What are these rectangular patterns in the frame? This frame from a video about a camera, has, as you can see, a pattern made up from rectangular boxes.
Is it just the pixelation? Or something else?

*you can see the video by that frame here

Those are compression artifacts, where the original video has been compressed and has lost data. Block-based coding for quantisation leads to artifacts like this, as the information depth in the image is too high to be successfully compressed at the level required by the lossy algorithm used. From that Wikipedia page:

  Lossy data compression involves discarding some of the media's data so that it becomes simplified enough to be stored within the desired disk space or be transmitted (or streamed) within the bandwidth limitations (known as a data rate or bit rate for media that is streamed). If the compressor could not reproduce enough data in the compressed version to reproduce the original, the result is a diminishing of quality, or introduction of artifacts. Alternatively, the compression algorithm may not be intelligent enough to discriminate between distortions of little subjective importance and those objectionable to the viewer.

@DarkDust worded this well:

  The part that actually leads to these visible blocks is the fact that for some compression algorithms, each frame is divided into smaller parts, so-called macroblocks, which are further divided into transform blocks. When the compression in two adjacent macro blocks is too far away from the original in different ways, they don't "fit" together at their border any more. It is this "not fitting together" that we see in the block artifacts


Why does video rendering begin at the top left corner of the screen? Why is the top left corner of the screen considered to be (0,0) and not the bottom left like in a graph?

Probably because TV and CRTs scanned from the top left.  Video cards store the screen buffer in this order, too, so scan-out from the screen buffer in left-to-right, top-to-bottom reads sequentially increasing memory addresses.  Addressing video RAM as a 2-dimensional array

extern int32_t screenbuf[480][640];
screenbuf[0][0] = RED;

would modify the top-left pixel.  My theory is that this led to graphics APIs using coordinate systems with 0,0 at the top left, even device-independent APIs (not 640x480 or whatever), because that choice mirrors direct addressing of video RAM.  (and saves one subtraction every time a Y coordinate has to get mapped to a memory address.)

As some comment point out, not ALL graphical coordinate systems have the origin at the top left, but it is extremely common for graphics APIs as well as UIs, and for example window coordinates in the X Window System.


How is 29.97 timecode generated over a full day without frame errors? A quick primer:American television was originally broadcast at 30 frames per second. In order to accommodate color information without losing backward-compatibility with B&W televisions, the framerate was slowed by a factor of 1000/1001, to approximately 29.97 FPS.

29.97 footage was still labeled as 30 FPS; however, the difference in framerate caused the timecode to be off by a minute-and-a-half per day, causing sync issues for broadcasters. To counteract this, "dropframe" timecode was developed. At 30 FPS, there are 18000 frames per ten minutes; at 29.97 exactly, there are 17982 frames per ten minutes. To account for the eighteen-frame difference, we "skip" two frames on every minute not divisible by 10. For example:

30 FPS
00:00:59:29 + 1 frame = 00:01:00:00
00:04:59:29 + 1 frame = 00:05:00:00
00:09:59:29 + 1 frame = 00:10:00:00

29.97 FPS, dropframe
00:00:59;29 + 1 frame = 00:01:00;02
00:04:59;29 + 1 frame = 00:05:00;02
00:09:59;29 + 1 frame = 00:10:00;00

The question:The math works out at exactly 29.97, but the framerate is slightly faster -- 30*(1000/1001) works out to 29.97002997002... The difference is negligible for any single piece of footage; the error here only works about to about two-and-a-half frames per twenty-four hours. But how does a master sync generator account for these extra frames? There's no labeling scheme for them, and midnight will not occur on a clean frame.

As per the Broadcast Engineer's Reference Book, p. 203

  This correction will match DF time to real time to within
  approximately 2.6 frames per day; to eliminate the residual error the
  timecode generator can be reset each midnight.

So, apparently nothing.

As far as the "extra" frames, Charles Poynton says,

  If a timecode sequence is to be maintained longer than 24 hours,
  timecode should be jammed daily to reference clock time at an
  innocuous moment. No standard recommends when this should take place;
  however, the usual technique is to insert duplicate timecode numbers
  00:00:00;00 and 00:00:00;01. Editing equipment treats the duplicate
  codes as a timecode interruption.


How to manage subtitles for dialects I'm italian, and I was commissioned a video composed by several interviews to old people living among some hills. The final product now is a 70 minutes long video composed by interviews that are mostly spoken in italian language.

Seldom, though, these elders switch language, and start speaking in the local dialect. That happens quite often for a few words; sometimes, albeit rarely, they speak entire phrases in their dialect.

At the beginning this didn't seem like an issue because that's a pretty common thing here, and more or less everybody in this region would understand those words, so we didn't ask the elders to just repeat the phrase in italian during the interview. Now, though, those who commissioned the work started to worry about people not getting those words, in case the video gets some distribution outside of this region.

Consequently, I find myself in the necessity to create some proper subtitles (dialect to italian). The issue is that I'm not sure about how to format them in those situations where the dialect appears only for a few words in the middle of a phrase.

Of course when the phrase is entirely in dialect it would get entirely subtitled. But what when it's just a word or two? Is there some international standard? Did you ever happen to find a precedent to this situation?

The options I'm currently thinking of are these:

subtitling the entire phrase like it was entirely spoken in dialect;
making a subtitle which includes only the dialect word and its translation.

Example:

  Per fare il savorèt prendi delle mele, e le grattugi.

meaning:

  To make jam you take apples, and you shred them.

The bold word is spoken in dialect, not in italian.

Subtitles' option 1:

  Per fare la marmellata prendi le mele, e le grattugi.

Subtitles' option 2:

  Savorèt = marmellata.

While the first option is certainly clearer, it also sounds excessive and I fear it wouldn't fit well in the overall aesthetic of the video. Putting an entire phrase, written in the exactly same way it is spoken except for one word, in front of the spectator, thus implying it has to read it, seems almost offensive.

The second option sounds more interesting. The subtitle might appear by fading, so that it doesn't come in too abruptly. At the same time I fear that they'd require the viewer to give even more attention to the phrase being spoken, to recognize the weird words and fitting the translated word in their place. That might be confusing to some.

I wouldn't do the second option at all. Subtitles should flow with the text, an comparision sign disturbs the flow.

I personally would prefere to simply rewrite the entire sentence.

Depending on your distribution media, I would make it closed captions, so people can turn off or on the translation.

Maybe, you could consider to translate the entire project, as this could be a less intrusive than switching subtitles on and off.

But I would handle it like most documentarys, when there are other languages involved. Simply translate the sentence.


Lossless conversion of yuv420p10le to yuv420p I have an mp4 movie, containing an h264 video stream (pixel format yuv420p10le), and an AAC audio stream.

My favorite player cannot read the yuv420p10le pixel format. I was wondering if it is possible to convert losslessly the pixel format of the movie from yuv420p10le to yuv420p. More specifically, is it possible (theoretically speaking), and if so, can any program do it and how?

I've tried the following with ffmpeg, but it does not work:

ffmpeg -i super_movie.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -pix_fmt yuv420p super_movie_yuv420p.mp4

Thanks in advance for any help.

No this is not possible. Looking at this theoretically disregarding the codec you can not take away information and call it lossless, thats already a terminology problem.

Applying a new color space without transcoding is also not possible
It's not so easy to say whether this is even possible with certain codecs other than h264, it really depends on how you define certain terminology.

Regarding h264 its simply not possible in the way the codec works, color information is essential in how the codec encodes frames as its based on motion estimation and the color information between frames is what defines the in between frames that don't hold the information of a whole frame but only the differences between keyframes.
So just applying different color values to each existing pixel is not really possible. It would result in major artifacts.


Need webcam presentation software for digital projectors I am about to do a presentation of a mobile application at a conference. I have a good USB webcam to use, so I can point at the phone, but want to put it through my laptop and then through a projector for the audience to see. Can anyone recommend a simple a decent software package, (that is free to) ? Has to be compatible with Windows 7.

I'm a mac user, so haven't tried these out, but:

http://camdesk.sourceforge.net/ looks lightweight and may do the trick

http://www.screenmonkey.co.uk/ is more comprehensive live-presentation software, but should be able to get a webcam video-source full screen.


Is it possible in FFMPEG to change scale over time? Ok, so using the overlay filter, one can change the x/y location of a video over time by using the "t" variable. For example, overlay=x='if(gte(t,2), -w+(t-2)*20, NAN)':y=0 can be used to start sliding an overlayed element from the top left to top right, after 2 seconds has passed.
What I want to do is to use a similar principle for scaling elements. I would like to be able to change the scale of a video over time by using an expression (like, scale=w=iw*t, or something along that line).
Is this possible?
when I run that expression through -filter_complex, I get

Error when evaluating the expression 'iw*t'.
Maybe the expression for out_w:'iw*t' or for out_h:'-1' is self-referencing.

I'm feeling like there's a fair chance I'm going to need to patch FFMpeg if I want to get this functionality, but I thought I would ask first, to see if anyone would be in the know about this kind of thing!
Does anyone know how such a task might be accomplished?
Thanks for the help!

From what I understand 't' is evaluated once. Have you read this: https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#zoompan ?

Ffmpeg Docs:

9.170.1 Examples

Zoom-in up to 1.5 and pan at same time to some spot near center of picture:

zoompan=z='min(zoom+0.0015,1.5)':d=700:x='if(gte(zoom,1.5),x,x+1/a)':y='if(gte(zoom,1.5),y,y+1)':s=640x360

Zoom-in up to 1.5 and pan always at center of picture:

zoompan=z='min(zoom+0.0015,1.5)':d=700:x='iw/2-(iw/zoom/2)':y='ih/2-(ih/zoom/2)'

Same as above but without pausing:

zoompan=z='min(max(zoom,pzoom)+0.0015,1.5)':d=1:x='iw/2-(iw/zoom/2)':y='ih/2-(ih/zoom/2)'


Filming Theatre During Pandemic I am teaching a course in Spring, along with a musical theatre class, to film a production of Spring Awakening using Covid restrictions.  This would not be with an audience, but more like a film version.
I believe this will be a valuable course for my students moving forward, as theatre is becoming more and more film friendly and there will be work out there.
What would you suggest as "tips" for filming production numbers?
Updated: What we are doing is filming a musical, with Covid restrictions(masks and no audience, 6 feet apart). This will be a non-live set up. The crew will be rehearsing with the actors, as this is a class. We have a 3-4 camera set up with a jib and tracking. We are using Panasonic UX180's. I also have a 4 screened monitor so I can see what everyone is doing on the stage. It is experimental and it should be very fun and interesting. I was just looking for anyone who might already be doing this type of work and how they are fairing.

What do you consider "normal" filming?
I've filmed a lot in theatres with audiences, usually in performances that are primarily for the audience, and the video recording is a secondary consideration. Usually the camera in this scenario is back far from the stage (behind the audience, so you're not in anyone's way), and the camera positions are fixed. You're capturing the performance live, and don't know exactly when/where the performers will be, so framing is usually paying attention and a bit of guesswork. The focus is usually fixed in the right general area, which is fine for wide shots from up the back of the theatre. If anyone on stage has a mic, usually there's a clean audio feed to the camera of that, as well as any music (although you can also re-dub anything from a pre-recorded source later). Other than that, there is also usually an auditorium mic for the camera, to pick up any other audio (non-mic voice/singing, any other live sounds). Lighting is also usually for the "live" show, and from a camera point of view you're just having to adjust on the fly, and cope with whatever you're given.
There are various pros and cons to filming without the audience.
Pros: From a visual perspective, with no audience you can bring the camera much closer, which will give you a better (sharper/detailed) image. Your perspective is usually more in line with the stage (level) than what you can get from further back. You can also start choosing from more camera angles - if the material calls for it, and depending on how much editing you want to do. During COVID, I saw a few people film more in the style of TV production - you can block out exactly where everyone is going to be, and get in close (even on stage) with DSLR setups, different lenses, etc. It's a whole different look than what I normally do with video cameras from the back of a theatre. You can also control the lighting to be camera friendly, and make sure lights/colours that are unfriendly to cameras aren't in use. Being up closer means better sound recording also, and no audience sounds getting in the way.
Cons: DSLR filming is a different skillset to using a Video Camera. I'd be comfortable guiding anyone on video camera setup for a live show, if you handed me a DSLR to film a non-live setup, I feel it would be like starting with almost no experience - I'd need some guidance myself! Remember to consider that the two scenarios are different, so if you train someone only in filming up close with DSLR setups, they can't directly just swap over to filming a live show with a video camera, and vice versa. Secondary to that is the lack of audience - if you film without any audience sound (applause, laughter, reaction, etc), your performance will sound dead. If you break items up into scenes, and then re-dub your audio track later, it won't sound like it was recorded in a theatre "live". It will depend on whether you want it to still look/sound like a production that was recorded "live", or if you're happy for it to look/sound like it was performed for camera only. I filmed some dance numbers without an audience - the director decided that with no audience they could therefore give stage direction during the items, because I could just use the music audio track only, and didn't need to use the live mic sound - to me the final product looks like it was filmed in a theatre, but doesn't sound like it - it sounds like a studio recorded track, not a live theatre performance recorded track - any sound of any footwork is lost, etc.
Hopefully that gives you enough to consider. As always there is no "correct" way to do this, it's largely a bunch of trade offs to consider, which affect what the finished product looks and sounds like versus what you want to achieve.


How does QuickTime Player know when do play a video in HiDPI/Retina/@2x mode? When you’re on a Mac with Retina Display (HiDPI), and you make a screen recording using QuickTime Player, whenever that video is played in QuickTime Player, it is shown with the expected 2:1 pixel density.

However, if you attempt to re-encode this video using ffmpeg (like in this question on Stack Overflow) the outputted file will instead be played back at a too-big/fuzzy 1:1 pixel density.

Also, if you attempt to play the QuickTime-generated screen recording in a player like VLC, you’ll notice it plays at the blurry 1:1 instead of the sharp 2:1. So it seems like there’s a feature in QuickTime Player that knows this video was captured at a 2x pixel density, so it needs to be played-back at a 2x pixel density.

How does QuickTime Player know when to play a video back in HiDPI/Retina mode? Is there some special metadata that’s written to the file?

How to reproduce:

Use QuickTime Player to create a Screen Recording on a Retina Mac.
Play the video you recorded in QuickTime Player using the ⌘1 Actual Size view. Notice that it’s playing 2:1 on your Retina Display, so the video looks sharp. It’s playing in half the space of the actual recorded pixels.
Use ffmpeg to encode the video using a command like this:

ffmpeg -i retina_sample.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 23 retina_sample_compressed.mov

Play the new ffmpeg-compressed video in QuickTime Player using the ⌘1 Actual Size view. Notice that it’s playing 1:1, so the video looks fuzzy.

To clarify, the video does not look blurry because it was compressed. Rather, it looks blurry because the video is being played twice as big as it should be, at a 1:1 pixel density, instead of the required 2:1 pixel density, presumably because some metadata is being discarded when encoding.

Here are links to example videos:

Before: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5a9l23jdlmhtqut/retina_sample.mov?dl=1
After: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v0ek4k981b0y2jn/retina_sample_compressed.mov?dl=1

The specific atom is in the trak metadata. When the com.apple.quicktime.pixeldensity metadata has the value 0x30, quicktime will play it at double the DPI.
There is currently not very good support for transferring this atom when re-encoding the file. You may have success using the use_metadata_tags value for the movflags option if you are just copying the video.
Example:
# loses high dpi playback
ffmpeg -i retina_sample.mov -c copy new.mov

# retains high dpi playback
ffmpeg -i retina_sample.mov -movflags use_metadata_tags -c copy new_high_dpi.mov

Hopefully soon issue 7045 will be addressed to fix this.


Scaling proportionally on After Effects - Shift + click does not work! For the life of me, I can't tell what I'm doing wrong, but here we are!

I am on Mac, newbie on After Effects. I can scale anything (not proportionally) with the click on a corner but, unlike in Indesign or Illustrator, Shift + click just does not work! It kind of releases the frame, just like if I had clicked outside of it.

I am on Mac, After Effects CC. I verified the following:

Shift is pushed (the "non permanent capital letter" key of the keyboard)
Mode is "Selection tool" (the arrow)
I am indeed clicking on a corner (where little square appears) and not on the side!

Yet it just deselects the whole thing and making me crazy! What am I missing?

When I hold down shift, images and shapes scale proportionally. Just grab a corner handle and drag.

Alternatively:
Select the layer, press S to reveal the Scale parameter. Adjust that value. It will be proportional unless you unlink the x and y scales.


How can I insert a space between several clips in Premiere? In Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 I want to select 20 or more clips to drop on the timeline at once (in this case they are audio clips).  However I would like to have a configurable space or gap between each clip on the timeline (say a 5 second space between each clip) rather than having them be one right after the other.  How can I do this?

I believe I figured out a workaround to do this (based on the idea of using the speed duration from putting a gap between each clip)

Drag and drop all 20+ clips on to the timeline to add them.
Select on the clips and copy them onto a new audio track
Select all the new clips you just copied and right click and choose Speed/Duration.  Choose a setting like 50% and check Ripple Edit, Shifting Trailing Clips
Delete the clips on the new track you just copied and time stretched, leaving you with just the original clips.

The original clips should now be spaced out.  Obviously could be problematic if you have lots of other stuff on your timeline but you could lock those tracks.


Why does compressor output 960x540 when frame size is specified "up to 1280x720"? Is there any way to produce output video at 1280x720 resolution using the "Apple Devices HD (Most Compatible)" setting in Compressor? When I specify a frame size of "up to 1280x720", the output renders at 960x540. This screenshot shows what I'm talking about:

By contrast, if I specify a frame size of "up to 1920x1080" or "up to 960x540", Compressor produces output at the specified resolution. My source video is at 1920x1080 resolution.

The original AppleTV could only playback at 1280x720 at 24fps. Because your video is at 25fps, it has to use a slightly lower resolution. If you either lower the frame rate (probably not an option) or exclude the original AppleTV, it should export at the higher resolution. I believe there's another setting than the "Most Compatible" one which excludes the older AppleTVs.


Resuming a large video uploading on Youtube I am uploading a large Video to youtube.It is currently being uploaded.I want to stop it as the weather is quite bad in here and resume it whenever it is good to keep the router going on.Is it possible ? i have downloaded 45% uploaded.Thanks

Yes.You can. It is officially announced the Youtube has brought up the FEATURE. If you had to abandon your upload for any reason, you have up to 24 hours to continue uploading where you left off.You can cancel the upload and whenever you want to download within the 24 hours time you can go to upload manager and select the same file and resume the upload.


Why is my video file so large when there isn't any video? Background
I am using Final Cut Pro X on a new M1 MacBook Pro (16gb of RAM) on AC power, and I have noticed that when I export the video project (share) the resulting video file is so much larger than what I would expect from my knowledge of the PNG photo format.
I created a "video" that is actually just my attempt to present a recorded phone call. So video quality doesn't matter. In the image below you can see that I created a static title card that lasted 60secs with an audio track (size 36mb) that lasts 30mins. I chose the export settings based on what I thought would be the fastest encoding and smallest video size. However encoding took 12mins and the resulting file size is 51mb.

Overall Question
What do I not understand about my chosen export settings and video codec that would cause such a large file size and a long time to export?
Secondary Questions
What settings should I have chosen instead?
Is there a specific codec that would be good to use when video doesn't matter in a video?

You have 37 minutes and 14 seconds of audio, so it's going to be at least as large as the original audio file (36Mb) plus one image and a few bytes for each frame saying "the image has not changed". You have some 67,000 frames if you build a 30 fps video.
So it will look larger than the input audio file. It could be that the settings are such that the tool you're using adds full frames every now and then, like say once every second. These full frames are called key frames and allow one to start the video midway without having to replay everything from the start. So that could easily add a few Mb of data in a 37 minutes video. A 640x480 frame is about 1Mb uncompressed, probably about 0.01Mb once compressed (since it's just text). Your video has about 2,234 seconds, that would mean 0.01Mb x 2,234 = 22 Mb of key frames only and 36Mb + 22Mb = 58Mb.
Some tools can remove all the key frames. I've used ffmpeg and generate mp4 without key frames. I don't know that the tool you're using would be capable of doing such, though.


Can anyone recommend a good/safe free spectrum visualizer? Something that can generate fairly nice displays for videos would be good. Can just be the generic type where it displays differing frequencies as bars, but something nicer than the harsh ffmpeg generated ones for example.

Wondering if there's something via a player like vlc I can use, i tried their built-in ones though alrdy and they were bad.

State if you do not have personal experience with the programs suggested.

Foobar2000
Is what I use for visualizations.


audio jumps to next frame rate - premiere pro I have the following problem: 2 video clips with two audio clips. I try to synchronize them with the option "show audio units" to make them perfectly alligned. The problem is, when I select both video and audio, the audio than jumps back to the next frame rate. I lose the exact setting I did when synchronising the files. I did a video to show the problem. Any help would be appreciated.

I think you should try aligning only the audio when you do this.  The video tracks have to be aligned to the nearest frame, because video is either showing frame 1 or frame 2 (assuming your sequence frame rate is the same as your footage frame rate).

Audio is sampled at a much higher rate than video.  e.g. your video could be 25 frames per second, but your audio could often be 48kHz, so sampled 48,000 times per seconds.

Your ears can detect very small variations in delay between audio files (of a few milliseconds), and your ear/brain/eye combo can detect very small discrepancies between audio and video lip sync (22ms according to this).


Hacking up a podcast functionality with the Behringer XENYX 1202FX. There are two pieces of functionality which I need from the Behringer XENYX 1202 FX.

Our podcast requires the use of Skype which means:

Skype-out must go to an input on the mixer
Skype-in should hear the other microphones but not the channel delerving Skype-out

We should have the ability to playing the Music to the output, while silencing the microphones from the mix.

Solving problem 1  was rather simple all I had to do was make Skype-In FX Out and turn FX on the non-skype channels up (Skype channel turn FX Off). In this case I'm not using FX In at all.

The second one however is a little tricky. However, in the manual I see the following:

  If you are recording a signal via the TAPE OUTPUT and wish to
  listen to this simultaneously via the CD/TAPE INPUT, do not use the
  CD/TAPE TO MIX switch. Doing this would create a feedback loop,
  since the signal would be routed, via the main mix, back to tape via the
  TAPE OUTPUT. To monitor the CD/TAPE INPUT, use the CD/TAPE TO CTRL
  switch to assign the tape signal to the monitor(s) or headphones.
  This will avoid the tape signal being routed to the TAPE OUTPUT.

I'm not sure I understand what they're saying. But, it sounds like it speaks to what I  want. Is there any way to accomplish my goal with the one 1202FX Mixer?

Why don't you do the music as a post.. Then you can just add the music track in the background and make it 'Duck' behind the voices. And if you really need the music to keep the tempo of the podcast conversation, you can just have it play on another device (iPod) and have it mixed into just the headphones, but not record it at all.. Or am I missing something?


Audio normalization across multiple clips and for Youtube, in After Effects I am trying to normalize audio between the clips in my timeline, and at the same time I want to make sure that the overall volume matches Youtube's guidelines.

I wonder if I can read the peak amplitude in AE itself and normalize it across the clips automatically.

I am not quite sure what I am doing. I've imported a MP3 that should have a reasonable peak volume as it was encoded professionally (not by me), but it sounds a bit too high in volume to what I expected – maybe is there a master volume in AE that I don't know of?

Also, I tried to look up for any guidelines from Youtube in regard to audio normalization, but I had no luck with that, they probably don't exist at all (I wouldn't be surprised, volume on Youtube is all over the place, it's inconsistent even between videos from the same channel).

Thank you in advance.

Your workflow is wrong. You just don't normalize audio with After Effects. Instead either do it with an audio editor, like Audition (which seems suitable to match clips in timeline, just use the normalize effect and maybe a compressor if the dynamic is too great). Finally apply loudness normalization with your video editor. For example during export with Premiere Pro you can set the loudness in the effects tab. Choose a profile and set parameters. For background information on parameter and unit names you can read a PDF here.


How can I reuse an effect sequence in FCPX? I'm creating a video for my son's fifth grade class that has a large number of interview clips. In each interview, I want to show a split-screen effect with a still photo on one side and a video of the interview on the other side. I have worked out the effect I want with some transitions, a title, cropping and a couple of key frames.

But I want to reuse this sequence across interviews for over 100 kids. Is there a way to create a template or a combined sequence that I can then copy-paste and then replace the source photo and video?

I apologize if I'm not using the right terminology, but I'm new to FCPX (and video production in general).

Use "Total Adjustment" it works like a photshop-layer. You simply can duplicate it for reuse with other clips.

How to: Install Total Adjustment. Open the effect-library in Final Cut Pro X. Select the titles. Drag the "Total Adjustment"-title to your project. Copy all effects you need to this title-clip. Place it above a new videoclip. Every video-clip that's under this kind of "layer"-clip will be affected of its effects and adjustments.


How to capture DVB-T using a generic RTL2832U USB stick on a mac Is there a way to capture DVB-T video using a generic USB DVB-T dongle on a mac?  I've read many examples of people using VLC on Linux/PCs, but can't see any generic drivers on Mac OSX?

Seems unlikely as per this section on the MythTV wiki:

  Pretty much the only Capture Cards that are supported on OS X are the
  HDHomerun tuners from Silicondust


Reapply video color autocorrection Video camera has a brightness correction algorithm and it was used incorrectly.

So I want to apply similar algorithm to the video. The video is static (camera stays in place and doesn't move) but brightness and contrast varies because of autocorrection. I want to freeze them at some appropriate level. I can select a large area (more than 15%), where the picture never changes. I want that area to become reference area, i. e. basis for color correction of the whole frame. It should correct colors in that way, that average brightness and contrast of the reference area is the same for all frames (and I want to specify corresponding values).

What tools and options I can use to achieve that?

If you want the “best possible results” I would recommend the following workflow, or similar variation thereof:

Export your captured video source to a JPG Image Sequence. This will create a JPG for each discrete frame of the video. If you want ultimate color control, with no loss of quality due to JPG compression, you can export instead a TIF sequence, but the size of your output will be 30-50 times larger for HD content.
Second, using Photoshop, open a single frame.
Being your camera is a lockdown shot, choose your reference pixel to be used to determine brightness. I would recommend picking a pixel that has a luminance value of medium grey.
Save your Frame as “Reference.jpg”
Close the File.
Now open a new different frame from the JPG sequence.
Record an Action Sequence that:

1) Opens Reference.jpg. Then uses the Adobe Keyboard command for select previous document.

2) Uses the Match Color Edit Command -> Under Edit Tab

3) Grabs the color value on the open new frame (the one you just opened).

4) Matches the color value to the Reference.jpg file for the exact same reference area.

5) Youll have to play with the parameters adjusting Fuzziness, Threshold, Etc, to get the settings right.

6) Apply Match Color Command.

7.) Close Reference.jpg

8.) End Recording of Action Sequence.

Then... Use Image Processor within Bridge to Batch your JPG Sequence Files. Select your input directory, output directory, and check th box “Run Action on Processed Files” - Select the Recorded Action.

Run the Image Processor.

This will give you the best possible results, specifically if you use TIF and work in a 16 Bit Workspace.

Hope this helps.


How to convert a .m4v video/audio file to .mp4 on Windows-7, for free Does Windows-7 already have something that does this?
Or is there a free download that does it?

Somewhat of an duplicate of: Can I manually change an .mp4 to .m4v by changing the extension in the Finder (mac) or explorer (win)?

MP4 and M4V are essentially the exact same thing, M4V is usually used to indicate video only files but some sofware/companies are using it for standard MP4 files with video AND audio (lots of Apple software f.e.).
It's just a convention to indicate the type of content. An audio only MP4 f.e. would have the extension .m4a.
You can just rename the extension from .m4v to .mp4.


Transcription Methods/Times I figured I'd leave a question here while I did the manual labor, but what do you find is the best way to transcribe footage?

I'm an editor and the first thing I like to do is create a script of people said, then piece together parts of their takes, and THEN get to the actual footage editing. That way I'm only working with what I need ahead of time.

Basically what I do now is load up the videos in VLC, and open a TextEdit (mac), then watch it through normally or double speed until I get to a part with the interview, then I mark that timecode on the TextEdit, and go watch through the interview in triple-quadruple slowdown, so that I can keep up with what they say and not have to constantly stop and start it back up.

With this way it seems like I'm doing somewhere around 5 minutes real time to transcribe a minute, which comes to about 12 video mins a realtime hour. And I was just wondering if there was a better way you guys already know about. I'm not sure I trust auto-transcribe-type things.

Do you think this slowing the vid down and having to go back 5 seconds only a few times when I can't quite tell what he's saying because it's so slow, is saving more time than watching it in real time, pausing, writing, going back and watching the next part?

Or do you know better ways? Seems transcribing is the most time-consuming part of my workflow.

Since VLC is opensource, would it be possible to combine VLC and a Text Editor...something like VLC on the top and the text editor on the bottom, and whenever you hit a certain key, it automatically puts the timecode in the text, and you can use VLC's shortcuts while typing? Etc?

Again, non-automatic preferred. For one, it could be wrong, and two, I'd like to get used to the footage.

Thanks

Please help?

Speech Detection with Adobe Premiere

You haven't mentioned what NLE you use to edit, however here is a method you can use to transcribe if you are using Adobe CS4 or later.

This method uses speech detection to automatically transcribe videos - a feature brought in with CS4. It then adds the the text into the metadata of the file.

  Analyze speech to create text metadata

  Select a file or clip.
  At the bottom of the Metadata panel, click Analyze Speech, or Analyze (Adobe Premiere Pro).
  Set the Language and Quality options, and select Identify Speakers if you want to create separate speech metadata for each person.
  Note: Speech Search can use any of several language-specific and dialect-specific libraries, such as libraries for Spanish and UK
  English.
  Click OK.
  The spoken words appear in the Speech Analysis section.

  To retain the speech metadata, save the project.

Obviously this depends on the quality of the audio. Good clean audio will provide the best results. Its also worth noting that Premiere uses Soundbooth to process the detection, so if your audio wasn't up to scratch you could clean it up in Soundbooth, and then perform the analysis there.

VLC Scripting

I came across this article explaining how to take the current timecode from a video and add it to a text document for transcribing. The title of the article states its a method for Linux. However I'm sure it would be easy enough to take the method and apply it to Windows or OSX.

Manual

In regards to your current method, it depends on how many times you fall behind. When I have transcribed video I have done it at full speed but I haven't bothered to fix errors while I'm typing. Usually I'll go back and fix it up later - and being that they are just for editing purposes they don't need to be totally correct.

Manual live tagging with Adobe Prelude

You might also want to have a look at Adobe Prelude CS6. It's an ingesting and meta logging program. One of its features is that it lets you add markers (and name them) in realtime as you are watching the video.


How to prevent users from downloading videos? We want to provide VOD service via http/https, but we dont want users download a video by finding out the url directly from the web player or using a developer plugin like firebug.

We are told that only option for us is to implement DRM to protect video content.
Is it true that DRM is the only option?
If there are other options, please suggest it.
Any expert opinion is most welcome on this.
Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, no, that's the entire reason DRM exists.  It is a bit like trying to prevent someone from recording an on-air broadcast.  When you send video data over the internet to someone's player, they can simply store the information being sent to the player unless you obfuscate it and make it so that the player will only work under certain circumstances and will not share the data.  This, by definition, is DRM.

What DRM attempts to do is control the reading of the data entirely, so that it can not be copied.  This has varying degrees of success and rarely, if ever, works particularly well.  It may keep honest people honest, but if you are sending someone data in a way that they can access it, measures to try to stop them from copying it are... difficult.  The most advanced systems use special display drivers and encrypt the data right up to the point it is being displayed on the screen (HDCP), that way other software on the computer can't directly pull the information off the frame buffer being prepared for the screen.

There may be some ways you can mildly obfuscate the access to your video, but ultimately, if you send it in the clear, it is trivial for a knowledgeable viewer to store the datastream.  If you use DRM, it is substantially harder, but still likely to be able to be worked around by a dedicated attacker.


What causes these lines in the top left of some video recordings? What causes these white lines to appear in the lop left of some video recordings? I've seen them many times of the years and they always seem to look identical.

That's EIA-608 analog closed captioning data. It should be on line 21, which is within the vertical blanking interval of the SD signal. Either the line was shifted down or the VBI was captured as being active video.


Extend video clip in Davinci Resolve that has been slowed down/paused I have a video clip of a number dial (think old style alarm clock) that I want to use to display scores on a scoreboard. The video clip shows the numbers flipping each second but I was planning on using the Retime Speed or Retime Frame curves to pause the clip, then restart it for 1 second each time a score is made.  It works great!

However, I cannot extend the duration of the video clip longer than the original source file (40s). As you can see in the image below, then trying to grab the right side of the clip and move right, it glows red (instead of green, which is does when moving the end of the clip forward or backwards less than 40 seconds.  Likewise, when I right-click and try to change the duration manually to 35 minutes, it doesn't work. No error, just doesn't extend.

One other thing - you can see in the test image below that I jump to only one of the middle frames by the end of the clip - there are many more frames left to be usable. I had thought that adding in this pause would allow me to extend the clip but it hasn't.

Both the "Flip Clock" video and the project are 29.97fps

If you use Retime Speed instead of Retime Frame, the clip can be extended.  Retime Frame gives you the ability to arbitrarily access the source media according to the curve, but there's no concept of time stretching--the clip in the timeline has a fixed amount of time and the only variable is what frame to play at a given time.  Retime Speed controls the concept of time.  If you slow the speed down to 50%, you get 100% more time for your clip to play.  When you slow the speed down to 0%, you get infinite time to play your clip (and interesting edge conditions--so keep it to something like 1%).


How can I create Motion titles with fixed-length transitions? I'm using Motion to create text overlays for a video that I'm editing in Final Cut Pro X. Each time an overlay appears on the video, it uses a transition to slide into view and to slide out again when finished. I've created a custom title in Motion that behaves as follows: the text is visible for 7 seconds, with a transition lasting 10 frames at the start and end.

Here's my problem: sometimes I want the text to be visible for a different duration. If I add my custom title to the FCPX timeline, then change the duration of the title from 7 seconds to 14 seconds, the transitions take twice as long to complete. It looks silly! Is there any way that I can make a title whose start/end animation takes place over a fixed duration, but where the total duration of the title can be customized freely?

You can use Build-In and Build-Out markers. If you right click (or control-click) on the top of the timeline, you'll get a pop-up menu with an option to add a marker. When you add it, you'll get a green timeline marker. Double-click it to edit it and choose whether it's a mandatory or optional build-in marker. Everything before that should play at the same speed in FCPX as it does in Motion. The area between the build-in and build-out markers will stretch to fit, and everything after the build-out marker will play as it does in Motion.


What is the name of the device used in live action filming that includes information like scene, take and roll and has a part that can snap together? What is the name of the device used in live action filming that includes information like scene, take and roll and has a part that can snap together?

It can also include information like production name, date, cameraman, director, timecode, etc.

It is clapperboard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard

used in filmmaking and video production to assist in the synchronizing of picture and sound, and to designate and mark particular scenes and takes recorded during a production


What are the features you look for in an SLR when you mainly want it to shoot video I want to buy a DSLR for shooting videos (semi professional video blogging).
What I should look for in a DSLR if I am mainly focused on video shooting.

I know this question overlaps with https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/1888/what-features-should-i-look-for-in-a-dslr-to-shoot-live-bands but it's more general, usually I have control over lighting, not very dynamic (moving) environment, sound recording is easier for this situation, can be tethered most of the time, more limited budget...

EDIT:
As I understand it, the flexibility that an SLR gives you in terms of optics (you can use a variety of lenses that are not available on video cameras), and image quality (sensor quality and pixel count) and other controls (exposure controls ...) makes SLRs very good options for semi-pro video production.

You will hear many responses, but let me make one point very clear.  If you are using an HDSLR for video, your primary concern will be your ability to focus or autofocus.  If we are using a true SLR - i.e. a camera with a reflex mirror, you will either need a loupe attachment or an attached LCD.

Here's the kicker - the 5DII, darling of the indie movie crowd, with the largest, highest res sensor in this class, only provides SD video output while recording.  Dear Lord, let me tell you, nailing focus on a 105mm at f/2 at 4 feet with a slide will drive you nuts.
I had a marking wheel.  I had Magic Lantern and peaking.  I had an external HD LCD.  I could not see what I was doing.  I did not have what I needed there: a 2nd pair of hands.

Oh, you saw House M.D. with really cool close up focus tricks?  That was done with a marking wheel and consistent focusing cinema primes, and a 2nd AC whose job it is just to hit the marks on cue.  Alternatively, it was a locked down shot with a lot of lighting, a decent f/stop for depth of field, and little or no focus adjustment or movement.  In this respect, the added DOF of a 7D and its ability to output HD video makes it a much easier camera to control.

SO: Much of this will depend on the style or intent of the video.  Autofocus may be acceptable for ENG or documentary work.  It probably will not be for dramatic work.  You need to be clearer about what you want to do.

You may be better off with a mirrorless camera - I love shooting with my GH1, far more than my 5DII - except for the crop factor.  We all love the output of the 5DII, its 1080p with full frame, but it handles like a schoolbus at Nürburgring.  Additionally, these cameras are typically better for video auto focus, but that is changing.  Still, the NEX series is a real price performance killer for many video and photo uses.

Most other issues are of less consequence.  If the video quality matches your expectations, don't worry.  Go to Vimeo to find some raw footage samples. Don't expect to edit video like your photos though.  Footage from these things is more like medium quality low res JPG than full RAW.

One thing I would tell you to completely ignore is audio.  Many make a big deal about manual audio levels and recording fidelity.  If sound matters at all, use 2nd system audio; on board sound should be used for video+audio sync and nothing more.  Seriously - a $200 recorder will do better than any camera not using XLR jack input.  If you're doing drama, you need to mic the actors and/or have booms anyway - and you don't run those lines into the camera.

If you refine the question, I might be able to point out a specific issue to watch out for or recommend a camera.

Finally - no matter what you do, learn how to light (and gel) for consistent color grading.  I cannot stress that enough.


How to open MP4 container video with mp42 codec in Vegas Pro? I've been given an MP4 video with the following information, per MediaInfo

General
Complete name                            : E:\306G5562_01.MP4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Commercial name                          : XDCAM EX 35
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                                 : mp42 (mp42)
File size                                : 3.45 GiB
Duration                                 : 13 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 35.6 Mb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2016-07-16 17:57:03
Tagged date                              : UTC 2016-07-16 17:57:03

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Commercial name                          : XDCAM EX 35
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@High
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=12
Codec ID                                 : 61
Duration                                 : 13 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 34.0 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 35.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.656
Time code of first frame                 : 08:36:53:20
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed                         : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first frame          : Closed
Stream size                              : 3.30 GiB (96%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2016-07-16 17:57:03
Tagged date                              : UTC 2016-07-16 17:57:03
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Format settings, Sign                    : Signed
Codec ID                                 : twos
Duration                                 : 13 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 153 MiB (4%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2016-07-16 17:57:03
Tagged date                              : UTC 2016-07-16 17:57:03

From what I can tell, this is XDCAM EX video, which is encoded in MP42 codec in an MP4 container. Vegas Pro won't even look at it. Says the file cannot be opened. How can I fix this? I can convert it (I've done Handbrake and VLC already to test), but I'd rather not, because I actually have tons of these videos and converting takes lots of time.

mp42 is the container ID, which Mediainfo wrongly calls a codec id. It refers to MPEG-4 Part 14 spec for containers.

XDCAM is actually a Sony variant of MPEG-2 video. I've worked with XDCAM natively in Vegas, which were in MOV, I believe.

You can use FFmpeg to rewrap these files.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -c copy video.mov

Looks like MOVs only work on Macs. The command below also worked.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -c copy video.vob

(You'll have to switch to viewing All Files (*.*))


Premiere Cut Video but Export File Size Bloats I have a TV commercial that was sent to me that weighs in at 2.4mb .mp4 (MPEG Movie)

The people who made the commercial have a 5second credit title on the front of the commercial that I need to remove.

When I crop that out in Adobe Premier then export it, no matter what I do cannot get the file size anywhere near 2.4mb

I have tried Export "Match sequence settings", I have tried H.264, medium and high bit rates but all of these make the file blow out to 8 to 14mb.

Is there something I am missing here or need to be doing? Or is this just how Premier is?

I have never used Final Cut Pro and see that it has a $500 price tag but are thinking about giving it a go.

Any help would be great.

Match sequence settings confuses a lot of people. It doesn't mean the output will match the bitrate of your source files—after all you could use any number of source files in a sequence with all sorts of bitrates. Match sequence means the output will have the same frame size, fps, PAR and so on as the sequence.

Basically, if you want to get your output below a certain size you have to wind down the video bitrate, reducing the quality until it produces the desired result (you can use a bit of maths to get in the ballpark: calculate (the desired size in Mbits) / (length in seconds) and you'll have the Mbits per second budget you need to work towards.


DaVinci 12 - Noise Reduction Strategy What would be the best order to apply these node adjustments to ProRes HQ 4K footage in DaVinci Resolve 12:

Colour Chart
Primaries
Saturation
Sharpening
Noise Reduction

Thanks in advance.

I'm not a professional colorist, but I do care a lot about color. (I run a fully ICC controlled workflow.)  I would personally start with either noise reduction or color chart, depending on how noisy the footage was.  Reasoning being that if it is too noisy, then the samples off the color chart may be impacted.  It's also true that the denoise process may cause corruption of the color data from the chart, but if it is so noisy that the information effectively isn't there anyway, it isn't going to matter a lot.

Doing the noise reduction will impact the precision of information in the scene, but hopefully reduce visible artifacts.  I generally try to do it as late as possible but as early as necessary.  Each step of the process has a chance of making noise worse and at a certain point, it's going to become harder to deal with if you don't deal with it before making more changes, but that's a somewhat variable place depending on the type and quantity of noise and your level of comfort in dealing with it well.

Color charts are going to give you a decent baseline.  They are all about getting color in spec.  They aren't giving you a particular look, they are just getting you a starting point where certain known colors will match spec for whatever colorspace you are working in.

Primaries are going to develop the actual look and feel of your image to the way you want it colorized.  This is where you will do most of the fine tuning to get the tone you want after starting from a well placed baseline from the charts.

Saturation may be adjusted a bit while working on the primaries, but I largely find I work with saturation after most of my primaries work is done.  This will impact the strength of the color and may very well result in additional refinement being needed in the primaries, but the closer you can have the primaries before adjusting saturation too much, the faster I find my workflow personally.  It's also worth noting that if you know you will want a somewhat pastel image or a more vivid image, it may be worth messing with saturation to get it in roughly the right range prior to doing primary work as drastic changes in saturation will have a larger impact on your primaries work.

Sharpening is almost always at the end and generally after noise reduction, but it does somewhat matter what you are trying to accomplish and how noisy things are.  As sharpening looks to make edge contrast higher, it will tend to greatly amplify any noise, which is why it is generally done after noise reduction.  It is also done after coloring since the coloring will impact the edge detection of sharpening.

This only reflects my process and isn't necessarily shared by everyone, but I find it works well for me in getting good results quickly.  There's always going to be a degree of going back after the fact to correct things you notice later as you are further refining the image, but that largely will come from experience of working with color and being able to recognize what your goal is and what primary and side effects different adjustments will have.

Edit: Just noticed you were asking about node order, not adjustment order.  I'd go with Color chart, primaries, saturation, sharpening with noise reduction entered based on where it is needed.  Saturation would probably be reversed with primaries when doing a non-natural color look.


What is the best way to learn VFX? I am new to this field but I'm very interested in making VFX and I had done some VFX clips on my phone. But I want some software names which I can understand easily and also create visual effects.

VFX on a phone is much different than actually doing it on a computer. You might want to take stepping stones to VFX and start by editing videos with a NLE. One of my favorites is Premiere Pro (though, it's been buggy lately). Once you learn how to edit videos, you can then move onto VFX with Adobe After Effects, or Hitfilm for more simpler stuff.


FCPX 10.1.3 - How Do I Copy Project? Super-basic question, I know, and yes I'm a total noob.

I have a simple project in my timeline that I'd like to save (so I can go back to it in the future and make edits) but then move forward with what I've got so far as the basis for a new project, and swap out a few clips.

I've read everything I can find online in the vein of "how to copy/duplicate projects/events", but have struck out (which makes me think maybe I don't understand the nomenclature at work here).

Anyway,two other possibly salient facts:

There are no projects in my browser, only clips
Menu items "Edit/Duplicate/Duplicate Project as Snapshot" are grayed out

Any thoughts? Tia!

To freeze your current state of work you need to load a Library and right click on a Project. Important is you need to choose Duplicate as Snapshot. Only then you make a protected copy of your current work.
Here is why: When you have compounded clips in your project, these clips living outside of your project, available to all Projects in the Library. When you Duplicate your Project only, any change you make inside a Compound Clip is rippling to any Project what is a duplicate to this Project you working on and has this completed Clip in your timeline.
Here is a link to a video that shows the effect. Watch maybe a couple of times as the guy is kind of fuzzy on his explanation.
Duplicate vs Duplicate as Snapshot


Youtube Views and Likes Is there any way to find out which people have viewed or liked your video on YouTube ?
YouTube Only provides data like , how many percentage of views comes Region wise.

No, you cannot, and this is a good thing for privacy reasons.

Using the YouTube Data API v3 you can get general statistics for a list of videos as part of a contentDetails structure:

 "statistics": {
    "viewCount": unsigned long,
    "likeCount": unsigned long,
    "dislikeCount": unsigned long,
    "favoriteCount": unsigned long,
    "commentCount": unsigned long
  },


How does one "convey" a news article in a movie? Here, I'm talking about a "news article" regarding the events of the movie, and not about a generic article such as "Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor" or "U.S. Invades Iraq."

Since this is an "inverview," one way is to have the reporter and source orally read their respective lines.

Since they are discussing the hero and heroine, another way is to have one "read" the article to the other.

In theory, the article could be posted on the screen so the audience can read it, but that seems like the worst alternative. Unless it was combined with either 1) or 2).

Which of these, or other methods are used?

If you don't need the interview to be conveyed verbatim, you can have two characters discussing (or arguing about) points from the article.

The people discussing the article could even be the hero and heroine, without having them read it aloud verbatim. "Did you really say that?" "I think the author took that out of context.  What I meant was ______."


Should I just get a gaming PC for audio/video production? I was looking around for computers aimed at AV production, and there doesn't seem to be many. It seems you largely have the option of SOHO PCs, business machines, or gaming machines.

Is a gaming machine optimal for AV production? What aspects of a gaming machine are unnecessary for AVP? What aspects are missing?

I plan on mostly doing audio production, with some graphic design, and maybe a little video production (mostly 2D).

I researched this when building my own computer for HD video editing about a year ago - I don't remember all of my sources, but there's a hardware guide on the Adobe Primiere Hardware Forum (very helpful place) that was a big help. That guide is several years old, so the specific hardware recommended is out of date, but the principles are still there.

Basically, most gaming PCs are going to have a more powerful graphics card than you need and less RAM than you'll want (and possibly inadequate hard drives). It's better to build yourself, but if you're going to buy an off-the-shelf model, a gaming PC will probably serve you better than one that's not (since most of the manufacturers' high-end stuff is geared toward gamers). There are companies that build PCs specifically for video editing, but they are VERY expensive, especially compared to what you can do yourself. I built mine for around $1000, which is what I would've paid for the Dells and HPs I was looking at, but I was able to get exactly what I wanted.

I don't know about audio, but for video, I'd recommend:

The fastest processor that fits your budget (use benchmark scores, not clock speeds, to compare)
Fast hard drives. An ideal setup from what I've read (and based on Premiere benchmarks) is to have a small SSD for your boot drive and a RAID array for the actual editing. Those are fairly expensive, but at minimum, you should have 2 hard drives, one to boot and one to work in (and do NOT get 5400 RPM models).
A mid-level graphics card. I've got a GeForce GTX 550 Ti and it handles my 1080p/60fps video just fine.
RAM will depend on what software you're using (as will all of these, but RAM more so). For Premiere CS5+, for instance, you probably want at least 12 GB; I use Lightworks, which is still a 32 bit program as of this writing and therefore can't use more than 4 GB.


How does graphics card's memory affect video rendering performance? So, I'm asking that, since I've got a GTX650Ti 1 GB graphics, and it takes 5 minutes to render a simple 1 minute video with minimum effects. Is it normal? I've tried it both with Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere
Will the 2 GB version of GTX650Ti increase performance?

1) Everytime the GPU has to process something, it will load the necessary data (in that case your video frames) into the VRAM. Simple as that, the GPU cannot work with your system memory.
Though the GPU gets it's data from the system memory, so your system memory will act as a buffer and you don't need to load that much data at once into the VRAM.

Though programs which offer a real-time workflow will want to load as much data into the VRAM as possible. That's the reason why you can allocate a specific amount of VRAM in Adobe After Effects (not 100% sure if you can do the same in Premiere).
So every time you apply an effect in Premiere that is GPU accelerated, the GPU will have to request data into the VRAM to process the frames.

New versions of OpenCL and CUDA are improving the way of how the GPU will get its data and reducing the overhead caused by the CPU which will reduce the amount of VRAM needed at a time but VRAM will always be a very important factor with the current PC architecture.
Current GPUs use GDDR5 which is A LOT faster than DDR3 system memory. This is needed as the memory speed is a very important performance factor in GPU computing. Overclocking your VRAM can give you quite a performance boost in memory intensive 3D rendering applications (though probably not in Premiere).
Current GDDR5 based GPUs like the GTX 780 Ti are capable of more than 300 GB/s (336 GB/s in this case). DDR3-2133 is substantially slower with a peak bandwidth of 16,66 GB/s per module. Also 2133 is rather uncommon in OEM PCs, DDR3-1600 and 1300 is more common.

2) So you will benefit from a large amount of VRAM everytime you work with very high resolution images or many videos at once aswell as with high-frame rate footage. Premieres rendering engine is utilizing the GPU for both the preview aswell as the final rendering if you chose so.

In practice I'd say it's nonsense to have more than 2GB of VRAM for Premiere unless you work with other applications at the same time that utilize the GPU. Processing bitmaps doesn't require all that much data at once unless you work with crazy resolutions like 8k or 16k, the processing capability of your GPU will be the bottleneck before your VRAM.

Thats my opinion based on what I know about the Premiere video engine and GP-GPU. Premiere might do some other stuff in the background that requires more VRAM. So if you have a very specific use case I'd rather make a benchmark or search for one before making a purchase decision. If you just want to make a general guess this information should help you quite well to make a decision.


Premiere CC 2015 and DVD conversion audio sync issue Years ago, I transferred a video tape of a live band performance to DVD (using a Sony VHS/DVD RW machine that I no longer own). Yesterday, I edited an 8-minute clip from the DVD. The audio/video sync appeared fine inside Premiere, but when I exported to YouTube, the audio and video are completely out of sync.

(I didn't touch the alignment of either audio or video tracks while editing)

All I did was add titles to the beginning and end.

How can I prevent this from happening in the future?

Make sure your video has the same fps as the original video, usually it's 25/29fps. It could also be the format that you're exporting it to.


DVD or Bluray editing tool I'm looking for a tool that can create a DVD or a BluRay from a set of Movies, files etc..

The most important functionality for the tool should be that it could add a button to the menu that can open an URL outside of the actual disk.

I regularly use Sony DVD Architect for building complex DVD (as well as simple, it's quite intuitive) like commercials ones. DVD Architect is compatible with Blu-Ray, but doesn't include advanced features like BD live and other. From the same editor with a similar ergonomy, you can use DoStudio.

There are two editions:

DoStudio Ex: expensive but complete,
DoStudio Indie: more cheap but I don't know if it includes the functions you want.

You cannot build a complex BD/DVD without expensive software. A DVD cannot point to an URL of any type (unless it's inside the disc like a video/photo/music/...) and a BD can use the BD Live and BD touch functionalities to open web pages on any Blu-Ray player connected to internet. I think there is some limitations: you can maybe open videos with BD Live, but web pages have limited HTML/CSS and other support.


Is it possible to control GoPro recording without the official app? Is it possible to start recording with a GoPro without the official app or from an unsupported device?

For the GoPros with wifi (Hero3, Hero3+ or HD Hero/HD Hero 2 with a wifi bacpac), yes it is possible. They essentially work as a web server, so you can connect to that, and control the camera. It seems this is not officially documented anywhere, but a number of people have figured out how it works.

So turn on the wifi on the camera, then you can connect to it from your computer.
You can view the webserver by going to http://10.5.5.9:8080 in a browser. This will let you view photos or videos stored on the camera.

To control the camera, you can send HTTP requests. eg to turn the camera on: http://10.5.5.9/bacpac/PW?t=password&p=%01 (where password is the GoPro wifi password). And to trigger the shutter: http://10.5.5.9/bacpac/SH?t=password&p=%01

All of the commands are listed in this Github: KonradIT/goprowifihack

There are also several unofficial apps for connecting to and controlling the GoPro, some of these are open source. eg KonradIT/HeroProApp or moohtwo/Android-GoPro-Streaming.


Ffmpeg video rotation and center I was wondering is possible to from 1 video i copy 3 more, then rotate them all by 90 degrees, then move they center with ffmpeg commands? To be clearer what im saying here is picuture what i want to to do:

Use

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 \
       -filter_complex "[0:v]split=4[a][b][c][d]; \
                        [a]pad=iw+2*ih:iw+2*ih:ih:0:white[base]; \
                        [b]transpose=cclock[br]; \
                        [c]transpose=clock[cr]; \
                        [base][br]overlay=0:w[two]; \
                        [two][cr]overlay=W-w:w[three]; \
                        [three][d]overlay=h:H-h[v]" \
-map "[v]" out.mp4

As per your confirmation, I haven't rotated the video at the bottom. In case it had to be rotated 180, use

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 \
       -filter_complex "[0:v]split=4[a][b][c][d]; \
                        [a]pad=iw+2*ih:iw+2*ih:ih:0:white[base]; \
                        [b]transpose=cclock[br]; \
                        [c]transpose=clock[cr]; \
                        [d]hflip,vflip[dr]; \
                        [base][br]overlay=0:w[two]; \
                        [two][cr]overlay=W-w:w[three]; \
                        [three][dr]overlay=h:H-h[v]" \
-map "[v]" out.mp4

There will be no audio exported with these commands. To preserve audio, insert -map 0:a -c:a copy


How to move an (overlayed) image across a video in ffmpeg? moving crop works for video, but I could not make it work for a (jpg) image. How to move an image in the video using ffmpeg?
Here is my try that does not work ($TST is a .jpg):
ffmpeg -ss 30 -i main.mkv -i $TST -filter_complex \
    "color=c=${CG}:size=1380x1080,[0]overlay,\
    chromakey=${CG}:.031:0.025,despill[a];[1]crop=w=1920:h=1080:x='t*in_w/3':y='t*in_h/3'[b];[b][a]overlay" \
    -c:v ffv1 -map 0:a -c:a copy -t 1s tstres.mkv

An image is treated by ffmpeg as video stream with one frame. For a crop animation to be effected, you need a stream of frames.
Add loop before the image input: -loop 1 -i $TST. Normally, you would be advised to limit the duration by also adding -t, but since you limit duration on the output, it is not necessary here.


Low cost frame synchronized (genlocked) 3D stereo camera I am trying to capture stereo video with 2 Microsoft LifeCam Studio USB webcams.  Thus far, the best approach I've managed to come up with is my own tool written using OpenCV to capture video streams from the cameras in Ubuntu 14.04. I am using very simple VideoCapture code (source here) and am trying to at least view two videos that are synchronized against each other.

I used Android stopwatch apps (UltraChron Stopwatch Lite and Stopwatch Timer) on my Samsung Galaxy S3 mini to realize that my viewed images are out of sync (show different time on stopwatch).

The frames are synced maybe in 50% of the time. The frame time differences I get are from 0 to about 300ms with an average about 120ms. It seems that the amount of timeout used has very little effect on sync (same for 1000ms or 2000ms). I run in FullHD but lowering resolution to 640x480 had no effect.

I am trying to record stereo video with a low cost setup.  An ideal result would be a 100% synchronized stereo video stream that has about 10 FPS.  Are there any alternative approaches that would result in better synchronization?

EDIT: In my search for low-cost hardware I fount that it is probably possible to do some commodity hardware hacking (link here) and inject a single clock signal into multiple camera modules simultaneously to get the desired sync. The guy who did that seems to have developed his GENLOCKed camera board (called NerdCam1) and even a synced stereo camera board that he now sells for about €200.

However, I have almost zero ability of hardware hacking. Also I am not sure if such clock injection is possible for resolutions above NTSC/PAL standard (as it seems to be an "analog" solution?). Also, I would prefer a variable baseline option where both cameras would not be soldered on a single board.

Also found this related post: Cheap solution for shooting with multiple (>2) cameras in sync
   (genlock or LANC?)

You probably will not achieve a 100% perfect result with your setup. That you got them synced to a 1FPS accuracy is pretty amazing actually.

Professional stereo setups use frame locking in hardware to ensure the cameras record in perfect sync.
This is not possible with ordinary webcams. If you fix the recorded video in post you can get to less than 1/RecordingFPS'th of a second accuracy which can be enough depending on your framerate. The higher your framerate the smaller the offset will be.

If the webcams offer some sort of low level api you might be able to improve the results even further but I doubt thats available, thats usually something you only get in (rather expensive) industrial cameras.

Edit: Regarding your edit, Genlocking is the way to go with pretty much any video application if you need 100% sync (or as close as possible to that, you will always have some nano/microsecond delay between frames).

Being it syncing videos displayed on a display wall (all these individual displays need to show the correct portion of the frame at the same time). Or recording with multiple cameras the same frame at the same time.
Resolution isn't a factor here.

Though price definitely is. Do you have a budget for this project or is this for hobby purposes? There are definitely (non-cinema) cameras that would support this though they are not exactly cheap as a webcam.
The cheapest solution I can think of is using the GoPro Stereo Rig. http://gopro.com/camera-accessories/dual-hero-system
This would put you at a budget of 1000$ in total (minus a few cents). Not exactly cheap but definitely affordable.

And the GoPro is also a very flexible solution. You can shoot from 3840x2160@15FPS to 848x480@240FPS. It also supports raw HDMI output which can be helpful if color precision is desirable or live monitoring of your shoot.

A downside is that the GoPro has a fish-eye lens. You can reduce the distortion by setting the camera viewing mode to narrow and using this nifty software hack but you wont get fully rid of it unless you replace the lens.

Edit 2: If you go the "build your own electronics route" you should have a look at the ArduCam project. It's essentially a shield for the popular Arduino boards. It allows you to connect several cmos modules like the OV5642 which is a 5MP sensor that is also used in the Raspberry Pi camera module.

According to this thread on the RaspberryPi forum these modules support genlocking.
While its not possible with the pins broken out on the PiCam module (though there are some ideas about how to do genlocking with it on the last page) you can order these modules cheap (25$) from ebay and use them with the ArduCam board. Even if you don't connect the modules to the same oscillator to do genlocking you should get some pretty good results as you work pretty close metal here also the Arduino plattform is very easy to use.

With such a setup you could potentially make a 1080p stereo 3D rig for around 125$.
50$ for the cmosm modules, ~16$ for 2 Arduino Uno clones and 60$ for 2 ArduCam shields.


Recording webcam video - ffmpeg - error I am setting up a Raspberry Pi with a USB webcam to use as a dashcam. The code is as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import subprocess
import datetime
import os

ROOT_PATH = os.getenv("ROOT_PATH", "/home/pi")
RECORDINGS_PATH = os.getenv("RECORDINGS_PATH", "recordings")
DATE_FMT = "%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S"
SEGMENT_TIME = 30
ENCODING = os.getenv("ENCODING", "copy")

os.mkdir(RECORDINGS_PATH)

new_dir = datetime.datetime.now().strftime(DATE_FMT)
recording_path = os.path.join(ROOT_PATH, RECORDINGS_PATH, new_dir)
os.mkdir(recording_path)

segments_path = os.path.join(recording_path, "%03d.avi")

command = "ffmpeg -i /dev/video0 -c:v {} -an -sn -dn -segment_time {} -f segment {}".format(ENCODING, SEGMENT_TIME, segments_path)

subprocess.call(command, shell=True)

From: https://era86.github.io/2018/04/10/pi-zero-w-usb-dashcam.html

It works fine for about 2 minutes and then ffmpeg crashes with the following error:

Any ideas why?

You're saving to AVI which doesn't truly support variable frame rates so ffmpeg writes empty packets to emulate it. Apparently, the time base chosen is very fine and so ffmpeg has to write many skip packets (can't confirm since there's no log).

For segments, you should save to .ts or .mp4 or .mkv


My Canon Powershot SX40 stops recording regularly and predictably. I have a Canon Powershot SX40 HS and am having problems with recording.

I start to record and it only lets me for a short period of time.  Then it stops recording by itself.

It seems to stop every time at 1:44 into the recording. Another weird thing is that during the short time it is recording, these little squares appear in a row on the right side of the screen, and one by one the squares turn to a dark color, and then the last square turns to red and right when it does is when the recording stops.

It is a very strange situation, and I've reset the settings on the camera but it still didn't stop. HELP! And thank you!

The squares in a row on the right represent the buffer memory of your camera.
When you are recording video the data goes roughly as follows:

Sensor -> Buffer memory -> Memory card

When the last square turns red it means the buffer is full. This is caused by the fact that the buffer memory could not move it's contents to the memory card fast enough. A faster memory card would allow the buffer to load it's contents in time and you shouldn't see the red square anymore.

Baseline is: get a faster memory card.


Container Type that doesn't corrupt on Encoding Crash I've been produce videos on YouTube for a few years. I understand a vast majority of encoding options for x264 (My preferred encoder).

I used to use MPEG-4 containers (.mp4) with my videos, however my system isn't the most powerful and the encoder will sometimes crash mid-encoding, causing the file to be unreadable because of how MPEG-4 file data is organized.

So I switched to using FLV as the container, and remuxing it to MPEG-4 after recording is done. FLV's organization of the data allows the file to be read, even if the file was never completed. I don't understand much about the actual formats, but Id suspect it's an absence of a footer in the format for FLV.

The problem I'm having with FLV, is that when I used MP4, I record with multiple audio tracks, so that I can edit them independently. FLV does not support multiple audio streams.

I'm wondering if there is a container for x264, that's still high quality, allows for multiple audio tracks, and can still be read if encoding crashes.

I am recording with a program called OBS-Studio (OBS Multi-Platform), which allows the following containers for x264: FLV, MP4, MOV, MKV, TS

Are any of those last 3 formats capable of such functionality. I have tried a few days of research and can't find anything regarding this.

Yes, TS is capable of doing what you are asking. Weather OBS is, is another question (that I do not know the answer to). mkv MAY be also to as well. But mp4 and mov can not do this.


Shutter Speed or frame rate we looking at when dealing with flickering issue? I'm using SONY RX10M3 to shoot video at 1000fps. But using conventional lighting system I get flickering. Now I'm planning to buy a LEDs light by STRATUS, which they stated that :

  Flicker free at shutter speeds up to 1/3000th second

So I wonder which parameter should I be looking at when I want to shoot at 1000fps video? At this rate, what is the shutter speed used by the camera?

The reason you get flicker in the video is that many conventional lights don't actually stay on all the time.  When running on AC power, the power actually "goes off" 100-120 times a second (depending on if you have 50hz or 60hz AC).  The way this oscillation impacts things differs by type of light from a slight dimming in incandescent to a color shift in some florescent lights to other odd behaviors in LEDs (depending on the DC conversion circuitry and how power is supplied to the LEDs).

When the light says it is flicker free up to speeds of 1/3000th of a second, it means that any flicker it has should balance out for frames as fast as 1/3000th of a second (meaning the flicker, if it has one, is faster than that so that it's guaranteed to give most of the exposure in any 1/3000th second window.)

As far as the shutter speed the camera uses, I'd assume it is whatever setting you choose.  At 1000fps shutters, the "shutter" is purely electronic and is just the interval between blanking and reading of the sensor.  As long as each frame has more than 1/3000th of a second to accumulate light, you should be ok.  If your camera gives shutter speeds in degrees, that means you'd want at least a 120 degree shutter at 1000fps.  If it measures it in fractions of a second, just make sure it is set for 1/3000 or higher.

You may need to adjust the exposure type for HFR shooting by putting the camera in HFR mode and then using the function menu to make it either manual or shutter priority exposure so that you can keep the frame rate fixed at a slow enough setting.


Royalty Free Videos? I have seen free images and music, but is there any site out there that gives out free non-copyrighted movie clips that can be used?

I want to be able to search and look for movie or video clips needed to use as examples for my film. For example, if I want a video of a helicopter going across sky I want to be able to find that.

Browse the Creative Commons repository on Vimeo for a start. Except for the two non-commercial categories, videos from the other categories can be used for a credit, at most.

  Here’s where you can browse all the videos on Vimeo that have a Creative Commons license applied to them. Creative Commons licenses enable members to grant copyright permissions on their videos so others can copy, distribute, edit, remix, and build upon them while giving credit to the original video’s creator.


edit after effects projects with aerender and extend script I want to edit after effects project (.aep file) with aerender. i used this command

  aerenderer -project E:/AE/template.aep -comp Example -output E:/AE/video.avi

to render .aep file to .avi and every thing is fine. now i want to change the text in the .aep file and then render it with the new text. the question is: Is it possible to change the text with just aerender or i have to use extend script?

Aerender does what it says on the tin: it just renders. It can save a comp after rendering if there's a post-render action like setting proxies, but AFAIK it has no other capability to modify projects (figures, because it is available to put on as many machines as you want, so they don't want to be giving away a program capable of editing .aep files).

To modify an After Effects project you have to have a licensed instance of After Effects running. You can do it with extendscript in headless mode, so AE will run, but won't show the UI, but you can't run extendscripts without AE installed.

A better way to do what you want is to use the new data-driven animation features. You can use an expression so that the content of the text layer is linked to an external data file. Changing this file (which can be JSON, a piece of JS or just plain text) will change the contents of the text layer.

Using that workflow you

Set up your template with AE,
set the data file with Node (or whatevs) render,
replace the data in the file,
move the previous render,
render again, change the data, render, and so on.

One gotcha with that technique is that you have to move the rendered file between renders, because you can't change the destination of the comp in the render queue so it will try to over-write the old one.

If you're using older versions of AE you can still use external data files to drive the contents of a text layer using eval() in an expression. The technique is explained here (full disclosure: my personal blog).


Downscaling 4k to 1080p in Premiere Pro, Image Zooming 2x When I drop 4k footage onto the timeline in Premiere Pro, I get a 4k sequence. When I change the sequence to 1080p, the image zooms in. This makes sense. I then scale the image back 50% and I'm back to normal.

In every single tutorial on downscaling 4k footage in premiere, no one ever has to do the 2nd step that I do. I thought I solved his issue by going to:
"Edit > Preferences > General" and ticking the box "Default scale to frame size" but it's still happening.

How can I avoid this second step that no one seems to have to do?

Changing the preference doesn't change any clip settings retroactively.  But once you have set it, and then create a new project and a new sequence, and when you freshly import your 4K clip and drop that freshly imported clip onto your freshly created sequence in your freshly created project, it should work as you expect.  And if you right click on the clip, it should have a checkmark next to "Scale to Frame Size".


ffmpeg - resize and crop I want to know how to use the scale filter to take an image that is 2154x1136 and scale it down exactly 89.04% such that the image sits in a 1920x1080 frame, with full image left and right and black letterboxing top and bottom.  Using

vf scale=1920:-1

gets me close.   But the resulting file is 1920x1013 and I need to add black pixels top and bottom to fill it out to 1920x1080.

I have other issues including how to feed ffmpeg a dpx sequence and get back an Avid-ready MXF while applying a shot specific cdl file and a show specific display lut, but I need to walk before I can run so a bit of help with this first puzzle is what I'm asking for now.

Thank you in advance.

Use this:

-vf "scale=iw*min(1920/iw\,1080/ih):ih*min(1920/iw\,1080/ih), pad=1920:1080:(1920-iw*min(1920/iw\,1080/ih))/2:(1080-ih*min(1920/iw\,1080/ih))/2"

This code evaluates which ratio to apply for scaling, then scales it and finally applys the requisite amount of padding.


How to produce Video with DVD Chapters on a Network Drive? Is there any way to produce a DVD set of files that can be played off a network drive ?

The reason I ask is that authoring on a fairly powerful modern PC using windows 10 and a recent version of Power Director 14+ is creating Discs that break up badly and freeze during playback.

I've wasted no end of discs.

I need to produce something from the Power Director that will have chapters so that for example a week's holiday you could select Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday etc

Jumping to points rather than having to fast forward the whole film is of course a big advantage of DVD's.

Hope someone can help - power director don't even reply or if they do nothing they suggest works.

Check the format and bitrate that you are burning your DVDs at, it should be "MPEG-2 DVD" format, maximum video 9800Kbps, maximum audio 912Kbps. Buy a small package of rewritable DVDs to practice, and burn DVDs that you know you don't want to keep for a long time.

First save a backup copy. Edit your "C:\Users\your user here\AppData\Roaming\CyberLink\PowerDirector\10.0\profile.ini" file and change these parameters:

See Cyberlink's "Burning" and "Quick Guide to Choosing the Right Video Output Format" or Apple's "Encoding Video Materials for DVD" for more information on choosing formats and rates.

PowerDirector University's YouTube channel has this video: "CyberLink PowerDirector 13 Ultimate | DVD Menu & Disc Authoring Tutorial" along with many others, as does Sharper Turtle's channel: "PowerDirector 15 - How to create and edit chapter titles.

A video is a better format for explaining the intricacies of DVD menus and chapters, rather than a StackExchange answer with an endless series of menu screenshots each explaining one way.

Once you have created your .ISO file save it to your network drive rather than burning it to DVD, and use a Player that doesn't object to reading .ISOs off of a storage disk rather than a DVD.


Adobe Premiere: edit effect curve manually is there a way to edit the linear curve (see picture) in Premiere afterwards? I cannot seem to find a way to do that. As far as I remember that is possible in After Effects so why not also in Premiere?

It's possible in AfterEffects because AE has far more detailed controls for keyframing and the controls for it's effects.

As for film dissolve, The only way it would be possible would be to make sure you the effects panel, and keyframe the dissolve point (which I believe is possible with that specific filter).

But you don't access it from the pop up window, you select the transition once it's applied, then control it using keyframing on the effects control / modify panel.


How to light a video properly? I need to light a video for a project, I am making a movie trailer for a book I like and need to light a large space (It is an action book and there is running in the trailer.) Simply, I have to light an action video and I don't want to spend lots of money on this one project. Also, if there is a program that can edit the lighting and contrast after you record, please tell. So how would I do this?

For action, you're probably going to need flat, even lighting. Builders' work lamps, bounced off white walls or reflectors, are probably the most cost-effective way of lighting large spaces.

You can make some changes to lighting and contrast when you edit, though it's no substitute for lighting your film properly. It's called colour correction. You can also apply an overall colour 'look' to your film, which is called grading. Most editing programs (e.g. iMovie) allow you to apply basic effects and corrections. Programs like Final Cut Pro X, the open source Da Vinci Resolve (free lite version), and (steep learning curve) Adobe After Effects let you do professional correction and grading.


Premiere Ignoring DNG file grade I have an image sequence of DNG files. I have opened one of these files in Adobe Camera Raw (Photoshop CC) and tweaked it, saving the settings. I've then batch processed all the images in ACR using this setting. I can open any of the images and see the settings are applied.

However when I import the image sequence into Premiere CC, all the settings are ignored and the image is rendered as it was before it was tweaked.

Why is Premiere ignoring the DNG settings?

It appears that this is the 'expected behaviour'. Certainly not what I expected.

It seems that ACR doesn't play well with Premiere. So you can't pre-grade your footage before edit. Adobe expect you to use Speedgrade for your grading, despite the fact it isn't a patch on ACR. Your only option appears to be to bring the image sequence into After Effects which allows you to use ACR on import or by editing original at any point. Of course you then lose the speedy rendering of Premiere and all the other good stuff.


Is it possible to do programmatic automation with Final Cut Pro? I have a large library of videos for a video instruction product. I have mostly been automating my workflows with FFmpeg and Ruby. I pull information such as titles, instructors' names, etc. from a database, and do some simple intro animations.

Is it possible to programmatically manipulate video with Final Cut Pro (I haven't bought it yet)? For example could I add join an “intro” animation, overlay animated text with all my 3000 videos for example?

How is automation done on large file sets done in the Video Production world? I'm a software engineer by trade, and I have only basic video production knowledge (but I want to learn!).

Davinci Resolve and Fusion would be a better choice than FCPX/Motion if you're looking for something that supports standard scripting languages (lua and python 2/3).  From there, you can install whatever modules you need to get hooks into your data.  Adobe has their own ExtendScript for AfterEffects, which is based on JavaScript, but I can't really comment on it.  FCPX and Motion are probably the least script friendly of the major NLEs.  I'd guess that most larger studios probably use Nuke, which also uses Python, but if you're just starting out, Resolve/Fusion is a cheap entry point which scales well towards Nuke.

Automation of large file sets typically falls under the purview of a production's Technical Director (TD), who would be great people to befriend if this type of work interests you.


What is this name of the video effect? I got this from les mesirables (2012) movie. in this scene, guy singing, but camera blur all his around, focusing only on him.

so What is this name of the video effect?


Video fails to play in QT browser plugin. Encoding problem? I have a video that fails to play in the QuickTime plugin in Internet Explorer on Windows 7, but it plays fine in the standalone QuickTime player. I suspect that this may be an encoding problem, and I wanted to ask the experts. I did not personally encode this video, but I am assigned to troubleshoot the problem. If it is, in fact, an encoding problem, I would like to be able to point to specific evidence.

The file: https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/digital/video/9781587143991/ccent_icnd1_media/video/0_0_0_0_0_icnd1_video_intro.mp4

A file that works (if it helps): https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/digital/video/9780321765147/9780321765147_01.mp4

Well the program that encoded the file that works was Apple QuickTime so not much of a suprise that it's working. QuickTime can be a little picky when it comes to mpeg4/h264 encoded files.
I looked at the files and possible factors are the encoding profile and maybe the GOP setting. Basline Profile Level 3.0 for the broken one and Main Profile Level 3.1 for the working one. GOP setting of M=1, N=120 and N=1 for the broken one. Could be that the Quicktime Plugin wasn't made to handle that.

An easy fix would be to re-encode it with Quicktime Pro or the free and open source tool Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ and choose one of the Mobile presets for apple devices or simply the "Normal" preset.


After Effects: How to animate letters to random position Is it possible to animate letters to random position in After Effects? Yes I can do it manualy letter by letter but I want to achieve effect like on animation below for any input text.

You could probably write a complicated expression which will allow you to do that. If you deal with short words like those though, I would recommend you duplicate the text layer and mask out one letter for each layer. You can then animate each layer in position and scale so that the letters move into place


How to convert an MP3 file to MIDI on Windows? How can I convert an MP3 file to MIDI on Windows?  Since MP3 is not losssless, is it possible to get MIDI out of a MP3 file?

That is not possible because MIDI is not an audio file format. It's a description on how to create music. Think of a midi file as a sheet music for a piece of music, whereas an mp3 would be a recording of someone playing the piece. So in order to create a midi file from audio recordings, you'd need some kind of score recognition program, which - to my knowledge - doesn't exist. A quick google search brought up a website and some software claiming to do that, but I wouldn't trust any of them. You can try it if you really want to, but even if they work at all the results will most likely be terrible.

If you need a midi file for a given piece of music, try to find the original score / sheet music! It's quite easy to create a midi version if you have the sheets.


How to make a white background effect for video recording? I have seen this video on YouTube which has a white background effect with proper video quality.

How could I do this?

You need a white backdrop with the appropriate backdrop stands!  For the backdrop, you have two choices:

Muslin fabric.  Easily transported since you can fold it up and bring it wherever you need. But, it does have to be ironed/steamed until it's completely wrinkle-free.

OR:

Paper backdrop.  You don't have to iron/steam wrinkles out of this.  But it's a pain to transport it since it's a super-long roll of thick paper.

To light this scene, you'll need three lights: key light + fill light to light your actor, and third a Fiilex light, like this one, to place on the ground behind your sitting talent, and pointing upward towards the backdrop.

It's best to turn off all interior lights and block out the windows and only light the scene using these three lights.


Bad video camera + little money = decent video quality I have a Kodak Easyshare z950 camera. Previously I only used it to take some pictures while traveling. Now I want to seriously work with video. Not that seriously as in TV studio, but still I want to produce high quality videos.

It shoots HD720p which is pretty good. While I'm outside it looks well, but if I shoot inside, the footage I produce is grainy with lots of background noise.

I think if I installed some proper illumination it would be fine. The problem is my budget is very limited something around $50-$100. How do you get the most lighting with least amount of money? I thought about just buying the most powerful light bulbs in the store and using some aluminum foil as a reflectors. Any better ideas?

I also thought about waiting for spring and when it's at least 10°C I could shoot outside. Problem then would be the sound, because wind blows into the mic. Should I build some hard cardboard walls or something?

The difference in brightness outdoors compared with indoors is much greater than you'd think due to the way your brain compresses the dynamic range. If you've ever been on a location shoot that's been properly lit for video you'd see the difference - it hurts your eyes!

I'm afraid the point here is that you're not going to recreate outdoor lighting for that price range. You are better off trying to rearrange your shooting to make the most of natural light.

If you really need to shoot indoors, getting some work lights and using hard, direct (undiffused) lighting will give you the biggest bang for buck. It's a distinctive look that can work well.