Is it possible to have an image be picture-in-picture and just tell FCPX to keep it at its original size? By default, when I drop an image into the timeline, it fills the full width of the video. Which I don't want. Is it possible to say, "adjust yourself to your actual size"? And if so, how?

By "actual size" I suppose you want to conform your footage pixel to pixel instead of frame to frame. For this you will need to change Spatial Conform to None in the inspector.

The new default behavior in FCP is to scale your footage to either "fit" or "fill" the project's frame, the difference being only relevant when your footage doesn't have the same aspect as the project's. This conforming defines the actual 100% Scale in the Transform panel. So make sure the scale is also set to 100%.

You can find more information about Spatial Conform in it's documentation.


Configure FreeStyler to work with DMXking ultraDMX RDM Pro/Micro I have a USB DMX product called DMXking ultraDMX RDM Pro (I've also tried the DMXking ultraDMX Micro, same issue) and I'm using the free software FreeStyler and trying to figure out how to get it to work. These products are for controlling DMX light fixtures.

Select either DMXking USB DMX512-A or Enttec Pro. Do not choose ultraDMX Pro unless you are actually using this device. Also make sure you've selected the right COM port, plus make sure the latest driver from FTDI Chip is installed (FTDI Drivers). A good practice is to use the ultraDMX Configuration Utility to help locate this if necessary. Sometimes FreeStyler gives an error message during device selection, just restart it.


How can I mark or tag spots in a video clip during a live recording A couple of years ago I reacll seeing something on a crowd funding platform.  It was a way to 'tag' or 'mark' a portion of a video during live recording. i.e. if you just had a sports play that you wanted to find, you could just "click the button" to mark it.  Then, later on, you could have the computer s/w search for the marks.  it seemed like it would be useful for sports recording.  Has anyone seen something like this?

Thanks for your help.

Mark

The answer to this largely depends on your budget and use case. If you are a TV network, especially a sports-centric network, many media asset management (MAM) systems add the logging capability on top of their existing search, organization, and workflow pieces. For example, Dalet has Sports Logger.


How to encode a video at 30 FPS from images taken at 7 FPS I have no knowledge whatsoever about video encoding, I have an application written in OpenGL and I am saving the frames it generated into png images. The frames from my app are at 7 FPS and I am trying to create a video from those.

To that purpose I use ffmpeg like this

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -i img%03d.png -c:v libx264 -r 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p out.mp4

which was taken from this site, however I was wondering if it is possible to have a video that shows the animation at 30 FPS?

Image inputs
Default frame rate for image inputs is 25. You can change it with the -framerate input option. Example for 24 fps:
ffmpeg -framerate 24 -i input_%03d.jpg -vf format=yuv420p output.mp4

-vf format=yuv420p (or the legacy alias -pix_fmt yuv420p) will ensure compatible chroma subsampling for MP4. Otherwise, ffmpeg will try to preserve color fidelity, but most players can't handle advanced chroma subsampling.
The output will use the same frame rate as the input. So you do not need to set an output frame rate. But there are a few reasons to do so. See Using a different frame rate for image inputs and video output below.

Video inputs
Use the -r output option:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -r 25 output.mp4

Using a different frame rate for image inputs and video output
Why? For example, you may want all images to be displayed for 1 second each (1 fps). But most players can't play very low frame rates (about 6 fps or lower). So you can make ffmpeg use a different output frame rate. The output will look like 1 fps, but will actually be a normal frame rate, such as 25 fps.
Example: input images at 1 fps, but make the output 25 fps.
ffmpeg -framerate 1 -i input_%03d.png -r 25 output.mp4

Frames will be duplicated or dropped to match the desired output frame rate.
The image demuxer uses -framerate, while the output frame rate is set using -r.

Error: Option framerate not found
The -framerate option:

Is not a generic option. It doesn't work for everything.
Is only an input option.
Only works with certain demuxers (including: images, x11grab, rawvideo).
You probably only need to use the -r output option. See the Video inputs section above.


Improve video quality by lowering framerate I have recorded a short movie using GoPro camera 1080p / Wide / 60fps. The video is really blurry, despite the fact that it was a quite good weather outside (middle of the day, partially cloudly). Is it possible to make the video sharper by lowering the framerate? All I need is 25% of speed, so 15fps. I'm just wondering if some video editing software can use the information from skipped frames to improve the video quality.
Here is the sample frame: http://imgur.com/NZkogOT

Theoretically it IS possible, and there are working, practical, proof-of-concept research on the subject.
A couple of examples:

Learning to Extract Flawless Slow Motion from Blurry Videos
Blurry Video Frame Interpolation

The picture below is from the second paper.

However, as of this writing, I couldn't find any feasible-to-use, (commercial or otherwise) software to achieve that.
You could actually use the techniques above to apply it to your video, since they even offer the code on Github, but it would be a great effort, you'd need to basically build a video processing pipeline script/software for that.
It probably would also be somewhat computationally intensive (slow).


After Effects: Importing Illustrator sequence? I have 200 layers in Illustrator CS6. I have another set of the same layers but where basic attributes (position, scale) have changed.

Is there a way to import these two "states" into After Effects CS6 so that I end up with 200 layers animating from state 1 to state 2?

I have tried the following steps with 4 layers, and it seemed to work.

Name the file with the state 1 set, your-filename-1.ai and the file with the state 2 set your-filename-2.ai. Make sure they are in the same folder
Open After Effects, click File -> Import -> File... and click your-filename-1.ai. Make sure the checkmark is checked as shown below:

To keep all the individual layers, set Import As: to Composition.
 3. Now you will have a composition in your project panel named your-filename and a folder named your-filename Layers that contains all the layers.
 5. Now you can open the composition and check Frame Blending -> Frame Mix for every layer that you want to tween.
 6. Don't forget to enable frame blending. The image below shows how to do this:

Now you have an animation from state 1 to state 2. To change the animation playback speed you can use time-stretching on a layer-per-layer basis.


Can anybody please explain what camera settings (aparture, iso, wb, ss) have to do with visual/film grammar? I understand the film "grammar" of shot types, framing, composition etc but don't understand what camera settings have to do with it.
This is one of the assessment criteria for a university project,
Successful application of visual grammar through camera technique (including aperture, ISO, WB and shutter speed).
What sort of "visual grammar" applies to those camera settings? Focus, light, depth and so on are controllable but not really grammar. Maybe on dolly or steadicam shots, but that's outside of our basic (handheld/tripod) project.
Are the criteria just confusingly worded or am I missing something?

I'm not able to state a conclusive definition for "visual grammar", but I'd say camera settings have a quite relevant role on building it. Depth of field (aperture) is crucial for focusing on a subject; ISO may be used for obtaining a noisy image which can be used to say something (to look like an amateur, or a security camera, for instance); WB might be used for creating a specific environment (to look like morning, or some 70's tv imagery).
All these settings may have, therefore, a role on the way you tell a story. A good exercise would be to watch scenes you like and try to imagine the settings used, and why these were chosen.


Creating a freeze frame type effect purely in post It it possible to create a sort of pseudo freeze frame effect in post production on ordinary video or archival footage. For example, doing this in After Effects?

Yes it is. The idea is rather simple - you want to create a parallax effect.

Basically you take an object of interest in the foreground and roto/mask the object/person out.
You then duplicate that layer and reverse the mask for the background. At this point it should look exactly as it did at the beginning.
Now what you do is turn the layers into 3d objects. Position the background far away in 3d space, and scale it up so that it matches with the foreground layer as it did during Step 2.
Now create a camera and you can pan slightly and zoom to create the desired effect. Note that this may take some playing around, perhaps by scaling the background or the foreground layers more so that there is no clear 'space' between them.

If you want to do this with moving footage I would say it's probably not worth it as you'd have to do a lot of roto. But assuming you just want to do this with a freeze frame, it shouldn't take you that long.

Site note: usually what sells this effect is if you have something else moving really really slowly with the still frame grabs. Such as a 3d object you can manipulate in space. See this.


Is public manifest.mpd a issue? I have a public manifest.mpd file. Is it considered a security issue? It has something called cenc:pssh value so i am bit scared if its okay to be public or not?

pssh does not contain any private or secure content. In fact is specifically designed to be attributable.


Binding something to a moving object Many montages on youtube use some kind of binding things(text, images) to some moving objects. For example this guy uses binding on game character:

I made something similar in Sony Vegas but that looks like garbage even after all the keyframes I made to move the text synchronously to object. Is there any better way to make something similar and which program will do the best job here? What is the name of this effect and how to find(search for) it?

What you're looking for is Motion Tracking. There are a number of tools which have motion trackers in them - Apple's Motion, Adobe After Effects, and more. There are also 3rd party trackers like Mocha, Core Melt Track X, etc.

The workflow will differ depending on which tool you're using, so I can't really get into details here. But you should be able to find tutorials on YouTube and at the vendors' websites.


Increasing Overall Audio level I have a very short video of some classical guitar music, in Windows .wmv.  In order to listen I  must have the soundcard and speaker volume controls at the max.  (I have checked this on another computer to ensure it wasn't just me).  Can the general level of audio in a video recording be raised, while still maintaining a normalised signal.

Yes. You can use FFmpeg, a free command-line tool, like so:

ffmpeg -i video.wmv -c:v copy -af dynaudnorm out.wmv

dynaudnorm is a dynamic audio normalizer, which will maintain the original range dynamics and avoid clipping while applying the maximum gain possible given those constraints.


Reverse the blade tool (merge clips together) I'm trying to make a transition to Final Cut Pro X from iMovie. Although I'm finding it quite simple and I'm in love with the more advanced features such as how easy keying is, I seem to have a problem I'm not sure how to get around.

I want to be able to "undo" the blade tool, in effect merging clips together. How can I do this?

I'm aware of the compound clip feature, but that lacks the "I'm done here, move on" feeling I get from a clip that doesn't have a bunch of visible edits to it.

If that's a cut within the same clip, you can move the right edge of the first clip to the end of the second clip, to restore the formerly length.
If you want to combine different clips to make some pivotal changes or append centrical effects. You have to create a compound clip.
If it was a cut within one clip, you can simply undo it. But i hope you know that.

I dont' know what you mean with "I'm-done-here-move-on-feeling", but a typical project has hundreds and thousands cuts. That's absolutely normal.


How to reduce the size of video to 700 mb Please help me , I have copied some movies to laptop from dvd disk, but the size of movies are more than 2 gb. But the movies uploaded to torrents are only 700 mb with the same clarity. How to reduce the size of my videos with out affecting the quality. Which software I should use for this.

Ok one thing to note is the resolution of the video. Most 700mb torrents are not full HD. most are 720p or if they are 1080p they are in h.265

Assuming resolution is 1080p you can go from 2 gb to about 1gb without a huge drop in quality. The big issue becomes with the type of movie. Movies with a lower (smaller) color palette will degrade quicker because compression aims to make as many pixels nearby alike to lower the decoding time and storage space. It analyzes the video in varying block sizes and re-writes it.

H265 was made to take 40% less space as h.264 while keeping the same visual quality. The issue with h265 is the processing power required to encode it. I have a server I use to encode mine and it still takes a long time.

As for the way you would do it...

Use a video converter that allows you to control the bitrate. Adobe media encoder is a great option if you have it. For h264 you don't want to drop your bitrate below about 1-1.3gbps for the video. If you chose to go to h265 then you can drop the bitrate to about 600-700mbps and keep the same quality. all of this comes with trial and error.


4:3 video has 720x480 resolution I was trying to do some video editing and encoding. I have a so-called SD video that should supposedly be in 4:3 aspect ratio. But instead of 640x480, it is 720x480. Interestingly, when I play it with a media player, what I see is 640x480- it is not played as 720x480!

What is going on?! How could it be possible?

525/60 digitized SD video according to Rec. 601 is indeed 720 pixels wide, 480 pixels high, including some blanking on the sides. Digital equivalent of 625/50 is 720x576. In both cases, frame aspect ratio is 4:3, this simply means that the pixels are not square. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-1_(Sony)

To make matters more complex, only a subset of the frame has 4:3 proportions. I believe, only the 704x480 (for 525/60) and 704x576 (for 625/50) has 4:3 proportions. See discussion here: https://lurkertech.com/lg/video-systems/

So, 480 pixels are 10/11 in proportion, 576 pixels are 59/54 in proportion. Also see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio And do not forget, that both 480-line and 576-line formats can also be widescreen (16:9) yet having the same number of pixels per line! Plus, numbers like 59/54 are not easy to work with. All of this caused that for 576-line format pixel aspect ratio has been chosen as 12/11 for 4:3 screen aspect ratio, and as 16/11 for 16:9.

Square pixels became the norm starting from VGA video adapter I believe, and then from HD specs for 720-line and 1080-line video. By the way, there are some HD formats that record 1440x1080 or 960x720, yet having 16:9 frame aspect ratio, they also have non-square pixels. Square pixels are relatively recent development and should not be automatically expected.


Does the new Panasonic 4k LUMIX LX100 seem like a good entry-level 4k camera? http://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/2155-the-panasonic-4k-lx100-is-a-lot-of-camera-for-the-price?utm_source=www.lwks.com+subscribers&utm_campaign=42f49e8a2f-RSN_Nov07_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_079aaa3026-42f49e8a2f-77397533

The camera looks really good and it's really cheap for a 4k camera.  Unfortunately, it's a point and shoot so there's no hot shoe (or cold shoe) and no external mic jack.  Despite all this it still looks like a decent entry-level 4k camera.  I'm specifically interested in the focus and depth-of-field options.

I'm looking to buy a new camera for filmmaking sometime in the next year.  The camera that I originally was looking at is the Canon EOS Rebel SL1 with a 18-55mm and 55-250mm STM Lens, but this new camera has me interested.

When I was first looking for a good portable camera, the LX100 was on the top of the list. When looking at research, the LX100 provides great IQ (at 4k) in a good compact device for the price.

If you have not already looked at these sites, I would suggest looking up TheCameraStore review on YouTube, CameraLabs, Dpreview, and EOSHD.

LX100 does also have many limitation.

With a fixed lens system, your focal range is set to certain range. This may not be an issue initially, but can hamper longer term use of the camera.
Having a smaller camera brings up the issue ergonomics and vibrations during handling. In the efforts of compacting the size, there is no flippable screen.
If I remembered correctly, the LX100 has a clicky control ring. This may causes issues when your are trying to focus pull smoothly and cause background audio you will need to clean up.
All the other issues you mentioned about no mic jack and limited picture profiles can be all a concern. (I do believe it has a hotshoe, because it comes with a separate flash unit).
Shallow DOF, while great for a camera this size, will be less than the Rebel with APC sized sensor. With the lack of a tele range for your lens, this will compound the limitations.

My question for you; is 4k needed for your workflow? With the shift of displays going 4k, there is something to be said about future proofing your work. If you are just getting starting in videography, 4k maybe more trouble that its worth. If you want to output 4k content, you will needed a powerful computer for editing, 4k monitor, and good amount of storage.

If you need the 4k (and want the lowest price), LX100 is a great choice. If you have more flexibility in your budget, I would also suggest looking at the Samsung NX1 and the Panasonic GH4.


Can the VGA port of the laptop be used as input port? A few days ago I had a problem installing a video conferencing system, as I was unable to take the output of the codec display on a TV for some reasons. I was wondering could I have used the VGA port of the laptop as the display input just like that of a TV? If Yes how?

No, VGA ports on a laptop are output only.


What is the most lossless way to rip a laserdisc to a Mac? I want to rip a LD to my Mac as a digital video file. I will create a DVD from this file eventually, but I'm primarily interested in playing it on my laptop. What video output from the Laserdisc player would you use? And what hardware and software would you use to import to a Mac? What settings (image resolution, audio sample rate) would capture the best quality—without going over the top? (Clearly 4k would be overdoing it for the analog LD, but MPEG-2 might introduce compression artifacts that I don't want to see unless I make a DVD.)

An accepted answer will include:

Recommendation for video output from LD player
Recommended capture hardware
Recommended capture software
Recommended file format

A lot of these answers seem somewhat misleading unfortunately.

Forget about getting a capture card.  Practically every one has AGC.  AGC is very similar to macrovision, except it's superimposed onto any video source.  It's impossible to disable unless you use Linux and know your way around hacking drivers.  Some cards on Windows have third party tools to disable AGC, but the quality is extremely questionable and they all seem to use scaling and sub-sampling.

Think your best choice is finding an external device like a Panasonic DMR DVD recorder (these have a very decent comb filter).  If you could somehow find an external device with USB or firewire, I think this is your best bet.

I think 4:1:1 subsampling should be kept away.  I think 4:2:0 is actually better.  4:2:0 is most compatible and least problematic with transcoding and quality loss.  If you get a device with 4:2:0 chroma, make sure it oversamples before subsampling; these seem to give the least quality loss after subsampling, and might be considered transparent sometimes.

For a laserdisc player it's hard for me to answer.  You could stick with a player that doesn't split the composite or audio signal.  These will have a single composite and audio output, with no RF or additional svideo or second composite/audio outputs.  These also have missing features like digital still mode on CLV discs, and probably more common as very simplistic industrial players.  People may recommend something like the HLDX0 or similar, but these are very expensive and actually pass the composite video through various noise filtering and splitting stages; these players are so huge and expensive I think because splitting analog signals introduces immediate quality degradations, which these players supposedly avoid according to their owners.

Avoid scaling at all costs.  You'll get scaling artifacts immediately which isn't usually noticeable.  Instead of 4k output, you should stick with whatever native resolution your capture device uses (usually 720x480).  Let your software or hardware scale later, instead of the encoding and capturing.  Same thing with audio.  If you capture audio, make sure it's bit perfect digital stereo (LD calls for 44050khz according to wiki).  Analog audio should be captured at 192khz 32-bit float at least, and can be compressed later.

Laserdisc video is actually pure analog AFAICT.  RF is passed to a custom modulator and cut-off filters, which send the result to a TBC.  TBC produces the composite video which is an analog signal.  The composite signal can be routed directly to a composite video jack, but almost every player will split this into UHF, comb filter with svideo, and/or secondary composite output.  The only players that avoid that are like those I mentioned previously (LD-V4200 I believe is one, and with a strong signal, albeit with noise).

Laserdisc video quality is a love or hate thing IMO.  The quality is actually very high and with a high end system can be considered better along with its sound, vs DVD.  Only LD's that may seem inferior are widescreen, or those improperly mastered.  Quality is basically 425 TVL always with good chroma.  DVD by comparison is considered 525 TVL before MPEG2 compression.  Unfortunately MPEG2 reduces DVD video quality considerably, and the only advantage DVD has in this situation is a pure digital path with consistent quality (no analog difficulties like noise and interference).  MPEG2 reduces DVD TVL resolution to a variable of maybe 250 to 500 TVL lines at best with considerably less chroma by comparison.  Mpeg2 quality greatly varies depending on the movie, and the movie length unfortunately.  Only exceptions might be "Superbit" DVD releases which are very small in number.  See a DVD and downscaled HD-TV source for resolution and chroma comparison here: [url]http://www.cornbread.org/FOTRCompare/[/url]

I hope I may have been of some help.  I think your best bet may be an external device with firewire or usb.  AGC is the biggest problem you'll have to avoid, especially with computer capture devices (USB, PCI, PCI-e, etc).


Who owns raw footage? I am working at a Multimedia Production placement for my college course for a company that wants a promotional video. I shot about 4 hours of video.

They believe claim that I have no right to use the raw footage that I shot for anything (including my own portfolio) and that they have the right to full access of the raw & audio footage that I shot.

In order to avoid escalating the situation, I didn't say anything because right now, I am the sole holder of all the raw footage files.

They want to be able to use the footage I shot for their projects in the future and I doubt credit will be given to me for the footage.

Do I have the right to put a watermark on the footage before I give it to them?
Do they have the right to the raw footage, or ONLY the finished product which I am producing for them?

I signed a generic contract when I went into this placement, but the form mentioned nothing about media (as this is a hospital). So what is the default rule of thumb about the rights to this footage?

I am not sure if it makes a difference, but I am in Canada

I am not a lawyer, but I played one on TV.

If the contract wasn't specific then you might have some wiggle room. Typically contract law (varies by state) says that if the contract is unclear then it favors the person who didn't write it. So if they provided you an unclear contract it favors you when it isn't clear.

Unfortunately if they hired you to create the "work" of the footage, then it may be a "work for hire":

  A "work made for hire" is— (1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or (2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. (17 U.S.C. § 101)

Read up on work for hire, but generally speaking, unless the contract states otherwise, if you are hired / contracted to create something, the party paying you owns your work.

BTW, to be a work for hire doesn't mean they paid you cash. They could be paying you in work experience.


replace black frames with previous frames I have problematic footage from diving due to my camera/SD card - every 4th or so frame is just black, and I want to replace all those black frames with either an interpolation between the previous and next frame or just duplicate the previous frame.

I found this question "remove black frames from vob files with ffmpeg", but I don't want to cut out the frames but instead want to interpolate between the two frames or duplicate the previous frame.

I think I might be able to get all the relevant positions with the black-frame filters etc, but what kind of actions would I use to replace those frames with an interpolation or a duplicate of the previous frame in a fully automatic way (so I only pass my movie file into the script)?

All I've found so far is the "shuffleframes" method, which I could somehow (how?) feed with the position of the black frames and then thereby duplicate the previous frame.

Demo footage detailing the probem can be found here.

It's possible to have the black frames removed and earlier frames duplicated.

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf blackframe=0,metadata=select:key=lavfi.blackframe.pblack:value=50:function=less -vsync cfr -c:a copy out.mp4

The blackframe filter analyses and registers the proportion of a frame's pixels which are black. The metadata filter keeps all frames which have at most 50% of pixels black. The removed frames create a gap in the video stream. So by setting the video sync method to constant frame rate, ffmpeg duplicates earlier (non-black) frames to fill in those gaps.

You'll have to experiment with the metadata selection value 50 to get the right threshold.


Imported GoPro Hero4 time-lapse from bike ride does not sync with GPS data in VIRB Edit I have imported a time-lapse (1 frame/sec resolution) video from my GoPro Hero4 into VIRB Edit. It's from a 96 minute bike ride, which shows up as a 4 minute video.

When I import GPS/GPX data from my Garmin Fenix 5, it does not align with the video. It sees it as a 4 minute bike ride.  (VIRB Edit use this data to make route overlays on the video.)

How to make VIRB Edit properly recognize the video as a time-lapse? Or how do I "compress" the GPX so that it matches the video?

A way to solve this is to first losslessly change the frame rate of the GoPro video to 1 frame/sec, which changes it from 4 minutes to real time (96 minutes).

This answer explains how to extract the raw bitstream from the GoPro video using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -y -i gopro.mp4 -c copy -f h264 gopro_raw.h264

.. and then remux it with a 1 frame/sec frame rate:

ffmpeg -y -r 1 -i gopro_raw.h264 -c copy gopro_remuxed.mp4

Import the remuxed file into VIRB Edit [VE], add the GPX file and add some G-Metrix gauges.  Finally speed it up again in VE.

VE can only speed up 800%, so the video has to be re-imported* after the initial export.  Speed it up and export again to come back to the original 4 minute length.  Not ideal, but it works.

* I actually had to use iMovie in the second step, since VE kept crashing


FFmpeg video over video circular at specific time I cannot figure out how to add video over video circular at specific time

The following command

ffmpeg -y -i blank.mp4 -i yellow.mp4 -filter_complex "[1:v]scale=0.15*iw:-1,pad=iw+20:ih+20:10:10:color=red,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS+2/TB[v1];[0:0][v1]overlay=W-w-20:H-h-20:eof_action=pass:enable='between(t\,2,4)'[vo1]; [0:a]adelay=0|0[a0]; [1:a]adelay=2000|2000[a1];[a0][a1]amix=inputs=2[outa]" -map "[vo1]" -map "[outa]" -c:a aac -c:v libx264 -preset slow output.mp4

Return

That's great, but I need it circular like this

I'm trying with

ffmpeg -y -i blank.mp4 -i yellow.mp4 -filter_complex "[1:v]geq='st(3,pow(X-(W/2),2)+pow(Y-(H/2),2));if(lte(ld(3),pow(min(W/2,H/2),2)),255,0)':128:128,scale=0.15*iw:-1,pad=iw+20:ih+20:10:10:color=red,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS+2/TB[v1];[0:0][v1]overlay=W-w-20:H-h-20:eof_action=pass:enable='between(t\,2,4)'[vo1]; [0:a]adelay=0|0[a0]; [1:a]adelay=2000|2000[a1];[a0][a1]amix=inputs=2[outa]" -map "[vo1]" -map "[outa]" -c:a aac -c:v libx264 -preset slow output.mp4

The result is not what I expect.

To fast generate blank.mp4 and yellow.mp4 use

ffmpeg -y -f lavfi -i "color=black:s=1280x720:r=25" -f lavfi -i "anullsrc=r=44100:cl=stereo" -c:a aac -c:v libx264 -preset slow -t 5 blank.mp4
ffmpeg -y -f lavfi -i "color=yellow:s=1280x720:r=25" -f lavfi -i "anullsrc=r=44100:cl=stereo" -c:a aac -c:v libx264 -preset slow -t 2 yellow.mp4


Objective video quality assessment I'm trying to develop a tool that given a video (without a reference video), it can measure the quality. Basically given some thresholds, it assigns them a rating (I just need 4 classes 1-4). Since we don't have the original reference videos, I'm not looking for approaches using SSIM or PSNR or such. Possible options are using machine learning approaches.

Is there any available tool or package for that? If not, how can I implement one?

What you are looking for is called “no-reference quality assessment”. Google can give you specific examples.


Predict file size of a Huffyuv codec video stream I like to do many comparisons and check before picking a codec and selecting its settings.

Settings with HuffYUV are few but more importantly I'm having trouble determining video file sizes.

Given pixel width, height and pixel format, is it possible to predict a file size for a video encoded with the HuffYUV lossless codec?

I would like to prepare a simple converter to get an estimate of how much space it takes hours, minutes, seconds ;)

Which formula can I use? I'm OK even if you throw me out a complex model, I'm kinda a math guy.

ps: I know my english is poor and is also a bit late so if you good guys think this question could be edited in a better way feel free to do it ;D

The answer is No. Besides the frame dimensions, there's the matter of content complexity. Without scanning the video and doing a first-pass as it were, it's not possible to predict the output size. A video consisting of a slideshow of very simple text slides will be much easier to compress than scenes of busy city life..etc.

The closest you may come to making some sort of prediction is to encode a few representative segments from the source file and compare those bitrates. If there isn't a large difference among the bitrates of the various encoded segments, then you may assume a bitrate in that range for the final output. Of course, this method can't account for anomalous segments in the video of very high or low complexity compared to the rest of it, so sample selection is important.


FFmpeg/Avconv unable to copy subtitles; Unsupported codec? I've got an mp4 file with these streams (avconv -i file.mp4 or ffmpeg -i file.mp4):

Stream #0.0(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 125 kb/s (default)
Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0.2(eng): Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 1280x568, 4027 kb/s, PAR 1:1 DAR 160:71, 23.98 fps, 2997 tbn, 50 tbc (default)
Stream #0.3(eng): Subtitle: c608 / 0x38303663, 0 kb/s
Stream #0.4(und): Subtitle: text / 0x74786574
Stream #0.5: Video: mjpeg, yuvj420p, 667x1000 [PAR 72:72 DAR 667:1000], 90k tbn

I am trying to strip out the first audio stream from the file like so:

avconv -i file.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:0 -codec copy file-out.mp4

# OR #

ffmpeg -i file.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:0 -codec copy file-out.mp4

The problem is, I get this error:

Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Operation not permitted

So, I checked if something's wrong with the mp4 file itself:

avprobe file.mp4

# OR #

ffprobe file.mp4

And the output says:

Unsupported codec with id 0 for input stream 3
Unsupported codec with id 94213 for input stream 4

I have no idea what that means. (Apparently something's wrong with the subtitles, but I got the video from iTunes.)

What's wrong?
Can I simply force avconv/ffmpeg to do what I asked of it (i.e. strip the audio stream & copy the rest as it is)? If so, how?
Is there a better alternative for remuxing, that's command-line & actively developed?

Apparently I missed the other errors/warnings in the console output before the final error message, like @aergistal suggested:

[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 0 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 1 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 2 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 3 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] Codec for stream 4 does not use global headers but container format requires global headers
[mp4 @ 0x2645420] track 2: could not find tag, codec not currently supported in container

The fourth stream apparently is a CEA-608 subtitle stream, which during the days of analog television signal transmission was caption data embedded within the video data. Apparently FFmpeg can extract it but can't mux it to a new container.

As for stripping only the audio, MP4Box may be of help.


What’s the best way to use a Canon 60D as a webcam on MacOS? I want to use my Canon 60D as a webcam. I have tried using CameraLive2 and CamTwist as outlined here:

https://swizec.com/blog/connected-canon-dslr-webcam/swizec/7477

It seems to disconnect after a few seconds.

I’ve seen other methods that basically screen capture the output of the EOS Utility app, but this wastes a lot of screenspace and is quite hacky. Is there a better way just using software? I’d rather not buy an HDMI blackmagic adapter box if I don’t have to.

Can the magic lantern firmware help with this? I’ve updated to the latest Canon firmware on the 60D but it didn’t help.

From what I have found, using Canon 60D on Mac has the following challenges:

There's currently no listed EOS Webcam Utility for Canon 60D on Mac. There do seem to be some people succeeding with workarounds by installing drivers for similar Canon models (e.g. 77D) - but I was not successful.
--EDIT: As of 2020-11-11 there are now drivers available for 60D on Mac.
Using micro-hdmi and a USB capture card, after flashing my 60D with the latest Magic Lantern firmware I was able to get 'clean hdmi' output, but was only able to get 480p output (instead of the almost-1080p output that should be possible).

You could perhaps have more luck with https://github.com/v002/v002-Camera-Live or waiting until updated Webcam utility drivers are released that support the 60D.


Youtube video to text to speach I have a youtube video that I narrate but I always type a script to read off for my videos is there a way to use my voice from one of the videos and insert it into a text to speach program so I don't always have to read the script? I know the program might not be able to handle tones of voice like sarcasm but I can edit small parts. Thanks!

Yes...possibly, if there is enough to sample from your existing video voice-overs but, as it's your voice, there's no reason to only use your videos as a source and the Acapela-Group, for example, has developed a Voice Factory for custom voice creation.

The main problem is that it will take time and money to do.

Try googling "text to speech sample my own voice" for other resources and methods and consider buying a quality text to speech application and quality sampled voice to use instead of your own. A quick Google of "high quality text to speech" will provide links to many options and demos.


How do youtube professionals record audio for their video? If some professional has a video, and they want to do a voiceover for it, how do they do it?

Do they first remove unwanted clips from video and then record audio using audacity while seeing the video as it is running?

If you are referring to tutorials or commentary then yes, you would record the original performance (perhaps with computer sound), while thinking of your audience. When I record tutorials for software, I often perform the example while talking, then go back and edit it down to a reasonable length. I remove unwanted sound, then re-voice the finished edit from a script (doesn't have to be fully written, can be bullet points).

This way I can make mistakes in delivery and restart as many times as I like.

Then i lay that recording back over the edited pictures. At this point I may find that I need to make the video longer to accommodate the new voice over. So there is a little bit of give and take. It is quite hard to manage picture lock without sound.


Why do pro cameras still need to pull focus? Big productions using pro cinema cameras (RED Weapon etc...) still use manual focus and still have someone who's sole job is just to pull focus for a camera.

With today's technology, I would always trust auto-focus over my own eyesight. I know in some instances focal length is literally measured from the sensor which is probably more accurate - but is that extra effort actually noticeable? I also know you could argue cinematic effects such as "racking focus" need manual, but you could still have Auto/Manual setting like DSLRs do.

So why do we still have focus pullers and manual focus in productions with top-end cameras?

Well there's a number of factors that come into play, but first and foremost, the reason a camera operator pulls focus (if shooting alone) or having a 1st AC/2nd AC pull focus is because if you care about what you're shooting, you want focus to be tack sharp.

Focus pulling is required on today's full frame and large sensor cameras because the Hyperfocal is extremely tight/small due to the gate (sensor) size, especially so when using fast lenses, shooting at wide apertures, or long focal lengths. The Hyperfocal Distance is in today's digital cinema world, a very specific and critically narrow point in space, or better put, distance from the the camera's gate. Large sensor cameras also typically need faster lenses, due to the fact that the light entering the lens is refracted over larger plane than on a small sensor capture device. (More info below on that).

Many DSLR cameras have AF features, but they are relatively limited, and require the user to set a focus point, such as center, or another XY or pattern of XY points on the screen in which the camera would attempt to lock to.

Professional systems by RED, ARRI, and others, have 3rd party accesories which can assist with Auto Focus, but again, they are only as good as how you program them.

That said:

With a large sensor, shooting on a fast lens with even a moderately wide aperture at anything other than a "wide/medium wide" focal length will produce an image which has such as shallow depth of field that you have to visually adjust the focus based off the precise distance from gate to your desired focal point.

Do you want the eyes and eye lashes to be tack sharp? Or the tip of the nose? If you focus the camera to be tack sharp on the front/tip of the persons nose, the eye lashes and eyes especially, will appear soft, especially at 4K and above.

You can also focus too deep, which is a very easy mistake to make, making the hairline/front of ears tack sharp, again, leaving the eyes and eye lashes, and even more, the nose, soft and out of focus.

Even shooting a simple sit down interview with someone on a HD camera (not 4K), using a 100mm focal length, at f2.8, this becomes highly noticeable. Tip of the nose, ear lobes, or eye lashes... You want to focus on the eyes... because that's what viewers focus on when watching the footage.

Theres no way a camera can "know" exactly what you want it to focus on. Secondly, automatic systems never work perfectly. This happens often even at short focal lengths using wide lenses; where the cameras AF system will latch onto a brighter spot, such as a light bulb or candle flame far in the background behind the subject- so even on wide shots AF doesn't do a great job.

Lastly, if the AF system gets confused or if something moves in the frame, the AF system will fish for a new focus point, often times over and undershooting the focus point in the process. This fishing effect is highly distracting.

So in closing, if you're shooting anything with actors where their performance matters and you may not get a second chance to capture that exact moment or performance, you have to have someone watching and pulling critical focus on a monitor that is designed to do so (showing pixel to pixel or magnification on a specific zone).

Now with cameras that have a very small sensor, such as the old video cameras from the 90s and early 2000s, the sensor was so small (sometimes as small as 1/5"), that A.) The small gate/sensor size created a very deep depth of field/large hyperfocal, B.) The small sensor received a much higher level of light concentration from the lens (described below); and C.) The small sensor cameras in the past typically shot at lower resolutions and focus could be slightly off, and due to the low resolution it wasn't visually noticeable.

When shooting with a small sensor, the light entering the camera was far more concentrated on the small sensor area (think of a magnifying glass with the sun trying to burn a leaf). The smaller you focus the light into a smaller area, the brighter it becomes. If you pull the magnifying glass up the focus of the sun becomes larger, less bright and less hot.

I only mention this because this is why large sensor cameras require more light. Because the image entering in through the lens is being spread out over a larger canvas, and thus is not as concentrated / bright - requiring either more light, or shooting at a wider aperture. Wider apertures = shallower depth of field.

So the small sensor cameras can shoot in AF mode with greater ease- the reason being "everything" is in focus, due to the small gate, and the fact that the small sensor requires a smaller aperture/f-stop. These factors create a hyperfocal which is so large, that everything is reasonably in focus and there's no discernible difference between the tip of the nose and the front of the eyes.


What if YouTube owner doesn't respond if I can use their upload further? I was looking for a video for knowledge and blogpost which I found on YouTube under Standard YouTube License. However, when I tried to contact the owner, I think he/she is not active on YouTube anymore. Because that is the last video uploaded by the user and that is 7 years ago. What to do?

Nothing, really. YouTube Standard License doesn't give you any rights to redistribute or remix the video (see my answer here). You can only try to contact the uploader through other means. Look through their channel info to see if you can find a website, Twitter, E-Mail address or any other contact information. Depending on how badly you want to use this video, there are also other means of online stalking finding contact information that you might try. For example, if he uses a distinct user name you can try to search for that user name on Google, Twitter or other social media and see if you find something.


Continuous video autofocus speed on Sony a7 iii So I've got my a7iii and continuous autofocus (AF-C) with Wide focus area is blazingly fast when shooting stills. It recognizes faces and can clearly keep the running man's eyes in focus when looking thought the viewfinder and shooting bursts at 10fps — green squares are there and jumping like they should.

But when I switch to video, autofocus becomes slow and laggy, even with the AF Drive Speed set to Fast. Pressing AF-ON or shutter button works not continuous, ignoring AF-C mode. I can tap the screen to set the Lock On AF object. White rectangle appear and it works, but slow — clearly not capable of keeping fast moving objects in focus.

Is there any way to make a7iii to focus the same fast way in video as in stills?
Are there some settings that I miss or it's the way it's designed and I'm out of luck?

I haven't yet handled the A7s mkIII or A7 mkIII, but I'm familiar and own the A7s and A7r line, and before that shot for years on Canon 5D mkIIs.

First, video cameras are not DSLRs, and DSLRs really aren't video cameras.

Canon's landmark 5D mkI Camera was a game changer for people, creatives, working or aspiring to work in film on a "creative" level. The reason simply was the size of the gate, which directly correlates to very shallow hyperfocal which is realized within the final image. It gave everyone a camera that could pretty much look, at least on a small screen, like they had shot it using an Arri 435 35mm camera system.

But the camera is still a DSLR. And the A7/A7r/A7s mkIII is still a DSLR. The lenses designed for the the A7s By Sony- which is their "video model" within the A7 line, are not "video lenses". They are still lenses. They are designed first and formost to shoot stills. To keep up with fast action sports, shooting at high frame rates using the A7r mkIII. They are not designed in any way to continuously autofocus... even though Sony has "Included that as a feature". It's a feature of the camera sure, but it's not really a feature anyone with video shooting skills would use.

I shoot a lot of content. I've done narrative fiction, I've done live theatrics, I've even shot news both studio camera and eng/efp which included a lot of fast moving objects and scenarios.

But I almost never shoot on auto, actually, I never shoot on auto really. I might in some very rare cases, but 99% of the time I shoot on manual focus with push for auto as an assigned button to 1, and push for focus assist on another (near my trigger finger).

This is because regardless of whether you're shooting with an Sony FS7 or, 5, A shoulder style ENG camera, or a DSLR, you are not going to ever get accurate focus without learning to manually pull focus. The camera simply cannot do it.

Even in the world of high end sports, The NFL, those camera operators shoot using 120X lenses on pedestal cameras from hundreds of yards away acheiving amazingly tight shots with very shallow depth of field. But those cameras are grounded to a block of cement, isolated from vibration, the lenses are stabilized, and the cameras with glass cost $500,000. Those guys... focus manually. Left hand on focus servo and right hand on zoom. They constantly breath the lens to find tack sharp, and their monitors are highly specific for focus showing exactly where that tack point is.

I guess my long winded point is, if you are shooting wide, as in a wide shot, or you're shooting with a small CCD camera, like a 1/4" chip old school camera, auto-focus does an ok Job. But good camera work means you have to practice a lot, and I speak from the standpoint of someone who has trained, and tried to train people to shoot great content.

Many can't do it, because they lack the laser type focus that shooting "anything moving", requires... Constantly watching the shot, for tack sharp focus, and adjusting for every move.

Even when I shoot interviews for documentary/PR/Commercial work, the shallow depth of field on the full frame cameras is so shallow, that if I'm shooting with an 85 at f4 or even smaller- if the interviewee leans in just a half inch- suddenly, his eye lashes are soft, and his ears at the back tip are now the focal point.

So my opinion is you are out of luck. No camera operator, in film, tv, or whatever, who does top notch work would "rely" on an autofocus system unless it was for a very specific need be reason. Autofocus for stills, sure. But that's 12-14 FPS max. And it's a whole other art form. The technology has pushed ahead and made lenses work for that, - but you have to remember, with photo---

99% of the shots they take are outtakes. A sports photographer takes 1000s of photos at a game. Perhaps he gets 1, 2, or 3 great shots- perfectly focused, the right moment... they edit out nearly every other shot.

Video is much much harder in that respect. And I have a lot of photographer friends who have noted that... it's harder. You gotta get the shot, hold the shot, the entire time.


Are adapters that allowing lens change on cheap camcorders worth it? I was told that adapters exist that allow you to mount an additional lens on a non-threaded camcorder.  Are these adapters worth it?  How common are they?

Such devices do exist a reasonable amount of the time, but they rarely produce much in the way of quality.  There are exceptions, but they are fairly rare.  They do have their uses, but be aware that the results are most often marginal.  Your best bet to find them is generally looking around the various smaller NY/NJ photo/video shops that carry a variety of knock off products from around the world.

Make sure you are aware of what you are getting yourself in to with them.


Premiere mangles export of video with several settings I am new to Premiere and tried a few sequences. Upon exporting them, the result has half the frames completely mangled, with unreadable text, inverted exposure, or with extraneous elements. Here are some examples:

The same result happens with different settings: medium or adaptive low bitrate, with hardware encoding or with software encoding. The same result happens with different sequences.
How can I fix the export and salvage my work?

Instead of exporting in Premiere, I chose Queue in the Export dialog for Adobe Media Encoder to do the work. It worked perfectly fine, either with medium or high bitrate, with hardware or software encoding.
This issue may be due to new software running on old hardware. My computer has 8 GB of RAM. Although Premiere 2019-2020 has that amount as the minimum and so it should work, Adobe Support has excused itself of another bug blaming the lack of the recommended RAM.


ffmpeg invalid argument. Which argument was invalid? UPDATED with info from -report

I'm new to ffmpeg.
I am trying to loop a video to a linux v4l2 device.
ffmpeg -stream_loop -1 -re -f lavfi  -i "movie=snail.mp4" -f v4l2 /dev/video4 -report

It plays the video once and then exits with the message "Invalid
[Parsed_movie_0 @ 0x56289dec9a00] EOF timestamp not reliable=N/A speed=   1x
Error while filtering: Invalid argument
frame=  391 fps= 25 q=-0.0 Lsize=N/A time=00:00:15.64 bitrate=N/A speed=0.999x
video:43988kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown

Which argument is invalid and why?
The output of the report file generated by ffmpeg is available here: https://gist.github.com/ahoffer/7217aa0572061e7c255cf08914be53e2

-stream_loop is buggy in versions older than 4.1, so upgrade.
Also, stream_loop won't work with movies opened via movie filter. Use it as a direct input.
ffmpeg -stream_loop -1 -re -i "snail.mp4" -f v4l2 /dev/video4 -report


Copying timeline to new sequence lowers resolution Using Adobe Premiere CS6, when I copy my old timeline to new sequence all the .gif and .jpeg background images including titles lose a lot of a resolution... Both sequences have the same settings, I only increased fps on a new one.

Why?

It appears that your pixel aspect ratio and interlace/progressive choices differ between the two sequences.  What you are seeing is a combination of the interlacing and the change in pixel aspect ratio (which results in the image having to be scaled to a new set of pixels that aren't exactly like the original.

For playback on a TV that supports interlaced video, you won't notice a whole lot of difference, but on a computer or progressive display, it will look funny.  For best quality, you will want to use a progressive, square pixel sequence if you are outputting to PC or to a progressive display (such as 1080P or 720P TV).

The bad news is that it doesn't appear there is a good way to make any changes to the sequence that you need to make while there is content in it, but if you make a new sequence, you can go to the settings tab and specify everything the way that you need them specified.


make a stroke from a path in after effect I'm moving an object and I would like to make a track that "follow it", I would like to make a path stroke (that I will animate, trimming it) from the path of the object I move

There are many ways to do this - here is one:

Make a null object
Make a mask path on the null layer using the pen
Set a single keyframe on the mask's path
Go to your object (e.g. a star in this example)
Make a single keyframe on its position
Copy your mask path keyframe
Select your position keyframe
Paste, and you should see your object now moves along the path

To make a tail that follows the star:

Add a new shape layer with a single line in it
Make a keyframe on that line's path
Copy the path from your null
Paste it into your new shape layer.
Now you will have a line the same shape as your star's path.
Add a Trim Paths effect to your Line layer
Animate the 'End' control on the Trim Paths effect to get the path you need.

This set of scripts is excellent, and free. http://www.redefinery.com/ae/rd_scripts/
It includes scripts such as "shapes to masks" and "masks to shape".
Highly recommended


Video editing software like iMovie, for Windows? Although skeptical at first, I took a liking to iMovie and began to rely on it heavily to edit many music videos. What I liked about iMovie was it's easy to use feel when it came to placing a clip exactly where you need it to be within the audio of a song. I have a Windows computer now, and cannot use the new iMovie anymore. Looking for something as similar as possible.

I'm looking for software that could work similarly on Windows, and the key main I really only need are:

Image stabilization
Color Correction
Speed/Duration settings
Easy to use adjustment of placement of a clip

Any suggestions? Thank you so much!

I've not used it, but Microsoft makes Microsoft Movie Maker. It might meet your needs.

There are also some open source video editors you might have luck with:

ShotCut - http://www.shotcut.org - kind of new, might be buggy

Blender - http://www.blender.org - it's a 3D modelling app with video editing capabilities

Lightworks - http://www.lwks.com - there's a "buy" button, but there's also a free version, as I understand it.

If you don't mind using Linux, you can also try out OpenShot and Kdenlive.


How to play/back-up PAL/SECAM VHS tapes? I have a few old VHS tapes that are in PAL/SECAM format, and I live in Canada. I was wondering what would be the best way to back-up/play these tapes?
Hunt for a PAL/Secam VHS player? (Could be expensive) Or ask for a service that does it for you?

The answer to this question will depend on your priorities to some extent — what sort of quality are you looking for in the transfer, how important the content of the tapes are to you / the world, what sort of budget you have, how much time you want to spend on the project — as well as other variables such as what condition are the tapes are in, and whether you want to play them in domestic equipment and risk destroying them if something goes wrong (e.g. if they've got sticky-shed they could end up being chewed).

That said, you could probably pick up a VHS player for nothing if you ask and look around enough — ask on social media, or get your friends to ask their parents, there are still plenty out there. You won't have much control over the quality of the machine, and so you probably won't get one with such things as a timebase corrector that you get on professional machines (or later model high quality domestic machines). An old VHS machine from someone's lounge room may also not be in the best condition, so the output may be less than optimal. However, if you aren't concerned with getting the absolute best possible transfer, and are happy if it just plays the tapes so you can see a picture this is probably the way to go.

Once you've got a machine that plays them you should digitise them on the first viewing — if they are fragile they will lose quality every time they are played. You'll need a video capture card and software to run it. There is a huge range from cheap and cheerful USB gadgets that cost less than $20 on ebay to broadcast level cards that cost a couple of thousand. Once again, your priorities and budget determine what you need.

If the tapes are really valuable to you you could investigate getting an agency to transfer them. If you are concerned that the tapes might be in poor condition and they are irreplaceable you might want to find someone who deals with archival transfers. You could talk to the state film archives for your region if they exist, they may have advice for you. The Australian National Film and Sound Archive have a good page of advice here: http://www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation/care/caring-for-video/


Why would an DSI MIPI HDMI device accept Windows 10 HDMI signal but not HDMI signal from a GoPro or wireless HDMI transmitter? I have this LCD (usually used with cellphones) with DSI MIPI HDMI: link.

At the moment, I can only get this device to display HDMI signal from a Windows 10 desktop. This device does not display anything for an HDMI signal from a GoPro or the Nyrius ARIES Prime wireless HDMI transmitter.

Can someone please explain why my DSI MIPI HDMI device accepts HDMI signal from Windows but not from other devices?

There are two possible reasons I could see for this.  The first is that the supported resolution information is not being properly sent, resulting in a signal being sent which is not supported by the display.  It is also possible that the GoPro and the wireless HDMI transmitter do not support the same resolutions as the display you are using, in which case it wouldn't be able to send a workable signal.

The second possible issue is that of HDCP.  HDCP is a technology used to protect copyright video data when it is being displayed.  If one of your source devices only operates with HDCP compatible devices, it is entirely possible this display is not HDCP compatible and that would prevent the display from working as well.


How to move a clip aside for possible future use in FCPX? I'm editing a short movie, and there are clips that I'm considering cutting that I want to keep in place but not necessarily use. How can I deactivate a clip such that it doesn't occupy the storyline, but stays in place?

"disabling" a clip (pressing V) doesn't do that- it still remains a blank part of the timeline. "Lift from timeline" doesn't seem to accomplish that either.

Ideally, I could just leave the clips in place and disable them in a way that makes the playhead skip ahead when it reaches those clips, so that I can easily see what the movie looks like with those optional clips and without them.

Any advice is much appreciated.

I'd lift the clip from the story line and then disable it with V. There's no other way to keep a clip in the timeline near the edit point without leaving empty space or affecting the timing of the cut.


How to export, then edit, finally replace individual clips in Premiere Pro? I have a sequence, which has many clips on timeline - shorter and longer ones, from different (long) video source files.

I'd like to export all these properly trimmed clips to individual uncompressed video files to edit them in a different software. When done, I'd overwrite the previously exported video clip files with the new ones, which might have different framerate than the original.

As I see, "Render and Replace" would be perfect for me, but I need these video files in uncompressed avi, because Virtualdub can only handle this format. And Render and Replace doesn't allow me to choose any format.

What would be the best workflow for this problem?

Thank You!

Why not convert your original clip to uncompressed AVI, and then render and replace will "do the right thing".


Convert Vertically Stacked video to horizontally stacked via FFMpeg Based on the answer to this question, how would the command line

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
-filter_complex "[0:v]crop=in_w/2:in_h:0:0 [top]; \
[0:v]crop=in_w/2:in_h:in_w/2:0[bottom]; \
[top][bottom]vstack[outv]" \
-map "[outv]" -map 0:a -c:a copy output_3dv.mp4

be changed to do the opposite, split two stacked images (3240x2160) to one 6840x1080 video?

You would crop the full width and half-height. Then use hstack to join them.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
-filter_complex "[0:v]crop=iw:ih/2:0:0 [left]; \
[0:v]crop=iw:ih/2:0:ih/2[right]; \
[left][right]hstack[outv]" \
-map "[outv]" -map 0:a -c:a copy output_3dv.mp4


How to add Photos in background to a Video using FFMPEG I saw one app and I'm willing to add photos similar to how that app does.

Following is the screenshot of the video that I got from that app:

I'm not sure what is the black part in there on the right-hand side.

Below is the end result after a photo has been added:

Now the photo that I've added seems like it's behind the video, so any help how to do that and an answer to what the black part the right side of the video is, then it will be great and highly appreciated.

I'm going to call the video/image on top, overlay, and the bottom one, the photo.

ffmpeg -i photo -i overlay
       -filter_complex "[1]split=2[color][alpha];
                        [color]crop=iw/2:ih:0:0[color];[alpha]crop=iw/2:ih:iw/2:0[alpha];
                        [color][alpha]alphamerge[ovrly];
                        [0][ovrly]overlay=0:0" output.jpg

I assume that if the resolution of the video is WxH then the resolution of the photo is W/2 X H. If it's not, add a crop filter to the photo and then use that result in the overlay.

If the resulting video has uneven dimensions, add a scale filter after the overlay to rectify that: [0][ovrly]overlay=0:0,scale=2*trunc(iw/2):2*trunc(ih/2)

If you have a sequence of images of the same resolution, then you can use the concat demuxer.

First, create a text file,

file 'image1'
duration 2.0
file 'image2'
duration 4.0
file 'image3'
duration 2.0

Then,

ffmpeg -f concat -i text -i overlay
       -filter_complex "[0]fps=25[bg];
                        [1]split=2[color][alpha];
                        [color]crop=iw/2:ih:0:0[color];[alpha]crop=iw/2:ih:iw/2:0[alpha];
                        [color][alpha]alphamerge[ovrly];
                        [bg][ovrly]overlay=0:0,scale=2*trunc(iw/2):2*trunc(ih/2)" output.jpg


Shortcuts to other videos on YouTube On YouTube, when the person in the video has another video as a reference to show, in the upper corner is shown a link that directs what they want to show.

This is a example:

I have some videos that I would like to do, but I do not know where to do it on YouTube.

Does anyone know the name of this and how can I add it?

It is in:
Creator studio => Video Manager => (Select Video) => Card (or "End screen & Annotations")

There you select time and click on "Add element" button. Now you can choose, what you want to add.


What software is required to make a simple animation clip like this? I'm looking to create a very simple animation video, maybe 1-2 minutes long, with a 3D logo and text just kind of floating around and some lighting effects. I want to make something similar to this:

What software is required to make this? Can something like Blender make this whole thing, or would I need a combo of tools like Maya and Sony Vegas?

Thanks!

This was most likely done in After Effects.  Simple 3D extrusions like this can be done by making a shape layer in After Effects and doing a 3D extrusion.  It then looks like they added a lens flare to it and then started positioning that layer in 3D while positioning the camera and other text layers around it.


Video tutorials: how to add labels, comments, arrows etc I'm planning to make a video tutorial about one application. I would like to make it without speaking, but I would like to add comments to video.

Is there a video software that allows you to add comments, labels, arrows etc.. to clarify and highlight some things in the video.

Wink seemed like one, but it is only available for linux as 32 bit binary.

Camtasia Studio (and many others) is such a software (for Windows, you didn't state OS).

It's a screen recorder which in post allow you to add labels, pop-outs, arrows, text-boxes, zooms and pans etc, as well as letting you do basic editing.

I am recommending this one because I have personal experience with it, but that isn't to say other similar software isn't as good or worse/better.


Video flickering when recording a screen with a mobile phone When recording a computer screen straight with a mobile phone, there are sometimes colored spots to see in the recorded material. I know that when recording CRT displays, the flickering was caused by different refresh rates between recording device and playing device. Can I prevent the flickering/discoloration in spots on a mobile phone?

This should be a comment I guess but I don't have enough rep.

What kind of monitor are you using?

My iPhone records my 27" Retina 5k monitor just fine.

My guess is you have an LCD monitor and you are having polarizing issues (

            )


Does 60 fps make sense for YouTube? YouTube says one should upload videos in the frame rate in which the video has been recorded. But if I have yet to record, what frame rate should I choose?

I noted that videos downloaded from YouTube have mostly 30 fps but some have 24 fps. I haven't seen any frame rather other than these 2 in videos downloaded from YouTube yet.

Will YouTube show 60 fps videos to the user with 60 fps (if it's possible)?

There of course are the downsides:

Raw material is bigger.
Rendering takes longer.
Rendered file is bigger.
Upload takes longer. (My internet connection is very slow.)

So I want to know whether it even changes something in advance.

Google has supported 60fps video since 2014.  YouTube has a page that talks about video formats, codecs, framerates, etc., here.  It is up to the Browser and YouTube to negotiate what format, frame rate, etc., should be served for optimal playback.

If you only care about YouTube as a video display platform, and not at all about any other platform, then you have the freedom to choose any of its preferred formats, depending on what sort of upload traffic you can afford.  If you want to be able to play something on your local computers, TV monitors, etc., then you should pick the format most preferred by your most-preferred platform, and let everything else try to adapt to that.


By how much can video and audio be out of sync? If I have an interview or lecture style video and the audio is out of sync, by how much can it be out of sync before the average person would easily notice?

I'm currently trying to create an HTML5 player that sometimes has the video and audio in separate elements, meaning the video and the audio buffer and play at separate times. I've developed a decent code that keeps them synced (it's a harder problem then it should be). The current code pauses the video and the audio elements if they are off by 0.1 seconds, adjusts the time of the video element to the audio element, waits for oncanplay event, then plays both. My question is whether 0.1 seconds off in audio/video sync is too much. Would a common user notice a 0.1 seconds sync disparity? What's the highest I can go before the common user might notice the lips don't quite match the voice? Does any large organization have an official standard on this?

There are, in fact, several standards on audio/video or lip sync. The problem is, they can't all agree on what the acceptable error is. What is well understood is that if the audio lags the video it is less noticeable, because that is natural. Something that is further away will be seen before it is heard. In the list below, a negative number is the audio lagging the video and positive is the audio leading the video.

ATSC IS-191: -45ms to 15ms
EBU R37-2007: -60ms to 40ms
ITU BT.1359-1: -125ms to 45ms
ITU BR.265-9: -22ms to 22ms

ITU BT.1359 was based off studies done with average viewers, but relied on significantly older technology. The ATSC and EBU recommendations rely on expert opinions. The methodologies don't give you a hint at which one is right. I've worked at facilities that used -2 frames to 1 frame (roughly -33ms to 16ms at 60fps) as an easy to remember guideline with very few viewer complaints about lip sync.
Even with the disagreement, 0.1s (100ms) of error will almost always be noticeable, unfortunately.


Remove Greenscreen Reflections? My work has a green screen that my boss purchased with no knowledge of green screens or how to use or what to do with them.

in Sept. 2014 he gave me the task to create employee introduction / interview videos to explain how some of our procedures work, and I used my knowledge of greenscreens and chroma-keying to do my best. I managed to create a couple of workable videos, where all of the green was easily edited out and the desired effect was achieved without much hassle.

Recently my boss has asked me to create some product spotlight videos utilizing the green screen to place the item on a background of his choice. And here's where the trouble started.

The Setup consists of:

2-flood lights
The screen and a stand for it

I have been using the lights to illuminate the screen and using the ambient light from the warehouse to light the object.

I have the object sitting on a black leather stool while it rotates (desired effect as requested by my boss) sitting about 2-3 feet away from the screen (this is the furthest away I can pull the object away before the screen edges are visible)

The problems arise in editing, when I try to key out the green and add our background in. The black leather and the top of the product reflects so much that the keying eliminates it completely as the color technically matches that of the shadows in the screen its self, and BAM! The item is half transparent.

Modifying the key's parameters do nothing to help and my boss does not want to invest anything except my time and efforts into this.

After researching across the web, I have come to these conclusions:

Lighting is key, but we can not get more/better/more practical
Distance helps, but I can not move it much further because of screen size is too small to go further away and setting up in a warehouse
Reflective surfaces will be a pain anyways so make sure lighting is perfect and i can't get more lights.

I have tried every idea I can think of to reduce reflection in photographs, but because it is not a static shot, there is much I am missing...

What else can I try?

You don't say what you're using to edit these videos, but there may be a better chromakey plugin for your platform than what comes natively.

Also, again depending on your platform, most editors will allow you to crop the key area (garbage matte) so that the green screen doesn't have to cover the entire raster, just enough to back the product you're shooting, so you could put the screen as far away as you like.


FFMPEG demux .264 for burning in scenarist I have a very specific pipeline I need to set up, it starts with an mov file from Avid which gets transcoded to mkv for internal review and .264 for burning to Blu-ray in Scenarist. It goes:

.mov (DNxHD) -> .mkv (h264) -> .264

For purposes of quality and speed I transcode to .mkv in FFMPEG and then when the time comes to make a Blu-ray I demux the mkv to the .264, however I'm told this is throwing a very ambiguous error in scenarist and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Interestingly if I transcode directly to .264 instead of demuxing it there is no problem, so this appears to be a metadata issue. Here's the demux recipe I'm using:

-i input.mkv -codec copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb output.264

Here's the transcode recipe if that is useful:

-i input -c:v libx264 -preset fast -tune film -b:v 20000k -maxrate 35000k -bufsize 30000k -level 4.1 -pix_fmt yuv420p -x264opts bluray-compat=1:open-gop=1:slices=4:keyint=24 -r fps outfile.mkv

The demuxed H264 stream has the same metadata content, however it is rearranged, compared to the directly produced .264 stream. So far, I don't see a way to rearrange it to match.

So, transcode directly to 264 and use mp4box to generate a stream inside a container

mp4box -add direct.264 -new muxed.mp4

You can then use ffmpeg to mux to MKV.

ffmpeg -i muxed.mp4 -c copy muxed.mkv

mp4box is part of the GPAC project. Get a nightly build from https://gpac.wp.imt.fr/downloads/gpac-nightly-builds/

To do this entirely within ffmpeg, you can use the tee muxer to pipe a AVI mux to another ffmpeg instance

ffmpeg -i input.mov -map 0:v -vsync cfr -r fps -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -preset fast -tune film -b:v 20000k -maxrate 35000k -bufsize 30000k -level 4.1 -x264opts bluray-compat=1:open-gop=1:slices=4:keyint=24 -f tee "scenarist.264|[f=avi]pipe:1" | ffmpeg -f avi -i - -c copy -y playback.mkv

Verify the


How do I blur the background, but not a moving subject in FCPX to create a depth-of-field effect? So I am using my camera to make vlogs for youtube and sometimes interview people. I have a background that doesn't move and I have a person in front of the camera who sometimes moves from left to right.

My camera already has a subtle depth-of-field, but I want to make it more noticeable. Now I know that photobooth in OS X has a trick where you step out of the frame for a moment and then when you step into the frame it can separate you from the background. I guess FCPX can probably do the same trick, but I haven't found that feature yet. Is it in there? Can I use it to create the effect that I want to create?

FCPX can't do this automatically (like Photo Booth) unless the background is a single colour.

As a workaround, if possible…

Take a picture of the background.
Film the vlog in front of a green screen.
Key the background leaving the alpha channel.
Place the picture behind the video layer.

There is a full guide in this Apple KB article:

Final Cut Pro X: Use chroma keys


Camera Is Shaking Slowly After Changing Its Position In Unity 3D I have a series of camera movements, but some don't successfully complete. Instead of the camera coming to rest, it ends up vibrating around the target location.

I have the video of my problem here so you can see what I mean:

Youtube video of my problem

The final two transitions demonstrate it very clearly of you want to jump straight to them, but the first but shows how I have the transitions set up.

Can you let me know how to stop this oscillation?

Camera is shaking because it is updating it's position Constantly the ( flag boolean must be false ).

Here is the code.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;

public class camMOVE : MonoBehaviour {
    public Transform  handleview;
    public Transform pressureview;
    public Transform wallview;
    public Transform sechandleview;
    public Transform pressuretwoview;
    public Transform switchview;

    public GameObject handlebtn;
    public GameObject pressurebtn;
    public GameObject wallbtn;
    public GameObject handletwobtn;
    public GameObject pressuretwobtn;
    public GameObject switchbtn;

    public float transitionSPEED;
    Transform currentVIEW;
    public bool flag = false;
    public bool isReached = false;
    Vector3 currentangel;
    public List<GameObject> modelparts;

    private void Start(){
        handlebtn.SetActive (true);
        pressurebtn.SetActive (false);
        wallbtn.SetActive (false);
        handletwobtn.SetActive (false);
        pressuretwobtn.SetActive (false);
        switchbtn.SetActive (false);

        foreach (GameObject obj in modelparts) {
            obj.GetComponent<BoxCollider> ().enabled = false;
        }
    }

    private void Update(){
        if (flag) {
            transform.position = Vector3.Lerp (transform.position, currentVIEW.position, Time.deltaTime * transitionSPEED);
            //transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards (transform.position, currentVIEW.position, Time.deltaTime * transitionSPEED);

            //for camera rotation
            currentangel = new Vector3 (Mathf.LerpAngle (transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x, currentVIEW.transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x, Time.deltaTime * transitionSPEED),
            Mathf.LerpAngle (transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y, currentVIEW.transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y, Time.deltaTime * transitionSPEED),
            Mathf.LerpAngle (transform.rotation.eulerAngles.z, currentVIEW.transform.rotation.eulerAngles.z, Time.deltaTime * transitionSPEED));

            transform.eulerAngles = currentangel;
        }
    }

    public void Handleview(){
        currentVIEW = handleview;
        handlebtn.SetActive (false);
        flag = true;
    }

    public void Pressureview(){
        currentVIEW = pressureview;
        pressurebtn.SetActive (false);
        flag = true;
    }

    public void Wallview(){
        currentVIEW = wallview;
        wallbtn.SetActive (false);
        flag = true;
    }

    public void Secondhandleview(){
        currentVIEW = sechandleview;
        handletwobtn.SetActive (false);
        flag = true;
    }

    public void Pressuretwoview(){
        currentVIEW = pressuretwoview;
        pressuretwobtn.SetActive (false);
        flag = true;
    }

    public void Switchview(){
        currentVIEW = switchview;
        switchbtn.SetActive (false);
        flag = true;
    }

}

I don't understand where you are looping between the different objects you want the camera to move to. I would try to go through all these steps:

setup the elements you want to be filmed, and add them to an array.
Create a flow. Call a method that will start lerping the camera to the next object (transform), and if the camera arrives the next object, call another method that will wait for 1 second and then call the method from the beginning again. Here some pseudocode

IEnumerator startAnimation(){
  yield return new WaitForSeconds(.1f);
  // choose next object to move to
  // change flag to yes
}

void Update{
  if( flag ){
    // detect if camera is moving near the next transform/position
    // call delayAnimation();
    // flag = false to stop animation
  }
}

IEnumerator delayAnmiation(){
  yield return new WaitForSeconds(.1f);
  startAnimation();
}


cutting with ffmpeg results in few seconds of black screen, how do i fix this? i'm using this command to cut a segment from a video from command line

ffmpeg -i %1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss %2 -t %3 %~n1_cut%~x1

and i call it like

cut.bat video.mp4 001:23:45:678 10

and as expected i get a video_cut.mp4 with 10 seconds of the original video, problem is that few seconds of the resulting file is black screen with audio, why does this happen and how do i fix it?

Most videos use codecs which perform temporal compression, so a specified cutpoint may rely on frames before (and after) that cutpoint to be correctly decoded. So, when you use ffmpeg to trim videos and use copy mode, ffmpeg has to include all frames before and after the trimmed segment which are needed to decode the segment correctly.

So, you have two options, use copy mode but set a switch which will allow all players to correctly play these files

ffmpeg -ss %2 -t %3 -i %1 -vcodec copy -acodec copy -avoid_negative_ts make_zero %~n1_cut%~x1

(this will likely result in output that starts before your cutpoint)

or re-encode the streams

ffmpeg -ss %2 -t %3 -i %1 %~n1_cut%~x1


1080/25p bitrate 15.7Mbps vs 10.4Mbps In Nikox Coolpix compact camera there are two video modes for 1080/25p so they have the same number of pixels, aspect ratio and number of frames per seconds. The only difference is bitrate 15.7Mbps and 10.4Mbps. So what is the difference between that, what additional information is stored using 15.7Mbps?

The higher bitrate will store more detail in your video.  Most video cameras use file compression to throw away parts of the image that they think the viewer won't notice, in order to reduce the size of the file.  Even though both files would contain the same number of pixels, areas of low detail would be compressed more in the lower bit rate image.

Lossy compression of files is a trade-off between image quality and file size.

Wikipedia has a good example of what happens - the two files below are the same resolution, but one is much more heavily compressed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_artifact


Timestamps are unset in a packet for stream 0. This is deprecated and will stop working in the future. Fix your code to set the timestamps properly I am using below command to push the video to Wowza server, since we are pushing raw H.264 video, the RTP packet does not have the timestamp,  and we could observe audio video sync issue while playing video using VLC Media Player. While executing the FFmpeg command, there is a warning showing as

  [rtsp @ 0xb754bda0] Timestamps are unset in a packet for stream 0. This is deprecated and will stop working in the future. Fix your code to set the timestamps properly

IS there any option available in FFmpeg to add timestamp in RTP packet and push the video and audio?

$ffmpeg -f h264 -i /tmp/enc_sd_stream.h264 -f aac -i /tmp/aud_rec_stream  -acodec copy -vcodec copy -r 23 -f rtsp
 rtsp://shafi:shafi@192.168.1.135:1935/live/myStream

Input #0, h264, from '/tmp/enc_sd_stream.h264':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Baseline), yuv420p, 720x576, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1200k tbn, 50 tbc
Input #1, aac, from '/tmp/aud_rec_stream':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: 57 kb/s
    Stream #1:0: Audio: aac (LC), 32000 Hz, mono, fltp, 57 kb/s
[udp @ 0xb7553290] 'circular_buffer_size' option was set but it is not supported on this build (pthread support is required)
[udp @ 0xb7553320] 'circular_buffer_size' option was set but it is not supported on this build (pthread support is required)
[udp @ 0xb754c520] 'circular_buffer_size' option was set but it is not supported on this build (pthread support is required)
[udp @ 0xb758d670] 'circular_buffer_size' option was set but it is not supported on this build (pthread support is required)
Output #0, rtsp, to 'rtsp://shafi:shafi@192.168.1.135:1935/live/myStream':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.25.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264, yuv420p, 720x576, q=2-31, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 15 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC), 32000 Hz, mono, 57 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #1:0 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[h264 @ 0xb752e2b0] Thread message queue blocking; consider raising the thread_queue_size option (current value: 8)

    [rtsp @ 0xb754bda0] Timestamps are unset in a packet for stream 0. This is deprecated and will stop working in the future. Fix your code to set the timestamps properly

[aac @ 0xb75f7880] Thread message queue blocking; consider raising the thread_queue_size option (current value: 8)
frame=10213 fps= 14 q=-1.0 Lsize=N/A time=00:06:48.80 bitrate=N/A speed=0.574x

The usual solution for this situation: -fflags +genpts

It should eliminate the warning, but there's no guarantee your sync issues will be solved.


How much to charge for a re-posting of a video? Created a short promotional video for a client, it's an online magazine.

For the sake of example, let's say I charged the magazine $700. The video is embedded into the magazine using a proprietary method (ie: not youtube, vimeo, or any other video sharing site with embed options). This is fine.

Now the video happens to be something of an pseudo-official biography on a local artist (hes in it, he talks in it, official interview stuff), but the video wasn't made FOR him, but now he's inquiring how much it would cost him to embed the video on HIS site as well, for marketing purposes.

Again, lets say I charged the Magazine $700 (2.5min video), how much should I charge for a re-embed?

(ps: I own the copyrights)

That is completely up to you, how much is it worth to you, etc.  Keeping in mind you have to do zero additional work on it to give it to him, and if he were to put it up on his site without your knowledge you would loose nothing.


Adobe Premiere Pro Says Exporting, No File Produced I have a 1440 x 1080 sequence that I'm attempting to export in Premiere Pro, in the Export | Media... dialog I've tried a bunch of settings but each time I click OK the exporting status bar pops up momentarily and nothing happens (there is no file produced). I've double checked the output directory and name, both export video & audio are checked. Tried DV PAL, Intel IYUV and None under video codec and all had same result.

What else should I be looking at/is this a common silly mistake?

Also make sure "Source Range" is set to "Entire Sequence" (below preview on left side of "Export Settings" pop-up.)

When you say "nothing happens" - does Media Encoder freeze? crash? does it say "done" and you can't find the file?


How to add motion blur in timelapse videos? I remember watching a video about timelapse photography. There was a moment when the narrator explained that there is a specific trick to make the videos "smoother":

In the timelapse videos which don't use this trick, if people are moving, they suddenly appear at a precise frame, then disappear,
In the videos which use the trick, we have a feeling that they are smoothly moving, like if there was a motion blur.

What is this technique? What is it called? Is it done when taking photos or during post-processing?

One solution to the jerkiness of stop-motion animation was developed for some Star Wars sequences, termed "Go Motion".

Basically the idea is that you leave the shutter open a little longer than necessary, and move the objects a bit, to create some motion blur.


Video Editing/After Effects Forum To Ask For Help I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good/active forum for Adobe After Effects/Video Editing in general.

I require the forum to ask for help in editing a file/some HD video or finding someone who would be willing to do such a thing.

This is as this Q&A site would not allow me to such for such help.

I recommend the Creative Cow web site, specifically, http://forums.creativecow.net/adobeaftereffects. This will serve your need for getting help on AE, but this is not a site for posting to find some one to do the work for you. Hope this helps.


Video Assets to test transcode quality I was wondering if anyone knows from where I could get a few (short) video  assets in high bitrate to check the quality output of a transcoder.

Some context: A few years ago I was working on a VOD project and the person who was configuring the transcoders had a set of 4 videos that really pushed the transcoder (e.g. very clear water ripples, a few bees on top of a yellow flower... and I cannot recall the other 2). I remember this person telling me that he had picked those videos as they pushed different aspects of transcoders, so I was wondering if there's something out there I could reuse.

edit

I haven't found so far a good set of free videos to push the transcoder, but I have found the following sources.

4k media: Has quite a few free high bitrate 4k (30-60 fps) videos.

Here are a few resources I'm aware of.

The Video Quality Experts Group has a variety of test material available.
Big Buck Bunny, with a CC license, is often used as a test asset.
Tektronix at least used sell some test assets to complement their monitoring tools.
SRI has several test patterns and compliance checking assets for sale.


How much recording time at 1080p30 on a 32GB card on a GoPro Hero (1)? Is there a generic data recording rate for the different capture options on GoPro Heroes?

I'm trying to determine what size of SD card I should buy for my GoPro and I'd like to get an approximation. Is there a grid somewhere that details this?

Have you try to go to the product web site and check?
http://gopro.com/support/articles/recording-time-in-each-video-setting

I know it is about Hero2, but i think the values will not change much. Be aware fully charged battery will power the camera for no more than 3 hours


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks

Please help?

Speech Detection

You havent mentioned what NLE you use to edit, however here is a method you can use to transcribe if you are using Adobe CS4 or later.

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

  Analyze speech to create text metadata

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

  To retain the speech metadata, save the project.

Obviously this depends on the quality of the audio. Good clean audio will provide the best results. Its also worth noting that Premiere uses Soundbooth to process the detection, so if your audio wasnt up to scratch you could clean it up in Soundbooth, and then perform the analysis there.

VLC Scripting

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

Manual

In regards to your current method. It depends on how many times you fall behind. when I have transcribed video I have done it at full speed but I havent bothered to fix errors while I'm typing. Usually I'll go back and fix it up later - and being that they are just for editing purposes they dont need to be totally correct.

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


How to hold the last frame when using ffmpeg I'm cutting/converting some videos with ffmpeg.  What I'd really like is to be able to have the output hold the last frame for a few seconds (with silence for audio).  Is such a thing possible?  Or will I have to somehow get the last frame and make a new video from that?

One method is to use the overlay video filter. Assuming your video is 640x480, 30 seconds duration, 25 frame rate:

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i nullsrc=s=640x480:d=35:r=25 -i video.mp4 -i audio.wav -filter_complex \
"[0:v][1:v]overlay[video]" -map "[video]" -map 2:a -codec:a copy -shortest output.mkv

I set the duration of the nullsrc source filter to be 5 seconds longer than input.mkv.
The default behavior of overlay is to repeat the last frame of the overlaid source. See the eof_action option for other behaviors.
The audio in this example is being stream copied (re-muxed) instead of being re-encoded.
The downside is that this examples requires re-encoding since a filter is being used, but it may be simpler than other methods since it is just one command.


How to reproduce this rainbow color feedback effect in After Effects? I'm trying to reproduce this "color feedback" effect that was popular in the 80's (thanks to the Scanimate) :

This one is from the song "Earth, Wind and Fire - Let's groove"

Basically it work like this :

Current frame = Blend(Video input, ColorShift(Previous Frame))

What i tried so far :

Add "Color key" effect to separate subject from the background.
Add "Echo" effect. Set operator to "Composite In Front". Increase "Number of Echoes" to 20.

It works pretty good to reproduce the basic feedback effect. However i'm still missing the rainbow colors.

I have tried to put some color correction effect, but it applies on the whole image, not only on the previous frames.

Any idea how i can reproduce this effect ?

Sorry, I don't have keyable footage under my hand, so I tried to do it different. But it will better look with keying:

I duplicated my layer couple of times
Moved every layer couple of frames forward
Decreased Optically value for every layer with same step, so values distributed from 100 till 0 (last one can be skipped)
Added to them Hue/Saturation effect with distribution of Master Hue across them.

It is manual approach, but it is not so difficult or time-consuming.

I believe it also can be achieved with Particle system, when your footage serves as emitter. Some of particle systems effects have "color over life" value, which will create your "Rainbow effect".

Good luck!


Can't add effect to master clip on Premiere Pro CC I am trying to add an effect to multiple pieces of video on the same sequence.

The sequence contains:
-10 .mov videos divided in a plenty of small sequences
-pictures and titles

I followed step by step the instructions of this video https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-to/apply-effects-master-clips.html and this guide https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/master-clip-effects.html  but when I try to drag the effect to the source video or to the "project:" videos, the "hand" has a denied sign, meaning that the effect can't be added.

What can I do? Am I doing anything wrong?

Most probably you don't have latest version of Adobe Premiere CC. As far as is concerned this feature is added in Adobe Premiere CC 2015.

I have older version (version 7.0.0 (342)) and that feature still missing in that version.

You shall update your Adobe Premiere CC till the latest version.


How to get 'outer' composition's current time? Suppose I've got 2 sequences, one named OUTER and one named INNER. Composition INNER is inside composition OUTER. INNER is shorter than OUTER and is placed in the middle of it's timeline. Inside INNER there is a text object which I want to display OUTER's current time - but I found out this is not so straightforward as I thought. My first idea was to create a solid namer TIMER inside OUTER and link the INNER's text object 'Source Text' to comp("OUTER").layer("TIMER").time and despite that this layer lasts from the beginning to the end of OUTER, the text shown from OUTER's perspective is always starting with 0.0 when INNER starts.

For the sake of clarity, here is the pic:

Is there a proper way to get linked composition's current time?

If you change the inner text layer's source text to this it will work:

thisCompLayer = comp("outer").layer(thisComp.name);
thisCompLayer.time + thisCompLayer.startTime

You just offset the time to cope with the later start time.

Looks like when AE calculates values from another composition it just calculates them for the current comp's time. It makes sense, because there could be multiple copies, or no copies at all of the inner comp in the outer comp.


How to Monochrome, Haze video Effect in FFmpeg? I have a lots of searching but i coudn't find the FFMPEG command for Monochrome effect and Haze Effect on video.
Orignal

Haze Effect

Monochrome Effect  (This is not sepia effect)

Your help would be appreciated.

Monochrome

One method is to use the hue filter to desaturate.

ffmpeg -i input -vf hue=s=0 -c:a copy output
ffplay -vf hue=s=0 input

De-haze (increase contrast)

The curves filter has several presets including a few that increase contrast. You can also make your own curves in Photoshop, export the ACV file and use it via the psfile option in the curves filter.

ffmpeg -i input -vf curves=preset=increase_contrast -c:a copy output
ffplay -vf curves=preset=increase_contrast input