Concat demuxer

This allows you to loop an input without needing to re-encode.

Make a text file. Contents of an example text file to repeat 4 times.

file 'input.mp4'
file 'input.mp4'
file 'input.mp4'
file 'input.mp4'

Then run ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c copy output.mp4

For Linux users

This example is the same as above but you don't have to manually make list.txt:

for i in {1..4}; do printf "file '%s'\n" input.mp4 >> list.txt; done
ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c copy output.mp4

With most commonly-used modern shells, you can even avoid the creation of the list.txt file entirely. For example, with bash:

ffmpeg -f concat -i <(for i in {1..4}; do printf "file '%s'\n" input.mp4; done) -c copy output.mp4

Also see:

FFmpeg concat demuxer documentation
FFmpeg Wiki: Concatenate

loop filter

Example using the loop filter to loop 4 times, each loop is 75 frames, each loop skips the first 25 frames of the input:

ffmpeg -i input -filter_complex loop=loop=3:size=75:start=25 output

Or use the shorthand: loop=3:75:25
Filtering requires re-encoding.
This filter places all frames into memory.
Using loop=3 will loop 4 times.
To loop infinitely use -1.
You must list the number of frames to loop (shown as 75 in the example above). Max value is 32767.
Also see ffmpeg -h filter=loop.

movie filter

The movie filter has a loop option. See answer below by Monah Tuk. Filtering requires re-encoding. For audio use the amovie filter.

-stream_loop option

See answer below by Thingy and answer by Gyan.

Note that this option was buggy (see bug reports #5719, #6121, and #7043) so may not work for old builds (anything older than 2018 06-27 including the FFmpeg 4.0.x release branch). For users of old builds, as mentioned by mulvya in ticket #6121, one workaround is to first re-mux to MKV or TS then use -stream_loop in the next command.

-loop option

The -loop option is specific to the image file demuxer and gif muxer, so it can't be used for typical video files, but it can be used to infinitely loop a series of input images. This example will loop over and over but the -t 30 will limit the output duration to 30 seconds:

ffmpeg -loop 1 -i %03d.png -t 30 output.mkv

Or to loop a GIF output:

ffmpeg -i input -loop 3 output.gif


The cheapest tool is to use a desk lamp and light the scene better to begin with and use the white balance setting in the webcam software itself.  It's a lot harder after the fact (if sufficient detail is even saved in the video to fix it at all).

You could also try DaVinci Resolve Lite, it's a professional color grading and correction package that also happens to be completely free, but the much better solution is to light and shoot correctly rather than trying to fix crappy footage in post.


How do I insert the program requested bitrate from YouTube Recommended Uploading Encoding Settings?

Since Mulvya's habit of answering questions in the comments ruins our answer rate statistic, let's put this into an answer °v°

  Which is 4 Mbps. Now OBS is asking for video bitrate, how do I convert 4 Mbps to bitrate OBS is asking for?

Bitrate is the general term for the amount of bits per second (1 bit = 1 unit of information). Mbps stands for Mega bit per second, which is the unit in which the bitrate is measured (not to be confused with MBps, which would stand for Mega Byte per second. One byte consists of eight bit). Both the audio and the video stream have a bitrate, which correlates directly (though not linearly, depending on the codec used) to their quality.

1 Mbps = 1000 kbps = 1.000.000 bit per second
4 Mbps = 4000 kbps = 4.000.000 bit per second

  Also, I presume I be recording in Stereo which is 384 kbps. However, the only bitrates available are: 64, 96. 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 288 and 320. Mono is 128 but I hadn't seen anything higher than 320 for mp3 audio bitrate and I don't know if the value it's after is in kbps.

320 kbps is the highest audio bitrate available for MP3, as defined in the MP3 standard (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III). If you are still not satisfied with the resulting quality at that bitrate (which I find unlikely), use a better codec. For example, MP3's successor AAC is generally considered to yield better results than MP3 while using the same bitrate. But really, 320 kbps MP3 is all you need.

  My knowledge in bitrates are low and I just know 128-160 are average for mp3 and I don't know if this is correct that 320 is lossless or close to it.

128-160 kbps are acceptable if you use a variable bitrate (VBR). For a constant bitrate (CBR), I wouldn't go lower than 256 kbps.

But realistically, you can just use 320 kbps for everything and not worry about it. The thing is, if your video will take up 4 megabits or more per second, the added 320 kilobit per second for the audio won't add considerably to the overall file size. So really, there's no reason to go with a lower audio bitrate.

Also, MP3 is by definition a lossy codec. However, whether any human will be able to hear a difference between 320 kbps and a lossless codec such as FLAC is questionable (I maintain they are not, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion).

  I've just been checking the YouTube Recommended Upload Encoding Settings to get the best quality without overkilling the end file size.

Don't pay too much attention to the recommended bitrates. In my opinion, those recommendations are way too low. The thing is, YouTube reencodes all videos you upload anyway. So if you encode your video at your end first, you have two lossy encoding cycles. If you use a low bitrate, your video will contain artifacts after the first encoding cycle already. Those will only be made worse in the second cycle. So if you use a higher bitrate for the encoding on your end, the endresult on YouTube will also look better. I would only go for a lower bitrate if you have a metered internet connection or your connection is so slow that your video uploads take an annoyingly long time.


Mythtv could be of use to you.  It will automatically mark commercial in points and out points in a recording.  You could modify the their transcode shell script to cut the program and leave the commercials.


As mentioned by @Mulvya, I think the issue is the "slow" preset.

One option is encoding a compressed stream that is also lossless. For example, the x264 encoder can do this using "-preset ultrafast -qp 0". This will probably result in failing your 3rd requirement (compatibility), but since it's lossless, you can transcode later onto cheap spinning disks. You can also look into using the huffyuv lossless encoder, which might be better supported. There are some gotchas with this method, so you definitely want to test your workflow from beginning to end. In particular, see this question:
Using h264 in loseless mode brings small unexpected results

If you do go this route, I would also experiment with dropping subsampling and encode at 4:4:4. It may not increase your file size by that much and will help you if you plan on doing any post-production work.

Another option, depending on your budget, is purchasing an encoder. I love FFmpeg, but it's meant to work everywhere, not to take full advantage of your hardware. Mainconcept isn't too expensive and will better be able to use that i7 processor you already shelled out for. (See https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/using-the-intel-media-sdk-within-mainconcept-h264avc-encoder-for-intel-quick-sync-video for example.) They also offer an HEVC encoder which would further shrink your file size. I can't vouch for the quality, however, as my experience is with Ateme. But I believe you can at least evaluate it out for free.


In search of a Helmet-based steadicam solution for GoPro Hero 3

Unfortunately, the physics of a Steadycam require a counterweight (sometimes provided by springs) and distance to minimize the impact of movement by using the inertia of the system.  The best you might be able to do in a small size would be a shock mount.  If you had a power source, you could presumably put a small gyroscope in to try and further stabilize the rotation, but that would become pretty (very) expensive really fast.

A shock mount is probably your best option within a semi-affordable range and will deal with the actual movements forward and backward, up and down, etc, but not rotation.  It does appear that people have made multi-axis gyro mounts that would work, but they've all been custom builds and the power and weight is still probably prohibitive to wearing it in a run.  It would also still have to be shock mounted to account for lateral movements as the gyro would only deal with rotation.


adding depth and motion to images for video

I think you're referring to the (false) parallax effect. This guy has applied it to stationary photographs in a similar way as in the "God made a farmer" video and in the video description he explains the global steps he has taken.
Here's a quote from his description concerning the production process:

  First, the image is cut into multiple sections, each cut section being
  at different distances from the camera. After the photos have been
  sliced into multiple layers and the holes filled in (yes, you have to
  fabricate some of the background, a slow but usually pretty easy
  process in Photoshop) the layers are then brought into After Effects
  and separated in Z-Space (pushed away from the viewer in 3D space). If
  the layers are put approximately in the correct distance from the
  virtual camera, mimicking the distance from the original image, a
  believable parallax "video" can be made with simple virtual camera
  moments.


Is using a softbox as a back light a good idea when shooting indoors?

Is it normal to use a softbox for a back light?

It can be sometimes. With two softbox lights, one can very nicely, evenly light a background show here. Note in the video that the subject is much farther than 2ft from the background.

Wouldn't it leak light onto the wall behind the subject?

Yes, it would, but not because it's a softbox. Softboxes only cause less harsher shadows. The reason it would spill light all over your scene is because the light inside of the software box is not directional at all, but rather an open-face bulb.

Maybe those concerns can be addressed with the use of grids?

The purpose of a grid is to shape light and contain it. So, with that in mid, a fabric grid would help reduce spill onto your subject and wherever else you don't want it.

Would a softbox like the one above work if hung directly above the subject who has their back one or two feet from the wall?

It really depends on what kind of look you're going for. What color are your walls? If they're white, the light will likely reflect off of the wall and bounce back onto your subject creating a rim light around them and illuminating the back wall. It won't illuminate it evenly (a single softbox light), however, and will likely have a gradient from light to dark, top to bottom.

If a reflector light is better, why do most of the kits include light boxes on the booms instead of reflector lights?

Nothing is better, per say. Light is highly dependent upon the situation. You as the videographer need to figure out which lights are best for your situation.

I would like to take a moment to say that when it comes to light, the whole motto "buy once, cry once" i.e. get good quality lights, rings true. The kit you linked, while I've never had experience with, will likely not last you very long and be a poor investment. You should consider purchasing used, well known name brands, or rent until you can afford real lights (if budget is a concern). Again, I don't know what kind of production you're running, but this is the advice that I've come across time and time again. A good starter set for interview style set ups, is this guy. Additionally, tungsten lights are cheap and render skin tones very nicely. Some brands to find used Tungsten lights are Arri and Mole-Richardson. Try to stay away from off-brand LED lights.

This is only scratching the surface.


How to make ffmpeg flush the subtitles in real time while transcoding?

When ffmpeg will flush to output depends on the protocol. For file protocol, atleast 256 kiB data must be waiting, unless it's end of output. So, for text formats, there will be only one payload write.

You can workaround by forcing ffmpeg to flush a stream after each packet.

 ffmpeg -nostdin -i - -map 0:2 -c:0 webvtt -flush_packets 1 -f webvtt first.vtt \
-map 0:3 -c:0 webvtt -flush_packets 1 -f webvtt second.vtt \
-map 0:0 -c:0 copy -map 0:1 -c:1 aac \
-use_timeline 1 -min_seg_duration 1000000 \
-use_template 1 -init_seg_name $RepresentationID$-0.mp4s \
-media_seg_name $RepresentationID$-$Number$.mp4s \
-adaptation_sets "id=mkv/0,streams=0 id=mkv/1,streams=1" \
-f dash -dash 1 out.mpd


rendering video with Adobe After Effects

Within the video format optionss, check and set the Limit data rate to 10000 kbps. This will produce a file under 400 MB.


Use the Draw Mask effect. You can essentially crop with curves, or polygon shapes


what kind of action cameras are good for 1080p video onboard a high moving object(more than 800kph)?

The usual solution here, used by many pilots is actually the ubiquitous GoPro. They are robust, housings are built for most purposes and the tech is tried and tested, and compatible with everything. Solutions already exist for continuous power.

And the new GoPro 360 cameras will give you views in every direction - may or may not be useful for your use case.

There are budget versions/copies, but GoPro are the most robust I have used for high-g, high exposure uses.

If you are expecting extreme temperatures, then make sure your housing has the temperature control you need. That's what everyone does for mounting cameras on fast/high aircraft :-)


Can I run this in one command line (ffmpeg)

Your current method using the concat demuxer while stream copying is probably the fastest (I'm just counting the ffmpeg time and not any time you take to enter the additional commands). Unfortunately, you have to perform several steps, but the advantage is that your non-filtered segments are not being re-encoded which preserves quality and results in fast processing.

It is possible to do it all in one command with the trim, atrim, and concat filters, but this will re-encode everything and possibly be slower. You will have to test. However, it may create a more "stable" output if you find your current method to be problematic (which would likely be fairly obvious upon playback). The filter is generally used instead of the demuxer when all streams are being filtered.

Example using concat filter:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]trim=end=10[v0]; \
 [0:a]atrim=end=10[a0]; \
 [0:v]trim=10:40,drawbox=color=invert[v1]; \
 [0:a]atrim=10:40[a1]; \
 [0:v]trim=start=40[v2]; \
 [0:a]atrim=start=40[a2]; \
 [v0][a0][v1][a1][v2][a2]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1[v][a]" \
-map "[v]" -map "[a]" -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Notes

If you get a weird output refer to the setpts, asetpts filters (search for PTS-STARTPTS).
If it is still too slow use a faster x264 preset. See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 Video Encoding Guide.
I assume you're using OS X with the "tessus" build of ffmpeg from your previous FFmpeg question. The default AAC encoder for the tessus build is libvo_aacenc. The native FFmpeg AAC encoder is generally regarded as being slightly better. If you want to use it add -c:a aac -strict experimental. If you want the best supported AAC encoder, libfdk_aac, then use homebrew to compile ffmpeg. See FFmpeg Wiki: AAC Encoding Guide.


What's a good alternative term for "live action"?

You don't need another term. Live Action is the accepted term for differentiation between, well, live action film and other kinds of movies, such as animation/3D films. It's also used consistently for this purpose, e.g. the Oscars use it in their category names:

  Short Film (Animated)
  Short Film (Live Action)

Conversely, I have never seen this term used to indicate a live stream, so nobody will get confused.

There are other terms for feature-length such as feature film or motion picture, however those are rather used to differentiate between feature lenght movies and short films and can also be used for animated films.

If you have a feature-length film, you could amalgamate the terms to something like live action feature film or live action motion picture, but I really wouldn't recommend that.


How to choose the right bitrate, H.264 profile and level for Web Video presentation?

If you are looking to get the best possible quality, encode at the highest bitrates you can factoring file size / upload time.

Regardless of what you bitrate you transcode at; nearly all streaming platforms - YouTube and Vimeo included, will re-transcode the files using their own settings for Various Resolutions. Youtube for instance will take a 1080 file and transcode it into 1080, 720, 480, 360, and 240 versions for people who have slow connections.

Your original file on both Vimeo and YouTube will remain available for download later from your Video's Setting Page. I am not sure if you can make that public, but they do retain it if you wish to pull the file back at a later date.


What does a color grading software offer over a compositor?

The functionality of editing vs color grading vs compositing software is overlapping since every professional software can do a bit of everything. But they are experts in their own domain. Resolve has finer color controls (1), but also some functionality that you won't find in compositing software (2).

Will they merge some day? This does depend on the job roles. If several persons work on a project, each with his/her specialization of editing/grading/compositing, then it's better that each has his/her own program that focuses on just this task and does this best. If job roles blend (as we see with editing & grading), then we see programs emerge that are good at each of the tasks.

(1) Example: A Resolve user can choose between at least three sets of mathematical formulas for the color wheels

(2) Example: Automated shot matching


I have been looking for the same answer and found a thread in the OBS forum.

OBS does not support multitrack video support yet. The thread contains two workarounds:

Run two instances of OBS simultaneously

Directlink to post in thread

Open OBS Studio.
Sitting > hotkeys > Gave Start recording and Stop recording nice Hotkey (I use Ctrl+Shift+S and Ctrl+Shift+D)
Close then Open OBS Studio.
Open OBS Studio Again (Now you have 2 OBS Studio)
in the first OBS Go to sitting > Output > Recording > Select recording path
in the 2nd OBS Go to sitting > Output > Recording > Select recording path "Gave it another name"
Ex : Rec\FaceCame and Rec\GamePlay
Start the game and press Ctrl+Shift+S or the hotkey you pick

Drawbacks: A lot of manual steps to execute.

Increase the canvas size, place multiple videos side by side on it and split it in a video software afterwards

Directlink to post in thread

Drawbacks: No usable video output during recording.


First off, why host your own videos? YouTube, Vimeo and many others have awesome embed tools, and unless you have a couple of GB to waste on your host, they're very practical.

But to your question, 1080x720 is perfectly fine, and creates a reasonable file size. 1920x1080 is pushing it a little, and 4K is just overkill.

I'm a web developer too, and when I have to host videos for a live background, featured video, etc, 1080x720 is my go to resolution, and I host things of larger size on YouTube since they'll take something like a 4K video, and give viewers the option of a resolution as low as 360p.


How to join 2 youtube videos with different ratios (16:9 and 4:3)?

You're either going to have to resample your 4:3 video as 16:9 which will add black bars at the top and bottom, or crop the 16:9 video to fit in 4:3. Either way, the video will need to be re-edited, maybe even re-uploaded. I assume you have editor/owner access to both files?

As far as I can tell there is not way to do this on YouTube via the enhancement section on the Video Manager section. It looks like you will have to re-upload.


ISO isn't magic. When you turn up the iso you're increasing the gain on an amplifier that is amplifying an analogue signal – the light hitting the sensor – and when you amplify a signal you amplify the noise. Remember that opening up a stop is a doubling the light intensity. To get ten stops of gain on a camera with native iso of, say 200, you'd have to go to iso 204800. So whacking a 10 stop ND (also known as a 'Black Filter' because you could literally use it as welding goggles) on the front would mean that all you'd get is noise soup.

A 10 stop ND is really only useful for the harshest sunlight with a fast lens with a wide open aperture, or for still and time-lapse photography if you want extremely long exposures. It's certainly not the first filter I would buy as a beginner.

A Variable ND filter allows you to change the exposure in bright conditions without affecting other picture characteristics. Increasing the f-stop increases your depth of field, which may be undesirable, and increasing the shutter speed (i.e. reducing the exposure time) reduces motion blur, which may mean more strob-y motion (as you often see in sports coverage), again, this may not be desirable.

So a variable ND changes the exposure without changing the feel of the shot as the other ways of reducing exposure do. One thing to be aware of is that some variable ND filters do cause colour shifts across their range. So if you go for a bargain basement one off ebay buy a Macbeth card at the same time because you will have to compensate in post.


Foresight Imaging cards support all types at HD and up to 60/sec


How to import Quicktime screen recording in PP or AE?

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


Concat overlapping videos with ffmpeg using python3

I wrote the following script to solve my problem. It uses framemd5 checksums to find the inpoints in time and then uses the concat demuxer (thanks @Gyan for the tip!). I also created a gist with a more complete version that supports exact PTS inpoints using concat video filter; computing inpoints using explicit frame differences.

# Usage: ffmpeg $(python3 script.py input1.mp4 input2.mp4) -y -an output.mp4

import os
import sys
import subprocess

ffmpeg_concat_echo, md5_last_frame = '', None

for video_path in map(os.path.abspath, sys.argv[1:]):
        framemd5 = subprocess.check_output(['ffmpeg', '-nostats', '-hide_banner', '-i', video_path, '-an', '-f', 'framemd5', '-c', 'copy', '-'], stderr = open(os.devnull, 'w'))
        tb_num, tb_den = 1, 1
        inpoint = 0.0
        for line in framemd5.split(b'\n'):
                if line.startswith(b'#tb'):
                        tb_num, tb_den = list(map(int, line.split()[-1].split(b'/')))
                elif line and not line.startswith(b'#'):
                        splitted = line.split(b',')
                        md5 = splitted[-1].strip()
                        pts_time = float(splitted[2]) * tb_num / tb_den
                        if md5_last_frame is not None and md5 == md5_last_frame:
                                inpoint = pts_time
        md5_last_frame = md5
        ffmpeg_concat_echo += 'echo "file {}"; echo "inpoint {}";'.format(video_path, inpoint);

print('-nostats -hide_banner -avoid_negative_ts make_zero -fflags +genpts -f concat -safe 0 -i <({}) -c copy'.format(ffmpeg_concat_echo))


How to replace clip preserving trimming in Final Cut Pro X?

Open the existing clip.
Replace the inner clip (the start of it will be in a gray area which represents the trimming).

Warning: Audio properties such as Pan are lost during the process.


The boom mic is a sensor. It converts audio into an electrical signal. To record that signal you need a recorder of some kind, one that is capable of amplifying a microphone level signal and recording it. Usually that means a digital recording device, which could include something like a Zoom recorder, a camera with an external mic input, a phone with a mic input, or a PC with a mic input.

The type of device depends on your needs and budget. The recorder you have is the the best recorder, so if you don't want to spend money you could investigate whether you can plug an external mic into whatever equipment you have at hand.

Depending on your microphone you may need an adapter to change the plug into the plug on the device. Professional microphones almost all have a three-pin connection called an XLR connector (pictured below on the right), consumer grade mics usually have a mini-jack connector (below left). So if you have the former on your microphone, but the latter on your recorder (e.g. the Zoom H1n pictured above only has a mini-jack input), you'll need something like this:


I'm not familiar with facebook video, and maybe someone else can help with that. 70MB is insanely small for 30 mins of video. What are the properties of the source video (in Premiere, right click the source video, select Properties). Copy/Paste that info, and add it to your question if you can.

Leave the frame size / frame rate the same as the original - Premiere has a "Match Source" button in the output settings, just ensure it is ticked. Often scaling down the resolution lowers the quality too much, and I find you usually get a better trade off keeping the resolution and lowering the bit rate instead. What is the bitrate in the preset? For video files that need to be transferred, I usually output using H.264 codec, at 6Mbps target rate. That still gives me almost 50MB/minute (with audio), but retains the quality level where I need it. You could likely push that bitrate lower - try lower bitrates, see what your video looks like (if this is a fixed camera / fix background video, likely you can push the bitrate pretty hard without much impact to quality). But you won't get the FB file size with that codec, so that extra info would be handy.

For uploading, do you have Google Drive? You could sign up a free account there, and sync the files, which might make putting the video to YouTube easier than uploading direct: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/5937118?hl=en


Losslessly converting Microsoft DV to Quicktime DV

I doubt Adobe Media Encoder is rewrapping the video stream.

To copy the data losslessly from a Type 1 to Type 2 DV-AVI or to MOV, use ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, like so

ffmpeg -i input.avi -c copy -map 0 -video_track_timescale 25 output.mov


How to add location text character by character like in action movies?

I found a way:

Add title text to video
Add the Rotoscope effect to the title
At timeline start of text: draw the rotoscope shape around the text (see below)
At timeline end of text: add keyframe and move the shape behind the text (see below)
Set the effect mode to Luma
Add the Cairo Blend composition to the title
Set the gradient mode to Add

Now the title text should appear from left to right. It does not appear character by character, but this is ok.
The rotoscope effect is quite mighty - this video teached me how to use it:

Additionally I found this cool sound, which is quite exactly I was looking for:
https://freesound.org/people/Sky_Motion/sounds/416777/


There's not an industry standard, but two seconds is too long for logos.  If it were a sentence of text, then maybe, depending on how long of a sentence.

A colleague of mine once told me that you should keep text on screen for long enough for you to read aloud, backwards, one word at a time.  So, if you put, "The quick brown fox jumped over the two lazy dogs" on screen, you'd read: "dogs-lazy-two-the-over-jumped-fox-brown-quick-the" aloud, and it should take about as long as the text is on screen.  I can do that in under two seconds.

Logos are specifically designed to be identifiable by a quick glance, plus, you're talking about popping up a tile, and leaving it up, correct?  If you weren't, and each logo disappeared before the next one came up, I'd say 15 frames might be too long.  If each logo is readable after the next one pops up, you might not pause at all, depending on how they're animated, how simple/complex they are, how busy your other layout is, etc -- but I'd experiment with between 1-5 frames.

People's attention spans are shorter and shorter every day.  Cuts in movies and online videos are faster and faster every day.  Your audience is very good at identifying new information quickly.  Don't sell them short.  They'll get bored and watch something else.

Also, when a client asks for a video or video element of length X, the first revision you show them should be X/Y units of time, where Y is a positive integer, which increases the less your client knows about video.  For the average person, I'd put Y at about 3.  So, the first version I show a random person should be about 1/3 the length they'd requested (It's probably smart to let them know up front, though.)  In cases where the time is fixed, like music videos, or commercials, substitute time-of-effort for video duration.


FFmpeg merge image with video looses quality

Looks like you're aiming for DVD-spec output. By default, FFmpeg encodes to MPEG-1 video into a MPEG-1 program stream, when the output extension is .mpg. You can force MPEG-2 DVD by specifying -f dvd. And for a standard like PAL, set -target pal-dvd

Try

ffmpeg -i background.mpg -i Menu.png -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] overlay=25:25:enable='between(t,0,30)'" -pix_fmt yuv420p -target pal-dvd -f dvd merge1.mpg


Display Contents Outside of Composition Boundary?

Make the layers in the initial composition 3D layers. Then nest it in the other comp and make the layer it creates 3D, and turn on continuous rasterisation (the sun icon) for that layer. Now elements protruding beyond the edge of the nested comp will appear.

This will not create any problems if your comp is 2D, but it might create problems if you're using 3D layers in either the nested comp or the final one. The other problem is that the bounding box shown in the comp window is dynamic for a continuously rasterised layer, so it will grow to suit the size of all the visible layers.

A less kludgy way of achieving this result would be to make the nested comp big enough to fit all the action, and to add a layer to act as guide to show the size of the final frame. You could create a solid, or a shape layer with an outline or whatever you want. Unfortunately you could not use a proper guide layer, as they do not show up in nested compositions, only in the composition in which they reside. So you'd have to turn off the pseudo-guide layer before rendering.


I scaled down a video, but the bit rate does not change

The scale filter has no effect on the encoder's bitrate control.

Yes, a scaled down video should have a lower bitrate if it is encoded with the same encoder settings as the source. In your command, since no encoder parameters are explicitly set, ffmpeg defaults to encoder x264 with rate-control mode CRF with value 23. Apparently, this results in the same bitrate as the full-sized source. Set a higher value to reduce size.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=2160:2160 -crf 26 output.mp4


Apologies I'd being faffing with different scaling settings and must have got my files mixed up. The following (quoted in the question) does in fact work on this product - Living Images Li1210.

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vcodec mpeg4 -vf scale=480x234 out.avi

However the following scaling seemed to produce better results when converting from 1280x720 (youtube standard download)

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vcodec mpeg4 -vf scale=416x234 out.avi

And I think this addition from this question produced a slight improvement

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -q:v 6 -vcodec mpeg4 -vf scale=416x234 out.avi


Is it possible to have stereo sound from an external mic on a Canon Vixia HF G20

According to the Using Commercially Available Microphones section on page 76 of the manual for the HF G20, it should be possible to connect a stereo microphone to the external mic connection.  There may be some problem with the kind of a source you are using or the way you are connecting it.


Premiere distorts 2.0 anamorphic R3D footage when paused in the source viewer

Just finished working with exact same sort of footage. I never got that issue.

Update Premiere CC.
Start a new project from scratch. Import one R3D file and create a sequence from it. See what happens.
Create a new project in another editing program, one that can read R3D footage. Create brand new sequence, see what happens.
Try this solution: https://video.stackexchange.com/a/16246/11961


Audio noiseless video becomes noisy after importing in windows movie maker

Try seperating the audio and video streams of the WMV and AVI files - I don't have an app in mind but there should be some free ones avaliable. Put the video part in, which will remain in the original format (WMV or AVI) and should work. For the audio, use Soundbooth to convert it into a variety of formats like WAV, MP3, WMV, etc. until the import works without noise. I don't use MM now, but I have before and know for a fact that there are no problems with importing MP3 files.


FFmpeg: Cutting 3 seconds at the beginning of a video leaves 5 seconds blank

This is answered in FFmpeg's Seeking wiki page.
The behavior is expected: If the time hits to a space between 2 key frames, it copies only audio up to the next keyframe and fills the video with black.

There are some methods to get also the beginning.

One is to overlay the copied part with few seconds of re-encoded original.
Or, simply, seek to a bit earlier frame.
Or, find the previous keyframe and clip from that.
Or, reencoding the whole clip.

It's a bit pity that FFmpeg (AFAIK) doesn't have a feature for this built in.


FFmpeg script to clean up and compress iPhone video recordings from university lectures

This is what I have come up with so far. Feel free to improve this answer liberally, with the objective of cleaning up and encoding lecture notes, within a streamlined process.

The command is run in the working directory, e.g. cd /Users/me/Downloads, and will encode all .MOV files present.

for i in *.MOV; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -c:v libx265 -preset veryslow -crf 23 -af "volume=25dB, highpass=f=200, equalizer=f=50:width_type=h:width=100:g=-15" -c:a aac -strict experimental -b:a 192k "${i%.MOV}-ENCODED.MOV"; done

The individual settings:

Video codec: libx265 (HEVC). This codec is unorthodox because it's still in development, but it's many times better than its predecessor in keeping file sizes low. VLC supports this codec for viewing the video.
Encoding speed vs. compression density: -preset veryslow. Converting videos with this preset takes very long time, but may reduce file size with around 20 % compared to the fastest setting. If you want quicker encoding, use ultrafast, fast, medium or slow.
Video quality: -crf 23. Quite good quality. Decreasing this number will increase quality but also logarithmically increase file size. This setting strikes an okay balance between file size and quality. 18 is visually lossless but takes up much space.
Volume gain: volume=25dB
High pass filter >200 Hz: highpass=f=200
EQ notch filter @ 50Hz±100Hz (this should be mitigated by the high pass filter already, but for some reason this seems to remove background noise: equalizer=f=50:width_type=h:width=100:g=-15
Audio codec: aac
Audio quality: -b:a 192k

Optional:

Lighten video curves: -vf "curves=preset=lighter"

Ideas for improvement:

A good way to gate audio to filter out background noise and keep only the talky bits.


How do I import minidv video to windows?

of course you need software. There are several that give you 30 day trial. or you can install Ubuntu and then download the video with dvgrab. works very well.


ffmpeg: overlay rotated video with transparency

Breaking the process into two steps worked for me.

See my output using the commands below at http://sendvid.com/g56xjz04

The commands I used:

ffmpeg -y -i "video for overlay.mov" -vf "format=bgra, perspective=x0=0:y0=0:x1=W:y1=180, fade=in:10:1:alpha=1, fade=out:200:1:alpha=1, scale=-1:80, rotate=-0.1745:c=none:ow=rotw(-0.1745):oh=roth(-0.1745)" -c:v qtrle overlay.mov

ffmpeg -y -i "base.mov" -i "overlay.mov" -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] overlay=100:100:eof_action=pass [v]" -map "[v]" final_out.mov

I suspect that in the single command complex filterchain, there is some bug or nuance regarding the alpha channel operations that is generating a garbled alpha channel.

If you need a single command, I think your best way forward is to submit a bug report to the ffmpeg team, including the commands and output of both the single command and two-step process.


Sony Vegas 10 Video made from smaller quicktime mov videos look crap on youtube

I would try uploading the video to vimeo as well. Or, if you have your own website, uplaod it to there and create a simple page with an embedded player.

My experience is that YouTube sometimes adds a LOT of artifacts when it recompresses things. I've often experienced the problem you're having when I work with YouTube, but rarely with vimeo.

If Vimeo looks closer to your source material and self-hosting looks very close to it, I'd bet that it's YouTube's codec more than anything.

Good luck!


Could you tell me your input specifics. Because if the input was 60fps, there may be some problems if you render with standard settings, I once had this problem.

If you want to solve that, just click on save movie and scroll down till you see "create custom settings", then set the frame rate to 30fps, or whatever you want.


I'm generally a fan of Lynda.com. If you are a student (especially in a college environment), you may have free access to Lynda at your library. It looks like there are a series of tutorials for iMovie on their site:

http://www.lynda.com/iMovie-training-tutorials/229-0.html

Alternatively, if you search Youtube for iMovie training, you'll likely some good stuff as well (even reposted Lynda.com videos). I suspect that after about an hour of video tutorials you'd have a good sense of the key features of iMovie.


Video with person 'writing on glass' effect

There is a much better way to do that. That example video is a pretty poor illusion.

It can be done "for real" with with real light. But it looks
different. It has to be dark.
You can use motion tracking to create an animation path.
You can also use manual key frames. There are lots of tutes on the intertubes about that. Here is one:


Equipment needed to record sound when filming an interview with two people

You could simplify your costs and needs with this approach to your kit:

Get a similar unit to the Alesis PalmTrack to record your audio, preferably on 2 channels, or as a pair of Left and Right inputs from suitable microphones.
Monitor your Left & Right balance with suitable headphones to ensure the usual clean, distortion free audio.
Later, you could remix your balance levels in Audio Editing software between the 2 Mic inputs.
This would effectively eliminate the cost for the separate Audio Mixer, & the "live" audio mix.

Another solution could eliminate the need for 2 separate mics:

For any interview between 2 people, a pair of mics is almost always necessary.
However, if the camera shot and setup allows, you could park your Audio recorder on the end of a "fish pole" or "boom" attachment, and hold this over your subjects, out of shot, to record the conversation. A bit of practise and skill is required for this to be successful.
You do have to avoid the noise of handling the boom, as you 'pan' or 'swing' the recorder mics in the direction of either speaker.

Another alternative would be to park the recorder above the 2 persons, just out of shot and record audio from there. Correct positioning and minimum body movement of the subjects for the duration of the recording would be critical, however. Best done by seating both at a table, or similar.

A look online at some setup examples, like the searches below might help to visualise a rig:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Film+interview+audio+setups&tbm=isch

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Film+interview+setups&tbm=isch


How to post-process an image to turn trees blue and a face yellow?

There are multiple things going on between the before and after image.  The first aspect is a color space conversion.  The original image is recorded in a "log" color space.

A log, or logarithmic, color space is designed to capture more detail in the shadows and bright areas of an image allowing for the image to be manipulated more easily in post production.  While RAW files can be used in digital still photography, the size is fairly limiting for video usage outside of very high end setups (and even then it is costly due to the tremendous data rates).  To provide a mix of flexibility between cost and post production adjustment, log color spaces sacrifice data about the midtones of an image to be able to capture more detail in the areas of contrast.  This gives much greater flexibility in adjusting the color and exposure of an image in post without needing pure raw data, however it makes the images take on a decidedly flat appearance as it is not a color space designed to emulate human vision, but rather to capture information about the image that can be used to produce an image in a linear color space that will look more natural to the eye.

The second thing being done is a color grade pass.  Color grading is the process by which a colorist adjusts the color of a video and gets a consistent look and feel between clips and to set the look of the overall video.  A variety of tools can be used, including color balance adjustments such as RGB curves which will impact the response of different colors between various different portions of the image (based on luminosity or brightness).  Hue adjustment tools, which will adjust the hue (or color) of different colors within the image, or LUTs (look up tables) which provide a fixed set of color replacements that can be applied to an image to produce a new set of color values given a set of colors taken in.

My best guess at this particular before and after is that the log color was balanced and adjusted to a normal linear color space and then a filmic LUT was applied that has a bluish tint to the greens.  It may have been an out of the box LUT from a vendor or a custom designed LUT depending on the colorist.  It is certainly attempting to emulate a more filmic look though to emulate the color response of film more so than typical video.


Make your strokes using the pen tool directly as a Shape Layer instead of the way you're doing it.
You will see an option for line caps and line joins. They can be round or square:

To reveal the logo, put your original logo on the layer beneath the Shape Layer, then set the Track Matte on the original logo to Alpha Matte.  It will use the alpha of the layer above. You may need to press the "Toggle Switches/Masks" button to reveal the Track Matte options on the layer:

Do the reveal animation by adding a Trim Path to your Shape Layer:


Best video format for a retired PowerPC (iBook G4)?

MPEG4 encoded with Handbrake, or use Xvid with ffmpegX.

MacRumors PowerPC forum is definitely a better place to discuss this.


Camera Is Shaking Slowly After Changing Its Position

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();
}


1) your Panasonic footage will be H.264; GoPro may be H.264 or H.265. These are inter-frame codecs whereas ProRes is an intra-frame codec (each frame is coded standalone and doesn't depend on other frames for decoding). So, you should consider a higher bitrate to maintain source quality.

2) FFmpeg does allow you to set a custom quantizer but by default it will use a fixed quality setting per profile. For custom quant, use -global_quality N.

3) FFmpeg has to convert to the given pixel format which is what output -pix_fmt will do. The encoder only encodes i.e. takes in raw uncompressed input frames and delivers coded data.


Is this projector capable of 1080i resolution?

Yes

Most projectors support multiple resolutions.  The specifications list all resolutions supported by the projector.

The projector you are asking about will handle 1024x768, 480p, 720p, and 1080i.


How do I get Stereo + 5.1 for YouTube videos?

It's not very clear what they mean. If you look further down on the same page it says it accepts 5.1 @ 512 kbps.

Recommended audio bitrates for uploads

Mono    128 kbps
Stereo  384 kbps
5.1     512 kbps

YouTube doesn't currently support 5.1 playback. If you upload a 5.1 audio track it gets converted to stereo.


find soundtrack with the cheapest licence

As far as I'm aware. There is no 'soundhound' or Shazam type app for royalty free stock music. Usually these websites require that the owner only sell the music on their website rather than a competitors. I'd say the likelihood of finding the same song another site is slim.

With that being said for cheap stock music I always go to audiojungle and for the higher budgeted jobs I go to musicbed. Sometimes I will check out extrememusic just to establish what the client likes; but that sites tends to be studio-only unless you are willing to fork out $$$.


How to create Final Cut Pro files on Windows machine?

If you have, or can rent Adobe Premiere you can export as FCP XML from that. Davinci Resolve does too, but I'm not sure if the capability is included in the free version.


LoopOut() loops after the last keyframe, and by default it loops all the keyframes. Unless you have a specific need to use expressions, this would be easier to achieve by just setting keyframes.

Once you have time remapping enabled, go to the 3 minute mark and add a keyframe.
Then go to the frame one frame before 4 minute mark and add another.
Select the last three keyframes (3 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes in your example).
Copy them ctrlc.
Delete the last keyframe
Park the playhead one frame after the 4 minute keyframe and paste ctrlv. The 3 minute keyframe should be at the exact 4 minute mark. Since the timing of the subsequent keyframes is undisturbed, the video will run at the right speed.

Your keyframes should look like this:

0=====3+++④3+++④=====5 ←keyframes
0.....3....4....5....6 ←time

(the ④ indicates the frame one frame before the four minute mark)

for extra credit change the first 4 minute keyframe (the one that has the 3 minute keyframe right after it) to a hold keyframe (Right-click and Toggle Hold Keyframe). This is because if you have motion blur or frame blending on it can cause strangeness as the layer is "rewound" between the two keyframes.


Convert video from 9:16 to 1:1 with blurred box using ffmpeg?

You're missing the input to the filtergraph, for example 0:v. There are other issues though, so this is what works for me:

ffmpeg -i VID_20190619_205627.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]scale=1080:1080,setdar=1:1,gblur=sigma=20[bg]; \
[0:v]scale=-1:1080[ov]; \
[bg][ov]overlay=(W-w)/2:0[mix]" \
-map [mix] -r 25 out.mp4 -y

the first chain of the filtergraph scales the input video to 1080 x 1080, forces the display aspect ratio to 1:1 and blurs the video. This is the background (bg)
the second chain takes the input video again and scales it to ? x 1080. This is the video that will be overlaid (ov)
the last chain overlays the scaled video (ov) on the blurred background (bg), and produced the output (mix), which is then chosen as the output with -map.

Note that the blurred background is stretched in this way.

Depending on the type of input, you might want to force the frame rate with -r 25 or similar, and to copy the audio track with -map 0:a -c:a copy.


Configure file naming & presents in Adobe Media Encoder

You can change the format, once you add a watch folder to your watch folders window, click the F4V under the format tab, and you can configure how you want each video from that watch folder to be set as...

Furthermore if you click the output folder destination, you can change the filename and destination in which the movie will be saved to.

Hope this helps


How to Fix Warp Stabilizer Incorrect Rotation

sorry I don't use this forum and have zero time to answer, but from the clip you posted I'd strongly suggest you don't use warp stabilizer - instead use "stabilize motion" and then make sure to check the "rotation" parameter so that you are given a second tracker - then once you've stabilized the position and rotation of the footage you'll have to do a little extra to manually slide the footage left or right depending on where the camera goes (look into stuff like "setting a null as the target for tracking motion" and you'll get a better understanding of all this stuff).


This is quite simple.  Use any keyer of your choice that can give you a good mask for the layer, then place an "Alpha Adjust" layer below it in the Effects control and click the "Invert Alpha" checkbox.  This will invert the alpha channel produced by the keyer and reverse the effect the way you are looking for.


The biggest problem you are facing is that a DSLR typically records to the H.264 codec. That codec tries to minimize the file size and the only way to achieve that is to throw out negligible information.
Sadly human eyes are not sensitive to black parts of video, so dark areas are highly compressed. That means you will have a really hard time brightening your footage, since most information is simply lost.

Had you had access to a RAW or lossless recording codec, you might have been able to recover a reasonable amount of your footage, but that would have cost much more storage space and meant more post production work.

If you would like to learn more about codecs, there is an in-depth explanation on Phillip Bloom's Blog.


Include playhead position in premiere pro history

I don't think you can.  Try using the Lift and Extract functions instead of cutting using the playhead position.
Set the In and Out points using I and O
"Lift" the section you want to remove using ; if you want to "lift" it (copy it, leaving a gap in the timeline)
Or use ' if want to "extract" (copy it and ripple the rest of the timeline.
You playhead position will be unaffected.
More here:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/lift-extract-premiere-pro/


You can just use the protocol

ffmpeg -i "concat:in1.ts|in2.ts|in3.ts" -c:v libx264 -r 30000/1001 -vf scale=640:480 -aspect 4:3 -preset slow -crf 22 output.mp4


Personally, I don't think those videos look very good. I certainly wouldn't take their message seriously given their poor quality.

But that point aside, many people use either Apple Motion or Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics. Motion offers "behaviors" that make moving objects around a little easier if you aren't familiar with keyframing.


How do I Import an Adobe Animate file with a transparent background into After Effects

To export out a video so it has an alpha channel! I hope, You need to export the file as an SWF file and I hope it'll work for you!


How are/were low-light scenes such as concerts shot on film?

Multiple possibilities, many of them you have mentioned. I believe the most likely is that the person who filmed this used a "fast lens", meaning a lens that lets in lots of light. If you want to know more about the process of filming in low-light conditions on film, you can check out documentaries on Barry Lyndon by Kubrick.


You can grab the corners of the webcam object on the screen and expand it to fit the canvas.  Make sure the webcam source is the correct resolution (in the Sources column, right-click on Video Capture and click Properties, then check the Preset drop down).
Also check the Base (canvas) resolution is the size you want in the Preferences - Video settings.
Animated gif showing the process:


How to reduce eye strain when video editing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


How are video and audio streams placed in 'container' files and what interrelations do they have?

The basics of that are actually not that complicated (while there is definitely more to know about that topic than would fit in this answer).

Take a look at that graphic you can find on the w3c-website:

As you can see, the container is exactly that: a container that can contain different types of media, most notably video and audio, but also captions and metadata about the file. When you speak about a "file format", you're normally talking about the container format, after which the file extension for normal video files is named. This is why you've probably seen many video files with file extensions such as .avi, .mp4, .mkv and the likes.

When you look at the contents of this container, you will normally have at least one video and one audio track, those are referred to as "streams". Streams can be encoded using different codecs. A codec is, in layman's terms, an algorithm (or rather a set of algorithms) which is used to compress a (video or audio) stream. The more efficient the codec, the better the ratio of (video/audio) quality to file size. Two very common codecs are the H.264 (MPEG-4/AVC) codec for video and the AAC codec for audio. Those are popular because they are very efficient, thus you can have very small files with (relatively) good quality.

So to sum this up, the container is some sort of "wrapper" that contains the actual media streams. Different container formats allow for different kinds of streams. For example, the .avi-container is very limited, you can only have one audio stream and one video stream. The matroska-container (.mkv files) is a good alternative if you need more than that. Matroska is a very flexible container that allows for multiple audio streams (e.g. for different languages), subtitles and more. However, many devices (e.g. most TVs with a USB port) don't support that standard. This is where the .mp4-container (MP4 being the standard-container for the MPEG-4-standard, which is a huge topic on it's own) comes in handy, because nearly all devices can playback files that use this container format along with the H264 & AAC codecs. This combination is the most common approach for easily interchangable video files, which for example is used by most video hosting platforms such as Youtube.

Changing the file extension is generally a stupid idea. If you change an .avi file to something like .mp4, it might work on your TV in some instances, but that is just because your TV is stupid (i.e. it knows the codecs of the streams, but doesn't even try to play them if it doesn't recognise the file extension or something like that). Container format's don't behave like text-files, you can't just change the extension and expect the container format to somehow magically change as well. If you can't open a specific video file, use the VLC video player, it supports most commonly used file formats and codecs. If you want/need to watch it on a specific device such as your TV which doesn't support the codec, you can re-encode it (not a good idea, because that means quality loss) or remux it, i.e. take the individual streams and put them in different containers (which is a bit more complicated but yields better results).


How do you get the highest quality type in After Effects?

It depends on how bad the aliasing is, but a very slight fast blur can sometimes smooth a layer that looks too digital. I most often use this on thin linework, but sometimes type as well.


If you’re going wired, you’re going to be limited to roughly 25 feet before you need to reclock the signal. HDMI simply isnt designed for long runs. There are 50’ cables out there, my experience is their performance is spotty.

You could go with a Wireless Solution HDMI solution. I recommend the Nyrius line of transmitters/receivers which you can buy on Amazon. The Pro version is roughly $300 and you can get a solid HD signal to reach 100+ feet line of sight.

Otherwise, buy the Black Magic Design converters, one to convert HDMI to HD-SDI and one to convert HD-SDI to HDMI and run a long BNC cable. That solution will give you 300 Feet.

If you need longer, do same as HD-SDI concept but do Fiber LCLC instead. you can run it 25 Miles.


How to scroll using a trackpad in After Effects?

Hold down the alt (option) key on the keyboard, and do a two-finger zoom in the trackpad (make sure you've enabled two-finger zoom in system settings).


Cross dissolve introduces blocky artifacts

As this answer alludes to, it's probably an issue with the target bitrate:

  800kbps is very low for 1080p. It probably works for lecture notes
  because there isn't much change from frame to frame, but blocking
  occurs during the transition because there isn't enough bandwidth to
  handle all the changes. Here are a few alternatives:

  Keep average bitrate low but increase the maximum bitrate; this will potentially provide headroom for the transitions
  Use a wipe or slide transition instead of fade so that only part of the image changes at a given time
  Do not use a transition; just cut to black (or white, or a new title); this alternative will likely produce the best results

  A few notes about your other settings:

  Render at Maximum Bit Depth matters if processing and exporting at 10+ bits per channel; you can leave it unchecked for H.264
  Maximum Render Quality is intended for use when exporting at smaller dimensions than the sequence
  Changing Stream Compatibility to Standard and Profile to Main or High will provide better compression via CABAC encoding; however, the
  compressed file might not play on some devices (Main Profile will be
  more compatible than High)
  Consider publishing low-bitrate versions at lower resolution (1280x720 or even 854x480) and encode 1080p at higher bitrate;
  similarly, retangular pixels (1440x1080) can help, but the video won't
  play correctly in many media players

Turns out when I chose H.264 as the format and Match Source - High Bitrate as the preset, the default target bitrate was very low (10 Mbps). For a 4K video, you probably want to use VBR, 2 pass with Target Bitrate set to 44 Mbps, and Maximum Bitrate set to 56 Mbps.

This also explains why my resulting videos in Premiere were originally much smaller than similar ones created in Final Cut Pro.

If you're uploading to YouTube, you can use the YouTube 2160p 4K Ultra HD present, which will choose a respectable 40 Mbps. The one caveat is that there are two versions of "4K" and there's a possibility that your source clips will get cropped with these export settings. To verify, you should temporarily "match source" on the width/height of the video, and verify that those are the same as the YouTube preset you chose.

Although even with this preset, you may want to follow some of the suggestions in this article and tweak it to use VBR, 2 pass. Although the low bitrate mentioned in the article should probably be avoided.


Rendering video with custom data provided by user

The most sensible thing to do would be to host the service on your own. If you want users to input text, images and maybe even videos, you need a storage-unit which writes and reads these files incredibly quickly. An SSD-based server with a raid security would be appropriate. For the rendering: You could set up a standard After-Effects or Nuke Project. For After-Effects, you would need to do a lot of scripting to change the individual elements from your comp, but for Nuke, it should be easier, since Nuke is entirely in python and deals well with custom python-scripts. You'd then have to automate upon request that, first off, the Nuke-Script gets duplicated for the running instance, then replace the contents (text, images, etc.) accordingly, and render out. For rendering, I would recommend a GPU or CPU-based rendering-cluster with as many gpus or cpus as you need.
There probably are services that kind of do something similar, but they are either crazy expensive and not adjustable, or deviate from what you want to do.
Just don't expect this ordeal to be cheap and you won't run into bad surprises.


How to filter out overlapping audio? Given a mixed track and one stem track, what's the best way to "subtract" the stem from the mix?

Inverting the background should work, that's exactly how a balanced audio connection works to eliminate noise, but how exact a match is your isolated background track compared to the mixed track? It's only going to fully work if it is recorded at the exact same quality, volume, etc, and the timing is precisely the same. What was the recording source for each track? How confident are you that the two sets of background audio that were recorded are identical to each other?


Manual white-balance for non-neutral lighting

I think your eyes acclimatise to the ambient colour temperature in the room, so one tends not to notice that whites are looking warmer under incandescent light, unless there is a cooler light source nearby to compare it with.
If you don't plan to do any colour correction in post, then you should shoot as close as you can to your desired output. But this is difficult to achieve because of the acclimatisation I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
This is why people shoot to a neutral standard of white that can be defined using their camera's metering.
In general I have would say that there is no neutral lighting - all light has a temperature, whether cloudy outdoors, fluorescents, incandescents etc.
What is more important is to avoid mixing different light sources on the same subject, because it then becomes very difficult to make any corrections without everything else looking wrong.
Small amounts of colour correction from 8 bit material can be done without the image falling to pieces (although it's not ideal). The bigger problem with 8 bit video is when you try to raise shadows or recover highlights.


JVC Everio GZ-MS90E aspect ratio is 5:4 instead of 16:9

Now I found the right way for my footage. It was simple: Just right click on the footage, and select Ändern » Filmmaterial interpretieren. This is probably Change » Footage or something like that.

Then I fored premiere to use the aspect ratio D1/DV PAL Widescreen 16:9 and everything is fine.


It depends on a lot of details you haven't covered here. You need about 3 Mbps to have sufficient overhead to maintain a well compressed 720p stream (the quality that Hulu Plus uses), but you would need specialized hardware to keep a good quality 720p stream encoding on the fly.  Most likely, you are going to be looking at significantly more than that if you are trying to software or CUDA encode on the fly since it won't be able to get as high of quality with as little data.

Note that this is only talking about sending the feed to a single system as well.  The most common case for distributing to multiple viewers is to encode and upload to either a CDN (content distribution network) or your own live streaming server that is in a data center somewhere.  With that kind of a setup, your one connection can be replicated out over a 100Mbps or 1000Mbps connection to many more viewers.

You can use overly compressed settings to reduce the bandwidth needs further, but it will start showing as a really noticeable reduction in meaningful resolution.  There might still be an HD number of pixels, but they won't have the kind of detail you'd normally expect from HD since it would be over-compressed.

There can be a lot of variation on that too though.  If you are live-streaming something that isn't real life, compression tricks can be used to make it much more highly compressed for example, so this still isn't a one size fits all answer, but it covers the general live video streaming case for professional level quality.


Looking for a specific transition for Adobe Premiere

This may get down-votes since it's so manual and doesn't have perfect video quality, but I'll offer it anyway.

CREATING THE GENERIC TRANSITION

Bring 30 clips into a project.
Shrink the scale of all of them.
Drag them onto the timeline so they're all playing at the same time.
Position them in a grid.
Export that project in the best possible quality you can.

CREATING THE SPECIFIC TRANSITION

Open the generic transition video in a new project. Place it on the timeline.
Bring in the 2 videos you want to transition between.
Shrink their scales, put them on the timeline, and position them over 2 of the existing videos.
Export that project in the best possibly quality (matching the generic clip).

USING THE SPECIFIC TRANSITION

Import that specific transition into your project.
At the end of the first clip, place the specific transition on the timeline.
Animate the motion of the transition: Start with the scale zoomed in on the "starting" video. Scale back to 100% while moving the clip to center the "ending" video. Scale up (zoom in) on the "ending" video.
When the "ending" video fills the screen, cut the specific transition.
Add the actual "ending" video to the timeline. Trim the left end of the clip to match the right end (last frames) of the clip in the specific transition.

I haven't tried this but in my mind it should work really well.  The video quality will be a bit lower during the transition, but it may not be noticeable - especially in lower-quality environments (like web video) or if the transition is brief (1-2 seconds).


Why does HDMI out on my Canon 5D Mark III work with my TV but not my Lilliput monitor or BlackMagic Design Shuttle 2?

Some DSLRs output HDMI video that does not meet full HDMI specifications. It is not unusual to find combinations of source and destination gear that is incompatible.  The HDMI can be viewed on permissive screens (consumer TV receivers, etc.) but not on more professional gear that strictly adheres to the HDMI standard protocols.


Improving frame/image quality on Handbrake?

Under the video tab, you'll see two options. Video Codec, which is how the video is encoded (h.264 is the standard for .mp4 files), and Quality, which controls the level of video compression that occurs.

It's the Quality slider that you're mostly worried about if you want to keep it an mp4. Drag that slider to the right to improve the quality (this will also increase the file size) or to the left to decrease the file size (this will also decrease the quality). Or if you know exactly the size of file you want, divide the desired file size by the number of seconds and you can input the kb/s that you want the video to be compressed to (smaller file sizes means higher compression and lower quality, higher file sizes equals less compression and higher quality).

In order to test to make sure that you like your quality selection and file size, you can choose a single chapter of the film (if your cdr has that stored) and run that through the encoder and test the quality.

Another thing that is available to choose is the video resolution, but in my experience with handbrake, it's quite temperamental, so I only recommend messing with that if you really need to.


Is there a Youtube-supported subtitle format that does positioning + Unicode?

Based on this Medium post by Michael Lockrey, I have been able to get positioning to work like this:

TIMECODE align:left size:25% position:0% line:50%

Make sure there are NO spaces around the colon: align: left will NOT work.  I lost an hour of my life because I didn't realize this.


ffmpeg Does using SSD improve render times when disk usage 100%?

Try using one disk for source material and a separate disk for the rendered video output.

There are lots of different SSD disks - cheap MLC ones, and more expensive but faster SLC ones.

If using RAID, there are several types. RAID5 and RAID1 probably won't be faster. RAID0 (striped array) is intended to be faster than a single disk.

What interface are you using? If you are using it as a removable drive, have you changed it to allow write-behind caching? (This allows the computer to move on while the drive is still writing the buffer to disk)


On professio al sets with a camera crew, there is an extra person which pulls the focus.
We don't really use automatic focus.
This needs some training, but it's not so hard to pull off.

Normally, you attach 15mm rods to the camera body, on which you then mount the FF system, "wired" systems start at around 20$, useable ones at around 100$.

Wireless you could take a Tilta Nucleus Nano for 230$


FFmpeg - how to omit individual frames by the list of their numbers?

The direct selection method is simple.

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf select='not(eq(n,45)+eq(n,47)+eq(n,75))',setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB out.mp4

Frame count starts from zero.  Audio is ignored.

(I'll check for a detection method)


Can I use ffmpeg to encode a video for Camtasia import?

@Gyan is correct. add
-pix_fmt yuv420p
I was in the exact situation @MatrixManAtYrService described and the video imported into Camtasia Studio correctly after converting with -pix_fmt yuv420p


Why is 4K downsampled so much better than 1080p at low bitrates?

First let me explain chroma subsampling, as this is the reason why 4k -> 1080p always looks better than native 1080p

Consumer & pro-sumer camera gear, anything not super high end, cuts some corners to save on processing and storage.  You'll find this information when you look in your specs and see the 4:2:2 like number.  So what's happening is for every 4 pixels, in a square, 2 of them are being used for color (so the top 2 pixels are the same color, and the bottom two pixels are the same color) and all 4 pixels have their own brightness level so that you get the appearance of 4 different colors in this 2x2 block of pixels.  This reduces the amount of data by 1/3rd and what's even more popular even in higher end equipment is 4:2:0 which cuts the data in half.  The reason it saves so much is because a color requires 3 pieces of information plus 1 piece for brightness, so 4 per pixel, but if you throw away color information but keep half or all the brightness, you can approximate the colors.  This is generally imperceivable to the naked eye but it's still a detail shortcut and it's problematic for green screening where you now have multiple mixes of green and non green mixing together and is part of the reason why you see a green halo around people in amateur green screening.

This concept is applied at any level you are recording, so if you record at 1080p your camera is probably doing 422 or 420 and if you kick it up to 4k it's still doing 422/420 but when you down sample 4k to 1080p e, you turn a 2x2 block of pixels into 1 pixel, so now you have all the color and light detail so you are essentially at 444 quality, which is maximum detail.

You can read more about it on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling


final cut pro x - 1440 x 1080 prevent video stretched to fill in timeline

I did a test for you and Larry is right ... Normally if the footage or file was anything other than 1440x1080, all you would need to do it set your Spatial Conform to none. However, in this instance FCPX is forcing a size based on the magic 1440 number. To correct this, select your clip and click the drill down triangle under scale in transform. Change just the X: scale to 75% because 1440 is 75% of 1920. That should do it!


Is coaxial cable an option for distances of around 150 m to transfer SDI digital signals

300 Feet is about as far as you can take SDI or HD-SDI; before it needs to be reclocked. So no, 150 M is too far. Also the quality of cable; and if it's being run in parallel with other cables that cause interference can affect how long you can go.

You can reclock at the half way point using a distribution amplifier, and you'll lose 1 frame of sync for each time you reclock.

Your next best option is to run Fiber Optic; which you can run for 25 miles without having to deal with any signal loss issues.


Adobe Premiere Pro Preview Not Playing Full Speed

1. Corrupted Media

I'd bet you've got a problem with your media.

The hint is that Premier Pro auto-detects it at 10fps.

Premier Pro is broadcast production ready, so it's unlikely the cause.

You could try ffmpeg to give you an idea of what's wrong.

ffmpeg -v error -i file.avi -f null - 2>error.log

That will give you a log file of errors.

see https://superuser.com/questions/100288/how-can-i-check-the-integrity-of-a-video-file-avi-mpeg-mp4

2. Cache

Another thought is there may be cached media previews that are broken. So clean the media cache database and move it off your boot disk.

3. Overclocking

I don't like overclocking a system until I know it's stable. That could be a problem there.

4. Windows version

You don't mention which version of Windows you're running (7-10?) I don't know anyone running production systems on 10. But that's not a lot of people.


How to trim, crop, and concatenate a reverse into video at the same time

Run

ffmpeg -ss 00:00:10.50 -t 3 -i MVI_0289.mov -filter_complex "reverse,fifo[r];[0:v][r] concat=n=2:v=1,crop=720:720:600:80[v]" -map "[v]" OUTPUT2.mp4


How can I make professional video using an iPad?

Trade in the iPad and buy a desktop or laptop that you can edit on.  You will not produce professional results entirely on an iPad.  I am not aware of any good video editing options for iPad, certainly none of the big names have a product available.  There simply isn't enough horsepower on a tablet to perform the hard, complex operations involved in video editing in a smooth and timely manner.

(Minor correction: There is a version of iMovie available and Pinnacle does have a video editor available as well.  These are both makers of some of the better consumer focused stuff and could be considered big names, particularly since Pinnacle was previously held by Avid for a while, but I would still consider these cumbersome and limiting.  It probably IS possible to produce a professional quality result, but you'd have to work really hard at it.)

You could use the iPad for shooting the video and get decent results with proper usage, but you will still need a lot of other equipment to compensate for the iPad's camera short comings.

Lighting will be super important.  You will need lots of light, placed well so that there is sufficient light for the sensor and no shadows that the camera's dynamic range can't deal with.  This is also more than just having lamps, but also the stands to position them where you need them and modifiers to adjust the way the light falls on the scene to make good, even lighting.

Sound will also be another issue.  You will want an external mic.  People have reported being able to use USB mics with the iPad Camera Connection Kit, but I couldn't find anything verifying if it would work with professional audio interfaces or a microphone more designed for video situations.  Another option (which is what you will commonly see in more professional productions) is to use a separate audio recorder, such as a Zoom h4n to record audio and sync it up in post production.  Even if you really wanted to stick with your plan to use the iPad for the editing, you could transfer the files off the SD card using the previously mentioned camera connection kit.

You will also need a stand and tripod that can hold the iPad securely.  There are numerous options available and I don't have any particular experience with any particular model, but being able to shoot stable smooth video is an absolutely critical aspect of any high quality video shoot.  If you shot is purely static, you might be able to prop it up like Jason suggested, though it also then runs the risk of slipping or more easily getting jostled, and as he points out, you won't be able to do a shot with any movement, so I'd highly recommend a tripod.

If you can handle those three things, that should allow for decent quality footage to be shot on the iPad, but you are probably looking at between $450 ($200 dirt cheap lighting, $50 tripod adapter, $50 dirt cheap tripod, $100 - $150 relatively cheap usb consumer audio mic) and $1300+ ($500 ok lighting, $250 basic pro audio recorder, $150-$200 decent video mic, $50 tripod adapter, $250-$350 ok tripod) of gear to supplement it.

I want to emphasis that the $450 is about the cheapest you could possibly go while still calling it "professional video".  You can make something that looks ok for a consumer project for less, but really pulling off professional video is unfortunately not particularly cheap even if costs have dropped like a rock in the last 10 to 15 years.  (You can now do for $15,000 what used to cost $150,000+.)

Finally, practice and experience is key.  There is more to producing professional results than the right equipment, you also need to know how to use it properly.  There is far too much to doing this to summarize in a single QA post, but pre-planning is really key.  If you know your shots and plan the video out before you shoot, you can make sure you get all the shots you need and make sure that they flow well from one to the next.  You can plan the angles to shoot from and what you want the end product to look for.  Even with hundreds of thousands of dollars of high end professional gear, the result will look like someone's home movies without planning and organization to accomplish a consistent vision for the video.


Difference between 10bit 4:2:2 and 10bit display panels

The bit depth and the sub-sampling method are related but different parameters of the imaging system. As you noted, the bit depth determines how many different colors the system can display. The more colors that can be imaged, the closer to reality the image looks. You also get fewer quantizing artifacts.

The sub-sampling method is a form of compression. Human vision is less sensitive to colors than it is to luminance, or black/gray/white, information. By only sampling some pixels for color, the system saves data by trading off some resolution.

(You should note that the "better film cameras" you reference in your question probably use 4:4:4 sub-sampling and better/professional video equipment use 4:2:2.)

You can have any combination of bit depth and sub-sampling. So a system can be, among other possible configurations:

8-bit 4:2:2
8-bit 4:4:4
10-bit 4:2:2
10-bit 4:4:4


Convert interlaced(?) video to progressive

Scan type                   : MBAFF
Scan type, store method     : Separated fields
Scan order                  : Top Field First

MBAFF Information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Video_Coding
Not sure how did you get such information, MediaInfo? But those Scan information can't be a progressive.


How would I develop AGFA Moviechrome 40 film?

You could try giving Film Rescue International a go. Their FAQ predicts the results of Moviechrome to be on "poor" quality level, and  people seem to agree.

There's also Rocky Mountain in US; Process C-22 and FotoStation in UK.


Add text to first video, add audio and watermark to second video and then add crossfading to these two videos and one another video using one command?

Use

ffmpeg -y -i intro.mp4 -i mainvideo.mp4 -i outro.mp4 -i EnergyAudio.mp3 \
       -i vcs-watermark-video.png \
       -filter_complex \
"[0:v]drawtext=...,fade=t=out:st=5:d=1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v0]; \
 [1:v][4]overlay=W-w-5:H-h-5,fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=31:d=1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v1]; \
 [2:v]fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v2]; \
 [3:a]volume=enable='between(t,0,32)':volume=-10dB[3a];[1:a][3a]amerge=inputs=2,pan=stereo[maina]; \
 [v0][0][v1][maina][v2][2]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1[outv][outa]" \
       -vcodec libx264 -c:a aac -ac 2 -map "[outv]" -map "[outa]" '.$fileName.'


my client is unhappy with the video editing of the evening dancing as we havent used the actual audio but used songs that were playing that evening

I would suggest trying to combine the two audio feeds.  If you layer the room audio with the clean audio, it will probably help make things more usable.  Otherwise I would give the customer what they asked for.  Ultimately, I don't think it is your failing to have had blown out room audio when there would be no good reason to use the room audio.

As an aside, you should also consider the legal ramifications of using either the room audio or clean audio.  Unless you have rights to the songs being played, you are most likely violating copyright and if they go posting it online, there is a reasonable enough chance to find yourself sitting on the wrong end of a lawsuit, again depending on jurisdiction and how much attention the video gets.


resulting video has smaller dimensions but much more mb in size

The "Internet HDV 720-30p" template uses as default a data rate of 8 MBit/s.
If you want to reduce the size of your video from 55mb to below 17mb, you should set the avarage bit rate at maximum 2.000.000.
If the file size is still bigger than expected, you may activate "two pass rendering" and see whether that helps.


Too much bass in desktop sounds with a headset, but not during recording, only afterwards

The fact that is sounds fine on your laptop speakers is probably because they do not reproduce much bass anyway.
To be sure that there is a difference in the recording, and the "live" sound, you could directly compare your recording after doing something like listening to a song on youtube, without changing volume. This allows you to go back and forth. If you're sure there is a difference you could post the example here.


Adobe released Photoshop CC 2015.0.1 this evening and it seems to have fixed the problem. (I had tried again with a short clip and couldn't get any sound.)

So, unfortunately, I don't really know what the problem was, but this patch seems to have fixed it.


Does Adobe Premiere CC support export via network?

I believe this is not possible natively. However, Deadline, a third-party render management system, does support Premiere Pro projects via Adobe Media Encoder jobs. Even distributed rendering may be possible.


how to decide the appropriate resolution when recording my screen for uploading online?

Recording full screen, if your hardware allows you to do it smoothly, is your best option. You can always crop or mask out unwanted areas later in editing. You won't have that freedom if you crop the input at the time of recording. An exception to this rule of thumb can be made if you're absolutely sure that the area of interest is a portion of the screen at an unchanging location.

As long as different recordings are made at the same aspect ratio i.e. ratio of width to height, they may be edited together without creating an obvious mismatch e.g. if you record one video at 1280x720 and the second at 960x540, then since they're both in the ratio of 16:9, you can switch between them seamlessly. But if you record the second at 720x540, then there will be black space to the sides ("pillarboxing") when you switch to the second video in the editor. There's nothing particularly wrong about this, just a matter of style. To avoid pillarboxing in such cases, you will have to crop and zoom in on the second video so that you display a 720x405 portion of it. But that way, you may cut out something you needed to show.

Ideally, you should record at the highest resolution at which you can capture smoothly i.e. without dropping too many frames.


How can I stream to a single channel, from multiple geographical locations?

Hangouts On Air will allow you to stream your G+ Hangouts to Youtube. This should allow you to reach as large an audience as you wish.


The Zapcode Creator compresses the video further in order to reduce download size of the video and so that it will run in an AR camera view on lower end devices. This means that it will be lower resolution than what you have uploaded.

If you like you can email us at support@zappar.com and we can take a look at your Zapcode and video to see if there's any specific suggestions we can give.

Hope that helps!


Convert VfW-codec based video to "normal" (Windows)

While it can't go direct to H.264, VirtualDub I believe can work with Vfw codecs and can transcode to something more compatible with your other tools.  I don't know if Quicktime for Windows supports Vfw codecs or not, but I do believe the Pro version of Quicktime supports H.264 encoding.

If you have Adobe Media Encoder, it would also easily do what you are looking for, but I believe it only comes with the Adobe suite, thus would be prohibitively expensive if you don't have it already.


How is the default video player in Windows 10 achieving the low CPU utilization while playing FHD videos

Quite possible that the Windows player can make use of some HW acceleration the others can not / are not using.

Check this how to enable HW video decoding on VLC:

https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding
https://superuser.com/q/128478/228841

If you are using VLC 2.2.2 check this
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=130590

UPDATE from the author of the question:
Adding screenshot from VLC v. 2.2.1 to compliment this answer.

VLC 2.2.1 with Hardware Acceleration enabled.


Dropping framerate when recording games with Bandicam

You are hitting a bottleneck of some kind - from your description it is hard to see whether it is CPU or I/O based, but things that could well be culprits:

You are only running with 3GB of RAM - this is pretty low. The Java engine can require large amounts of RAM. I play a fair bit of Minecraft and 8GB really helped me out!
A Core 2 Duo is not exactly cutting edge - get a nice fast Quad Core i7 CPU if you want a gaming machine.

Until you upgrade, the following may help:

Your drives should be on separate controllers, otherwise they will have to share the bandwidth.
Reduce screen resolution and graphics depth/quality
Shut down all other applications (including background apps)


How can I edit in FCPX like I would for a live event when I have multiple sync'd tracks of the same event?

Multicam clips do exactly what you're asking.  There's a good tutorial on how to use them here.


How to dynamically add texture to an object in a video and get a new video?

If I understand you correctly, this is traditionally done by compositing programs such as Adobe After Effects.  You could track the wall and then replace the wall with an image but it's going to be a lot trickier if anything is moving in front of the wall.  (You would need to make a rotoscope mask to tell it where not to render the image.)  You could then simply change out the image that is being applied to the wall.


Composition shows mask instead of content

Check whether you have Collapse Transformations enabled in your comp1.  It's a litte sun icon:


1080 would suggest full HD, the rub is that DVD is not HD. At best DVD is 720 x 480 so I believe that PR5.5 like many other pro editors is scaling your 1080 to fit in this smaller screen format, so letter boxing would be expected.


Different transform options of shape layers

Shape layers can comprise more than one shape, indeed they can contain multiple groups of shapes. So when you have multiple elements in a shape layer and want to transform one of them but not the others you use the individual transforms for that part, when you want to transform the whole layer you use the normal layer transforms.

If your shape layer only contains one element then there is really no difference, except that the layer transforms are accessible to keyboard shortcuts, e.g. P for position, S for scale etc., and work with nudging, e.g. the arrow keys or num pad + and num pad - for rotation.

Of course you can achieve the same result as having multiple parts to a shape layer by creating multiple shape layers each containing one part and grouping them by parenting, using expressions or precomping them.

Whether you make shapes with individual parts per layer or all in one layer is a matter of taste. I tend to switch between the two, but mostly favour individual parts per layer - I like my keyboard shortcuts.

I kinda think the AE layer shapes implementation isn't AE's strongest feature. For anything complicated I always do it in Illustrator and import.


If anyone was curious, I managed to pick up a 400W halogen work light (supposedly delivering equivalent to 500W) and the exposure within a few metres (3-4) was spot on. I also bought a 250W halogen that I would probably use more as a fill light as it's a stop or so darker.

At f/2.8, ISO 100-320, 1/100th at 50 frames per second, the exposure on the histogram was pretty well on the money.

And the light cost me all of $20. I filmed it at 3000K (approximate temperature of halogens) using the CINEMA pf2 profile on my Canon EOS 60D. The profile produced an almost completed colour grade.


There isn't an easy answer here. It depends on a lot of factors. If you have constant timecode on each tape then you can batch log. Batch logging allows you to go through abs document clips prior to capture and the run captures simply by running tapes.

If you don't have consistent time code then that option goes out the window as batch capture gets confused on broken timecode.
At that point you will want to just capture the tapes manually and possibly use scene detection if your log tool provides it.

Even when manually logging, you can record details in the file meta data. Make sure to record the tape number or name and which piece of time code it is from.


Schedule a live stream of a pre-recorded video

So I ended up running the streams through Vimeo, who provide their own "Livestream Studio" software, which lets you stream from a pre-recorded file. They don't let you pre-upload the video, but it is apparently an often requested feature that they are "looking at".
Vimeo also advised restream & onestream as existing services to do this with - but without being able to verify the reliability of those services or get feedback from anyone, I was hesitant to use them. I tested Vimeo's software prior to airing the first stream, and that all worked smoothly, so in the end I just went with that. Out of 4 events/streams, the connection speed here did flake out a couple of times on one occasion, which is what I was worried about, but it otherwise worked.


Try ffmpeg's deshake filter. It scans the full frame (or a portion of your choosing) and detects shake based on a number of adjustable variables. If the video isn't shaking, it doesn't change the content. You can run the default settings with:

ffmpeg -i [input] -vf deshake [output]

Great little demo here. It's a combination detection and repair tool, no need to separately identify videos then reprocess.


Premiere Pro: Multiple bit depths in same timeline?

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


Colors artifacts/jittering after render - filmora

Is everything else on the screen stationary, or is there other movement in other parts of the screen? If there is, I'd put it down to lossy codecs like h264.
Try exporting at a higher bitrate. You could add a tiny amount of noise or grain to the video which might reduce the jittering at the overall expense of detail.


ffmpeg: preserve timecode when converting mp4 to mov

In case someone else comes looking for this, timecode in mp4 and mov files is often a "data" track, and ffmpeg usually drops data tracks. To keep all tracks, I usually use these switches to map tracks from the source to tracks in the destination

-map 0:v (video switches)
-map 0:a (audio switches)
-map 0:d (this keeps the data track)

Which also has the advantage of keeping all the source audio tracks, rather than the default of only the first one. So your command might look like

ffmpeg -i [filenmae] -map 0:v -codec:v copy -map 0:a -codec:a copy -map 0:d [outputDirectory]

EDIT: In modern ffmpeg you can also add a question mark (like -0:a?) which means ffmpeg will keep going if it doesn't find a track like you asked it to copy


It's called a slip-edit (see Adobe's explanation here).
If you have the Pan-Behind tool selected, when you see this icon over a clip, it means you can drag the clip left or right in time, and the start and end points of the clip will change, but the position and duration in your timeline will stay in the same place.  It's just like doing a slip edit in Premiere.


reasons for After Effects CC deprecating wmv and H.264

While I'm not aware of any release of the official reasons for this, I can offer a strong theory based on my knowledge of the way workflows are intended with After Effects.  After Effects is an effects and composition package, it is not designed to be placed at the end of a processing pipeline, but rather in the middle of it.

After Effects is designed to work on clips that will be edited in to a finished product.  As such, it doesn't make a lot of sense to export from After Effects in a format that is targeted at end viewers, such as h.264 or WMV.  It makes much more sense to target high quality, low compression intermediate formats that will minimize iterative quality loss or simply to use embedded compositions directly in Premiere.

Since it isn't a designed use case to be doing final output from After Effects, it doesn't make a lot of sense to put in extra development time maintaining a feature that is redundant and not part of the main intended work flow of the product.  If you want to do a final output in that format, you can still use Media Encoder to do it and then they only have to license and maintain the encoders for one application rather than two.

It is unfortunate in the cases where you wanted to do a one off render of a clip, but that isn't their main use case that they are designing around.  They probably decided that maintaining that use case simply wasn't worth the cost of maintaining.


If you have an echoey room, the only solution is to get the microphone closer to the subject.  Period.  Directionality won't solve your problem.  In high-budget productions you see people wearing lav mics for a reason.

Here's a link that tells you all you need to know about sound for video production.