text:
beginning of old VHS tape unreachable
I was recently given a 27-year-old VHS tape to transfer.
While I'm happy that most of the tape is transferring smoothly (right now), the beginning of the tape is inaccessible.  The player's auto-rewind stops before reaching the beginning of the spool.  I naively attempted to rewind the tape manually (unlocking it first), and either the player or I stretched part of the tape.
Is it true that an old tape will "fuse" at the ends?  What do you think has happened here?  While the stretched part is probably destroyed, I wonder if the bit ahead of it is salvageable, by a professional service or me.
Thanks for your advice!

It could be overtightened, some cheap VCRs tend to brake badly when spooling, this can apply undue tension on the reel. You actually can dismantle a tape cassette (to fix twists etc.) and pull the spools out.
As long as you don't mind loosing it altogether (which you have anyway). Remember to place all the little capstans (silver guides) and springs back in the same place later. You could probably gently loosen the stuck spool with your hand, Try to wear lint free gloves though as you don't want to apply skin oil to the tape. Be very careful not to damage the edges of th tape.

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

As other answers have suggested, you're probably wasting your time. The tape is likely stuck to itself and will be damaged if you pull it apart, but maybe something can be done. Since you have effectively lost that part of the tape, and you've already transferred what you can, there is nothing left to lose.
I would open the cassette very carefully as 3pointedit suggested, and try to unravel the tape from the spool. Make sure you wear gloves. If you can get it to unwind, I would use some spent tape from an old VHS that you don't care about and lengthen this tape with it. Basically, cut a foot from the junk tape and tape it on to the end of the tape you want to transfer. There used to be a special tape you could get for this task (called splicing), but you'll probably just have to settle for ultra clear scotch tape. It just has to work once. You might still lose the first few seconds and get distortion at the splice point, but that's better than nothing.

Source: I used to fiddle with audio cassette tapes in my father's recording studio when I was a kid. It's the same principle, just a different sized tape and cassette.


text:
Play a .g64 file extension
A legal friend of mine received a file from a colleague with a .g64 file extension that she needs to view.  My searching indicates that the .64 file extension is some form of proprietary security video format but I can't determine the exact software.
I checked VLC but it doesn't look like there is any native support for it, and I couldn't find any addon codecs for it.  Other references to download player software for it look like they are probably just click-bait scams.
Any ideas what I can use to play the video?

Have you tried the portable player: http://downloadcenter1.genetec.com/products/SecurityCenter/5.1/SR3/Tools/PortableArchivePlayer/PortableArchivePlayer.exe ?

It's been a while but I was able to find a player for it.  It's been long enough that I just don't remember exactly what it was but genetec sounds very familiar.  Thanks for the reply ;-)

.g64 is the extension of the proprietary video format from Genetec, a provider of IP video surveillance. Even 5 years after your question I have not found any library to open them or player to read them other than the official player. Not sure where to find it, part of their doc is behind a login wall. You might try http://downloadcenter.genetec.com/products/SecurityCenter/GenetecVideoPlayer/GenetecVideoPlayer.exe

source: Stack Exchange

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

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

sort: votes


text:
ffmpeg multi quality conversion?
is there any way in a one line of command i convert mp4 file to ts ,but with 3 different quality as output files ? for example 480p 720p 1080p ?
Regards,

See here, specifically "Same filtering for all outputs":
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Creating%20multiple%20outputs

can i ask you to write such a code for me , i'm not very familiar with coding

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


text:
Batch compress a folder of videos using handbrake (or other) - Without manually loading each video into the queue
Ive got c.50 videos in QuickTime movie format. These video sit all in one folder on my computer. In the past when Ive had 5 or so files, ive imported them each into Handbrake, then saved them to the queue and run the queue.
But this is quite a tedious process as each one takes c. 1 min to import and save to que.
Is there a way to be able to point Handbrake (or any other video compression software) to a folder and tell it to compress all videos in that folder.
Im only tying to compress the videos, dont need to run any other processes on them.
Im doing this on a 2.7gz, 16gb ram macbook pro, but i also have Bootcamp so if the solution is only available on Windows i could run it there.

The Handbrake docs, and even the Handbrake UI, make it clear that batch processing an entire folder is supported. Have you tried it?

I use HandBrakeBatch for doing the same thing on Tv series or shows that have been downloaded, quite easy to use and can point it to a folder which has folder inside and it will batch them all choosing a preset of your choice
http://www.osomac.com/apps/osx/handbrake-batch/


text:
Interpreting 60fps to 24fps in Premiere Pro
I shot some footage on a Sony a7s at 59.94 fps so that I could slow it down in post to achieve a smoother camera movement. But when I interpret it to 23.976 fps in Premiere, it looks like it's dropping frames. It looks super glichy and terrible. When I scrub through the interpreted clip frame by frame, it looks like it has duplicated every frame. Each frame is held for the length of two frames. What can I do to slow the footage down so that it looks smooth?
I am especially confused because I've used this technique in the past with footage shot on a Canon Mark III and footage recorded through a Shogun. When I interpret that footage to 23.976, it looks perfectly smooth.
Things I have tried with the Sony footage, none of which worked:

Interpreting to 23.976
Dragging 59.94 clip to 23.976 sequence and slowing it down to 50%
Frame blending
Opening the clip in After Effects and interpreting to 23.976
Selecting "Pixel Motion Blur" on the interpreted AE clip

I am using Premiere Pro CC 2015. Any help would be much appreciated.

I figured out the problem. My shutter speed was set too low. Turns out it needs to be double the frame rate in order to achieve a smooth motion when interpreted to 24 fps. Should have thought of that before I shot. Oh well. Lesson learned.

You can accept your own answer.

@kazanaki You have to wait 24 hours to accept it.

Since this has worked with Canon footage in the past, my best suggestion would be to import your a7s footage into a 59.94 fps sequence in Premiere, export that sequence (in 59.94) in a universal format like H.264, then re-import that clip to Premiere and try slowing it down to 23.976. My guess is that Premiere isn't playing nice with whatever codec/format the a7s footage was shot in.

Thanks for your suggestion. I actually figured out the problem though. My shutter speed was set too low (I think around 1/50). Turns out it needs to be double the frame rate in order to achieve a smooth motion when interpreted to 24 fps. Lesson learned.

@mcography yes, 1/120 is the typical shutter for 60p slow mo. It's always 1 over double the frame rate for 180 degree shutter. But there are some ways of changing this depending on the look you are going for... I suggest you check out http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/shutter-angle-tutorial

Question is pretty old, but problem still actual. You can reduce fps from 60 only to 30 fps without framedrops. In that case Premiere properly reduce fps. If you need final result in 24 fps you should shoot in 50 fps. Hope it would help for someone.


text:
1080 TV (LG) but need to watch under 720 - how I switch?
I have a 42 inc LG (42LG70). I have a kodi box and need to make the setting into 720; I believe the TV works on 1080. How do I make the TV to switch to 720?
My TV works but from time to time the screen goes back for a couple of seconds...I've been told it is due to the 1080/720 resolution issue.
Any tips please?Thanks.

Who or what led you to believe the black screen issue stems from the fact that you're playing 720p footage on a 1080p screen?

If your tv says that it is 1080p, it should be able to display 1080p and anything below, including 720p.  If your kodi box outputs 720p, any TV rated at 1080 or higher should have no problem displaying it.
There isn't really a way to "switch" your TV to 720p mode, it should just display at whatever resolution it's fed by your kodi box.  I would guess that something else is causing the issue, such as a loose cable or a faulty kodi box or something.


text:
Real time document straighener similar to Microsoft Office Lens or CamScanner but for video?
Office lens straightens pictures of flat, boards very, very nicely. Here's an example.

Let's say I am teaching a class and I want to record what I write on the whiteboard as I explain it. Is there software to apply this straightening effect for a video? Doing it in real time for a live video feed would be even better. The camera would be stationary so the same distortion algorithm would be applied to every frame.
If not, does anyone know of some good libraries/source code of the algorithms used for this type of document straightening? I would be interested in trying to write my own implementation of this for video.
Thank you!

Something like processing or nodebox might be the go here.


text:
Pentax K-R AE-L auto exposure lock not working manual and auto lens
I noticed a problem with my Pentax K-R video where the film is very grainy - I assume this is because it shoots with a high ISO setting which is set automatically. So, I want to manually set the ISO with an auto exposure lock in P mode, then film in video mode.
I've tried this with an automatic and a manual lens (though I really only care about results for the manual lens).
Using the manual lens (1.7/50mm SMC), I lock the exposure in P mode. I then switch to video mode and the lock remains (asterisk is showing). The preview looks fine, just like in P mode. I begin filming and immediately, the live view drops to almost completely black (I can very vaguely see it is filming but it is so dark that it is virtually black). It seems like there's some sort of auto EV adjustment that kills the exposure? Typically, I lock it at 1/60 shutter speed and 200 ISO (though I've tried it with 1600 - same result).
Using the auto lens, I lock the exposure in P mode. I then switch to video mode but here, the lock does not remain. So, I reset the exposure lock simply while in video mode, then begin filming. The exposure does not dip to black.
I think this is an auto vs. manual lens issue. Any ideas on how to fix this EV adjustment? Thanks! I can post a video if necessary of what happens


text:
FFmpeg map_channel and video
I have a file that has the following format (note the number of tracks and channels within each track):
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'a.mov':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt
    creation_time   : 2015-05-13 12:07:36
    encoder         : Lavf56.15.102
  Duration: 00:01:02.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 29083 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: prores (apch / 0x68637061), yuv422p10le, 1920x1080, 19872 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 12800 tbn, 12800 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-05-13 12:07:36
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
      encoder         : Lavc56.1.100 prores
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 8 channels (FL+FR+FC+LFE+BL+BR+DL+DR), s32 (24 bit), 9216 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-05-13 12:07:36
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler

I want to create 2 files from that - one with the video, and one with the audio. I also want the audio file to have 7 tracks - one with the first 2 channels, and another 6 with each of the remaining channels.
If I use the following command,
ffmpeg.exe -i "a.mov" -an -dn -sn -y "a.video.mp4" -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.0:0.0.0 -map_channel 0.1.1:0.0.1 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.2:0.1.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.3:0.2.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.4:0.3.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.5:0.4.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.6:0.5.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.7:0.6.0 -acodec pcm_s16le -ar 48000 -y "a.audio.mov"

...I get the correct video file but the audio file contains 7 tracks, each one containing 8 channels.
However, if I skip the video part and do:
ffmpeg -i "a.mov" -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.0:0.0.0 -map_channel 0.1.1:0.0.1 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.2:0.1.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.3:0.2.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.4:0.3.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.5:0.4.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.6:0.5.0 -map 0:1 -map_channel 0.1.7:0.6.0 -acodec pcm_s16le -ar 48000 -y -ss 00:00:00 -t 00:01:02.0400000 "a.audio.mov"

I get the audio I'm expecting.
A workaround could be to call FFmpeg twice, one for video and one for audio, but I'd ideally like to avoid that.
Am I doing something wrong? Is map_channel not meant to work like that or is it a bug?

I think you need to specify -ac 1 to tell it to make the audio streams single channel. When you use the map command it makes a new stream, which can have any number of channels, and it defaults to the same number as the input.

-ac 1 mixes all the channels together so it won't give me what I need (as described in the question). Are you sure that this is the expected behavior of the map command? Because it looks like it's working as I expect when I only have an audio file as output.

have a look at http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#Audio-Options I think that means you need to do -ac:[stream specifier] 1 e.g. -ac:0.0.0 1 -ac:0.1.0 1… for each of your output streams. See if that works.

Tried it and it doesn't do what I'm after - it downmixes channels into one so I end up with the audio of all 8 channels in a single channel. What I want is to just grab specific files.


text:
avconv converting videos in really bad quality
I have this linux command line app called avcon. It is used to converting files. For instance if I have a file called video.mp4 I can run avconv -i video.mp4 video.ogg and it will convert this video.mp4 to video.ogg.
So my problem(question):
Whenever it converts any file the output file's quality is super bad compared to the original video (the input video). How can I get around with that? I mean how can I convert the file and still get the same quality?
If this is not possible using this app. Can anybody suggest anything else for converting video files using the command line?

Use ffmpeg instead of avcon. But also, post the command line you're using. It's the settings that make the difference.

Get ffmpeg
Download a recent build of ffmpeg. Binaries for Windows, Linux, and OS X are available on the FFmpeg Download page. Development is very active and there is no need to use buggy avconv (note that this answer was written for ffmpeg, so I'm not sure if any examples will work with avconv).
Theora video & Vorbis audio in OGG
Theora is old and has been superseded in many cases by VP8/VP9 video in WebM (see example below), so there are few reasons to use Theora in OGG/OGV.
ffmpeg -i input -c:v libtheora -q:v 5 -c:a libvorbis -q:a 5 output.ogv

-q:v – video quality. Range is 0-10, where 10 is highest quality. 5-7 is a good range to try. If you omit -q:v then ffmpeg will use the default of -b:v 200k which will most likely provide a poor quality output, and libtheora may drop/skip frames if the bitrate is too low.
-q:a – audio quality. Range is 0-10, where 10 is highest quality. 3-6 is a good range to try. Default is -q:a 3.

Adapted from FFmpeg Wiki: A Brief Theora and Vorbis Encoding Guide.
VP8 video & Vorbis audio in WebM
ffmpeg -i input -c:v libvpx -qmin 0 -qmax 50 -crf 5 -b:v 1M -c:a libvorbis -q:a 5 output.webm

See FFmpeg Wiki: VP8 Encoding Guide and VP8 Encode Parameter Guide to optimize your command.
If you want to encode VP9 video, then use -c:v libvpx-vp9. It is currently a slow encoder.

Use:
$ avconv -i video.mp4 -vcodec copy video.ogg

this should work, the -vcodec copy option copies the video track from mp4 container into the ogg container.
If it does not work, see:
$ avconv -codecs

the -codecs option to see which are supported by your program. That depends on the libraries linked after compilation of the source.
See the manual:
$ man avconv

for more information on options like -r (video bit rate option).
That option allows you to select a better bit rate for video, a similar one to the source video may be a good choice, if it does not works fine, try a higher rate.
Although avconv is a development derived from a fork of FFmpeg it can still lack features and bug fixes that are present in ffmpeg.


text:
FFmpeg : Check if the aac bitstream is malformed or not
I want to upload few sets of videos on my server and later play them in the HTML5 video tag. But some of them are not playing.
I checked the audio stream and video stream of the video, they have AAC and H264 codec respectively.So nothing seems wrong to me.
Then I tried re-encoding it, i got the following message:
malformated aac bitstream, use -absf aac_adtstoasc
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Operation not permitted

However I don't want to encode the videos before upload and just need to check if video has a malformed aac or h264 bitsream.

PS. Users are limited and will be provided with videos h264 and aac
  encoded for the upload.

Can you compare the output of an ffprobe and/or mediainfo command on a file that plays correctly and one that doesn't in order to see if there's a difference in streams encoding or metadata ?

Yeah... I did that and found the cause ,why it was not playing on HTML5 .The culprit was MPEG-2 transport stream.. Thanks :)

Good. If your issue is solved, you are welcome to self-answer with a solution for future references.


text:
How to batch process videos through Deshaker in VirtualDub?
I've just set up the latest versions of VirtualDub and the Deshaker plugin (both 64-bit versions in Windows 8.1 64-bit), and was able to follow the official Deshaker instructions to stabilise a video. However, I have several dozens videos to stabilise, so I'd like to batch process them.
I know VirtualDub has the Job Control window to prepare batch jobs, but the problem is that the Deshaker plugin requires two passes for each video file, and the first pass does not produce an output video file.
Internet searches did not reveal a way to batch Deshake videos. Does anyone here have instructions on how to achieve this with relative ease??? Thank you!

https://web.archive.org/web/20170615195507/http://tipzorro.blogspot.no/2015/06/virtualdub-and-deshaker-in-batch-mode.html


text:
iPhone Background Video
I am developing an iPhone app that has a background video at the login screen. Everything works, but the video is small because the iphone crops it down.

I guess my question is. Is it possible to make a video "cropped"? I would like to make this video fullscreen while the iphone is in portrait mode.

Are you using a specific video editing program?

Cropping the video won't help, necessarily. What you need to do is render the video with the proper aspect ratio (roughly 9x16), and at or above the iPhone's native resolution, which is 750x1334 for the iPhone 6.
Source: iPhone 6 Screens Demystified
It's mainly the aspect ratio that is causing the problem you're seeing. Your video is probably 16x9, which will look fine in landscape orientation. For portrait, it needs to be rotated.
If you're filming footage, you could just rotate the camera on its side. If you're working with existing footage, you will have to crop the video and pull out a 9x16 "tall" rectangle out of your existing 16x9 "wide" frame. Any decent video editing program is able to do this. Unless your source footage is high-resolution (1080p or better), though, you'll have trouble getting sharp results, since you're essentially zooming into a very small portion of the frame.


text:
Free video editing software that supports panning with Bezier curves
I'm trying to make a video by panning through cells in a webcomic. First I tried Kdenlive, but that seems to only support linear panning, so you can't do it smoothly. I found someone complaining about it that said Cinlerra can do it, but I downloaded and tried that out and the camera seems to stop at every waypoint. Is there software that lets me continuously and smoothly move the camera? Or if Cinlerra does it, can someone link me to something that says how?

If you want software that is free as in beer, try Lightworks - http://www.lwks.com/

Or Davinci resolve if you have the hardware to run it.

Blackmagic Design Fusion 8 is up for the challange.
It is a very high-end compositing application.
Available on Mac and Windows, and as of now completely free.
You might need to find some tutorials to show you how to use it.

Try HitFilm 3 Express. I believe that will do what you're looking for. HitFilm 3 Express

Link only answers are discouraged as if the link goes down then so does the answer. Please include at least some of the steps that the link includes here on the answer.

The question is about identifying a software that does what the OP wants. This answer provides that, accurately or otherwise. The OP hasn't asked for a tutorial on how to accomplish the task in the identified software. So, there are no "steps" to expound upon.

Natron does this. It is a pretty new open source node-based compositing software which is multi platform. The developers have been very quick to put something which is already impressive. If you know Nuke, you should get up and running pretty quickly.
Another compositing software which is free but not open source is Blackmagic Fusion. They bought eyeon Software in 2014 and now provide this amazing software for free.


text:
No Signal with SDI to HDMI Converter
So I am trying to connect 4 security cameras to a TV using a quad splitter. I am using one camera right now to test the connections. Here is my set up:
I have a security camera with with an SDI output connected by male-male BNC to a quad splitter.

The video1 connection on the splitter is to the camera. The video out connection is to the SDI to HDMI converter.

The HDMI output from the converter connects to a SAMSUNG flatscreen TV. However when a connection is established between the converter and a source, the source button lights up. However the button does not light up green on the converter and the TV displays a "No Signal Message" (not a no cable connected message). I know all the power sources are connected (there is no indication on the camera however to let me know whether it is on or off when connected to DC12V supply, but the quad splitter should produce some feed itself from what I've seen). What am I doing wrong? Sorry this is a long question, thank you for all your help in advance!

Many questions arise : are you sure the green BNC from the camera is an SDI signal ? Can you test the output of the quad splitter directly in an SDI monitor ? Can you test the output of the SDI to HDMI converter with another trusted SDI source ? Can you provide the references of the camera, quad splitter and SDI to HDMI converter ?

Ok you may have given me a hint at what my problem is. The guy at radioshack just told me to get male to male bnc cables because that connected to all the output/input ports on the camera and splitter. However, i didnt know there were different types of bnc cables. I bought this: "CableWholesale 6-Feet RG58 AU Stranded BNC Cable, Braided (10X1-01106) Sold by: cables4computer" from Amazon. Its a male to male bnc but it doesnt say HD-SDI. Is that where I went wrong? Thank you. @audionuma

I will provide links to the splitter, the camera, and the converter in around 40 minutes, thanks for your help. @audionuma

Quadsplitter:  http://www.amazon.com/VideoSecu-Security-Surveillance-Splitter-Processor/dp/B00108HEKK/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438009624&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=quadsplitter  Security Camera: http://www.amazon.com/GW-Security-Megapixel-Outdoor-Infrared/dp/6406514327/ref=sr_1_19?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438009698&sr=1-19&keywords=hd+1080p+security+camera  Converter:  http://www.amazon.com/AVUE-Converter-Support-3G-SDI-HD-SDI/dp/B008D7VJ5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438009769&sr=1-1&keywords=avue+hdmi+sdi  @audionuma

Should I have bought these cables instead? http://www.amazon.com/RiteAV-6FT-Video-Cable-Digital/dp/B00EBAGUFO/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438009510&sr=1-11&keywords=hd+sdi+cable   @audionuma

Ok so I got the camera to display on the TV using the same BNC cables. Everything seems to work until I add the quadsplitter into the mix. Shouldnt the same bnc cables work from the quadsplitter to the converter as the camera to the converter (all SDI ports are the same). @audionuma

As far as I can tell after reading the quad splitter product page, this product does not support SDI, although it has BNC connectors. Seems to be composite video (the one usually found on a yellow rca connector in consumer products), on the inputs as well as on the outputs.


text:
Sony Vegas 12 Not Rendering Parts Of Video
Using Sony Vegas Pro 12 and i am rendering a video. However the rendered video hasn't got any audio and some video parts are black. I am using a some transitions and i am currently trying to fix the video however the audio isn't there completely.


text:
Relationship between bit depth and dynamic range?
Is there a direct relationship between higher video bit depth (10-bit vs 8-bit, for example) and higher dynamic range, i.e. HDR?
I'm somewhat confused regarding this particular aspect of bit depth. I know that more bits allows us to capture and recreate more colors and their shades, but where exactly does dynamic range come in?

Good question. Higher bit depth allows but does not guarantee greater dynamic range.

More bits mean more possible values for each channel. So each channel in an 8 bit image has 256 possible values, from 0 to 255, while a 10 bit channel has 4 times as many: 0 to 1024.
Dynamic range however is the range between the brightest sample a sensor chip can encode and the darkest - it is a property of the sensor. So you could conceivably have an 8 bit sensor with a wider dynamic range than a 10 bit sensor if it could resolve very bright and dark images, it would just have fewer steps between these than a 10 bit sensor with the same dynamic range.

Dynamic range is the difference between extreme light and extreme dark, whereas bit depth defines the number of steps in between.
There is a practical relationship between the two, not a theoretical:
When you do some color grading on these videos (and with high dynamic range videos you will probably do some extreme grades), then you will easily introduce banding with 8 bit video. Only 10 or more bits give you enough headroom to avoid banding.


text:
How to upscale the dv 4:3 to dv 16:9 and maintain its quality while scaling
I m working with two different footages dv 4:3 and dv 16:9. I wanted to make the project in 16:9 and upscale the 4:3 footages in 16:9 .. Is there any plugin or method that can be done without loosing its quality. I tried putting sharpen, bit and of saturation and antiflicker but its not helping, there is a pixlet vissible because of upscale of clip. Can somebody help me on this ...

I will say this. Most people who use 4:3 footage in a 16:9 project will only scale up until the clip is even with the top and bottom of the screen. The sides will maintain an even distance from either side of the 16:9 frame. The blank sides will usually be filled in with another layer of video. This background layer will sometimes be graphics and information or even an upscaled, blurred version of the original footage played back in sync.
Check out this link: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1153004
I don't believe there is a way to convert your 4:3 footage into 16:9 without loosing any quality. I suggest a hardware upgrade.
Good Luck,
ND

Could u elaborate what u mean by hardware upgrades... M using dell precision t5600 with 2gb quadro 4000 and 8gb ram 1333.

I have to use DV tapes to record video sometimes, but I would not recommend it. Working with SD makes the post production process much easier when it comes to importing footage. But we all have to work with what we have. That is what I meant. Strictly my opinion, though.

I understand that  SD is much better than dv. But this footage that I'm using is from old tapes so I need to mix with that clips, I do have ex1 and hdcam but those dv footages is only clips I have to mix with it. Anyways thanks for ur help, I appreciate it.


text:
Edit gopro 4k videos in virtualdub
I am trying to edit video filmed by Hero4 Black in VirtualDub. So far I opened video in GoPro Studio and converted it to mpeg file. However when trying to open it in VirtualDub with Mpeg4 plugin I am getting error about audiocodec 00ff. I installed ac3acm codec and x264vfw but still have the same error. Anything else I'm missing?

VirtualDub was made to operate exclusively on AVI files; however, a plugin API was added from version 1.7.2 which allows the import of other formats. Appropriate video and audio codecs need to be installed.


text:
ffmpeg to cut intro and replace with new intro
I am using ffmpeg to cut out the intro in my video and replace it with a new intro. I run into a buffer underflow error when I try this. The commands I'm using are:
ffmpeg -i LegalFinancialPlanning.mpg -ss 00:00:05.8 -c copy legalcut.mpg
ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c copy legalfinal.mpg

I am able to cut the video, however it does not concatenate properly. The error I get is:
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=5673 size=11229
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=7697 size=11229
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=7697 size=11229
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=9721 size=11229
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=9721 size=11229
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=511 size=1957
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=573 size=2633
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=2597 size=2633
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=2597 size=2633
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=1983 size=11161
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=4007 size=11161
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=4007 size=11161
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] buffer underflow st=1 bufi=6031 size=11161
[vob @ 0x7fd08c058200] packet too large, ignoring buffer limits to mux it

Eventually I want to write a bash script so I can replace the intro/outro in multiple videos at once, which is why I'm using ffmpeg. Does anyone have insight on what I'm doing wrong?

Please post stream info for both files. You can get that by running 'ffprobe -i filename.ext'. It also appears near the top of the ffmpeg console output.

Please show the complete console output from each command. You can of course trim repeating lines.


text:
Davinci resolve 11 lite. Add white borders
How to add white borders to cropped video?  I have 4:3 video. Want to convert it to 1:1 with white borders. How to change border color?


text:
Do these encoding times seem about correct?
I'm using avconv to convert some videos, using the following commands (replacing {{inFile}} and {{outFile}}
avconv -xerror  -v fatal -i {{inFile}} -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -preset slower -crf 18 -strict experimental -vf "scale=trunc(oh*a/2)*2:360" {{outFile}}
avconv -xerror  -v fatal -i {{inFile}} -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -preset slower -crf 18 -strict experimental -vf "scale=trunc(oh*a/2)*2:480" {{outFile}}
avconv -xerror  -v fatal -i {{inFile}} -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -preset slower -crf 18 -strict experimental -vf "scale=trunc(oh*a/2)*2:720" {{outFile}}
avconv -xerror  -v fatal -i {{inFile}} -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -preset slower -crf 18 -strict experimental -vf "scale=trunc(oh*a/2)*2:1080" {{outFile}}

I'm just doing some testing on the performance, and here's some results I got.

157mb 5 minute mp4 - 58 minutes
70mb 5 minute mp4 - 26 minutes.

This is the first time I've done anything with encoding, and I'm just wondering if those times seem about right. There being encoded on a ubuntu VM, with 2 GB of RAM.
If you need any other info, just let me know and I'll add it.


text:
Converting videos and time accuracy; pitfalls and solutions
I need to compress some videos about laboratory experiments which contain motions of some objects.
Since in analysis time intervalls on the video are needed as accurate as the camera captured them, it is important that the conversation doesn't introduce any time stretching, shifting or any other inaccuraries.
I am using ffmpeg (or avconv) for conversion and vp8 or h264 as video codec. Audo is irrelevant in my case.
Since I am not a video expert, my first question is, if there are any problems regarding time accuracy to expect at all.
If so, my second question is, what I should have in mind to bypass those problems when compressing a video.
To make it more concrete, my first attempts where:
avconv -i input{.MP4,webm}
and
ffmpeg -vcodec h264 -i input{.MP4,mp4}

As timing is crucial in your experiment, I suggest that you keep the initial frame rate of the captured source video. Then I would suggest to use a video codec that only uses Intra frames (no prediction). You don't mention which is the original codec/format of your video.

The original codec was h264 (mp4).

I wouldn't try to transcode a video that is already in a lossy format as your original source is. Are you having a file size issue that requires transcoding ?

@audionuma Yes, it's about filesize.


text:
Keying + Tracking onto Tablet/Smartphone with Green Screen Display in Adobe Premiere or After Effects

I shot a commercial and in the commercial we have people holding an ipad or iphone and the screen of the devices were green like the pics below. Now I have to overlay some UI/UX from apps and web platforms onto the devices. I've never done this before and need a tutorial on how to do it. I know it involves keying, tracking and Adobe After Effects. There isn't much movement besides slight hand shaking and a tiny movement.
Also, I never know when to use tracking markers on the ipad/iphone green screen. We use an app that allows you to have a pure green screen or little tracking markers like the pics below. I've been told by some vfx people that they prefer just a green screen, but others say they need tracking markers because it will take super long if there are no tracking markers. They would have to do it frame by frame. So what I think I've gathered is that - if the green screen is completely still it can be a pure green screen, and if there is movement involved you need tracking markers?

http://bit.ly/1fHFnob
http://bit.ly/1IqDGlP

Also consider that these devices are very reflective - depends on the shot, but in order to get the reflection as seperate pass, it's maybe a better idea to disable the screen instead of displaying a bright green image.

With these kinds of things, I suggest not even using a green screen in the first place, especially one that is in an app and casts a green glow on the actors hands or body and picks up on reflections. Its much easier to have, instead, either a green piece of paper (which honestly will not really work in daylight in terms of the key but will at least give you reference for the screen), and always use tracking markers. In my experience circular ones like the one you have in your app in the first picture work nicely.
I recently embarked on something similar:

Key takeaways were:
- record in 50fps with a high shutter rate (to avoid motion blur which makes things difficult to track, can always add it back in)
- use circular tracking markers with a clear differentiating color in the center (if you don't plan on green screening)
I used Mocha via AE and exported the corner pin data, and it was a lifesaver. As you said you don't have that much movement so I doubt you'll have to do much in the way of refining your track like I did (see green keyframes). But you will have to add an exclusion layer (basically rotoscoping a mask) around the actors hands if they enter the frame of the screen.
In my case I had to do a lot of manual tracking after exporting the corner pin data for sections where the actor walked across the screen and we didn't have all 4 tracking markers in the shot. But I doubt you will have to do anything like this.
Here are some good tutorials:
https://vimeo.com/73685360 - in depth, helped me a lot with the refining of the tracks
https://www.imagineersystems.com/videos/webinar-difficult-tracking-challenges-a-mocha-project-breakdown/ - good for learning about how mocha works

 - dealing with fingers

 - basics
Oh and here is my final result in case you were curious:

That little black difference between the monitor and the bevel really helps sell it in my opinion!

Trackers never hurt and there's almost no reason not to use them, but there's no substitute for pre-production and field testing. The only failure is failure to plan.
Ideally your markers would be high contrast, however you can place darker green markers on a green screen which can be entirely keyed out if the artist doesn't need them, but will still be useful if they are needed.
Since you've already shot this without markers, your best hope is a three-point tracker that can find and hold the screen edges. Since you say you have minimal motion, this shouldn't be too hard.


text:
Help reading analog video?
I have a microcassette tape with some video on it that I'd like to digitize, but the camera I have that can play microcassette tapes is so old its drivers come on a floppy disk, which I can't read with any of my computers.
However, I can use a firewire cable to transfer the video, but none of my computers have a firewire port, so I bought a firewire-to-usb cable.
I've tried using WinDV VideoDub and dvgrab to capture the tape, however both WinDV and VideoDub suffer from the problem that Windows has no drivers for the camera, and dvgrab can't find the camera in Arch Linux, probably for the same reason.
Is there a way of using the equipment I have to read the video, or will I have to purchase a floppy disk reader to get the drivers?

Even with a floppy drive, you may be SOL -- it's likely the drivers won't work in your current OS. You might have to fire up a virtual machine with an older OS.
If the video is analog, consider a USB video capture device. Here's a whole page of them, or search for "USB video capture".

If the camera has a firewire cable then it can send out a DV signal through it, like any other DV camera. so you should be able to capture it, and you won't need specific drivers for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394#DV
A firewire to USB adaptor isn't going to work though, you'll need a DV capture card for your machine. There are plenty and they're not too expensive — try to find one that comes with free video capture software.
I'm guessing that it's not really a microcassette camera — microcassettes are a subcompact audio recording format and not something you could possibly record video on. Given the existence of a firewire connection I'd be prepared to bet cash money that it's actually miniDV.

Given that there's video on the cassette, you're probably right. I am by no means an expert in this field.


text:
Red Epic, Adobe Premiere Editing Workflow
We shot some stuff on a Red Epic. The footage is on a 2TB Hitachi HD. Now I need to edit the footage. I can't transfer all the footage to my MacPro desktop because it is too many TB and will take too long. I also tried editing the footage straight from the external Hitachi HD before and it is very laggy and no good.
So what is the preferred workflow for this situation? I've heard something about exporting proxies or low-res video from the original footage via RedCine-X Pro. Then using that low-res footage to edit in Premiere. Then I guess export some data that will link to the original footage, or name the low-res files the same filenames as the original footage?
I'm lost and need a workflow.

Drag all your r3d files into Adobe Media Encoder (or CineX Pro), transcode to ProRes 422 (Proxy) and then use these to make your edit in Premiere. Once done, make the proxy footage offline in your project window and then relink to the original files.
Make sure to keep your folder structures the same for the proxies so that relinking is just a 1-click process. Also think before about what resolution you're delivering in and use sequence settings to reflect this.
Also make sure you actually have room for the proxies on your desktop. The files will be smaller but still take up a significant amount of space.

http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/premiere-pro-quick-tip-how-to-create-proxies/


text:
What is the best way to make Windows compatible with .MOV format?
What is the best way to make Windows compatible with .MOV format? I am looking for solutions other than using QuickTime to play .MOV movies on my Windows 8 machine. I want Windows to support .MOV (via Windows Media Player, Xbox Video, or whatever the default movie player happens to be.)

I would give vlc a try for that. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. MOV format is supported on windows : http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

VLC or Media Player Classic will play .movs without quicktime installed, but they won't enable you to play them with Windows Media Player. Just make VLC or MPC the default player for .mov files (which you can do during the installation process) and you won't have to choose when you open the files.

.MOV is a container format, not a video format. As such it can contain media in any number of 'tracks' of audio, video, subtitles etc. In particular, video tracks may use any supported codec, not just Apple-specific ones. It's very common to see H264 encoded video in a MOV file, and H264 is widely supported on Apple, Windows and Linux platforms.
So if you control the encoding, use H264 and you'll have nearly universal compatibility. If you don't control the encoding, you have to insure that the target system supports the codec used, which puts you in a bind because there are dozens of codecs and a given system may not have yours installed.


text:
How to set up live audio feed (with lavalier mic)?
I've been performing live video broadcast for awhile now carrying around lots of equipment so I can have nice live audio feed in the video stream but I'm currently looking for ways to simplify my setup.
I'm using a full blown mic on a stand connected directly to an audio interface with XLR cable in between which works fine but it's not very mobile and it's not very convenient for the person talking as they will have to stay close to the microphone without being able to move away from it.
I would like to have something more flexible instead like a lavalier mic or a headset mic (the person talking is not in the camera view so they don't have to look nice) that would allow the speaker to move around and have more freedom and still be able to use this setup without a pause for a long periods of time (sometimes over 4-5 hours). From what I've seen online, I'm not even sure that if I can and how to connect a lavalier mic (or nice head set) for live audio feed and even if I find a way to do so - what would be a good recommendation to have "infinite" power source for the mic as batteries would not hold long enough for some of the sessions that I have. Would it work with any model or only some specific ones would be suited for this setup? Any tips, information or recommendations are welcome. Thank you!

First thing is to check whether your audio interface XLR input can supply 48 V phantom power. If the answer is yes, look for a microphone that can be powered by phantom power. If this is not the case, look for an adapter that can power your mic and output to your XLR input.
For your use case, I think that a headset mic would be better than a lavalier one as it maintains the same sound when the speaker moves his head relatively to it's torso. You also are more safe against clothes noise. Most serious microphone makers offer this kind of product. Entry level products can be found from around 100 €.

Well in general I think we'd need information as to how exactly you are feeding your audio and video inputs into a livestream. But my guess is, you have atleast a basic capture device that supports analog inputs. In which case, with or without an adaptor depending on the model, you can just about connect any 3.5mm jack into. So a Sennheiser g3 would probably work for you, and in my experience most audio guys at live events are using them (you can connect a lav or a headset to them)
Here is a good article on the battery life of them: http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/News/Feature/In-the-Field-The-Sennheiser-ew100ENG-G3-Wireless-System-and-Rechargeable-Batteries-60879.htm
I'm sure you know theres no such thing as 'infinite' power unless you have some engineering background and are ready to do some hacking to the actual device.


text:
What factors influence how much of an online video people will watch?
If I'm making 4-minute videos and everybody's dropping off after 2, then I'm doing something wrong. However, I notice that sometimes I watch a much longer video, often because the quality of the narrative is so good. When trying to craft engaging content, what factors influence a viewer to watch the video to then end?
Here are some factors I've considered:

Shot variety such as B-roll and multiple camera angles
Music
Dramatic tension
Authentic responses to interview questions (in a mini-documentary)
Production value (color grading, audio mix, etc.)
Motion graphics
Video length

This question could be too broad. If it's too broad, leave a comment and I'll narrow it down to short narrative non-fiction (mini-documentary).

Just some food for thought at this link, especially the Wistia analytics: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/05/02/optimal-length-video-marketing-content-short-possible/

There could be any number of factors as to why people quit watching a video, but if you want to entice them to stick around, there are a few tricks.

Yes, "content is king," but CONTEXT is arguably queen— and let's be honest, who really rules the castle? That is to say— even if your content is great, if you aren't getting it to the right audience, it won't matter. Make sure the people who would WANT to see your video are finding it at the right time and place. Context.
Pay-off. A viewer is more likely to stick around if they know the pay-off at the end of the video is worth it. What will they learn? What mystery will be solved? What's the burning question? etc. Give them a clue in the beginning.
Challenge? As a twist to the "pay-off" bit (and especially if your end goal is social media shares and conversions)... Remember the whole KONY 2012 thing? They got millions of people to watch a 20-something minute documentary, and then spread it virally. Why? Beyond just compelling content: they challenged the viewer to finish it at the very beginning. The first lines were similar to "The following video is a social experiment..." I.E. "Let's see who makes it all the way through and then cares enough to do something about it."

It was a challenge, and human nature led people to take it on.
So there's my 2 cents.

Content trumps everything. People will watch if the story is compelling.
You can have crap audio, blocky graphics, bad lighting, noisy video etc but it all falls away if you have something to say that an audience wants to hear.
Naturally it's always a good idea to do the best job you can in all the technical areas because you don't want to actively annoy your audience, and they come to you with certain expectations driven by top-level production in video and film, but technique by itself is never enough.

There are already good answers. But let me share what not to do.
Too often than not there is something poisoning our videos. We have so much to say, but the video should be less than x minutes. As a result we squeeze as much as possible into this precious time. We don't even realize how indigestive the video has become, because we are too much into the subject.
I have seen this on my own videos, but was surprised to see it on videos of well-known professionals, too.
This is what I added to my to-do list for my next videos:

Reduce the many messages to one core message
Elaborate that message from different angles instead of adding new stuff
Have time for creating an atmosphere
Less talking heads, more showing what they do
Have a hook at the beginning that will be resolved at the end (ideally by the core message)
If the video is longer, have additional smaller hooks & resolutions in between

That's a lot, I know. If we take a 3-min. video, there's not so much time for talking. It really needs discipline.


text:
Recording video's with two cameras?
I have started to make some videos and I want to add a second camera to get a different angle.
The main camera I have is a Nikon D7200.
I am looking at a secondary camera, but I am hesitant because I want the video's to look the same, in that color and tone are the same and not obviously shot on two different cameras.
I am also, on a budget and would like to stay in it if possible. I know the D5500 has the same sensor as the D7200, so it would probably be the same in terms of color and tone, but would a different sensor really be that bad?
How do you guys match up two dissimilar cameras, to not make it look wierd, or is that not really a concern?
Thanks!

I've had my fair share of matching. C100 with 5D MK III, 5D MK III with 7D, 7D with C100, 7D with a Sony Camcorder.
It's all a matter of getting two cameras that are similar in terms of resolution and how 'soft' the image is. For example, the C100 is incredibly sharp, like 4k sharp in 1080p, whereas the DSLRS I mentioned are quite soft. Although you can add sharpening, it doesn't have the same feel and really gives you the idea that two cameras were used.
That being said, staying with a DSLR within the same camera company means that the baked in color profile should be relatively consistent. The sharpness on the other hand my not be, but with DSLR's you'll never get really sharp images (excluding the GH4 and A7S) so I would say go for it.
You might see some subtle difference in color tone. Some casting more or less of a certain color in the exact same environment which is an easy fix with some general color correction. I'm willing to bet if you make a color correction present using footage shot in a consistent test environment you can make your workflow much faster. Its just a matter of watching your scopes for consistency. It helps if you use a similar lens, focal length, subject (go with a person you want to match skintones), and lighting setup (tungsten) for these tests.
Some color correction info another one of my answers: https://video.stackexchange.com/a/15998/10619

why do DSLR's not make sharp images?

http://3d.coldstreams.com/?p=383 applies to any dslr, with some a7s and gh4 (even gh3) being really good at resolving sharpness from their sensors

What would you think if I paired up the D7200 with a Nikon 1 J5?

@JonYork I cant speak to the quality of either of those cameras. I do not shoot with Nikon, but I was merely speaking generally about DSLRs. Personally, I'd suggest getting GH4 if you are looking into a budget solution. Its a micro 4/3 camera, but they have adaptors that will allow your Nikon glass to work on it. http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPNFG-m43-BM1


text:
How to learn to produce documentaries?
I have several ideas for documentaries.  None of them involve any fancy production or cinematographic techniques.  Most of it would be interviewing people and simple camera works along with including some graphic material, which can be electronically produced on a laptop.  This should be much simpler than making feature movies as no actors or special effects are needed.  Think documentaries that people post of YouTube.
How can I acquire all the skills involved in producing a simple documentary like that?  What minimal hardware setup would suffice (what kind of camera, lights, etc)?  What kind of software should I acquire for the production thereof.  I would prefer to enable myself to do everything involved, from filming, direction, sound, narrative, graphic design, production etc.
Are there online tutorials that provide a basic setup for how to start as a documentary maker?

While there are tons of tutorials on the internet, which keep you learning your whole life (which isn't a bad thing) I would propose one option that I followed myself.
Lynda.com has good quality videos about all aspects of documentary filmmaking - technology, conducting interviews, storytelling, editing, ...
When I knew I had to take the next step in documentary filmmaking, I took one month off and watched these videos from morning to night. After one month I knew enough of all major topics and could cancel my membership. All in all I paid only US$ 25 for 30 days of intensive learning.
After that learning period you just need two things: Practice and errors. Because you'll only learn when something goes wrong. That's why I suggest that you only buy simple gear that you can upgrade after you found out what can go wrong.
Here's a small gear list: a video-capable DSLR, be it Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, ... Then a tripod and a microphone solution (e.g. a handheld audio recorder like the Zoom H2n). Light is not so important, if you can find bright locations.
When it comes to editing software, there is no single best choice. Some people prefer Adobe Premiere, because together with the other Adobe programs they have thousands of possibilities, but with a heavy price tag. Others find Final Cut Pro best to realize their creative visions. Edius is known to be a professional editor that runs fast even on slower computers. The free Resolve would be an option, if you want to do editing now, but later want to become a pro in color grading. There is also Sony Vegas and the free Lightworks,  ... What you will choose depends wholly on which direction you want to develop. The editing process is nearly the same with all of them.


text:
How can i receive video feed from my hardware video switcher to my pc live
im using presentation software on my pc which is connected to a projecter to add effects to my live video, our cameras are connected to a hardware video switcher, and i need to receive that live video feed to my pc so i can add effects to it and output to my projector, so i need to know to receive that live video feed.

You're doing it wrong.  Key from your effects source on to your live video with the switcher.  You will get much lower latency and better performance.  Alpha keying is ideal if your switcher supports it, but depending on what you are doing, luma keying (or less likely chroma keying) may also work.
There are a select few situations that may actually merit running the video through the computer as a filter, but they are pretty few and far between and most likely don't apply here.


text:
Why won't the Premiere CS6 timeline playback after edits?
After starting Premiere, playback works fine, but if I edit the timeline and move the current time indicator, the program display either goes dark or gets stuck on a frame and will not play.

I have 12 GB of memory but Premiere never uses more than 4 GB, however when editing it uses 100% CPU. This is an Asus laptop with a 5th generation low voltage Core i7-5500 processor, and Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce 840M graphics cards. What can I do to fix this problem? This is a much better spec laptop than my old one and I've never had anything like this happen before.

I had issues similar to this which I tracked down to a memory issue with a prores codec. I had 16GB and when I went to 32GB the the issue stopped. Are you using third-party prores codec?

You might try transcoding several of your clips into DNxHD in a fresh project and see if the issue goes away. QT on PC is 32bit only.

What is the codec of your source video? Do you have hardware acceleration (Mercury Playback Engine) turned on in Premiere?


text:
CMOS readout time, frame rate, and delay between frames?
I know that in CMOS sensor, the exposure is perform in line by line. I can assume that the delay between the exposure of two consecutive lines is equal the readout time for one line. So the readout time for the entire frame is

Frame_readout = line_readout * number_of_line

I read in many articles in the Internet that the interval between frames is qual the frame readout time. So the frame rate is calculated as

Frame_rate = 1/frame_readout

Therefore I assume that the delay between exposure of the last line of the 1st frame and the first line of the 2nd frame is equal the readout time for one line. It means that exposure in the sensor occurs from the first line to the last line and then come back to the first line (for next frame) and so on. And the delay between the exposures of two consecutive lines are always the same, whether these two exposures belong to the same frame or not.
Is my assumption correct? If not, what does contribute more delay for the exposure of the first line of the next frame? And what is the frame rate in that case?

Your analysis is oversimplified somewhat. You also need to take into account the shutter speed (either in fractions of a second, or in degrees if you're into that). I also get the feeling that over a given frame rate, there may be multiple scans of the sensor that are composited to create a "frame" of video that gets encoded and stored. But that is conjecture on my part.

Hi @WineSoaked, I did take into account the shutter speed, which was indicated as "exposure" in my figure. Of course in this case the shutter speed is short than the frame interval.

Between frame is frame gap. In there, camera don't expose and coresponse it can not receive data at frame gap.
And i think, frame_readout include frame gap (time between frame adjacent)


text:
Detecting VBI or true video height?
Is there a way to detect if a file has or has not Vbi data this way!
I.e if a Pal videofile with the reported 720x576 has Vbi data the actual height is an additional 32 lines = 608.
SD pal file VBI = 720x608
I am not interested in the info in those 32 lines - I just want to know if they are present or not ( to be able to make an decicion)
So far from what I can see ffmpeg and Medialinfo reports my VBI samples as 720X576 - but I know they are 608.
Maybe I am using the wrong tools or the wrong flags / cli arguments?
Many tnx!

It would be very unusual for the horizontal and vertical blanking to be included in an encoded digital file. Why do you believe that these files have that information?

Because fx Carbon detects the  file as 720x608 - and will output these lines unless I crop of 32 lines on the top. ( Carbon has an automatic detection / crop also - because other workflow Considerations I can't use that)

Sorry to be dense, but are you talking about a digital file on disk? If so, what type is it (container and codec)?

Yes - we are talking about a digital file, correct. So far LXF and Mxf. long gop Mpeg 2 inside

Containers like LXF/GXF/MXF allow EIA-708 (VBI) streams but as far as I know they do not encode the video data -- the blanking interval -- that originally contained those streams. That would run counter to the idea that codecs embody, that of squeezing out redundant information. I could be wrong, but I've never seen or heard of a codec that encodes invisible lines.
You could scan the file for the packet headers that identify caption / VBI streams, and if you find them you could impute a frame size that would have contained them, but you could do that anyway: any encoded video, if it were output as a TV signal, would have associated blanking, whether it contained captions or not.

These are SD files. I.e Eia 608.  You can read more here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIA-608

You can read about EIA 608 here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIA-608

So back to the original question - how to detect the presence of these lines?  which tool?

@JohanSkaneby Your question is about lines and frame size which are the wrong questions. These lines do not exist as video and do not affect the frame size. Only the data carried in those lines is stored in the container, alongside the video. Google "LXF VBI data" and you'll find pointers to tools that can find and read this data. It's a question of opening the file and scanning for headers.

What about line 21 and line 22?

Ok - anyway tnx for your time. We do not agree on basic technical background to my question. And Google for the answer is of course one of the ways to find the answer ;-)

@JohanSkaneby Lines 21 & 22 are not considered part of active video and are not usually digitized. If they contain data it can be extracted and encoded as a separate stream. I had no difficulty locating tools via Google to examine LXF VBI streams, so yes, Google is your friend.


text:
Adobe After Effects CC - stabilize lighting
I have a video of an interview. The lighting of the video keeps bouncing light and dark. Would I be able to fix this through After Effects? How would I be able to.
Sorry very new to after effects.
Thank you

I'll assume the camera op was fooling with the exposure?
You'll need to key-frame color correction or AE's Auto Color function may work for you:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/color-correction-effects.html
If you go the CC route it may help to watch the YC waveform rather than the image itself.
The Color Stabilizer effect may also work for you. Here's lybda "starter" explination for it youtube tutorial.

To add to what integris said, your main option is to attempt to counteract the lighting changes by keyframing artificial "lighting" in the opposite direction of the real-world changes. So when the brightness decreases in the video, you need to add brightness at the same rate.
If the adjustments are fast step-changes (like instantaneously changing the exposure), it's a little easier. Gradual changes like turning up the output of a fill light or pivoting a lamp towards the subject is harder to make look "natural".


text:
No Audio in RAM Preview on a 60fps Composition
I encountered a bizarre problem with Adobe After Effects CC 2015: whenever I try to reproduce a RAM preview of my composition, I can't hear audio and this problem occurs only with composition set up with 60 frames per second. If I create a new composition in 30fps or less, After Effects reproduces audio normally. What can I do? (yes, the green bar is fully loaded)
More info: I use a Macbook Pro with OSX 10.10.4, AE 2015.0 and 6GB of RAM are allocated by default to AE

Welcome hiru :) Sounds like a bug. Might be better to send a bug report instead. Anyway, enjoy video.se! Start with the tour to get your first badge: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour ;)


text:
Force Final Cut to use embedded timecode in preference to file creation time?
I have a series of clips from a GoPro that have embedded timecodes -- the media start/end fields show up correctly in the Info inspector.  However, when the files were copied between filesystems, the file creation times were not preserved, and the creation times are not in the same order as the timecodes.
Unfortunately, when I try to make a multicam clip, the clips are ordered by creation time instead of by timecode, even though I am specifying timecode for angle assembly.  Is there any way to force FCPX to ignore file creation time entirely and go with the timecode?


text:
Fast encoding with ffmpeg
I know about presets but faster presets lose the video quality. Are there any hardware requirements I need to consider? Or are there any settings that I need to tweak? And lastly where do I place the -threads flag to encode video (before input or after input), I saw topics on thread but they were confusing.
This is the command I am using now:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
            -codec:v libx264 -tune zerolatency -profile:v main -preset medium -crf 23 -maxrate 1000k -bufsize 10000k -s hd720 -codec:a libfdk_aac -pix_fmt yuv420p -movflags +faststart -threads 4 highoutput.mp4 \
            -codec:v libx264 -tune zerolatency -profile:v main -preset medium -crf 23 -maxrate 500k -bufsize 5000k -s hd480 -codec:a libfdk_aac -pix_fmt yuv420p -movflags +faststart -threads 4 lowoutput.mp4

Your help and guidance will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Faster presets do less work to come up with the same quality if you're using Constant Rate Factor (-crf). So AFAIK the trade-off isn't less quality, but bigger files.

@stib Is there any way to maintain the bitrate?

Doesn't using -crf override any bitrate options on the command line? I seem to recall that being the case.

@WineSoaked Is it? I saw  this post telling me otherwise.


text:
Can I import .mov files with embedded closed captioning into Premiere Pro CS6?
I'm importing .mov files that have embedded closed captioning because I need to do some very minor edits. I know that I cannot export .mov files with embedded closed captioning, but can I also not get at that closed captioning data from anywhere within Premiere Pro CS6 after importing?
I need the files coming out the other end with closed captioning available, whether as a sidecar file or not, so I'm hoping there's some way to do this.

You might try CCExtractor. I'm not sure if it supports text tracks in .MOV containers, but it's a good starting point. I can create .SRT files which are common companion files for captioning.

ffmpeg can also extract subtitle streams from .mov files. something like ffmpeg -i input.mov -map 0:s output.srt should work, where input.mov is your movie file and output.srt is the name of the srt you want to create.


text:
What are the main limitations on using the following setup to boost frames per second capturing?
Suppose I have two identical cameras, a red camera and a blue camera, that can both shoot videos at 1000 frames per second. If I set them up in the following set up, using a half-silvered mirror to capture the object highlighted in green, could I not technically achieve 2000 frames per second by simply overlapping the two sets of data I get from the red and the blue cameras? (e.g., take the first frame from the red camera, the second frame from the blue camera, and so on?) In effect I could double the frames per second of any camera with correct timing with the following set-up, though I've personally never touched a camera so I don't know the limitations that cameras could impose on realizing this dream of mine. I'm not too sure if this is off-topic either, sorry if it is.

Sounds like a good idea. Triggering the cameras at the right interval might involve some custom electronics or software, and making the two images register perfectly might be tricky, but the rest would be relatively simple.

You could get twice the frame rate if (big if) the taking times of the cameras were shifted by 1/2 millisec. In other words, the frame R1 is time stamped 0.0010 sec and the frame B1 is time stamped 0.0015 sec, and so on. Sync would have to be centrally driven, and registration would have to be perfect.
That leads to the problem that the frames from camera B would be horizontally reversed WRT the frames from camera R. This could be overcome, just something to consider when trying to register the images.

I think the biggest issue is the time sync. Cameras that operate at 1000 frames/second might have just enough jitter such that there wouldn't be a smooth blend between camera A & B footage.
Besides, at that rate, why not use interpolation software? Cheaper than a second camera, though of course you're not actually creating 2000 frames/second in camera.

@WineSoaked - Right, if the idea is to get better time resolution, interpolation wouldn't really help.


text:
What the equation that we should use to know the bitrate value?
I'm using ffmpeg to transcode mp4 file, I got the below command from: http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?192-Encoding-Suggestions-for-Video-on-Demand.
ffmpeg -y -i Butterfly_HD_1080p.mp4 -s 320x180 -y -strict experimental -acodec aac -ab 64k -ac 2 -ar 48000 -vcodec libx264 -vprofile main -g 48 -b 270000 -threads 64 butterfly_400.mp4

based on what they decide the bitrate for above output file will be 400(400000)? what the equation that they use for bitrate value?

I don't understand your question. Also, that command from the link you provided is not good. If you explain what you're trying to do we can provide a sane command.

Based on the command that you copied from the forum post, the bit rate of the video encoding would be 270,000 bits/second. The bitrate of the AAC audio encoding would be 64,000 bits/second (hence -ab 64k), so the total bitrate for the assembled file would be 270k+64k=334k.
So I have no idea where you're getting 400(400000) from, and I would have to agree with Neckbeard: telling us what you want to accomplish makes it possible to provide answers.

I need to encode videos and add them to wowza server. after encoding I need to create smil file for these videos and bitrate is required filed on smil file., so, what is the bitrate for the above command? is it 270000? . but in wowza documentation they fill smil file with 400000 bitrate for the same command.

@LordNeckbeard can share with me good commands? I need to use them with mpeg dash


text:
How to create a blinking effect in After Effects CC?
What I want to do is simple conceptually, but I am just not having success with actually doing it.
I am creating a short video snippet in After Effects, as part of a larger presentation. The video is supposed to begin with a blinking light under the title, which then transitions, with a sound effect, to the video itself.
I've worked out the sound effect, the transition, and all of the other stuff - I just don't know how to animate a blinking light. There must be a way to automate turning the opacity on and off - but all of the tutorials I've found date from several years ago at the earliest and presuppose a working knowledge of After Effects that is more in-depth than what I have.
Can someone point me in the right direction? Preferably with explicit steps!

Create your keyframes
Select them by holding down Shift, via box select or simply click the Flare Brightness Property
Then hold Alt and click the stopwatch icon, this will create an expression
Then click the Expression Arrow > and select Property >  loopoutduration this will cause that the keyframes to repeat themselves

I very much appreciate the pictures. Thanks to them, I was able to immediately get it to do what I wanted. I wish After Effects was more clear on how things interacted, though I guess I'll get a feel for it after spending more time with it.

@LukeMayson should mark this the correct answer, helps Video get out of Beta.


text:
ffmpeg command to transcode video to multiple videos fit with MPEG-DASH
I need to transcode video and add it to Wowza server. is there any recommded command that I can use to transcode the vedeo in best way to work with mpeg-dash.


text:
How to capture DVB-T using a generic RTL2832U USB stick on a mac
Is there a way to capture DVB-T video using a generic USB DVB-T dongle on a mac?  I've read many examples of people using VLC on Linux/PCs, but can't see any generic drivers on Mac OSX?

So, why not use VLC on Mac? Or what problems with that you are facing?

VLC on OSX doesn't decode from the DVB stick.

There are no drivers, but if you can configure it manually, I'm guessing you'd be able to create a fifo or tcp socket for vlc to read from as mpeg2? Have librtlsdr installed through brew.

Seems unlikely as per this section on the MythTV wiki:

Pretty much the only Capture Cards that are supported on OS X are the
  HDHomerun tuners from Silicondust

There seems to be no direct way to do it on mac but it works on linux so you can do it on a virtual machine. Just install VirtualBox, then install xubuntu on VirtualBox, and on xubuntu install Kaffeine which allows to play and record DVB-T streams. I used it like that with a RTL2832U DVB-T dongle and it worked fine. Just make sure that you set USB 3.0 in virtual machine settings and allow using all cpu cores because without that it will be too slow and won't work.


text:
How to see encoding progress in Compressor 4.1.3
Is there really no way to see progress of an encoding job in Apple Compressor 4.1.3?
I started a batch (single job, one file) and this is all I see:

My fan is blowing at full speed so I guess something's happening. Or maybe it's just crashed and will never complete...
Thanks Apple

well... the job completed fine so I guess it is just a case of crap UX


text:
How to speed up/slow down audio along with video?
I just finished watching this nice little YouTube tutorial that gives one a bit more control on speeding up or slowing down PARTS of video (as opposed to just slowing down the whole thing) using time remapping, markers (splitting markers), etc. All really quite handy and gives more control. Caveat is that I can't figure out how to make it apply the slow-down/speed-up to the audio as well. If I don't use markers and time remapping and just do the right-click and select speed/duration that will apply it to the whole video... and audio. But that is not what I want.
I have a Subclip in my Timeline Monitor. It comes with Video Track and Audio Track:

When I speed up a SEGMENT of my video using "add/remove keyframe" in "Time Remapping>Speed" Effect Controls, it changes the duration of the video but not audio. So I end up with this:

I need to change video speed three times.

From the very beginning the speed is 400%.
In the middle the speed decreases to 200% for some seconds.
After that speed decreases to 100% till the end of the video.

And I want the audio changes its speed along with the video. I speed up/speed down video, so the audio do the same. The best example of how an audio should fit with a video is to run a video in MPC-HC (Media Player Classic) and speed it up or down by Ctrl + arrow-up/ Ctrl + arrow-down. I want to achieve the same effect in Adobe PP CC.
Is there a way that I can use time remapping on video and have the audio remapped in sync with the video? Or is there some other way to do it? Any pointers would be appreciated.

Unfortunately, kazanaki's answer is your only choice.
There are multiple ways to change the speed of a clip in premiere, namely:

The Speed/Duration panel that can be access via the context menu of a clip (right-click).
The Rate Stretch Tool (Shortcut R)
Time remapping using keyframes.

The first two do the same thing, that is change the speed of an entire clip by a constant amount. They are also intertwined, so if you change the speed and duration of a clip using the Rate Stretch Tool, the new values will also appear in the Speed/Duration panel.
Time remapping works differently from those tools, as it allows for speed changes over time. That is, you can set keyframes for 400%, 200% and 100% speed (as in your example) and Premiere will interpolate between those keyframes, creating a smooth speed transition. However, this has no effect on the audio stream of the clip. From the documentation:

When you vary the speed of a clip with linked audio and video, the
  audio remains linked to the video, but remains at 100% speed. The
  audio does not remain synchronized with the video.

Source
I don't know if there is a reason why Adobe has designed it this way (I assume there are technical reasons for this), but at the moment there is no way to adjust audio speed alongside a video using time remapping.
If this behaviour bothers you, you can always write up a Feature Request for Adobe to consider for future releases of the software.
An alternative would be to cut your audio in Adobe Audition and use a Dynamic Link to import it back into your Premiere Pro projekt. If I recall correctly, adjusting the audio alongside the video as described above is also possible in After Effects, but don't quote me on that ...

After Effects "time remap" works on audio and video.

Unless I am missing something, I think you are making things overcomplicated.
Split your clip into the 3 parts you want (400%,200%,100%)
When I say split I mean cut with the razor tool.
Then right-click on each part and select speed-duration and change to the value you want. Make sure you select the checkbox - "also change sound pitch" (don't remember exactly the text)
The audio will be resized along with the video.
You are done (perhaps you need to ripple-delete the empty spaces that will appear afterwards)


text:
ffmpeg reducing 60fps to 30fps, but file size is larger
I just did:
ffmpeg -i inputfile -r 30 -vcodec libx264 -an -s hd480 output_30.mp4
and
ffmpeg -i inputfile -vcodec libx264 -an -s hd480 output_60.mp4
on a 60fps file.
Why is the second file 27 MB and the first file 49 MB despite the fact that the first file contains only every second frame?

Please show the complete console output from each command.

Did you actually get every second frame? My impression is that you got every frame, but you halved the framerate. Therefore, the length of the video in seconds is twice as long for the first compared to the second, and assuming equal rate controls (e.g. 1 megabit per second), the twice-as-long-file will thus be approximately twice as big, which is what you got.

That may be the case. What would be the correct command.

-v:b 500 for the first, and -v:b 1000 for the second. If my hypothesis is correct, using double bitrate for the second should give exactly identical quality for both videos (i.e. they should look visually indistinguishable, other than them being twice as slow/fast).


text:
Premiere distorts 2.0 anamorphic R3D footage when paused in the source viewer
This is my first time working with anamorphic red footage. When I view footage in the source monitor, all anamorphic clips are sheared diagonally (image below):

The problem does not persist when the footage is playing back, or when I'm viewing it on the timeline, or through RED Player.
It only shears when paused within the source monitor, as well as viewing RED R3D Source settings. How can I fix this?

I have a similar issue with H.264 footage from a Canon 60D.

Could you put somewhere original footage, so we could mess around with it? I don't have R3D footage, so can't check if something works.

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

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


text:
Premiere Pro - Unwanted Letterboxing in HD 1080p Video
After editing a video in Premiere Pro CC 2015 and then exporting it, a 1080p video becomes letter-boxed on the left and right sides. I have double checked all the settings, and for some reason it continues to letter box.
Here is an example video to show you what I mean.

That can happen, when you use different Pixel aspect Ratio. Use Match Sequence Settings and use Pixel aspect Ratio in your sequence same with footage.


text:
Streaming video that's being recorded?
Is streaming video while it's being recorded possible? If so how? What Programs would someone need?

I'd suggest you add some more detail - such as the comment you made on Mulvya's answer.

Exactly as the Dr says above. You'll get much better answers, keep your question open and won't waste people's time answering something you already know if you provide as much details about your environment/problem as you can.

Yes, it's possible. Open Broadcaster Software is a free multi-platform solution that I know of.

I actually meant streaming from a phone to PC! And OBS is cool, i already knew about it.


text:
Convert & Burn M2TS files into DVD format WITHOUT LOSS
I have my marriage film (Resolution: 1080p /Format: .m2ts / File size: 7 GB) on a bluray disc which I ripped in my HDD with this software that I found on forums.
The thing is that I want to make some copies for the family who still have DVD players. So I came up with the idea to burn the BDR disc into DVD to be played in any DVD player but without any loss at all. Is there any hack to do this? I have blank DVDs of 8.5GB enough to burn my video.
I know that DVD format is at 420p resolution in NTSC but I wonder if there is a procedure to convert/simulate/hack this in order to play my BDR video in a DVD at full high quality? I don't want to compress the video, just transform the format to be recognized in DVD players because as I said my BDR file is 7GB enough to fit in a 8.5GB DVD disc.
Also I need to rebuild the menu and the scenes with a video editor. Can you suggests also a good video editor? I heard about Corel video editor and Pineapple.
Thanks

Whatever else you may be facing, one big obstacle is the DVD players themselves. They're not designed to output 1080p. Even if you could get the image onto them in Bluray format, they couldn't output it. (If they're really Bluray players, then you don't need any hacks, just a dupe of the image.)
If the content is something they want to see, people will be pleased to get standard DVDs regardless of the quality.


text:
Premiere export video with black frame
I'm using Adobe Premiere Pro 6.0 and trying to export video but it always adds a black frame. The output preview shows one picture, the result shows another. It seems like it also crops the video a little. What am I doing wrong?

Go to the Source window (top left) in Premiere, and see if crop is enabled.

There are a couple of things I would check
The first thing that comes to mind, the aspect ratio is different from the output to the source. I would check that first (sequence settings)
The seconds thing that comes to mind
Set the crop setting in the export settings to 16:9. That might get rid of the black border for you.
Let me know if it worked.

Thanks for reply. Aspect ratio in sequence sttings is 16:9. Setting the crop to 16:9 in export setting doesn't help.The thing is the exported video should look like output in export window, but it doesn't.


text:
How to make batch ffmpeg with this codes?
How i batch render with ffmpeg with this code on windows? Codes work well.
ffmpeg -y -loop 1 -i background_image.png -i mainmovie.mov -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[V1]; [1:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS, scale=800:452[V2]; [V1][V2]overlay=shortest=1:x=240:y=134" out.mov

See: http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/19860/batch-conversion-into-a-new-folder-with-ffmpeg


text:
How much visual effects studios like weta digital make per movie?
Does anyone know how much VFX studios like Weta Digital make per movie? http://www.wetafx.co.nz/

Only they can answer that question.


text:
How should I go about doing this same exact effect for an upcoming project?
A client has tasked me to create a How-to-video for Hotel/Flight booking app. They sent me this video and told me to that they would like the same video. The problem is I have no idea what kind of effect/plugins were used to achieving the effect.
Was it an actual video recording of the booking website or were those just image graphics? I'm primarily interested in the 3D effect. Is it possible to mimic the effect using Adobe Premiere alone or do I need a post production program such as After Effects? I would greatly appreciate helpful inputs.

In general you can do this in many 2D animation tools, but In terms of flexibility and speed, I suggest to use Adobe After Effects in combination with Illustrator or Photoshop, see this answer: http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/15331/simple-video-animation-for-teaching-purpose/15335#15335 Also check if your OS supports HiDPI mode for a better screenshot of the site: http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/15349/how-do-you-zoom-in-animated-on-a-portion-of-your-canvas/15351#15351

In some parts it is still pictures, in some — probably video. It is better practice to make motion-design with After Effects, but you can accomplish this in Premiere.
To rotate footage in 3D in Premiere you need to add "Basic 3D" effect:
Effects > Video Effects > Perspective > Basic 3D
There you will find everything you need to rotate in x,y,x dimensions. But full video will be easier to create in After Effects. Premiere is better for video montage.
Good Luck!


text:
How to disable overwriting in Premiere Pro cc?
whenever I drag a clip across the timeline and place it on top of another, the entire thing or a portion of it gets deleted, how do I disable this feature?
(I know the general work around to do this is not to do it but I would like the security that if I missed that I accidentally dragged another clip on top of another and then deleting a little bit that it won't happen)

What about if you put it in a new track? So instead of dragging it onto the clips that are already there, you drag it above them.

There is couple solutions:

Use Alt+ Drag
Use Track Select Tool to move everything before and after dragging
Use Insert button (,) button from Source monitor

Good luck!

Yeah, that's exactly what I don't want to do! I want to disable this feature permanently. I don't want a work around

Then just put some weight on your Alt button =)

@user3910035 Consider that this is not a forum, if Shultc solved your issue, please accept the answer for future visitors. Might be a good idea to start with the tour: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour.


text:
Russel Peters Intro video
I am sorry if this is not the correct place to ask the question.
I am very much interested in making a video similar to youtube link below

Its of Russel Peters intro video, I wanted to know what are such videos called and are there any softwares that can used to make such video.
I am planning to use it in a video to introduce characters in a movie(home video).
The basic idea is to film the characters separately each with different custom and edit it then merge all the characters to look something similar to the video, can any tell me how to go ahead with such a video?
What are such videos called and if there are any softwares to do it.

There is no specific title for this kind of video.
You can achieve what you want with any video editor that supports layers and masks. Adobe After Effects would be on solution.


text:
What format and codecs to use for PS3?
i have edited a video with Open Shot. However when exporting and trying to watch via PS3 the results end up unsatisfying.
I managed to figure out that the video is displayed fine as MP4 with libx264 Codec but i cannot get audio right. Neither aac nor ac3 codec produce satisfying results. Although sound is played it sounds really annoying, to me like the bass is completely broken. I use the highest quality, 2 Channels and a sampling rate of 48000.
Can anybody help me to get a satisfying result?
BTW VLC Player has no problems with neither of the setups i used for PS3.

The PS3 doesn't alter your video (to be precise: it can't alter your video). What's more likely the problem is an incorrect configuration of your TV/monitor which results in faulty downsampling. (Read this for more info)

Okay thanks for the comment. I'll take a look. But initially i had the problem that either video or audio wasn't playing at all and using forward/backward didn't work. So i thought i had a problem with the codecs used. Btw Windows Media Player couldn't play it as well.

The PS3 is very picky on what it plays and what not. I had the same problem as you (again with an OpenShot video)
Solutions
1)Use http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/ that automatically transcodes to formats for PS3
2)Convert your existing video to PS3 format with https://handbrake.fr/


text:
Doing text overlay on video
What's the easiest (preferably free) tool to do a text overlay akin to the one shown in this Strava ad video.
https://youtu.be/4BV30EDMmn4

Welcome travelverse :) You've earned negative reputation, because your question shows no effort. In order to get a solid answer (and positive reputation of course), please edit your question by adding more information and context. Also might be a good idea starting with the tour to get your first badge: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour.

This is very easy to do with any basic video editor.
Checkout lightworks if you are in windows or openshot if you are in Linux


text:
Endless video chat?
Looking to create a video conferencing experience between 2 offices. Want to make it like a window where people can just walk up to the camera/screen/mic and see who is there. Is there a cheap way to do this- to have a dedicated video line through the internet like this between 2 offices? Possibly free? I remember there being a google hangouts hack but want to avoid doing anything sketchy

You could easily use a google video hangout, or a skype video chat or any number of other video chat solutions. Because you are only wanting the communication to be between two offices, you don't need any specialist video conferencing software.


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

This one is from the song "Earth, Wind and Fire - Let's groove"
Basically it work like this :
Current frame = Blend(Video input, ColorShift(Previous Frame))

What i tried so far :

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

It works pretty good to reproduce the basic feedback effect. However i'm still missing the rainbow colors.
I have tried to put some color correction effect, but it applies on the whole image, not only on the previous frames.
Any idea how i can reproduce this effect ?

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

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

It is manual approach, but it is not so difficult or time-consuming.
I believe it also can be achieved with Particle system, when your footage serves as emitter. Some of particle systems effects have "color over life" value, which will create your "Rainbow effect".
Good luck!

Hi Thanks for reply. Not really the solution i was looking for but i will give a try. For testing purposes I downloaded a free video sample from here : http://videohive.net/item/club-dance/6482250

make your first comp with your keyed footage in it. Create a new comp with two copies of the first, offset by one frame. Apply the hue/saturation effect with the hue rotated by a few degrees, let's say 8 degrees, to the bottom layer. Add some offset, say -20px on the x and y axis.
Create a new comp with two copies of the second comp, this time offset it by two frames, and once again apply the hue/sat effect but now with the hue rotated a 16 degrees to the bottom layer. By now there should be four copies of the original video. Repeat to get eight, then sixteen etc copies. Here's one that has six layers of subcomps (I just drew something and puppet-pinned it). It plays suprisingly fast:

Looking at it, if you wanted it to look more like the example you might add a bit of blur to each repetition.


text:
sequence report Adobe Premiere CC
Avid has something called sequence report that gives you details such as the number of clips in a sequence among other stats. I was wondering if any of you were aware of a similar function in Premiere that would show some stats of the sequence (e.g. number of clips)?

The only thing I know of is the 'Properties' Display available from the context-menu of a sequence (right-click on the sequence in the project panel). This however will only show you the sequence's resolution, framerate and current duration ...


text:
Shortcut to extend length of still image clip in Premiere?
I'm using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015.  As an example of a common scenario, on a single video track I'll have two still images (e.g. jpg files) with some space between them.  Image1 first followed by some space and then Image2.
What I'd like to do is extend the duration of Image1 so that it fills the space and ends where Image2 begins.
Before:
+--------------------------------------------------------+
   +---------------+             +-------------------+
   | Image 1       |             | Image 2           |
   |               |             |                   |
   +---------------+             +-------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------+

After:

+--------------------------------------------------------+
   +---------------------------+ +-------------------+
   | Image 1                   | | Image 2           |
   |                           | |                   |
   +---------------------------+ +-------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------+

Obviously I can do this with the mouse and drag the edge of Image1 over to Image2.  However is there a keyboard shortcut that will automatically do this?

I should specify I'm on Windows

As happens, the act of asking a questions leads me to the answer faster.  I can do this with a combination of two shortcuts:

Down Arrow (Go to Next Edit Point)
Shift + Q (Extend Previous Edit To Playhead)

(Still be interested if there's a way to do this with a single shortcut)

I didn't know about Shift+Q. Thanks for posting this answer for the rest of us!

Shift + Q to extend to the playhead the clip left of the playhead. Shift + W to extend to the playhead the clip located right of the playhead.

Here's how I do it:

Put the still image on the track as usual.
Click the end of the region, so it turns red.

Move your timeline cursor to the end of your edit.

Press E

The bug is extended to the end with no dragging


text:
how to detect empty wav files
There are some wav files that are empty (though their size is not 0 bytes). Their duration is also 00:00.
When you open these files, nothing happens even if you hit the play button again and again.
Is there a way to filter all such files from a collection of (say 10000) .wav files?
Equivalently, could you help me in filtering all .wav files of duration less than or equal to 2 seconds from a huge collection of files?

Welcome Snowbell :) If Jim does not solve your issue, might be a good idea to provide some test files to play with... Anyway, enjoy video.se!

If the files have no content then it's enough to key on size. A totally "empty" WAV file will have just a header and will almost certainly be less than 200 bytes. So it's probably enough to delete any files smaller than that. I would sort the folder by increasing size. You will probably see a sharp change from very low values to a series of much larger files. Bulk delete above that point (shift-select, delete).
If the files have some length but contain only silence, you need a more rigorous test. But from your question it doesn't sound like that's the case.


text:
Is there a buffering difference between increasing and decreasing stream quality?

When you change from low quality to high quality on a stream, is buffering time (or anything else) slower than changing from high to low?
If so, is there a difference in doing this on a live stream as opposed to a premade video?

1) It depends mainly on the streaming protocol. For HLS and HDS for example, yes because the player will usually download a number of segments before starting playback, and the download time is proportional to the size of each segment of course. For RTMP for example, the buffer is custom-set by the server which means it will theoretically depend on what the server has chosen for every bandwidth. E.g., it may chose a 0KB buffer for all streams, in which case there will be no difference in buffering time. In more realistic cases, however, I expect the server would set buffers to each stream according to its bitrate, which brings us back to what happens with HLS or HDS.
Note that the difference in buffering time really depends on your own bandwidth. If you have 50Mbps internet speed, you won't feel any difference whatsoever since it would be the difference between downloading ~3MB of data vs ~2MB/~1MB of data. Of course if the server is setup improperly and has high latency, then your speed means very little and you will feel a difference.
2) No because as far as the client is concerned, a livestream is basically the same as a prerecorded stream (apart from the fact the server may let you download the stream faster than you can see what you download, aka faster than real-time).