How to combine and optimize ffmpeg filters to avoid encoding multiple times? I never worked with ffmpeg before and I'm wondering which optimization I can take for my situation.

In a loop I have multiple input.mp4 files which I first convert one by one to have a common scale and audio rate with this command:

ffmpeg -i input_01.mp4 -vf 'scale=1280:720,setdar=16/9' -ar 44100 -ac 1 input_01_tmp.mp4

Later I add images to each input.mp4 files again one by one:

ffmpeg -i input_01_tmp.mp4 -i input_01_logo.png -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v]overlay=10:10:enable='between(t,2,11)',fade=t=in:start_time=1.5:d=0.5:alpha=1,fade=t=out:start_time=10.5:d=0.5:alpha=1[fg];[0][fg]overlay=format=auto,format=yuv420p" -c:a copy input_01_unified.mp4

Finally after the loop I combine them with mkvmerge:

mkvmerge -o output.mkv \+ input_01_unified.mp4 +\ input_02_unified.mp4 ...

I'm sure this is not the optimal solution and wondering how I should change it.

Is it possible to do all of this in one command? Either for each file or for the whole process.

The single command will be long, but here's an example for 3 inputs.

ffmpeg -i input_01.mp4 -loop 1 -t 11 -i input_01_logo.png
       -i input_02.mp4 -loop 1 -t 11 -i input_02_logo.png
       -i input_03.mp4 -loop 1 -t 11 -i input_03_logo.png
       -filter_complex
        "[0]scale=1280:720,setsar=1[0v];
         [1]fade=t=in:st=1.5:d=0.5:alpha=1,fade=t=out:st=10.5:d=0.5:alpha=1[0l];
         [2]scale=1280:720,setsar=1[1v];
         [3]fade=t=in:st=1.5:d=0.5:alpha=1,fade=t=out:st=10.5:d=0.5:alpha=1[1l];
         [4]scale=1280:720,setsar=1[2v];
         [5]fade=t=in:st=1.5:d=0.5:alpha=1,fade=t=out:st=10.5:d=0.5:alpha=1[2l];
         [0v][0l]overlay=10:10:format=auto:enable='between(t,2,11)'[0vl];
         [1v][1l]overlay=10:10:format=auto:enable='between(t,2,11)'[1vl];
         [2v][2l]overlay=10:10:format=auto:enable='between(t,2,11)'[2vl];
         [0]pan=1c,aresample=r=44100[0a];
         [2]pan=1c,aresample=r=44100[1a];
         [4]pan=1c,aresample=r=44100[2a];
         [0vl][0a][1vl][1a][2vl][2a]concat=n=2:v=1:a=1[v][a]"
        -map "[v]" -map "[a]" -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mkv

You may need single quotes in the map depending on your shell.

Use a recent version of ffmpeg, at least 4.0


What's the easiest way to cover up a seam in background paper behind video footage in Final Cut Pro? I have about 10 minutes of footage which includes what is supposed to be a 100% white background (no gradients).

The person who shot the footage apparently used 2 overlapping sheets of white background paper.

This left a horizontal line across the background.

It's really faint, but still noticeable.

Is there a relatively easy way to get rid of this without having to deal with it on a frame by frame basis?

(Note: to make matters worse, sometimes — though rarely — the line is directly behind the subject — a product being unboxed)

For the parts you have nothing in the way I would duplicate the clip above, them mask out a part without the seam and move this over the seam.
When the product come over the seam I don’t see another solution then to track the mask frame by frame.


How was this magic smoke animation done? Hi I was hoping any experienced video producer could tell me how an animation like the one showing at ~0:29-0:50 on the left side of this video is done?:

and is it possible to convert such an animation to separate transparent .png frames?

If you want to do this from scratch you would need a software that has a particle simulation system. A popular tool for that is After Effects in conjunction with the plugin Particular from Red Giant. Its rather easy to use.

If you want even more realistic results you probably want to go with a more sophisticated solution often found in 3D packages like 3Ds Max, Cinema 4D or the the free and open source Blender.

If you dont want to render something yourself you can also buy stock-footage. A popular package is the Action Essentials 2 from Video Copilot. It offers pre-keyed (e.g. with transparency) footage from real smoke and fire and other misc. effects. You can easily colorize these to your liking and export them as a transparent png sequence.


How can I make a video more seekable? I am looking at the factor that allows software video players to seek at any (or close to) position in the video.

Is this the keyframes or what?

The problems with seeking are typically in the video player and not in the videos themselves, so you may want to look at different video player. A video player should be able to seek to any frame in the video, regardless of format and the encoder settings used. It is also technically possible to play any video backwards, even though very few players support this.

The problem is, seeking into frames that are not keyframes is difficult and CPU intensive. Frames that are encoded as keyframes can be decoded on their own, while non-keyframes depend on other frames to be decoded. If you are playing the movie left to right all the dependencies  for a given frame have been already decoded, but if you are seeking directly into the frame, then the player needs to search for all those dependencies, decode them and only then it can decode the target frame.

So I think I can summarize my advice as two different suggestions:

Switch to a player that can seek to any frame.
if you can't switch to a better player, then encoding your video with more frequent keyframes will give you better seek accuracy, at the expense of picture quality (if you keep the bitrate the same) or file size (if you increase the bitrate to compensate).

Good luck.


What codec to use for fastest playback I want to encode many little 10s-videos in 720p. As I want to play them in a big matrix (6 by 6 videos) in chrome, I am wondering what codec / encoding to use so that the stress on my cpu/gpu is as low as possible when playing them back. I want playback to be as smooth as possible. I don't care for the specific format, audio or filesize.

4 by 4 plays back fine but at 6 by 6 it becomes a bit stuttering.

I'd say your encoding settings are going to be more crucial, given you're limited to the codecs that Chrome can play. Unless I'm wrong you can only use MP4 / h.264 and WebM / VP8 unless you install plugins.

Try lowering the profile of your mp4, e.g. encode using baseline profile. That will mean less compression–so larger files for the same quality or lower quality at the same size–but it reduces the processing power needed to display it.

It is worth noting that there are more hardware decoders commonly available for h.264 encoded video than there are for vp8, meaning that it's more likely to be handled at the hardware level than vp8.


What would a video look like without the shutter separating frames? If the shutter wasn't in the picture, what would you get? Are there any examples of this available? I've searched, but couldn't come up with anything. Is this an impossible thing? Or are the results so unremarkable it's not worth showing? Would it just be a continuous blur of motion?

The answer to this will differ based on if you are really talking video or film.

In either case, you'd have no control over shutter speed, which would mean you were locked at the exposure time of the frame rate you were shooting in.  This would greatly limit your exposure options which would either impact ISO/film grain or the depth of field or both.

With no shutter on film, the film would be exposing as it advanced and would thus be a streaked mess.  It would be stopped for a longer time than it's moving in most cameras, but you'd still be able to see the streaks distorting the image.

With no shutter on video, you fair a lot better.  Since the sensor itself isn't moving, you'd just have continuous scanning that wouldn't be that noticeably different.  Practically speaking, you still have an electronic shutter though because there is a blanking interval where the sensor has to read and dump charges, so there is going to be down time when the sensor isn't collecting photons and during this time, the "shutter" is effectively closed.  In fact, it's fairly common for video cameras to use a pure electronic shutter rather than a mechanical one.


Sony Vegas 17 can't render a 1:1 video? I have a video that I want to render as a 1:1 (1920x1920) aspect ratio. But it seems sony vegas 17 won't render it. And it gives me this error:

Here's my video properties:

And here's the render settings:

I've tried resetting sony vegas, try restarting my computer and etc. I've even tried to change my setting on by one, and it seems the only problem is the resolution. Whenever I tried to change the resolution/aspect ratio to 16:9 its fixed, but when I turn it to 1:1 it gives me the error. I need help!

Not sure, why this is happening, but I could reproduce this issue and get it fixed by using a "Magix AVC/AAC MP4" codec instead of the Sony codec.


Tripod duel, which one is the best? Has anyone tried this for filming? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/223630-REG/Davis_Sanford_PROVISTA12_ProVista12_Video_Tripod_System.html

It's more expensive than this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/727498-REG/Pearstone_VT_2100.html But is it worth it?

The first one I haven't found any good reviews on.

The second one I saw a Youtube Review on:

How to judge a tripod.

Generally I would go with the heavier tripod of the two which appears to be the first one weighing in at 9 lbs vs. the 2nd one at 4.5 lbs. However, this is at best a calculated guess as I have not played with the head. Fluid heads can vary on smoothness, and the only way to really tell what's going to make the smoothest shot is the old 'A vs. B' test. This would require you to take similar footage with the same camera on both tripods and compare the results.

Suggested tests:

1) make a pan and a tilt shot for each with the widest angle lens.

2) repeat pans and tilts, continue to work the focal length with more telephoto, see which one is smoothest as you use more magnification.

3) take it outside on a windy day, see which one can handle the wind the best.

4) how does it feel? Is it easy to adjust or does it feel sticky and sluggish.


In what order are After Effects layer effects applied? Pardon the noob question – If I have say a "brightness" effect and a "sharpen" effect appearing in this order (first is on top of the other), will "brightness" be applied first, then "sharpen"? or the other way around?

Yes, it works the way you suspected it would. Applied effects on a layer work from top to bottom, same with adjustment-layers and layer-modes applying from top to bottom.


Reencoding H.264 to H.264 made it 40% larger I've got some livestreamed footage (encoded with constant bitrate), and I've been trying to reduce the file size for long-term storage.  I figured that since encoding speed is no longer a constraint for me, I could let the encoder take more time and make a smaller file.

The original footage was encoded at 12 Mbps, but when I tried reencoding it with FFmpeg (libx264, CRF 18, and preset veryslow), the result was at 17 Mbps.

My question is, how can using these settings make a file so dramatically larger than the original?  As I understand it, the point of the veryslow preset is to take a long time and make the most compressed H.264 video possible (ignoring the placebo preset), but in this case I'd be far better off doing nothing!  I'd understand it being slightly bigger, because it has to encode some compression artifacts, but not a 40% increase.

You are using a quality based variable bitrate compression factor on something that already has artifacts.  That means it is going to attempt to preserve the video exactly as it is, artifacts included and artifacts tend to not encode well.  This means you have a video input which is likely harder to encode than the original and you chose a quality based compression that is also likely higher quality than your original 12 Mbps could manage.  This means an overall higher data rate must be used to try to avoid additional loss from the second generation of encoding, even with the extra optimizations that a slower compression cycle can handle, you aren't able to overcome the added complexity of the first encoding and the quality setting being used.

If this was any kind of HD stream that's not really that surprising as 12Mbps is a very heavily compressed end consumer level of compression for any HD formats.  It's not really a big surprise that it doesn't re-encode well.


Changing the input frame rate of a series of images in FFmpeg I am attempting to animate a series of PNG images at 30 frames per second (and add an audio track) with FFmpeg.

On the command line, I specify the input and output frame rates as 30 fps.

  ffmpeg.exe -r 30 -i %d.png -itsoffset 0.770 -i soundtrack.wav -r 30 -vcodec mpeg4 -y "ffmpegtest.mp4"

The output shows that it is reading the input images at the default 25 frames per second.

    ffmpeg version N-82225-gb4e9252 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
      built with gcc 5.4.0 (GCC)
      configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-dxva2 --enable-libmfx --enable-nvenc --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-libebur128 --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
      libavutil      55. 35.100 / 55. 35.100
      libavcodec     57. 66.101 / 57. 66.101
      libavformat    57. 57.100 / 57. 57.100
      libavdevice    57.  2.100 / 57.  2.100
      libavfilter     6. 66.100 /  6. 66.100
      libswscale      4.  3.100 /  4.  3.100
      libswresample   2.  4.100 /  2.  4.100
      libpostproc    54.  2.100 / 54.  2.100
    Input #0, image2, from '%d.png':
      Duration: 00:02:24.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
        Stream #0:0: Video: png, rgba(pc), 480x320, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc

[I'll interrupt here to say it is that last line that confuses me]

    Guessed Channel Layout for Input Stream #1.0 : stereo
    Input #1, wav, from 'soundtrack.wav':
      Duration: 00:06:51.26, bitrate: 1411 kb/s
        Stream #1:0: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 1411 kb/s
    Output #0, mp4, to 'ffmpegtest.mp4':
      Metadata:
        encoder         : Lavf57.57.100
        Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 ( [0][0][0] / 0x0020), yuv420p, 480x320, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 30 fps, 15360 tbn, 30 tbc
        Metadata:
          encoder         : Lavc57.66.101 mpeg4
        Side data:
          cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/200000 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
        Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC) ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s
        Metadata:
          encoder         : Lavc57.66.101 aac
    Stream mapping:
      Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (png (native) -> mpeg4 (native))
      Stream #1:0 -> #0:1 (pcm_s16le (native) -> aac (native))
    Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
    [image2 @ 0000000000622cc0] Thread message queue blocking; consider raising the thread_queue_size option (current value: 8)
    frame= 3600 fps=242 q=19.1 Lsize=    9908kB time=00:06:52.04 bitrate= 197.0kbits/s speed=27.7x
    video:3263kB audio:6494kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 1.540179%
    [aac @ 000000000064e600] Qavg: 448.922

I am fairly new to FFmpeg. What am I missing? How do I tell it the input stream is 30 fps?

With image sequences, you have to use the framerate option. So,

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -i %d.png -itsoffset 0.770 -i soundtrack.wav -vcodec mpeg4 -y "ffmpegtest.mp4"

With -r specified before the sequence name, FFmpeg assumes 25 fps and duplicates/drop frames to meet the set rate.


What Boom mic is compatible with a smartphone? I want to connect to my smartphone to cut down on the video production cost for my short films. The videos will be shot outside and inside.

I have an android smartphone. Is there any boom mic used in video production compatible with a smartphone?

Most mics that are designed for DSLRs (such as many of those made by Rode) should be able to work with a smart phone as well (through the use of some adapters).  They just work on a standard line input like you have for a PC and through a splitter cable, most cellphones support the same kind of line input as a PC or DSLR has.

It is actually even possible to plug a full blown ASIO audio interface in to many android handsets and do recording from phantom powered XLR booms, but that probably defeats the point of using your phone for recording.


How to downsample 4k to 1080p using ffmpeg while maintaining the quality? I have some 4K 3840x2160 footage in MP4 format that I need to bring down to 1080p. I tried running

ffmpeg -i orig.mp4 -vf scale=1920:1080 smaller.mp4

but the result is very poor quality, with the entire image being composed of square "tiles" as if I was magnifying 4:1.

Here is the output of running this command:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'origs/P1000003.MP4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 1
    compatible_brands: mp42avc1
    creation_time   : 2015-02-19 17:10:38
  Duration: 00:05:14.48, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 95903 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (High), yuvj420p, 3840x2160 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 95792 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-19 17:10:38
    Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 125 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-19 17:10:38
Incompatible pixel format 'yuvj420p' for codec 'mpeg4', auto-selecting format 'yuv420p'
[buffer @ 0x22a3420] w:3840 h:2160 pixfmt:yuvj420p
[scale @ 0x22a3ce0] w:3840 h:2160 fmt:yuvj420p -> w:1920 h:1080 fmt:yuv420p flags:0x4
Output #0, mp4, to '1-short.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : mp42
    minor_version   : 1
    compatible_brands: mp42avc1
    creation_time   : 2015-02-19 17:10:38
    encoder         : Lavf53.21.1
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1920x1080 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-19 17:10:38
    Stream #0.1(und): Audio: libvo_aacenc, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 200 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-19 17:10:38
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press ctrl-c to stop encoding
frame=  125 fps=  6 q=31.0 Lsize=     968kB time=5.00 bitrate=1586.7kbits/s
video:842kB audio:123kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.421047%

I know from experience that ffmpeg is an excellent tool, so I must be screwing up the options/parameters somehow...

How can I do this?

The default settings for ffmpeg are very low quality, and since you don't specify any codec or quality parameters it's just using the defaults (I don't know why the devs don't fix that because it generates a lot of questions on forums everywhere).
Edit: the defaults are now quite sane. With a recent (as in later than 2017) build of ffmpeg you don't need to specify anything more than input and output files to achieve good useable results. You can, of course tweak to your heart's desire.
Try adding -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset slow to the command.

-c:v libx264 tells it to use the libx264 encoder, this is the default now, no need to specify it
crf 20 uses the Constant Rate Factor quantiser (which paradoxially means variable bit rate, but constant quality) with a value of 20 (pretty good quality; lower is better quality / larger files, higher is crappier / smaller)—default is 23,
the slow preset is a shortcut for a bunch of encoder settings that means it puts a bit more effort into it than the default (medium). Note that the speed presets don't change the quality of the encoded file, just the efficiency, meaning a slower encode will result in a smaller file of the same quality and a faster encode will mean a larger file of the same quality.

You can tweak these settings, see the h.264 encoding guide for instructions on what knobs to twiddle.
And if you're using the audio as-is, add c:a copy. That will do a straight copy of the audio stream without re-encoding.


What is the best way to plan and sync voiceover? I'm working on an informational video which has some live action product shots, animation created in flash, a backgroud music track, and a voiceover track.

I've got total control over everything so I can edit the animation or re-record the voiceover (I do the voiceover myself). I just read http://www.directvoices.com/plaza/syncing-voice-over-to-video/ for example but it doesn't really go into specifics of how to do the planning or the fine tuning.

I'm trying to figure out what the best methodology is for planning and executing this. This is what I currently do but it feels very clunky to say the least:

Record Audio Track
Make animation in Flash with no Audio
Bring into compositing software (I use Premier CC2015) and do my best to trim and move tracks around. At times adding still frames to extend parts of the animation.
If I have to then I go back into Flash to make more animation to fill empty areas. I try not to have to redo the audio as much since its much more time consuming and would then have to start the entire syncing process over as well since talking isn't as easy as controlling a timeline.

There's got to be a better way to do this though, I'm just not sure what it is.

Should I just do the entire video and then play it while I record the voiceover? That would work for parts where the audio is short and the animation long. But is more difficult on parts where the audio is long and the animation is short.

In addition to @Mulvya answer I will suggest to use not Flash, but After Effects for animation, if possible. Then you will be able to make Dynamic Link to your AE project. Than will be easier to jump between applications.

But when you work with animation, you deferentially need to have voiceover first. Like in cartoon development.


How to do video streaming with a canon EOS M? What software is needed to do video capture from a Canon EOS M?
How can I use the Canon EOS M as a Webcam?
Thank you,

There's a couple ways I know of to do this that might work depending on what you need.  The first way would be to use an HDMI capture card like the Blackmagic Intensity.  The second way would be to use the Canon EOS utility over USB.


How to up scale video resolution for Video Card I've a Black Magic Declink Mini Recorder Frame Grabber which supports minimum 720p as Video Input. But my camera has a VGA resolution which ostensibly will give output in 640*480 resolution. The card accepts both SDI/HDMI slots for Intput and Camera cable I have is currently having BNC Connector at it's end. Could someone suggest how can I use this Video Card to process VGA Video Output from my camera?

Your problem is not (only) resolution.  640x480 resolution VGA is analog video, so you need an analog -> digital video converter.  This $200 Analog -> SDI Mini Converter from Blackmagic Design will do what you need.

Then again, for not much more than $200, you can get a camera that speaks HDMI and gives you true 720p.


What's different between Premiere's own h.264 and QT h.264 encoders? I noticed that Premiere(CC2017) can export h.264 through its own encoder and QuickTime. Are there any / what are the differences between these two?

PP Native h.264 encoder

QT h.264 encoder

The encoder is always the same, namely Adobe Media Encoder. What you're changing is only the format, which admittedly is a bit confusing since that dropdown mixes up a couple of concepts which don't really belong together. If you select H.264 from the format dropdown, that's the video codec. Using that format selection, you will find a ton of options below, one of which is the multiplexer tab. This is where you can select what container format you want your video and audio stream to be mixed in (usually that's MP4). If you select the QuickTime format, you are always exporting a MOV file. The codec of the QuickTime format is variable, so you get a dropdown for that instead.

So with both options, you will get an H.264 video stream, but mixed in a different container format. You can find more info on individual streams and containers in my answer here.

It's a bit confusing that you are selecting different things (codecs or containers) in the format dropdown, but since there are also completely different options such as exporting as an image sequence or exporting audio only, it's hard to come up with an interface that's neither terribly bloated nor missing important options.

From the Adobe Support Pages:

  Some filename extensions—such as MOV, AVI, and MXF —denote container file formats rather than denoting a specific audio, video, or image data format. Container files can contain data encoded using various compression and encoding schemes. Adobe Media Encoder can encode video and audio data for these container files, depending on which codecs (specifically, encoders) are installed. Many codecs must be installed into the operating system and work as a component inside the QuickTime or Video for Windows formats.


What codecs/formats are appropriate for full motion video recording for youtube? I'm recording video game footage via lossless methods, after which I need to compress them and upload them to youtube. I'm not sure which format and/or codecs are best for this. I've been experimenting with various formats and I've found MP4 (and whatever Camtasia 7 uses as a codec for that) to be mostly effective, but the quality varies by game.

Particularly I've noticed that lower-motion games like platforming games (Super Mario) or RPGs (Final Fantasy) seem to be fine no matter what format they're in; few "blocky" compression artifacts, almost no issues due to how often key-frames are used. But higher motion games, especially First Person Shooters (Halo) and scrolling shooters (Gradius) suffer relatively severe issues with "ghost" images between keyframes and generally blocky or choppy video.

Is there a generally acceptable video codec for high motion gameplay footage? I want to absolutely minimize compression artifacts like ghost images between keyframes, blocks of colors, etc. To maximize quality my recordings are at 30 FPS, 32 bit RGB at naitive resolution and file size isn't a major limiting factor (but I'd like to keep files under 1 GB due to low upload speeds). So assume the source file is basically pristine. How should I compress these high quality source files of full motion gameplay to be uploaded on youtube?

To reiterate the general requirements:

Lossless or high quality source file at 30 FPS, 32 bit RGB
Full motion recording, minimal compression artifacts wanted
Resolution only limited by the game's res; generally 480p, 720p or 1080p, occasionally weird resolutions when a game requires them (but if those come out less-awesome it's not a big deal, I accept that those are problematic).
Youtube will receive and process the final product, so their processing determines the final quality. I want something that Youtube will butcher the least (their videos do not always match my upload file's quality and I'm not sure why)

If it matters I'm using Camtasia Studio to edit/render the video before uploading, and I use a combination of Camtasia Studio and Fraps to record videos. I have the K-Lite Full codec pack on my PC, so Youtube is the major limiting factor for codecs. Fraps records lossless, and Camtasia can be lossless but I've been taking to DivX for encoding the initial recording in  Camtasia. My videos are at the whim of Youtube's re-encoding process for the final product as well, but I'm not sure exactly what they use for that.

Personally I always choose MP4 container and the H.264 codec as this is also the codec YouTube uses in the final video stream.

What key-frame rates and compression you need really depends on the footage and it's unfortunately close to impossible to give as a generic answer for this reason.

If you have a lot of movements you will need key-frames more often as well as lower compression. This will of course result in larger file sizes as a key-frame is basically a full frame image. There are only costly compromises for this.

How much you need to compress depends on the frame size, the bit-rate that will be used, f.ex. there is no point in compressing at a high bit-rate if YouTube then re-compress to match their max output bit-rate, which again means even worse quality due to re-compression.

If I should recommend a generic compromise it would be to reduce the frame size from 1920 x 1080 to 1280 x 720 instead. A viewer won't notice small details if there are a lot going on in the movie. It of course depends on which eyes one uses, the viewer's eye or the producer's eye. What I'm trying to say is that there is the factor of "psychology" you can use as well.

You won't need 32 bits. 32-bit is just 24-bit RGB with 8-bits for an alpha channel. You should record and process in 24-bit in cases as this. This will save you some file size and processing time.

Camtasia uses it's own proprietary codec so you will always need to re-compress to another non-lossy or lossy format.

Basically it comes down to trial and error approach, and then experience from that, as each individual video may require a different approach. I saw a similar post here with a link to YouTube guide-lines. Check them out and use them as a basis for settings (especially bit-rate settings).

Also try not to think of the movie in terms of technical perfection but rather how a viewer will view it and for what reason (is the content interesting enough then quality matters less, think news-reports).


How to import Quicktime screen recording in PP or AE? I know how to import other content with normal specs but these QuickTime screen recordings from my Macbook has weird FPS data. When I import these .mov files in AE or PP I get weird glitches on the screen while I am scrubbing the timeline. I am assuming it's due to the fact that I want to work in a 60fps timeline but these .mov files have off FPS data.
What is the proper way of importing files like this? I have already tried the "interpret file" option in AE but that didn't do anything either.

I would try transcoding them in Media Encoder using a format useful for editing (eg ProRes or something similar) to (for example) 60 fps if they are at a variable FPS close to that, and see if it looks better.
Or try transcoding them to the frame rate you're planning to deliver at.
If you are capturing the screen recordings using ScreenFlow, there is an option to specify the frame rate. I don't think Quicktime has this.


Is it possible for the viewers to get rid of the 60FPS fast forward effect? Since I and Everyone else watched too many 24/30FPS throught our lives, whenever We see 60FPS or faster motion picture we feel like its fast forwarded thus makes it terribly unnatural.

I want to shoot some 60FPS movies but I am afraid of the audience unconciously disliking my movies (due to the movies feel anormal) so the question is: In the future where 60FPS (hopefully) gets more and more into the Youtube videos, will the current generation and future teenagers get used to the 60FPS video and thus the movies wont feel fast forwarded and anormal ?

In Short:Is it possible to get used to the 60FPS video so it wont feel fast forwarded?

60 fps does not look like "fast forward". It simply looks natural. It breaks the old-school film look, so people start paying more attention to what is happening on the screen, including acting and dialogs. A crappy movie, barely watchable in 24p, falls apart when interpolated to 60p or 120p by modern TV sets. Just shoot better movies ;)

By the way, for quite a long time in the U.K. they used movie cameras for shooting outside on location, and TV cameras for shooting inside on the set, so for the British "film look" used to mean outside, "smooth look" used to mean inside.


Is it possible to use DaVinci Resolve without any GPU AT ALL? I have some plan to get servers that are powered by Intel Atom C2750: Intel Atom® Processor C2750.

... and they don't have any GPU at all.

Is it possible to render at this CPU? Render time isn't the problem. Just ... is it even possible?

Even if you could tweak, say, your machine's BIOS or even Resolve's own settings to somehow not use any GPU at all, I really don't recommend doing it. Resolve is built around GPU power to render stuff.


How can I find duplicate videos from a large set of videos of varying formats? After losing a backup device with a bunch of my original videos I've had to download a large number of them (~300) back from Youtube. The new downloads are a mix of MP4 and FLV, and the originals are a mix of almost any video format due to lots of experimenting.

To make matters worse there's no clear cutoff for when my local copies disappeared; I've found a point in my youtube videos chonologically where I have some of the videos and I don't have others. I've been trying to manually weed out videos where I already have a copy, but with this many videos I'm sure I've missed some.

How can I effectively go through several hundred videos of different formats and weed out duplicates? The names will be similar but not identical. The formats may be different, and the file size may be different due to that (and or encoding differences). The file lengths should be the same, and visually the videos should be similar enough, but I'm not sure there's any tool to sort that out visually.

Am I doomed to go through the list based on running time and manually look for duplicates or is there a better way?

I'd recommend a hybrid approach using both computers and people.

Bucket the videos by their length (round to the nearest second)
For each bucket, use ffmpeg to generate thumbnails at a predictable and uniform point in the videos (ex: a frame from 10 seconds into the video)
Look at the generated thumbnails in a grid (most OS's provide a nice thumbnail view) and scan for duplicates to remove.

You shouldn't have to do any programming to perform these steps, though creating the thumbnails on the command line with ffmpeg may take some finesse.  Good luck!


How to add meta data to a video file I tried to change the Meta data of a video file.
My system runs on Windows. So I tried to change meta data through rightclicking on the file and going to the properties > details. After chaning some information and saving this error occured:

What happend next is that the video file couldn't be played in a videoplayer anymore. This is the error message in Windows Media Player:

I have to re-render my video file. But my question is: what is the best method for adding meta data to a video file? What is the best Tag editor application on Windows?

Googling for "mp4 metadata editor" brings up lots of candidates. Many of these will search online databases for tagging DVD movie rips, a feature I don't think you're looking for, but they also let you add and edit tags in most common container formats like MP4. Two you might look at are MP3Tag (yes, MP3) and MetaX/MetaZ.


OBS (Encoding X264) fails Since a few days I have a new computer. Here my specifications:

GTX 980
I7 5820k
Windows 8.1

I'm trying to stream with Open Broadcast Software (OBS), but when I try to preview I already get frame lagg. When I disable encoding while previewing, the frame lagg is gone.

What can I prevent this or what is the problem with this? I talked already with a lot of people about this, but no one really knows a solution. I hope someone here has an idea how to encode x264.

Thanks.

Here are some things to try:

Switch to OBS Studio. OBS classic is no longer supported and has been replaced by the "studio" version.
Tell your OS to run OBS in "high priority" mode.
Set your encoding preset to a lower quality and/or lower FPS and/or lower definition
Use your GPU to encode (NVENC). Your CPU will no longer encode your stream and will be able to run other tasks, but it will downgrade the quality of your video.


Does HD necessarily mean clear, high quality images? I recently purchase an AXIS network camera that will be used at a scrap metal yard to photograph truck license plates. While the camera is probably sufficient for my purposes I was a bit confused because it was advertised as an HDTV 720p camera but the image quality (still or video) is nowhere near as good as, say, any of the leading smartphone cameras. Apparently, this is because each image is only around 1 MP. If the image is aliased and blurry, in what sense is it "high definition"? It has "more lines" than my old TV, yet it looks worse than any other digital camera I've owned in the last 10 years. Isn't this term a bit misleading in this context?

HD simply refers to a given number of pixels in the signal, not some measure of quality.  Even 1080p TV is lower resolution than the photos on most camera phones.  Even the 4k video used in the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies is lower quality than the still photos of most camera phones.  Video takes up far FAR more data than stills.  If you think about it, 1 second of video contains between 24 and 60 individual photos depending on the format of video being used.  Now there are ways to shrink the video since a lot of the pictures are very similar, but the quality that can be recorded is still much smaller than what we can process for a still.

The think is that an 8mp camera phone still doesn't shoot any better than 1080p video at most, so while it may take 8mp stills, it only takes sub 2mega pixel video.  720p isn't all that much better than an old 480 display.  The main advantage is the progressive scan, but there still isn't that much more information (about double).

The other thing to note with security cameras is that they tend to be made to be durable more than high quality.  The optics are probably not that great and they favor infinity focus over sharpness.  They want everything in the scene to be reasonably in-focus instead of having any particular area really sharp.  So between the optics, the design goals and the limited resolution, it isn't all that surprising that it doesn't render things that clearly since it isn't the goal of a typical security camera.

The term is not at all misleading though and based on your description, it sounds like it behaves like I would expect for the device.  It is High Definition since 720p is a high definition standard even if the optics don't give you as sharp of an image as you'd prefer.


Amateur orchestra recording/post-processing I play in an amateur university orchestra, and I just recorded our last concert this weekend. This was a very simple setup: just a Sony PCM-D50 recorder, set to record at 96/24 through its internal mics, on a tripod a couple of meters away from the orchestra.

I set the recording level low enough that the internal limiter never triggered, while getting peaks at around -3 dB when the orchestra was really loud (and 0 dB during applause, of course).

Now with an orchestral program (especially in this case where we played movie soundtracks, so you get a solo violin in Schindler's List, a small woodwind ensemble in Harry Potter (Nimbus 2000 theme), and full-tilt brass/percussion in Star Wars) there is an enormous dynamic range to cover. It seems that modern productions use heavy dynamic range compression to "lift" the soft passages, and while I'm quite happy with the sound quality of the recording as-is, I'd still like to try and "equalize" it a bit so it's more in line with other CDs.

My problem is that when I use the pre-set Dynamic range compression settings in Sound Forge Audio Studio (for example 2:1 compression from -18 dB, or 3:1 from -15 dB) and then add gain (say, +6 dB), I find that the recording starts sounding quite muddy.

I don't think that that's because of a bad algorithm (I find the same problem in Audacity) but probably because I'm using a sledgehammer instead of a fine screwdriver to adjust the sound. Do you have any tips on how to lift low volumes without muddying the middle dynamic and high peaks?

If it sounds good, don't change it. You could try to change it to 44.1kHz-16bit and see if it's really that off from a CD. Otherwise leave it as it is. The whole loudness war is lame anyway. http://productionadvice.co.uk/dynamic-range-day/


In Premiere Pro, how can I delete clip portions that are between these labels? In Premiere Pro, how can I delete clip portions that are between these labels?

(in an automatic way that's not too manual)

One way I could do it that is a bit slow and manual, is SHIFT-DOWN gets to e.g. where the cursor is in the image below.  'i' (to put a left mark in), then SHIFT-DOWN, then 'o', (to put a right marker in), then Ctrl-Shift-A to deselect the clip. Then shift-delete (rippled delete). And just keep repeating those keystrokes.  for all 40ish labels. But i'm hoping there's a quicker way.

Here's a dirty yet maybe effective method:

Create an adjustment-layer above your two video tracks, that goes from start to end.
Select all your pink labels and drag them up, effectively replacing those parts in the adjustment-layer.
Delete your still selected labels
Pull down the bits of the adjustment-layer into your main clip and delete them.

If I were to show this method to my testers in the final exam they'd probably chop my head off, but it's the easiest way I came up with so far.


Video files are larger after conversion I'm converting video files to watch on my iPad from .mkv to .mp4 as per the settings in avc.
What i'm finding thou is that the original .mkv of 147mb is being converted to .mp4 of size 560mb.
Nearly increasing 4 times.
Any advice?

MKV and MP4 are container formats. AVC is encoding format. File size does not depend much on container type, although some containers allow for smaller file sizes, like MKV takes less space than TS because metadata is not repeated in the stream.

The single defining parameter of file size is data rate. Depending on the encoding format, frame size and frame rate you should select a reasonable data rate when encoding. Say, 5 Mbit/s for MPEG-2 Part 2 may be too low for HD video, but more than enough if you choose AVC/H.264.

Also, "mb" means "millibits". If you wanted to write "megabytes" you should have capitalized both "m" and "b".


Which mic to buy for amatour dslr video shooting: RØDE VideoMic vs. Zoom H1? My  gear is a Canon T5i DSLR, and I take home made videos in family gatherings, kids playing, birthday parties, etc. The internal mic is really bad, especially in noisy environments.

I am thinking of buying a cheap microphone to connect to the camera.
Which one you would suggest for an amateurish/multipurpose use: shotgun; RØDE VideoMic or Zoom H1 ?

Stuff I am looking for: ease of use, noise cancellation, and enhancement of the audio record quality.

Thanks

For the H1, X/Y micing is a good option for an improved stereo room mic, but isn't going to be as focused as a shotgun mic. The input is nice, but doesn't really buy you much over the built in 3.5mm jack that many DSLR's already have. 3.5mm also isn't a professional audio connection, so it greatly limits the selection of microphones available. It does give pretty decent sound quality, though I don't believe it is the best quality in the price range if memory serves (but I haven't looked in a while.)

For the Rode VideoMic, it is much more focused on what is directly in front of it.  It has pretty good quality (probably a little bit better than the H1) but it also won't pick up everything the H1 does (both noise and any actual sounds you want that are off to the sides).

Ultimately, it primarily comes down to which picks up what you need to pick up.  If you want stereo, then the H1 wins hands down.  If you need to pick up the sound of the room overall, the H1 also wins hands down.  If you need to focus in on a particular subject in the middle of your frame or at a distance and need minimum background noise, the VideoMic wins hands down.

If you have a mix of situations and needs, then the H1 is probably a little bit more versatile, but the VideoMic is probably a little bit easier to use as it is designed to plug directly in to the camera instead of being it's own recorder.  Additionally, with the VideoMic, more of your money is going in to the microphone itself since they don't have to worry about the audio recording hardware that has to be worked in to the H1.


MP4s skip when put into lightworks Below I've included a link to a video demonstrating my problem. The audio sounds fine until I put it into lightworks with another audio track and begin editing. The first clip is both audio tracks together, the second is the top audio track, the third is the bottom audio track, and the last is what it's supposed to sound like.

Don't do sync work with the MP4s/H264 codec. Use proper codecs (ProRes or DNxHD).
Work with .wav or .aif audio files.
Keep an eye on your audio file sample rates.

Lightworks is much less forgiving to small errors than other programs are. Be super precise.


View list of installed plugins in Cinema 4D How do you view a list or in some way know that a plugin was loaded in Cinema 4D? A friend of mine sent me a plugin he made and wanted me to try it, but I can't tell if it's even loaded.

Not sure if this is the right place for this question.

Thanks in advance!

There is a plugins folder in your installation directory. Whether you are on mac or a windows machine, all installed plugins are listed there.

Search for a tutorial, the manual or some images to identify in which area or viewport it's used.


How to link URL in flash media player to red5 server I am trying to test a flash player for red5 live streaming video and in flash CS6 I have put a player component on the stage and not sure what url to input the live stream source?

I can test and see it working in mysite.com:5080/demos/publisher.html but cannot work out how to get that streaming video linked to my flash player.

update: it is not as simple as entering RTMP url as has failed on every attempt with all possible parameters and in any case the question now is what stops anyone from going to any given url with 5080 port and taking advantage...something to hash out in future with the help of mister AJ.

I don't know this particular product, but based on what you are describing, I think this may help.  The player in flash probably wants the actual streaming media link.  When you go to the html page, you are accessing an HTML page that probably has an embedded player.  Flash streaming actually uses RTMP rather than HTTP, so you would need to find out what the RTMP URL is and provide that to the Flash video player.

Update: So to do a live stream, you need to use the rtmp link to the publishing point on your server.  You then need to use the publisher to send a feed to that publishing point.  Whatever name you provide in the publisher will be the name of the file that you need to feed to your viewer.  Everything gets relayed through the server.


ffmpeg - Slow down video and loop/repeat audio I am trying to use ffmpeg to slow down a video speed by 25% (75% speed) without changing the audio speed.
ffmpeg -i input_video.mkv -filter:v "setpts=1.3*PTS" "SlowVideo25.mp4"

On doing so, the audio finishes first and the video continues to play for some more seconds. I want to use ffmpeg to loop/repeat the audio track in this case. So when the audio finishes, it plays the audio from the beginning for the remainder of the video.
Is this do-able using ffmpeg?

since there is no loop option on the mapped stream; therefore you need 2 steps

ffmpeg -y -stream_loop 2 -i https://www.learningcontainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/sample-mp4-file.mp4 output.wav
ffmpeg -y -i output.wav -i https://www.learningcontainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/sample-mp4-file.mp4 -filter:v "setpts=1.3*PTS" -shortest output.mp4

Note: stream_loop number is the ceiling of factor


How to split video into multiple files based on chapter markers? Is there a way to automatically split a video into multiple files based on chapter markers?

I don't want to re-encode the file, just a video/audio passthru.

The source file is a MKV container, but I guess it doesn't really matter.

Apple OS X, Windows… either OS would be fine.

mkvmerge, a part of MKVtoolnix, will split a MKV file by chapters.

Basic syntax is

mkvmerge -o chapter.mkv --split chapters:all input.mkv

but see Section 2.5 #7 of the documentation for more details.


FCPX: change export resolution and remove black bars I have a set of Super 8 movies, digitized to Full HD MP4. This results in black bars left and right. I've imported the movies into Final Cut Pro x 10.4, with those bars. After doing some editing, I prefer to export them without the bars to a 1440x1080 resolution. I can create a project with that resolution. I can crop the clips to that resolution, but if I export it, I get 1920x1080. I don't know what I doing wrong.

Handbrake removes these bars automatically, but exports to 30fps while the movies are 24fps. And I prefer to export directly from FCP.

How can I export movies without the black bars?

This article should help
custom resolution and frame rate in FCPX


Adding a time stamp to a video Anyone know of a program that will add a visible date and time stamp to a video file? Preferably, I can just put in the start time of the video and it will just keep incrementing the time as the video plays.

You can use ffmpeg to display current localtime:

ffmpeg -i input -vf "drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/TTF/Vera.ttf: text='%{localtime}': x=(w-tw)/2: y=h-(2*lh): fontcolor=white: box=1: boxcolor=0x00000000@1" image%03d.png

See Can ffmpeg extract images from a video with timestamps? for more examples.


I have a video I made in Premiere Pro that is like slides with 150MB audio. How can I export it to a reasonable size? I have a video I made in Premiere Pro that is like slides with 150MB audio. How can I export it to a reasonable size?

When I try to export it, it exports to a size of 7GB

I could perhaps do something with some other software to make it smaller, but i'm wondering if premiere pro has any option?

If not then what do you suggest I can do to other software to make it smaller?

The video portion is just slides showing text, and the slides some change after 5 seconds near the start, then every 5 minutes or so.

Without knowing either the resolution or the duration of the video is hard to know if that is a good file size or not. But in any case, you need to define a CODEC and a container for your video. And define the resolution of the project.

A typical one is FULL HD (1920x1080px) and the most used container is Mp4 with an h264 and ACC codecs for video and audio.

You could totally lower your framerate to even 1 pers second if you have direct cuts in between slides, but if the video has transitions between the slides you can not. Use 24Fps.

Of course, you already did your work, next time you can actually do it in a presentation program, and export it from there.


What software should I use to replace an LED display in a train carriage? Look at this Video. Notice the text moving in LED and the reflection of it on the ceiling of the train. I also took a picture with blank LED screen.

I want to add my own text marquee-ing through the LED in the picture. Everything will be static as the photo except the text in the LED and its reflection.

What software, and what actions do I need to do to achieve this? Any tips and tricks please? I have a Macbook Pro i7. Freeware options are more preferable.

I would do this using after effects. You need to do a little bit of motion tracking as there is a tiny bit of motion on the camera as the train moves. Find a font that matches the LED display font on the screen. Carefully match all the colours you use using the eye dropper. Add blur and noise to your comps to better match the footage.
You can fake blurry reflections surprisingly well just by flipping a duplicate of your comp and blurring it. The biggest problem you will have is the swinging handle in the foreground, which you may need to rotoscope with the rotobrush to isolate.
You can see a similar effect (but without any foreground rotoscoping) I made at 26 seconds in here:
https://twitter.com/financialtimes/status/985923651676659713?s=21


Canon 600d vs Sony PD170 for video production If you were to develop a short film, which one of these two cameras would you use?
In a recent discussion with a friend he was claiming that a camera like the Canon 600d can produce videos of much better quality compared to a Sony PD170. Is he correct? Can somebody show me some evidence to support this (or the opposite)?

It's a little bit subjective. DSLR footage, straight off the camera, is very crisp and clean. Whereas a PD170 has a bit more of a 'video' look. So first off you'd have to decide what kind of look you wanted to go for.

In most cases you would choose to shoot on a DSLR, simply because the image is more visually appealing.

Pros of DSLR:

better looking footage (subjective, although a common view)
can attach a variety of lenses (i.e. fish-eye)
smaller body, more mobility
no need to import footage off a tape, just copy and paste off SD card onto computer
it's cheaper

Pros of PD170:

don't have to worry about the camera overheating (can shoot as long as the tape and/or batter allow. DSLRs tend to overheat after 10minutes of straight shooting)
larger body. Easier to do handheld with just the body alone
can plug in a microphone directly into the camera. This avoids having to use a clapper before each take and avoids the need of syncing audio and video

For me, those are the main points. If you're looking to make a film cheaply, DSLR is the way to go. But don't forget about sound; good sound is integral to a film.


How do I use green screen effects in cyberlink powerdirector and put the video in the green part? I'm a noob, so explain like I'm 5 years old.

Summarizing from How do I use the chroma key feature to replace a green screen background in CyberLink PowerDirector?:

Put the video or image you want to use as the background (what will replace the green) on Track 1.
Put the video that has the green screen on Track 2.
Double click on the clip with the green screen background to open in the PiP Designer.
Select the Chroma Key tab and then Enable chroma key
Click on the eye dropper button on the Chroma Key tab and then select the (green) color in the image or video clip that you want to replace/make transparent.
Adjust the sliders until the green completely disappears.

This video might help explain it better.


A way to create a moving graphic annotation Imagine I have a video of a car moving from right to left, and that I want to add a graphic annotation in a specific frame at a certain time.

I would like that this graphic annotation, after I have inserted it, move itself automatically along the timeline using only pixel analysis, looking for pixels similarity frame after frame.

Is there some tool or software library that do it?

That is usually called "tracking" and there are several tools available to do that.
Many that are stand alone and export the data to be used in other software aswell as complete editing suites that enable you to do everything from the tracking of the video footage to the animation of the graphic.

Popular examples are Adobe After Effects, Apple Motion and Nuke.
The most popular being Adobe After Effects. It offers a fairly easy to use 2D tracker and is a very powerful animation tool.

Though if you want to analyze the global position of the car on the racing track over the course of several different scene you wont be able to achieve that completely automated. Those tools will only analyze the motion for a particular scene and wont make any sense out of the "global picture". While you can certainly track the position of a car in different scenes you will have to manually do that and tell the tracker in every scene what exactly you want to track.


Benefits of component/RGB connector (vs. S-video or composite) for VHS capture? I know it's 2020 but I still have a few VHS tapes to digitise.

I do not expect the picture quality to be necessarily good enough to worry about this question. Still, I would hate to lose any tiny little bit of the quality just because I choose my analog gear inferior to what I could have chosen. This is a one-off task and I want to be sure I could not do it any better.

That said, I do not have any VCR for this task yet. I am just about to figure out what to look for.

I have done a little bit of research to find out what analog connectors are there and which ones are capable of carrying which quality. It looks like component and RGB standards/connectors are the best ones (as opposed to S-video and composite).

Assuming that the VHS tape record is still very good (no big chances, but let's assume), would the picture quality benefit from component/RGB connectors at all? Should I be looking for a VCR that has these outputs?

Component Y/Pb/Pr is better than both S-video and composite.  It supports higher resolution, and progressive scan (480p,720p,1080p).  The Y is luminance and sync signaling, the Pb is blue minus, and the Pr is red minus.  Since its progressive, it uses more bandwidth than the former's.
It's easy to get "component" mixed up for "composite"/"rca".  Component is the Red/Blue/Green cables, composite (or RCA) is the Yellow/Red/White cables.
The S-video and composite were made for standard definition video, which is lower resolution interlaced, as opposed to progressive.  interlaced video has less bandwidth needs.
Normally you would use Component when you have it available over composite and s-video alternatives, but don't yet have HDMI capabilities.
If you can use HDMI, it is better than component, since HDMI is digital, component is not.
VCR's
The goodwill I found is one good source for VCR's.  The Time-sync ones, which you need, are about $400.  Too expensive, when you can get a scaler that has the same frame correction features in it on evil bay for cheaper.  I got one used for $45 (Extron System 7SC, uses Composite, up to 1080p).  The VCR isn't as important as its head is in good alignment (take the cover off and adjust it if not) and VCR has more than a few decent heads on it.
Logically, if you can snatch a good deal on a VCR that has component, then make sure your scaler (or cap card if not using one) has component input.  Scaler's with HDMI aren't really useful for VCR capture IMO.   Im also not sure the component ones are in fact either, since its possible that somehow they have upconverted the signal to make it component, which you can just eliminate, and run it straight into your scaler with svideo or composite.
Out of the scaler it can be scaled up 720p/1080p for raw capture.  So if your capture card has component in, then make sure the scaler has component out.  I'm still a bit yellow in the area if the RGBHV on the back of my scaler can be converted to Y/Pb/Pr easily or not, im not sure.  Im testing instead using composite out of scaler, to composite in to USB capture.  The results are maybe more low light detail than the S-video signal, so it has its benefits.
Scaler
Look for one that takes care of the frame corrections for you, so that you wont have sync issues, when you capture (VirtualDub/HuffYUV I assume?)

https://www.extron.com/article/syst7sc32pulldown
I see this one on evilbay now for $50, https://www.extron.com/product/vsc200 has an S-video output also, which i needed, for my capture card to test over composite, although I'm not sure capturing from S-video is all its chalked up to me, for this purpose.  (not sure about the outputs on this one though)
This one looks decent, has svideo https://www.ebay.com/itm/Extron-IN1508-Video-Converter-Scaling-Switcher/124668934942


Debian & Blackmagic Davinci Resolve Anyone got Davinci Resolve to run on Debian?
Version 15.x installs great without error on debian but it crashes upon startup.
I would like to hear from anyone who runs it with Debian, what video cards you are using etc.
for the record, here is the terminal output of the crash.
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve
ActCCMessage Already in Table: Code= c005, Mode= 13, Level=  1, CmdKey= -1, Option= 0
ActCCMessage Already in Table: Code= c006, Mode= 13, Level=  1, CmdKey= -1, Option= 0
ActCCMessage Already in Table: Code= c007, Mode= 13, Level=  1, CmdKey= -1, Option= 0
ActCCMessage Already in Table: Code= 2282, Mode=  0, Level=  0, CmdKey= 8, Option= 0
PnlMsgActionStringAdapter Already in Table: Code= 615e, Mode=  0, Level=  0, CmdKey= -1, Option= 0
log4cxx: No appender could be found for logger (UI).
log4cxx: Please initialize the log4cxx system properly.
15.2.4 (#006) Linux/Clang
Main thread starts: 99B99AC0
resolve: AppConfig.cpp:171: void AppConfig::LoadAllSiteInfo(): Assertion `m_SiteEnabledIdx > 0' failed.

==========[CRASH DUMP]==========
Please send this to support:

# TIME Wed Mar  6 10:36:48 2019 - Uptime 00:00:00 (hh:mm:ss)
# PROGRAM_NAME DaVinci Resolve v15.2.4.006 (Linux/Clang)

/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x467c199]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x18b0893]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0x110e0) [0x7f72800a90e0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(gsignal+0xcf) [0x7f727e11afff]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(abort+0x16a) [0x7f727e11c42a]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x2be67) [0x7f727e113e67]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x2bf12) [0x7f727e113f12]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189ddf0]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189c5c6]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189be98]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x1d58051]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x1d57dc4]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x18af69e]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x1897944]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf1) [0x7f727e1082e1]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189679d]
Signal Number = 6

================================
resolve: AppConfig.cpp:171: void AppConfig::LoadAllSiteInfo(): Assertion `m_SiteEnabledIdx > 0' failed.

==========[CRASH DUMP]==========
Please send this to support:

# TIME Wed Mar  6 10:36:48 2019 - Uptime 00:00:00 (hh:mm:ss)
# PROGRAM_NAME DaVinci Resolve v15.2.4.006 (Linux/Clang)

/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x467c199]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x18b0893]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0x110e0) [0x7f72800a90e0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(gsignal+0xcf) [0x7f727e11afff]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(abort+0x16a) [0x7f727e11c42a]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x2be67) [0x7f727e113e67]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x2bf12) [0x7f727e113f12]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189ddf0]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189c5c6]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189be98]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x18d0e0d]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x18b0ade]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0(+0x110e0) [0x7f72800a90e0]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(gsignal+0xcf) [0x7f727e11afff]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(abort+0x16a) [0x7f727e11c42a]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x2be67) [0x7f727e113e67]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x2bf12) [0x7f727e113f12]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189ddf0]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189c5c6]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189be98]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x1d58051]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x1d57dc4]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x18af69e]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x1897944]
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf1) [0x7f727e1082e1]
/opt/resolve/bin/resolve() [0x189679d]
Signal Number = 6

================================
Aborted

If you're running on Nvidia graphics card, you need non-free nvidia drivers (not noveau drivers), e.g.:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-450

Reboot system and check dkms
$ sudo dkms status
nvidia, 450.80.02, 5.4.0-51-generic, x86_64: installed


Differences Tamron f/2.8 28-75 / 24-70 I'd like to buy one of those two lenses for filming with a EOS 600D:

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical [IF] MACRO
Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD

I am aware of the following differencies of the two lenses.

Advantages 28-75mm:

Some websites claim this lense to be parfocal, which might be interesting for filming.
It's lighter (510g vs 825g)
Slightly lower minimum object distance (33 vs 38cm)
It costs less than half of the 24-70

Advantages 24-70mm:

Vibration compensation (which I always switch off during filming)
USD motor (which doesn't seem to be important for filming)

From that the 28-75 clearly seems to be the better choice.

Is there anything I am missing? Are there any other points to consider?

Yes, there is a lot you are missing.

The 24-70 has substantially better transmittance (more light makes it through the lens), slightly better sharpness, significantly less chromatic aberration, 2 more diaphragm blades (better, more round bokeh), full time manual focus (can auto-focus at the start of a shot but still adjust after starting shooting).

Also, image stabilization can be very helpful when shooting video.  If you are on a tripod you shouldn't, but if you are shooting free-hand, it is a good thing unless you need quick, lag free panning (which would be a problem due to your rolling shutter on a 600d anyway).

While I don't recommend putting too much stock in the overall score that DXoMark produces, there individual discreet stat comparisons are generally reasonably good.  You can find the comparison for these two lenses on the 700D listed here.  (Sadly, they did not have data for the 600D specifically.)


Making a Digital clock with a specific time for Sony Vegas Platinum 12 I'm using Vegas Platinum 12 and I want to create a time code in a video.  But here is the catch.  I want to start the clock at a specific time and have the count start at that time, i.e 05:21:34 or 21:01:19, etc...  Does anyone know how to do that?

It is feasible in Vegas Pro using Vegasaur's Text Wizard, but your problem is that "Vegas Platinum 12" is not Vegas Pro, it is consumer-level Movie Studio Platinum 12.


Why does Canon 600D/T3i video quality drop dramatically once it's recorded — in comparison to what I see in Live-View w/ Digital Zoom? I have a low-light situation with a lot of small details and diagonal lines. When I look at the scene with digital zoom in Live View mode I see some grain but I see all the details and can clearly read the small print. Once I record the same scene in 1080p (I also tried to increase the bitrate with ML firmware) everything gets blurry, aberrations pop up (green/blue flickering edges), lines get broken, and it looks like upscaled 480p.

Why does this quality drop happens and is there a way to minimize it if not get rid of it?

I'm not sure what quality drop in the video you're referring to, but the video quality will never be as good as the image you see in the Live View of your camera due to the way it works.

Here's how Canon describes the Live View mode:

  When the camera is in [Live View] mode the reflex mirror is in the  up
  position, blocking the normal pentaprism viewfinder.  Instead, the
  image is projected through the lens and  directly onto the sensor,
  which in turn displays the image  on the rear LCD panel.

Source

So the Live View basically shows you the image that reaches the lense, taking focus and depth-of-field into account. It isn't actually a preview of your video recording quality.

Here's what you can capture with your camera:

RAW pictures. While normal low- to mid-end cameras usually only capture compressed images such as .jpg-files, the RAW format contains all information captured by the lens. This is why you can fully adjust settings such as exposure, white balance, temperature and tint in post-editing. No compression is happening between the information captured by the camera (lens) and the saved file.
Compressed pictures such as .jpg-files. The information captured by the camera is compressed into a pixel-based image using your current white balance and exposure setting to calculate the pixels color values. Canon cameras can generate compressed pixel-images with a high pixel count (for example, the maximum resolution of the Canon 600D camera is 5184x3456, about 18 megapixels). So there is some compression.
Video. Video capture quality is limited by the cameras image processing speed and, to a lesser extent, by the writing speed of your SD card. The camera can't possibly capture about 25 images per second (assuming 25fps) in a resolution as high as that of single images. The maximum video resolution of most Canon DSLR-cameras is Full HD, i.e. 1920x1080. So you have a much lower pixel-resolution, therefore there is much compression.

The Live View shows you the information captured by the lens on the (obviously pixel-based) LED monitor, so its quality is somewhere between the RAW-and JPG-qualiy. This is why you notice a quality difference between your Live View and the captured video.

There are professional video cameras that can capture RAW-video (e.g. Alexa cameras which capture ARRI-video), but they cost several thousand euro.

How to get rid of it

If you are seeing grain and artifacts because you're filming in a low-light situation, use better lighting. If you want a dark scene, do it in post-production.


"A Must have" ND filter stops for filming with Canon 5D Mk2? The question is - which stops (ND 0.6, ND 0.9.....) are the most frequently used?
I am currently choosing Tiffen ones and since there are plenty of different stops to choose from and I have nearly no experience in using ND filters  - your suggestions would be highly apreciated

There is no "most used".  You use whatever is appropriate for the exposure conditions you have and the desired aperture and shutter speed (and ISO, though turning down ISO is almost always better than using an ND filter if it is an option).  The more light you have, the more wide open the aperture and the slower the shutter speed, the heavier the weight of the ND filter you need.


deinterlace on the fly with an external recorder Is anyone aware of an external recorder that can deinterlace on the fly? I know that the Shogun can downconvert 4k to 1080p so that you retain more sharpness, and the Pix devices can also do similar things as well as changing framerates and removing pulldowns.

The Blackmagic Design Tenarex 2D will convert a signal from interlaced to progressive on the fly: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/teranex/processing

It doesn't record, but there are very inexpensive recording devices that will take a progressive signal and give you a digital asset from that (such as the HyperDeck Shuttle: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/hyperdeckshuttle)


Matroska format's framerate is not accurate with certain values If the Matroska format is used, in certain framerates it doesn't record at exact input framerate, but rather at a little higher than the input framerate.

As an example:

ffmpeg -video_size 1920x1080 -f x11grab -framerate 30 -i :0.0 -c:v libx264rgb -crf 0 -preset ultrafast video.mkv

doesn't generate a recording at 30fps, but rather at 30.0003fps.

This is not good, because even a slight change in input framerate can cause major frame stutter. Unless ffmpeg is speeding up the stream by 1.00001x, which I don't think so when using x11grab.

To prove this, VLC can be used for checking the frame rate.

Is there any way to force exactly 30fps, or is this a format flaw?

Also, uname -a:

Linux linux 4.1.15-rt17-1-rt-fixedtimers #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Sat Jan 16 01:14:52 GMT+5 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

MKV does not store a frame rate in its container. So ffmpeg/vlc looks at the default duration of a frame instead. It sees 33.333ms and does the math, which is where your weird number comes from.

For more information, see: https://gitlab.com/mbunkus/mkvtoolnix/wikis/Wrong-frame-rate-displayed

To test this out, you can run ffprobe with -show_frames. I think you'll find the presentation times for each frame are spot on.


Improve performance on 4 x 4K mosaic with FFmpeg I'm using a NVIDIA Quadro P4000 and my config is Intel i7 2.4 GHz with 8 Go of RAM. I'm working on Ubuntu 16.04, I've installed NVIDIA drivers using apt repo aswell as CUDA. I'm using FFmpeg in version 3.3.

I've managed to display a mosaic of 4 x 4K videos (same videos for test purpose) with FFmpeg, using hardware acceleration (previous post), using this command line :

ffmpeg \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-filter_complex "nullsrc=size=2560x1440 [base]; \
[0:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [upperleft]; \
[1:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [upperright]; \
[2:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [lowerleft]; \
[3:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [lowerright]; \
[base][upperleft] overlay=shortest=1:eval=init [tmp1]; \
[tmp1][upperright] overlay=shortest=1:eval=init:x=1280 [tmp2]; \
[tmp2][lowerleft] overlay=shortest=1:eval=init:y=720 [tmp3]; \
[tmp3][lowerright] overlay=shortest=1:eval=init:x=1280:y=720, hwupload_cuda" \
-c:v h264_nvenc -preset llhp -profile:v baseline -f matroska pipe:1 | ffplay -i -

Now my issue is about performance, videos are played at 80% of their original speed, so close to my goal...

As I understand from now, this manipulation has several steps :

The four videos are decoded by the GPU.
Scaling to 720p is also performed by the GPU.
The four flux are downloaded in the CPU and formated in NV12.
Mosaic is made by the CPU using overlay filter.
Mosaic video flux is uploaded in the GPU.
The GPU encodes it in H.264.

After this I'm not sure if the encoded video is retrieved by the CPU and then piped to ffplay or if it's stays in the GPU and directly displayed on the monitor.

Moreover, I'd like ffplay to use hardware acceleration but I didn't manage to force it to use h264_cuvid.

The problem was about the overlay filter which is too slow. I've changed for a combination of hstack and vstack as you can see here :

ffmpeg \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-hwaccel cuvid -c:v h264_cuvid -i bbb_sunflower_2160p_30fps_normal.mp4 \
-filter_complex " \
[0:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [upperleft]; \
[1:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [upperright]; \
[2:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [lowerleft]; \
[3:v] scale_npp=1280:720, hwdownload, format=nv12 [lowerright]; \
[upperleft][upperright] hstack [upperline]; \
[lowerleft][lowerright] hstack [lowerline]; \
[upperline][lowerline] vstack [mosaic]; \
[mosaic] hwupload_cuda" \
-c:v h264_nvenc -preset llhp -profile:v baseline -f matroska pipe:1 | ffplay -i -

It works very well and I even can build a 1080p mosaic using lossless preset and high444p profile.


How to line up two audio tracks in Premiere Pro? I understand that I'm down to the frame size on the timeline scale but I need to line these up, otherwise it sounds completely ridiculous. I can't move the two closer together since one overshoots the line-up.

What is the best "bandaid" fix for now?
How can I avoid this problem later? I record audio on two different mics, I need to be able to perfectly line them up.

Audio in Premiere can be aligned by analysing two or more audio files and automatically comparing for similarity.

For the audio recorded on separate microphones, select both clips, right-click and select 'Synchronise'. Select 'Audio' as a synchronize point and press OK.

You can use the Source editor to fine-tune the in and out points to remove any silence before and after the microphone recording.

This feature can be extremely useful for aligning multi-cam footage.


How to compress videos for a website? I want to start a website in which there are some videos. When I searched Google regarding this video website I came to know that for the proper working of the videos we should compress the videos. When I searched further I came to know about bitrate, codec etc etc which I didn't understand.

How to compress the videos for website? How YouTube compresses videos? What are the technologies do we need to know to compress a video? What kind of people do I need to hire to compress videos?

I recommend not to host the video files on your web server, but to upload them to YouTube and only embed the YouTube link on your web page. You can even define that your videos won't show up on searches, but are only served when using the link (from your website).

The reason is that these videos add significant load to your web server and bandwidth. And if something goes wrong (like providing the wrong codec), then your users won't see any video at all.

But if you really want to do it, you can even take YouTube as measurement. Upload an HD video and then download the various videos that YouTube has generated from that source.

I use this tool, but there may be others for different browsers:

Downloader as Firefox plugin

You will see that YouTube offers a combination of different resolutions and different codecs. There is quite a complex logic behind which files to serve to which browsers. For ex. a small resolution will be served to mobile phones, but a bigger one to desktops depending on their screen resolution. Older browsers may need one codec, whereas modern ones accept others. YouTube does all that logic for you. But if you want to host the videos by yourself, you have to implement that logic as well.

You need then a tool like ffmpeg to convert your videos to these different formats and resolutions. Or, if you are lazy, just use the videos that you downloaded from YouTube, since they have the formats that you want.

Finally, you have to embed these videos on your web page. Here's the HTML video tag that you have to use. It's the new HTML5 standard, so older browsers don't support it.

As you have seen, these steps may mean a lot of work. That's why uploading to YouTube and embedding that link to your web page is the better choice.

Sorry that I didn't cover these steps in detail. This is just an overview.


Does the MP4 HTML5 compatible video type allow for mono audio? I'm doing some rendering in Vegas Pro and notice that if I select MainConcept (which gives me an HTML5 compatible MP4) the audio tab only has options for the bit rate and the sample rate. Before rendering, I combined both left and right channels on the timeline, but once rendered, the video file has two audio channels.

This is normally not a problem, but in this case, the audio is only voice and I'm concerned about file size, so if I could render with a mono channel, I would be able to get a higher bit rate for audio quality, but keep the file size small.

What Vegas is doing is taking the single channel audio from the timeline, duplicating it, setting a left and right channel, then cuts the set bitrate in half for each channel. So if I want 96kbps mono, I actually end up with  stereo, 48kbps on each channel.

Is this an inherent issue with MainConcept file types? I notice that with others I can actually select mono in the audio tab, but not with MainConcept. I thought I read a short half sentence saying as much on some forum, but not sure.

If there is a way to have an HTML5 compatible MP4 with mono audio, please tell me how.

The Mainconcept or Sony codecs in Vegas are subpar for low-bitrate output such as needed for HTML5 use. Use ffmpeg to generate your HTML5 videos. Yes, mono audio is acceptable for HTML5 use, but once you use ffmpeg/x264 for generating those videos, the 6kB/s savings you get from switching to mono audio won't matter much if at all.

Get the 32-bit static build of ffmpeg from here. Render a high bitrate Mainconcept MP4 from Vegas, say, 12 Mbps. And then run the following ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i "vegas-output.mp4" -crf 23 -c:a aac -b:a 96k -strict -2 -movflags +faststart "html5-video.mp4"

If you still want mono audio, insert

-ac 1

after aac.

If you don't like the quality or size is too large, then play around with the CRF value. They go from 0 to 63 with lower being better. 18 to 28 is the usual range you want to stick with.


How do I replace my organisation's event video camera? The Camera

My organisation has a Panasonic HC-V700 for event video.  The video end product consists entirely of a single person standing at a lectern and is published on YouTube.  I usually set up the camera by mounting it on a tripod, manually focussing on the subject, connecting the audio, turning on record at the start of the event, and stopping the record at the end of the event.

I would like to replace this with the Canon EOS Rebel T5i which was purchased by the event organiser for stills, along with EFS 55-250 mm lens.

Audio

Audio is supplied via line feed.  I use a mixer and headphones to check the levels before feeding the audio to the camera.

Venue

The venue is indoors, and lighting is usually poor.
The camera is usually located at the back of the room, and is in a fixed position, and no zooming is required.

The Questions

Will this replacement camera deliver a better result?
What configuration does it need to do the job?

Firstly, that camera has a 29 minute 59 second recording limit. If your speaker goes for longer than this it may not be suitable. Apparently this is due to some countries charging higher import duties for video cameras, but if it records less than 30 minutes it's not classed as a video camera. Yeah, I know.

The DSLR will probably cope better with low light due to its larger sensor, and it will give you a shallower depth of field, meaning that you can get a blurry background and sharp foreground, which has a more cinematic feel. Of course if you want the background to be sharp this may not be such a good thing, and it also means you will also have to be more careful about focus.

If you're filming from a long distance you might want to see which camera has the better zoom. At least with the t51 you can buy a longer lens.

Audio on that camera should be fine, you might want to make sure the level is set to manual, otherwise it will turn the volume up everytime the speaker pauses.

As for settings, that depends on how you want to shoot. You could set it to full auto and let it drive, or you could go full manual so that you're in control, or you could use something in between. The aperture and ISO etc. will depend on the light levels in the room, and how much depth of field you want.


Automatic video stop on SDCX class 10 card I' ve been recording clips with a Canon 80D and a Lexxar Profesional x633 SDXC card 64 GB class 10, 95 MB/s max read speed. Video format was MOV at 1080p, 25 fps.

I never had a problem for almost a year with 80D and two years using this Lexxar SD card. But yesterday I just took my cam, (which was off and cool) tried to film, immediately saw the low recording speed bar adviser, and video stopped automatically. Same happened once and again.

Is my card is losing performance due to intense use? Or might the issue be related to used storage (around 75% of SD total was filled, mostly with cr2 raw photo files and JPEGs, at moment of filming).

I don't know if it makes any difference, but battery charge was at its half. Video stopped just some seconds after start, so file size issues are out of debate.

You could try a new card. Could be the issue. My guess it's the camera and the heatsink on the sensor.

Try a different card first to see if that solves it. Card's can go bad. But with the Canon line (and all DSLR cameras really) do have issues with overheating- especially as they age.

If a new card doesnt fix it, you can try to service the camera, perhaps it just needs a good blow out/dusting of the heatsink.

Canon, Sony, Nikon, most models have had some sort of issue at higher resolution video/frame rates with heat issues, and as the cameras age the cameras don't behave as well as when they were new.


Adobe Media Encoder included in After Effects Licence? I currently have an anctive creative cloud licence, but I'm looking to slim down for a while. I actually only need After Effects and the Media Encoder at the moment.

Is the Adobe media encoder included in the single After effects licence? Unfortunately I was unable to find that out on the Adobe support pages. Thanks!

Yes it is. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to encode things, and that would be just dumb. Even though it happens a bit under the hood, all encodings from Premiere Pro and After Effects are handled by Media Encoder. When you install Premiere Pro or After Effects, Media Encoder always gets installed alongside it.


How to extract text from video In youtube there are videos which includes texts. For example,

            . This video consists of texts, I was wondering if it is possible to get all those texts into a doc or text file. Is there any such program or online service available?

Automated text extraction from video is still an emerging technology.

There is a Microsoft public preview of Azure Media OCR that will attempt optical character recognition at a configurable sampling rate. Using this tool requires programming knowledge.

Another option is an open source proof of concept from a research paper, LOOV. You will need to compile this from source.

This post describes a workflow for automatically extracting screenshots to stills and then running OCR on the stills. You could probably adapt this workflow to other tools besides what are described in the post.


Animating paths in After Effects I have an illustration that I would like to animate in AE. Not sure how to do this however. I have three paths (simple lines) I made in illustrator with the pen tool, then used to width tool to thicken at one point and taper at the end (they're tentacles!). Anyway, I just want to animate the tentacles so they squirm and writhe around. So far all I've been able to do is use the usual transform properties, but those aren't very dynamic or useful for this project. How do I go upon doing this in AE?
Screenshot of illustration.

Probably the most dynamic and full control option would be to use taper stroke in after effects - just redraw the path and apply taper like here - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jFBKMRncG80/maxresdefault.jpg
then you have a multitude of options to displace them (like wave warp, mesh warp, wiggle-shear, or even map the end points to nulls and use wiggle position).
Tapered stroke is only available in CC 2020 and 2021 if I remember correct.
Another option would be to expand shapes in AI and copy path into AE which you can then animate later, but it would be more time consuming.


Which software to batch join videos and add a chapter for each? I have 55 short clips (<1min) that have the same characteristics (only the content and length change) and I want to combine them into one big chaptered video.
I know with QTPro how to combine 2 videos and how to add chapters to 1 file.
Now I need a Mac OS X tool that's gonna do it automagically.

P.S. I ask here cause I know many Mac users are video professionals, if it doesnt't fit though I'll ask on apple.stackexchange.

Ever since the fall of Visual Hub, there have been several generations of programs that have taken up the sourcecode and tried to remake the magic.  Visual Hub was awesome at stitching files together, sad it no longer works.  Film Redux was a fork of VisualHub, but has since been abandoned also. You can still download FilmRedux for free, however I can't get it to process any of my files. It may just be a configuration issue on my machine, you may have better luck.

Your Mac should have come with iMovie, otherwise it's at the Mac App Store for $15.  I found this comprehensive guide to iMove '09 and the section on markers is still relevant to iMovie '11.  The drawback is you'll have to add them manually, but that shouldn't be too much trouble.


Add two images before a mp4 and one in the end with ffmpeg I'm trying to make an operation using FFmpeg with just one command to leave the output as lossless as possible.

My intention is to add two images, 5 seconds each, before the mp4 file, add a fade in to the first one of 1 second and add a third image after the video during 5 seconds.

Is it possible to do this on one pass?

I found some bits of code, namely:

ffmpeg -r 25 -loop 1 -t 5 -i "image" -i "video" -f lavfi -t 5 -i aevalsrc=0 \
   -filter_complex "[0:v] [2:a] [1:v] [1:a] concat=n=2:v=1:a=1 [v] [a]" \
   -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict -2 -map "[v]" -map "[a]" output.mp4

and

ffmpeg -i clip.mp4 -vf "fade=in:0:25" -acodec copy clip-out.mp4

But I'm not being able to use them together and I don't know if all those commands are really necessary. Any thoughts?

Make videos from images:

ffmpeg -loop 1 -framerate 24 -t 5 -i image0.png -loop 1 -framerate 24 -t 5 -i image1.jpg -loop 1 -framerate 24 -t 5 -i image2.jpg -f lavfi -i anullsrc=cl=stereo:r=44100 -filter_complex "[0]fade=t=in:duration=1,format=yuv420p[v0];[1]format=yuv420p[v1];[2]format=yuv420p[v2]" -map "[v0]" -map 3 -shortest pre1.mp4 -map "[v1]" -map 3 -shortest pre2.mp4 -map "[v2]" -map 3 -shortest post.mp4

Note that the frame rate, width, height, aspect ratio, pixel format, H.264 profile, timebase, audio channel layout, audio sample rate, stream types, and number of streams of these videos match that of the main video.

Make input.txt:

file 'pre1.mp4'
file 'pre2.mp4'
file 'main.mp4'
file 'post.mp4'

Concatenate with concat demuxer:

ffmpeg -f concat -i input.txt -c copy -movflags +faststart output.mp4


Is there a video type for vector animation? Is there a vector-based video type, preferably open-source, so that an animated clip could be produced using "rules" instead of pixel-compression?

This would mean lossless resolution-independent video. If it does exist - a link to the specifications would be helpful.

There was one, but it fell in to disuse and isn't used very often anymore, largely because of the lack of mobile support, but also due to security issues it created.  It was called Flash.


Problems with lower thirds I have a .mov file that has a black background but it’s not transparent. How do I change this file to make the black background transparent. Do I change the file in my editing software? If so how? I am using Adobe Premier Pro 2020.

Assuming that your video file does not have an alpha channel (an extra channel of information in the video file that defines which bits of the video should be transparent):

Place the text .mov on a layer in your sequence
Select the clip
Go to the Effect Controls for that clip
Under the "opacity" heading, set the Blend Mode to Screen.

Anything black should now be transparent.

If you think your file does have an alpha channel, check that the alpha is set correctly in Premiere:

Right click on your clip in your project
Choose Modify --> Interpret Footage
Make sure the Alpha settings are set as shown:


Streaming Compression Math Using 4:2:2, the data rate and compression are:
4k -- 11.88 Gb/s -- 339.4x
HD -- 2.38 Gb/s -- 237.6x

Assuming 4:2:0 for both, Netflix and Stadia use the same compression for HD.
To use the same compression for 4K, Stadia would require 50 Mb/s.

Netflix probably streams using pre-compressed video files. They were probably compressed using HEVC.

According to Vimeo, for live streaming they use something called key frames which are fully loaded, and delta frames which are predicted algorithmically. This can be done using HEVC.

If Stadia uses a key frame every 3 seconds for 1080p,
then the bandwidth requirement is 9.9 Mb/s (which is close to 10 Mb/s).

And if it uses a key frame every 4 seconds for 4K,
then the bandwidth requirement is 37.125 Mb/s (which is closer to 35 Mb/s than to 40 Mb/s).
(If it were every 3 seconds, it would have been 49.5 Mb/s - close to 50 Mb/s - 1 TB cap in less than 45 hrs.)

So, for HD, it is predicting 179 frames, and for 4K, it is predicting about 239 frames.

Could they really be predicting this much?

I believe the definition of “predicted” you are using does not match how the term is used in video compression. A “predicted” frame is just a frame that can be reconstructed using information from previous frames, along with some additional data. The frames are not zero sized, but that are smaller than key frames. You can have as many predicted frames in a row as you want. A key frame is usually periodically sent because of error propagation. If there is a transmission error and the video becomes corrupt, a key frame can fix it.

Also keyframe interval and bitrate have a slight correlation, but they are independent variables and not much information can be assumed about one given the other.


Upper half shows one video track, lower half shows another On each of my first two video tracks (V1 and V2), I have a simple PNG image. Both of them have motion effects (position and scale).

I want the upper half of the output video to show V1 and the lower half to show V2. How do I do this?

I've tried crop but this doesn't work, because the crop "moves along" with the image. I've also tried mask but I run into the same trouble.

The easiest way is to use nested timelines.  Make each source timeline the appropriate size for the half it is on.  Apply the motion within the nested timelines.  Then place the nested timelines on the top and bottom of your final timeline.

I use this technique regularly in both Premiere and After Effects when I need to combine multiple elements into a layer than I then want to manipulate as a whole.  In After Effects, adjustment layers are also an option, but I often need to treat the same sub-asset in different ways in different finished videos (working on lower thirds generally), so the nesting approach makes more sense for me.


Multi-Cam View Disappeared from Premiere CC I'm relatively new to Premiere CC, and very new to multi-cam editing. Half an hour ago the "multi-camera" view disappeared. That's the view that shows my 2 camera angles, side by side, and one of them is bordered in yellow. It should be to the left of my "composite" image on the top-right, but now there's just a black rectangle.

The footage I'm editing IS a multi-camera sequence.  I DO have "Multi-Camera" selected as the view.

So any ideas how I get it back?

Never mind, I figured it out. Look at the timeline in the picture in my original question. Next to the multi-camera track, the "V1" is not selected. I selected that, and the multi-camera view came back. (I thought the "V1" just indicated which track a clip would be pasted to! Guess not.)


how to automate interviews I have many short interviews (50). All are shot same condition and the same settings of cam.

My question is does DaVinci Resolve have some sort of templating, scripting to automatically apply my lut, prepend intro clip, then append ending clip, and export?

Resolve supports scripting with Python, though you’ll need to write your own script. Fusion, included with Resolve, supports scripting with both Python and Lua. There aren’t really templates, per se, but you could probably hack something together by saving a fusion composition as your template and driving the file selection with scripts. I don’t think the render queue is very well supported by the scripting API though, there’s a steep learning curve, and not a lot of documentation.  If you’re just bookending a list of trimmed interviews with static, boilerplate intro/outro, FFMPEG would be more direct.  But yes, it would be possible.
edit Feb 2010
Resolve 17 Beta has added some features which make this process easier, including the ability to execute scripts on render completion, and Fusion Effects templates for the Edit page.


Active Presenter, Muting Single Layer I'm using active presenter, and I'm trying to mute the audio on an mp4 file I imported, while keeping the mp3 file on another layer playing. But it's seeming that whenever I click properties on the item and go to mute the sound of the video file, it mutes every library file. Including the Mp3 I imported on another layer. And if I turn it back on in the MP3's properties, despite it listing the correct name of the item, it turns it back on for the MP4 file. How can I mute one file while another keeps playing? There's no separate layers for audio/video when I imported the Mp4, otherwise I'd have just deleted it that way. Thanks.

Maybe you have changed the system playback volume by clicking the sound icon in the Properties pane.

You can change the volume of (and mute) any layer or range by using the Adjust Volume tool in Timeline as shown in below image.


What is the current status of rolling-shutter-free CMOS sensors on the market? It is now common to have CMOS pixel matrices inside DSLRs and video cameras. However, when acquiring movies, these sensors suffer from artifacts known as rolling shutter effect, since they are due to the electronic rolling shutter (but surprisingly, CCDs with electronic rolling shutters did not create those artifacts, which gives me hope that there is a hardware solution).

I've read on the web recently (in reports from CMOS lab meetings) that rolling-shutter-free CMOS sensors were now available, and I have also noticed that the "jelly" effect was reduced on recent cameras, but I couldn't find precise information.

Hence, I was wondering if someone knew the current status of global shutter CMOS sensors for the market ? Are they still in the research labs, or embedded in high end devices, coming soon... ?

OK, answering my own question. Sony recently announced a 4K CMOS sensor with an electronic global shutter, see this blog post and the references inside.

So, the status seems to be: reaching the higher end of the market right now (Nov. 2012), the technology does exist. We still have to wait a few years before seeing these global shutters in lower tiers though.