text:
Using mediafilesegmenter on a video with edit lists
I'm trying to use mediafilesegmenter on a video I transcoded with ffmpeg to package it for HLS. However, it complains about "edit lists" and refuses to do anything. Does anyone know how to either remove edit lists or to get mediafilesegmenter to work with them?
$ mediafilesegmenter -I -f 180 -t 9 -s bbb_180p_30fps_264k.mp4
Jun 29 2016 17:12:33.676: Using floating point is not backward compatible to iOS 4.1 or earlier devices
Jun 29 2016 17:12:33.677: Single file output is not backward compatible to earlier than iOS 5.0
Jun 29 2016 17:12:33.677: Processing file /Users/aspera/git/dash-demo/video-transcoding/bbb-transcoded-hls/bbb_180p_30fps_264k.mp4
Jun 29 2016 17:12:33.689: track 1 of /Users/aspera/git/dash-demo/video-transcoding/bbb-transcoded-hls/bbb_180p_30fps_264k.mp4 contains edit lists; these tracks cannot be used for segmentation
Jun 29 2016 17:12:33.689: no tracks found!
Jun 29 2016 17:12:33.689: average bit rate is  0.00 bits/sec - max file bit rate is  0.00 bits/sec

The input video:
$ ffprobe bbb_180p_30fps_264k.mp4
ffprobe version 3.0.2 Copyright (c) 2007-2016 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 7.3.0 (clang-703.0.31)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/3.0.2 --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-libxvid --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-nonfree --enable-vda
  libavutil      55. 17.103 / 55. 17.103
  libavcodec     57. 24.102 / 57. 24.102
  libavformat    57. 25.100 / 57. 25.100
  libavdevice    57.  0.101 / 57.  0.101
  libavfilter     6. 31.100 /  6. 31.100
  libavresample   3.  0.  0 /  3.  0.  0
  libswscale      4.  0.100 /  4.  0.100
  libswresample   2.  0.101 /  2.  0.101
  libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'bbb_180p_30fps_264k.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    title           : Big Buck Bunny, Sunflower version
    artist          : Blender Foundation 2008, Janus Bager Kristensen 2013
    composer        : Sacha Goedegebure
    encoder         : Lavf57.25.100
    comment         : Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bbb3d.renderfarming.net
    genre           : Animation
  Duration: 00:10:34.53, start: 0.021333, bitrate: 184 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 320x180 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 113 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn, 60 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 64 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler

EDIT:
I've discovered that ffmpeg seems to add edit lists when transcoding.
Original file:
$ MP4Box -info originals/bbb_sunflower_2160p_60fps_normal.mp4
* Movie Info *
    Timescale 600 - 3 tracks
    Computed Duration 00:10:34.533 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.533
    Fragmented File: no
    File suitable for progressive download (moov before mdat)
    File Brand isom - version 1
    Created: GMT Tue Dec 17 16:40:26 2013
    Modified: GMT Tue Dec 17 16:40:26 2013

File has root IOD (9 bytes)
Scene PL 0xff - Graphics PL 0xff - OD PL 0xff
Visual PL: ISO Reserved Profile (0x15)
Audio PL: Not part of MPEG-4 audio profiles (0xfe)
No streams included in root OD

iTunes Info:
    Name: Big Buck Bunny, Sunflower version
    Artist: Blender Foundation 2008, Janus Bager Kristensen 2013
    Comment: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bbb3d.renderfarming.net
    Composer: Jan Morgenstern
    Writer: Sacha Goedegebure
    Genre: Animation
1 UDTA types: meta (1)

Track # 1 Info - TrackID 1 - TimeScale 60000
Media Duration 00:10:34.533 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.533
Media Info: Language "und (und)" - Type "vide:avc1" - 38072 samples
Visual Track layout: x=0 y=0 width=3840 height=2160
MPEG-4 Config: Visual Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x21
AVC/H264 Video - Visual Size 3840 x 2160
    AVC Info: 1 SPS - 1 PPS - Profile High @ Level 5.1
    NAL Unit length bits: 32
    Pixel Aspect Ratio 1:1 - Indicated track size 3840 x 2160
    SPS#1 hash: 73C3B5E51841EEDF280132A1F7C72DD97D9FDE86
    PPS#1 hash: EB72205FBA0E2A677BE65E145507E2E05750EB4F
Self-synchronized
    RFC6381 Codec Parameters: avc1.640033
    Average GOP length: 184 samples

Track # 2 Info - TrackID 2 - TimeScale 48000
Media Duration 00:10:34.200 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.200
Media Info: Language "und (und)" - Type "soun:mp4a" - 26425 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x6b
MPEG-1 Audio - 2 Channel(s) - SampleRate 48000 - Layer 3
Synchronized on stream 1
    RFC6381 Codec Parameters: mp4a.6b
    All samples are sync

Track # 3 Info - TrackID 3 - TimeScale 48000
Media Duration 00:10:34.144 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.144
Media Info: Language "und (und)" - Type "soun:ac-3" - 19817 samples
    AC-3 stream - Sample Rate 48000 - 5.1 channel(s) - bitrate 32000
    RFC6381 Codec Parameters: ac-3
    All samples are sync

After FFMPEG:
$ MP4Box -info bbb_180p_30fps_264k.mp4
* Movie Info *
    Timescale 1000 - 2 tracks
    Computed Duration 00:10:34.600 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.534
    Fragmented File: no
    File Brand isom - version 512
    Created: UNKNOWN DATE   Modified: UNKNOWN DATE
File has no MPEG4 IOD/OD

iTunes Info:
    Name: Big Buck Bunny, Sunflower version
    Artist: Blender Foundation 2008, Janus Bager Kristensen 2013
    Comment: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 - http://bbb3d.renderfarming.net
    Writer: Sacha Goedegebure
    Genre: Animation
    Encoder Software: Lavf57.25.100
1 UDTA types: meta (1)

Track # 1 Info - TrackID 1 - TimeScale 15360
Media Duration 00:10:34.533 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.533
Track has 2 edit lists: track duration is 00:10:34.600
Media Info: Language "und (und)" - Type "vide:avc1" - 19036 samples
Visual Track layout: x=0 y=0 width=320 height=180
MPEG-4 Config: Visual Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x21
AVC/H264 Video - Visual Size 320 x 180
    AVC Info: 1 SPS - 1 PPS - Profile Baseline @ Level 3
    NAL Unit length bits: 32
    Pixel Aspect Ratio 1:1 - Indicated track size 320 x 180
    SPS#1 hash: 4FD0A6F8F73D905B5A9973F02BF9E2D401820F71
    PPS#1 hash: E79F98332B320CB0B190539E0D4A262181656B90
Self-synchronized
    RFC6381 Codec Parameters: avc1.42c01e
    Average GOP length: 90 samples

Track # 2 Info - TrackID 2 - TimeScale 48000
Media Duration 00:10:34.221 - Indicated Duration 00:10:34.221
Track has 1 edit lists: track duration is 00:10:34.200
Media Info: Language "und (und)" - Type "soun:mp4a" - 29730 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 2 Channel(s) - SampleRate 48000
Synchronized on stream 1
    RFC6381 Codec Parameters: mp4a.40.2
Alternate Group ID 1
    All samples are sync

Looks like MP4 won't skip the edts boxes when creating MP4s. You should transcode to MPEG-TS and feed that into mediafilesegmenter
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -<transcoding options> -vbsf h264_mp4toannexb out.ts

I tried with no options (just ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb out.ts) but running mediafilesegmenter on out.ts only produced audio. I had to add "-c:v copy -c:a copy" to the ffmpeg command to make it work.

I prefer Mulvya's approach, but another method that "fixes" the problem is to demux and mux the streams:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v copy -an video.mkv
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vn -c:a copy audio.mkv
ffmpeg -i video.mkv -i audio.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy in2.mp4
mediafilesegmenter -I -t 9 -s in2.mp4

I can't tell you why it works though.


text:
how to fix a stuttering camera pan movement?
I recently faced a problem I never had before.
I made a video sequence using After Effects and 3D layers.  Nothing has been filmed, it is completely virtual.
It seems that some of my pans have a speed that makes them "stutter", or "judder", flick, jump, shake, or I don't know what is the exact term.
It does not shows up on a "regular" computer video output; but when conforming the project, it clearly shows up.
I can also see it on a computer that has a BlackMagic video card output.
Here's a sample : https://vid.me/AavQ
I've read that a lot of people got this problem.
English is not my mother tongue, so I'm not sure I understand everything, but there is even a post on Adobe.com about it : Avoiding Judder in Motion Graphics.
I'm looking for a technical solution to fix this.
My movie is and should remains 25 fps, noninterlaced.  The timing of my movement should basically remains the same because I can't afford retiming the whole movie (48 mins).
I already did try to play with the shutter angle, the motion blur (and number of samples); to force the blur with CC force motion blur, to slightly change the movement timing... But none works.  Even if I set a very high level of blur, it keeps "blinking".
There is also an interesting topic about it here, where a guy eventually says:

Try panning the R, G and B channels at slightly different speeds.
  There is a correct order but DS guys have done this for years.

I still should try that but I wonder if this is not too much complicated and I'm not sure I know how to do that.
I would be very interested by your feedbacks and ideas about all that.
Thanks for your help !

I think the Adobe article you linked to spells it out pretty well, especially with respect to the "7 second rule". I think you're just panning too fast.
Fast pans don't like sharp lines that run counter to the pan's motion. If you absolutely must pan at that speed, you'll need to reduce detail (ie, contrasty edges) during the fast pans.
So for starters, I think you need a lot of motion blur. I wouldn't start by using an effect to create motion blur, though. Instead, try using AE's built-in motion blur. Assuming you're in the comp that has the motion keyframes, turn on the motion blur switch for your Painting layer (the little balls icon):

..and then enable motion blur globally using its global toggle button:

Now you can adjust the shutter angle, samples, etc by going to the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings. Set the shutter to the max value 720 just to see if it helps. Lower the value until the judder begins to return.
Adding some grain may help imperceptibly reduce some detail, too. (You can simply create a 50% gray solid, add the Add Grain effect, and set the transfer mode to Overlay.) Play with intensity and size, and monochromatic vs color grain, to see what feels best.
Lastly, I don't think CC Force Motion Blur is a good choice in this case. If the built-in motion blur described above still isn't 'smeary' enough to get rid of sharp edges during pans, try Pixel Motion Blur instead, and set the shutter to something high like 1000 (just to see if it fixes the problem) and then lower the value until the judder begins to return.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
Software to "control" a video show
I'm working on a magicians show.
They need some videos to be played during it, but the timings of their work could vary.
So I was wondering if I could find some kind of software that could be used to control how videos do play, and that they could control with a keyboard.
It would be quite simple, they idea is to have some videos that would loop, waiting for a "user" action.
Eg.

video A >>>
video B - video loop - when key is pressed, plays until its end then goes to...
video C>>>
video B - video loop - when key is pressed, plays until its end then goes to...
video D
etc.

I used to do this with Flash back in the days.
Maybe is there a better tool to achieve this now, and which would handle videos in a better way (Flash was bad for videos !)
Thanks !

For live event video display, I would search for "VJ software."  Because (a) I'm a video editor who uses DaVinci Resolve in his daily life and (b) I sometimes make typos when performing internet searches, I've stumbled across a piece of software called "Resolume," which appears to be highly regarded in this space, although I cannot comment on its quality or efficacy.  https://resolume.com

I think you can achieve this with Fast Video Cataloger. videocataloger.com
I would test using playlists and Custom Actions. I am not sure if it covers what you need but can be worth a test.
Create a catalog with your videos. Tag these with keywords.

For macOS check out VDMX.
You could also try processing.org and create something that can do exactly what you need.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Extend duration of imported static layers in After Effects
I have imported a layered Photoshop file into After Effects as a layered comp with several .psd "footage" layers.
I've created and edited the comps within the 20s main comp with animations and effects. Now I need to extend the static layers(all 7s) to the length of the main comp(20s).
I've tried dragging to extend their regions and right-clicking > Time > Enable Time Remapping(this allows me to extend the region with keyframes, but the content still ends short of the comp length).
When I right-click the static layer and click "Open Layer Source", the preview shows the layer region extending to the same time as in the timeline...

but the green render bar only goes to 5s...

I can see this when I drag the playhead in the main comp timeline—the layers with this problem disappear at 5s even though their regions extend to 7s.
1. I need to get these layer regions to extend the length of my 20s comp.
2. It seems like the layer source only goes to 5s when I "Open Layer Source", so even if the region goes to 20s, the 'content' only goes to 5s.
How can I extend everything to 20s without reimporting everything and doing all of my keyframes/animations/effects over again?
Or is there a way to reimport those layers, but keep all of my keyframes/animations/effects.
Using the latest Photoshop CC 2015.5 & After Effects CC v2015.3.

Open the imported comps. Not in the layer source window, just as comps (i.e. double click from the project panel).
Go to the composition settings menu and change the duration to whatever you want.
Drag the out-points of all the layers to the end of the comp (hint, press the end key on your keyboard and then with all the layers selected hit alt+]).
In your main composition you will now be able to drag the end of the photoshop comps to their new length.

thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the PSD that I'm importing creates  comps for layer groups, and .psd layers for regular layers, see here, http://i.imgur.com/DJBPeT5.png, so I can't open those layers(as I would comps) and change their duration. That's essentially my question: how do I extend the duration of non-comp, imported, PSD layers?

You'll be still able to drag out the end of those layers, even though it says they are of a specific duration.

If I'm understanding your situation correctly...
two options:

Place your cursor over the very end of the layer bar in the timeline. It should be a horizontal double ended arrow cursor. Drag to the right to extend the layer to the end of the comp.
Select the layer. Move the playhead to the end of the timeline. Alt ]
(that's: Alt 'right sqaure bracket')

Already tried both but they're not working. That's why I asked the question. Thanks.

I had the same issue. Time remapping worked for me. When you Time Remap, it adds Time Remap keyframes to your layers.

Then you can extend your layer bar as you usually do.
And finally drag Time Remap keyframes to the end of the comp.

That worked for me and didn't stretch the time.
Hope it will work for you as well.

here's what worked for me.
Go to the layers,
Right click on the static image/file,
Click on time remap,
and you should be able to extend the duration of the fixed image!
hope this helps.

I had this happen to me when importing a single .png. No matter what I did once the file was in AE, I just couldn't adjust it.
Turns out that when you import a .png there is an option to import as a "PNG Sequence" at the bottom of the import file dialog. It was checked. So, I unchecked it. POW, worked like a charm. Imported PNG assumed the full length of the composition when I dropped it in.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Screencasts from quicktime are too large to share
I tend to take quite a lot of video screencasts to illustrate bugs and features to 3rd parties during web development projects.
To achieve this is I use Quicktime on my Mac and then go to "File > New screen recording", record the video and press "Stop". Then it asks me to save the video which I do, but it always comes out as a very large file, for instance a 30 second video depending on how much I scroll on the screen can be 50mb (not the best for sharing).
At the moment to get around this before I share the videos on email or in Trello (project management tool) I setup a queue in Handbrake and run all the videos through there in the 'normal setting'. This reduces them to about 7mb each with as near which makes no noticable difference.
The only issue is that as a workflow this is a bit of pain. Is there a way I can save lower size videos direct from Quicktime? I've researched saving at 720p which does very little for the file size and 480p which gives me an iphone sized video which is too small to use.

Export your Quicktime video using the Share option to compress it

Thanks, but when I go to file > share the options are all external sites and services, is there a way to compress the files and have the compressed version saved back to my local machine ?

Once you have done your recording you can go to File > Export and you get a choice of 1080p, 720p, 480p etc and you can same this to your Mac's harddrive or wherever you want to.

If this file is still to large, for my 24sec test I had a 13mb file from just saving it, but when I exported to 720p it went down to 8mb, if I wanted this smaller I would send it through something like Handbrake for a better compression

Thanks adam, thats what ive already been doing export at 1080 then handbrake which roughly gets a 20mb file down to 3-6mb, but it terms of a workflow theres allot of steps as during a testing / debugging session i could be making 20 short screen casts, i could queue them in handbrake, but id still have to manulally add each one to the queue so it dosnt save much time

OK, I see the issue, there are apps out there that can have a "Watch Folder" setup which will process video files saved into the folder, most are paid for like Sorensen Squeeze, Adobe Media Encoder, I did a quick search and there are setups using Apple scripts and automator actions using Apple Compressor. I have never tried this but I would be interested into getting this working as I could do with this type of process. I will look into this a bit more tomorrow and see what I can find.

What video and audio formats, and what container format, are your files that you want to re-encode?


text:
What kind of hardware do I need for a multi-person editing team?
What are some good ("Pro?") ways of storing videos so that a team of editors can work on them?
I currently work for an eLearning company that produces medium-large quantities of instructional videos (we go through about 100gb of storage per month).
Our typical workflow to this point has been to work locally on our hard drives and then back up to a shared network drive that is connected to our wireless router via USB. Obviously this workflow is slow and tedious. What could we improve?
Currently we are considering creating a dedicated RAID array that we could connect to via Firewire. The idea behind it is that ideally we would all be working off of the same storage system, rather than ever having different versions on different machines. We need to be able to connect up to 6 desktop machines at once.
With that as background, here are my specific questions:

Are there any good recommendations for large-ish storage systems? 10TB would most likely be adequate for the near future.
How should we connect the computers? USB3? Firewire? Do we need special hardware to route 6+ cables to a raid array?
Should we be considering software for version control and backups? We currently edit in PremierePro. So something that integrates well with Adobe would be ideal.

Mac or PC?  Is thunderbolt an option?

The first thing is to separate your source assets from your projects.  Source assets are the biggest things and should never change.  They are generally best placed on a NAS RAID array on gigabit Ethernet or better (10G+ fiber links are nice if you can afford them, but not strictly needed).  Each editor can then pull down whatever source files they need locally (or possibly just work off the NAS, though I'd recommend local pull down).
Project files on the other hand could use things like versioning and locking to prevent conflicts from forming.  Project files change frequently since they store the actual editing decisions, but they are also much, much smaller than the static source files.  Personally, I back these up in a portion of the same directory structure on my external, but I don't have to worry about version control since I am not in a multi-user environment.
Any decent editor should be able to reasonably easily deal with wiring up to assets via relative paths and should be able to adjust for moving the project files around provided that similar directory structures are used on each editing system.
I personally organize with a folder per project with a source folder and a project folder and a swap folder in each, though that can be switched around to have a source folder and a projects folder with sub-folders for each project within it if you prefer that organization.
I know there are also more dedicated asset management systems out there, but I have never had need of playing with them beyond some light work with Adobe Vue which I don't think is still actively maintained and wasn't really designed for handling video as I understand it.

Thanks - the part about separating projects and source material will be particularly helpful. We'll be looking into 10g Ethernet as well.

Editshare has some very interesting products.


text:
Are todays phone cameras capable of capturing better video than no-zoom pocket camcoders?
I am a complete amateur with respect to photography. I capture videos rather than still pictures during my vacations. So it is limited to videos outdoors. My preferences are limited to compactness of camera and outdoor video quality. Since I mostly upload it to YouTube, I don't need ultra HD resolution videos, 1080p will be fine.
For my vacations, I was using Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX100 which enabled me to capture good quality outdoor videos in 720p resolution [may be because of HDR video mode and large sensor size] and had the compactness I was looking for. After this got damaged one year back, I was using my "One-plus One" phone for capturing videos. It even offers a 4K video shooting resolution and I have seen a lot of praise for this phone's camera all over the internet. But for me it turns out to be a grave disappointment when I compare the video quality of my old cyber-shot with "OnePlus One". The video had lot of grain and the "life-like" thing was missing. So now I am looking for another camera/phone which offers me better video quality outdoors. I live in a country where there is abundant sun light on most days. So I have to shoot my videos in bright light.
I know the no-zoom pocket camcorders are disappearing from the market. But I think one of these could meet my requirements of ultra compactness and better video quality than phone cameras. I still haven't made up my mind about going for a new phone (which is a costly option) assuming the new phone will offer better video quality (than my OnePlus One) or getting one of the pocket camcorders like GE DV1 or Panasonic HMA-T1.
Could anybody out there who has used both a pocket camcorder and a good phone, suggest which will be my best bet? Either to upgrade my phone or to buy the pocket camcorder? Does the pocket camcorders usually has bigger/better sensors than the phones? Which one could offer me better video quality? As I mentioned earlier I am not looking for any resolution beyond 1080p.
My budget is limited to 200$ if it is a compact camera and 400$ if it is a phone. Thanks.
PS: I have no option to buy another Cyber-shot compact camera since it is no longer available in my country. Also I am NOT looking for any camera with zoom such as Cyber-shot RX-100 even though it will be more value for money.

They do say that the best camera you have is the one you have with you. Phones tick that box.

No zoom "pocket cameras"? I fail to see how that can be better than today's typical smartphones.

@fredsbend : I never used one. I was asking opinion about these flip, playsport, GE DV series of products, whether they are better than typical phone camera. IMHO, the Cyber-shot video was better than the video from my phone.


text:
Why ffmpeg works non-deterministically?
I take a file and make the video slower by using one and the same command two times:
ffmpeg -nostdin -i test.avi -filter:v "setpts=2.0*PTS" -vtag xvid -an slow1.avi
ffmpeg -nostdin -i test.avi -filter:v "setpts=2.0*PTS" -vtag xvid -an slow2.avi

But slow1.avi and slow2.avi are different.
First check by comparing md5sum and filesize:
1ceef0b7c6b498399e7ee4ff3ce99427  slow1.avi
cc844d77193e2ad37dc1e06d6cac5166  slow2.avi
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 66606564 Jul 14 09:28 slow1.avi
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 66867612 Jul 14 09:28 slow2.avi

Then check by comparing terminal output:
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
   Duration: 00:21:52.21, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 344 kb/s
     Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 614x480 [SAR 1:1 DAR 307:240], 203 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
     Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p, 128 kb/s
-Output #0, avi, to 'slow1.avi':
+Output #0, avi, to 'slow2.avi':
   Metadata:
     ISFT            : Lavf57.25.100
     Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (xvid / 0x64697678), yuv420p, 614x480 [SAR 1:1 DAR 307:240], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
@@ -26,5 +26,5 @@
       unknown side data type 10 (24 bytes)
 Stream mapping:
   Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg4 (native) -> mpeg4 (native))
-frame=32804 fps=459 q=2.0 Lsize=   65045kB time=00:43:44.36 bitrate= 203.0kbits/s speed=36.8x
-video:63486kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 2.456314%
+frame=32804 fps=438 q=2.0 Lsize=   65300kB time=00:43:44.36 bitrate= 203.8kbits/s speed=  35x
+video:63741kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 2.446085%

ffmpeg gives this non-determinism with any file, for example try with:
/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl --recode-video avi -o 'test.%(ext)s' tPEE9ZwTmy0

Why the same processing of a file by ffmpeg is non-deterministic? Does this influence how this file is actually reproduced by movie player?
EDIT
If we add -flags bitexact before -filter:v, the results differ anyway.
This is the full output on machine A:
user@debian:~/Downloads$ md5sum test.avi
621ebcd080da91817bb47a93e877cd6e  test.avi
user@debian:~/Downloads$ ./ffmpeg-git-20160714-64bit-static/ffmpeg -nostdin -i test.avi -flags bitexact -filter:v "setpts=2.0*PTS" -vtag xvid -an slow1.avi
ffmpeg version N-80999-gf41e37b-static http://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/  Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (Debian 5.4.0-6) 20160609
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-static --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libwebp --enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libfreetype --enable-fontconfig --enable-libxvid --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-gray --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libass --enable-gnutls --enable-libvidstab --enable-libsoxr --enable-frei0r --enable-libfribidi --disable-indev=sndio --disable-outdev=sndio --enable-librtmp --enable-libmfx --enable-libzimg --cc=gcc
  libavutil      55. 28.100 / 55. 28.100
  libavcodec     57. 50.100 / 57. 50.100
  libavformat    57. 41.100 / 57. 41.100
  libavdevice    57.  0.102 / 57.  0.102
  libavfilter     6. 47.100 /  6. 47.100
  libswscale      4.  1.100 /  4.  1.100
  libswresample   2.  1.100 /  2.  1.100
  libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100
Input #0, avi, from 'test.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.25.100
  Duration: 00:00:01.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 777 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 854x470 [SAR 1:1 DAR 427:235], 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p, 128 kb/s
[avi @ 0x51c4680] Setting the AVFormatContext to bitexact mode, because the AVCodecContext is in that mode. This behavior will change in the future. To keep the current behavior, set AVFormatContext.flags |= AVFMT_FLAG_BITEXACT.
[avi @ 0x51c4680] Using AVStream.codec to pass codec parameters to muxers is deprecated, use AVStream.codecpar instead.
Output #0, avi, to 'slow1.avi':
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (xvid / 0x64697678), yuv420p, 854x470 [SAR 1:1 DAR 427:235], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc mpeg4
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/200000 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg4 (native) -> mpeg4 (native))
frame=   27 fps=0.0 q=13.4 Lsize=      99kB time=00:00:01.83 bitrate= 444.1kbits/s speed=15.7x
video:93kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 7.451477%
user@debian:~/Downloads$ md5sum slow1.avi
653f2bf66a01b67911b5bd61a4e197e0  slow1.avi

This is the full output on machine B:
user@debian:~/Downloads$ md5sum test.avi
621ebcd080da91817bb47a93e877cd6e  test.avi
user@debian:~/Downloads$ ./ffmpeg-git-20160714-64bit-static/ffmpeg -nostdin -i test.avi -flags bitexact -filter:v "setpts=2.0*PTS" -vtag xvid -an slow2.avi
ffmpeg version N-80999-gf41e37b-static http://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/  Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (Debian 5.4.0-6) 20160609
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-static --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libwebp --enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libfreetype --enable-fontconfig --enable-libxvid --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-gray --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libass --enable-gnutls --enable-libvidstab --enable-libsoxr --enable-frei0r --enable-libfribidi --disable-indev=sndio --disable-outdev=sndio --enable-librtmp --enable-libmfx --enable-libzimg --cc=gcc
  libavutil      55. 28.100 / 55. 28.100
  libavcodec     57. 50.100 / 57. 50.100
  libavformat    57. 41.100 / 57. 41.100
  libavdevice    57.  0.102 / 57.  0.102
  libavfilter     6. 47.100 /  6. 47.100
  libswscale      4.  1.100 /  4.  1.100
  libswresample   2.  1.100 /  2.  1.100
  libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100
Input #0, avi, from 'test.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.25.100
  Duration: 00:00:01.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 777 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Simple Profile) (XVID / 0x44495658), yuv420p, 854x470 [SAR 1:1 DAR 427:235], 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p, 128 kb/s
[avi @ 0x468f680] Setting the AVFormatContext to bitexact mode, because the AVCodecContext is in that mode. This behavior will change in the future. To keep the current behavior, set AVFormatContext.flags |= AVFMT_FLAG_BITEXACT.
[avi @ 0x468f680] Using AVStream.codec to pass codec parameters to muxers is deprecated, use AVStream.codecpar instead.
Output #0, avi, to 'slow2.avi':
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (xvid / 0x64697678), yuv420p, 854x470 [SAR 1:1 DAR 427:235], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbn, 29.97 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc mpeg4
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/200000 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg4 (native) -> mpeg4 (native))
frame=   27 fps=0.0 q=14.8 Lsize=     102kB time=00:00:01.83 bitrate= 456.8kbits/s speed=17.9x
video:95kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 7.225229%
user@debian:~/Downloads$ md5sum slow2.avi
9e6eed35b37a05c62141adefd249751f  slow2.avi

All I can say is upgrade. I performed a test using your command 4 times and I got identical output. Try the binaries at http://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/

@Mulvya With version N-80953-gd4c8e93-static the results are the same on one computer, but if the same file is processed with equal ffmpeg version on different computers (both 64bit), the result differs anyway, as described. Anyway, what may be the cause of the diff of terminal output shown in the question?

Add -flags bitexact and check.

Show the full console output.

Try it with the same version of ffmpeg.

Run the commands with -v trace and run the diff.

@Mulvya this is the diff http://pastebin.com/fk2wNWQ7, this is full log from A http://pastebin.com/LVJJ1kKv, this is full log from B http://pastebin.com/0hVByQtE

I see no significant difference in the readouts. This may have to do with the native mpeg4 encoder. Try with -c:v libxvid or -c:v libx264

@Mulvya -c:v libxvid solved the problem - the hashsums are equal now.

Because ffmpeg is so complex it has achieved sentience and free will.

Based on all info, it looks like the difference occurs with FFmpeg's internal MPEG-4 part 2 encoder, whose use can be identified by the string mpeg4 (native) after the 2nd arrow in  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg4 (native) -> mpeg4 (native)). If you use libxvid which is a third-party MPEG-4 part 2 encoder, the error does not occur.

My guess is that the behaviour of the internal mpeg4 encoder is related to the possible differences in supplementary instruction sets present between the two machines i.e. MMX, SSEn. Someone with the technical knowledge, please feel free to chime in.


text:
ffmpeg - output file is twice as long as the input
I'm encoding an image sequence to an .mp4 file using the following ffmpeg command:
ffmpeg -y -loglevel info -threads 0 -f lavfi -framerate 60  -i image_seq.%06d.tif -r 60 -preset medium -codec:v libx265 -ar 48000 -acodec aac -shortest -strict experimental -sn -vsync 1 -pix_fmt yuv420p -b:v 7340032 -movflags +faststart output_file.mp4

The image sequence itself is 60fps but the resulting .mp4 file contains a number of frames twice as big as in the original image sequence.
I really can't see anything that's wrong with the command.. any ideas?
Thanks!
EDIT:
The command which includes several inputs:
ffmpeg -y -loglevel info -threads 0 -f lavfi -i aevalsrc=0 -framerate 60 -i image.png -start_number 000000 -apply_trc bt709 -i image_seq.%06d.tif -r 60 -preset medium -codec:v libx265 -ar 48000 -acodec aac -shortest -strict experimental -sn -vsync 1 -pix_fmt yuv420p -b:v 7340032 -movflags +faststart -map "2:0" -map "0:0" -shortest output.mp4 2>&1 | tee -a log_file.log

Assuming that's the unabridged command, I do see many puzzling things.
-threads 0 is set here for decoding the input and is set to 0 = auto. Which is the default. Removed.
-f lavfi is for supplying a filter-generated source, not for a set of image files. Removed.
-r 60 should normally be harmless here, but given the filter format and vsync later on, better to remove this confounding option.
-ar 48000 -acodec aac is for encoding audio, but no audio stream is supplied or generated, so inert here. Removed.
-shortest is needed when there are multiple streams being encoded, and you want the encoding to stop when the shortest stream ends, but there's only one stream, the image sequence, being encoded. Removed.
-strict experimental is needed if you are encoding audio using the internal AAC encoder AND your FFmpeg is older than Dec 2015. In any case, there's no audio encoding occurring. Removed.
-sn disables subtitles, but no subtitle streams are present. Removed.
-vsync 1 produces constant frame rate output but that's the default for MP4 output. Removed.
Use
ffmpeg -y -framerate 60 -i image_seq.%06d.tif
       -preset medium -c:v libx265 -b:v 7340032 -pix_fmt yuv420p
       -movflags +faststart output_file.mp4

Thanks, could you just see my edit with the command that contains a couple of inputs? It happens there too..

It should be ffmpeg -y -apply_trc bt709 -framerate 60 -i image_seq.%06d.tif -f lavfi -i anullsrc=r=48k -c:v libx265 -pix_fmt yuv420p -b:v 7340032 -c:a aac -shortest -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Ah.. what about my -i image.png?

Wasn't being used anywhere.

Fair enough, but even if my command contains "redundant" parameters, shouldn't it still work?

You didn't specify the TIFF sequence as framerate 60, so it defaults to 25.

And i think that was the problem.. wasn't it? If my sequence is 60fps but it was interpreted as 25fps, it makes sense it would result in a file with twice as many frames.. thanks!


text:
How can I generate a color-correct h264/MP4 from a DPX sequence using ffmpeg?
We are converting a sequence of DPX files into an MP4. When the artist uses Adobe Media Encoder CC to generate the video, the colors match the original DPX. When we use ffmpeg, the video has a reddish hint. The command used is:
ffmpeg -y -start_number 0101 -i \\path\to\filename.%04d.dpx -pix_fmt yuv420p sample.mp4

How can we generate a video that matches the color of the original DPX files?

Inspecting the files with ffprobe revealed the following differences (correct file/bad file):

major_brand: mp42 / isom
minor_version: 0 / 512
compatible_brands: mp42mp41 / isomiso2avc1mp41
encoder: not listed / Lavf57.34.102
Video: h264 (Main) / h264 (High)
Video: yuv420p(tv, bt709) / yuv420p
Video: 1920x1080 / 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9]
handler_name: Alias Data Handler / VideoHandler

Probe references: dpx, correct, incorrect

I followed up on the yuv420p(tv, bt709) portion of the encoding and discovered that this refers to the Rec. 709 colorspace for HDTV. In ffmpeg, colorspace is defined by the colormatrix filter. However, you must convert from some colorspace. According to an ffmpeg mailing list conversation, the default colorspace is assumed to be bt601:

ISTR that if you give ffmpeg RGB it assumes its full range, it also by
  default converts using 601 matrices. Although it has a number of
  colourspaces defined which can be accessed in the libs using the API,
  ffmpeg itself makes no use of them (Although I have a nagging feeling
  that that may not be completely true anymore either).

So the final ffmpeg command that worked was:
ffmpeg -y -start_number 0101 -i \\path\to\filename.%04d.dpx
-vf colormatrix=bt601:bt709 -pix_fmt yuv420p sample.mp4

The color is now correct, but there is no discernible difference in the output from ffprobe or MediaInfo. (In other words, the colorspace of the ffmpeg-generated file does not appear in the output.)

Add -colorspace 1 to tag the output.

@Mulvya great! is there a "tag everything" option? (I couldn't find one)

Recent patches to ffmpeg fixed this issue https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/search?q=dpx&type=commits
It now reads range, primaries, matrix and transfer. Not to mention SMPTE timecode and alternate framerate.
There is still a bug that it writes linear transfer on all files.


text:
Can I set the start number for image sequence output?
I am using ffmpeg to convert from video to an image sequence as follows:
ffmpeg -i video.webm image-%03d.png

The first image is labelled 001, but I want it to be labelled 098. Is it possible to set that value in the ffmpeg invocation?

The image sequence muxer has a start number option, so
ffmpeg -i video.webm -start_number 98 image-%03d.png

Does this still work? The arg is being ignored for me

Share full log.

I had to put the -start_number flag before the -i flag for it to get parsed.

Moving it before -i results in an error: Option start_number not found. after -i it just gets ignored.

@shockburner Simply reordering the arguments actually made it work on ffmpeg 4.4.2 built with Apple clang-1300.0.29.30, kudos!

Everyone should be aware that this is not, by far, the only occurrence of position-sensitive ffmpeg arguments. It's kind of its thing.


text:
Adobe Premiere Pro Preview Not Playing Full Speed
I know the question's been asked a million times. I've read and tried most solutions and haven't received a fix. I come from working on a Mac in Final Cut X, cutting a 30 minute TV show every week. I took the same footage over to Premiere CC 2015.3 on Windows and even just trying to play back a single clip with no effects the video preview lags behind the audio.
Just trying to play back a 1080p H.264 MPEG4 AVC QuickTime Video, 29.97 FPS. None of the following worked: Tried reducing playback quality to 1/4. Ensured the sequence settings matched my video settings. Rendered from in to out. Uninstalled the application and installed it again on my SSD alongside my OS. The footage is being played back from a separate internal HDD.
I really doubt it's a hardware problem because I'm running a 6700K @ 4.4GHz OC, 16GB DDR4 2400 RAM, Nvidia Gigabyte G1 Gaming 1070 card w/ up to date drivers.
EDIT: To start my project I'm creating new project with Mercury GPU (CUDA) renderer. Then rather than deal with settings I drop my main clip into the timeline and it auto detects the footage incorrectly, setting the FPS to 10fps. Changing this back to 29.97 does nothing. Even rendering it all out after this change doesn't change anything.
EDIT 2: Went and looked up the Premiere Pro CC course on Lynda, downloaded that project and media. Everything works great. So where's the issue? In my project settings or with the media?
Any final ideas? A NOOB guide on setting up the project and sequence in case I'm missing something? Thanks so much for your help. If I can't solve it in a week, I'll be asking for a refund from Adobe.

1. Corrupted Media
I'd bet you've got a problem with your media.
The hint is that Premier Pro auto-detects it at 10fps.
Premier Pro is broadcast production ready, so it's unlikely the cause.
You could try ffmpeg to give you an idea of what's wrong.
ffmpeg -v error -i file.avi -f null - 2>error.log
That will give you a log file of errors.
see https://superuser.com/questions/100288/how-can-i-check-the-integrity-of-a-video-file-avi-mpeg-mp4
2. Cache
Another thought is there may be cached media previews that are broken. So clean the media cache database and move it off your boot disk.
3. Overclocking
I don't like overclocking a system until I know it's stable. That could be a problem there.
4. Windows version
You don't mention which version of Windows you're running (7-10?) I don't know anyone running production systems on 10. But that's not a lot of people.

Tried ffmpeg on my linux rig, didn't provide any useful errors. I do think however it is something to do with the file. The reason for my confusion is simply because these files were from a show that I completed 2 weeks ago in Final Cut X with no problems. Might try a different method of capture if I want to edit in Premiere. It goes from cam over SDI to a BlackMagic Mini Recorder. Will update answer if I can find the cause of the problem. Thanks.

That workflow should be rock solid, so it shouldn't be all the media files, just a couple. Have you checked the BlackMagic forums?


text:
Is This Pin-Out for S-Video or Composite Video?
I have never seen a pin out utilizing video- and video+ before. My first assumption would be that it's for analog video transmission, probably composite video.
Pin Function

Video-
Video+
74 VDC
AUX+
Ground
AUX-
RS-485 -/A
RS-485 +/B

I don't recognize this connector, but I can say that your assumption is incorrect. Video+/- isn't "two cables", it's just a way of notating the two wires (like say, signal and ground) needed for a complete circuit. The same is true for the AUX and RS485 circuits.

Thank you for your response. That answers what I need to know.


text:
Which software have this guy used to make this video?
I'd like to do something similar. I don't know if its a stop motion or a animation.

Thanks!

It looks like it involves hand-drawn animation and some compositing of photos. You could do that in-camera, by physically drawing on paper and moving photos around by hand, and shooting it frame-by-frame, or you could do it in a compositing application. There are many compositing applications to choose from, one of the most commonly used is Adobe After effects.


text:
Will adding more RAM to my system speed up rendering?
When I render any AE composition, through AE or Media Encoder it seems to take a long time. I want to increase my render times.
I have noticed that my CPU usage seems to fluctuate consistantly where as my RAM consistanly stays around 70% usage.

Is there any way that I increase the amount of CPU and RAM AE uses to speed up the render time?
Also would adding more RAM to my system actually speed up render times?

Thanks in advanced
EDIT: I am rendering the save to a different hard drive from the one the render is running from. Both are internal disk drives.

I'd hazard a guess that the dips in CPU usage are where the source files are being pulled off disk, or written to disk. You could speed things up in this case by using the command line renderer and having a couple of instances going, to soak up the spare cycles. But the more instances you have, the more memory you'll need, so the answer might be yes.

If your external drive is a spinning disk, and your internal drive is an SSD, you may find it faster to host the project and render everything on the internal drive.
This is what I do - the problem is keeping enough available space on the drive as SSDs are expensive and small.

Add more RAM and render to your SDD drive and your renders should go a bit faster.


text:
Rough Idea of Time Spent Editing Videos
I currently am the Video guy for our company. We do video training for installs for automotive parts. I do the planning for the videos. I do the shooting of the videos. I do the editing of the videos. I do the final release of the videos.
My boss wants a report about the amount of time it should be taking me to do this. Its a fair question and I'm all about self improvement and figuring out where I can do my job more effectively, especially if it will help me get a raise or move up in the company. My question comes from the amount of time I should be allotting for the start to completion for a video. Its not my only job, but it is about 30-35 hours a week, so a huge portion.
So how much time should I be allotting for start to finish of a video. I have put together several of the parameters bellow.
SO lets assume I was going to release a 10 minute video on YouTube.

I do my planning for the different shots I'm going to need.
I work with our other guy who is the "Host" or "Talent" on screen to get together what he needs to cover.
We start shooting, We do about 3 hours of shooting/installing, giving me what I need to work from.
I start editing the video, I join the audio, I sort through the footage, Pick all the different pieces I'm going to use, Cut in each scene (Which is rather easy because we shoot in consecutive order of the build), Lay in the intro & outro graphics, Lay the sound effects/background music (Which is typically most of the video and the same), Export the video, Make any suggestions/changes from the installers, Build the video thumbnails.
I upload the completed video to YouTube, add to other website locations, send an email its been release, write any type of descriptions/keywords.

Now I know how long I'm spending on each video roughly, its about 2-3 weeks time per video, and sometimes even more than that. I have about 4 years of experience doing this. I also know that it varies from person to person based on skill. I do have plenty of room for improvement, I know that. How long SHOULD it take me to complete a project like this? Am I in the ball park? Am I running really slow? Or am I doing good for my time frame?

This is a tough question because there are a ton of different factors involved here, from complexity of the video to the equipment you're working with to the NLE you use. However, the default formula we use to give time estimates to clients breaks down like this (I've run a small video production company for a few years working for a large variety and diversity of clients):
Pre-Production
2 hours per minute of final product:
This is a number that can swing wildly in each direction, mostly depending on how much pre-production we have to do. For instance, if a client already has a script prepared, we typically don't have to do much besides potentially locking down a location, prepping a shot list, and lining up a crew. However, if a client comes to us and just says "I want a video to express such and such" (without a concept), we'll spend a large amount of time brainstorming, writing, etc. Typically we'll even send the client 3 fairly well-developed concepts to see which one they like best.
Production
1 hour per minute of final product: This is the number that stays the most consistent across all our projects, and really boils down to only a few factors. The biggest factor is who we're working with - if we get to use our own (experienced) actors in the video, everything goes smoothly. If a company or organization wants to put their own people into the video, it takes longer because (most of the time) these people don't have acting experience and thus haven't memorized the script, aren't strong in staying consistent between takes, etc.
The other main factor in production time is the equipment you're using and how complex the shoot is. More cameras cuts down on production time because you can grab multiple angles at once (we typically shoot with 2 cameras at a time). A complicated shoot involving a lot of equipment set-up/breakdown will take much longer than a shoot with just a camera on a tripod. Set-up and breakdown of equipment (especially large equipment like a jib or dolly) can take a ton of time.
Post-Production
1.5 hours per minute of final product: Like pre-production, this one can swing pretty wildly in either direction, but I almost never give an estimate of less than 1.5 hours/minute of final product. This one really depends on what exactly you're doing in your post-production workflow - are you just throwing clips together on a timeline and then exporting it? Or are you going through all the extra steps, like color correcting/grading, audio cleaning/mixing, adding titles, VFX, etc.? Typically, if we're on a deadline, we'll cut unnecessary steps from that workflow to get a video out on time (most clients may not care if you don't color grade a project simply because most people won't notice it if it's not horrible).
Total
This works out to around 4.5 hours of work per minute of "final product" (a 10-minute video would take 45 hours, for instance). Like I said, there's a ton of volatility to that number - we've knocked out a 4-minute video in 10 hours, but we've also spent 20 hours on a 1 minute video. The biggest thing I've learned while in this industry is that people who are unfamiliar with the process of video production always underestimate how long a video will take from start to finish. To do it right, it takes time.
In your specific case, it looks like your video has a decent number of angles, cuts, etc., and your production value is fairly high. Your videos are long, too, so I'd say 2-3 weeks of working 30-35 hours/week is definitely within the acceptable range.

I really appreciate your feedback. Thank you for taking the time to write such a knowledgeable response.

I wanted to add to this, from the perspective of someone who also produces 'tutorial style' content on YouTube, that I typically estimate no less than 2 hours per minute of final content. Some of my videos are 4-6 hours per minute total (including preproduction, production, and editing).

Priceless! Thanks folks!


text:
Can old camcorder be optimized?
I bought a camera in 2003. Since then, I think something might have  become dusty, or some parts could have become worn out (or etc, I dont know)..
What steps I can take to refresh the old camera (in order to get it's maximum quality again, like new)?
(p.s. My camera is a JVC 3CCD, records on SD card).

What are the symptoms that make you think something is worn out?

TL;DR: Probably not.

I believe your camera records video on MiniDV. Video is written digitally but writing process is the only non-digital operation in the camera (involves magnetic head, tape, and tape scrolling mechanism). It's easy to determine if something is really become worn out because usually something mechanical is the only thing that can gradually degrade. If you observe too many digital artifacts in your fresh recordings (make sure it's not because of old MiniDVs) you can try to clean the head (google 'tape head cleaning'). If it doesn't help then almost certainly something is wrong with the head/scrolling.
Water or steam can get into your camera, condense there, and make the image slightly blurred (I had such an issue with my Sony camera that is similar to yours). If you are not 100 % sure that the image was less blurred earlier skip this point.

In both cases I don't recommend you to try opening/repairing the camera by yourself. Go to the official service. This brings us to the price of repair which is probably comparable to the camera's cost for such an old device. That's why I recommend you to invest the money in a new camera (progressive video, no need to buy tapes, less requirements for light and so on) or stick with existing issues. So the answer is probably not.

it records on SD card.. thanks anyway!

Wow, camera from 2003 writes on cards. I should have checked the specs before writing, pardon. Then moreover nothing can be done.

Your question is too vague to be answered properly. Exactly what parts of "quality" have degraded?  How do you know the camera isn't operating as good as when it was new?  Is the video not focused sharply?  Are the colors "off"?  Is the audio distorted?  You can only repair or improve SPECIFIC problems. Otherwise it is just free-floating anxiety for which there is no technical solution.  If you can list specific issues, then you may get specific suggestions.


text:
What part should I buy to render videos?
I want to create & render videos (using SonyVegas, Adobe Premiere) to get fast rendering speed. I have optimized the program codecs/bitrates, but now want optimize hardware too:
Can I ignore CPU (they were used in the past) and just buy a good videocard (a.k.a. GPU) ?
Or does there exist  any special external part (attachable miner or etc..) , like this:

Are you in search of a "solution" when you appear to have NOT identified a "problem"?  Are you editing video now?  Is it too slow for what you need? Are you making artificially unreasonable assumptions about how fast video rendering should be? Can you change your workflow to reduce or eliminate high-end solutions to a low-end requirement?  For example to let videos render overnight while you are sleeping (or over the lunch-hour when you are eating, etc.)
Your question very much seems like a solution in search of a problem. That is typically followed by an ill-considered waste of money.
Are there fast solutions to video rendering?  Certainly.  Do people need that kind of solution? Yes, of course.  Do YOU need that kind of solution?  You have presented no evidence that you even know how fast videos will render on your current hardware, and whether that is insufficient for your (also unstated) requirements.
I must agree with the other responses that anything going through a USB2 is dead in the water if you are seeking truly fast video rendering. It is just a joke.

CPU's used to render graphics was a very very long time ago. GPU's surpassed CPU's for this almost 20 years ago. You absolutely do need to get a good graphics card, yes. Don't look for anything external - the amount of data transferred in and out of the graphics card means running through an interface will be so slow as to be unusable.
You'll want one of the cards from this list:

Nvidia Titan X.
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition.
Zotac GeForce GTX 980Ti AMP Extreme Edition.
Gigabyte Radeon R9 Fury X.
Sapphire Radeon R9 Nano.
MSI GeForce 1070 Gaming X.
Nvidia GeForce 1050 Ti.
AMD Radeon RX 480.

And more than likely, if you have never done this before, you'll need to get yourself a new motherboard to support the graphics card. And look at fast disk...

If you are using Vegas, then AMD GPUs, Premier Nvidia. The newer intel cpus have built in graphics support for opencl 1.2 and specific instructions for video encoding/decoding. Getting a new Quadcore 6th gen I7 and the AMD RX480 will help, but also should get fastest HDs or SSDS you can afford.

If by 'render videos' you mean exporting video files from editor and compositing apps, then the CPU is still primary. Yes, many apps/encoders do use CUDA/OpenCL APIs to use the GPU to render videos but the quality for a given bitrate isn't quite there yet.
If you mean the viewport preview of your edit/FX then get a good graphics card as per Dr. Mayhem.

Oh - that's a good point. I was assuming front end rendering.

@DrMayhem and Mylvya, please explain me, i dont know why you gave different answers... I just want to use SonyVegas(or Premiere) to create and render videos.

Hm.. Do you mean, that Rendered using CPU and GPU (with same bitrate), CPU has  a better quality???


text:
Can video have multiple streams (like it has 2 audio streams)
Is that possible, that a video (.mp4 or etc) had two video streams and we could to do work with each stream individually ? (like we do with 2 audio streams and we can remove any of them)..
if so:
1)  do you know which video editors can handle such videos? Adobe Premiere , Sony Vegas, DaVinci or ... ?
2) At this moment, my typical MP4 files are converted by youtube (after upload) to i.e. mpeg-4 10 AVC. And will those 2-stream videos will be converted to 1-stream video anyway? (maybe I have to ask that to YT forum, right?)

Certainly can. MP4 files can contain any number of video, audio, subtitle and other data tracks.

In practice, yes. Although I'm sure the field storing the number of streams has a max limit of 2^16 or 32.

@T.Todua, out of curiosity, what is your use case?

Yes. MPEG-4 Part 14 (the MP4 container format) supports any number of objects (e.g. video, audio and subtitle streams) and isn't limited to only one stream per content type.
In practice however, you seldom see a video file that has multiple video streams, because the range of applications for this is very limited. I would also advise you not to put multiple video streams into one file, as (a) users don't expect it, many won't know how to switch the video track or not notice there is a second video track at all and (b) many players (soft- and hardware) aren't equipped to play files with multiple video streams and either won't have any option to switch between streams or fail to play the file completely.
It is also more common to use Matroska (.mkv) containers for video files with multiple audio/subtitle streams, but even with those, you rarely see files with more than one video stream.

do you know which video editors can handle such videos? Adobe Premiere , Sony Vegas or?...

will youtube convert such video file into 1-streamed file (at this moment, my typcal m4 files are converted by youtube to mpeg-4 10 AVC_

Another disadvantage of multiple video streams in one file is (c) that it dramatically increases the filesize. To play one of the streams the player has to access the data for all of them at the same time.

@T.Todua No idea. As I said, in my experience most applications aren't built to handle multiple video streams because in practice there's really no application for them. You should be able to build a file with multiple video streams with ffmpeg, but what is YouTube supposed to do with it? It doesn't even have an option to switch between multiple Audio streams, let alone Video streams ... just create two seperate videos and be done with it

One application I think is storing footage from depth cameras (RGB-D). Synchronizing the two video tracks at a frame level could be tricky I suspect -- does .mkv support this?

@stib - The output size is not "increased", it is just equal to that of the  inputs. The same two streams take the same space whether in one file or in two.

@T.Todua - This is much simpler than it looks. I have posted an answer with two cross-platform opensource tools. As for players, the most common ones (VLC) can handle the multi-video-stream files.

@cipricus,yes that's true, but having multiple streams in a single file means that a much larger file has to be accessed, and the data rate is directly proportional to how many streams are muxed together. So instead of say two files, either of which has a data rate of X mbs, you now have a single file with a data rate of 2X mbs

This is certainly possible, and rather easy to do, for example with MKVToolnix, adding the second file as new source to current settings (just darg & drop the files)

Matroska video can handle multiple streams, and so can mp4. MKVToolnix gives only mkv as output I think. For various output formats a good  tool is dmMediaConverter, which is less known but is a great ffmpeg frontend.

The output has the expected size of the two input sizes added up.
As for playing the resulting movie and switching between the video streams, VLC can do it, as well as Gnome Mpv (in Linux). SMPlayer was less good (sometimes jumped forward when switching or just crashed). MPV with pseudo-gui has no option for the switch. (Tested in Linux.)


text:
Need to record videos - can I buy a PhotoCamera instead of VideoCamera?
I need to record videos at least 1080p (mainly video-lectures or like) averagely 5-15 hours every week..
I am not going to send those videos to Oscar's jury, but if possible, I need an normal/good HD quality for an affordable price (below 1000$). I was thinking to buy a camera (lets say, Canon SX50 HS) for that, but someone told me, that it's not advised to use a camera for frequent video-recording purposes, instead use VideoCamera.

So, my questions:
a) while recording with PhotoCamera, and try zooming, it has a sound, right? are mirorless cameras better?  does it have auto-focus?
b) I need it to record audio as well, good quality (I can use separate transmitter as mic-source).
c) is there a really huge concern, which one I use for recording videos? Will a Canon camera work well or do I have to buy a "Video Camera"?
d) about quailty - any difference between  1080p recorder from same megapixel Photo camera and from video recorder?
What are the pros and cons? (p.s. I dont care if they record in 30 minute steps or etc..)

TL;DR
If you have a camera of either type, use it. End of story. If you plan on taking photos as well as video, get a photo camera (I'd recommend a DSLR.) If you will only use the camera for video, get a video camera similar to the one you pictured.
Long Read
Video camera (camcorder):
Pros:

Design: Video cameras are designed to shoot video - they are built from the ground up to do exactly that, so all of the technology is focused on capturing video.
Ergonomics: video cameras are designed to capture video, and part of that design is the way the camera is meant to be held. Video cameras are designed to be easy to hold and control primarily with one hand. They often have a hand strap (small camcorders) or shoulder mount (large ENG-style cameras) where the user supports the camera with their right hand and the primary controls such as zoom and record are accessible with the fingers of the same hand.
Audio: Video cameras often have built-in microphones, microphone
holders or microphone ports (XLR, mini-XLR, or 1/8th inch).
Live-view video: Video cameras almost always feature both an electronic viewfinder and a rotating and folding screen, both of which can be used to view the video as you are recording it.
Accessories: Many video cameras have microphone holders, cold shoes and handles for accessories (a few cameras even have built-in LED lights). Some cameras have easy built in iris and focus controls, while some even include built-in neutral density filters.

Cons:

Stills: The biggest downside of these video cameras is they are often terrible at taking still photos, if they even do at all. There are a few reasons for this. 1) The sensor and processor are designed for taking video, so photos are often relatively low resolution (sometimes as low as 2 MP). 2) The form factor makes taking pictures awkward and often offers very little manual control.
Lenses: Most video cameras under $5000 USD have permanently attached lenses (not interchangeable), so if you want to zoom wider or narrower than the lens, you are out of luck.
Price: Video cameras are expensive! A very low end model will cost a few hundred dollars, a relatively good model will be about $2000-$3000 USD, and high end models can run as high as $100,000 (although I'd recommend a model at about the top of your budget (around $1000).

Photo camera (I will focus mainly on DSLRs)
Pros:

Lenses: The biggest advantage of a DSLR will likely be interchangeable lenses, which allow you to reach and focal length you want, assuming you don't mind paying for the lens.
Photos: DSLRs are designed to take photos. Their form factor and control placement makes this very easy. They will also shoot high resolution pictures (usually ~20-24 MP).
Audio: Often have internal microphones and 1/8th microphone jacks (but will never offer mini-XLR or XLR).

Cons:

Design: The SLR form factor has been around for many decades, since far before DSLRs offered video. Video is an afterthought on these cameras. It's added in as a bonus feature, but isn't supposed to be the primary function of these cameras. This applies to almost all photo cameras except, I would argue, the Lumix GH series.
Time restraints: Most DSLRs have a 20-30 minute video recording limit (depending on camera and quality). After this limit is up, you have to manually restart the recording.
Live-view video: Video can only be recorded while viewing as live-view on the DSLR screen. The viewfinder doesn't work. On top of that, many DSLRs (especially older ones) don't having tilting/flipping/rotating screens, making shooting at any angles difficult without an external monitor.
Price: These cameras aren't cheap, but good quality can be gotten with a $300-$400 body and a $200 lens (although I'd recommend a lens closer to $500). I'd also recommend an add-on shotgun mic (~$100-$250, depending on quality).

Please comment or edit if you think I missed anything.

many thanks.1 )just about PHOTO-CAMERAS - are mirorless cameras better? (as they are new generation as i know) 2 ) does DSLRs have a sound while zooming?  3) about quailty - any difference between  1080p recorder from same megapixel Photo camera and from video recorder?

I'd recommend a DSLR. More flexibility, more ability to control, but you should do some research based on possible mirrorless and DSLRs in your price range and come to your own conclusion.

does DSLR has auto-focus, like video-cameras?

For photos, definitely. Only some do for video. That is something you have to do research on


text:
How to de-flicker (anti-flicker) video?
My camera recorded flickering (black flashing) video, maybe due to low-lightened room.  I cant purchase the de-flicker plugins to fix the that video.
is there any free solution to fix that, with plugins or filters?
(p.s. I use Sony Vegas )

I ran into the same issue, but with flickering of a set of monitors with a refresh rate not lining up well with my camera. The current answer offered no remedy, nor did I find any useful fx for this. What did help to some degree, was to render the 50fps source to a 29.97fps mp4, should it be of any help to anyone.

Wow, I have found interesting solution:
Method 1 (bad approach):

duplicate main video streams and put over the main stream, just off-seting them 1 frame after

change the opacity of the top video to 31%, second to 51%, (leave third at 100%)

and the flickering will be gone out. However, it has a downside - the motions will be seen a bit stretched (because of 3-frame repeated).
Method 2 (Better):
No need to reinvent wheel, there are priced plugins for it. I can't remember but there was a good plugin in market, named "de-flicker" or "anti-flicker" with free trial to test, which did excellent job!

Very interesting. I'll have to star this one.

It is working solution! Thanks a lot.


text:
Create a MXF media with a video and audio clip at specific timing compatible with Pro Tools
I have several media:

one video file
several audio files

I would like to create a new MXF media with the video file and mixing the audio files at specific timestamp and tracks:

Starting time of the video file on the track 0: 00:00:00:00
Starting time of the audio clip 1 on the track 1: 00:00:30:00
Starting time of the audio clip 2 on the track 2: 00:00:35:00
Starting time of the audio clip 3 on the track 2: 00:00:45:00
...

I made a first try with just with one video and one audio. I used the following command:
ffmpeg -y -i picsou.mp4 \
  -itsoffset 2 \
  -i picsou.wav \
  -shortest \
  out.mp4

Unfortunately, when I import it in Pro Tools, I cannot see the audio.

Adapt the method at https://stackoverflow.com/a/48169214/5726027

@Gyan when I look as the solution you propose, it seems that the adelay filter delay the full channel...

Share your command.

Ok the -itsoffset option solved my problem but change a little bit the subject to explain exactly what I want to do: a MXF file.

for Pro Tools

The method in my comment still stands.
Let's say you have two audio tracks. Basic command syntax is
ffmpeg -i picsou.mp4 \
       -i audio1.wav \
       -i audio2.wav \
       - filter_complex "[1:a]adelay=30000|30000[1a];\
                         [2:a]adelay=35000|35000[2a]" \
      -map 0:v -map "[1a]" -map "[2a]" -c:v copy -shortest \
  out.mxf

The adelay filter here expects two channels per input stream. Channel delay values are in milliseconds.
On linux / OSX you may have to use single quotes around the arguments.

Pro Tools support MXF OPATOM, so you need to precise it with the following parameter -f mxf_opatom

Opatom only supports a single stream. In your Q, you state, "I would like to create a new MXF media with the video file and mixing the audio files at specific timestamp and tracks:" which can't be done with Op Atom.

Yes I know. I finally understood that MXF was a dead end and I will need to generate an OMF. I'll test your solution in order to generate a wav in the meantime!

Maybe I should update my question to go back to the audio pcm question if you don't mine?


text:
How to add correctly ssa/ass subtitles to video with ffmpeg or VLC
I want to add ssa subtitles to video.
I've tried with VLC. If I play the video and add subtitles file VLC shows correctly the ssa subtitles but if I convert/save the same video adding the subtitles file, the output doesn't contain the subtitles.
Then I've tried with ffmpeg like this
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf "ass=mysubtitle.ass" -strict -2 out.mp4

The output shows the subtitles, but the aspect is changed and the subtitles appear partially sometimes since the scale is changed and I would like to get the same aspect ratio (16:9) and same width x height as input video. Or even better reduce video size with same aspect ratio
How can I do that with ffmpeg, VLC or another open source tool?
Thanks in advance
UPDATE1
user@H:/mnt/d/VIDEOS$ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf ass=subtitles.ass -v 40 -strict -2 out.mp4
ffmpeg version 2.8.14-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9) 20160609
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0ubuntu0.16.04.1 --build-suffix=-ffmpeg --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --cc=cc --cxx=g++ --enable-gpl --enable-shared --disable-stripping --disable-decoder=libopenjpeg --disable-decoder=libschroedinger --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libiec61883 --enable-libzmq --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-libopencv
  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
Routing option strict to both codec and muxer layer
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'input.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
  Duration: 00:04:06.06, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 450 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (Main), 3 reference frames (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 854x480 (864x480) [SAR 1:1 DAR 427:240], 314 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 30k tbn, 59.94 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Raster: FreeType 2.6.1
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Shaper: FriBidi 0.19.7 (SIMPLE) HarfBuzz-ng 1.0.1 (COMPLEX)
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Initialized
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Using font provider fontconfig
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] File size: 3368
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] [0x826cb0] Style: Default,Goudy Old Style,22,&H002DD8DB,&H000000FF,&H00000000,&H00000000,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0,1,2,2,2,10,10,10,1
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Added subtitle file: 'subtitles.ass' (2 styles, 27 events)
[graph 0 input from stream 0:0 @ 0x8ed880] w:854 h:480 pixfmt:yuv420p tb:1/30000 fr:30000/1001 sar:1/1 sws_param:flags=2[graph 1 input from stream 0:1 @ 0x8f2ee0] tb:1/44100 samplefmt:fltp samplerate:44100 chlayout:0x3
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 AVX2 LZCNT BMI2
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] profile High, level 3.1
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] 264 - core 148 r2643 5c65704 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2015 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=6 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to 'out.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (libx264), -1 reference frame ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 854x480 [SAR 1:1 DAR 427:240], q=-1--1, 29.97 fps, 30k tbn, 29.97 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
      encoder         : Lavc56.60.100 libx264
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler
      encoder         : Lavc56.60.100 aac
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> aac (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Neither PlayResX nor PlayResY defined. Assuming 384x288
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] fontselect: (Goudy Old Style, 700, 0) -> /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf, 0, DejaVuSans-Bold
No more output streams to write to, finishing.e=00:04:05.22 bitrate= 562.3kbits/s
frame= 7373 fps=142 q=-1.0 Lsize=   17301kB time=00:04:06.06 bitrate= 576.0kbits/s
video:13086kB audio:3963kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 1.480544%
Input file #0 (input.mp4):
  Input stream #0:0 (video): 7373 packets read (9668740 bytes); 7373 frames decoded;
  Input stream #0:1 (audio): 10597 packets read (3937072 bytes); 10597 frames decoded (10851328 samples);
  Total: 17970 packets (13605812 bytes) demuxed
Output file #0 (out.mp4):
  Output stream #0:0 (video): 7373 frames encoded; 7373 packets muxed (13399929 bytes);
  Output stream #0:1 (audio): 10597 frames encoded (10851328 samples); 10598 packets muxed (4058185 bytes);
  Total: 17971 packets (17458114 bytes) muxed
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] frame I:38    Avg QP:16.75  size: 22811
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] frame P:3026  Avg QP:22.01  size:  3818
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] frame B:4309  Avg QP:24.78  size:   227
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] consecutive B-frames: 20.0%  5.0%  3.4% 71.6%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] mb I  I16..4: 34.7% 50.6% 14.7%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] mb P  I16..4:  1.8%  3.4%  0.2%  P16..4: 24.0%  6.6%  5.1%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:59.0%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] mb B  I16..4:  0.1%  0.1%  0.0%  B16..8: 14.3%  0.1%  0.0%  direct: 0.3%  skip:85.0%  L0:39.0% L1:59.1% BI: 1.9%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] 8x8 transform intra:60.3% inter:53.1%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 23.0% 35.3% 6.9% inter: 5.4% 5.7% 0.4%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] i16 v,h,dc,p: 47% 22% 13% 18%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 36% 16% 34%  2%  2%  2%  2%  2%  2%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 29% 20% 11%  5%  8%  7%  7%  6%  6%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] i8c dc,h,v,p: 61% 16% 20%  4%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] Weighted P-Frames: Y:17.8% UV:16.1%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] ref P L0: 70.2% 11.5% 13.4%  4.9%  0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] ref B L0: 91.9%  7.0%  1.1%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] ref B L1: 96.6%  3.4%
[libx264 @ 0x82bd00] kb/s:435.73

Share full log of ffmpeg command after adding -v 40.

@Gyan Hello please see the log below my update in original post.

I used tips from here https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/HowToBurnSubtitlesIntoVideo and it worked: ffmpeg -i movie-without-subtitles.mp4 -vf "ass=subtitles.ass" -b:v 20M -c:a copy movie-with-subtitles.mp4

Thanks for answer. I get this error sending the command like you say At least one output file must be specified

The ffmpeg log shows,
[Parsed_ass_0 @ 0x7f7880] Neither PlayResX nor PlayResY defined. Assuming 384x288
So add these
PlayResX: 854
PlayResY: 480

in the [Script Info] section of your subtitle file.
You can also add
Video Aspect Ratio: c1.77778

to enforce 16:9 rendering.

I added the 3 lines you suggested before last line of [Script Info] and still the subtitles appear in wrong position, some in center, some to much to the rigth and appear cutted. But when I play on VLC the same input with same .ass file shows the resolution and subtitles position and font size correctly.


text:
Premiere Pro: Loading Footage for Project Problem
When I open my project it loads the footage in the background. Unfortunately, it stops at a certain point (close to ready) but I can't figure out which file is causing the problem since my folder paths are too long (I am only seeing something like: G:\Video\Projectx\scene1(footage)...). When I open the project it shows me this error message: Video Filter missing: AE.ADBE Aud Stereo Mixer. Since I have imported different other projects, I cannot figure out which file is causing this error as well.
I import:

a lot of .MOV files
6 AE projects
some png and jpeg

What I tried so far:

deleting the cache
changes cache's location
other projects work fine
restart PC

Any ideas how I can debug/solve the problem?

If it is a corrupt file you could find which one thus: take half your clips offline by moving them to another folder. If the problem persists you then take half of the remaining clips offline, repeat. If it goes away, swap the files you just took offline back into the original folder and move the rest. Repeat until you've narrowed it down to one file.

I would try following this YouTube tutorial. What they do in it is make a new premiere pro project and then import the project into it.

Summary of video:

Open premiere pro and make a new project.
Go to the media browser
Navigate to where your project is saved
Right click on it and press import
Check import entire project and tick Create folder for imported items and click ok
Go to the tab where it says project:[project name]
Expand the folder there
Find the file  which has a icon which looks like lots of tracks on a timeline
Drag that into the timeline
Save the new project

Can you paraphrase what the video shows? That way if the video is no longer accessible, the answer will still be helpful.

Ok will do once I have time tonight.

@MichaelLiebman is that good now

@MichaelLiebman, If it looks good, why not upvote?

@RyanWeaver, the edit looked good. Unfortunately, I know nothing about whether it is the correct answer or not. If did know if it was right or if it had helped me, I definitely would have upvoted.

When I have a similar problem and can't see the path, mount the long path to a shorter one. You can do this by sharing the folder, then mounting it as a drive letter.
Here's how to share it: http://lifehacker.com/5808814/how-to-share-a-folder-over-your-network-for-beginners
When you share the folder you can then mount it as a drive letter, so that the long path appears as an actual hard drive with its own drive letter.
Mapping a folder to a drive letter here: http://www.itworld.com/article/2694895/how-to-map-a-local-folder-to-a-drive-letter-in-windows.html
that should get you one step closer to find out what clip is causing the issues. But the issue itself might be a corrupted clip. Another thing that causes issues, if you have an extension of a file that does not represent that file. I.e. for some reason there is a .mov file but it's not a video or is a completely empty file.


text:
Youtube processing stuck at 95%
Well I'm trying to upload a video recorded with ffmpeg, but Youtube fail at processing it.
Here's the video information:

Here's the link

.
EDIT:
Here's the command line to record. BUT THIS RECORD WAS UPLOADED.
Something I notice, all records with bitrate around 80kbps failed. I search on YT help, but I didn't find anything related.
./ffmpeg -y -f video4linux2 -s 800x600 -r 10 -thread_queue_size 512 -i /dev/video0 -thread_queue_size 2048 -f alsa -ar 22050 -i plughw:0 -b:a 56000 -vol 512 -b:v 200000 -vf crop=800:600:0:0,scale=800:600 -c:v libx264 -c:a libfdk_aac -pix_fmt yuv420p test-yt.mp4

ffmpeg version n2.6.3 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 4.8 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04)
  configuration: --disable-static --enable-shared --disable-yasm --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvpx --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libx264 --enable-libvorbis --prefix=/home/sdu/openeya7/src/3rdparty/build/ffmpeg
  libavutil      54. 20.100 / 54. 20.100
  libavcodec     56. 26.100 / 56. 26.100
  libavformat    56. 25.101 / 56. 25.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 11.102 /  5. 11.102
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  1.100 /  1.  1.100
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
Input #0, video4linux2,v4l2, from '/dev/video0':
  Duration: N/A, start: 954583.200328, bitrate: 76800 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo (YUY2 / 0x32595559), yuyv422, 800x600, 76800 kb/s, 10 fps, 10 tbr, 1000k tbn, 1000k tbc
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #1.0 : stereo
Input #1, alsa, from 'plughw:0':
  Duration: N/A, start: 1471270367.388227, bitrate: 705 kb/s
    Stream #1:0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 22050 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 705 kb/s
-vol has been deprecated. Use the volume audio filter instead.
-vol is forwarded to lavfi similarly to -af volume=2.000000.
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] profile High, level 3.1
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] 264 - core 142 r2389 956c8d8 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2014 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=6 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=10 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=abr mbtree=1 bitrate=200 ratetol=1.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to '/home/auditorio/Desktop/teste-yt-openeya.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.25.101
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264) ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 800x600, q=-1--1, 200 kb/s, 10 fps, 10240 tbn, 10 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc56.26.100 libx264
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (libfdk_aac) ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 22050 Hz, stereo, s16, 56 kb/s
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc56.26.100 libfdk_aac
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #1:0 -> #0:1 (pcm_s16le (native) -> aac (libfdk_aac))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=  473 fps=9.9 q=-1.0 Lsize=    1414kB time=00:00:47.10 bitrate= 245.9kbits/s
video:1103kB audio:289kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 1.592868%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] frame I:2     Avg QP:19.16  size: 23538
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] frame P:159   Avg QP:19.68  size:  3968
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] frame B:312   Avg QP:18.63  size:  1444
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] consecutive B-frames:  6.6% 12.7% 11.4% 69.3%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] mb I  I16..4: 27.1% 53.2% 19.7%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] mb P  I16..4:  1.9%  3.1%  0.3%  P16..4: 40.5%  6.7%  7.9%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:39.6%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] mb B  I16..4:  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  B16..8: 34.6%  1.1%  0.1%  direct: 0.5%  skip:63.7%  L0:50.0% L1:49.5% BI: 0.5%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] final ratefactor: 22.50
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] 8x8 transform intra:57.3% inter:88.6%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 17.9% 29.7% 14.1% inter: 8.6% 13.4% 1.7%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] i16 v,h,dc,p: 23% 39%  9% 29%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 18% 36% 38%  1%  1%  1%  3%  1%  1%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 21% 45% 16%  2%  3%  3%  7%  2%  2%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] i8c dc,h,v,p: 71% 21%  7%  2%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] Weighted P-Frames: Y:12.6% UV:8.8%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] ref P L0: 55.2%  3.3% 28.1% 13.4%  0.1%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] ref B L0: 60.5% 30.6%  8.9%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] ref B L1: 86.2% 13.8%
[libx264 @ 0x1bd3e20] kb/s:190.86

What's your ffmpeg command? Also show its console output.

@Mulvya, edited.

I upload to Youtube a lot and had several problems in the beginning, until I started to use Youtube's Recommended Encoding Settings.
Youtube's Recommended Settings
After that, crisp and clear.
FFMPEG also has some standard settings on their website for Video Sharing sites that are good to use. Even if your frame rate and video resolution/aspect ratio is off, these settings (with some tweaks) works fine.
FFMPEG's Youtube Recommendations

Thanks Anuga. Is it possible to re-encode my videos to the new settings? I mean, will it work?

It will work, but you might get quality losses, but if it works it works.

I'm not concerned about quality now. All videos I have (unfortunately) are only 160p recorded from webcam (yeah, too bad). Also, I have no luck until now, found many articles and none of them work. What's the most annoying thing is that YT do not tell what's wrong. Thanks for now @Anuga.


text:
Next-gen containers and codecs (BPG, HEIF, etc.)
It has bugged me for a long time, why no successors have come to replace JPEG and anim GIF or PNG per say. I am completely a media format newbie, just started digging into the topic.
Roughly a year ago I come across BPG which seemed very nice to me and hoped it would gain some traction. However, just recently I discovered HEIF and I am amazed how this has been published roughly a year ago and there is zero publicity and adoption, even though it seems like the next best thing after ice cream!
It is built mostly on other standard stuff, already widely adopted. It's just a very smart container. Could someone tell me why HEIF is not a thing?
Edit question: does anyone know of any image formats, that uses HEVC for image compression and at least one semi-available application that makes use of it?

Chicken and egg conundrum. There would have to be some new application, ideally a faddish one, that can't perform passably with current image formats and hence catalyze the ecosystem to support HEIF or BPG. JPEG is entrenched and passable. As are GIFs. Although animated GIFs look ripe for replacement.

While I'm as keen as you are to see this adopted, this immediately springs to mind: https://xkcd.com/927/

Yeah, I was aware of that comic. I guess it's hard to get a format widely adopted, but I'd guess it would be in the interest of content service providers (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, 9gag, etc.) to adopt one if it means the can cut their bandwidth 3 fold.

The newer formats aren't strictly better. They make different tradeoffs. More gpu/cpu cycles and ram to encode and decode the images to make them smaller. It's the same reason we gzip web payloads not lzma. Even the big guys like Meta and Google pay more for gpu/cpu/ram than bandwidth. They have uses in certain pipelines, but not for the general web. Mng was a great format, but no one used it on the general web because at some point IE existed. So no "killer app" use case and it was different not better.


text:
FFmpeg merge image with video looses quality
0
down vote
favorite
I am merging an image with a video, my command looks like this:
ffmpeg -i background.mpg -i Menu.png -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] overlay=25:25:enable='between(t,0,30)'" -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy merge1.mpg

That works, but something strange happens.
If I run that merged video it continuously looses quality at each second, at the first few seconds the quality is ok but later on it looses quality(the resolution becomes worse).
Any ideas of how this is happening and maybe solutions?
Edit:
I specified a bitrate like Mulvya suggest me to do:
Command looks like this now:
ffmpeg -i background.mpg -i Menu.png -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] overlay=25:25:enable='between(t,0,30)'" -pix_fmt yuv420p -b:v 2000k -c:a copy merge1.mpg

Console ouput:
ffmpeg version 2.8.4 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.2.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libdcadec --enable-libfr
eetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enab
le-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-decklink
--enable-zlib
  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
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
Input #0, mpeg, from 'C:\xampp\htdocs\myApp\storage\generator\projects\dvdrom\Ged\Menus\background.mpg':
  Duration: 00:00:30.00, start: 0.540000, bitrate: 1792 kb/s
    Stream #0:0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p(tv), 720x576 [SAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], max. 1800 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Input #1, png_pipe, from 'C:\xampp\htdocs\myApp\storage\generator\projects\dvdrom\Ged\Menus\imageSel.png':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #1:0: Video: png, rgba(pc), 720x480 [SAR 2835:2835 DAR 3:2], 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
File 'C:\xampp\htdocs\myApp\storage\generator\projects\dvdrom\Ged\Menus\image1.mpg' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
[mpeg @ 04dca7e0] VBV buffer size not set, using default size of 130KB
If you want the mpeg file to be compliant to some specification
Like DVD, VCD or others, make sure you set the correct buffer size
Output #0, mpeg, to 'C:\xampp\htdocs\myApp\storage\generator\projects\dvdrom\Ged\Menus\image1.mpg':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
    Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg1video, yuv420p, 720x576 [SAR 64:45 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 2000 kb/s, 25 fps, 90k tbn, 25 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc56.60.100 mpeg1video
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 (mpeg2video) -> overlay:main
  Stream #1:0 (png) -> overlay:overlay
  overlay -> Stream #0:0 (mpeg1video)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=  750 fps=443 q=2.0 Lsize=    5650kB time=00:00:29.96 bitrate=1544.9kbits/s
video:5624kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.468742%

It's defaulting to a bitrate of 200k. Specify a rate e.g. -b:v 2000k

@Mulvya I tried it out did not solve the issue

Show the full console output

That's not the full console output. Anyway, add -c:v mpeg2video -bufsize 2000k

sorry, I somehow though to post just the error message. Shall I remove -c:a ?

@Mulvya could you post the full command somehow it does not seem to work when I add it

Show the full console output.

@Mulvya ok added it into my question

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

@Mulvya sorry for the late reply it worked thanks, but you like to give an answer so that I can check it:)

Looks like you're aiming for DVD-spec output. By default, FFmpeg encodes to MPEG-1 video into a MPEG-1 program stream, when the output extension is .mpg. You can force MPEG-2 DVD by specifying -f dvd. And for a standard like PAL, set -target pal-dvd
Try
ffmpeg -i background.mpg -i Menu.png -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] overlay=25:25:enable='between(t,0,30)'" -pix_fmt yuv420p -target pal-dvd -f dvd merge1.mpg

What about quality output without considering the output type
For example I wanted to merge mp4 videos and my target is also mp4 then what should I write for better quality??@Mulvya

For MP4 output, remove -target option. ffmpeg will automatically set  output to CRF 23.

Thanks for the reply but can u plz tell me about high quality let me post my command and u do check that!!


text:
Camcorders that can stream directly to YouTube
I've googled for the last couple hours and couldn't find any real answers. In short, are there any camcorders that allow you to live stream your video straight to YouTube. All the camcorders with live streaming capabilities that I've found only seem to mention UStream, but this isn't good enough unfortunately.
Edit
I'd preferably like to do this on the go as A lot of camcorders nowawadays have Wi-Fi capabilities.
This must be possible as like I mentioned, you can do so to UStream. Also, GoPros can do it, but these aren't good enough for me because they lack a flip screen and are too small to hold

The "JVC GY-HM200SPU 4KCAM Compact Handheld Streaming Camcorder" claims... "When equipped with an optional Wi-Fi or 4G LTE high-speed broadband modem, the camcorder can deliver a live video stream directly to USTREAM and YouTube, while simultaneously recording HD video internally to SDHC/SDXC memory cards. "
I believe there are other camcorders in the JVC range, and almost certainly in cameras from other brands that will live-stream to YouTUbe.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1206407-REG/jvc_gy_hm200sp_4kcam_compact_handheld.html

You don't necessarily need a camcorder with the built-in ability to stream to YouTube, but rather, a camcorder (or any camera, really) that you can use as an input device to a computer. If you can use a camera as an input device (think of it like a super-high quality webcam of sorts), then you can live stream to YouTube, UStream, Twitch, etc., using a free software like OBS from your computer.
I could see it being unrealistic to include streaming capabilities inside a camera itself because this would require the camera to be able to connect to the internet, use a live stream key, connect to YouTube, etc. It's much simpler to just use a camera as an input device to a computer and let the computer handle the tough networking issues.

Should have been clearer in my Q, it has been edited

What purpose is this for? Have you considered maybe just using a smartphone?