What's the difference between "visually lossless" and real lossless and what does this mean for future encodes?

Technically lossless, or real lossless, means that when the output is decoded by a conformant decoder, the result is mathematically identical to the input.

Visually lossless is a non-rigorous term that indicates subjective transparency i.e. output which to the lay human eye looks indistinguishable from the original. The output may look different if a viewer scrutinizes it in fine detail, but not in normative viewing conditions. As to how 'visual-losslessness' is determinined: there are video quality metrics, like PSNR and SSIM, that provide a quantitative measure of the difference of an image with respect to a reference. Subjective opinion tests have been carried out to establish threshold values for these metrics that can be used to define 'visual losslessness'

From Performance Analysis of Visually Lossless Image Compression,

  Note  that  there  are  several  visual quality metrics (indices)
  such as MSSIM [6], PSNR-HVS-M  [7],  WSNR  [8]  and  some  others
  that  are  able  to characterize  well  enough  quality  of  lossy
  compressed images  [9].  Recently,  it  has  been  shown  for
  grayscale images  [5]  that  it  is  enough  to  provide  MSSIM
  values larger  than  0.985  or  PSNR-HVS-M  values  larger  than 40dB
  in  order  to  guarantee  practically  invisibility  of distortions
  in  lossy  compressed  images.

As for re-encoding resilience, depends on what the goal of the re-encoding is. For viewing-only or casual re-editing purposes, CRF 18 in x264 should be fine. For professional re-editing, I would drop the CRF to, say, 12 or 14. Information, once lost, can't be perfectly recovered. But you can set your own standards by encoding at different CRFs and comparing manually. See https://video.stackexchange.com/a/17639


How to reverse video in different software packages

After Effects

There are three steps involved when you want to reverse footage in After Effects.

Import the footage
Go to File -> Import -> File... select your footage and click Open
Create new composition
In the Project Panel drag your footage to the new composition button as shown in the image below:

Reverse the footage
Now in the Composition Panel right click on your footage and go to Time -> Time-Reverse Layer as shown in the image below:

Now your footage is reversed and you only need to export it with the settings you desire by clicking Composition -> Make Movie...


I'm using H264 encoding to encode video capture from a webcam. How do I turn of rc lookahead?

If you're using x264 directly, it's --rc-lookahead 20 for 20 frames. If it's via ffmpeg, it's -x264-params rc_lookahead=10.

Although I would suggest to use faster presets. Default is medum.


If the stills look sharp and detailed, then the sensor and optics are not to blame. I would blame the encoder and whatever sacrifices Canon made for the video mode. The 80d has the same Digic 6 processor as the older and cheaper models like the T6i.

I have an older model T4i, and it is very low-res in 1080p mode, while in 720p mode it is chock full of aliasing, completely unusable. I presume Canon improved its cameras, yet Canon DSLRs are not known for being particularly detailed when used for video, you will be better off with a Sony or a Panasonic.


Change the duration of multiple images vegas

If you want to change the speed of multiple clips - find a script that does this. Vegas Pro supports scripting and there a lot of different scripts out there, both free and commercial. For example, this one (commercial) can do this (enter the desired duration to  Duration control).


How can I know my if footage is rec.709 or not right out of the camera?

Knowing the details about what format your camera recorded is often as simple as consulting the manual.  However, some cameras shoot multiple formats, and often, editors are given footage from unknown or unreliable sources.  One of the best tools for discovering the full details of an A/V file is the command line utility, mediainfo.
Depending on whether or not your computer comes pre-installed with mediainfo, obtaining your answer may be as simple as opening the command line interface, and typing:
mediainfo /PATH/TO/YOUR/FIlE

If this returns a "command not found" error, then you will need to install mediainfo according to your operating system requirements.  On MacOs, the easiest way to install is through https://brew.sh
If the command line isn't your thing, there are GUI-wrapped versions available in both the Microstoft Store, and Apple App Store, caveat emptor.
The default output is the total information known to the operating system about the media file, which may be overwhelming.  Theres a good explanation of how you can return only relevant information here.
For example, to return only the colorspace, you would type:
mediainfo --Output="Video;%ColorSpace%" /PATH/TO/YOUR/FILE

It's important to mention though, that not all metadata is created equally.  Different camera manufacturers will include different details, and when video files get transcoded, the metadata is often altered.
However, mediainfo is one of the most comprehensive tools available for discovering these sorts of details about a media file.


Why effects flow during camera movement in After Effects 2020?

I think it's because the Roughen Edges effect is a pixel-based effect applied to the entire display of your comp.  If you pre-comp the effect first, it won't display the animating edges.
Or you could try applying this expression to the Roughen Edges offset (transform) property, as explained here:
parent.position * 400 / effect(“Roughen Edges”)(“Scale”)


How to make multiple shots when there's just one camera?

This is basic film making, you would do this in multiple takes.

Take your wide shot running the whole scene you want with this shot
Take you scene back to the start point, adjust the camera to the new shot and run through the scene again
Rinse and repeat until you have all the shots needed to make your scene.

You would/should have already made a shot list knowing what needs to be shot with the different camera angles, sometimes only have to act parts of scenes over and over again to get the sections of the shots needed.

Other option would be to get a 4k/5k/6k camera and be able to punch in the shots during editing but this could cause further issues in post with file sizes, performaces, converting, encoding etc etc


Here's my cheat sheet for numeric text animations like this:

slider = (effect("Slider Control")("Slider").value);
tidying = (Math.round(slider * 100))/100;
SourceText = "$" + tidying + "bn" +"\r" +"DEBTS";

the .value is sometimes needed to force AE to look at the slider as a number, not as an object.

tidying is being done to round up to 2 decimal places

\r gives a line break

text is appended with +”text”+

you can comment out some text   /* like this */

So in the example above, you would get an output like this:

$5.23bn
DEBTS

So for your specific example, try something like this:

slider = (effect("Slider Control")("Slider").value);
tidying = (Math.round(slider * 10))/10;
SourceText = tidying + "M views";

To specify showing a decimal place at all times (displaying "2.0" when your slider is set to "2"), use the "toFixed" function, like this:

slider = (effect("Slider Control")("Slider").value);
tidying = ((Math.round(slider * 10))/10).toFixed(1);
SourceText = tidying + "M views";

Screenshot:


T5i video quality doesn't even match smartphone camera? Where can I improve?

Bottom line with the canon rebel series cameras is that the video is pulled from a low resolution capture of the chip which is normally used for high resolution photos. The photos from these cameras will resolve many thousands of lines but the video compression chip in the camera cannot deal with these in real time so they just grab the image that goes to the rear LCD screen.

This image is achieved by throwing away the high res photo lines (or pixels), this is called binning (discarding). This makes high contrast edges very aliased or have a stair stepped effect. To fix this Canon soften or blur the image to make it more acceptable. Guess what, all of this results in a video image that ends up resolving at about 480 vertical lines or standard TV resolution 'not' HD resolution. So no amount of sharp lenses or post sharpening will ix the matter. The soft is baked in.

While the phone camera is built specifically to capture a fixed line resolution but it compromises on maximum photo resolution, typically not better than the video resolution.


Windows Live Movie Maker Output Video Quality Low

You can't do much about it. Movie Maker can only export in WMV format - and WMV is created for small video sizes (at the cost of quality).

You will need another software package to export in other formats than WMV. Check out Pinnacle products for alternative - they target amateur producers.


Apply the subtitles filter before the split. Note that subtitles will be, proportionally, the same size in each output stream.

-filter_complex "[0:v]subtitles=sub.srt:force_style='Fontsize=18,MarginV=15',split=2[v480][v720];
[v480]scale=858x480[o480];[v720]scale=1280x720[o720]"


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


Resolve already has a few built in.

The "Beauty" plugin is what looking for, if you're trying to do what Photoshoppers sometimes call the "frequency separation" method of skin refinement.  It controls blur/sharpness based on different detail thresholds.  In Resolve, you'll want to select "Advanced" from the dropdown menu to get access to the Hi/Low rolloff sliders, although they have unusual names ("Smoothing threshold", "Diffuse Lighting", etc, which doesn't actually have anything to do with Lighting).

The image you posted looks like what "Beauty" does, but when you talk about Davinci's Midtone Detail slider, you're looking for something more like "Contrast Pop."

Contrast Pop works similarly, but instead of letting you blur/sharpen based on a detail threshold, it lets you adjust midtone detail based on adjustable thresholds.  Again, the plugin name is bad, and I didn't discover it for a while because the name was so distasteful, but It's probably close to what you're looking for, and works well in conjunction with "Beauty".

"De-flicker" also lets you qualify the plugin's application based on a threshold, and then blends the image temporally, over a number of frames, in the chosen regions.  It uses optical flow motion estimation to set the threshold, however, and might not work exactly like you need, but it might be worth a shot, depending on what you're doing.

Those are the three built-in ones that come to mind, and you could always roll your own, so to speak.  If you google "frequency separation" and watch some photoshop videos, the technique can be achieved with Resolve nodes fairly simply, and adapted however you see fit.  Once you've got a setup that works, save it as a "power grade," and it'll be accessible from all of your new projects.  No need for a plugin.


Depends on the type of mount your camera has. This is a good solution for the A7S or A7R and was recently shown at NAB: The Aputure DEC. They also have one for MFT.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?ci=23192&N=3989452947&mnp=0&mxp=1000

And this should be available soon!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1608311032/lenzhound-wireless-lens-motor-control-system/


27-years old?! Forget it. Tapes need to be regularly forwarded and rewound, fully, for them not to stick. If that tape of yours remained unused for so many years, it might be too late.
Talk to a transfer pro... but don't expect miracles.


The free and open source alternatives to Photoshop and Illustrator are Gimp and Inkscape, respectively. While Adobe has introduced some flexible payment options, their cost can be prohibitive to the non-pirating hobbyist or independent developer.

Don't overlook Paint.NET on Windows; it's actually pretty capable as an image editor.


How can I rename a footage .ai file for AE without breaking the references?

Save the project in XML file format, do as you already did, open it in a text editor, find-replace the name. Open the modified file in AE and re-save it in its normal binary format (aep).

Size shouldn't be an issue since renaming a file doesn't change it size. It seems like you have edited the aep file? Hope this helps!

More on the topic here:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7fa0a.html


How can I reduce the size of a webm to 2MB?

Use Avanti with ffmpeg. The former has a job control manager where you drop in multiple files at once and go. You can find webm encoding guide for ffmpeg here: http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VP8

Use crf mode encoding and experiment till you get desired size. Set b:v high like 10M and tweak CRF value and if you have no audio, use -an in place of -c:a libvorbis.

Your Avanti GUI should look like this:

Change the crf number (30 in that pic) till you get the size you want.


Is it possible to make changes over several clips at the same time when color correcting?

2 ideas for Premiere CC 2015:

Apply effects to the source clip instead of just the part on the timeline. If you're targeting clips from more than one camera original, you could nest the camera originals into a sequence, use that sequence as your source, and apply color effects to the source clip. That should populate your changes to one clip to all the rest from that source sequence.
Use an adjustment layer to apply the same effect to a series of adjacent clips.


Adobe Premiere is slow. Please recommend

You seem to have a low-end $50 GPU on a low-to-mid range Windows PC (Core i5) with the bare minimum of RAM (24 GB). I'm betting you're using a "spinning rust" drive instead of an SSD as well.

If you're serious about video editing, you should START with the recommended requirements described at this link: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

A "decent" system for Premiere will typically have an nVidia Quadro GPU, possibly 2 of them.

Premiere will take all the hardware you can give it and still come back for more. Adobe gives short shrift to non-CUDA GPU. Plan on buying at least an $800 GPU for serious editing work.

Please describe the type of video work you want to do. Premiere requires a serious investment to get real work done, but you may be able to use a lesser tool for what you need to do. Nowadays I tell a lot of beginners to get an iPad Pro and use iMovie or LumaFusion, or on Windows - Camtasia/Vegas.


How can I manage videos with OS X, iPhone and Sony Nex 3N?

Since you're a command-line user, you can use ffmpeg to do the conversion for you. I suspect when you mount your Sony camera, it probably always gets the same volume name. (Probably something like /Volumes/SONY/ or /Volumes/DSC/ or something like that.) You could write a script that basically walks through the directory containing the movies, and converts them to a suitable format, saving them on your hard drive.

Looking at iTunes in Automator.app, I see that it supports an "Import Files Into iTunes" function. You could probably make an Automator action that calls your ffmpeg script, then imports the results into iTunes. From there, you just sync your iPhone. (Not sure if it will auto-sync large videos via iCloud or not, but it might.)

I'm not the best at scripting or Automator, but you can probably get an answer to the specifics on either Ask Different or Super User.


Which Text falling and flipping animation preset or plugin is used in after effects

They haven't used a preset or plugin. They have animated it.

Achieving this effect in After Effects is done by enabling 3D on the layer, positioning the anchor point and then animating the rotation.


Copying h.264 video from TS into MP4 changes frame rate and time

As per a comment here, removing the -r flag ought to do this properly. You have another -r flag for the input, also. Remove both of them, and it should properly copy the stream as it is into a new container; you may need to remove that -an (disable audio) switch, too. I'm not sure on that:

ffmpeg -y -i full-ts.ts -c:v copy full.mp4

If that fails, also per a comment here, you could try a different output container format.


The reasons for an automatic stop are either reaching the 30 minute limit (thank you European Union video camera tax that ends up impacting what's available to most of the rest of the world), hitting the 4gb file limit (file system limit for the OS on the camera), the sensor is overheating (high usage + temperature) or the buffer is being used up (memory card is too slow).

Based on your description of the problem, the first two do not sound like the issue, however you could either be hitting an overheat or a buffering issue.  A class 4 card is a bit slow for recording HD video, but I'd still expect more than a few seconds, particularly for a SanDisk card which should actually be giving you speeds for a class 4 card.  (Some less reputable manufacturers routinely sell cards marked faster than they actually test in the real world.)

I'd first try getting a faster card and if that doesn't work, I'd make sure you are using the camera in a cool area and see if that gives a longer run time.  It's also possible there could be something wrong with the camera that is complicating things, but a slow memory card is most likely the problem.


Samsung Note 9 high FPS videos won't play on Mac? (black screen)

Try the following:

use the adobe media encoder preferably, or some other encoder to encode the file as something like prores422 or prores4444.
use a different player, like vlc, djv, etc.
Check if you have all codecs installed, for quicktime and h.264, etc.
Open the file on a different machine. If it still won't work, it's probably the file that's the root of the problem.

How big is the video-file? If it's around 3mb or something, that might indicate that there is no visual information in the file in the first place. If the file is moderately big, the problem might be with the player and/or the codecs on your machine.


How to render on another computer using Adobe Media Encoder CC

No, not from one computer to another, you'd have to copy the project files onto a server, NAS device, or external HDD and then load it on the MacMini. You cannot from your Air directly say hey PP on the MacMini let's do this unfortunately.

Now, one option would be network rendering. The thing about it is, both computers are required to have exactly the same project files which means it has to be hosted on a server or some sort of NAS device (costly, and won't benefit your setup that much), some frames get rendered on one, while frames get rendered on the other (both computers will be actively involved, so most likely you couldn't work on other projects).

PP does not support network rendering, so the file PP CC file would have to be imported to After Effects.


Strange behaviour of false colors mode on field monitor

Such cheaper monitors often don't have enough power to calculate it correctly.
Often they are just added as a sales pitch.
I wouldn't totaly trust it, but you can take it as a rough estimate.


After Effects: How do I achieve collapsing transform using nested CC Cylinder Effect?

I don't think CC cylinder create true 3D objects, they are really just flat 2D planes with 3D shaded shapes on them.  I think Hans' suggestion of creating 3D shapes in Cinema4D (a basic version ships with AE CC 2015) is probably the way to go.


There are no true PaaS providers for After Effects. However, there are several online render farms (SaaS).

Note that you cannot run After Effects on a public cloud in your own render farm.


Recommendations for Video Recording/Editing

This is always one of the biggest questions when a consumer finds they have a need to record something, just once. Couples wonder if their friend can record their wedding, dad's try their best to record their son's baseball game, and actors on a tight budget hope to capture their performance without the expense of a professional videographer.

In short, I'd say you get what you pay for. If your performance is only an hour or two, you can probably get a good videographer for $500 or even less. Depending on the venue, theater houses might already have dedicated locations for cameras, and could probably refer you to good videographers.

Editing is as much art as it is skill, and usually comes under different expense terms. Editing a single shoot production should be very cheap and easy. This, you could probably do yourself for free, as long as you're willing to put in the time.

You mention a "section" of your performance. I imagine you mean like a several minutes long movie trailer. I would see if any of the performance houses you will be performing at will let you record sections in the morning or something, when there's no audience, and the cameras can be set anywhere in the theater. I would hire a videographer with two or three cameras, then perform the parts that you want in the trailer. Later, this videographer or another can edit the parts into your final production, the marketing trailer. For the best success, you need to storyboard the trailer; make sure you have a very clear and exact idea of what it will be. Then start the shoot and stay on target. Do not deviate from the planned story. You should be able to get all of the shooting done in a few hours.

Editing will be difficult if you've never done it before, so I would definitely hire someone for this. They will know how to artistically mix the clips together, add animations where necessary, find the right music to put over it, laugh tracks and the like, etc. If you're already starting a new career in show business you probably shouldn't try a concurrent hobby of video editing. Minimum I would budget for this is $1000. It might seem expensive, but you won't regret it. Show business people are extremely impatient and if you don't keep their attention, they'll move on. A professional level trailer will keep their attention.

So total budget, I would go for the videographer and the editor, is at $1500. Doable and I think you'll be very pleased with the product and the attention it will bring.

Again, if you don't want to do that, as in, don't have the money, you can certainly try to enlist friends and edit yourself, but it will cost you a lot of time and you probably won't be very pleased with the product in the end, and neither will the talent scouts.


Q:Best Video Editor for Windows (Free)
A:

Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is a free video editing tool for Windows and users can make home movies by simple drag-and-drop. It contains features such as video effects, video transitions, adding titles/credits, audio track, timeline narration, and Auto Movie. What's more, new effects and transitions can be added and existing ones can be modified using XML code.
VirtualDub
VirtualDub is a powerful free video editing software for Windows with many amazing features, such as compression, video splitting, and the addition of audio tracks. As a free movie editing software, it has batch-processing capabilities for dealing with large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters.
Wax
Wax is a high performance and flexible video editing program which is good for both home users and professionals. It can be used as a stand-alone application, or as a plug-in to other video editors.However, its video editing functions are quite limited. If you want more advanced video editing features like Mosaic, Jump Cut, Flashhold, or need more transitional effects, picture-in-picture, titles, sound effects, you can turn to Wondershare Video Editor software, which make your video go to the next level.
Avidemux
Avidemux is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports various file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs.
FFMpeg
FFmpeg is a paid video editing tool for Windows, but a collection of free software that can record, convert and stream digital audio and video, including libavcodec (a leading audio/video codec library), and libavformat (a leading audio/video container mux and demux library).
Blender
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation which supports all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. Blender has many advanced features, such as modifier-based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, a node-based material, etc. and is one of the best video editors for both Windows and Mac.
ZS4 Video Editor
ZS4 Video Editor is another great free video editing and compositing software that provides media experts with a facility to combine photos, videos and audio files into one or more output files.
Cinefx Jashaka
Jahshaka is the first OpenSource Realtime Editing and Effects System in the world. With the power of OpenGL and OpenML, it gives users exceptional levels of performance. It currently supports Linux, OS X, Irix and Windows and is considered one of the best free video editor for Windows.
Zwei-Stein
Zwei-Stein is a great free video editor featured with many video effects. It can edit up to 256 video, audio, and still image clips. But the user interface is very technical so many people find it hard to use.
Movica
Movica uses some fine programs to edit your movies and receives good reputation. The keyboard shortcuts make video editing easier than ever. It's one of the best free video editor for Windows and fully supports WMV, FLV and MPG files.

Q: Top Mac Video Editor here (Free of course): http://www.wondershare.com/video-editor/free-video-editing-software-mac.html

Don't tell me that i'm the affiliate of this company, actually i'm the contributor for that site, and those articles are wrote by me. And i wish i can help here. Thanks


Live Streaming and Recording Simultaneously

personally I think ustream or the like would be easier. assuming you dont mind the possibility of someone else watching


Taking video from a DVD & Making it Editable

A musician family member who edited video on his Apple PowerBook G4, swore by Handbrake. Handbrake is now available cross platform OSX, Linux, and Windows (through Windows 10). Much this musician's work in later years was ripping and repackaging DVD footage - and what he particularly liked was that Handbrake was "bulletproof." It even ripped mini-DVD AVCHD video from my Panasonic hand-held, before we were calling it H.264. Downloads available here: Handbrake Downloads


How to get a higher FPS without changing speed video through Adobe After Effects or Premiere Pro CC2014 letting the software create the missing images

I can't give you specific commands but since these are fairly short I'd extract the individual frames into a TIFF stack (or similar), then import them at the correct (7fps) frame rate into your editor. Then I would apply twixtor or an open-source equivalent to raise the frame rate. How well those work depends somewhat on the amount of motion. 7 fps to 30 fps is asking a lot.

You may find ffmpeg / avconv assistance in extracting only the frames that are actually different -- that is, removing the extra inserted duplicate frames.


How to slow down a typography effect in after effects?

Assuming that it is a template applied to a text layer in a comp, select the text layer and press "u" to reveal any keyframes on that layer.  Drag the keyframes out to the duration you need.

If the comp isn't long enough, press Command K to reveal the comp settings, extend the duration.  Extend the duration of the text layer by dragging the end of it further to the right.


Replace all completely black frames with interpolated frames

After poring over the documentation all weekend, I figured out how to use the minterpolate filter to do motion interpolation.  The full command is

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf blackframe=0,metadata=select:key=lavfi.blackframe.pblack:value=50:function=less,minterpolate=mi_mode=mci:mc_mode=aobmc:me_mode=bidir:vsbmc=1:me=fss -c:a copy out.mp4

These were the settings that gave me the best-looking results.  If these are too slow for you, you can try something like

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf blackframe=0,metadata=select:key=lavfi.blackframe.pblack:value=50:function=less,minterpolate=mi_mode=mci:mc_mode=obmc:me_mode=bilat:vsbmc=0:me=tdls -c:a copy out.mp4

which went about 3x as fast in my testing.  You can find the documentation on the different minterpolate options here.


With an SVideo Y splitter 1M 2F, does the video input need to go in to the male end?

Analog cables are thin bits of metal with connectors at each end. The signal that comes out of the source is present instantly* at all of the other connectors whether they are male or female.

However, connecting two outputs does change the impedance that the signal is seeing. Since you're dealing with an analogue signal, where the amplitude of the signal directly relates to the brightness of the image this could cause problems. To oversimplify it, it's like you had a battery and two light bulbs connected in parallel: they're each going to be less bright than a battery connected to only one light bulb.

So where possible you're better off connecting one source to one input. To split the signal use the output from the equipment, as it will be buffered by an internal amplifier.

*ignoring the time it takes for the signal to propogate which will be based on the electomechanical properties of the wire, but will probably be better than 0.5c (where c is the speed of light), or in other words for a 1 metre cable the signal reaches the end ~ 6.7 nanoseconds after it appears at the other.


What PC software offers speeding up video & sound together at 20x+?

I think Premiere can easily reach 80x. And you can go past that putting sequences one into the other


What types of cables support closed captioning?

Your question was initially confusing because you had focused on "cables" which is not the correct way of looking at this.

Once you've decoded a video signal to components, the closed captions are no longer available. If they were not inserted as open captions (aka subtitles) then they're simply not there.

So any transport that removes the Line 21 caption data or the digital caption packets eliminates your ability to defer captioning at the distant end -- you must insert the captions / subtitles before transport. That's the case with DVI / VGA / HDMI.

If you must allow the ability to choose a captioned or non-captioned display at the distant end, you would have to send two component feeds (e.g. two CAT5s), one captioned and one plain, and A/B switch them at that end.


Adding edge for open captions in Adobe Premiere Pro

Turned out that edged captions is a new feature in CC 2017, and is only available for open captions. My bad.


How to fix a 24fps shot that looks jerky when rendered at 30fps frame rate?

If you change the frame rate of everything to 60fps you'll get an even frame blend every 2.5 (60fps) frames.  If you change the frame rate to 120fps you can eliminate the stutter completely, as 30 fps will repeat frames 4x and 24fps will repeat frames 5x.  But few systems can play 120fps, whereas many can play 60fps (including YouTube).


Sadly Adobe doesn't support FLAC in any of their video products. The only Adobe product that supports it so far is Audition.

Though there is this great and open source plugin that works just fine with CS6 even though it was made for CS5. Plugins made for CS5 are usually compatible with CS6 and CC.

For CS4 there is a 32bit version of the same plugin: http://valion.net/flacimporter/


Standard way for handling different resolutions when concatenating videos

I have written various approaches how to fix this below and you can automated the ones from the first two blocks with a clever rule set. But the content-dependent options should be done manually. So if you want to use this, maybe you find a way to tag those videos first by hand, for example by using metedata and your tool can then read the metadata and apply the correct solution. Anyway, there is no real standard way and it's not really common for professional productions to deal with clips in different frame sizes. If so, it is well planned and those scenes are usually filmed in a way that parts of the frame can easily be cropped away afterwards.
Videos with the same aspect ratio
You can downscale to the lowest common resolution if all the videos share the same aspect ratio. As you correctly assume, upscaling would not always look good. Downscaling will not be noticable to the general viewer.
Videos with different aspect ratio
If the videos don't have the same aspect ratio you have to add black bars horizontally or vertically. My recommendation is to use only black bars for 2 different frame sizes, not more. This means some videos will be full screen and all the rest will have the same sized bars. Either keep all bars horizontally or vertically. Anything else might confuse the audience too much. In case you have 3 or more different frame sizes, I recommend to manually crop them before starting your automated solution.
Options depending on content
If it works for your story, you can render mutliple source clips in the same frame, for example take 4 lower resolution clips, put each into a different quarter of the frame, maybe with seperating bars in between. It then resembles like a wall of screens. Generally this works well if you want to show things happening in parallel. One example is filming various instrument players individually while they perform a musical piece. This is also a good solution, when you have vertical videos shot with a smartphone: you could combine 2 or 3 in the same frame, just put them next to each other.
Another option is picture in picture, which is often used for all kinds of presentations, where you have either slides or a shot of the main stage filling the screen and a smaller overlay with the video of the speaker(s) near one of the corners.


Video Subtitles Specification [CHK and PAC]

This might be helpfull Subtitle-Edit for .PAC subtitles.
The .PAC subtitle format is binary format
For other subtitle format, .CHK is far I know the file format for "Chunks" or fragments of hard disk after doing CHCKDISK command. But also the CHK file extension is associated with the SSConvert application used to distribute data format containing multiple streams (typ. languages) of subtitle text, timing and presentation style data for video.


Is there a way I could have pushed my content through to the original URL (barring the big collapse)?

That's not possible unfortunately, once you stop the live event the content that was ingested is made available for on demand streaming and no more live content can be streamed to YouTube.
If you think about it, it would be difficult to do otherwise, because multiple sequences of the stream would need to be stitched together and that could be confusing for users who watch the recording.
The thing that YouTube tolerates by default is the fact that you might stop and resume ingesting content after you press the Go Live button but before stopping the event. I say "by default" because on Facebook, for example, the default behaviour is actually the opposite: if you accidentally stop streaming in OBS or have a network issue, the stream is stopped automatically and you cannot resume it. (I've seen this happen a number of times, it's a quite common problem.)

The system I was part of (here's a stream key, you only have one shot at it) seemed sort of fragile and I wondered whether I'm misunderstanding my role in it.

The stream key is simply a string that you use to authenticate with YouTube, and YouTube actually allows you to reuse the same key between live streams!
What you should do in your case is simply make sure that the Go Live button is pressed at the right time :)
If it's pressed too early, there's no point in stopping the stream! Going live 20 minutes before the event is perfectly fine and it's actually a very common and recommended practice. While users wait, you can show a placeholder message like "We'll be live at 7 PM". This allows you to check that everything is fine in practice with actual YouTube apps (cough November 11 cough), and also gives users a sense that everything's fine and the event is going to start.


Tagging each player's touches in a soccer game

My solution here is time- and labor- intensive, but it will work. I'm tailoring it for Adobe Premiere, since that's what I use, but any multi-track editing software should be able to handle this.

The person editing the video brings the footage of the game (which I'll call the "main video") into the timeline. Then the editor adds a new video track for each player who was in the game.

The editor watches the video of the game (the "main video"), and each time a particular player touches the ball, the editor

cuts the main video before and after that touch
copies that clip from the main video
pastes it onto the track for that player

If two players are touching the ball simultaneously for some reason, the clip gets pasted into both their timelines.

After the whole main video has been "distributed" this way, there will be big gaps between the clips in each players' timeline. The editor now removes the gaps from each timeline.

The editor then hides all tracks except player #1, sets the correct endpoint of the video (for that track), and exports that as its own video. The file name for the export can be that player's name. The editor then hides player #1, and displays player #2, sets the video endpoint, and exports again.

This whole process is somewhat tedious, but it will work. I'll be interested to read other people's ideas!


iMovie 4K resolution to Keynote – apparent loss of resolution

I had the same problem. I changed the dimensions to 2160×3840 and exported and the quality was excellent. Hope this helps.


Inexpensive do-it-yourself Steadicam rig

Maybe this is enough for you?

Basically just use a tripod as a balance and let gravity do the job for you.


How does an optical viewfinder on a film camera work?

There are three ways that film cameras do this:

Using a rangefinder, i.e. a viewfinder that doesn't actually view
through the lens. Common on cheaper consumer format cameras such as
super-8
Using a beam splitter. The ubiquitous Bolex 16mm cameras
have a prism in the light path that splits the light coming through
the lens, so that some of it goes to the film gate, and the rest
goes to the eyepiece.

This has the advantage of being through the
lens, and continuous, but at the cost of brightness for the viewer
and a stop or so of exposure for the film. From personal experience,
in low light it can be really hard to focus a Bolex.
Using a rotating mirror. In this setup a reflective mirror interrupts the
light path to the film, similar to a DSLR, but instead of hinging up it rotates.

When the camera is
stopped the mirror is parked so that it sends the light to the
viewer, and when shooting it rotates, acting as the shutter. While
the mirror is sending light to the viewfinder the film is being
pulled down to get the next frame in position in the gate. Then the
frame is exposed, during which time the viewfinder will be black. This cycle is repeated for each frame

This has the advantage that all the light available goes to expose
the film, but at the cost of some flickering in the viewfinder (I
found that helpful: it lets you know that the camera is running—on
silent cameras it can be almost impossible to tell otherwise).


What are the differences between the three bundled ffmpeg prores encoders?

I found the following explanation on the ffmpeg wiki:

  Fmpeg comes with 3 different prores encodes: "prores", "prores_ks"
  (formerly named "prores_kostya") and "prores_aw" (formerly named
  "prores_anatolyi"). In our testing we've used the "prores" and the
  "prores_ks" encoders and found "prores_ks" to be the best encoder to
  use. It is the only one that supports the 4444 colorspace and although
  it may be slightly slower. The color quality of the videos produced by
  these two codecs was visually indistinguishable Because of the 4444
  support we've decided to go with Kostya's version of prores.

So, if you want to do 4444 and need alpha channel support, prores_ks is the way to go.

This blog post also suggests that prores_ks has a smaller footprint, and that prores and prores_aw are basically the same.


How do I make this object orbit around the center without making it turn

Try this:

  Parent the atom to the ring or a null in the center
  Rotate the ring/null which will rotate the electron around the middle
  Apply an expression to the rotation property of the electron layer

Rotation Expression:

parent.transform.rotation * -1

This simple expression will rotate the electron in the opposite direction from its parent (ring/null) layer, which keeps the minus from rotating.

Hope this helps!


Missing media prompt top box is missing. Have no idea what it's asking for

Is this the only clip that is missing? If so, can you offline the clip, then look into your project to see what's missing. Even if there are multiple clips, you can just offline all, go into the project monitor, you can sort by status in the last column:

After you sort, right click on each clip that is offline, then click on link media.

Assuming you remember what clip you want when you right click, even if it won't give you the clip, you'll know what you're replacing.


Audio goes a frame or two out of sync after export premier pro

This may be due to framerate problems.There are two types of 24 fps.
"True" 24 fps and 23.98 FPS.
This mostly doesn't make any issues, but stretched over a longer time, this can change the video duration. For a 45min video, this makes 64800 frames, instead of 64746.
This gives a difference if about 2.25 seconds.

After trying to delete the pre-rendered files as you said before, try to change the sequenze settings.
Before you do this, MAKE A COPY!

If this doesn't help, another way would be to try another codec and or container. So try h.265 or HDx or avi... It may be that those codecs don't have these problem


For requesting an RTSP over HTTP stream you would do:

ffplay rtsp://127.0.0.1:1235/live.h264 -rtsp_transport http


How to loop .TS files from Folder with FFMPEG


How to upload video to YouTube with VP09 & Opus 251

What device are you reading the VP9 and Orbis codec information from? These are hardware limited, so the options may not be available on your device.


How are motion graphics like this created?

Totally doable using After Effects as it comes out of the box.

I'd be making each letter a separate layer, turning that layer into a matte for the colour, which would be provided by the gradient ramp effect (there's a subtle red-purple gradient in the letters). The reveal would be done by either making an animated mask to control the moving colour, or the stroke effect with the brush size large enough to fill the strokes of the letters.

3D extrusion is done with the built-in 3D extrusion in the ray-traced 3d renderer. You'd have to pre-comp the coloured layer probably ifyou're using track mattes etc.

The movement would be a combination of keyframes and the wiggle expression.

There are probably a dozen more ways to do something like this–this is true for anything in AE.


Premiere Pro CC: How to reset control panel group settings

Is 'loose panel group' a free translation of whatever the option is labeled in whatever language you're using Premiere Pro in? Because I can't find an option or button that says exactly this ...

Anyway, you can change workspaces in the menu, click Window → Workspaces and select a workspace preset. If you want the default workspace back, make sure to select the Assembly preset (in Premiere Pro CC). If you want to revert any changes you made to the saved layout, select Reset to Saved Layout from the same submenu or press ALT + SHIFT + 0.


I tried to replicate the issue last night with using Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0, version 9.0 (b) build 92.

I engaged various text options under the Sony Media Generator: Simple Text, Rolling Text, and some legacy defaults. The only time I saw a Bounding Box was within the text pop up window where one has the option of placing text by dragging the box to where you want it to appear in the video. In no cases did I see the Bounding Box appear in the preview window nor were there any artifacts such as the persistent "42" that you demonstrated.

Due to the timing of the upgrade from v 8 to v 11 that you mention in the comments,  I am thinking something went awry. The best thing I can recommend is to use the question form available at:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/technicalsupport.asp

You will need to register with the site to access this service, and once you engage the form it will look something like this. You will need to give them the needed technical info like the version number and your machine info too. Here is a snip of the form to assist in that preparation. I have used this service many times in the past, and they generally offer very kind attention. However, you may have to wait a few days before they process your question depending on their current load.


Change the coordinate system in After Effects

Have you tried the Sketch2Ae plugin by the Google Motion Design team? It works amazingly well. Here's a link to it:

https://google.github.io/sketch2ae/

I usually couple this plugin with the RepositionAnchorPoint plugin from aescripts, as Sketch2Ae seems to mess up anchor points. I personally prefer my anchor points to be aligned center to an element within AE. Here's a link to it:

https://aescripts.com/repositionanchorpoint/

Once Sketch2Ae builds all your layers, select them all and reposition all anchor points with one click using this plugin.

Both plugins are free, with RepositionAnchorPoint being optionally free.


To preserve as much detail as possible, convert it to a 16-bit TIFF, eg:
ffmpeg -i "DF HDR Sampler.mp4" -pix_fmt rgb48 _Frames/out%05d.tiff

Example from Digital Foundry's GT Sport HEVC 10-bit H.265 video at https://www.digitalfoundry.net/2017-10-17-free-download-gran-turismo-sport-hdr-sampler

Before (16-bit TIFF framedump, untouched, to 8-bit ProPhoto RGB)

After (16-bit TIFF framedump, HDR to SDR in Photoshop(eg. Curves and Vibrance adjustments), 8-bit ProPhoto RGB)


If you want to Preview Audio you need to use RAM Preview... Press Numpad 0 on the number pad (shortcut key for Ram Preview), then you can hear the audio.

Press Numpad 0 on the Numberpad.


Can the VGA port of the laptop be used as input port?

No, VGA ports on a laptop are output only.


Is there standard protocol or way for frameserving?

Have you looked at OBS Studio?  It sounds like it can do all four of your steps for you, and it's free and open-source too.  If not, then it could also just do step 1, depending on what your original video source is.  OBS can use these sources:

Webpages
Displays/monitors
Video games
Local files

Text files

Webcams & video capture devices
Windows on your computer
A few others, like audio, plain colors, images, and slide shows


Cropping the video won't help, necessarily. What you need to do is render the video with the proper aspect ratio (roughly 9x16), and at or above the iPhone's native resolution, which is 750x1334 for the iPhone 6.

Source: iPhone 6 Screens Demystified

It's mainly the aspect ratio that is causing the problem you're seeing. Your video is probably 16x9, which will look fine in landscape orientation. For portrait, it needs to be rotated.

If you're filming footage, you could just rotate the camera on its side. If you're working with existing footage, you will have to crop the video and pull out a 9x16 "tall" rectangle out of your existing 16x9 "wide" frame. Any decent video editing program is able to do this. Unless your source footage is high-resolution (1080p or better), though, you'll have trouble getting sharp results, since you're essentially zooming into a very small portion of the frame.


The simplest thing to do would be to simply shoot a video of it. Alternatively, you can use photography from inside the store to generate a photogrammetry model. Simply put, a program looks at a lot of images and stitches them together to a textured 3d-model. You could then walk through the 3d-space. Since you said that you are an amateur at this field, I would highly recommend just filming the motion, or hiring someone who does. All you'd need is a steadicam and a camera, obviously. From 2 or 3 images alone you cannot accomplish such a motion.


After Effects - How to zoom on track points

I think you just need to break this into two steps. First, do the motion tracking and apply the tracking data to whatever. Render that out, or sub-comp it. Second, use AE (or just use your video editing software) to do the zoom-in where needed. There's not much benefit to doing it all in one pass, as far as I can see from your example.


Best camera for turnkey studio recordings

I ended up posting basically the same question over on the dpreview forum, and got a number of replies. In case someone else stumbles across this post in hopes of getting an answer, the contributors seemed to recommend the following, as of Feb/Mar 2020:

Panasonic Lumix GH 4 or 5 (around $600 and $1300, respectively, body only)
Blackmagic pocket cinema 4k camera (around $1300, body only)
Panasonic AF 100 (used for $500-600)


After a clip ends should that track be re-used?

It depends on what technique you are using for editing and what purpose you assign to each track.  In a non-linear editing (NLE) program like Premiere, it is extremely common for almost all editing to be done on a single video track with additional tracks only being used when something needs to be layered on over top of what is currently on Video 1.  (Such as titles).  When doing this type of editing, it doesn't matter where exactly you put the cut when you are doing transitions.  The clip will keep playing as long as it is needed for the transition (unless it runs out of footage in the source file.)  So in your example, if V2 and V3 were both on the same track, you would just need the one instance of Cross Dissolve and the clips on V2 and V3 would both be used for the duration of the dissolve effect.

In composition software like After Effects however, each video or asset is on it's own layer and has it's own track.  The difference is that composition cares about the layers themselves and how they combine where as non-linear editing cares about what clip is currently being displayed and how you change between them.

It is also possible, particularly in large, multi-camera projects to synchronize the video clips from different sources on different tracks in an NLE and then choose which track you want to be active.  This is known in some systems as A/B or multi-camera editing.  Premiere does support mutli-camera editing and formerly had an optional A/B editing mode.


Tracking the corners of the screen isn't the same as stabilising the image.
Whatever you do, the stabilisation is going to reduce the overall resolution of the video, as it is going to have to scale up to fill the viewport with the cropped stabilised image.

Here's a YouTube tutorial showing how to use image stabilisation in AE:

LockNLoad is a plugin that can help with stabilisation, but it will still make the image look softer.

Alternatively Final Cut has stabilisation built in too.
The best option would be to reshoot with the camera on a firm surface, and avoid the wobbles in the first place.


What it means "a royalty free alternative" to video/audio (WebM format)

It's a quite complex topic, but yes, when dealing with non-royalty-free technologies you are in some cases required to pay royalties to the patent holders, depending on your usage. This usually applies when you are the distributor of the video/audio content, but it depends from technology to technology.

Patent pools are groups of companies that claim fees for the usage of a particular technology that includes something protected by patents. An example of a patent pool is the one managed by the popular MPEG LA, which is concerned about technologies developed by the MPEG group (like AVC and HEVC).

It's also important to understand that while royalty-free technologies don't require you to pay, it doesn't mean that they don't include patented technologies. The creator of the technology (Google in this case) is risking for the usage of those technologies. They're basically saying "don't worry, we'll take care for you".

Source: An analysis of WebM and its patent risk.

A perfect example of a royalty-free technology is the new AV1 coding standard, developed by an alliance called AOMedia. For the fact that this alliance is composed of pretty much every important technology company that exists out there, the AV1 codec doesn't require content distributors to pay royalties to them.

John Luther from JW Player says:

  AV1 could be different because collectively the AOM membership owns a vast trove of intellectual property. These assets can be used to defend the technology against patent claims from interests who might not want “a next-generation video format that is…interoperable and open.”

In the same way, the existence of a patent pool doesn't mean that companies in the pool are going to ask for money. For example, the HEVC decoding standard is composed of multiple patent pools, but one of the pools has still to decide whether it's going to ask for fees, and how much it's going to ask. Additionally, not all the companies holding patents regarding HEVC are included in the pools. This is one of the main reasons why HEVC hasn't spread so much so far.

Some resources:

Introduction to video compression patents
AVC fees
HEVC fees
About the MPEG disaster:

The Future of HEVC Licensing Is Bleak, Declares MPEG Chairman

To Deploy HEVC, Users Must Choose What Patent Pool To Dive Into
HEVC Advance Cuts Content Fees on Streaming
An Encouraging Development in the HEVC Patent Mess

An analysis of WebM and its patent risk
Google and MPEG LA settle long-running VP8/H.264 patent dispute
Discussione about: "The AV1 format is and will always be royalty-free"


How can you get clips from different YouTube videos to have the same resolution or frame size in Adobe Premier Pro CS6 2017?

There is no ideal solution to your problem, if you don't want the black bars.

Pick your main timeline frame size and aspect ratio, and make all the clips fit that timeline. This, of course will reduce the resolution of your smaller clips.

If most of your clips have a frame size of 1280x720 and therefore a 16x9 aspect ratio, then create a timeline that has that frame size and aspect ratio. If most your clips have a frame size of 640x480, then that's your frame size, etc.

Then simply fit the clips that don't have your chosen frame size and aspect ratio to your main timeline by adjusting their scale in a way that any black area is pushed off-frame.


Hardware/workflow for HD multicam shooting on a budget

More and more cameras are including GPS time sync now that they almost all use them for location information.  I am sure you can find a camera at any price range that includes this capability.  The GPS should keep your cameras within a few hundred milliseconds of each other.

Take them for a run at Best Buy or a similar store, letting them run for a while to see which keep in sync and which only sync on start-up.

The least expensive option is to put an AC quartz clock with a continuously sweeping hand on stage and occasionally have people "sync" by bringing it into view. :-)

I just looked on B&H for a reasonable camera and found this tip at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/newsLetter/Time-Code.jsp

  Experienced videographers will "stripe" the video tape with time code
  prior to their shoots. To prepare the blank tape to be striped, they
  rewind the blank tape to its very beginning, and with the lens cap on
  the camera, press Record and record black from the very beginning to
  the very end of the tape. Striping the tape burns time code to the
  tape, and this time code will not change when recording your future
  video footage to that tape. This can alleviate possible time code
  inconsistencies that can be created by many types of camcorders.

This may be worth a shot with your current gear.


Convert sRGB color to linear Color Space

Using the calculator at http://davengrace.com/dave/cspace/,

Gamma-weighted #E3000B translates to linear sRGB #C50001


Use

ffmpeg -y -i intro-17may.mp4 -i video.mp4 -i outro.mp4 -i energy-song.mp3 -i vcs-watermark-video.png -filter_complex "[0:v]drawtext=fontfile=FutuMd.ttf: text='Hello World': x=300: y=450: fontsize=40: fontcolor=white: enable='between(t,2,5)',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=63: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,34,36)':volume=-8dB,volume=enable='between(t,36,42)':volume=-10dB,volume=enable='between(t,47,51)':volume=-8dB,volume=enable='between(t,51,58)':volume=-10dB,adelay=6000|6000[3a]; \
[v0][0][v1][1:a][v2][2]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1[outv][outa];[outa][3a]amix=inputs=2:duration=shortest[outa]" -vcodec libx264 -c:a aac -ac 2 -map "[outv]" -map "[outa]" c4.mp4

The BG music is delayed by 6000 ms (duration of intro) and then mixed with the audio after concat.


What you're asking for is called Inpainting and is difficult enough for still images. The result is passable to distracting depending on the size and transparency of the text, the surrounding image, and compression. I found only one mention of inpainting at video stack exchange here. You can see a demonstration of the algorithm here.

Using ffmpeg and mathematica, the following procedure is a quick and dirty solution. The result can be better than blurring, again depending on the characteristics of the video.

Export frames:

ffmpeg -i vid.mp4 D:\data\vid\frames-%06d.png

Create a text mask using the average of every 100 frames or so.

fnames = FileNames["D:/data/vid/frames-*.jpg"];
mfnames = fnames[[1 ;; All ;; Floor[0.005*Length[fnames]]]];
imgs = Import /@ mfnames;
mimg = Mean[imgs]
mask = Dilation[Binarize[mimg, {0.37, 1}], 1]

Note: the parameters in Binarize will need to be tweaked for every video.

If the video contains a fixed camera or other parts similar in color to the text throughout its entire length, you must exclude those parts by multiplying by a 2nd mask (the numbers are positions of the lower left and upper right corners of a rectangle that surround the text to be removed):

Image[Graphics[{
{Black, Rectangle[{0, 0}, ImageDimensions[mask]]},
{White, Rectangle @@ {{377.84411276948595`,
    161.72470978441106`}, {163.44941956882255`,
    127.76119402985057`}}},
}, PlotRangePadding -> None],
ImageSize -> ImageDimensions[mask]];
mask = mask*%

Apply inpaint algorithm:

Inpaint[Import[fnames[[1]]], mask]

This line processes all frames and saves them to a new directory:

Export[FileNameJoin[MapAt[# <> ".output" &, FileNameSplit[#], -2]],
    Inpaint[Import[#], mask]] & /@ fnames

Or if you want it done 1000 times faster use this C++ code:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <thread>
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>

// args: D:\data\text_remove\frames_full  D:\data\text_remove\frames_full\mask.png

using namespace std;
namespace fs = boost::filesystem;

void process_files(const vector<string>& infile, const vector<string>& outfile, const cv::Mat& mask, int i0, int i1)
{
    for (int i = i0; i < i1; ++i)
    {
        cv::Mat img = cv::imread(infile[i]);

        if (img.empty())
        {
            cout << "process_files(): imread(): " << "[" << i0 << "," << i1 << ")  : " << i1 - i0 << endl;
            break;
        }

        cv::Mat out;
        cv::inpaint(img, mask, out, 3, cv::INPAINT_NS);

        cv::imwrite(outfile[i], out);
    }
}

void threaded_process_files(const vector<string>& in, const vector<string>& out, const cv::Mat& mask, int threads)
{
    int step = in.size() / threads;
    int rem = in.size() % threads;

    vector<thread> pool;

    for (int i = 0; i < (threads - 1); ++i)
    {
        int i0 = i * step;
        int i1 = (i + 1) * step;
        pool.push_back(thread(process_files, in, out, mask, i0, i1));
    }

    int i0 = (threads - 1) * step;
    int i1 = in.size();
    pool.push_back(thread(process_files, in, out, mask, i0, i1));

    for (auto& th : pool)
        th.join();
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    if (argc < 2)
    {
        cout << "argv < 2: Missing input directory" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    if (argc < 3)
    {
        cout << "argv < 3: Missing mask image" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    cv::Mat mask(cv::imread(argv[2], cv::IMREAD_GRAYSCALE));

    if (mask.empty())
    {
        cout << "imread(): failed to read mask" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    cout << "mask image: " << mask.size() << endl;

    fs::path infile(argv[1]);
    fs::path ifstem = infile.stem();
    fs::path ifleaf = infile.leaf();
    fs::path ifparent = infile.parent_path();

    if (!fs::is_directory(infile))
    {
        cout << infile << " is not a directory" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    string fstr = ifleaf.string() + ".output";
    fs::path outdir = ifparent / fstr;

    if (!fs::exists(outdir))
    {
        if (!fs::create_directory(outdir))
        {
            cout << "create_directory() failed on: " << outdir << endl;
            return EXIT_FAILURE;
        }
    }

    vector<string> fnames;
    vector<string> fnames_out;

    clock_t t0 = clock();

    cout << "Scanning directory images" << endl;

    int i = 0;
    for (fs::directory_iterator di(infile); di != fs::directory_iterator(); ++di)
    {
        fs::path fpath = di->path();
        fs::path leaf = fpath.leaf();
        fs::path fpath_new = outdir / leaf;

        fnames.push_back(fpath.string());
    }

    cout << (double)(clock() - t0) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC << endl;
    cout << "Processing images" << endl;
    t0 = clock();

    threaded_process_files(fnames, fnames_out, mask, 16);

    clock_t t1 = clock();
    double dt = (double)(t1 - t0) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
    cout << dt << endl;
    cout << dt / fnames.size() << endl;

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}


Microsoft Movie Maker Not Centering Video on Preview Screen

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

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

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


ffmpeg png optimization like libpngquant?

I'm not aware of anyone working on this.

Is this the library you're referring to - https://pngquant.org/lib/?

This appears to generate a palette and then perform the usual PNG encoding upon the palettized image. If so, this can already be reproduced in FFmpeg.

ffmpeg -i image -filter_complex palettegen[pal];[0][pal]paletteuse,format=pal8 out.png

See docs for paletteuse for dithering options.

If the specific algorithm were to be added to FFmpeg, it would be as a libav filter, not as changes to the PNG encoder. Although given existing functionality, most acceptable way forward is to improve the palettegen/use filters if their quality isn't acceptable.


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

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


Unacceptable is in the eye of the watcher, so that part is tough to answer.

Distinguishable is easier: yes, there will be a difference. It will not be obvious in every frame or circumstance, but it will be there. If you simply truncate the lowest bit, it will raise the noise floor and the effect will be most evident in low light areas. So, it will look worse, but how much worse, and whether it's acceptable, depend on the particulars.


This is a document from the ITU :

http://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-BT.1120-8-201201-I/en

that specifies Digital interfaces for HDTV studio signals.
This kind of signal is commonly carried on an HD-SDI physical layer.


The -itsoffset parameter of FFmpeg is having no effect

You can use the adelay filter for MP4.

ffmpeg -y -i soundtrack.wav -framerate 30 -i %d.png -af "adelay=28840|28840" -r 30 -vcodec mpeg4 generated.mp4


How to defeat the display info overlay on the HDMI output of the Canon XA25 including the status indicator?

The only thing I can find about it is to set the Output OnScreen Displays to Off in the settings.  If that isn't doing it, then I'm not sure that it is possible.


General SDI vs. HDMI Information

SDI is easier to connect to other professional equipment than HDMI. It is an all purpose signal, as opposed to HDMI that was originally intended only to connect to consumer display devices. There may be a slight advantage in quality where HDMI can be limited to 4:2:0 subsampling at certain resolutions, where SDI will usually be 4:2:2 or 4:4:4.

There isn't necessarily a performance advantage to SDI over HDMI. Sometimes HDMI outputs don't produce a clean HD signal and you need to put extra equipment in line to clean up the signal.

The disadvantage of SDI is cost. Most all SDI equipment is more expensive than HDMI equivalents. But you usually get higher quality equipment for that price.

In general, you need to weigh the exact specs of the equipment you are looking at for the application you want to use it for. If, in your case, the HDMI output has a 120fps maximum, but the SDI output has a 60fps maximum, you would want to choose the HDMI output.

One other often overlooked advantage of SDI, is that it uses locking BNC connectors (or sometimes other smaller form factor positive locking connectors) as opposed to non-locking connectors of HDMI. If you are going to be in an active environment, it offers a lot of piece of mind to know that your connector won't slip loose.

Why do you need an external output?

External outputs like HDMI or SDI are used for connecting a camera to peripheral devices. Some people use it to connect to an external monitor. External monitors can be bigger, allowing you to see more detail, or allow someone other than the camera operator to see the picture simultaneously.

Some people use it to connect to an external video recorder. External recorders can have larger storage capacity, have higher sustained I/O throughput, or capture a more advantageous format (less compressed, a different codec, etc.) than the internal SD card. For your application, it is the higher sustained throughput that might make a difference. The internal SD card, no matter which card class you get, probably will have a hard time recording high frame rate video flawlessly for extended periods of time. It might drop frames or just stop recording after buffers fill.

Decisions

You need to decide for what you are trying to do and what price/performance trade-offs you want to make. If you are doing work professionally, then I would strongly recommend going the SDI route. If you are just having fun with some short slow motion shots, then you probably only need the internal recorder. If you want to take a step up from there, still in the hobbyist realm, you could consider adding HDMI-based accessories in the future.

Lumix GH5 and the Panasonic YAGH Grip

According to this article, the YAGH Grip is not compatible with the GH5 and there is no planned SDI output.


Best Streaming Encoding Software to incorporate a message feed

I  not sure if I understood your question correctly, but CasparCG would be a common solution to overlay graphics (or anything else) to a video feed.
 http://www.casparcg.com

Or, if you want to do this in software, take a look at the liquidsoap library:
http://liquidsoap.fm/doc-svn/video.html


Pre comp your layer, then apply the Mirror effect to the comp.  If your comps are 1920x1080, set the mirror centre to 960x540, and the reflection angle to 0.

I think your scaling to -100% didn't work because it's a masked layer.  You might have more luck using a shape layer to create your line, then you should be able to scale it as you suggested.


What setup do I need to record and render at the same time?

I assume you record video game footage?
Recording and rendering on one machine is something I wouldn't recommend with a regular PC if you play modern games that take a lot of your CPU and GPU resources.

I usually recommend getting an SSD but in this case it seems you are heavily CPU limited.
You could theoretically encode on the GPU but I'm not sure if that will ease the workload all that much to be able to play games as you need your GPU to play games aswell and usually GPU encoding produces worse results than CPU encoding because of the way the codec is implemented for GPU encoding.

What I would do in your case is either render on your MacBook, rendering over the network shouldn't be too bad in this case as your MacBook will be CPU limited aswell.
Or you don't do the final encode of your videos with Premiere/AME but use a different h264 encoder called x264 which is a LOT easier on the CPU and with the right settings could potentially used while you play games. x264 is by far the fastest and most efficient h264 encoder today.

You would first render your cut videos in a lossless codec that doesn't takes very little CPU usage but be sure to not render to the disk that your game runs on, as a lossless codec will be very I/O heavy.

Alternatively if all you do is cut your videos in to 20 min pieces without any other creative decisions other than splitting up your videos at every 20min interval you could automate everything and ditch Premiere all together and just use FFmpeg which also integrates x264 so you can cut your videos automatically there and encode to h264 all at the same time.

You could theoretically also upload automatically after rendering if you are bit into programming and do all at night without supervising anything. That would free your pc up for recording during day. That can of course only work if you don't already need all night to upload the encoded videos.

There might be more viable solutions to your problems but that would need a bit more info from you. What do you record? What are you doing in Premiere exactly to the videos other than cutting? What are the specs of your computer?


Use of big name apps in a commercial video projects

I'm no legal expert, certainly - so do take this 'advice' with a pinch of salt - and I'm not sure what you mean by commercial, but I'd probably err on the side of caution and, instead of replicating a Facebook post exactly, just do an approximation of it with motion graphics if you've got the time/budget.

To be honest, though, unless this is going out on TV, you're probably fine to use FB/Insta/Whateveragram provided that you're not suggesting that you're affiliated in any way and that those programs aren't the cause of crime/immoral action in the film.


How to handle Rode VideoMic Pro during transport?

I am owner of Rode VideoMic Pro and have to say I just throw it in my bag together with dslr and lens. Wind cover gets a bit deformed sometimes, but it gets into original shape in five minutes after taking it out of the bag. I have one of the cheaper Lowepro bags and I can fit in my Nikon D5200 with one lens on, second lens and said microphone just fine. Mic fits vertically to the corner of the bag next to the second lens. I have been carrying it like this around for almost a year and I haven't encountered any issues.

I would therefore suggest to just throw it in the bag nicely, if it wont wiggle and bump around during carrying, it will be just fine without any dedicated case.


How do I change the length of the timeline of the composition to only be as long as my video footage?

There's no built - in function that does it, but there's a script for that. I wrote one called first-n-last, it's available (free, open source) here https://blob.pureandapplied.com.au/

Alternatively, park your playhead at the beginning of the first layer (select that layer and hit i), then set the start of the work area to that frame by hitting b then select the last layer and hit go to the last frame (hit o) and set the end of the work area to that frame by hitting n. Now right click the work area and choose trim comp to work area from the contextual menu. This doesn't work for layers that extend beyond the beginning or end of the comp, but my srcipt does.


You could track points on the arms to control the motion of a shape layer with a row of points or short strokes on it, then apply the echo effect. How well that would work would depend on the speed the arms move.

You could also apply the tracking to some nulls, and copy their motion paths onto a shape layer's path property, or the path property of a write-on effect.


In Kdenlive, how to select an area for render?

Use the keys "i" for "start" and "o" for "end" to create the selection. They use the current frame position.

Example:

Move the playhead to frame 190 and press "i". Move it to 390 and press "o".

This creates a selection with beginning at the frame 190 and end at 390.


How to create a simple DVD with menu and a set of scenes (on a mac)?

iDVD should have come with your mac. Give it a try.

iDVD is a very basic DVD authoring tool (a category that is distinct from video editing, though authoring tools may be bundled with some editing packages). I've only used it a handful of times, but I'm fairly sure that it does everything that is requested here.

One thing to keep in mind is that DVD authoring is very much an art. I can't offer much specific advice other than the observation that different DVD players react to different Codecs in their own ways. Single-layer DVDs are relatively easy to author, but if you get into making dual-layer DVDs then you need to do extensive testing to ensure that your discs will actually be playable.


Possible to stream/append images into an existing mp4?

Everything is possible!

Let's image, you have a /directory/ per video animation and files like img0001.png, img0002.png. You have 3 ways:

Wait all images, img0001.png, img0002.png ... img0100.png to be in directory, run ffmpeg, get mp4 and remove images (current way)
Write application in C with ffmpeg libraries: wait every single image, decode it in memory, remove from disk immediately and feed to encoder in libavcodec. When you got last image, for example img0100.png, you feed it to encoder and call something like flush() to complete image, so your mp4 will be completed. Drawback of this method is memory consumption - your process will live until all images processed, so if you downloading it long time, process will consume some memory all this time!
You can try to implement same in bash script using pipes:

Here we got any input, list files for example:

`    ls -1 | grep "jpg$" | while read filename; do`

Then unpack images:

`    ffmpeg -v 0 -nostdin -i "$filename" -f rawvideo -s 120x60 -pix_fmt rgb24 - `

And encode it:

`    done | ffmpeg -nostdin -f rawvideo -s 120x60 -r 10 -pix_fmt rgb24 -i - -s 320x240 -vcodec libx264 -y res.mp4`

I think, you got idea.


How to create outward spiral motion in Adobe After Effects?

That script uses the variable shrink, which paradoxically increases with time. Just make it decrease with time, e.g. by replacing the first line with these two:

var endTime =  123; //how long you want it to take, in seconds
shrink = endTime - time;

Or make the radius the product of the time and a constant, rather than dividing the radius by time, by replacing the first two lines with these:

shrink= time;
radius = 100 * time; //this will grow 100 pixels every second, adjust to suit

Or parent the images to a null, rotate it and scale it up. Then to counter the rotation and scale of the null on each image use this expression for rotation

0 - parent.transform.rotation

and for scale:

100 / parent.scale


How could I recreate this stroke effect in After Effects and/or Sony Vegas?

It's a lot of matte painting.  While the video is still running, they animate a semi-transparent shape (probably made in Illustrator or something similar) and animate the shape in over it.  As soon as the painting finishes, they switch to a frozen shot of the last frame and seem to transition to the painted version of that frame.  It's hard to tell exactly from the Youtube video since I can't frame advance, but that should get the general feel of it.


The easiest way I can think of would be to actually do it as multiple videos and stills.  Have the first video play and then go to a still of the last frame.  The next would be the next video clip followed by the still.  Continue doing that for the length of it.  Not sure if it works like that in Keynote or not, but that's how I'd do it in any of my sequencing/presentation packages.


FFMPEG - MAC OS Cannot Capture from Black Magic UltraStudio (Thunderbolt)

Manaf-2:~ manaf$ ffmpeg -f -format_code Hi50 -f decklink -i 'UltraStudio Express' -c:a copy -c:v copy output.avi

ffmpeg version 2.8.3 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 9.0.0 (clang-900.0.39.2)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/2.8.3 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-hardcoded-tables --enable-avresample --cc=clang --host-cflags= --host-ldflags= --enable-opencl --enable-libx264 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libxvid --enable-decklink --enable-vda
  libavutil      54. 31.100 / 54. 31.100
  libavcodec     56. 60.100 / 56. 60.100
  libavformat    56. 40.101 / 56. 40.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 40.101 /  5. 40.101
  libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[decklink @ 0x7f893a801200] Cannot enable video input

Segmentation fault: 11


ffv1 realtime capture throws out a lot of frame dropped messages!

I get the same result with your commands, however if I skip the pixel format conversion and use the input pixel format 'bgr0', then except for an initial frame drop, I get no further drops. Note that tune is a x264 parameter - it has no relevance for FFV1.

And if I use gdigrab (my preferred grabbing device), I get no frame drops at all, even with bgra:-

ffmpeg -y -f gdigrab -i desktop -framerate 30 -c:v ffv1 -pix_fmt bgra -t 5 capture.mkv


Depending on how often the videos are watched and how big are they in total?  Rolling your own might work.  For my video streaming needs, I use a dedicated Windows server in a data center (can be as cheap as $110 a month, including a terabyte of disk space and unmetered 100Mb/sec connectivity) and use the included Windows Media Streaming Services to provide streaming video.  Alternately, if you need more cross platform support, there are other stream server software packages you can buy that will allow easy management and streaming of other videos and you can install them on the server.  If your volume of viewers is sufficiently low (less than 20 or 30 simultaneous viewers) then rolling your own may work on a 100 megabit dedicated connection.


Uncompressed 4K video at 60fps requires your playback system to deliver approximately 2GB/sec (or more than 15 Gbps).  You can use Blackmagic Design's Disk Speed Test (part of the Desktop Video bundle you can find here) to see whether your system meets this criteria.  If it does not, then you'll need to compress your video until you have a bitrate that your IO system can actually support.


How do I remove audio from all files in a directory with ffmpeg?

I suspect you are having problems because you are trying to overwrite the input file with the output, ffmpeg just doesn't work that way. For a single file:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -an -c:v copy output.mkv

To do every file in a directory, you can use a for loop. For every `file.avi``in the working directory, this command will create an output called file-v.mkv:

for f in *avi; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -an -c:v copy "${f/%.avi/-v.mkv}"; done

To do the same thing recursively, you can indeed use find like so:

find . -type f -name *.avi -exec bash -c 'ffmpeg -i "$0" -an -c:v copy "${0/%.avi/-v.mkv}"' {} \;


Help with playback stutter in Sony Vegas Pro 11

I have seen some trainwrecks by combining Nikon .mov with Vegas Pro 10. After tech calls into both Nikon and Sony it was determined that my machine didn't have enough resources.

I need to upgrade from 32 bit to a 64 bit version of Win7, plus I need to go from a quad core to an i7, and from 4GB to 12 GB or better. I can use my Nikon files now but only if I keep the total under 1 GB, short projects only but it works. One thing that may help your stuttered preview is to set the window to preview mode at 1/4 size, this helped a lot for me.

Here is a tutorial that covers everything I've tried and more of the things that may help you
get your playback smoother.


Parent Pick Whip Not Showed On Effect Transform Keyframing

Expressions aren't parented. They use the same kind of widget but it's not the one in the parent column.

You need to enable expressions on the property by alt-clicking the stopwatch. Now you'll see the expressions pickwhip, as well as the dropdown with the expressions menu and so on. You'll know that expressions are applied because the value will turn red.


How to add text to specific animation frames

If you don't want to mess around with either of the free video editor versions available from Windows, WinXP (Windows Movie Maker) or Win7 (Windows Live Movie Maker) as these may not be flexible enough for your project, then you can try out a pro version with a free demo (good for 30 days) of Sony Vegas Pro 11.

Once you set up your trial version, add your video to the timeline, then use the "media generator/text" (title) features to add the titles you want. There are lots of options on the text generators.

Three links that are of interest.

Free Demo Version of Vegas Pro 11 (make sure you choose the correct version for your computer as in 32 vs. 64 bit):
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro?keycode=64506

Tutorial on how to use the media generator/text on Vegas Pro 11:

Expert advice and overview of Vegas Pro media generator:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/media_generators_in_vegas_pro_software

Likely you can get your whole project done under the 30 day trial period and render a final version ready to post or show. If you don't understand how to render there are tons of tutorials out there, so just for fun I'll add one more link:


You can use Audacity for this purpose, and you can follow this link to learn how: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_click_and_pop_removal_techniques.html

Generally, clicks are little bursts of noise (such as a small scratch on a vinyl record), and pops are larger bursts of noise (such as a large scratch or a plosive "P" hitting a microphone without a pop filter).


How are frames in 59.94 drop-frame timecode dropped?

Apparently, the frames are dropped at the same cadence, but with double frequency.

From FFmpeg's timecode drop function,

if (fps == 30) {
    drop_frames = 2;
    frames_per_10mins = 17982;
} else if (fps == 60) {
    drop_frames = 4;
    frames_per_10mins = 35964;
}
....
d = framenum / frames_per_10mins;
m = framenum % frames_per_10mins;

return framenum + 9*drop_frames*d + drop_frames*((m - drop_frames)/(frames_per_10mins/10));

and the string is

ff = framenum % fps;
ss = framenum / fps      % 60;
mm = framenum / (fps*60) % 60;
hh = framenum / (fps*3600) % 24;


You can use ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, for this.

Syntax is

ffmpeg -framerate 25 -i img%04d.png video.mp4

where img%04d.png is the pattern mask for a list of image files named

img0001.png
img0002.png
img0003.png
...


How to align two videos from different angles of the same event

Sounds like you should try Multicam Multicam workflow - Apple support.
The cut you make between both angles can be anything e.g. dissolve or blend.

To move clips with the keyboard you need to select it and type comma or full stop. FCPX keyboard shortcuts - Apple support


Extract key frame from video with ffmpeg

No ffmpeg code can identify interesting frames. At most, there are filters which detect representative frames and filters which identify frames with a scene change. So, at best, there's a thumbnail filter for this, sort of. It can't detect "interesting" frames but it detects representative frames. So, frames from the middle of fades should be out.

Syntax is

ffmpeg -ss 50 -i in.avi -vf thumbnail=300 -vsync 0 thumbs%d.png

This will pick one representative frame from each batch of 300 consecutive frames.


Can't browse Photos library in Final Cut Pro X

In the Photos app (not FCPX), go to Preferences, then click "Use as System Photo Library". Then FCPX will be able to find the library file.


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

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

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


Video editing software that will follow a subject in a cropped area of the video

You have two options:

Keyframes:
Most a bit more advanced video editing programs have key frames, with them you say at time X, crop to Position Y. The computer will automatically fill the motion.
Depending on the scene, this method needs a lot of work tho.
Tracking:
Another way is to track the subject. That's about what you said in the question. You specify an area and the computer follows it. A freeware with this feature would be DAVINCI RESOLVE or Hitfilm. But both software require some basic knowledge of video editing.


Your bottleneck is the USB stick and USB 3.0 itself. There's simply not enough bandwidth to get smooth playback.

From your specs (quad i5, 1.4 GHz) I'm guessing you've got a the 2019 13" MBPro which should be powerful enough to handle quite some video editing, so I'd highly recommend getting an external SSD connected via Thunderbolt 3, or at least USB-C. While USB-C is optically the same plug as Thunderbolt 3, the protocol and speeds are different. Thunderbolt 3's max throughput is about 4x of what USB-C can handle.

For maximum performance get a NVMe SSD (M.2) drive and a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. You can get 1TB with case for ca. 250 USD and the maximum throughput is just as fast as the internal drive (same technology), up to 1400 MB/s which should be enough to even edit 4k footage.


Good learning resources for 'non-technical' aspects of filmmaking

Do you realize people go through years of academical studies or expensive courses at private universities to learn all that? It's certainly not something you're going to master by watching a few Youtube videos ...

If you want to seriously get into film making, I would suggest you take a course. Not necessarily a full blown film studies degree, but you could look into some crash courses, an online course (not a playlist on Youtube but an actual, professional online course) or something like that. With some research, you might even find a free course (google for Open educational resources (OER), OpenCourseWare and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) or start here or here).

Apart from that, here are some tips and things that I would recommend you learn (from my humble not-a-professional-either point of view):

Watch movies: The best way to learn about great camera and composition techniques is to watch movies (by watch I mean actually concentrate on the movie, not have it run in the background while doing your taxes). There's a list of the 100 best movies of all time (actually, there are several lists; this one was assembled by the American Film Institute). Go ahead and watch some of the movies on this list. Also, see if you can find another 'Top X films of all time' list that wasn't put together by Americans for Americans.
Camera Angles: Different camera angles differ in what information and emotions they convey. Here's a list, here's another one and this is also a list.
Image Composition: There are several rules of thumb and guidelines to help you with the arrengements of the subjects of your video. This is the part where your photography experience will matter the most IMHO. Here's a short summary of that topic. Here's another one.
Video Montage: The montage is how you put all of your videos together, make them seem connected and fit together as a whole. This is very difficult. Apart from some general rules of thumb (e.g. there are some camera angles that just don't go with each other) and some specific montage techniques (e.g. jump cuts (historic example), match cuts (historic example), shot-reverse-shots and more), you will only learn that via practice (and, again, watch movies. Hollywood movies are fine in that regard by the way. Here's a great montage from James Bond: Quantum of solace).
Here's a video tutorial on creating a music montage. Here are some other tips.
Dramaturgy: How to tell a compelling story. Again, this isn't something you'll learn over night. There are some very basic story structures that are repeated over and over again, the most common of which is the Hero's Journey (Seriously, four out of five movies you have ever watched follow that schema).
Again, watch movies. People will disagree with me on that, but I think the best video to understand dramaturgy is the filmlet 'Schwarzfahrer' by Pepe Danquart. Watch it on youtube with english subtitles (it's only 12 minutes long).
Color: Color grading in movies is not only used to convey certain emotions, but also to tie sequences together. Take a look at this website. Read this on the meaning of different colors, then go read some more. Also, see my answer on color in movies here.

These are only the most essential parts of media aesthetics concerning film and film making; you will need to do your own research on top of that. Some other things to learn include construction of time (google won't help you here, this is about the relation between narrated and narrative time), genres, some more aspects of camera angles and perspective, camera movement, writing story-boards and screenplays and more. Again, look into what (online or offline) courses you can resonably take. Also, apart from internet summaries, read books on the topics. I can't really recommend a specific book right now ... Just look for a general introduction on film / media aesthetics.

Also, it is really important you get some practice. No matter what role you're planning on playing in a real-world film production (the smaller a production, the more responsibilities lie with every member), no amount of theory will prepare you for everything there is to know about filming and cutting (and possibly acting). So make sure to get some hands-on practice!


You might be able to achieve such a look with the Clouds generator from Apple Motion. (This is different from the one that ships with FCPX.) But you can create a Final Cut Pro Generator from it using the settings below.

If you set the 1st, 2nd and 3rd layer strength to 0 and the 4th layer strength to 1.0 you'll get the right sort of frequencies. You'll then need to choose or create a gradient with different color bands in it.

It also looks like they're mixing several layers of it with similar settings. You could try different blend modes and opacity levels for different effects.


Using tablet/smartphone as external dslr monitor

You can't do that. There is no tablet on the market (right now) that offers an HDMI input or any other physical display input. Your only option would be to stream compressed video over the USB (or Lightning on iPads) connection or Wifi to an app that displays that stream.


You could try:

Turning off ray tracing
Lowering the resolution
Turning off soft shadows unless needed
In Blender, use the Simplify option

These and others are covered in this blenderguru article


I'm not really sure there is an ideal wood.  In fact, it really doesn't even need to be wood.

The entire point of a clapper is simply to make an audible sound that comes from an easily visible source.

As long as the sound is loud, short and crisp you are fine.  If you wanted, you could have your three year old be the clapper instead and just give him two pots to bang together.

The convention of a clapper is simply because it is a convenient device that also allows for indicating other meta data about the shot.  The clapper part is just included so that you can also capture the audio sync data without needing another device.


Export video has different resolution Adobe Premier Pro

Exports will be set to the resolution of the sequence you are exporting.  You need to adjust your sequence settings to match your file input and then export.  You can do this from the sequence settings.  It should have also given you an option to update the sequence when you initially added the 1080p clip to the sequence, but you must have chosen not to update your sequence at that time.

The other, more rare, possibility is that you are using a demo codec that doesn't support 1080p for export and it is trying to export at the maximum supported resolution.  If this is the case, choosing a different codec for export should allow you to resolve the problem.


Blackmagic setup: How do I record all cameras in a multicam broadcast?

You can use an SDI Distribution Amplifier ("DA") (one SDI input, and two or more SDI outputs) for each camera so you can "duplicate" the camera video to send to both the production switcher and to your camera iso recorders. I use DAs I buy on Ebay.  My current favorite is "AVUE 3G-SDI/HD-SDI/SDI 1 to 2 Repeater & distribution extender with re-clocking" at around $100

Or you could use something like the Blackmagic Smart VideoHub 12x12 if you have the budget for it.  Of course, you will need a separate recorder for each video stream. It seems unlikely that you can successfully use more than one UltraStudio Mini Recorder per computer.

The camera has a built-in tally light and the switcher sends the tally signals back to the cameras (assuming you use TWO SDI cables per camera!)  The tally light appears to be quite small and hidden just above the lens mount, so it seems of limited visibility unless you have a very small lens and are very close to the camera. There does not appear to be any kind of output for an external tally that can be seen at a distance one would expect in the Real World, or any tally provision for a camera operator. Are you planning on using these as human-operated cameras?  Or remote-controlled?  Or fixed POV cameras?

The Micro Studio Camera 4K has intercom built-in, with a 3.5mm TRRS socket for a headset as one would use with an iPhone, etc.  However you will need an ATEM Talkback Converter to access the intercom/talkback back at the switcher end.

Remember also that those cameras do not come with lenses, and they use a rather premium lens mount, so you may end up spending 2x or 3x for each camera by the time you hang some glass on the front of them.  The Blackmagic stuff seems like great performance for the money, but not necessarily when you add up all the required "accessories".  Especially if you want to equip the camera(s) with operator-controlled lenses. You could end up with 4x-5x the base price for each camera.

Remember also that SDI is quite high frequency and doesn't tolerate "very long SDI cable runs".  My working rule is that even with large RG-6 cable, 300ft/100m is the practical length limit. If you want to go longer than that, those fiber optic boxes from Blackmagic are one solution if you have the budget for that.


AAC stream in MP4 file has wrong duration. How to fix?

How do you know file is 2:09:42 long?

From ffmpeg documention:

  Get duration by decoding
  You can also use ffmpeg to get the duration by fully decoding the file. The null muxer is used so no output file is created. Refer to time= in the last line of the console output. In this example the input has a duration of 00:57:28.87.

$ ffmpeg -i input.webm -f null -
...
frame=206723 fps=1390 q=-0.0 Lsize=N/A time=00:57:28.87 bitrate=N/A speed=23.2x

  This method will report the correct duration in case the methods using ffprobe are incorrect or missing due to corrupt, truncated, or damaged files.
  The command may take some time depending on the input file duration and decoding complexity.

So it seems that your file timings are "incorrect or missing due to corrupt, truncated, or damaged files."
Hence your ffprobe report contains wrong duration.
Your remux "did not change anything" because you did not encode the file: -codec copy

2nd line of your report shows: "Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A" which is another indication of damaged file.
Further in the report, you'll notice "Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate"

Try this:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v libx264 x.mp4

With a very good computer, this should be done in about 2 hrs.
Enjoy.


Your source is neither YUV nor Y4M, going by the extension (and also the FFmpeg error you received). x265 is referring to a raw uncompressed bitstream by those extensions, not simply the pixel format. A .h264 is a raw H.264-encoded bitstream.

To use ffmpeg only, start the cmd like this:

ffmpeg -f h264 -i video.h264 -c:v libx265 ....

To use the x265 standalone encoder, use

ffmpeg -f h264 -i video.h264 -f yuv4mpegpipe - | x265 --input - --fps 24 ....


If I delete a video from my computer after I've imported it, will it delete from the video I'm editing?

According to the on-line manual page 57 of this commercial software this is only true if you:

have selected the Copy media with project checkbox and
Clicked the Save button

for all your projects!
If you forgot to do that with just one, the answer is:

No, deleting the original file will delete it from all of the projects where you did not click that option.