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Stitching 2 videos into one (like panoramic photos)

I would like to record the indoor soccer games without having to do post-editing if possible.
One camera cannot capture the entire field and goals on each side are cropped as you can see above.
If I use two cameras (each one recording half of the field), would it be possible to stitch those videos into one that covers the entire field?
Also, any other ideas that would allow recording the entire field with one camera and without a cameraperson would be appreciated.
Thanks...

Did a GoPro solve your problem?

If you are looking to NOT do any post editing.
And be able to see the whole field with one camera.
I would suggest the gopro.
A bit of a fishbowl effect, but it can work
You can see how it would look like, here is a school baseball game:

Yes, that is what's called compositing. You can do what you want in any NLE; Premiere, Final Cut X, Lightworks, Media Composer, Vegas, just to name a few. You could also do it in a compositing tool like After Effects or Nuke, but I would stick with a standard NLE for so simple a task.
If you want to do the task live, you could look into a capture card like the Blackmagic Intensity and software like Open Broadcaster Software. Those will allow you to connect your camera to a computer through HDMI and do the compositing live.

You can make a project that has double width, then composite the images next to each other. The process should be the same, just with minimal overlap. You could also use something like After Effects and actually pan around within the larger stitched video.

Capturing the video on dropcam, it records directly into the cloud. Talked to an OBS person, he said it would be difficult to feed the videos to OBS(need a plugin) and the quality may not be great. Would Blackmagic allow live compositing from two ip cameras? Thanks for your time.

The Blackmagic Intensity will allow you to take an HDMI feed into your computer. This will work as long as your cameras have an HDMI out feed, most do.

@Alper Sorry KC, but this task isn't simple, because of the lens distortion. You can't correct it in Premiere or Final Cut, afaik there are no plugins to do that. I'm just looking for a good 3 camera solution too - see this question: http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/14600/how-to-stitch-images-from-diy-panorama-video-rig-with-3-canon-60ds maybe the answers help you.

@poor You won't get significant lens distortion. Based on the pictures, you can see that one camera alone almost does the job. It won't be noticeable if you don't correct for the distortion.

To stitch it correctly, you have to remove it whether it is significant or not. Besides: In this case it will be significant, because of a maximum focal length of 24.

@poor To stitch it correctly you need to remove it, but I don't think it will be noticeable if you ignore it. Few people are going to notice a little misalignment at the top of the screen, where there's no action.

Using Microsoft ICE is a far, far better option.  As @poor mentioned, lens distortion and perspective issues result in some significant oddities beyond simply not lining up and it is noticeable to most people when things that should be square are not.  Microsoft ICE is free and will correct for all of that.

@AJHenderson I wasn't aware of that program, thanks.

authors: Ринат Салахов


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Sharp drop in FPS while recording
I've recorded a few Minecraft videos using bandicam before without this problem, but yesterday I went to record it was all going good until out of nowhere my FPS went from like 60-100 to 0-2 for like half a second.
I thought it might be because of me changing my screen resolution from 1360 x 1024@60hz to 1440 x 900@75hz. So I switched it back it didn't change anything I tried recording using ultra high 60fps settings again it records fine then out of no where fps goes to 0 usually I have music playing over the in-game audio I turned that off. I even tried the low-end settings and I still got FPS lag although it was smaller it was still there. I switched the drive that it outputs on also to no avail. I don't have a bad setup its pretty new and shouldn't have any problems running this:

Dell Optiplex 780
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit
Intel Core 2 Duo@3.00Ghz
8 GB Samsung PCI-8500F(533Mhz) RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4670 PCI-Express x16 graphics card 1GB memory
1 TB Western Digital HDD
320 GB Samsung HM321HI HDD

Also when I playback these recordings they skip sometimes and they speed up almost like I'm watching them at increased speeds. If need be I'll upload one of them so you can see what I'm talking about.
This is a video that I recorded like 2 weeks ago so you know my computer is capable of capturing, I also use the default settings in bandicam (Free Version).

Most screen capture applications are pulling video from the video card down to main memory to compress it and write it to disk. Most video games are uploading textures and geometry to the video card to display it to you. It's possible to get into a situation where more memory is needed on the card to run the game and record the video than you have available. That's usually when you see frames dropping. Depending on the game, it might happen when more characters or scenery is visible (such as when viewing a scene from high up, and it's all in frame). The memory on the card is limited, and the ability to move data around in the computer is also limited. It sounds like you're hitting those limits.

Also i dont know if this makes a difference but Catalyist  says that my graphics card is using 4798MB of memory (hypermemory)

Making it faster won't help, but getting more VRAM would. I don't know if the 4670 can have more than 1GB installed, though. If you are using 4798MB of VRAM, that's nearly 5GB, and it would likely be swapping to main memory. I don't know what "hypermemory" means, though, so I'm not sure how to interpret that.

Hyper memory i believe but could be wrong is the graphics card using the the Motherboards Main Ram as its own although the card only has 1 gig of ram it can use another 4 from the computer as its own (which is impressive for a card as old as this one) and seeing that im usually only using 4-5 gigs of ram that shouldn't be a problem. My initial guess was that it had something to do with my processor like i was reaching its limit but i have 2 cores and pretty much only 1 is getting extreme use while recording.

Is there an app that can show you CPU and GPU activity? That might tell you where the slowdown is. I've found that when I try to guess what the system is doing, I'm usually wrong!

Yes, that's what HyperMemory is.  And usually the GPU drivers can show GPU load.  Max HyperMemory is just the upper limit on how much it could use.  It allocates dynamically, rather than just grabbing 4.7GB any time your GPU is doing anything.

@user1118321: copying frames from the video card back into main memory to feed them to a software encoder doesn't increase VRAM requirements at all.  PCIe is full duplex, but most of the bandwidth requirement is for 3D gaming is from CPU to GPU.  This means the GPU->CPU bandwidth is usually available for getting the displayed frames back for encoding.  IDK what's causing Isaiah's problems, but that's probably not it.

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share desktop to laptop to stream from laptop
I want to to stream from my laptop to lessen the stress on my desktop but I don't know how to share my desktop screen with my laptop to be able to stream my face as well as my game-play but I don't know how to do so.
Any help is appreciated.

Welcome to video production. You might find you'll get better answers if you give some more details about what exactly you're doing. Firstly: what operating system are you using?

Well, you could use the normal tools to get video off your desktop.  Instead of having it go to twitch (or whatever), it would go to your laptop.  You'd use a high quality / bitrate, with minimal CPU usage settings.  x264 is probably still the best codec, since ethernet driver CPU time will start to matter if data rates are TOO high.  So you need a lossy codec, and x264 --preset superfast --no-cabac --crf 15 is probably the way to go.
On your laptop, you'd have something set up to receive the stream and feed it through ffmpeg, with the output of THAT going to twitch (I assume).  So you'd have your laptop set up to decode the stream from your desktop, run it through x264 with the best quality setting it can manage in realtime.
You could maybe use something like inetdto listen on a socket and run ffmpeg when a connection is received, with ffmpeg's stdin and stdout connected to that socket.  (You'd actually need a wrapper script I guess, to get ffmpeg's output directed to twitch, or whatever you're streaming to.)  Also, instead of full-blown inetd, you could use a single-socket simpler program like maybe just netcat.
If your laptop isn't running Linux or OS X, this probably still works with a Windows build of netcat, but you'd have to be careful that piping that much data around doesn't cause performance problems on Windows ports of Unix tools.  (don't use cygwin).
To get your face in a corner of the video, attach a camera to your laptop, and have ffmpeg read from it, as a 2nd input stream.  Use some combination of -filter_complex scale,overlay to combine your streams.  (get the filters worked out by testing with file inputs, like 10 sec clips of 2 different videos.)
As far as other ways to get video off your desktop for encoding somewhere else, VNC exists, but it's probably not viable for actual video.

I also wish to do something similar but wasn't planning on writing a bunch of code or keeping a bunch of terminal processes I barely understand going. There are no tools/plugins to accomplish these tasks?

IDK, wouldn't be surprised if someone's done it before.  Hopefully what I wrote will help you google it up.  Post an answer here if you find anything useful.  Sorry, streaming isn't really my thing.  All I can tell you is what would be happening to your data where in the most likely solution, not exactly how to do it.

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After Effects: Apply motion tracking to a scaled layer
After effects 10.5 (CS 5.5)
I have two clips

a layer with a smoke wisp curling up, much bigger than it will appear
a layer with some slightly shaky footage of a broken machine just sitting there

I want to make the smoke wisp curl up from the machine, scaled to the footage.
The current set up:

the footage with the machine is the main footage
I've made a Tracker in that layer tracking the machine… the positions look right
the Tracker targets the smoke

The problem is:

if the smoke clip is scaled properly, the tracking motion on the smoke is not visible
I discovered this is because the tracking is applied before the scale - so the differences in position become tiny

I speculate a solution might involve having the Tracking information applied to the smoke layer AFTER it's been scaled.
QUESTION(s):

how do I get the Tracking information applied to the smoke layer
AFTER it's been scaled?
…or am I doing this wrong?  If so, how would I achieve this effect?

update: The solution may have something to do with making a new Null Object, applying the tracking information to that object, and then parenting the smoke to that layer

Looks similar to the answer for http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/12758/zooming-in-on-one-layer-in-after-effects?rq=1


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How to cut out pauses and unneeded places from video in Adobe Premiere?
I have a long video and wish to cut pauses and unneeded places from it. Currently I know how to select mark ins and mark outs

Unfortunately, this does not allow to have multiple ins and outs in single clip.
If I cut multiple clips from one video, then will probably loose a sequence.
How to accomplish the task?

I don't get what you mean by "If I cut multiple clips from one video, then will probably loose a sequence."?

See my comments to your answer.

Did eLouais and my answers and comments solve your problem? Or do you need additional assistance on that issue?

You need to create a sequence. If you're not familiar with video codecs, the easiest way to do so is to right-click on your clip in the project panel and select New sequence from clip ..., which will create a sequence using the resolution and framerate from your clip.
Once you've created the sequence, it should appear as a timeline in the lower right area of your screen. If you have not yet set an in- and outpoint, your video will be in the sequence as a whole. Make sure to delete that (right-click on the video in the timeline and select Clear), so that you get an empty timeline to start with.
Then you can start putting your video together. Set the in- and outpoint for the first scene from your video that you want to use and then drag the clip from the project panel into the timeline (alternatively, you can push insert (shortcut ,) or overwrite (shortcut .)). Move on to the next scene in your video, again set in- and outpoint and insert the clip into the timeline, and so on.
Once you have everything arranged in your sequence, you can export the sequence as a whole via File -> Export -> Media ....

Suppose I have 100 scenes in the video. Suppose I put 95 of them. Then I found that I have extra scene between previous scenes No. 45 no 46. Suppose scenes are very similar and it is hard to identify them by eye. How do I find where to put my new scene in timeline?

It will be better if I was able to mark multiple ins and outs in the whole video.

Well that's just not possible, you can always have but one in- and one outpoint. However, you could use markers to mark specific parts instead. Simply press F to add a marker at the current position. You can do this in the source monitor as well as in the sequence timeline.
To find specific parts of your source clip in the timeline and vice versa, you can use a technique called Match Frame. While the timeline is focused (i.e. there's a yellow outline around it), press F to find the frame that is currently showing in the program panel in the source panel. TBC

This will show you which where the clip in the timeline came from. If you want to find out if you have already used a specific part of your source clip, make sure the source monitor is focused and press Shift + R (Reverse Match Frame). If the current frame is already present in the timeline, this will show you where it is. If nothing happens, it means that you haven't used that part of the video yet.

What you do to 'mark' the scene is to add comments. Thats how all the other editors do it. Just move the playhead where you want it and hit 'M'

@eLouai Thanks for repeating what I mentioned above ;) Although I just noticed I accidentally wrote F instead of M o.o

Ahh Gin-San, my biggest issue in life, I see large block of text and my mind fogs up. Sorry about that. Did not read all the comments. It's one of my failings :). I appreciate and read a lot of your answers in other sections, really liked them and enjoyed your expertise :)

No hard feelings, I didn't mean to be mean °ω° I did write the wrong shortcut, so it's good you cleared that up!

You cannot have multiple marks in and out on clip.
What you would do is you would mark a clip and drop it in a sequence (the timeline).
Mark another clip and drop it in the timeline. Son on and so forth.
The issue you would have is the sound just clips as it jumps from clip to clip in the sequence. The quickest way to fix that is just right click in the timeline on two clips that are joined and you get the option to add a transition. Adding the default tranistion fades/overlapes the sound of the two tracks. Also it does the same to the video.
If you want to prevent the video from doing a crossfade, what I do is first right click on the clip on the timeline and 'unlink' so the audio and video is not linked and THEN I do the transistion on the audio only.
Hope that helps.
GL

Unlinking audio and video is a terrible idea with so many clips and some parts that may or may not be inserted into the timeline at some point. Simply press CTRL + SHIFT + D, that will only add transitions to your audio, leaving the video unaltered

Aaaahhh, where have you been .... CTRL + SHIFT + D, would have saved me a TON of work. Lifesaver. Me glued to the screen, realizing the hours of work this little key stroke is going to save me and drolling :)

Things like that happen to me all the time ^^' I guess that's the downside of learning a new technique; realising you've been wasting time °ω°


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Synchronise in Premier Pro
Background: I've created a multi-cam sequence with three cameras in Adobe Premier Pro CC, which was working fine. I then came to add an additional camera, using CMD + Double Clicking on the Multicam Sequence, it's opened up as a sequence.
Problem: I want to synchronise the new footage against the existing master audio track. So I select both, right click and choose synchronise. However, instead of repositioning the new track, it moves the master audio track. Which obviously offsets the other three cameras.
Beyond recreating the entire MovieCam Sequence, it feels like I'm missing a button somewhere!
Thanks in anticipation!

Use In/Out points.
Put an "In" point on the audio clip, and one on each of the already-synced video clips. Those "In" points should be put on the same sync points (that is, moments that are clearly visible on all clips, say, the clap-board clapping and the sound of the clap!). Whatever sync-point you choose, make sure it's also visible on your non-synced clip.
Put an "In" point on your non-synced clip, at the sync-point that you've already marked on the synced-clips.
Choose to sync your sequence by "In" point.
The program will align the "In" points and you should have a synced sequence.


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MXF files in Premiere Pro cs5 mac only playing/dispaying audio
Hi I'm having issues with my MXF files in Premiere Pro cs5. When I bring my mxf files into my project its only playing back audio, i can't even see video. It's like its only reading it as audio.
If I play the mxf file outside of Preimere in VLC I am able to see the video and audio.
Is there an extension I need or something?
Premiere Pro cs5
Mac OSX Yosemite 10.10.2
Shot on Cannon c300
Thanks

you could also try an intermediate workflow, like transcoding the MXF files into an appropriate ProRes container. This most likely would be 422Proxy.
The Canon C300 codec is a variation of XDCAM (source: http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/editing-with-canon-c300-footage-tips-for-when-it-all-goes-wrong/) I personally do not like to edit in Long-GOP or predictive frame codecs. So transcoding to an inter-frame codec like ProRes or DNX is always a safe bet.

Just a clarification: inter-frame codecs use predictive frames. Apple ProRes, MJPEG and the Avid DNx family of codecs are intra-frame codecs, where each frame is coded independently of others.

This is a know bug of adobe premiere pro
See:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1022632?tstart=0
Workarounds:
1) Use the Canon XF Utility to create a single MXF file of your spanned clips.
Import the new file into the project.
2)
The problem you are facing is that you are probably just copying a single subclip over.
What you need to do is copy the WHOLE folder over.
Then use the media browser to find the clip.
Then import it into your premiere pro and that should work.


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Looking for a Video Program/Feature that allows smooth frame-to-frame skipping (when moving progress bar)
Does anyone know of a program, or feature in VLC, that allows you to skip smoothly from frame to frame when dragging the progress bar? Right now, when I drag it in VLC, it jumps several frames.

Question slightly unclear? Are you looking for an incremental step through the frames. Usually that would mean using the keyboard to go to the next frame. Does it have to be a progress bar?

This isn't really on-topic here, you have a better chance if you ask this at Software Recommendations

@Gin-San Really? Don't think so, because people who interessted creating video also have to know how to playback.

Hmm ... I guess you're right.

mpv has very good real-time scrubbing using the mouse on the on-screen controls.
It also has seek-while-paused, and accurate-seek (decode-from-prev-keyframe) for seeking backward by 1sec.  Also frame-step backward and forward.  (controls: , and .).
It also has an A/B loop keybind, where you can easily get it looping over a part of the video.
So basically it has a lot of features that are great for reviewing a video frame-by-frame looking for problems, or stuff like that.
It's still in active development, make sure you get an up-to-date version for the most features and bugfixes.  I've only used it on GNU/Linux, but I understand it works on Windows and OS X, too.

Never heard of it, thanks peter - looks promissing. Do you using it for daily work?

Video is just a hobby for me (unless anyone would like to pay me to wrestle ffmpeg into doing what they need, or something...).  But yeah, I use it for all my video-watching, after switching from mplayer.  (I've always been a command line guy, but using it from file-associations in a graphical shell works too.  I do that occasionally when I have a directory of annoying-to-tab-complete filenames.)  I also use it for some of my audio-playback needs, when I just want to play a file, and don't need a playlist manager.

Makes sense, Thanks Peter - will try it. BTW: Who can I ask to pay you? :)

I'm open to freelance contracts.  I don't have a regular job ATM.

Hehe, sorry just a joke - thought we could write tons of spam mails to the ffmpeg crew, so they pay you :)

Heh, I should probably stop being lazy and finish up the couple of patches for ffmpeg I still haven't polished up for merging yet.  I do more using of ffmpeg than writing code for it.


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Faster deinterlacing with ffmpeg and yadif
We are using two-step encoding with ffmpeg to encode raw .mov files to multiple .mp4 encodings ready for streaming over the Internet. Some of the videos are interlaced and we are using yadif to deinterlace them with the following options: yadif=1:-1:0.
Without yadif, regular 2 hour videos take about 3 hours to encode into 6 different .mp4 files (different resolution and bitrates mostly). When adding yadif, encoding takes 6-10 hours.
Our knowledge with videos is limited, so we are wondering can we make the deinterlacing faster? What if first deinterlace the source .mov file into new .mov file and use that as a source for mp4s, will that be faster?
Thanks.

Please show all of your ffmpeg commands and the complete console output from each. You can add -t 10 from your commands to just output a 10 second segment.

The ffmpeg pipeline basically goes: decode the image and create a raw frame > apply filters, scaling, cropping rotation etc. to the raw frame > encode to output(s). I doubt that repeating the first and third step will make the process faster. You know you can encode to multiple outputs in the one command don't you? Thus: ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v foo out1.mov -c:v bar out2.mov -c:v fuz out3.mkv. This saves on the decoding step for each frame.

Thanks @stib, I am actually using multiple outputs with one command. I am wandering if we can get any faster then that.

Yes, you have the right idea.  If stib's suggestion of making multiple outputs in parallel with the same ffmpeg commandline doesn't quite do the trick, then use a temp file to hold a lossless copy of the output of any slow filtering:
ffmpeg -i src.mkv -vf yadif=3:1,mcdeint=2:1 -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -qp 0 deinterlaced.mkv

(never use ultrafast except with lossless, it's WAY worse than superfast -x264-params cabac=0, and not much faster.)  CABAC takes most of the CPU time at lossless bitrates, but it does save 15% bitrate vs. CAVLC.  If you have a ton of scratch space to work with, you could use an uncompressed output file.  Lossless x264 is about as fast to decode as ffvhuff, if not faster, but half the file size.  I think it's your best bet for scratch files (pretty good CPU usage, ASM-optimized decoders, and one of the best as far as compression ratio).  Simpler codecs like ffvhuff might have a place if you need to frame-step backwards without taking seconds per frame, or you could just lower keyint in x264.
Then do whatever you normally do, but with deinterlaced.mkv as your source.
I think I remember reading about someone having added support to x264 for making multiple encodes at different bitrates at the same time.  So motion-search, frame-type decision, and a bunch of other analysis only has to be done once.  I'm not sure if that was just for google's internal use, and it never got merged, or what.  Neither the vanilla x264 cli frontend, nor the ffmpeg libx264 wrapper, have options to activate a feature like this.  I'm pretty sure I would have noticed that in x264 --fullhelp output at some point.
If you have to do a lot of encoding, it'd be worth searching around to see if there's any way to get your hands on a publicly available implementation of this.
This is different from having ffmpeg feed the decoded/filtered video to multiple instances of libx264 in parallel, since each instance would still need to do all the analysis independently.
If you do use stib's suggestion of multiple outputs from the same ffmpeg, reduce x264's number of threads.  By default, each separate output file will auto-detect the number of CPUs in the whole machine, so you'll have 6 times the number of worker threads needed to saturate your CPU cores.  Maybe use 2 or 3 threads for the HD outputs, and single-threaded for the lower-rez outputs, since you want to balance things so all your available CPU time gets used, without having more threads than needed causing extra context-switching overhead.
For HD video with a lot of reference frames, each libx264 instance would take a good chunk of RAM, too.  Reducing thread count doesn't help with this much, since all the threads are reading the same data.
6 instances of libx264 at the same time, instead of multiple threads from the same libx264, will be competing for memory bandwidth / cache space.  They'll each have their own copy of the frames, instead of getting cache hits from each other.  This might or might not be an issue on your hardware.  If this or the RAM-size is an issue, use a temp file and do 3 outputs from one run, and 3 outputs from the next.
yadif (and mcdeint) are not multithreaded.
Or you could deinterlace and output to lossless + some of your desired output rezzes, then generate the rest of your rezzes in another pass of the lossless file.  If you don't have multiple videos queued up to process, this would let you pipeline things to get max use out of all your cores while still not doing all the encodes at once.
If you do have multiple videos to process, you could have a video deinterlacing while you encode another, if you think setting that up is simpler than multiple outputs + lossless from the ffmpeg that runs the deinterlace.  Run the encodes with nice -19 or something, so they don't take CPU away from the ffmpeg process doing the deinterlace.

Thanks for the long answer. I will try out your solution and let you know of the results.

Not sure if you could do that when the question was asked, but now (not sure since when) ffmpeg supports a yadif_cuda filter that can use a GPU for part of the heavy lifting.

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Producing and streaming to a local Network
i'm facing the challenge of creating a "TV-Show". To understand why i do this i will explain it in detail, but summarize it in the end, for the ones who just want to know what my problem is.
LONG VERSION:
At my school we have a something call a 'graduation prank'. When every a class is leaving the school at the end of a year, they plan something where they do something funny. This is different every year.
This year we are going to leave the school. Your idea is it to produce a "TV-Show". We want to stream it over your pretty fast local network (we have wifi in the wholes school connection [so the speed intern will not be a problem i think]). We will pre-produce some sketchs and short clips but also want to do live things.
PROBLEM:
I need hardware and software to produce and stream a videostream to a local network. I search the web a lot and came up with a few ideas.
The main part is a "BlackMagic ATEM Television Switch". It will switch our HDMI/SDI cameras (we have them). The ATEM needs to be bought. To get the video into a PC (i think of two MacBook Pro Retina late 2014 with nVidea [we have them too])  i would like to use the "BlackMagic Design UltraStudio Mini Recorder".
Hardware ok. But what software could i use? Wirecast, Adobe Flash thingi?! I downloaded a few but are they able to stream to a local network? I only saw things like Twitch and Youtube (thins wont work, we have no good up/down-link, only intern a lot of speed).
So: Is here someone who knows a program with what i can stream to a local network. Use capterd video data and play pre-made clips? Maybe even some Chroma-Keying?
And: How does my Hardware setup sounds to you?

From the tags on your question, I gather you want the show to be live, being viewed by the audience    while cameras are rolling.  (viewing on TVs?  Over the same wifi network on smartphones and laptops?)  I started reading thinking you were asking about setting up a video server so everyone in your school could watch it, after you had it already made and encoded.  But since that's not what you're asking, I don't have anything more to add, except that you might have wifi bandwidth issues if everyone's streaming the result over the same network you're using to carry high-datarate live capture.


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Embedded Timed Text for closed-captioning? Is that possible?
I am going to be working on a video project that needs closed captioning. The requirement we got from the client says....
Closed Captioning

Embedded Timed Text subtitle track (ISO/IEC 14496-17)

After doing some research I haven't been able to find anything that would let you embed a Timed Text file into a video. Is that even possible? What would be the process for accomplishing this? I am using Adobe Premiere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_17
"Timed Text" Format comes in many flavors
example tools would be ffmpeg, subler, mp4box

If you can use mkv instead of mp4 as your container format, there is widespread player and muxer support for various subtitle formats in matroska.  (widespread throughout free / open source software.  I can't comment on other players.)
Then you can use SRT, ASS, and many other text subtitle formats.  You can even use bitmap sub formats like VOBSUB (dvd) or PGS (blu-ray).
wikipedia has an interesting table of subtitle formats.
To properly answer your question, though, I just tried muxing SRT subs into an mp4.  It doesn't work.
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -i in.srt -c copy /var/tmp/out.mkv  # works
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -i in.srt -c copy /var/tmp/out.mp4  # just timestamps
The mp4 has a mov_text stream, but displaying it in mpv just shows "00:00:00.000" or some other timestamp, with no text.  Ok, apparently ffmpeg doesn't get it right unless you specifically use -c:s mov_text.  If you use -map 0 -map 1, I get
  Stream #1:0 -> #0:2 (subrip (srt) -> ? (?))
Encoder (codec none) not found for output stream #0:2

(My subs are in a separate file, not muxed in the mkv, so I need a -map for each to make sure I take all streams from all files.  Otherwise ffmpeg just takes the first a, v, and sub stream it finds.  And without -map 1, it doesn't try to use the srt input at all, for some reason.  Like I said, it makes a mov_text stream, though.)
Anyway, I left in my mis-steps in case they're helpful when you're trying to figure out this stuff yourself.  This works and plays with subs in mpv:
ffmpeg -i in.mkv -i in.srt -codec copy -c:s mov_text /var/tmp/out.mp4

The key line in the output is:
  Stream #1:0 -> #0:2 (subrip (srt) -> mov_text (native))

For editting your subtitles, you can use anything that can produce a subtitle format that ffmpeg can read.  (It should be able to convert any text-based format to mov_text.)  Subtitle Edit is one of the newer better-maintained GUIs, and runs on Windows and Linux at least.  IDK about OS X.

authors: Дмитрий Родионов


text:
How to import clips from one project into another in Adobe Premiere?
I have imported one project into another in Premier. After that I got all clips I had in old project visible in new one, at left. But I need only some of them. Unfortunately, when I am trying to delete clips, I get a message:

which makes me think, that if I agree, I will delete clip from both project.
But I don't want to touch old project. How to import clips leaving old project intact?

If you only need one of the clips you used in the old project, you should only import that one and don't even use the old project file. Locate the clip on your hard drive and import it into premiere, e.g. by dragging it onto the project panel. If you have trouble finding it, open the old project, find the clip in the project panel and right-click -> Reveal in Explorer.... That should show you it's location on your hard drive.


text:
Looking for advice on lighting my set
I have a bit of a crappy set for my Youtube stuff and, recently, I had a small windfall of sorts and was able to buy some lightbulbs and clamp lights. No, I couldn't buy a proper lighting kit, (it was only $50). I was hoping to get some recommendations on lighting my set.
So, here's what I have:

5 5000k 800 Lumen CFLs bulbs
5 6000k 1050 Lumen LED bulbs (accidentally ordered the wrong temp :(  )
a 3 light rail above my set for lighting the background.
a ceiling mount bar for clamping clamp lights to far away from the
set. It currently has 3 clamp lights on it.
4 unused clap lights.

Below is a rough sketch of my current setup. Here is a picture of it as well. The rectangles on the walls are both two shelves above another at 5' and 6'5".
My lighting setup feels uneven I'm trying to light as flatly as I can and I don't know where I should place those additional clamp lights. I'd really just like to make the most of my lights so I can reduce the ISO to get less noise. Also, I don't know how I should place these different temps so that I get a consistent coloring across the set (so that my white balance calibration will be consistent, that is).
I currently shoot at 30fps, 3.5 FStop, at 640 ISO on my Samsung NX300. For reference: here is a video shot on my current lighting configuration.

Have a look at 3 point lighting setups. There's heaps of tutorials around, this one's not bad: http://bhpho.to/1zNfha9


text:
Can I record directly to a computer with the HC-V250?
I'm considering purchase of the Panasonic HC-V250, but my primary use case is recording directly to a folder on my computer. (I do a lot of post-production editing, so I need all the files on my computer.) The HC-V250 can stream via UStream, but I don't know if this means that it's also capable of recording to a computer. (I'd assume not.)
For reference, I'm using a Windows 8.1 computer. This detail also does not appear to be stated in the manual or any reviews on various sites I've found this product on.
Is it possible to use the HC-V250 to record directly to a computer, or do I have to record to the memory card and then (painfully) transfer the files?

I have the same camera. As far as I can remember it can be used in "web cam" mode where it records straight to the computer.

I think there is a way to transfer via Bluetooth from the camera's SD card to a computer folder, but sorry don't remember how I did it just know we did it using Bluetooth.

I don't have a definitive answer, but I can offer a suggestion. If the camera can generate a stream, try a stream recorder. In fact, doesn't UStream offer a stream recorder of its own?
If not, google "record video stream" for several offering, some free. I use AVC Ultimate (not free) but I don't know if it will capture UStream output. They have a trial version but it may not cover the stream capture feature.

Is there no quality loss when recording a stream?

No, the stream is recorded as is. What you get depends on the quality of the stream, not the recording of it. It shouldn't be hard to try it, see what you get and what parameters you can set.

Alright, I'll give it a shot. I ordered the camera this morning, so if it comes to that I'll let you know how it goes.


text:
What is the best universal video format / extension so that it can be viewed on iPad and PCs
So, someone asked me this question today, and I am very curious about the answer. This person wants to put up a video on a website, and wants it to be viewable on both the iPad and on PCs. They don't mind providing two links, but they seemed to lean slightly more to the idea of having one link. Plus, I am very curious to the answer.
Also, they were telling me how when they go to YouTube to view a video, they can view it regardless of accessing the video from their iPad or a computer. I told them that this is because YouTube has multiple versions / formats of a video and shows you the format best suitable for your device. Was that answer correct? And being that one video on YouTube can be accessed / viewed regardless of device, I am not sure if this person has any kind of opposition to posting the video on YouTube.
Assuming they do though, I have these questions:
1) If I were to put a direct link to a video on a website for people to view (using whatever default player is available on their device to play videos) or download, and I want that one video to be viewable regardless of the device accessing it, what's the best video format / extension to use--flv, mp4, etc.?
2) If I wanted to go a step further and use my own embedded video player, what's the best one to use, best in the sense that it can be viewed on as many platforms as possible, especially the iPad and personal computers? I see the jw player used on lots of sites. I don't have an iPad though, so I can't test it.

MOV is the most spread container for this use with codec H.264

@PethőJonatán No, it isn't. None of the major browsers support .mov without plugins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video#Browser_support

Apple still doesn't support Flash on iOS at all, right?  So no jwplayer, just HTML5 video.

h.264 is very widely supported and can be found in multiple different types of container formats.  mp4 or m4v are probably the most widely used extensions, but particular support for files varies based on what players are installed on devices.
MP4 is the official MPEG 4 standard container format.  M4V is an originally Apple based container which also added AVC support, but is still a bit more open than MOV.  Most players will also interchangeably play a file regardless of an M4V or MP4 extension provided that they support reading both file formats.
MP4 probably has slightly better overall compatibility while M4V probably has slightly better compatibility on Apple devices, but that is also subject to change and is hard to measure accurately.

mp4 and mov are fairly closely related, anyway.  (e.g. MP4 uses a "moov atom" to store some muxing metadata.)  So yes, h.264 video and aac audio in an MP4 container is pretty much the standard these days for video on the Internet.  Non-patent-encumbered alternatives like webm (with VP8/VP9 and vorbis/opus) haven't gained enough traction yet.

When you upload to YouTube or use an Embed Code to show a YouTube (or JWPlayer) Video it matters a tiny bit to YouTube what Format you upload, some work better than others and you could probably find something that isn't accepted.
Once the Video is uploaded and someone opens a Webpage with the Video on it (either on the YouTube Website or elsewhere) your Browser on your Mobile Device starts a Player that simply works.
Can the Device you want to test work on YouTube?, yes means your all set.
How you upload doesn't affect how the Device downloads (unless you embed a Player that only serves the exact same Video File that was uploaded - you either need to write your own to do that or find one with the least features).
Q1: Choose .mp4 .
Q2: Embed the YouTube Player.


text:
Poor and low quality on import/render Adobe Premiere
I record a video step-by-step using Microsoft Expression Encoder 4, encode the file with 'Best Quality' preset, the result info in file its:
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : VC-1
Format profile                           : Advanced@L3
Codec ID                                 : WVC1
Codec ID/Hint                            : Microsoft
Description of the codec                 : VC-1 - VC-1 Advanced Profile
Duration                                 : 8mn 43s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 045 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 440 pixels
Height                                   : 900 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:10
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 15.000 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.054
Stream size                              : 65.2 MiB

When I play the video in VLC the quality its perfect.

After import the video in premiere and export sequence the video loss quality.
The printscreen above its the quality of exported video.

ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L5.0
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 3 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 5mn 53s
Bit rate                                 : 1 708 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 440 pixels
Height                                   : 900 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:10
Original display aspect ratio            : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 15.000 fps
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.088
Stream size                              : 72.0 MiB (90%)

When activating the option to export in Premiere , I have customized with the maximum possible quality.
Exporting in Adobe Premiere , using the same or better quality to the source video that was imported ?
Thank you all,

When you export in Premiere what codec are you using? h264?

i have the same problem but it shows up like that in premiere before i export it but the video itself is fine

When exporting from Premiere there is a checkbox that says "match sequence settings" which will use the same format as your source video.
The "best quality" checkbox is Premiere does not refer to the codec, but to the internal scaling algorithms.


text:
Adobe Media Encoder 2014.2 Part of audio missing in mp4 AAC rendered files - cache problem?
Using Encoder 2014.2 for mp4 file encoding in 4 different resolutions
2 different HW systems - Windows 8.1 64, Intel i7, SSD, Nvidia GTX 780x2 SLI
Configured Watched Folders with 4 different presets
Around 20 mp4 moved to watched folder and waited caching to be finished
After encoding first 2-3 files are OK (in all 4 resolutions) but rest have only 1/3 of audio
Cleared cache, moved to other disc - no luck, the same problem - renderd video files missing 2/3 of audio
It might be related to cache.problems?
Fully encoded files have onle one pair of .pek and .cfa files
Partial audio encoded files have 4-8 .pek .cfa files with _1 _2 _3 extension
Tried this one:

Launched AME Moved 20 files to watched folder
Waited until conforming is done
Delete all files ending _1 _2 and _3
Start encoding
Before each rendering AME still conforming each file, but creating only one new pair of files ending _1
Seems problem is gone

Any clues about reason?
Here is the list of initial caching list (size of _1 _2 _3 files are similar to initial file)
•   Directory of C:\Temp_Adobe\Media Cache Files
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       631ÿ242ÿ752 Video_file-035.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ465ÿ860 Video_file-035.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       613ÿ941ÿ248 Video_file-036.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ398ÿ276 Video_file-036.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       613ÿ941ÿ248 Video_file-036.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ398ÿ276 Video_file-036.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:03       631ÿ242ÿ752 Video_file-037.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:03         2ÿ465ÿ860 Video_file-037.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       561ÿ512ÿ448 Video_file-038.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ193ÿ476 Video_file-038.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       561ÿ512ÿ448 Video_file-038.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ193ÿ476 Video_file-038.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       561ÿ512ÿ448 Video_file-038.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ193ÿ476 Video_file-038.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       585ÿ629ÿ696 Video_file-039.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ287ÿ684 Video_file-039.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       585ÿ629ÿ696 Video_file-039.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ287ÿ684 Video_file-039.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:04       585ÿ629ÿ696 Video_file-039.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:04         2ÿ287ÿ684 Video_file-039.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       593ÿ494ÿ016 Video_file-040.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ318ÿ404 Video_file-040.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       593ÿ494ÿ016 Video_file-040.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ318ÿ404 Video_file-040.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       593ÿ494ÿ016 Video_file-040.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ318ÿ404 Video_file-040.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       519ÿ045ÿ120 Video_file-041.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ027ÿ588 Video_file-041.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       519ÿ045ÿ120 Video_file-041.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ027ÿ588 Video_file-041.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       519ÿ045ÿ120 Video_file-041.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ027ÿ588 Video_file-041.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       519ÿ045ÿ120 Video_file-041.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ027ÿ588 Video_file-041.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       602ÿ931ÿ200 Video_file-042.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ355ÿ268 Video_file-042.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       602ÿ931ÿ200 Video_file-042.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ355ÿ268 Video_file-042.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       602ÿ931ÿ200 Video_file-042.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ355ÿ268 Video_file-042.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       602ÿ931ÿ200 Video_file-042.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ355ÿ268 Video_file-042.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       595ÿ066ÿ880 Video_file-043.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ324ÿ548 Video_file-043.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       595ÿ066ÿ880 Video_file-043.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ324ÿ548 Video_file-043.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       595ÿ066ÿ880 Video_file-043.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ324ÿ548 Video_file-043.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       557ÿ842ÿ432 Video_file-044.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ179ÿ140 Video_file-044.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       557ÿ842ÿ432 Video_file-044.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ179ÿ140 Video_file-044.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:05       557ÿ842ÿ432 Video_file-044.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:05         2ÿ179ÿ140 Video_file-044.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       557ÿ842ÿ432 Video_file-044.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ179ÿ140 Video_file-044.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       613ÿ416ÿ960 Video_file-045.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ396ÿ228 Video_file-045.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       613ÿ416ÿ960 Video_file-045.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ396ÿ228 Video_file-045.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       613ÿ416ÿ960 Video_file-045.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ396ÿ228 Video_file-045.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       613ÿ416ÿ960 Video_file-045.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ396ÿ228 Video_file-045.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       619ÿ184ÿ128 Video_file-046.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ418ÿ756 Video_file-046.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       619ÿ184ÿ128 Video_file-046.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ418ÿ756 Video_file-046.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       619ÿ184ÿ128 Video_file-046.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ418ÿ756 Video_file-046.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       619ÿ184ÿ128 Video_file-046.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ418ÿ756 Video_file-046.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       601ÿ358ÿ336 Video_file-047.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ349ÿ124 Video_file-047.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       601ÿ358ÿ336 Video_file-047.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ349ÿ124 Video_file-047.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       601ÿ358ÿ336 Video_file-047.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ349ÿ124 Video_file-047.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:06       601ÿ358ÿ336 Video_file-047.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:06         2ÿ349ÿ124 Video_file-047.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       618ÿ135ÿ552 Video_file-048.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ414ÿ660 Video_file-048.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       618ÿ135ÿ552 Video_file-048.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ414ÿ660 Video_file-048.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       618ÿ135ÿ552 Video_file-048.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ414ÿ660 Video_file-048.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       618ÿ135ÿ552 Video_file-048.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ414ÿ660 Video_file-048.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       619ÿ708ÿ416 Video_file-049.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ420ÿ804 Video_file-049.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       619ÿ708ÿ416 Video_file-049.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ420ÿ804 Video_file-049.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       619ÿ708ÿ416 Video_file-049.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ420ÿ804 Video_file-049.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       619ÿ708ÿ416 Video_file-049.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ420ÿ804 Video_file-049.mp4 48000_3.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       597ÿ164ÿ032 Video_file-050.mp4 48000.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ332ÿ740 Video_file-050.mp4 48000.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       597ÿ164ÿ032 Video_file-050.mp4 48000_1.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ332ÿ740 Video_file-050.mp4 48000_1.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       597ÿ164ÿ032 Video_file-050.mp4 48000_2.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ332ÿ740 Video_file-050.mp4 48000_2.pek
•   19.02.2015.  09:07       597ÿ164ÿ032 Video_file-050.mp4 48000_3.cfa
•   19.02.2015.  09:07         2ÿ332ÿ740 Video_file-050.mp4 48000_3.pek

I would do check on your ram to make sure its not having issues. You can do that with a number of utilities.
If you are running windows there is a built in util called MdSched.exe that will do this for you. Just type it in the search box after hitting the windows key.
You can also boot to a usb or dvd/cd and test it with memtest86. Get it at memtest86.com.
Alex

I have the same issues on 2 different systems. Motherboards and RAM are different.
One is 8 Gb one bank, other is 16 Gb 4 banks, different vendors.
I will check later with some utility, but its not likely to be cause of problem

You could improve your answer by expanding a little: maybe a link to one of the utilities.

Happy with that revision?


text:
Why does premiere perform so badly when it shouldn't?

In this screenshot you can see it using 20 gigs of ram, without using any gpu or cpu, while the render window being open for 5 minutes without any progress. Gpu cuda setting is enabled, 3 gigs are allowed for the rest of the computer. There are 27 free gigs that premiere could be using but refuses to use, the cpu is mostly idling. It's frozen. for no reason at all. It just freezes and sits on its ass.
I managed to edit the first half of my footage, but when working with the second half, I can't even play the preview playback thing. I press play and nothing even happens.
Right now I am trying to export what I have edited and maybe use a different program to finish editing, or maybe export it into a file and import it back as a single file, however when I try yo export it just sits at encoding sequence 01 at 0% doing absolutely nothing.

Not sure if this was meant as rhetorical or not, but ..
I think your problem is the WMV. Premiere never works well with it. I don't know if its the way its encoded or what. Can you not capture in something more universal?
It looks like you're making minecraft videos, try using fraps or something that captures in avi or mp4. Those would probably give you better performance also if youre greenscreening, its better to used an uncompressed format.
Your video card could be an expensive, awesome gaming card but still not adobe-certified for gpu acceleration. Using one that is can help with this issue.
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html
Alex

This is a possible culprit. Almost all video cards are 'tuned' towards decoding H.264, as it is such a common and complex codec, used almost universally across the internet and consumer electronics.

Whilst I think @ahackney's answer is also a valid issue that is slowing down Premiere, the lack of CPU usage indicated to me there is a data bottleneck - that is, your HDD is too slow to send data to Premiere.
The reason Premiere (or any editing software) needs its footage on a fast, dedicated hard drive is because editing requires data to be read from any part of a file, at any time. It can skip between files, between parts of the same file, and Premiere needs to read ahead of the current play time to 'prepare' the footage to be previewed.
I find a good starting point is a 7200rpm drive with a SATA 6Gbps (or equivalent!). However, this needs to be a dedicated drive - you can't have any other programs reading or writing to this drive, as that consumed valuable bandwidth that Premiere needs.

authors: ทวีศักดิ์ โพธิ์หล้า


text:
How to live feed video from a Nikon D3200 to a Mac?
I have a Nikon D3200 and I want to take pictures/record video from my mac, I mean use the nikon like a web cam or something, I use Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro for editing if that could work. Thanks!

Since your camera supports NTSC and PAL video over HDMI, recording video from a mac won't be much of a problem.  You'll just need a small conversion box to get the video in.  For our macs with thunderbolt, we use an Ultra Studio Mini Recorder.  If you don't have thunderbolt, Grass Valley has a product that works over firewire.  Once the feed's connected, you can capture from within Final Cut.  Just open the import window (cmd-i) and you'll see a list of cameras at the top left.  In fact you can probably try this out now, because if your monitor has a camera in it, it'll be listed as a facetime camera.  Select the facetime camera or ultra studio or whatever your input source is, and click import.  When you're done, click stop import.  The recording will show up in your events browser.
As far as taking pictures from your mac, I know there's an app for Cannon cameras that lets you adjust settings, trigger the shutter, and download the image over USB.  Nikon probably has one too, but I don't know for sure.

authors: Витяй Счастье


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How do I make titles look like they are in the room as an object?
I want the titles to look like they are actually there moving with other objects in the room

Could you provide some more details. Like is the camera panning? Are you trying to track a moving object in the scene. This is what it essentially sounds like.

The technique you are looking for is called "motion tracking".  Currently, FCPX doesn't have the ability to do this on its own, but you could use Apple Motion or Adobe After Effects to accomplish what you're after.  Motion tracking, in general, follows patterns of pixels as they move around the scene.  Depending on the effect you're after, and the demands of your scene, you may be able to get away with just using this x-y coordinate data.  If, for instance, you wanted to replace the text on a moving truck, you could just track the corners of the truck and "corner-pin" the new text over top of it.
For more advanced projects, you need to actually reconstruct the camera's position in space.  This technique is called "3D camera tracking".  It's possible in After Effects (I don't remember if Motion has it though), and there are other apps which are purpose-built for this task, including: Boujou, Syntheyes and PFtrack.  Cinema 4D and Nuke also have this capability, but they do other stuff too.
However, 3D Motion tracking on its own is not enough to make your titles appear to actually be in the room.  You'll also need to composite the titles well, if you're going for trompe-l'œil realism.  And if you want any of the objects in the room to pass in front of the text, to give the scene more depth and realism, you'll also need to research a technique called "rotoscoping".


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Marshall Video Cameras and BMD ATEM
I've been looking at some of the Marshall Video gear to be used with my BlackMagic ATEM TV Studio.
I'm wondering if anyone else has used any of these? Specifically the CV550-CS/B
http://www.marshall-usa.com/optical/cameras/2-megapixel-miniature/CV550-CS-CSB.php
I'd like to give them a shot but I'm confused on which one I need. I pretty sure the atem only uses 59.94 cameras but I know my go pros only put out 30p output and thats what I use currently.
Also does anyone have any experience with the Marshall cameras?

I'm confused.  So you have an ATEM and some go-pros, you use them together, you're sure the go-pros are 30p, but you're also sure the ATEM only supports 59.94?  What kind of go-pros? Hero 2, 3, 4, black, silver?  We're considering getting an ATEM, but I didn't realize it only supports such a short list of framerates.  Does it let you use mixed framerate sources?

I'm sure the gopros run at 30p cause you have to set them at at to get them to work with the atem at 1080i5994. Thats a go pro issue, and to be honest, I am always a little scared the gopro wont work. I do use a converter box with them too. The atem allows for 1080i59.94 and 720p59.94. You can not mix framerates. For me, not an issue, just looking to get beyond the go pros.

I will say that there appears to be firmware issues and other issues too with gopros and the atem. It's never worked 100% for me.


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Automatic Motion Detection in existing GoPro video files
I have quite some hours of footage stored on disc. It's all static video of a bird's nest.
Is anybody aware of an application that makes it easy to automatically scan these files and to jump ahead to the next sequence in which motion is detected?
Thank you very much,
J.

iSpy Connect may be able to help you here. I've haven't played about it with it much but I know you can load an existing video file into it and it will detect motion.


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Why does digital cinema focus on prime lenses?
Why do digital cinema cameras, e.g., BlackMagic, Canon C series, etc. focus on using prime lenses over zoom lenses? Bear in mind that by "zoom lenses" I am referring to lenses with variable focal lengths, not telephoto lenses.
A range of prime lenses that cover the most common range of focal lengths would cost you tens of thousands of dollars at least (for good ones anyway), meanwhile, a single zoom lens that covers the same range of focal lengths would cost under $1,000.
So, why are prime lenses so prevalent in digital cinema?

You seem to have a serious misunderstanding of cinema lenses.  Primes are almost always cheaper to cover the same range than zoom lenses.  Comparing prime lenses that cost thousands of dollars a piece to a $1000 zoom lens is not a valid comparison.
I have a $2400 Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II.  It is the single best zoom lens Canon has ever made for under $50,000, yet it is only comparable in sharpness to the $300 - $400 f/1.4 lenses and barely exceeds the sharpness of the $100 f/1.8 primes.
Additionally, sharpness is only one factor to consider, you also have speed.  Long exposures aren't an option with video, so if you want good low light performance, you need a fast lens.  Prime lenses are much, much faster than zooms and thus provide much better low light performance while keeping shutter speeds quick enough to avoid too much motion blur.
Finally, even high end photography lenses are not parafocal, meaning that as you change the focal length, the focus shifts as well, making them undesirable for any kind of push or pull shot (though you can work around it by following focus carefully.)
The cinema lenses help with this problem (though they don't solve it entirely), however, the Canon prime lenses are $20,000 a piece while the zoom lenses are $55,000 a piece the last time I looked at their pricing.
So in short, primes are the cheaper and higher quality option on a budget.  You only really want zoom lenses when you need the flexibility on the fly or need to execute a pull or push shot.  Given the difficultly of pulling off a good pull or push with photography lenses, it isn't that common to bother with them unless the camera is also used for photography.

For one, prime lenses aren't encumbered by all of the physical mechanisms required to make a zoom lens work.  They're simpler, and the loss of that bulk translates into a wider maximum aperture.  Less glass makes them more transmissive.  But also, each lens can be much more carefully crafted for a specific focal length, since it only covers one.  Zoom lenses, on the other hand, may have "sweet spots" where the lens performs best through a given focal range, but doesn't perform optimally throughout its entire range.  Since most seasoned cinematographers don't zoom during a shot, they often opt for quality over versatility.  But for an aspiring filmmaker on a budget, a zoom lens is often a good place to start.
As an additional note, certain lenses contain a manual iris control.  These are often called "cine" lenses, and are crucial for smooth exposure adjustment when shooting with certain cameras, including DSLRs and the Black Magic Cinema Camera.  Since still photographers do not require this functionality, the lenses are tailored to a much smaller audience, and are therefore more expensive.

Downvoted because a zoom lens is not a good place to start on a budget.  Primes work better on a budget.

@AJHenderson for an "aspiring filmmaker on a budget," a Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 is under $200.  This is an entry lens.  It's enough to learn about framing and composition at various focal lengths.  Sure it's not sharp.  Sure it's slow.  Sure it's construction is cheap, but show me a set of primes that covers the same range for that price.  The closest I saw on B&H was 6K, and that's only 21-85mm. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/818396-REG/Zeiss_410951_0000_032_ZE_SLR_Lens_Case.html

The nifty 50 is under $100.  The 35mm is $125.  Both are substantially better options for getting started.  You could round it out with an 85mm which runs a bit more at around $400, but you are looking at around $650 to have 3 prime lenses vs substantially more for anything even remotely approaching the level of quality in a zoom.  I suppose if you only care about framing and don't give a crap about quality, then you could go with a dirt cheap zoom, but at that point you are better off selling the DSLR and getting a camcorder for half the price.

Um.  I rest my case.

If that is all you are trying to say, I do agree but your phrasing seems confusing to someone who is obviously very confused already about the value of zoom lenses. Perhaps just clarify the point a bit that dollar for dollar and pound for pound primes are a much better value unless you can't even afford that basic level. I still would argue that having a zoom isnt the best place to start, as learning to use depth of field is probably more significant than zooming, but it would be more opinion difference then rather than confusing the op on something they are already confused about.

Oops. Forgot to say the primary reason for the dv is that it makes it confusing to the op. If you clean that up I'd remove my dv and probably up vote for the rest of the post even if I disagree about starting with zoom on an extreme budget since that wasnt a key point of the question.


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Burn ASS subtitle onto MKV without any quality loss
I want to burn embedded ASS subtitle onto MKV, but I'm completely clueless when it comes to video converting. I want to keep the same quality, file size and everything else but the subtitle hardcoded.
Can you recommend me any programs/settings to achieve this? I heard that Handbrake can do this but I have no idea what settings to use. Thank you.

The only way to do it with literally zero mathematical quality loss is to make a gigantic output file with a lossless codec.  (e.g. utvideo, FFV1, or x264 in lossless mode (--qp 0).
A better solutions that would achieve the same thing is:
mux the subtitle file into the mkv, with mkvmerge.  You set a flag so it either plays by default or doesn't.  Then you'd have an output file with an untouched video stream, so there's no quality loss.  Also, anyone who doesn't need the subtitles can turn them off.  And you can move them around on playback, or use a different font or font size.  e.g. You could move them down into the letterbox black bar that appears when playing a 16:9 video on a 16:10 screen, so they don't hide any of the movie.
If you really want to use the bad solution of drawing them on the video, you'd just going to have to accept the quality loss that you get from another generation of lossy encoding.  Google an example for ffmpeg.  It shouldn't take more than a minute to find a recipe.  I'm not googling for you because I think it's a terrible idea to ever do this, unless you maybe have a hardware player that doesn't support any subtitle formats at all.  (If it supports any subtitle format, converting your ASS subs to that format would be better.)
Anyway, use -c:v libx264 -preset slower -crf 20 as a starting point for your encode.
The ffmpeg full manual is: http://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html  But there's also a wiki with usage examples on their site.


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Fair use of short clips from movie that I bought
I bought movie(s) from ITunes,
and I would like to share short clips from the movies to my friends on Facebook/Line,
and maybe publicly on Twitter.
How do I know whether my short clips usage falls within fair use or not ?

It depends also on your country of residence. Fair use is not the same in the USA and in Europe, for example.

IANAL, but I'd guess that if you have to circumvent any DRM just to copy clips of the movie (which you probably do), then it's probably not OK.  Try taking a screenshot of the movie playing in iTunes (ctrl-shift-3 or ctrl-shift-4 on mac).  If it shows up black on your desktop, or if you get an error message, then you probably don't have rights to share it.  But like I said, I'm just guessing.


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Variable Bitrates for Streaming?
I'm building presets for our users to convert the videos into an appropriate format for our online video repository. Since it's been awhile since I've built something like this from scratch, I've been looking at what others recommend, and notice that a lot of them specifically recommend variable bitrate encoding. For example:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en
Even with progressive or pseudo-streaming, wouldn't that just introduce pausing and stuttering in playback once you hit a segment with a high bitrate? It just seems odd as a general recommendation when that's likely to create a poor playback experience. Or am I just overestimating the problems since it's been some years since I last looked into it. Do you generally use a variable bitrate for online delivery these days?

I think you misunderstand what variable bitrate encoding does. It doesn't introduce stuttering or pausing.

IDK who downvoted this.  It's not a bad question, IMO, just a complete-beginner question.

Oh, also note that your link is for how to make videos to UPLOAD to youtube, for them to transcode before streaming them.  That encode once, decode once, with no realtime constraint, use case is completely different from hosting videos for people to stream.  For uploading to youtube, you want to use lots of bitrate, and if you have the upload bandwidth, encode time is of similar value to resulting filesize.  So you might use x264 --crf 16 --preset fast.

I'm not misunderstanding, nor am I a beginner (built my first streaming video service in 1997 actually). I'll reply to the rest in your answer there but to clarify—the link was just one example of a recommendation I'm seeing everywhere. Based your answers it seems that everyone just assumes the pipes and buffers are big enough to compensate for spikes in bitrates these days.

Players buffer streams.  The bigger the buffer size, the longer window the encoder has to use higher bitrates for hard content, and then fewer bits earlier or later on easy content, to achieve similar quality for the whole video.
I'll assume you're going to use h.264 (aka AVC) as a codec, as it's the de-facto standard for streaming video on the Internet.  VP8 is not as good quality.  VP9 can look better than h.264, but support is limited.  HEVC (h.265) is also better than h.264, but again player support is limited.  (And hardware decode acceleration won't be widespread for years.  This matters, because HEVC is very cpu-intensive to decode, more than AVC.)
The quality comparisons I'm talking about are with the best available encoders for each codec.  x264 for AVC, Google's VPx for VP8/VP9, and x265 for HEVC.  All with settings cranked up nearly all the way.  x265 will start to get into seconds-per-frame instead of frames-per-second for 1080p with settings that slow, though.  (x264 orders of magnitude faster, since it's been essentially mature for a couple years now, with few new speedups or quality gains being found.)
All these encoders are free open-source software.  It's nice that you don't have to pay anything to get world-class quality codecs these days.  :)
A random google hit on x264 vbv for streaming:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=147460
An example from x264 --fullhelp:
  Constant bitrate at 1000kbps with a 2 second-buffer:
        x264 --vbv-bufsize 2000 --bitrate 1000 -o <output> <input>

(don't actually use one-pass target-bitrate mode, though.  Either 2pass if you have a specific target bitrate, or crf with a target quality.)
edit: recommended usage for streaming, according to the x264 lead developer (Jason Garrett-Glaser), is quality target (CRF) mode with VBV-constrained bitrate.  e.g.
x264 --vbv-bufsize 2000 --vbv-maxrate 1000 --crf 22 -preset slower -o <output> <input>

vbv-maxrate is the max speed the buffer can fill at.  (i.e. the max network bandwidth).  vbv-bufsize is of course the size of the buffer, which allows for non-sustained bitrate peaks higher than vbv-maxrate.
And of course, if you're encoding once to create a file which will be streamed many times, throw as much CPU time at it as you can.  Encode time is of little importance compared to getting the most quality per bitrate (rate-distortion tradeoff, aka RD).  The encode only happens once, and any bits you can save (while maintaining the same quality) are saved for every download.  e.g. Use x264 with --preset veryslow.

As you say, players buffer streams. So what happens when the buffer runs out? Why the playback stutters and pauses of course!
Take your example quoted above. Imagine that a user gets a solid 1200kbit/sec connection to my service. Imagine that user is watching a stream that requires about 1000kbit/sec for the first five minutes. Great! But now if that file is VBR (note their example isn’t) your file might suddenly require 2500kbit/sec for the next five minutes. Your 2 sec buffer runs out pretty quickly and the viewer can basically no longer watch the video.

The whole point of telling the encoder the buffer size is so it can take that into account for rate-control, to make sure it doesn't underflow the buffer.  x264 will always warn you if it couldn't meet your VBV requirements.  (e.g. extremely low bitrate for HD, and it couldn't get there even by blurring everything to crap.)

I think what the stuff you've found so far didn't explain is that VBR doesn't have to mean pure quality-target-only VBR.  Modern audio and video encoders now support constrained-VBR ratecontrol, where overall and local bitrate limits are obeyed, too.  But they're otherwise free to spend bits where needed to get as much quality for the whole clip as possible.  You're right that there's an issue here that needs to be accounted for, and --vbv-buffsize is how it's done.

edit: updated my answer after googling again.  vbv-maxrate is the buffer-fill rate, not decoder-CPU-limited decode peak.  And CRF + VBV is the recommended way to go for online (realtime) or offline encoding of video for streaming.


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Recording Screens From Multiple Perspectives With Voices and Computer Audio
Me and my friends are doing a video cast and we're recording our screens in addition to Skype audio. The problem is recording Skype separately from other system audio. This is so we can switch perspectives and have the audio come over correctly. We've tried both recording the call, but its kind of disorienting because the Skype audio is different from each of our audios. Our recording program doesn't let us record only one program's audio, so we're in a bit of a dilemma.
I haven't been able to figure out a solution to this, so I came here, because somebody is bound to know. Has anyone created a work around for this? I have an extra computer that I can use if there is a solution that involves that.
Thanks.

You could both record your individual screens and microphone inputs. In after effects (or another program of choice) you have the ability to separate the audio and visual so it is possible to change perspectives without affecting the audio. This would probably require a little manual adjustment of one of the audio layers given the lag of skype.
Good luck!


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How to copy current timecode to clipboard in Final Cut Pro 7?
Is there a quick way to copy the current timecode position of the timeline cursor to the clipboard in FCP 7?

apart from selecting it in the timecode display and hitting cmd-c? Or do you mean on the fly, while it's playing?

On the fly, or without having to use the mouse.

Can you explain in more detail what you're trying to accomplish? If the time code is changing anywhere from 24 to 60 times a second, what does copying it to the clipboard get you?

Trying to get timecode values out of FCP 7 Into Aegisub, where someone has already created some text objects in FCP7. I need the timings from them in Aegisub, and the only way I've managed to get them in is manually..


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Stream Screen from one machine and webcam from another
I want to start doing some Twitch.tv streaming, but don't have a webcam. I have a gaming PC desktop and an OSX laptop with eyesight webcam built in. I was wondering if it is possible to stream the webcam feed over the network to my desktop and add it to my desktop stream as you would normally on OBS or similar.

Also if there's a better forum for this question please let me know.

Looks a lot like  share desktop to laptop to stream from laptop  (that guy's goal was lower CPU load on his desktop, but same solution.)
Use the usual streaming setup on your desktop, but with high bitrate.  stream to laptop, decode there.  overlay webcam, encode for normal streaming, send that output to Twitch.tv.
IDK what it takes to send streams to twitch, or to receive streams from desktop streaming software.  Assuming you can get ffmpeg to do it, and read from your webcam, use the overlay filter to combine the streams, and -c:v libx264 -preset medium to encode to h.264.  Not sure what you'd need to do to get ffmpeg's output to go to Twitch.tv.


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Premiere vs Vegas performance in i7 CPU?
Excluding other computer components, which timeline editor is better optimized for timeline editing for Intel i7 CPU (4790k) in Windows 8.1 64 bit?
Note: Timeline editing is important (Not render speed).

I don't believe there can be a  answer to your question, as there are many other factors all of which impact performance: footage codec, hard drive I/o speeds, RAM available. However, Premiere is both a professional program (opposed to Vegas' consumer), and supports using your graphics card, if it is CUDA-enabled.


text:
How to start a freelance editing company?
I am 17 and I want to start a freelance video editing company, using Motion and Final Cut Pro X.  Only problem is, I have no idea how to go about starting it.  Where are some good places to begin?

Depending on where you live, there will be some specific steps you need to take in order to start up your own business (which you'll ultimately want to do if you want to start charging people for your services).
Other than that, I'd recommend that you start out by collaborating with some kind of non-profit organisation, if you can find one that have a need for the kind of work that you offer. This way, you'll get some exposure, you have something concrete to show to potential clients, and you start to build a network. Next thing, try to land a job where you at least get paid something; to get paid, even if it's just a really small amount, is a big step if you've never received payment for your work before.
From there, just try to increment the amount you're getting payed every time you take on a new job. As long as the increment is small enough, you should improve fast enough to justify the new pay-grade.

One good place to start would be the US Small Business Administration.  You're going to have to file for a business license, pay taxes, learn about the law, consider hiring employees, etc.  This website has information on all of those topics and more.  You also might want to look into small business classes at your local community college.

I'd recommend posting this same questions on the Startups Stack Exchange. There are a lot of people on that forum who will have great business advice for you!


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Changing playback speed by changing frame rate
My camera does simple time-lapse but it makes the videos in a 20fps format. I just want to change it to 30fps and yes I want to make the video play faster as a result. I do not want to only change the frames per second, I actually want all the frames to play faster! So it seems like this would be extremely simple, yet I can't find any help on google. I just want a cheap way of changing the frame rate. Thanks

So you want an output video with the same frames in the same order, but with just the timing changed.  No problem.
ffmpeg can't do it without transcoding, unfortunately.  So you'll need a program that can muck around with the timing info in the container.  mkvmerge can do it, and so can MP4Box.
I knew I'd seen an answer to this when I googled on it before:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/370692/how-to-change-the-framerate-of-a-video-without-reencoding
From there: the guy eventually found the right MP4Box command line (since he was working with MP4.)
MP4Box -add test_track1.h264:fps=30 -new dest.mp4
(where test_track1.h264 is the raw h.264 stream he demuxed from his source.mp4)
If a Matroska container works for you, there's also the option of:
mkvmerge -o out.mkv  --default-duration 0:30fps --fix-bitstream-timing-information 0 in.mp4

In after effects you simply drag the clip to the new composition button, change composition frame rate to 30, enable time remap on clip, and drag the end time remap keyframe to 2/3rds in. It is cheap if you have after effects downloaded already, which is common.

authors: กรวิทย์ ตรีรัตนปริญญา


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Premiere Custom Dip To Black Transition
I would like to use a simple transition throughout a project in a large number of places.
The default Dip to Black transition gets me almost there, with one missing feature - there appears to be no way alter the duration of the out and in phases - I can set the duration of the transition, but what I need to do is to control the speeds individually. What I need is:
Clip 1 fades to black in 8 frames.
Clip 2 fades up from black in 16 frames.
So given that the included Dip To Black doesn't offer this kind of control, what are my options?
Obviously I could individually set opacity with keyframes for every single clip, but given the number of places I need this transition, this seems like a great deal more work than using a transition (that i could copy/paste) would be.
As an added complication, I will be round tripping to Resolve for grading, so anything too non-standard will no doubt cause issues.

This is a surprisingly tricky question, as Premiere doesn't let you edit transitions like, say FCP does.
One way of doing it is to use presets:
First create a preset for your fade in. Set two opacity keyframes for your fade-in then in the Effect Control panel right click on the Opacity effect and choose Save Preset:

call it fade-in or whatever and choose Anchor to In Point, so that it will apply it to the start of the clip.

Then on a fresh clip with no keyframes do the same for your fade out, choosing Anchor to Out Point in the dialog.
Now you can apply both your presets to your clips to create your fade out / in, and the good thing is that the presets will add new keyframes without deleting the existing ones, so the fade in won't overwrite the keyframes of the fade out. Tip: you can select both presets in the Presets folder in your effects window by holding down Command / Control, then you can drag them both to a clip at the same time.


text:
Is it possible to raise H.264's QP without fully re-encoding the video?
Is it possible to lower the H.264 video quality and bitrate without fully decoding and encoding it?
Are there H.264-specific algoritmhs that can create a video with higher QP based on encoded video with lower QP?
What conversions are in general available for H.264 content? Is there a tool for lossless conversions like jpegtran for JPEG?

A similar question came up before.  I posted some of the same thing in my answer there.

Is it possible to lower the H.264 video quality and bitrate without
  fully decoding and encoding it?

H.264 B and P macroblocks reference frames that have already been processed by the deblocking filter.  The deblocking strength is adaptive to the QP.  I'm not sure, but I think this would lead to problems if you just re-quantized the DCT coefficients.  In any case, I think it would just be a speed-hack that gives worse quality than full decoding + encoding.  And I'm not aware of any implementations.
Nobody's even implemented a bitstream filter to losslessly convert h.264 Baseline to CABAC.  :(  It has been talked about, though.
However, this paper does have an implementation that partially decodes h.264, modifies it (for data-hiding), and re-encodes it.  IDK what software he started with for the implementation, but his code, if available and appropriately licensed, might be a good starting point for other bitstream filters.

What conversions are in general available for H.264 content? Is there
  a tool for lossless conversions like jpegtran for JPEG?

jpegtran only works because each DCT coefficient block is completely independent of all others.  Even  h.264 I frames predict from other blocks within the same frame.  (Intra prediction, as opposed to inter prediction in P and B macroblocks).  Lossless rotation or flipping probably isn't possible.
(Although phone cameras for example can just indicate with metadata that the player should rotate the video on playback, if they are held vertically while recording video.)
ffmpeg has a bitstream filter for h.264 that does something about converting how the h.264 stream is stored, or maybe something about the headers?  IDK, I haven't had to use it, or read up.  From the docs:
ffmpeg -i h264.mp4 -c:v copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -an out.h264
This isn't anything like what you're asking, though.

h264_mp4toannexb is rather simple, it just convert length-prefixed units to 00 00 00 01-prefixed ones and stores header in-stream.

authors: Леонид Березин


text:
Even though Apple Motion is used with FCP could I still use it with iMovie?
I don't want to get FCP just yet but I still want effects from motion.

You can use Motion to create video that you would import into iMovie. That video could be things like lower thirds, titles, or other graphics with a transparent background, where you place it over other video. But Motion templates you create aren't seen or used by iMovie the way they are in Final Cut Pro.

So instead of making templates in motion, I could make videos to put in my project in iMovie?

Yes, that's exactly what I meant!

Also, iMovie supports alpha channels.  So if you export prores 4444 with alpha from Motion, you'll be able to layer it with transparency in iMovie.  But you really are missing out on a lot of control with FCPX, and it's not super expensive.


text:
How to improve sense of timing in motion graphics
I would simply ask a way to get a better "sense of timing" in motion graphics... It's not about a software specific question: do you know a good online course that teaches motion graphics fundamentals, regardless you have to work with after effects or a 3d software?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation

As a good exercise, try doing something to a music track (think Merrie Melodies). The sense of rhythm and dynamics can be a cheat sheet for which action should happen next.

The book "The Illusion of Life" amazon link is also really good for thinking about animation timings, from a stop-motion perspective.  Much of it is highly relevant to motion graphics, and it's a beautiful book.  There are some scanned PDFs of it in the darker corners of the internet, but buying the book is worth it.
If you're thinking more about timings of text for readability in motion graphics, I find one of the best ways is to show your work to a few people who haven't seen it yet, and then ask them which bits they missed.  I find it's often tempting to cram too much into a text-heavy motion graphic.  Judging timings by re-watching it yourself becomes tricky because your eye-brain combination already knows what's coming next.

You could begin by reading or watching videos about the "12 Principles of Animation", which are usually cited as a set of rules or building blocks for life-like animations and aren't in any way software-specific. Examples of videos can be found here, or here.


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Avconv rotating mpeg4 - video loses quality
I'm a newbie in video editing on linux and am trying to rotate a video I took with my phone using AVCONV on an Ubuntu 12.04 machine.  It all seems to go honky dory except the output is losing quality.
The original video is 1920 x 1080 - 30fps - 1:47 long - 270MB
I initially attempted converting by running:
avconv -i in.mp4 -strict experimental -vf transpose=1 out.mp4
After seeing poor results I enforced frame rate, frame size and compression:
avconv -i in.mp4 -strict experimental -vf transpose=1 -r 30 -s hd1080 -qcomp 1 out.mp4
the resulting video compresses down to 45MB (from 270MB) and is really pixelated.  Can you tell me how to avoid this and maintain the original quality of the video?
Here's what the converter spits out:

avconv version 0.8.16-4:0.8.16-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the Libav developers
  built on Sep 16 2014 18:33:49 with gcc 4.6.3
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'tractor_powered_cable-car.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isom3gp4
    creation_time   : 2015-01-01 10:28:17
  Duration: 00:01:47.34, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 20145 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080, 19974 kb/s, PAR 65536:65536 DAR 16:9, 29.99 fps, 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-01-01 10:28:17
    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 155 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-01-01 10:28:17
File 'out.mp4' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] Y
[buffer @ 0x21940e0] w:1920 h:1080 pixfmt:yuv420p
[transpose @ 0x218dcc0] w:1920 h:1080 dir:1 -> w:1080 h:1920 rotation:clockwise vflip:0
Output #0, mp4, to 'out.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: isom3gp4
    creation_time   : 2015-01-01 10:28:17
    encoder         : Lavf53.21.1
    Stream #0.0(eng): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 1080x1920 [PAR 1:1 DAR 9:16], q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 30 tbn, 30 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-01-01 10:28:17
    Stream #0.1(eng): Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 200 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-01-01 10:28:17
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 -> mpeg4)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac -> aac)
Press ctrl-c to stop encoding
frame= 3218 fps= 46 q=31.0 Lsize=   44341kB time=107.27 bitrate=3386.3kbits/s dup=1 drop=0
video:41833kB audio:2441kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.150674%

Thanks,
Shakus

Shouldn't we start marking "how to rotate without reencoding" to be duplicates by now?

There's no way to do this losslessly, other than setting a meta-data flag and depending on players to rotate the video.  (This is what cell-phone cameras do).
With avconv / ffmpeg, what you're doing is using your decoded -> transposed video as a source to encode with x264.  See https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264 for how to do this.  IDK where you found a suggestion to use -qcomp 1, but changing the quantizer compression curve to an extreme is usually not what you want with x2641.
You shouldn't need to enforce framerate, either.  Phone cam videos are sometimes variable frame rate, so you should use -vsync 2 if you're outputting to mp4.  (vsync 2 is the default for mkv).
Anyway, this should work:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -codec copy -map 0 -movflags +faststart -vf transpose=1 -c:v libx264 -preset slower -crf 22  -vsync 2 out.mp4
(also include -metadata:s:v rotate="" if needed, see LordNeckBeard's comment.)
See the encode guide for details on how to choose crf and preset.
-map 0 maps any extra metadata streams, like chapters, into the output file.
-codec copy copies the audio untouched, instead of decoding and re-encoding.
Since you're re-encoding anyway, you might want to stabilize your video with vid.stab.  See https://askubuntu.com/questions/405244/deshaking-videos-using-script for instructions (and a note on avconv vs. ffmpeg).  The command I posted works with avconv as well as ffmpeg, but Ubuntu's avconv isn't built with vid.stab.

Footnote 1:   -qcomp 1 is pure constant quality (or constant-something, maybe quantization, which isn't exactly the same thing as quality).  i.e. not reducing quality in high-complexity scenes at all.  (So you potentially spend a lot of bits in a few short scenes / shots / segments which make up a small fraction of the total time of the video, leaving less bitrate for the stuff where those bits gain you more quality.  -qcomp 0 is basically CBR.
The default 0.6 is often a good choice, but some people like to boost it some, maybe to 0.7 or 0.8, to get closer to constant-QP.  -tune grain (try to preserve film-grain instead of smoothing it out) sets qcomp=0.8, among many other psy settings.  (most importantly -psy-rd <unset>:0.25 to favour more energy, even if it doesn't match the source.)
qcomp Anywhere in the middle smooths out the bitrate curve some.

Don't forget to reset the stream rotation metadata if you use a filter to "physically" rotate; otherwise it will be copied to the output and hilarity may ensue. If the metadata exists (check the ffmpeg console output), then add -metadata:s:v rotate="" to your command.


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What is the best arrangement of lights to create a warm atmosphere in a small room?
This is a scheme of my room for a Soreal short movie:

I'm wonder about lights. The atmosphere is warm, soft, without shadows. So what do you advice me to use as my light source and where to put them?

To get a soft look, you can use:

lights pointed at the walls and ceiling, to reflect and diffuse the light
lights with a large surface area, like fluorescent tubes (which I use) or standard movie lights with big diffusers in front of them
lots of little lights, though these may create lots of little shadows

You'll still want at least a key light and a fill light -- that is, one light source that is the primary light source for your subjects, and another light source to one side that emphasizes that side of each actor (or object).
You can also add "warmth" in post production by color-correcting towards red or orange.

I've seen folks get very nice looks in close quarters using white spherical "Chinese lantern" diffusers.


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Exporting to multiple formats
these days we usually have to export our videos to multiple delivery formats - HD  variants for projection, and we tend to have different settings for vimeo, youtube, and the other versions we might need them.
To handle this i've tended to export a MASSIVE lossless version of my video from my editor (Premiere or FCX usually, but sometimes aftereffects for small projects) and then reduce it using preset profiles in Compressor on OSX.
I mentioned this to a in-industry-yet less-techy friend and he said this isn't usually the way, but couldn't articulate why, but it roused my interest.
For me a locked lossless export as the "master" then from the master you do your specific formats makes workflow sense.  It also means you have the same process regardless of your editor, and don't have to worry about editors not supporting some formats.
So i'm curious what people think of the 2 choices - pro/con/opionions.  Do we use our editor to handle multiple delivery formats, or export a single master and then handle specific formats from there?

Other advantages are being able to make new encodes when new codecs come along.  e.g. in a few years, make VP9 or HEVC from the lossless master for streaming at lower bitrate with the same quality.

But if you don't think your video will be relevant in the future, or you are keeping the master clips + project file anyway so you could go back and make lossless output, then I'd think the main consideration would be if your editor can use x264 as an output codec.  (or VP8/9, if you're going with royalty-free formats.)  I see Compressor can use x264 as a plugin (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5682553).  I tried blender recently, and while I think it had an x264 plugin, it didn't have a choice of presets or quality level.

Anyway, if you're making videos that will be encode-once, stream many, then you should spend lots of CPU time squeezing down to as low a bitrate as possible while keeping the same quality.  e.g. x264 with preset=slower or veryslow, at maybe crf=22.  (No other h.264 encoder is competitive with x264 for quality-per-bitrate, given lots of CPU time for offline encoding.)

With Adobe you can render most things through Adobe Media Encoder. AME has the ability to render one project file as different formats and you can actually create somewhat of a list and it will treat it as a queue.