I be able to fix this through After Effects? How would I be able to.

Sorry very new to after effects.

Thank you

I'll assume the camera op was fooling with the exposure?

You'll need to key-frame color correction or AE's Auto Color function may work for you:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/color-correction-effects.html

If you go the CC route it may help to watch the YC waveform rather than the image itself.

The Color Stabilizer effect may also work for you. Here's lybda "starter" explination for it youtube tutorial.


How was analog video converted to an electrical signal? Before the invention of the CCD, how were analog video images captured? Specifically, what process occurred between the optics of the camera, and the resulting analog electrical signal (not necessarily ready to transmit)?

Before understanding the answer to this question, you need to understand analog video displays, usually called Cathode Ray Tube Televisions (CRT TVs), often shortened to just "CRTs" in casual speech. There are plenty of answers here on this site, and a more technical one on the CRT Wikipedia Page.
Now, before answering the question, there were a multitude of technological advances that led to the collection of 'standard' Video Camera Tubes, each with its own pros and cons, and advancements throughout the years. In this answer, I will assume a black and white system, will ignore the optics, gloss over the physics of electron beams and photo-cathodes (you did read and understand the CRT wiki page... didn't you? :D ),  and I will ignore the electronics and technology involved in the camera, as well as those in the encoding, transmission, reception, decoding, etc. as those items each are far beyond the scope of this answer. (Many have their own dedicated Stack Exchange!!) For a very simple overview, see here.
Here is the short answer:
Analog cameras were the reverse of CRT displays, and the incoming photons from the optics were converted to an output signal in broadly one of two ways.

Incoming photons hit a photo-cathode plate of some type, which emitted electrons. These electrons may or may not have hit a secondary plate with the ability to amplify the electron (not photon) image. This image was then scanned past an aperture (note that the entire image is scanned, not just one beam). Behind this aperture the signal was detected and converted to an electronic signal via a dissector tube (again, many technologies).

The incoming photon image hits another type of photo-cathode plate. In this second technology, an electron beam of constant strength is then shot towards the rear of this plate (scanned and focused in the way a display CRT is), and the plate in the middle creates a voltage relative to the strength of the photons on the front. This voltage is the output signal.
P.S. This answer is in response to an unanswered question asked here by J. Doe


Batch resize videos with "pan and scan" cropping I am trying to prepare a collection of ~120 video clips to be played in VLC Player and projected on a low-res (1024x768) projector during a DIY electronic music event.  The source clips are all super hi-res abstract visuals in .mov format, about 4GB each.  They are of various aspect ratios.  Some are 4:3, others are 16:9, others are 1:1 (square) etc.

I would like to crop / scale all of the clips to 1024x768 while maintaining their respective original aspect ratios.   And, I would like to do so without letterboxing them and leaving black bars either at the top/bottom or left/right.  Basically what I would like to do is to reduce them to the point where they entirely fill the 1024x768 screen, and no smaller.  I believe that is essentially a "pan and scan" technique?

(It doesn't matter if part of the image is removed in the process - they're just spinning geometric shapes and such.)

Is there some way I can resize all ~120 videos in batch using a single FFMPEG command?  Or, is there another tool for Windows or Linux that would work?  I don't really care what output format - just something that VLC can play without getting choppy.

If you had just 4:3 and 16:9 videos, I would suggest:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -filter:v 'scale=-1:768,crop=1024:ih' \
-c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast output.mp4

That would scale a video to a height of 768, scaling the width to keep the aspect ratio; and then it crops the width to 1024, keeping the height at 768. The fact that you are using 1:1 videos as well complicates things: a 3000x3000 video would get scaled to 768x768, and then ffmpeg would try to crop it to 1024x768, which obviously wouldn't work, since crops can be no bigger than the input...

The only way I can think of getting this to work would be to crop all of the videos, which you stated wouldn't be a problem. This will crop the output width to be the same as the input height, and the output height to be 3/4 of the input height; and then it will scale the video down to a height of 768, keeping the aspect ratio with the width:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -filter:v 'crop=ih:3/4*ih,scale=-1:768' \
-c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast output.mp4

This will only work if the original files have a height of 1024 or more. Note that x264 only accepts an even width or height, which can cause problems (but shouldn't in this case).

To convert every .mov in a directory, you can use a for loop:

for f in *.mov; \
do ffmpeg -i "$f" -filter:v 'crop=ih:3/4*ih,scale=-1:768' \
-c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast "${f/%mov/mp4}"; \
done

To do so recursively, you can use find:

find . -type f -name *.mov -exec bash -c \
'ffmpeg -i "$0" -filter:v "crop=ih:3/4*ih,scale=-1:768" \
-c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset veryfast "${0/%mov/mp4}"' {} \;

All of this will require a recent version of ffmpeg.


Can you create a VR video that makes use of positional tracking? To my understanding there are basically 4 types of video:

Ordinary 2D videos - these can be viewed by pretty much any device that has a screen
360 videos - these can be viewed by any smartphone that has a gyroscope
3D videos - these can be viewed by 3D glasses along with the right kind of screen, or by using a VR headset
VR videos - these are a combination of types 2 and 3, and can be viewed by any VR headset, like a Samsung Gear VR headset or even a Google Cardboard headset

But I'm interested in whether there's a 5th type of video.  My question is, is it possible to make a VR video that isn't just 360 + 3D, but also makes use of positional tracking?  Such a video, if it existed, would only be viewable on a high-end VR headset like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, which utilize both rotational tracking and positional tracking.  They wouldn't be viewable on low-end headsets like Google Cardboard, or mid-tier headsets like Samsung Gear VR, since they only utilize rotational tracking.

If it is possible, how would you go about creating such a video?  It's the equivalent of shooting an ordinary (360+3D) VR video not just from one point in a room, but from every point in the room.  I imagine that it would be useful for creating virtual tours. In any case, even if you managed to create such a video, how exactly would you make that video by viewable by others?  Are there any apps for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive that would allow you to play a positional-tracking VR video?

EDIT: I found out that there is such a type of video.  It's called a "light field video" or "holographic video", and it can be captured with a special light field camera.  But I still don't know how you would show that video to someone.

You can use photogrammetry if you had enough different viewpoints to build a 3d representation of the scene and apply all necessary texturing and lighting.  The video would then play as an animated 3d scene rather than a traditional movie.

The amount of processing involved is high but it is possible.  Microsoft's Hyperlapse video stabilization actually does some of this by determining a point cloud of the scene from some basic photogrammetry.

Software like Destinations on the Vive already use photogrammetry for reproducing landmarks in a fully explore-able 3D world.  There are also several animated projects which are composed of scenes that you can fully explore.  8i also has done some early work in video like you describe.  The quality level still leaves a lot to be desired, but work is being done in trying to accomplish what you are talking about.

As an early Vive owner who has tried all these things first hand, I'd say "volumetric video" is at the interesting experimental phase, but not really that great yet.  I'm sure we'll see significant improvements in the future though as the technology is refined, particularly since it has implications outside of just VR and AR for things like computer vision.


After Effects: How to create a sliding waveform I was wondering how does one create a sliding waveform in After Effects? I know how to do a static one (since there is a simple effect for it) but I have no idea how to do a progressing one that slides from one side of the screen to the other one for as long as the audiotrack lasts.

Thanks in advance!

Simple. Get the waveform of your audio file (You could screenshot the audio file in a sound editor to do this).
Animate it moving sideways.

Less simple: Bring the audio into your comp. Right click the audio layer and chose Animation Assistant>Convert audio to keyframes

Now use the keyframes to drive the scale, rotation, position etc of some elements of your comp. E.G. you could add a solid and apply this to the scale property:

[value[0], value[1]*thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider")]

That will multiply the vertical scale of the solid by the amplitude of the audio (both channels).

If you make an array of layers like the one above you can offset the time at which they read the audio level. You can use the valueAtTime() function to use each solid layer's index (the layer number) to add a two frame delay to each successive layer like this (two or more frames looks better than one frame, because a one-frame delay makes it look like you used method 1):

[value[0], value[1]*thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider").valueAtTime(time + index*thisComp.frameDuration)]

  Pro tip: easily make a horizontal array of your solid layers by using this on the position property:
  [index*width*1.2 - width/2, thisComp.height/2]
  that will line up the layers horizontally with a small gap between each one. Remove the *1.2 bit to align them next to each other. Apply that expression to one layer and just keep duplicating till you've filled your screen.

Here's an example which I've pre-comped with an adjustment layer over the top to give graduated colour to the bars:

also, turn on motion blur, it'll look a lot betterer.


ffmpeg.exe ignores yadif filter when using >1 filter on the command line I'm using Windows and batch converting some SD captures that are 544x576, I want to deinterlace them and scale them to show at the proper aspect ratio. When I use the following command:

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir /s/b *.576p.mkv') DO c:\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i "%%~fG" -y -filter:v yadif -filter:v scale=in_w:in_h,setsar=1.4118/1 -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -level 3.1 -preset slow -c:a copy "%%~dpnG.out.mkv"

The resultant file is still clearly interlaced, but the video specs show as progressive. Any ideas what would cause this? I'm having to do it in two stages using:

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir /s/b *.576p.mkv') DO c:\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i "%%~fG" -y -filter:v yadif  -c:v libx264 -crf 17 -level 3.1 -preset slow -c:a copy "%%~dpnG.di.mkv"

then

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir /s/b *.576p.di.mkv') DO c:\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i "%%~fG" -y -filter:v scale=in_w:in_h,setsar=1.4118/1 -c:v libx264 -crf 17 -level 3.1 -preset slow -c:a copy "%%~dpnG.x264.mkv"

..which is sub-optimal as it would do two separate encodes. However the .di.mkv file is not interlaced (looking at the video with left to right motion there's no combing present)

What would cause the first (yadif) filter to be ignored?

Many thanks!

Use one filtergraph and join simple filters with a comma:

-filter:v "filter1,filter2,filter3"

Your scale isn't doing anything. For example, a 320x240 input with scale=in_w:in_h is the same as scale=320:240.


flv rtmp url for video-js I cannot get the code right in video-js player when wanting play rtmp url flv file. Does anyone know what it should be? I've tried following a number of examples at the blog reference site for video-js but nothing seems to work.

The Code I was trying to use is:

Oh the code won't input I don't know why sorry :(

<link href="http://mysite.net/sites/all/libraries/video-js/video-js.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="http://mysite.net/sites/all/libraries/video-js/video.js"></script>
<script>
  videojs.options.flash.swf = "http://mysite.net/sites/all/libraries/video-js/video-js.swf"
</script>
<script src="http://mysite.net/sites/all/libraries/video-js/videosub.js"/></script>

<video class="video-js vjs-default-skin"
       controls=""
       data-setup="{&quot;example_option&quot;:true}"
       height="264"
       id="example_video_1"
       poster="http://video-js.zencoder.com/oceans-clip.png"
       preload="auto"
       width="640">
  <source src="rtmp://mysite.net/oflaDemo/takeout.flv" type="rtmp/flv"/>
  <track kind="subtitle" label="English" src="http://mysite.net/takeout.srt" srclang="en-US" />
</video>


Is there such thing as an unlimited point matte in Premiere? Basically my problem is I have footage which I need to manually key.  I need something like an unlimited point matte which would allow me to cut an actor out of a background by hand with no limits on the number of points in the matte.  Ideally this would be done in Premiere, but I have access to After Effects as well, I just don't like using it.  Also, if this is possible to do frame by frame as an image sequence in something like GIMP I can do that to.  I'm not sure if it's possible to import an alpha channel into Premiere though.

I think you need to use the Rotobrush rotoscope tool in AE.. Good luck!  It will take a while...

Tutorial link:
https://library.creativecow.net/harrington_richard/after-effects-cs5-roto/1


Using youtube-dl: Does adaptive bitrate (ABR) affect image quality? I'm using youtube-dl and ffmpeg to get videos/frames of videos from the web. I was told that youtube (and others) use adaptive bitrate streaming, so depending on the network conditions of the user the bitrate should drop/rise, then even though resolution stays the same, image quality should change.

That got me wondering if youtube-dl has some mechanism for downloading videos with the same (presumably best) bitrate.

So my questions are:

1) When downloading videos through youtube-dl, because of ABR, the quality of the downloaded video depends on network conditions?

2) The following shell script will get a frame of a video at 1:30, will the image quality of this frame be affected by ABR?

MP4URL=`youtube-dl -g MYVIDEOLINK`
ffmpeg -ss 1:30 -i $MP4URL -frames:v 1 myframe.png

3) If one of the previous questions is true: Is there a way to ensure a network independent quality? How?

Adaptive streaming is accomplished by switching between pre-encoded streams of different bitrates and/or resolutions. But the bitrate within any given pre-encoded stream does not vary too much.

YT-DL, with your command, will select the 'best' video stream, usually the one with the highest bitrate and resolution, and return its URL. This URL is a direct resource address, and there will be no switching when downloading it, even if your network gets congested.


video player that runs videos from pointed directory and updates list of files to play while new file appears in directory I am not sure if this community is good place to ask, anyway i will try.

I am looking for a video player that has an option to play files from directory, but each time i copy a new file to directory it will automatically update its playlist to play also new file that came into directory. Quite simple but couldn find any software that is constantly looking into directory or at least once every video ends. I use windows 7, 8 or 10.
Any advice?

Kalreg.

Serviio is really good. It has a free and paid option. The free version is great.

http://serviio.org/


Software Advice for producing video ads I am developing a web application and going to launch it soon. I am already done with the website, photos and brochures, and only the video presentation is missing. To present the app, I just want to show them the features in text and graphic form, sans the actors, locations and props. I want to produce the video taking inspiration from Oracle video ads like this Oracle Exadata. Are You Ready? and this Power Your HR Business Contribution With Oracle Human Capital Management

Do you know how these videos were produced? Can you suggest some software that can produce videos like these? Thanks!

That is motion graphics.  A program like Adobe After Effects in combination with Photoshop or Illustrator is ideal for producing such a video.  Something like Flash could also be used.

Note that it is very complicated to make something that good on your own.  There are however templates available for After Effects that you may be able to use.  Alternately, you could look for someone who knows how to do motion graphics and hire them to do something.


Color grading basics I am fairly experienced with video editing, but I know embarrassingly little about color grading. Can anyone recommend any resources that can help me get started?

(I typically use Premiere Pro)

I would look at some of the tutorials on YouTube. There are plenty of them.

If you want to get into grading; you can jump right in as long as you are shooting RAW; or at the very least; 4:2:2.

If you're shooting 4:4:4; you have a lot of flexibility.

Resolve's DaVinci Line has some nice low cost entry options that include control surfaces; I personally use a Tangent Wave with Resolve to grade RED material; it's fast and very robust.

It's important you look into workflow, that is; are you applying filters; or merely manipulating the metadata XML; as with RED footage. Each camera/codec/software will have it's own unique pipeline in terms of how you grade.

I would invest in a Spyder; and calibrate your monitor. You want to grade in a room that is lit to 70% ambiance of your monitor's brightness. So your monitor shouldn't blind you. Your color temperature needs to match as well; so if your monitor is 5600K; make sure all the bulbs in your edit room are 5600K; or your eyes will play tricks on you.

But on YouTube there are plenty of in depth tutorials; just keyword davinci resolve tutorial and you'll see.


How to replace background green color I'm using lenscorrection filter on a video and the result contains green background as canvas!

How Can i replace this color with different one or an image?
This is the command i used:

ffmpeg -i out.mp4 -vf "lenscorrection=cx=0.5:cy=0.5:k1=0.4:k2=0.4" sss.mp4

This is a byproduct of the lenscorrection algorithm, originally meant to work on RGB pixels only. If the output pixel has no corresponding input pixel mapped, it is populated with 0, but in a YUV format, that's a shade of green.

As a workaround, you'll have to force manual format conversion before and after the filter.

ffmpeg -i out.mp4 -vf "format=gbrp,lenscorrection=cx=0.5:cy=0.5:k1=0.4:k2=0.4,format=yuv420p" sss.mp4


Will 1080p content on 4K display look as crisp I have some 1080p content and a 1080p display.
Currently, if I play 720 content, it's not as sharp on the display, obviously, as it is a lesser resolution.

Will this be the same issue if I relay my 1080p content on to a 4K display?
Or will I still get the same crispness of the 1080p content as it is on the 1080p display?

Obviously, it depends a lot on the quality of the displays. A high-quality 720p display may actually give better result than a bad 1080p one, and likewise a bad 4k display isn't that much use!

But assuming the quality is "the same" (though I'm not sure there is a good way to compare this objectively), 1080p footage will look at least as good on 4k display as it does on the 1080p one. In doubt, it can just upsample the footage, that's a lossless operation (in theory) and may in fact already improve the picture, since it's doesn't have the 1080p's pixel grainyness. Likely, it will also do some clever sharpening, which actually gives a "crisper" result, though that may well seem unnatural.

Remember that high-definition TV sets were on the market well before much HD material was actually widely obtainable, and even then it was a substantial quality improvement over the old standards.


How h265 settings / presets affects the target device cpu while decoding and how can I tweak them? h265 is a very powerful but still not widely supported codec, recently I found myself in the need of prepare some h265 videos and have them played on various smartphones.

While a powerful desktop pc has less issues and is outlet powered modern smartphones still struggle with battery savings.

Recent ones are able to decode h264 / avc and aac audio with dedicated hardware but almost no one have support for h265 / hevc at time I'm writing this answer.

What settings can I use to reduce the CPU consumption (and so the battery) on the target devices? The best goal could be make the final cpu needings close to the h264 ones.

Are presets such as slow, veryslow useful for this task or they are good only for reducing the output file size ?

There are other settings that I can tweak for obtain my pourpouse?

PS: please also provide some examples with ffmpeg, thanks!

Try Encoding using "--tune fastdecode" and also check if "Average Bitrate" with "2 Pass" is better than "Constant Quality" with your particular Decoder; trying to maintain Quality over Bitrate can spike the Bitrate (holding a particular Bitrate will drop the Quality on complex Scenes).

Try a few Test Files (short Clips from your Source) and determine which Encode Settings produce the lowest CPU load when Decoding.

Decoding x265 works best with Hardware support which is not going to be available in most Phones, the Phone will probably decode x264 much easier since so many people/years have gone into decoding x264.

Reference: http://x265.readthedocs.io/en/default/presets.html

See also: http://www.techspot.com/article/1131-hevc-h256-enconding-playback/page4.html


DaVinci Resolve ignores MOV (QuickTime) metadata When importing MOV files on Linux, DaVinci Resolve seems to use only modification date from filesystem, but completely ignores metadata from movie file:

Using e.g. exiftool we can fetch date information which seems to be ignored:
$ exiftool -time:all -G1 -a -s DSC_0461.MOV
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2020:10:17 14:36:06+02:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2020:10:17 14:36:10+02:00
[System]        FileInodeChangeDate             : 2020:10:17 14:36:06+02:00
[QuickTime]     CreateDate                      : 2018:12:12 22:19:19
[QuickTime]     ModifyDate                      : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track1]        TrackCreateDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track1]        TrackModifyDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track1]        MediaCreateDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track1]        MediaModifyDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track2]        TrackCreateDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track2]        TrackModifyDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track2]        MediaCreateDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[Track2]        MediaModifyDate                 : 2018:12:12 22:19:20
[ItemList]      ContentCreateDate               : 2018:12:12 22:19:19
[UserData]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2018:12:12 22:19:19
[XMP-exif]      DateTimeOriginal                : 2018:12:12 22:19:19

Any idea which metadata fields are being recognized by DaVinci Resolve 16?

I wrote a simple LUA script extension that can be executed from Workspace > Scripts toolbar after copying the script to {resolve directory}/Fusion/Scripts/Comp. Here's the source code. Currently the number of EXIF fields is limited, but can be easily extended.
The script tries to match media files from Media Storage with media clips in Project's Media Pool. EXIF data are parsed using exiftool. Currently should work on Linux/Mac OS, but can be easily ported to Windows.


ffmpeg transpose=clock rotates 180 degrees instead 90 I have 2 similar videos created on the same mobile. The first one can be downloaded here.
If I'm using the following command the result is correctly rotated by 90 degrees:

ffmpeg -i 20180114_193135.mp4 -vf "transpose=clock" -r 30 -acodec copy 20180114_193135_2.mp4

But if I'm using the same command for the second video it is rotated by 180 degrees instead 90:

ffmpeg -i 20180115_111730.mp4 -vf "transpose=clock" -r 30 -acodec copy 20180115_111730_2.mp4

Can somebody explain, why? I can not rotate the second video with ffmpeg.

FFmpeg, by default, autorotates videos if a rotation tag is detected. The output video will be oriented upright and have no rotation tag. During processing, this step happens before any filtering is done.

So, in this case, you can simply run

ffmpeg -i 20180115_111730.mp4 -r 30 -acodec copy 20180115_111730_2.mp4

Alternatively, to perform manual rotation, you can suppress auto-rotation

ffmpeg -noautorotate -i 20180115_111730.mp4 -vf "transpose=clock" -r 30 -acodec copy 20180115_111730_2.mp4


How to alternate between two video clips in Premiere Pro CS6 I have two long video clips on two different tracks in my timelines, both starting at the same time, and I would like to alternate between them (see a bit of track 1, then a bit of track 2, then track 1...).

The only way I can think of for now is to cut the track with the greatest number when I want to show the one below, but then I loose some data and it gets hard to change my edit points.

Is there any standard way of doing that (for instance make the track with the greatest number transparent...)?

Thanks

You can use the multi-camera feature in Premier to achieve this.

From Adobe's page:

  To easily synchronize footage from all cameras, make sure each camera
  records a sync point using a clapper slate or other technique. Keep
  each camera recording to maintain synchronization. After you capture
  the footage in Premiere Pro, use the following workflow to edit the
  footage:

  Add clips from multiple cameras to a sequence.

  Stack the clips from each camera on separate tracks of a sequence.
  (See Add clips for multi-camera editing.)

  Synchronize the clips in the sequence.

  Mark the sync point with numbered clip markers, or reassign the sync
  point for each camera to a specific timecode. (See Synchronize clips.)

  Create the multi-camera target sequence.

  The final edits are made in a target sequence. You create the target
  sequence by nesting the sequence of synchronized clips into a new
  sequence. Then you enable the clip in the target sequence for
  multi-camera editing. (See Create a multi-camera target sequence.)

  Record the multi-camera edits.

  In the Multi-Camera Monitor, you can view the footage of all four
  cameras simultaneously and switch between cameras to choose footage
  for the final sequence. (See Record multi-camera edits.)

  Adjust and refine edits.

  You can rerecord the final sequence and substitute clips with footage
  from one of the other cameras. You can also edit the sequence like any
  other sequence—using the standard editing tools and techniques, adding
  effects, or compositing using multiple tracks. (See Rerecord
  multi-camera edits and Adjust multi-camera edits in a Timeline panel.)

If you like it more visually explained, take a look at this video:


Adobe Premiere - Restore Audio to A/V Clip After Deleting Say I add a bunch of Audio/Video clips to a sequence, then delete all the audio (Alt-select it and delete); I work on it for some time, close Premiere, re-open.. etc.,
Is there any way to restore the audio to any of the clips that were deleted?

I know I can technically go through each clip, check its timeframe in the clip inspector (i.e. start-time, end-time), open the original clip, reselect that timeframe exactly, and then drag that over the original clip, but with over 30 clips, this is obviously very time consuming. Does anyone know if there's a built-in way in Premiere that allows you to restore the audio to the tracks again?

There's a semi-automatic way to do this – semi automatic because it involves only typing three keystrokes over and over: xf,, xf,, xf,… — you could train your cat to do it!
Here's how it goes:

make sure the audio is enabled for the tracks you want to restore (you only need to do this once)

park the playhead over one of the clips.

hit x (for Mark Clip) to set the in and out point to match the start and end of the clip:

hit f for Match Frame. This will display the current frame from the source clip in the viewer window – note that the in and out points will match those of the timeline clip

hit , to overwrite the clip. Note that this will add the audio tracks as denoted by magic sparkles in the pic below. The magic sparkles only appear if you really believe in them

The playhead will now be parked at the start of the next clip. If it's one you want to reinstate the audio for, then repeat xf, untill you're done, otherwise go to the next clip – down arrow – and repeat.

It looks a bit complicated but you can do it all by the keyboard just by typing xf, (and optionally down arrow) over and over. Note that you have to hit x before you hit f because once you hit f it sets the focus to the viewer window (you can jump back to the timeline by hitting shift3).
Note that this works with FCP too, except you replace , with F10, and you have to press the down arrow each time.
My goal with all NLEs has always been to edit completely from the keyboard, using the mouse as little as possible.


What is the proper terminology for a device that can accept IP video streams and output that to RF as used by consumer televisions? More a terminology question than anything.

As described in the headline, I want to locate a piece of hardware that can accept arbitrary IP streams (be they MPEG-TS, H264, etc - the exact input format isn't important since re-encoding is easy), and can somehow output those streams over a coaxial cable (RF) in a way that a normal, off-the-shelf TV can tune to those streams in the same way they'd tune to a regular TV channel.

This is not a hardware recommendation question. I just want to know what this class of device is properly called so I can locate it myself.

There is no special name for something that combines IP de-encapsulation and RF modulating. At least one company markets the device as a QAM modulator with IP input.


Proper Microphone for Indoor Use & Filter out Ambient Noise I'm working on creating some training videos that will cover a single presenter from the waist up, and I'm trying to avoid the microphone being visible while also getting good sound and avoiding ambient noise. If possible, I'd love the setup to be static so that it requires less repetitive setup (but that is a nice-to-have, not a requirement).

The setup for the shooting is a relatively small space (About 10 x 6), and the building is relatively close to an extremely busy street with fast/noisy traffic. As a result there is a lot of ambient noise from the traffic. I'd like to avoid as much post-production audio work as possible.

My question is: How do I go about selecting the proper microphone for this space?

I originally was thinking that a Shotgun mic would be appropriate since it picked up sound directionally, and that I could even potentially hang this microphone from the ceiling. However, the more reading I did indicated that the way shotgun mics work to reduce ambient noise is not effective indoors; and that specifically  in my small room setup its not likely to have the desired effect.

I've been browsing microphones on Amazon, but I don't know where to even begin with selecting the appropriate microphone.

Are there certain microphone characteristics I can use to compare one microphone from the next to determine what is a good match? What other details do I need to know to make this selection?

I'm looking at spending up-to $200, but I don't want to spend money I don't need to if it won't make a significant difference.

My two suggestions are:

Use a lav mic and don't worry too much about a small mic being visible.  Training videos don't have to look like Downton Abbey.
Use a shotgun mic, but also use an acoustic absorber behind the talent.  It is true that all the ambient noise that comes through the walls will bounce around the room, and if you don't have an absorber behind the talent, the shotgun will "see" the echoes of the ambient noise coming from behind the talent just as much as it "sees" them coming from everywhere else.  But if you can deaden the back wall, the shotgun will "see" a quiet wall with talent in front of it and can filter the noises coming from everywhere else.  The closer you can get the shotgun to the talent (using a boom) the better.


How can I add animated text to a video programmatically (from a script) for use as quality video introductions? I have an educational video product. We currently have over 2000, available in different sizes, so roughly 6000 and counting.

The video introductions (title, description, instructors) were made by hand in video editors but this proves time-consuming and error-prone.

I want to be able to create interesting text animations suitable for video introductions programmatically. All of the data (text) I need is in a local database.

I looked into this problem 2 years ago and solved it by using ffmpeg, and the ASS subtitle system filter. This got the job done, but the animations were limited to simple movement and fades and the process is quite clunky.

Recently looking at iMovie's "title" animations I felt inspired by the quality, and wanted our introductions to be much better. I'm not sure it's worth the effort to re-do them all by hand in something like a manual video editor.

So what techniques are out there that I might consider?

Get TypeMonkey for AfterEffects. Other than templates, it's the easiest way to generate text animations from scratch.

http://aescripts.com/typemonkey/


How to convert variable frame rate videos? I have some old 3GP (mp4v codec)videos from my HTC desire S and when I try to drop them into Vegas they won't open so I decided to convert them to a format that would open. However when I convert to a standard mp4 template h.254 at a frame rate of 30, the video converts and plays back at twice the speed but the audio is original.

I cannot figure out the frame rate for the original video according to Gspot it is 16.393 and other videos its 9.901 etc

Here is the information from the container
3gp4: 3GPP Media (.3GP) Release 4

mp41: MP4 v1 [ISO 14496-1:ch13]
3gp6: 3GPP Media (.3GP) Release 6 Basic Profile
Recommended Display Size: 800 x 480

How would I convert such videos to play back normally?

**EDIT INFORMATION FROM MEDIA INFO**
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : 3GPP Media Release 4
Codec ID                                 : 3gp4
File size                                : 208 MiB
Duration                                 : 3mn 55s
Overall bit rate                         : 7 430 Kbps
Law rating                               : (empty)
Released date                            : 0
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-04-29 18:18:23
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-04-29 18:18:23
Classification                           : (empty)

**Video**
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                           : Simple@L6
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, GMC                     : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default (H.263)
Codec ID                                 : 20
Duration                                 : 3mn 55s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 7 416 Kbps
Nominal bit rate                         : 8 000 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 13.033 fps
Minimum frame rate                       : 3.906 fps
Maximum frame rate                       : 58.824 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.617
Stream size                              : 208 MiB (100%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-04-29 18:18:23
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-04-29 18:18:23

**Audio**
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AMR
Format/Info                              : Adaptive Multi-Rate
Format profile                           : Narrow band
Codec ID                                 : samr
Duration                                 : 3mn 55s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 12.8 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 8 000 Hz
Bit depth                                : 13 bits
Stream size                              : 367 KiB (0%)
Writing library                          : pvmm
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-04-29 18:18:23
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-04-29 18:18:23

Have you tried using Quicktime Pro version 7?  It's what I usually use for file conversions.  It costs about £20 / $30.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/D3380Z/A/quicktime-7-pro-for-mac-os-x

Open your file.

Go to the file menu, and select Export
Choose your format, e.g. Quicktime Movie with ProRes 422 codec at 30 fps.


ffmpeg Optimizing minterpolate at lower fps I have 50 hand-drawn frames, an animation. They were setup to be played back at 24 fps. I don't need to worry about any pre-existing audio sync.

I wanted to turn these frames into a video segment that would extend the playback of these frames over a longer period of time at a framerate of 24 fps. Using a generic speed control of 0.25x to slow down playback over a longer number of frames created a laggy experience since it just copied each existing frame 4x. This was the ideal extension length though (making 50 frames into 200).
So I thought to use an interpolation tool, ffmpeg's minterpolate to build inbetween motion on the inbetween 150 duplicate frames.

I exported my original 50 frames as 16 bit png. My intent is to apply the ffmpeg operations to the png and create a segment of 200 png/frames with the desired changes so they can be played back at 24 fps as smooth as possible.

So far I've been using the command

ffmpeg -start_number 1 -i %d.png -vf minterpolate=fps=96:mi_mode=mci:me_mode=bidir:mc_mode=obmc:me=ds:vsbmc=1 -pix_fmt rgb48be C:\User\interpolated\%d.png

I thought to set the fps to 96, since that's 4x the intended 24fps.
This produced subpar results though, and I wanted to know how I can improve the command for the situation.

Also I'm getting confused if it would be better to create the inbetween frames and then feed them into the minterpolate (i.e. make the input the 200 frames), or have the interpolate create them the extra 150 frames from scratch or if I should be specifying a speed control in the command above.

Constraints: the fps playback must be 24fps; I'll need to create a minimum of 100 frames although like I said 200, or even more, is ideal.

This works for me (I use it a lot):

ffmpeg -i [inputfile] -r 24 -vf "minterpolate=fps=96,setpts=N/(24*TB)" [outputfile]

What I would do is see how well the command works on its own and then manually fix any artifacts you don't like.


Hardware to rotate a video signal 90 degrees? Okay, so what I'm trying to accomplish is to take a standard TV monitor and mount it at 90 degrees, while simultaneously rotating the source input signal 90 degrees so that the video output appears right-side-up on the rotated TV monitor.

We're doing this in an attempt to mock-up a giant iPhone in portrait orientation, driving the screen image off of an actual iPhone in portrait orientation.  So the TV needs to receive the signal from the iPhone, rotate it 90 degrees, and then scale it to fill the screen (probably distorting it a bit due to different aspect ratios).

I understand this sort of thing is relatively simple to do in software, but we really need some sort of hardware solution as we will be running this on a live feed, with the video running directly from the input device (iPhone) to the TV, with no computer in-between.  Is there any readily available hardware (like a cable or adaptor, maybe) that can do this?  Or perhaps any known TV models that allow the input image to be rotated arbitrarily?

I don't know of any cables which do it, but you have a simpler solution:

A few recent HDMI computer monitors will be able to do this in hardware - an example I quite like is the The Samsung Syncmaster C24A650X


How Do I create this liquid like animation? I just wondered what Plugins are neceassary to create such a liquid looking effect like in this video:

https://vimeo.com/136832449

Screenshot:

Those paint splats are often done with stock footage or filmed footage. Get a black or green surface, throw some paint at it and film it. Bring it in to AE and extract the alpha from the luma or with chroma-key and then re-colour the paint however you like using your colour correction tools of choice.

To make liquid effects in AE without footage, here's the technique I've been using since forever. I worked it out myself years ago, but so did a lot of other people, so I won't claim to have invented it

Take your source layer, eg. text, footage whatever. Apply the turbulent displace filter to it, starting with 0% strength and ramping up. Muck around with the settings and animate the evolution setting until it looks like you want it. Then apply a blur, again, starting at 0 then ramping up. Then use the extract filter to harden the edges of the blurred outlines. Lastly use the fill filter to fill in the layer with a solid colour. The effect will be something dissolving into blobs of liquid. Works best with line art and text, or high contrast footage.


FFMPEG: Loop video to the length of audio E.g. if video is 1 minute, but audio is 1 hour. Make video loop throughout for 1 hour of the audio track.

I use this solution to loop image through the lenght of the audio

ffmpeg -y -loop 1 -r 6 -i image.jpg -i audio.mp3 -shortest -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -tune stillimage -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy output.mp4

But it doesn't work for video, replacing image.jpg with video.mp4 will give error no loop found.

For video, stream_loop option should be used.

ffmpeg -y -stream_loop -1 -i video -i audio.mp3 -fflags +shortest -max_interleave_delta 50000 -c copy output.mp4

You'll have to use a very recent version of ffmpeg (> Nov '17) as stream_loop had a bug, only recently fixed.

Since video encoding is expensive in terms of time and CPU, I've used streamcopy. For most videos, this is fine. Else, you'll have to re-encode.

Edit: another bug related to stream_loop, see workaround below

ffmpeg  -stream_loop -1 -i 1.mp4 -c copy -v 0 -f nut - | ffmpeg -thread_queue_size 10K -i - -i 1.mp3 -c copy -map 0:v -map 1:a -shortest -y out.mp4


Last Adobe Premiere Pro version for Windows 7 Due to my hardware limitations, I'm forced to use Win7 instead of Win10.

On my current version of Adobe Premiere Pro, I can't attach and work with proxies.

I want to try newer version, but not the latest, since it's not supported by Win7.

Can you tell me the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro which is still working under Win7 ?

Thank you

Version (CC 2019) 13.1.5.47  is the only version that installs on Windows 7,8,10
Good luck


Microsoft Movie Maker Not Centering Video on Preview Screen I have a 2 hour deadline and I'm literally having a mental break down over this piece of crap software.

First of all, it doesn't process MOV files. Why make a video editing software at all?

Now after painstaking converting over 2000 MB of files into avi (over an extremely slow internet connection), the software refuses to center the video.

When I first started it, the video was centered on the preview screen just as it should. I think I clicked on add title, and now the video is pinned to the upper left corner, leaving a black screen in the middle.

Has anyone ever experienced this issue? There seems to be little to no solution to be found online.

Sorry this is a little late but but did you ever figure it out? I wouldn't recommend using windows movie maker for much of anything. The reason it doesn't accept .mov files is because it's windows movie maker, a Microsoft product using microsoft proprietary files .AVI and .WMV... .MOV is quicktime which is Apple.

You mentioned that you converted over 2000MB of files over an extremely slow internet connection so I'm assuming you didn't use software on your machine. I would start by blaming the converted file. It could possibly be that  movie maker can see the file but once you start adding effects everything goes to crap.

windows movie maker has saved me in a last minute pinch when I needed to fix something for a powerpoint presentation and didn't have my studio with me, but other than that I would say purchase the correct software, hire a a pro, or don't take on 2 hour deadlines when you don't have the proper equipment.


Auto split comp into separate render items? Is there a script/plugin that will either (a) take layers from a comp and create separate render queue items for each layer; or (b) use markers in a comp to generate separate renders?

I thought there used to be one ... "RenderLayers" or something ...

Essentially I need to split up a long comp into separate output files.

thanks!

There is a script called "rd_RenderLayers" from redefinery, maybe thats what you mean. It does exactly that, adding every layer to your render queue.

Unfortunately his website is on hiatus but the downloads still work, you can download the latest version here.


Automatically generate videos from template I need to create a number of videos from a template - they will have an image background, and then 1-4 separate videos appearing over the top. Something like this:

The catch - these videos will need to be automatically generated in some way by a server.

Is there some software out there that will spit out video files according to a template like this?
I'd need a way to set the background image, as well as the number and position of the overlay videos.

This will ideally be done on a Windows server, but I can use other operating systems if need be.

A script that generates a custom ffmpeg command based on inputs provided could do this. You'd need to construct a filter complex with scale/crop filters for each video and multiple overlay filters with time conditions for the compositing. If you're willing to learn and trial it out, grab the Win static binaries here and start with some basic guides.


zooming animation is not smooth in Premiere CS6 Animatedly, I tried to zoom into a video clip in Premiere by creating two Position keyframes and two Scale keyframes

But the result is very shaky for some reason?
What am I doing wrong with this implementation, or should I achieve this zooming effect by other means?
Same shaky result using linear interpolations
If I use just Position keyframes (Scale keyframes deleted for troubleshooting), and if I set the keyframes' Temporal Interpolation to Linear and also the Spatial Interpolation to Linear, the resultant video is still jerky, as evidenced here

I set the temporal and spatial interpolations to Linear for both keyframes i.e. for both the starting and middle keyframes

There are a number of other interpolation options, maybe one of them would help?

Turns out that one should use the Motion effect and not the Transform effect for zooming in Premiere, even though they have exactly the same Position and Scale controls!

Here is the result with the Motion effect

p.s. The Anti-Flicker filter I discovered under the Motion effect was left to the default of 0, so that was not needed.

p.p.s. I also found this discussion of a similar issue


How to edit my video with iMoviewithout losing original dimensions This may be the simplest question because I am very new in video editing. Basically I have a video of 640x1080 dimension (I recorded iPhone 6 screen with QuickTime). To I just want to add some text and sound to it. I know how to do the jobs; however, the problem is, when I created a new project in iMovie, I can only choose project of size 4:3 or 16:9. After importing, editing my video, and exporting, I will have a video with black borders at 2 sides. How can I preserve the original dimension?

iMovie does not support any aspect ratios besides 4:3 and 16:9.


Is it ok to edit a public domain speech? Let me try to explain the project I'm working on. I'm a volunteer for a high school engineering competition, and the past couple of years I've produced a pro bono commemorative video to show at the competition.

This year I want to use the audio from JFK's "go to the moon" speech as a voiceover track, but it would be weird to include references to soviets and war interspersed in the parts of the speech I want to use.

So, my question is: is it "ok" to selectively edit out the parts that aren't relevant to today's society (as in, taking artistic license), or is this considered inappropriate?

The video won't be shown outside the event, but I don't want to do something considered "wrong."

Public domain material isn't subject to any restrictions -- legally you can do anything you like with it. It would be respectful (but not required) to honor the intent of the material and not distort its meaning, and to credit the source.


What camera to use for classroom/lecture recording? We want to install HD IP cameras in our classrooms to record lectures and make them available online.

We are having a hard time finding the right one. Most are geared towards surveillance.

Any recommendations?

Room size: large classroom seating about 70 students

Camera specs required: Audio/in for wireless microphone, 1080p, data transfer over ethernet.

have a look at these (I don't know your price range so I leave options in the link):

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/webcams

Update:

For more professional solutions:

http://www.crestron.com/resources/product_and_programming_resources/catalogs_and_brochures/online_catalog/default.asp?jump=1&model=CAPTURELIVEHD

combined with:

http://www.crestron.com/resources/product_and_programming_resources/catalogs_and_brochures/online_catalog/default.asp?cat=1058&subcat=1506&id=2220


Live streaming to a disk Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question (pretty technical), but I thought I'd start here.

I'm interested in building a website that will have a streaming-video feature. It's not quite live video, because the videos will only be available after they have been reviewed. However, I would like the videos to be viewable on demand (ie, I don't want there to be a waiting period for them to be uploaded and encoded, like Youtube).

Basically, I'm wondering how to live-stream video directly to a server, so that it is being encoded on the fly, and can be watched as soon as the stream ends.

Thanks for your help!

If you’re up for building your own server, and have some coding skill, then you could look at setting up a nginx server running the RTMP extension that can capture an re-stream live or on demand video. It can also do near realtime transcoding or "at completion of capture" transcoding using ffmpeg.

For the system I setup, I send live video in using an IP based camera system from multiple sources that can do RTMP streaming, or if I want to capture desktop content like a video game I use OBS to do the streaming to the server.

The actually user website itself runs from a node.js based system that has access to the content recorded by the nginx rtmp capture.

OR

You could look at a pre-build solution like Kaltura which has both a open-source community version and a commercial version. Think of it as your own YouTube server setup that has a tone of features ready to go out-of-the-box.


Apply the parameters of automatic color balance to another clip I took several shots with a camera without the ability to white balance the shot. In one take, Final Cut Pro's automatic color balance works very well. I would like to apply those same settings to the other takes from the same day. When I save the effect as a preset and apply it, Final Cut Pro applies automatic color balance to the new clip rather than a color balance with the same parameters from the first clip.
How can I use the parameters of the automatic color correction from one clip to apply to another clip?

Unfortunately the settings are not visible when you use automatic colour grading. AFAIK what the algorithm does can’t be replicated on another clip.
To be honest I would not use automatic for what I publish. It’s just too unpredictable and not repeatable. Sometimes you get different results with the same footage in your timeline.


Does Youtube count views from facebook? I am not sure if this is the place for the question but i am sure someone here has experience with it.

Last month i have uploaded several videos to Youtube and linked them on facebook page.

First one has 54 views counted in Youtube. On facebook it says 14 shares, 1.1k views.

Another video had Instagram boost, around 10k likes, 46k reach, 500 clicks, and on Youtube total of 1.1k views.

When testing with different browsers i do not see views number increasing when looking embed video on Facebook.

What counts as a view on Facebook are way different that what counts on YouTube. Facebook is famous for its defense on three second views. This is in contrast to YouTubes complex algorithm that determines a legitimate view or not. This is why you see such a large difference in views between the two platforms.


Speed multi part of video I try speed up a part of video but when completed, the output has the wrong duration video, and it contain some freeze frames. My command:

ffmpeg -i /storage/emulated/0/Screen_Recorder/ScreenRecord/Audio_VD_1560242359654.mp4 -preset ultrafast \
  -filter_complex \
     [0:v]trim=0:12,setpts=PTS[sv]; \
     [0:a]atrim=0:12,asetpts=PTS[sa]; \
     [0:v]trim=12:50,setpts=0.50*(PTS)[v0]; \
     [0:a]atrim=12:50,atempo=2.00[a0]; \
     [0:v]trim=50:57,setpts=PTS[ev]; \
     [0:a]atrim=50:57,asetpts=PTS[ea]; \
     [sv][sa][v0][a0][ev][ea]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1 \
  -profile:v baseline -c:a aac \
  /storage/emulated/0/Screen_Recorder/ScreenRecord/Speed_VD_1560242925087.mp4

and when I try atrim audio, and merge it to video if trim form more than zero frame before of video after trim can't play. How can I fix it?

Use

-filter_complex [0:v]trim=0:12,setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[sv];[0:a]atrim=0:12,asetpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[sa];[0:v]trim=12:50,setpts=0.50*(PTS-STARTPTS)[v0];[0:a]atrim=12:50,asetpts=(PTS-STARTPTS),atempo=2.00[a0];[0:v]trim=50:57,setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[ev];[0:a]atrim=50:57,asetpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)[ea];[sv][sa][v0][a0][ev][ea]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1

concat filter expects all inputs to start from 0, so each instance of PTS should be replaced with PTS-STARTPTS.


Format and codec for a video with 5760×1080 For an art installation I need to project on 3 projectors (1920×1080).

My playback setup is: 1 PC with Windows 7, SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and 3 projectors (1920×1080).

The video I need to project has a width of 3 x 1920 = 5760 and a height of 1080.

The editing is done with Premier Pro CC 2018 (version 12.1) under Windows 10.

What video format and what codec should I use for the final export from Premier Pro

to allow the oversized width,
to have a good quality for a large screen projection,
so that it is not too heavy for the system?

For playback the best codec is unarguably h.264 (AKA MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC, or just plain 'mp4'). H.264 in an mp4 container allows for small files with good visual quality, the ability to tune the settings to achieve tradeoffs between size, compatibilty and quality, and almost universal playability with modern devices.

In the Premiere export window choose H.264 as the format. There are numerous presets available, but most won't be relevant because of the unusual dimensions of your video. The ones you should be looking at are the ones called Match Source-[...] bitrate. Depending on the playback machine you should try the High bitrate first. Adaptive High Bitrate will give you a lower file size by increasing the compression (= lowering the quality) in parts of the video that don't need it, but for local playback this is not really an advantage.

The Match Source bit means that the encode will be done at the same frame size as your sequence.

If you are having trouble playing back the mp4 you might want to look at the profile in the Video tab of the encoding settings. Simply put, this determines how comlex the task of de-encoding the file is. For lower-powered or older machines use the Main profile, but if your playback machine can support it use High Profile.

High10 lets you use 10-bit encoding. For a final playback file this is usually unnecessary, unless you're using a 10-bit monitor (if you don't know then you're almost certainly using an 8-bit monitor) it won't make any perceivable difference, and will limit the compatibilty for playback.


US DVD playback problems in UK I recently brought back some DVD's recorded at a conference in Florida, USA. They play on my UK DVD and computer but with with horizontal lines across the picture. Is this a region problem or a NTSC to Pal issue. Or could there be a problem in writing them at source.
New HD 4k TV being used. Some say that these days, NTSC should not be a problem on DVD's.

The fact that you see any picture means that your player is at least capable to detect and play 60 Hz DVDs.

When you say "horizontal lines" do you mean combing like this:

This is combing caused by incorrect deinterlacing. You player seems to do shoddy job of playing 60 Hz content on a 50 Hz display. Search for firmware update. Call/email the manufacturer. Also check deinterlacing options on the player and the TV set. Maybe your TV has a better deinterlacer, but is set to accept progressive signal, try switching it to "deinterlace" or "auto".

Sadly, I see the same combing when playing the Simpsons off a 60 Hz DVD on a 60 Hz player fed to a 60 Hz TV. One would think that after twenty five years of producing and testing DVD/BD players this should be fixed on all modern players (sigh).


Format of imported video files in Adobe Premiere What is the format of newly imported file into the Adobe Premiere project? Evenmore, will the video be lossy encoded?

Premiere works with the source files you provide.  Depending on the format it may generate a lossy copy that can be used for faster preview in the editor, but final renders will work directly from your source files.  That's what's going on if you see it says it is conforming  files in the lower right corner.


Filming with projector I want to make an educational video. I am using a camera (Canon 250d), a projector, and some lights.

The problem is that when I brighten the room or make light on the speaker, the text on the projector gets difficult to read.

What can I change with my camera settings or the light setup to change this. So the room is bright and the text on the projector is easy to read.

Try adjusting the brightness and contrast of the picture on the projector. And it’s better to play with the light - direct only at yourself, not at the screen.


Black/silent video with specific duration with ffmpeg I'm trying to generate video files that follow a "prototype" file as much as possible (frame rate, dimensions, container format, codecs, etc.) but show a black screen with silent audio. Here's one command line that works fine, and produces a 3-second-long file:

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i color=c=black:s=3840x2160:r=25/1 -c:v h264 -f lavfi -i anullsrc=cl=mono:r=48000 -c:a pcm_s16be -t 3 out.mov

Sometimes, the prototype file has codecs that ffmpeg can read but not write, like pcm_bluray. So instead of trying to use the same codec as the prototype, I omit this parameter and let ffmpeg pick a default:

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i color=c=black:s=3840x2160:r=25/1 -c:v h264 -f lavfi -i anullsrc=cl=mono:r=48000 -t 3 out.mov

To my surprise, I get a file that's 3.022s long. What's interesting is that both the streams are 3.0s long, but container duration is longer:

{
    "streams": [
        {
            "index": 0,
            "codec_name": "h264",

            "time_base": "1/12800",
            "start_pts": 0,
            "start_time": "0.000000",
            "duration_ts": 38400,
            "duration": "3.000000",

            "nb_frames": "75",
        },
        {
            "index": 1,
            "codec_name": "aac",
            "codec_long_name": "AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)",
            "profile": "LC",

            "start_pts": 0,
            "start_time": "0.000000",
            "duration_ts": 144000,
            "duration": "3.000000",
        }
    ],
    "format": {
        "nb_streams": 2,
        "nb_programs": 0,
        "format_name": "mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2",
        "format_long_name": "QuickTime / MOV",
        "start_time": "0.000000",
        "duration": "3.022000",
    }
}

ffmpeg version 4.0.2-2 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 8 (Ubuntu 8.2.0-7ubuntu1)

Specify a PCM codec. The default codec is AAC, which has a priming sample that format in ffprobe accounts for, but stream won't, since the demuxer will have discarded it before sending it to the decoder for analysis.

P.S. your syntax is wrong - it should be ffmpeg -f lavfi -i color=c=black:s=3840x2160:r=25/1 -f lavfi -i anullsrc=cl=mono:r=48000 -c:v h264 -c:a pcm_s16be -t 3 out.mov

Options before an input are applied to the input. You've gotten away with it because -c:v h264 sets the video decoder for the following input. However, since it is an audio-only input, the effect is inert. And the default codec for MOV happens to be H264, so the outcome is what you desired.