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Lossless cutting video (MPEG-4)
Is it possible to lossless clip out the video file (MPEG-4/H.264) that result chunks will be equivalent to the same of raw footage? I want to reduce size of the source (raw) material by cutting off the unnecessary, but desire to have remaining clips in the same quality as initial video.

Yes, it is generally possible, but with a few limitations.  h.264 uses what is known as a group of pictures.  A group of pictures groups multiple frames together in a way that allows for further compression, but the entire group of pictures has to be decoded together.  As such, it is only possible to cut a video stream in between groups of pictures. This is often around 15 frames, but length can vary based on encoding options that were used.
As long as you are ok breaking it on a group of pictures, you can cut up the video to your hearts content and still use the same data stream.  At the end of the day, most video formats consist of some metadata that describes how the video is laid out and how it syncs with the audio.  It then contains one or more streams of video and one or more streams of audio.  When played back, this metadata is read and then the streams are used for playback.
Splitting the file simply means extracting part of the stream, broken up on a group of pictures, pulling out the relevant audio and then piecing the data back together in a new container that has metadata that corresponds to it.  As long as you break it at the points it is designed to break, then it ends up being two normal, otherwise unaltered streams.  There are numerous tools that can do this for you, including tools like FFMPEG, though I unfortunately do not have the exact command to perform the split as my FFMPEG skills are decidedly weaker than many others on here (though one of them will likely soon be able to post with the command line you need.)

This is possible with the FFmpeg command ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 0 -c copy -t 60 output.mp4. This would cut the video from the beginning -ss 0 to second 60 -t 60.
Be aware that -ss is and offset which -t is based upon. So -ss 10 and -t 60 would result in cutting to second 70 and removing the first 10. You can use the -to option to cut at a fixed time unrelated to -ss.
I'm not exactly sure how ffmpeg will handle GOPs but I think it will cut at the nearest GOP at the specified time.
Relevant question on SU: https://superuser.com/questions/138331/using-ffmpeg-to-cut-up-video

This will not cut accurately. It will look for the nearest iFrame and cut at that point. The only way to cut losslessly with FFmpeg is to use some lightweight encoding like the following (very slow) method:
ffmpeg -ss 00:00:03.123 -i input.mp4 -t 10 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict experimental out.mp4

The question was in regard to the encoding, as in lossless picture quality. When you re-encode the output you are able to cut more accurately but not without a loss in frame information.

Also, these days you can use this nice crossplatform GUI tool LosslessCut (with FFmpeg under the hood).


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After Effects render on AWS EC2
I want to render my After Effects projects on an EC2 Windows AMI for better performance, but they only allow Windows Server editions which are no supported by Adobe. Will it work if I install After Effects on Windows Server 2008? Thanks!

Windows Server is very much the same as the Desktop Windows regarding the core of the OS, there is just some stuff missing and other stuff added that is usefull for webservers.
You shouldn't have any problems installing an After Effects render node, I used Windows Server 2008 R2 myself for an After Effects CS5 network render node.
Shouldn't have changed with newer versions of After Effects.

source: Stack Exchange

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sort: votes


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How do I correctly use an ACES workflow with CinemaDNG footage in Davinci Resolve?
I'm just now discovering ACES with Resolve version 11. I can get Sony S-Log2 footage to look good, but I'm having trouble with CinemaDNG from my 2.5kBMCC. I've seen this tutorial on how to do it, but when I get to the step where you select an IDT, CinemaDNG is not available. Any thoughts on why this might be so? Is there something different I have to do in version 11 than what this guy's doing in 9.x? Here's the IDTs from which I have to choose, in case I'm just crazy.

You should use BMD Film (Black Magic Design) This is the colorspace used by the Black Magic Cameras.

Currently there isn't a means to create an IDT for cinemaDNG footage in resolve.
cinemaDNG is a container and contains camera RAW data so it's precisely the kind of footage one would want to convert to ACES.  The problem is the IDT needs to be built with knowledge of the specific camera.  Theoretically this camera characterization data is included in the DNG tags, but there isn't currently a means to convert those tags into a useable IDT.

authors: Алексей Орехов

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


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Correct font properties for subtitles
I'm editing a video using Adobe Premiere CC, I need to put subtitle. What is the best font properties?
I'm using:
Font Family- Arial Rounded MT;
Font Size- 15;
Color- #FFF600;
Strokes > Inner Strokes- color #000000
Is this the correct way?

For some reason the default subtitle colour often seems to be yellow; I can't find any definitive reason why though. I hate yellow subtitles with a passion, they always look hideous and distracting, so I always make mine white. To separate them from light coloured backgrounds I use a soft black drop shadow if possible, or otherwise a black border. As you can see below they are readable even over light backgrounds.
The size depends on the viewing medium. The one below looks a bit wee in the size it's displayed on this page (on a retina screen on a 15" laptop), so if I was doing subtitles for handheld devices where it might be displayed at this size I'd make it larger, but on a TV it's plenty big enough. In a cinema it might be a bit too large. Resolution is a factor, too. If this was going to standard definition I'd have to bump up the font size a bit too.
Sans-serif is my default choice, usually Arial because it's so bland, so it doesn't distract from the art direction. Serif fonts are also a problem if the video is ever going to be displayed on interlaced screens (which applies if it is to be broadcast, at least until all the old interlaced TVs have gone to the verge), because the thin horizontal lines flicker between fields. Also at low resolutions the thin parts of the letters get lost. So while serif fonts generally have greater readability they might not be the best choice just yet.


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Layer dimensions in after effects
How can I find the dimensions in pixels of a layer in adobe after effects.

do you mean whether if its a 2D or 3D layer?

@ProfessorSparkles No, I wan't to know how many pixels wide and how many pixels tall.

To find the pixel dimensions of a layer you can use this expression:

layer.sourceRectAtTime(t = time, includeExtents = false)

t: the time index, in seconds. A floating-point value.
includeExtents: true to include the extents, false otherwise. Extents apply to shape layers only, increasing the size of the layer
  bounds as necessary.

This is only for AE version > 13.2 (CC 2014.2). See the announcement here.
For earlier versions this question is relevant, in the answers there is a link to an expression that achieves the same result, albeit a lot slower.

Thanks, sadly I'm still on CS6 D:, so I wont accepted it (But you earned an upvote), since I'm pretty sure that there must be a way.

edited with link for previous versions of AE.

To find the pixel dimensions of a layer in AE,
Hit 's' that brings up scale,
then right-click Scale to bring up the Edit-Value dialog,

then set units to pixels.

When I first read this I thought you were saying that you could change the value in the scale numerical box to pixels, and I was all: "what?! I never knew that!". But then I tried it and realised what you meant. A good suggestion though.

This seems a lot simpler than the current accepted answer. I will need to verify it though. Also, what version of AE are supported?

Yes, if you just want to know the dimensions this is simpler. Doing it with an expression means you can use that value dynamically to drive other things. So it depends on what you want to do.

You get the scale of the layer in the Transform property menu as seen below. The scale is in relation to the comp width and height if its solid or adjustment layer, for imported footage its in relation to the source width and height.
To get pixel values you just do a little math:
(Comp or Footage width|height/100)*Scale = pixel dimension of layer
When it comes to shape layer, the size of the shape is shown in the path menu unless its a custom shape, there is no easy built-in way to determine the bounding box of a custom path, you would need to write a script for that.

No, that is wrong, scale is relative to the scale of the layer, if I brought in a 200px * 200px image into an HD comp, by your formula it would be 192px by 108px.

oh right, I was only thinking of solids as the pixel value of footage is usually known. I edited the answer to reflect that.

This answer still has an error. The scale is always relative to the layer, whether it's a solid, adjustment layer or external layer. If you make a 10 X 10 pixels solid or adjustment layer  in a 100 X 100 pixels comp the scale will still say 100%, not 10%.

Feel free to make an edit. Not sure how to word it better.


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How to scale video showing the underlying layer/track in the cropped area
I have imported the smartphone screen record in Premiere using the option set to frame size to mantain video aspect ratio, with this option the video is centered with its aspect ratio, after that I have moved the video on V2 track and have added a background image in V1 track
The problem is that: unused area of scaled video results black.
How to crop the V2 track to show the previous level V1 track in the unused space?

With autoscaled video to center using set to frame size, adding a Crop Effect to crop the black area is enough to solve the problem.

You imported the footage with the resolution set in your timeline by choosing set to frame size. Thats not what you want in this case, it adds black bars wherever your footage doesn't fill the frame size set in for the timeline.
Premiere would have kept the correct aspect ratio either way, it doesn't automatically stretch footage thats not the same resolution as the timeline, you would only see distortion if the pixel aspect ratio would differ between timeline and source. Re-import the footage without the set to frame size option and you should be fine.

I have used the option set to frame size because the original imported video is way larger compared to the video that I'm creating in Premiere and is shown only a piece of video with the default options. Is there another way to scale cropping black area?

Import it as Sparkles suggests and then apply a scale under the motion effects.

What AJ Henderson said. Alternatively you can scale "by hand" by double clicking the video in the preview window, then you get so called handles around the video which you can use to scale the video. The video will be scaled uniformly.
You can then also drag the video around in the preview to position it if necessary.


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Playing back a video file with an optional time sequence
I have a video file and I want to play it to some people in a public place. Actually, some parts of the video are not suitable for the public display. As you might guess, it is not respectful to skip this parts manually in front of them and I want to play the video automatically, i.e., without any manual skipping (actually when I use my mouse or keyboard to skip it, I don’t know exactly to what frame should I click and that stresses me out).  I have neither enough time nor special knowledge how to cut the pieces and re-render it. I’m using K-Lite to play my videos files for some reasons such as loading subtitles. A friend of mine said that I can make a text file with the jump sequences included but I don’t know how to do it (and he is not sure either!). My jump sequences are like this:
00:00:00 – 00:07:03 -- jump – 00:07:54 -- 00:26:22 – jump – 00:28:12 -- so on
Other techniques are also appreciated (without cutting and re-rendering the video file).

It is just as easy or more easy to just use a basic file of the times to make a basic editing tool edit the video together for you and then it will play on any player.  It is also certainly more reliable and less user error prone.

I am confused, isn't K-Lite a codec. http://www.codecguide.com/about_kl.htm

I'd agree with Dr Mayhem's comment that it's risky to have a file with content you don't want public sitting there on your laptop hooked up to a projector.  mkvmerge, or another remuxing tool, will be able to chop up your video.  I think avidemux might do well for this, since you can use the GUI to find edit points, and it supports remuxing instead of transcoding.  (IDK if any full-fledged video editors can just remux if you're only making timeline changes, and cutting on keyframes.)
I just tried avidemux.  It still doesn't have proper support for B frames, so tt's stuck in the dark ages.  It did seem to work for cutting some segments out of an MP4(h.264/aac) and saving to an mkv.  It did warn about using it's workaround mode for B frames, on loading the file, though.  I wouldn't use it for encoding (its x264 config dialog is terrible), but it does appear to work for remuxing.
But anyway, if you're confident that un-authorized users won't be poking at your laptop and playing files you want to keep private, I do have a proper answer for your question.
mpv supports "edit decision lists" in a similar format to what mplayer uses.  (It's a fork of mplayer that drops some old drivers, and focuses on new features, like better colorspace defaults.  mplayer is mostly focused on being stable / backwards compatible, which prevents some kinds of changes.)  It runs on all 3 major desktop OSes.
The EDL format is similar to mplayer's, but mplayer takes an EDL as an option while playing a different file.  Mpv instead has an EDL demuxer, so an EDL is an input file that references other files.  (mpv can thus play multiple files as if they were one long seamless file, for the purposes of seeking.)
Anyway, mpv's EDL format uses filename,start,length tuples.  (note: length not end point):
# mpv EDL v0
input.mkv,5,13
input.mkv,42,10
input.mkv,60,10
input.mkv,112.2,3.2

Then you run mpv on that file (mpv my-segments.edl, or double click or whatever).
The edl:// syntax is for putting the contents of the edl on the command line, without using a separate file.
This appears to be fairly robust.  Even with the seek controls, I can't play parts of the file outside the virtual stream created by the EDL.  Chapter seeks go to EDL segment boundaries.  (I haven't tried it on an mkv with chapters, or a DVD.)
Actually, you CAN escape the EDL virtual stream, but only by 2 seconds into the part of the file before the first segment.  So there's no issue if your first segment starts at the beginning of a file.  (Accurate-seek by 1 sec backwards, and frame-step-backwards, are the commands that can take you to negative 2 seconds into the stream.)  If that's an issue, unbind those keys in an mpv.conf file.
If your file has chapters, you can use those instead of seconds.  (see the end of the edl-mpv.rst doc I linked).
If your edit points are far from a previous keyframe, mpv will pause briefly while it decodes from the seekable I frame up to the exact frame you told it to start on.  This could be noticeable with a slow CPU and HD content, if it has to decode hundreds of frames.
I was surprised how well mpv does at being seamless with this, with seeks back and forth across an edit point being really fast.  And even frame-step backwards obeys the edit list (except when you go off the beginning by up to 2 secs.)

Great answer. Signed up for video-SE just to upvote. I have been unable to find any good documentation on the subject. Other than a vague discussion of the edl protocol, the mpv docs don't really offer any insight at all. Now that it makes sense to me, I was able to combine this with ffprobe (and a spreadsheet) and quickly produce and test a useful EDL. Thanks.

Cutting a video doesn't require more knowledge than what you are trying to do here. I'd even say it requires less knowledge.
Consider the free video editing tool Lightworks and this short video tutorial on how to cut videos with it:

Thanks for your recommendation, but I want to tackle the problem in this way and of-course it doesn't seem too problematic.

I'd have to agree Professor - it is much easier, and less fraught with potential embarrassment to cut the video in advance. Then all you need on the day is to be able to hit play

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


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After Effects Ratio Error When Using Puppet Tool
After Effects is continuously giving the following error when I try to use the Puppet tool:
After Effects error: zero denominator in ratio addition. (17::16)
Any idea what could be happening or how I can get around this issue?

I just restarted my After Effects. Now everything works Perfect!!!

I've taken my best stab at trying to clarify your question, but if the solution I found doesn't work (or even if it does) it would be helpful if you included some more detail about what you are trying to do when you get the error.  As it currently stands, there wouldn't have been enough to go on if I hadn't gotten a lucky hit searching Google.

It's hard to tell for sure without more detail about your problem, but the final post in this Adobe Community thread appears to be having the same problem.
It looks like they restarted After Effects and created a new Puppet Pin and Puppet effect and then copied over their animation keyframes.  Not sure why the problem would be happening, sounds like it is probably a bug to me.

I get that error too, this is clearly a bug as it appears only if you move your mouse under the comp area. I removed the puppet tool effect then used a new one and it solved my problem. no need to restart..


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How can loop animations with a different start and end point in after effects?
I use normally: loopOut('cycle') expression to loop a movement. But sometimes I want to loop an animation like this:

1-3 frames -> rotation 30deg
3x loop a full rotation
after looping -> add 10 other frames and
make rotation 120deg

How is it possible to loop between this actions and not using copy+paste?
Here is a link to my work
I loop the arms motion, but as you see in the first frames the left arm has to wait until the right arm does the first half of the motion. If I add a half motion to the left arm I can't loop it. I would have to avoid copy+paste because I want to loop it 40 times. At the end of my animation I also need a different motion with the right or left because the swimmer has to touch the wall with two hands. I hope, I was clear.

Welcome jeki :) Could you add a example comp or some images to your question to understand your issue exactly?

Using time remapping could be a solution. You animate one full circle of the animation and precompose this. Then you time remap that layer and use loopOut('cycle').


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lift adobe premiere ram allocation limit?
I am working on my fight premiere video. I do have a really expensive high end computer. First I only used 16 gb of ram and when it would use the 16gb adobe would freeze and it would kind of get stuck. Now I plugged in 32 additional gigs and I have 48 gigs of ram. However my computer isn't using more then 31 GB. At first I had issues because the standby ram wasn't being reduced and there would be no free ram. I downloaded microsoft's utility to free stanby ram.  Now I have 17 gigs free.
It still refuses to allocate more ram to premiere.
Is this because premiere isn't used to have 48 gigs? can I lift this ram cap somewhere?
it hits a ceiling of 31 gigs of ram and refuses to allocate further.

I upgraded from premiere cs6 to 2014.1 cc pro and pro started using almost all the ram at times. However that didn't solve issues for me.

This doesn't seem like a Premiere issue, but an issue with your PC. As Andrew said, you may not actually be able to use more than 32Gb.

Just for the records, probably the problem is not that one, but, have you tried to run a full memtest ? Download Memtest+ 5.01 from http://www.memtest.org/#downiso , burn it on a cd and run the test until you have at least one pass working. Said this at least we can put aside a motherboard/ram problem in accessing all the 48 Gigs ;) and go check more in deep for the resolution.

Premiere does not have a maximum memory usability limit. As several others pointed out, this is probably a motherboard limitation issue. @nofare's solution for working with proxies is one way to reduce the memory needs for your project.
My guess would be, based on your original statement, that the problem is not memory allocation, but disk read speed or perhaps some overly-gargantuan source files. I edit HD and 4K in Premiere on a MBP with 16GB ram all the time and can't ever remember maxing out my RAM.
A few other things to check, assuming for the sake of argument that your motherboard is not the problem:

What is Premiere's internal "soft" maximum memory allocation set to? This will not only tell you how much your OS is actually seeing, but also how much Premiere is willing to consume.
Where are your source files located - on internal storage, a USB drive, in the cloud, etc? Premiere could be slowing down as a result of trying to read your source files, particularly if you are using multiple streams simultaneously, from slow I/O sources like USB 2.0 or cloud-based drives.
What is your largest-resolution timeline asset? And, how is it encoded? If you're using gigantic Photoshop files on your timeline, yeah, well...it's gonna be slow. Same goes for RAW video or even 4k mpeg files. They just don't edit easily and could contribute to choppiness or temporary "freezing" in the interface.
What is your playback display quality set to? I typically work with this set to 1/2 or even 1/4 for optimum fps.

I still run CS6, but it shouldnt matter. My system has 128 GB of ram, and premiere takes full advantage of all of it. There is a setting in After Effects where you can allocate how many cores (in my case 48 cores), and I am able to do 3GB per core using 40 cores and I leave 8 cores with 8 gb of ram for overhead.
You could look into a program called ProcessLasso, it is fantastic for managing and moving around, allocating system processes, such as memory trimming, realtime throttling (so your computer doesnt hang), priorities of memory, pinning cores to specific programs, etc.
It speeds things up- tremendously. Especially if you have a lot of cores and a lot of ram.

You should consider using proxies instead of editing native files.

Transcode your native files to lighter versions, by for example using the ProRes Proxy codec, or the DNxHD36 codec. You'll end up with lower resolution files, but they'll be "lighter" (less large/heavy) and therefore easier for your computer to read/play.
The proxy files and the native files should have the same names. Keep it as such. So for instance, a native file called "Car.mov" (shot in ProRes HQ) would have its proxy version also called "Car.mov", but in ProRes Proxy. Same with, say, RED camera files: a native R3D file folder would be "D009_C002_0621AJ.RDC" and its proxy version, say in ProRes Proxy, would be "D009_C002_0621AJ.mov".
Import those proxy files to your editing project. Edit normally.
Once you picture-lock, unlink your edit from the Proxy files. Then link your edit to your native files. Because the proxy files and the native files have the same name, you should have no issue doing the relinking.
Presto, you'll then have a picture-locked edit with native files. Do you color correction, and export.

Here's a simple how-to video that explains the unlinking/relinking: https://youtu.be/hsqFilCBKIY
It's for Premiere CS6. There are other how-tos out there for other editing programs.

This may provide a work around for the issue, but would be better if you could expand it with more details on how to use this feature to solve the OP's problem.


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Looking for a free dvd burning program which has basic video editing to make a menu?
I just shot some video in 720 using my kodak playsport zx5. I know HD videos don't fit on DVD and i'll have to compress / edit them. I don't want to buy any advanced programs right now since i'm just starting with video editing. I'm familiar with imgburn and other dvd burning apps but I am looking for a program that will let me do basic video editing and the ability to create a basic dvd menu.
Would like the app to run on XP and or Vista
Thanks

You'll be more likely to get answers if you include what OS you're running, willing to run, budget, etc...

@Josh I did mention Free. Updating my question now to include OS

What do you mean by "editing"? Making animated menus or editing videos before exporting them for a dvd? The title of the question confused me a bit.

@InanBerbatov Making menu's no animation just a simple menu to play either part 1 or part 2. Kind of like chapter menus.

DVDStyler is a cross platform, free DVD authoring tool. It probably has all the features you want, and works pretty good. Usage is really easy as seen on their guide.

Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. Both are free and already installed on your PC if you have Vista (go to Start > All Programs - i don't remember)

Yep - this is what I use. Have played with various other ones, but this is simple, convenient and actually very good at doing even animated menus.

I dont think you will find one that can do all that for free, but...you could download a trial of Adobe Premiere and Encore, they have a free 30-day limitless trial...
While it is not one software to do all of that, Premiere is pretty simple to learn and so is Encore and they work very well with eachother.


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open-source or free AVCHD conversion to image sequence
I am looking for a good and free option to convert AVCHD (Full-HD from a Panasonic Lumix GH1) to image sequences. I am currently using Blender but it is cumbersome in that it only allows me to convert the videos if I disable the preview - should the preview be open in my workspace, Blender halts for about 1-2 mins until it shows a preview image - any further click on the preview halts it again.
It can very well be a command line tool (I am willing to craft the command line options myself if needed).
The output images can be any common format (PNG, JPG, even TIFF). The conversion to image sequences is asked for because Blender (that I use as editing software) has no problems with image sequences and other formats but AVCHD seems to still be painful.
Thanks!

Wonderful ffmpeg command line utility is the solution. Just check their documentation, but something like the following will probably work for your case:
ffmpeg -i video.mts video%05d.png

This will take your video, and create video00001.png, video00002.png... files in the same folder.
You can find a lot of guides for ffmpeg, or ask here for a specific soltion. We can try to figure out.

thanks @Inan for the ffmpeg tip! I'll try that one. I even think Blender is using FFMPEG internally but I want to find a way to invoke the conversion without Blender throwing a fit. Maybe I will try to code up a Python script to do the conversion (in the style of double-clicking the script in a folder with a video file and it then automatically creates a sub-folder and writes out the video as single images to the subfolder - basically a script which you can use point-blank on a folder with a video file in it - should I code it, I will post it here as a solution)

@Erik, yes Blender uses ffmpeg in Linux and Windows builds but as far as I know you can also build Blender with ffmpeg option under Mac Os. Writing a script is a good idea for a quick tool, please let us know about the results.


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How can I seamlessly loop with turbulent displace filter in AE?
Please have a look at my website solstice.co.il on a chrome browser.  On the left you see a looping movie of the tree wobbling around. This was made by tweening the evolution filter of the turbulent displace filter in After Affects.

The problem is that because of the fractal nature of the effect, I could not find a way to seamless loop the animation, which led me to resort in an ugly cross-dissolve.
How can I create a more pleasing seamless loop with this effect?

update
I've redone the animation manually using the puppet tool, which is closer to what I wanted but not perfect, so the question still stands. The old animation for reference can be found here:
http://solstice.co.il/videos/tree_old.webm

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried reversing the animation - but the point of reversion looks very weird and artificial...

You're suggesting to reverse the animation and put it back to back with the forward animation. This solution doesn't look so good because the point where the animation switches from running forwards to running backwards is very noticeable and jerky, in contrast to the smooth and subtle forward animation

Yes. It works technically but it doesn't work visually. It's because the animation itself flips direction. So for example a branch that moves clockwise starts suddenly to move counterclockwise in the same velocity and that feels unnatural

In order to get a fluid and seamless loop, it's key to enable Cycle Evolution and move the last keyframe 1 frame beyond the end of the composition.

Add the Turbulent Displace Effect onto the footage

Open up Evolution Options

Enable Cycle Evolution

Go to the first frame in the timeline

Click on the stop watch of the Evolution value:

Go to the last frame in the timeline and set the Evolution Times value to 1x, this is equal to 360 degree (one revolution)

Move the second keyframe 1 frame beyond the end of the composition:

Example

Composition length: 51 frames
First evolution keyframe value: 0x at frame 0
Second evolution keyframe value: 1x at frame 51

Note: This seems to work with all fractal effects.

I completely missed the hidden "evolution cycle" option!  Thanks!


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How to use editing to illustrate a (metaphorical and physical) transformation of a dancer character?
I'm editing a music video for a band. The concept revolves around an injured circus dancer that tries to overcome her disability.

At one point in video the dancer undergoes a transformation from her "real self" to her "perceived self". This is is manifested in the footage by having the dancer perform her routines in a gray outfit on a white rope with minimal makeup under cold lights as opposed to a with black outfit on a red rope with stage makeup under hot lights.

I'm struggling with editing this exact point of transformation (which is a climax of the audio) . The director's vision was that we'd have a shot of her doing a drop in the "regular" outfit and when she climbs back up she's in the stage outfit (to signify her triumph) however the raw footage doesn't contains shots that can make this work.
I thought about maybe doing fast match cuts between her face in both outfits but the footage I have doesn't support this either - no good face closeup in both. Rough example (I know it's jarring) :

So the question is
Can you suggest a different approach to an editing character transformation? I'm fresh out of ideas and could use some creative advice
Preferably with a link to a visual reference from another video/movie

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


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UHS1 vs. Class 10 sd card (Samsung dv100)
Looking to buy a new memory card for my Samsung dv100.
After reading the manual,  asking samsung support and searching the web,
I still don't understand whether buying UHS1 card is an "overkill" for this camera model.
What advantages would buying a UHS1 card have?

To those closing as off topic because it relates to video.  This is also useful for still photography as it will change the rate at which the buffer clears when taking still photos as well.

We also have a general version of this question here: How can I know what speed card to get for my camera?

@mattdm - that's similar, but I'm not sure if it is the same.  This is asking what the advantages of a faster card are.  That one only asks how to determine what card speed to get.  I think we could modify either question to cover both situations well, but currently they are asking slightly different things and I don't think the existing answers cover this one completely.

Also What benefits does a faster memory card provide?

The ultimate question would be, "Where can I find a list that tells the maximum speed memory card of which my camera is capable of taking advantage?" Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, no such list exists. Rob Galbraith's list was once pretty good, but doesn't seem to have been updated in years. And trying to access some links to the site now can be problematic.

When taking photos or shooting video, the image data is offloaded to a high speed internal cache for processing.  There is a limited amount of space available in this cache and so to empty it out, files are written off to the memory card to make room for more pictures or frames of video.
If you take photos or video at a rate that exceeds the memory card's ability to save, eventually the cache will fill up and it will not be possible to store any more images.  Using a faster memory card allows for the cache to be cleared faster and thus, you can shoot for longer before the cache fills (assuming the camera supports writing to and from the cache simultaneously) and also makes it so that when the cache does fill, it can be empties more quickly.
The one caveat to this is that if a particular type of card is not supported by the camera or the speed of the card exceeds the speed of the card slot, then there would be no gain by moving to a faster card and it could actually result in the card not working potentially.
So, to determine if the UHS1 card would be an upgrade, you need to verify that your camera supports UHS1 cards and that it can make use of the speed.  If it can (or if it supports a speed faster than your current, but slower than UHS1) then the upgrade will allow for your cache to be cleared quickly and increase the available video recording time (if it was previously cache limited), increase the number of photos that can be shot in a burst (if the camera supports writing to the SD card while the cache is being written too) and faster clearing of the cache when not shooting (gets ready to shoot a burst again faster).

Thanks. How could I determine whether the camera support writing to and from the cache simultaneously, and the speed itself? Have searched for such info but found nothing .

@GalMargalit - the best bet, experiment. Try shooting the longest burst you can, figure out the size of the images that were stored.  Change your resolution and repeat.  If you get a larger total size of files when you have smaller files, then it is writing out as it goes and since it takes longer for data to build up, it will take more total data before the buffer fills.  If they are nearly the same total size, then it is probably not.    It's like having a bathtub that can only drain so fast.

If it is completely stopped (no writing) then slow or fast water will still fill in the same amount of water since no water is being lost.  If it drains slowly, then filling the tub slowly will take a much larger amount of water than if you fill the tub quickly.  If you time it, the difference should also give you the approximate rate at which the cache can be emptied, though the manual should also indicate the speed of the card reader in the camera.

Buying a UHS card did solve my problem :)

Here is some reasoning based on numbers:

You don't need a fast card for video. It is generally advised to use at least class 6 for video recording on a consumer AVCHD device:
Max recording bit rate of AVCHD 2.0 is 28 Mbit/s and minimum write speed of a class 6 card is 48 Mbit/s, this should provide enough headroom even with an almost full card.
Your camera doesn't mention UHS-I in it's specs, only SDHC. So if you use a UHS-I card, it will be limited below 25 MByte/s, which is still faster than many class 10 cards.
For shooting pictures in continuous (burst) mode: when the high speed memory buffer of the camera fills up, you will continue to shoot below 25 MByte/s, about 3 images per second or less.
Using high speed card reader, transferring a full 32 GB UHS-I Class 1 card will take you maximum about an hour.

Take a look at this list of some bitrates for cards, cameras and video formats.
                        MEGABYTE/S    MEGABIT/S

---- 1080p30 Consumer ----
          AVCHD              3.0         24     also in some prosumer cams
        AVCHD 2.0            3.5         28
------ 1080p30 Pro -------
          DNxHD             9-28     36-220
         ProRes            12-41    100-330
        AVC-Intra           6-55     50-440
  Compresed CinemaDNG         60        480     roughly, as seen in BMPCC
        12-bit Raw            89        712

---- 16 Mpix Picture -----                      File size per picture
  Uncompressed 14-bit Raw     27        214
   Lossless Raw (NEF,CR2)     20        160     roughly
           JPEG                8         64     roughly

------ SD Card Class -----
          Class 2            2.0         16     Card class is the minimum speed
          Class 4            4.0         32     of the card according to the spec,
          Class 6            6.0         48     measured with empty card
          Class 10          10.0         80
------- SD Card BUS ------
            SD              12.5        100     Bus speed: speed of interface
          SDHC/XC           25.0        200     between device and card,
                                                data transfer speed is lower.
--- UHS SD Card Class ----
    UHS Speed Class 1       10.0         80
    UHS Speed Class 3       30.0        240
---- UHS SD Card BUS -----
       SDXC UHS-I         50/104    400/832
       SDXC UHS-II       156/312  1248/2496


text:
After Effects: Set Alpha/Matte to hdr layer without clamping the values to 0-1 range
I have a .hdr sequence as well as a .tga sequence. the .tga sequence contains the alpha channel to be used for the .hdr sequence.
The problem is that if I apply the alpha channel to my hdr sequence using Set Matte or Set Channel, then the color values of my hdr sequence get clamped to 0-1.
How can I mask my hdr sequence without losing the hdr range?
using After Effects CS5

Okay, this tutorial answered my question and provides a workaround.

Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Thank you!

I second the motion!


text:
Windows Live Movie Maker Output Video Quality Low
I'm using Windows Live Movie Maker on Windows 7.
I made a screen capture video with a third party app which produces .avi files. Its quality is perfect. Its properties:

Resolution: 1280 * 720 (720p)
Frame Rate: 15
Kbps: ~10.000
Video Size: ~23 MB

I imported it to Movie Maker. And without any modification I just exported it with these settings:

The resulting video was 1.5 MB and of course in .wmv format.
The quality drastically lower.
Than I tried increasing frame rate (till 30), bit rate (til 60.000), resolution (till 1080p). No change!
I don't care about the size (in MB), I want a big high quality video.
I'll add lots of videos and do lots of editing and Windows Movie Maker is a very practical tool for an amateur like me.
So is there a way to get a very high quality video from Movie Maker?

Simple answer- no. It is a free, basic, home editor. Get a proper one and you'll be fine:-)


text:
Difference between 4K Edition and 4K Cineform
On this page I found this here:
http://www.timescapes.org/products/
And I don't get it, because 4k Ediition is only 25gb and 4k cinema is 330gb.
What is the difference if both are 4K (4096 x 2304) ?
Could 12-bit (color resolution) make that huge difference in size?

The simple answer is yes for a couple of reasons:

if the number of pixels is the same*, the colour depth can have a huge impact on the size. 12 bit = 4096 in decimal. So if the difference between the two formats is 13.2 (330/25) that could be easily explained as the difference between 8 bit and 12 bit is could be a 16x difference.
the content on each of the formats may be different - you have no way of knowing from this product list.

(*there are some differences - see table below from the Wikipedia 4K page)

This is indeed the biggest factor but @Fred42vid is not wrong either, the two versions use two diffrent codecs that compress the video diffrently. He may have used h.264 with Level 5.1 or 5.2, it supports up to 4k. If the bit-depth of both files were the same I would estimate a file size of 60-80GB for the cineform file. That estimate includes chroma subsampling, h.264 would have 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 when using a standard profile, Cineform has 4:4:4.

It's the compression!
The color resolution is a factor, but not such a big one. In this case the compression is the biggest factor. If you assume that both the 4K Edition and the 4K Cineform contain the same material, 4K Cineform contains more than 13x the information (as stated on the timescapes.org products page).
But is more really better? Cineform states here that for 4K their codec produces a stream between 30 MByte/s up to 90 MByte/s, depending on the color space. This is far more than an average computer can display without interruptions.
So, if you just plan to play back the movie smoothly, choose a smaller format, as timescapes.org offers for 30" or retina displays.


text:
Why is compression rarely included as a builtin effect?
I've bought a new analogue mackie mixer that I'm very happy with, but if I need one effect it would be compression. The mixer comes with 16 builtin effects and not a compressor. Is it expensive to make or why is compression not included? Instead I have reverbs and echoes which are not very applicable for the dry sounds of a small room that I want to create.

For migration to SD please Tim

While you often see compression in the effects section of editing software, it is dynamics rather than actual effects.  In the traditional sense in the live world, compression is not considered an effect.  The software world simply does it that way because they are all software filters, but even then they are often in a dynamics category.
Compression, Expansion, Gating and Limiting are all dynamics.  I'm not sure if the effects hardware could do compression, but the controls for the parameters on the effects are certainly too limited.  You need attack, release, ratio, threshold at least and gain and soft/hard and auto attack/release options are common.  You can't adjust these with the very basic effects controls provided in the board.
There are boards that have built in compression, but they list it under dynamics normally.  There are also stand alone compression units you can get that you can use the inserts to feed the signal to.

+1 Additionally, if you want a good compressor, you buy it as a separate. The best compressors are all standalone modules - this way they aren't affected by any other effects.

@DrMayhem - newer digital boards can do as good of a job as stand alone units since they support independent DSP filters with proper internal routing, but yes, for most older integrated setups external units were significantly better.

Don't forget about the classic SSL console compressors.  They're highly sought after even today.

Whether you call compression an effect or "a dynamics" is just nomenclature. I'd say sure it is an effect. What compression definitely is not is a send effect, but an insert effect. Which means, it wouldn't make much sense to put it in the multiprocessor found on typical analogue live consoles; but it does make sense to put it right in a channel (much like the EQs).

Well, first off – all professional digital mixers today now have per-channel compressors, and more and more analogue ones also begin to have them, at least on some channels. Usually, there will be just one knob, basically controlling the threshold but possibly also a combination of ratio and gain. That's not as versatile as a fully-featured rack compressor, but still often quite useful.
As for why compression is not included in the multieffects section: those are send effects, i.e. effects that run in parallel to the main mix bus on a send bus. By routing a bit of one channel to the FX bus, you get some e.g. reverb, in addition to the dry sound you get on the mix itself. These effects are usually linear, which means you can route multiple channels to the same FX instance and the signals won't interfere, and reducing the input level is fully sufficient to control the "strength" of the effect.

But this doesn't work for insert effects such as EQ, compression, distortion etc.. Those need to get the entire signal of one single channel, and for full control there shouldn't leak any unprocessed signal component directly to the mix. And you can't properly control the strength of the effect by modifying the input level (in the case of a compressor it would kind of work, but not nicely). So such effects either need to be fixed in one channel strip – that's what done with the channel EQs. Or you need some way to patch both the effect input and output to an arbitrary channel. The easiest way to do that is to use a rackmount compressor, put a Y-cable in its I/O jacks, and plug the stereo jack in the channel's insert connector. This way the whole signal will be routed through the FX processor, and only afterwards it's allowed to pass into the mix at all.


text:
Ableton Live create video is greyed out
I have bought Ableton Live Suite but I cannot create a video from an audio track. Is it even possible? The create video functionality is greyed. Do I need to install some code or something?

It may be caused by a not supported QuickTime Version.
If QT is installed, try downgrading it. For eg with Haali Media Splitter & ffdshow.
This  ug was found 2015. But it may still be the problem.

Can you explain what to do with Haali Media Splitter & ffdshow? I'm having trouble understanding what they have to do with the QT version? Do you know what QT version is needed for Ableton?

Sorry. I guess I mixed somethings up here. I found the info on [link] (https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjer_SVqL7fAhWM6qQKHYuPCp0QzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fableton%2Fcomments%2F3a5vt0%2Fvideo_window_is_greyed_out%2F&psig=AOvVaw2ZGx_r2smFp9KxazImBzBm&ust=1545941812550997) Take a look here for recommendation [link] (https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209773125-Using-Video-in-Live)


text:
Any software with high quality vfx graphics?
I am planning to make my own movie and I need a software that produces high quality video graphics. I am new to this and am sorry if this is not the place to post this.

Welcome Jeff :) Please specify your question. This is a Q&A site - your question is too broad for this format at the moment. What exactly you are trying to achieve? BTW: Please start with the tour: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour Anyway, enjoy video.se!

What kind of graphics do you want? 2D? 3D? Do you need anything to stick to surfaces (motion tracking)? If you want to do 3D stuff, Blender would probably be a good start, but if you just want 2D, you might want to look at HitFilm Express or AfterEffects depending on how much money you have to spend.

I assume that you want to add lower thirds or logos to your videos. You also seem to have already an NLE (video editing program) for cutting your videos. Choosing one would be out of scope of this question.
There is a simple way of creating high quality vfx graphics for videos:

Design them as static images in photo software like the Gimp or Adobe Photoshop
The image resolution should be the same as your video resolution
Use transparency for all areas where the video should show through
A practical advice: I usually put one frame of my video on the lowest layer and design the vfx on an upper one. This is to have a visual reference how these two would fit together
When finished, make the lower layer with the video frame invisible, so that you only see your vfx on the transparent background
Save it as PNG image with transparency
In your NLE, add a new video track on top of the other ones and put your PNG image on it
To add a bit of animation, you can fade this image in and out, or let it move in from one side and move out to the other side

These animation effects are very basic, but usually you don't need more for lower thirds. If you need more animation, you should look into software like Adobe After Effects, Blender, Nuke, Fusion, ... But these are more difficult to use than creating a single image with the photo software of your choice.
Update
Since the OP asked if there are free solutions, I add the following:
You can use free software like the Gimp as well as paid software like Adobe Photoshop to design these lower thirds. Any photo software that can work with transparency and layers can do this. Having linear gradients in image as well as layer masks would benefit your results, though are not strictly necessary.
The key point is that you use the software that you are already familiar with, to have some quick, but professional-looking results.
If you want to go the way of software explicitly designed for VFX, then you have some free options too with Blender, Natron (both open source) or Fusion (commercial, but has a free version).

Are these free?

@Jeff I just added a section about the free options that you have.


text:
Why must a sample rate by at least twice a frequency in order to reproduce that frequency accurately?
I read this:
To reproduce a given frequency, the sample rate must be at least twice that frequency.
Why is this so?

This is called the Nyquist criterion. Here's the wikipedia page on that subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency

That's Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. Think about it in the other way: imagine you are given a set of samples (the black dots in the image).

The most intuitive way to recover the original analog signal would be by joining these samples. But you can easily notice that there is not a unique way of joining them. In fact, there are infinite possible signals that would contain the whole set of samples. Obviously, given the sample set, you would join them the easiest way, i.e. the blue signal.
Now, what about sampling? In the image you also have a red signal (which frequency is 1 Hz) that has been sampled too slowly, resulting in the black dot sample set. To have a clue about the real signal, we should have sampled it at, at least, 2 Hz. That way, we also would have samples (dots) at 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, etc seconds. And, as you can draw in Paint, the easiest path to join all the samples would be, again, the red signal. So we would have recovered our original signal successfully.

Because you need at least 3 samples per signal period, to uniquely interpolate the original signal. (with regard to aperiodic signals, ‘period’ refers to the time period over which it has been time-limited)The reason for this is as follows:
When you sample a signal, there are three variables(degrees of freedom) involved:

The signal frequency/frequency spectrum. This determines the
magnitude variation between the sample points.
The sampling frequency. This determines the spacing between the
sample points.
The phase of the sampled signal. This determines the relative
orientation of the sample points. For example, a cosine wave sampled
at half its frequency, starting from the zero degree point, will
have a peak followed by a trough, while a sampled sine wave will
have a trough followed by a peak.

To uniquely determine the original wave from three variables, we need three relations(constraints) between them. If the number of constraints is less than three, then the solution is not unique.
Let’s illustrate this, by considering a sinusoid of frequency  f  sampled at a frequency  fs  :
Case 1:  fs≤f
If the sampling frequency is less than or equal to the max signal frequency, then there would be at most one sample in a period. This one sample constrains only one variable - the sampling frequency(the spacing between the samples). The other two variables - the signal frequency and the phase can be freely chosen - meaning that any signal, with any phase, sampled at the given frequency, can pass through those points.

Case 2:  fs=2f
In this case, there are two samples per signal period. Now, consider two sinusoids, one of which has a frequency three times the other, as shown below:

As can be seen, in this case, there are constraints on two variables - the signal frequency(the magnitude variation between the points) and the sampling frequency(spacing between the points), but the third variable - phase can be freely chosen.
As a result, a sine wave of 3 times the frequency, but phase-shifted by 270 degrees, can perfectly pass through the points generated by sampling the original wave.
Case 3:  fs>2f
In this case, there are at least three constraints on the sample points and only a signal, that:

Has the required spacing between the sample points.(Sampling frequency)

Has the required magnitude variation between the sample points(Signal frequency)

Has the required relative orientation of sample points(Signal phase),

will pass through the generated sample points, enabling us to determine the original signal uniquely.

If the sampling rate is s, an input frequency of f will yield precisely the same sequence of samples as f+ks for any positive or negative integer k.  If input frequencies are allowed to go to zero and if if the input signal may have any arbitrary phrase, then any input frequency higher than s/2 would be indistinguishable from a frequency within that range.
Note that the Nyquist criterion is only relevant in cases where inputs are
allowed to go zero.  If the input will only contain a narrow range of
frquencies, it may be safely sampled at a much lower rate without loss of
information.  In some cases, such sampling may be be useful to shift a
frequency which is too high to measure into a range where measurement is
possible.  For example, if one has a very precise 10.000000MHz reference and
wants to measure a frequency which is known to be between 100.01Mhz and
100.02Mhz, sampling the input signal at a rate of 10.00Mhz will yield a
signal which is between 10,000 and 20,000Hz which may in some cases be
more easily measured than the direct 100+MHz signal.  Note, however, that
signals near any multiple of 10.00Mhz will be indistinguishable from those
of any other.


text:
Do video formats support colour profiles?
Recently, I was reading a wiki, dedicated to one popular cartoon show and stumbled upon an interesting problem:
From left to right: frames from the US iTunes, Australian iTunes and US iTunes version with CC in a video player
As you may see, it's the same frame, but colours are different. So, it makes me wonder: does H.264 standard / MP4 container supports any kind of colour profiles (like, ICC in JPEG) and if yes, does any player support it? And what about DVD/Blu-Ray disks? Or there is no way to watch the same version of any video, as it was shot by it's creators? Thanks. :)

No most video formats (nearly all) do not allow custom ICC color profiles to be embedded. (Improvemet/correction: MP4s can have color profiles tagged in the metadata of a video file.) most video on the consumer end is intended for the REC.709 color space. sRGB is similar and uses the same primaries. transcoding (including compressing) will almost always result is a slight shift in color accuracy, saturation, gamma curve, or black and white level shift. This is made worse due to converting between RGB and YCbCr color spaces.

I wasn't really satisfied with the first answer and thanks for pointing at Rec.709, so I marked this one as the "accepted" answer.

@OlegKuznetsov - btw, don't feel the need to accept an answer if you don't really feel like the question is fully answered.  It's perfectly ok for questions to sit unanswered until an answer can be found.  I'm glad Nick's answer was more helpful.

As it was shot by its creators is kind of a nebulous concept, particularly when compression is involved.  Color reproduction varies greatly from one device to another and without a calibrated display and a complete chain of color control going back to the source, you aren't going to get exact.  Even then, chances are good that somewhere along the line the color spaces won't match up exactly.
It gets even harder when you get in to compression because compression impacts color.  Colors are generalized subtly by compression.  The more area of an image it can simplify (particularly for things like cartoons) the smaller the image can be.  Most likely, the slight color banding that is seen in that frame does not exist in the original, however because H264 groups similar colors together and simplifies them to one, it ends up causing a banding effect to occur.
In short, for a format that is lossy, a color profile isn't going to solve the problem since the color isn't preserved exactly anyway.  It might help improve it a little, but there is still going to be color alteration from the compression.

You get banding with video codecs if your bitrate is too low, but they don't produce anything like the systematic differences you see when RGB->yuv used one formula and yuv->RGB used a different one.  You can see in the original question the very obvious difference after decoding the lossy-compressed images from iTunes.

h.264 supports various color info in the bitstream.  From x264 --fullhelp:
--range <string>        Specify color range ["auto"]
                      - auto, tv, pc.
--colorprim <string>    Specify color primaries ["undef"]
                      - undef, bt709, bt470m, bt470bg, smpte170m,
                        smpte240m, film, bt2020.
--transfer <string>     Specify transfer characteristics ["undef"]
                      - undef, bt709, bt470m, bt470bg, smpte170m,
                        smpte240m, linear, log100, log316,
                        iec61966-2-4, bt1361e, iec61966-2-1,
                        bt2020-10, bt2020-12.
--colormatrix <string>  Specify color matrix setting ["???"]
                      - undef, bt709, fcc, bt470bg, smpte170m,
                        smpte240m, GBR, YCgCo, bt2020nc, bt2020c.
--chromaloc <integer>   Specify chroma sample location (0 to 5) [0].

So I don't think you can embed a custom color profile, but you can indicate which standard one the decoder should use to produce RGB pixel values.
I thought some container formats could hold info on colorspaces, too, but maybe not.


text:
How to encode a video for the iPhone with Handbrake
I've been trying to encode a video trailer for mobile Safari playback (iPhone). Using Handbrake for Windows, I selected the source .mov file and chose the iPhone 4 preset. I then checked off the Web optimized option and started the process.
The resulting video did not play on my iPhone's Safari browser, however.
http://mobilevideo.jt.citeeze.com/static/trailer.mp4
For reference, here is the original file:
http://mobilevideo.jt.citeeze.com/static/53159_high.mov
Thanks!

A similar question has been asked on stackoverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5722505/embedding-html5-video-for-mobile-safari-on-an-iphone-3gs-vs-an-iphone-4  And for a complete guide there is the Safari Developer Library

Bart, I saw that answer but it was not specific to the tool I'm using. I've tried the baseline settings but they didn't work for me.

Have you clicked through on the link in the first answer? Because there it says that you should end up with an .mp4 file. You have an .m4v file in the link.

File updated based on first answer.

Based on the link given in this answer on stackoverflow I will try to explain how to encode a video in an iPhone friendly format.
The steps below are carried out on a Mac, but the windows version of Handbrake should be similar.

Open Handbrake.
Go to File -> Open Source and browse to your video.
Choose MP4 File as container.
Input the settings shown below for the respective tabs:

Picture tab:
Keep aspect ratio - check
  Width - 480 (set to 960 if encoding for the iPhone 4)
  Anamorphic - None
  Cropping - Automatic
Video tab:
Codec - H.264
  Video quality - RF = 21
  Constant framerate - 30
Audio tab:
Codec - AAC
  Bitrate - 128
  Sample rate - 44.1
Advanced tab:
Add the following text in the textbox labeled Current x264 Advanced Options String: if you're encoding for a pre iPhone 4 device:
cabac=0:ref=2:me=umh:bframes=0:weightp=0:subq=6:trellis=0:8x8dct=0:level=3
If it's an iPhone 4 or higher the text should be:
level=4.1

The Advanced tab should look like this (for the iPhone 3 encode):

Here's a MediaFire link to the converted video for iPhones before the 4:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tlyzcg1hyygq8zf

Hey Bart, thanks for the thorough explanation. The encoding was great for everything but the latest iPhone (iOS6). Not sure what the problem could be.

Could there be something in this doc?
http://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/CreatingVideoforSafarioniPhone/CreatingVideoforSafarioniPhone.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006514-SW4

For the iPhone 4 and up try to change the Advanced Options String to only level=4.1 and the width to 960 (but keep aspect ratio checked). And please try to work out some stuff yourself. I'm glad to help, but you've shown little effort in working out the problem even though I have pointed you to different resources.

Thanks Bart. I've been trying this for three days now. I'm a software developer, not an encoding specialist, and your help is very appreciated.

@Dimitry Did my solution for the iPhone 4 work as well?

Hey, so the latest video is up and it's not being read. I couldn't set the width higher as Handbreak kept changing it back to 640x304.

Is anamorphic set to none?

let us continue this discussion in chat


text:
Does alpha matte version of a clip allows to change the pattern
I'm a beginner in this field and I have to buy this clip from shutter-stock.
This clip comes with some pre-rendered patterns and has an alpha-matte version.
My question is : I want to use different pattern for the ripped paper, how can I achieve that ? and can the alpha-matte version used for this purpose ? if no .. it used for what ??

Changing the pattern of the paper will be too difficult, because you would have to map the pattern around the roll, too. But you can change the color with some Hue/Saturation/Value effect.
So, what are the black/white alpha-matte sections for? The author had to append them at the end, because in the process chain at Shutterstock the video could be transcoded and the alpha channel could get lost. In your own video editor you will have to cut these black/white sections out and re-apply them as alpha clip over your color clip. How to do this can be different in After Effects, Final Cut Pro, ...
But now the most interesting part. Why did the author append two alpha-matte versions, which seem to be equal?
Only after calculating the difference between the two versions I saw it. In this picture gray means that the pixels of the two images are equal, and black or white means that there is some difference.

This means that the first alpha-matte is for the paper including the white ripped edge, where-as the second one is for the paper surface without the ripped edge. If you want to color the paper, apply the effect just together with the second alpha-matte, and the edge will stay white.

Thanks a lot for your valuable information, but do you mean that it's too difficult to change the original clip.. I have been told that in order to do any changes you have to have the source file as an AE project file or 3DsMax project file and so you can edit and change what ever you want, but now you can't because it's a rendered clip. Am I right?

Yes, this is right. Without the project file it's too complicated. Of course, if you have a lot of time, you could export the video into a sequence of images and then manipulate the 100+ images in Photoshop. But in my opinion this would only be an option if the client really wants this and pays for this extra work. For example, if he really wants his logo on the paper surface. But just for having another pattern it's not worth the effort.


text:
Color grading ; Anybody familiar working with Da-Vinci Resolve?
I've heard of this tool, Blackmagic's Da vinci resolve, as its available for free from the site but the Package including its consoles and all costs much. Is there anybody here familiar with this Da-vinci resolve.
Question is , is it feasible to work with the free version (without the consoles) for a small scale video project ?
Is there any courses or online training available for this ?
Expecting feedbacks.. and affordable alternatives for color grading..

Got it.. ... I am sharing what i found here for everyone.May be someone needy finds it useful someday ;-)

Q1 was : Can  DaVinci Resolve be used without a panel?
Ans: Yes.
DaVinci Resolve has been designed to be used with the DaVinci Resolve control panel but can also be used with a mouse or a pen and tablet. There are third party control panels that can also be used with Resolve.
However, there is a significant advantage in terms of speed and ease of grading by using the DaVinci Resolve control panel as it has been specifically designed for Resolve and has the fullest implementation of the feature set. Grading with the DaVinci Resolve control panels will allow you more time to finesse your grades and make and compare different grades for each shot.
Q2: Any training or tutorials available ?
Ans : Plenty, but as said earlier without the console , things will gt tricky.
Here is the link for the official manual.
Additional Notes:
This , from what i understand is a truly dedicated color grading system, not for editors but colorists and the color specialists of the industry.
What i still don't know is how is the product available for purchase.. Checked out the Official site, but only 2 dealers found in my country. :-(
Well that's it, i am downloading.
Will update after using...
Cheerio..


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Vlcj gives "taglib meta writer error" when setting metadata on video file
I am using vlcj to write some metadata to video files to create a video library which could be sorted by title, date, artist, etc.
When I am trying to save the metadata that I set to the file, the following error appears:

[00007ff7043d8f48] taglib meta writer error: File test.mp4 can't be opened for tag writing

I have based my test in the test UpdateMetaTest.java of the official repo at Github.
This is the code that I am using:
public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Create a media player
    MediaPlayerFactory factory = new MediaPlayerFactory();

    // Get the meta data and dump it out
    MediaMeta mediaMeta = factory.getMediaMeta(args[0], true);
    logger.info("Metadata:");
    logger.info(mediaMeta);
    logger.info(LibVlcVersion.getVersion());

    // Set the artist of the video if it is not set
    if (mediaMeta.getArtist() == null) {
        mediaMeta.setArtist("Unknown");
        mediaMeta.save();
    }

    mediaMeta.release();
    factory.release();
}

This is my program output:

2015-10-04 13:51:27 INFO  MetaTest:65 - Metadata:
  2015-10-04 13:51:27 INFO  MetaTest:66 - DefaultMediaMeta[title=test.mp4,artist=null,genre=null,copyright=null,album=null,trackNumber=null,description=null,rating=null,date=null,setting=null,url=null,language=null,nowPlaying=null,publisher=null,encodedBy=null,artworkUrl=null,trackId=null,trackTotal=null,director=null,season=null,episode=null,showName=null,actors=null,length=0]
  2015-10-04 13:51:27 INFO  MetaTest:67 - 2.2.1 Terry Pratchett (Weatherwax)
  [00007fbc3c3e3138] taglib meta writer error: File test.mp4 can't be opened for tag writing

My vlcj version is 3.9.0 and my Libvlc library is 2.2.1.


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What technique was used to transform Captain America from thinner and smaller into stronger and longer?
I would like to know what technique they used to show Chris Evans smaller and  thinner in Captain America The First Avenger.
What is the name of this video editing trick?
How Chris Evans Captain America body transformation happened?

There is no trick, it's simply hard work and well planned shots. Have a look into: http://www.fxguide.com/featured/case-study-how-to-make-a-captain-america-wimp/

Honestly @poor, you should rephrase that as an answer, because, well, it is.


text:
How to drastically reduce size of very simple video?
I've got a series of videos that I'm looking to drastically reduce in size. The video content is very simple: text animating on white background with a voice track on top. The text is mostly just subtitles and occasionally an image pops up, sort of like a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation, and it needs to play on iPad at Retina resolution.
In terms of size, here's an example of one of the video files:

Size: 20 MB
Dimensions: 1920 x 1080
Duration: 5 minutes, 18 seconds
Codecs: H.264, AAC
Color profile: HD (1-1-1)
Audio channels: 2
FPS: 25

If there were a video format with variable frame rate, that would be ideal because so much of the video holds a constant frame for a second or so (like a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation).
The reason is to reduce download size of a video-intensive app.

Can you attach or link to one of them?

Do you mean, 20 MB for a 5 minute video is what you have or your desired output. If the latter is the case, just use a highly efficient codec such as H264 or VP9; if you already have a 5 minute video with a size of 20 MB, that's already pretty good – I don't see how you could further reduce the size significantly without noticable quality loss.

@MoritzLost Thanks for the comment. That's the current, larger size. I agree it's already quite small, just looking for optimizations if possible.

@Mulvya Not right now unfortunately, but you can just picture subtitles appearing over a white background. Each word fades in one at a time, and then the sentence remains for a few seconds before it disappears and the next begins. Most of the screen is just white space.

Assuming 96 kbps for the audio, that's about 500 kbps for the video stream. For the type of content you describe, x264 with veryslow preset and a high-ish CRF may get you there.

^this. Also, if your video just contains whitespace and subtitles with some audio, why don't you just use a subtitle file and an audio file? I'm aware this isn't possible with every application, especially subtitle files have very low compatibility, but maybe in that case you have to reassess your workflow ... what do you need that for anyway?

Please, prefer to [edit] your question to add the details you're providing here in comments, then just ping the user that prompted a doubt. How are you expecting your videos to be consumed, via mobile network, via WiFi? (that's what Moritz asks "what or why do you need that")

Thanks @Mulvya for the suggestion, I'll take a look into this.

Possible duplicate of What video codecs can provide "adaptive quality"?

Why use video at all? You could use something like svg or html for titles on a solid color background and it would probably all come in under a meg. You can have images in html, and I would assume in svg, too.

(This may not be considered a complete answer, no matter the Rigid policies. This may be better as a comment.)
You can try using:

H.265 video codec (very efficient — 100-second video of 1080p @60fps was just 6-7 MB even with audio, when recorded with Bandicam screen recorder, which is free).
Mono audio channel
Use a lower bit depth and bit rate for audio as well as color/video.
Take a look at how Khan Academy compresses their vids ohh, sorry, they drop the resolution
Explore the free software HandBrake. It offers variable frame rate compressions.


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How to reduce eye strain when video editing?
I'm fairly new to editing large video projects, and I notice my eyes get fatigued after editing for a few hours.  Is this common?  How can I minimize eye strain?  E.g.: best monitor settings, specific display models you recommend, break frequency, specific break activities, etc.
For what it's worth, I'm using Premiere Pro CC 2014 on a Mac on a Samsung SyncMaster 244T LCD monitor.  A lot of my footage is shaky, though, and some of it shot in low light.  I'm not sure if either of those make a difference.
I think my monitor is a healthy distance, and I've tried computer goggles like these, but they don't seem to make a big difference.

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

There are a couple of problems related to staring at a monitor for a prolonged time, which include depletion of your eye's Rhodopsin stores (cause of several vision-related problems), a lowered blink rate which will dry out your eyes (which in turn is bad for you in a couple of ways) and a reduced melatonin production (which causes sleeping problems). There are a couple of things you can do (I don't make any promises that this list will be exhaustive):
The 20-20-20 rule. For every 20 minutes of staring at a computer, look at something that's at least 20 feet away from you, for at least 20 seconds. I also find it useful to focus on different things at varying distances. This will prevent tunnel vision and give your eyes a break.
Massaging. Sounds stupid, but I find massaging my eyes every now and then quite relaxing on the eyes. What I do is rub my hands to warm them up, then press them on my closed eyes, rotating them slowly. There are more techniques out there, you should go ahead and google a bit, try out different techniques until you find one that works for you. There's also a couple of other exercises that come down to use your eyes for something other than staring at your monitor from time to time.
Vitamin A. Vitamin A is supposed to prevent several vision problems for reasons. While I'm not sure if it will have any noticable effect on your eyes and it certainly won't keep your eyes from getting exhausted, eating a carrot every now and then won't hurt anyway.
Monitor temperature. The problem with computer monitors is that they mostly emanate blue light which is also bad for us. This has for example been shown to cause sleep issues. To reduce that effect, use f.lux or similar software that will adjust your monitor's color temperature. I have used it for some time and find it increases the time I can spend in front of a computer screen (especially at night) before my eyes start to hurt. A little warning: This will conflict with color correction / grading. I once color corrected a video that turned out completely blue and cold, because I compensated for an overall warm look that was actually caused by f.lux, so make sure to turn it off before doing color-sensitive work. For smartphones, there's Twilight. (f.lux and Twilight look curious at first, but you'll forget they're even there after a couple of days, so stick with it through this initial awkwardness.)
Distance to your monitor. Maintain a healthy distance between your head and your monitor. This means at least an arm's length (though some sites will tell you it should be more or less; there isn't an exact answer, really).
Take breaks and listen to your eyes. Even if you do all those things, eventually your eyes will tell you to take a break. When they do, listen to them! We're just not made for spending 8+ hours looking at a computer screen, so make sure to take regular breaks and do something else every now and then. You can also monitor your screen time and note how long it takes for your eyes to start aching, and then adjust your break frequency accordingly.

I have the feeling I forgot one or two things; I will add them to the list if and when I remember them. There are a couple of good articles on the topic to be found on the internet, so I encourage everyone reading this to do their own research.

Thanks for the thorough response!  I didn't know about the Rhodopsin stores

As for the computer glasses, I've noticed they helped before on other displays for coding and general computer use, but I kept them off for editing because they do have a slight yellow tint.  As you suggested, though, I could try them on for non-color work and only take them off for color correction/grading..


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How are traditional animated matte paintings made?
I am thinking of trying to make a film with animated matte paintings that are painted.
In the 1989 movie "Batman", some animated matte paintings of Gotham City are seen. How are these animated? In the following image, the smoke from all the chimneys in the image is animated / moving.

While I'm not aware of the process used for that particular film, one easy way to do it is to film the matte painting, then film the smoke against a green or blue background and composite the smoke over the footage of the matte painting in the computer.
I've also seen matte paintings where a large section is left unpainted. Then live action (or animated) things are filmed which exactly fill in the unpainted area. You could composite them either in the analog realm (by projecting both pieces of footage onto the same screen and filming that), or digitally by using compositing software.

Regarding your second paragraph, another approach is to apply rear-projection screen material in the unpainted portion of the painting. The live action is then projected there, and the whole thing is filmed (from the front).


text:
Reduce render file size in After Effects
I am making a simple travel map, like the one in the Indiana Jones movies. I followed this tutorial:

   (German)
When I want to save it as a video (render it), the video file is 5GB huge. However the length of the movie is only about 1min. I tried to reduce the resolution to a quarter, then the file is still 700MB large, but with very bad quality.
Should I use a different program to do this task?

What are your render settings? Sounds like you are using the lossless preset. Will you submit the file directly to Youtube..etc or import it in another program like a video editor? In any case, don't set the resolution to quarter, keep it full. We just need to specify the other settings.

I will be using it in a presentation.  I already tried this guide: http://www.surfacedstudio.com/blog/how-to-export-videos-from-after-effects. However it only reduces size by about 20%.

Instead of Quicktime, chose H264. And in the format options, choose profile High, and target bitrate of 10mbps VBR to start with. Tweak that (in either direction) till you are satisfied with quality and size.

Thanks Mulvya, that helped alot. I mean alot. From 5GB to 70MB.

Glad to hear it.

For best quality, render the file from After Effects using a lossless setting, then transcode it to h.264 using Media Encoder or something like Handbrake (free). It will do  a better job of compressing meaning higher quality and smaller files. It also means that you can try out different compression settings without having to re-render. You can chuck away the large file when you're done.

You need to change the encoding settings. By default, AE uses the AVI animation codec, which is very good at retaining quality but creates incredibly large files. Using an intermediary codec like Apple Prores, Avid DNxHR, or GrassValley HQx would give you visually equivalent quality with a significantly smaller file size.
If that file size isn't small enough for you, then you may want to go to a compressed codec like h.264. Choosing h.264 with a bitrate of around 20-30Mbps would give you pretty good quality. The disadvantage of going to h.264 is that you'll lose a lot of visual information, making any additional editing such as color grading more difficult. You'll also be using a multi-frame encoding which makes scrubbing through an editing timeline very difficult.

Here the simplest solution: After render video you just compress the video.  I recommended handbrake.
https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php


text:
DVD or Bluray editing tool
I'm looking for a tool that can create a DVD or a BluRay from a set of Movies, files etc..
The most important functionality for the tool should be that it could add a button to the menu that can open an URL outside of the actual disk.

I regularly use Sony DVD Architect for building complex DVD (as well as simple, it's quite intuitive) like commercials ones. DVD Architect is compatible with Blu-Ray, but doesn't include advanced features like BD live and other. From the same editor with a similar ergonomy, you can use DoStudio.
There are two editions:

DoStudio Ex: expensive but complete,
DoStudio Indie: more cheap but I don't know if it includes the functions you want.

You cannot build a complex BD/DVD without expensive software. A DVD cannot point to an URL of any type (unless it's inside the disc like a video/photo/music/...) and a BD can use the BD Live and BD touch functionalities to open web pages on any Blu-Ray player connected to internet. I think there is some limitations: you can maybe open videos with BD Live, but web pages have limited HTML/CSS and other support.

You can't reach a URL from either. And Blu-ray is always better than DVD given the fact the DVD is by nature Standard Definition. Why not just produce digital files?

Can you make a clickable link in a digital file?

Yes there are a few ways to do this... what exactly are you looking to do?


text:
How to create a 1h long WMV file from a repeated 1 minute WMV many times over?
What's the fastest way to do this? Is there a way I can just copy the file 60 times over without having to re-encode?
It's a WMV file created with Expression Encoder.

Which version of the video codec does the file have? It may be possible for ffmpeg concat demuxer to do the job.

Yes, please provide more details on your tools, environment and video specs. It's much easier to write an accurate answer with that in hands. You can [edit] the question to add details.

Welcome @Zopiro :) Please convert this into an answer.

This site is awesome.

The ffmpeg concat demuxer can do this if the WMV video codec variant can be encoded by ffmpeg. Windows Media Video 7 & 8 qualify, Windows Media Video 9 doesn't.


text:
How to put this video effect of switching from one scene to another very rapidly?
In many music videos, for example in T.I. feat. Lil Wayne - Wit Me music video from 1:14 - 1:17, u can see the video effect where the video switches from one scene to another very, very rapidly, syncing with that instrument/beat, what is this video effect called and how to put this video effect?

It's not an effect per se, it's plain old fast editing cuts. Some scenes have 1 frame, other 2 or 3 or more:

Just put two scenes on the timeline and go cutting from one to another, and aligning them with the sound waveform as you feel like. Beware that this should be used in really small doses of few seconds, otherwise it becomes an unpleasant stroboscopic effect.

In a nutshell: put one clip on top of another, and use transparency (or opacity) property to show / hide bottom video. For example, in Sony Vegas Pro you can use Composite Level envelope (there is also an extension to do it quickly). I am sure that other NLEs have similar tools.

In AE you can make script, which will make transparency of the clip switch between 100% and 0% according to sound volume, for example. I would do it that way, or manually, how is written above.


text:
Tranferring an iMovie project from iPhone to MacBook Pro
Is it possible to transfer an iMovie project from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro?
Right now, my project consists of clips that I shot directly using iMovie, but they don't appear in my Camera Roll on my iPhone. Is there a way to make them appear on my Camera Roll (or other folder) so that I can simply copy and paste the individual clips onto my computer?
I have tried the new update of iMovie 10.1, but it gives a strange error when I try to import. What I have done:

Goto the projects in iMovie for iPhone, open a project, export to iTunes.
Download the "projectname.iMovieMobile" file from iTunes onto my computer.
Open iMovie version 10.1 (the new update). File > Import iMovie iOS Projects... > select the project.iMovieMobile.
When I try to import them, it gives an error after a few seconds:

Error in iOS Project Import
  Failed to import iOS project. The project's version is too old. Please update the iMovie app on your iOS device.

However, I have checked that I have the correct versions. I will try updating my iOS and get back to here.

Additional Info:

Mac Book Pro (Late 2011)

I just installed the 'El Capitan' update, but it doesn't to appear to actually be working; will try reinstalling.

iPhone 6S, iOS version 9.0.2 (latest)
iMovie (on MacBook Pro) v. 10.1
iMovie (on iPhone) v. 2.2

Turns out I finally found my own solution:

Make sure you have the latest versions of iMovie, especially on iOS. This was the main problem causer for me, as iMovie claimed to be updated and would not show up in the updates in the App Store until I restarted several times.

From your iPhone: export the project you wish to transfer to iTunes. Connect your iPhone to your computer via a USB cable and download the filename.iMovieMobile file to your computer.

Open iMovie on your computer, and click File > Import iMovie iOS Projects....

You should have the project imported to iMovie on the computer! Now, you can even transfer to Final Cut Pro X (see here for info on how to do that).

Make sure you are running the most recent versions of iMovie!


text:
How to encode for YouTube with ffmpeg?
I just read Recommended upload encoding settings article from official google support. I think this is the best settings for encoding my youtube videos.
Can you help me find out how to encode that settings in ffmpeg for 720p or 1080p videos?
Here's the settings

Thanks in advance.

Use
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf yadif,format=yuv420p -force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced/2)" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -bf 2 -c:a aac -q:a 1 -ac 2 -ar 48000 -use_editlist 0 -movflags +faststart out.mp4

-vf specifies video filters
yadif will deinterlace videos if they're interlaced.
format=yuv420p will produce pixel format with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
-force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced/2)" will place keyframes every half-second, so that will be the GOP size.
-c:v libx264 will use the x264 encoder to produce a H264 video stream.
-crf 18 will produce a visually lossless file. Better than setting  a bitrate manually.
-bf 2 will limit consecutive B-frames to 2
-c:a aac will use the native encoder to produce an AAC audio stream.
-q:a 1 sets the highest quality for the audio. Better than setting  a bitrate manually.
-ac 2 rematrixes audio to stereo.
-ar 48000 resamples audio to 48000 Hz.
-use_editlist 0 avoids writing edit lists.
-movflags +faststart places moov atom/box at front of the output file.

I believe you wrote this answer using this Recommended Upload Settings as reference. Here's the command for Content ID Partners: ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf yadif,format=yuv422p -force_key_frames expr:gte(t\,n_forced/2) -c:v libx264 -b:v <60M for 1080, 50M for 720, 15M for SD> -bf 2 -c:a flac -ac 2 -ar 44100 -use_editlist 0 -movflags +faststart out.mp4.

Any idea how I can run this on fish shell where parentheses (t\,n_forced/2) are interpreted as a command?

Enclose expr:gte(t\,n_forced/2) in single or double quotes, I guess

-force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced/2)"

@MCCCS could you give a rundown of the differences?

@Zoom Content ID Partners can (and should) use 44.1kHZ and the lossless audio codec PCM-FLAC (note: I forgot to add 16 or 24 bits audio to my command). They should use higher bitrates for video. They should use 4:2:2 not 4:2:0. Note that my command is untested.

@Gyan Is there any difference between in your answer -force_key_frames expr:gte(t\,n_forced/2) and -g <framerate/2>?


text:
Timeline in node based compositing
I use Natron. What I want to ask about programs like Nuke, Natron, and Fusion is: Are they only for compositing one frame basically? Or can I composite a video? Just for example there is no timeline. That is, I must first fit all the video at one time and then composite? or are there any timeline nodes

Usually, the workflow goes like this:

Capture your plates, real, cg, doesn't matter.
Hop into Nuke, composite your plates, then render each shot individually.
Edit the shot in your editing-software such as premiere.
When the final edit is done, re-import each individually rendered clip into a grading software such as Resolve, apply your color grading, export again and replace the ungraded file in your edit.

So just for pipeline-purposes, it's often inconvenient to use a timeline in compositors like Nuke.


text:
Is there a way to get the bitrate of a specific region of a video?
I have some videos I recorded with my cell phone that I want to crop using Avisynth's crop().  I am using x264vfw with VirtualDub which asks for a target bitrate.  I usually just get the bitrate from the vid's properties in Windows Explorer and plug that value in for the target bitrate for the new encoded video, but, since I am cropping it, I don't want to use the full bitrate.  Ideally, I would be able to find out the bitrate of only the region I am wishing to crop.  After all, if the original video is 1920x1080 with a total bitrate of 30 mbps (30,000 kbps) and I want to crop it down to a 1080x1080 region, I don't want to use the bitrate of the full, uncropped video.

You can only estimate the bitrate as proportion of your crop. If you have 30,000 Kbps for 1920*1080 pixel, then for 1080*1080 pixel this would mean 16,875 Kbps. If there is more complexity inside the crop region than outside, I would even increase the target bitrate further.
However, if your videos are not that long and not intended for streaming I wouldn't invest too much thought into saving some disk space. The video quality will degrade anyway with the encoding process and a high bitrate will help you avoiding too much loss.

That's what I was afraid of.  It's not easy being a pedant trying to find the absolute perfect bitrate to yield the best quality/disk space ratio.  I'll probably just use original bitrate in the new video for good measure, though using the proportional calculation would probably be just as good.


text:
How can I become a video editor with Adobe Premiere?
I want to become a freelance video editor. I love editing video and have done a couple of projects.  My question is:  If I learned Adobe Premiere, should it be enough to get work done?
What should I learn in this program to get started as a professional?
Is there any other software, besides Premiere, that I should learn?

Good question. I can appreciate the position you are in and am glad that you want to venture into the unknown with premier pro. It is by far the most awesomest (is that even a word :) ) tool to edit and create great videos. It doesnt have a steep learning curve. I will be glad to help you with it through a short google hangout (free :P). By the end of it, you will have a good idea of the layout and basic functions of the Premier Pro software.

Learning a software package will not make you an editor.  Learning to be an editor will make you an editor.  One of the most valuable experiences I actually had when developing my skills as an editors was when my High School video production teacher forced us to start on a reel to reel tape deck based linear editor.  I'd been working with NLEs (non-linear editors) such as Premiere and Final Cut Pro for a while at that point, but working with a linear editor where I couldn't just drag and drop forced me to plan my edits and think about how I wanted to tell a story.
Editing isn't about how to use a tool, it is about how to tell a story.  It's about how to make something visually interesting that flows and keeps the viewer engaged.  It has NOTHING at all to do with knowing how to use a tool, and knowing how to use a tool will not make you a better editor.  If you want to learn about being a video editor, I recommend starting with books on how to edit.  If it's something you really want to get into, there are college programs that specialize in editing that you can use or if you are more of a self starter, you can try to find an editor in your area that might be willing to take you under their wing for helping out with doing some of the more gruntish work in video editing.

Could you please suggest good book to me so I can read?

@user2926396 - I'll try finding some of my old college texts, but they are all a bit older now.  The techniques haven't changed substantially, but the examples they use may be a bit more modern in newer texts.  Amazon reviews are probably your best bet for finding a good book on video editing.  You could also look for stuff on cinematography.

Thank you! @AJ Henderson - I will use amazon books review to find good books, also waiting for you texts :)

I couldn't find my old books, but "The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice" looked pretty good from a quick look on Amazon.

Premiere is simply a tool. While learning how to use it will give you some experience and you can experiment to find out techniques, it will not teach you how to be a video editor.
Same with the other video editors.
If you want to become a professional video editor, there are college courses in this, some lasting 3 years or more, which will give you techniques, skills, training etc in concepts, the mental and artistic processes you will require etc., as well as training you in the tools.

We have over 30 video editing suites in our company. The majority currently have Avid Media Composer, and a few using Final Cut Pro. Both of these would be good to learn as they are widely used in video post-production around the world, and rather more commonly than the Adobe products.
I believe Media Composer is now available through monthly subscription, which is useful as it has always been a lot more expensive than Final Cut.

Great suggestion that Media Composer and FCP are also worth learning, though I would point out that in recent history, Premiere has rapidly been gaining market share and FCP has rapidly been losing it (thanks to FCPX), with many believing that Premiere may well have passed FCP, at least for new setups.  That said Media Composer is certainly big and all three are certainly worth learning, particularly since they aren't all that super different (imo anyway).

Ignore the tools, understand the techniques first
There are a few books I can recommend.
Cut by Cut, 2nd edition: Editing Your Film or Video by Gael Chandler
Covers all the basics for video editing and more. A wonderful overview of the edit workflow.
How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck: Advice to Make Any Amateur Look Like a Pro by Steve Stockman
Even though this is more geared towards shooting videos with your camera, it has wonderful little nuggets regarding editing the footage. For example did you realize that most cuts last no longer than 10 seconds.
Hope this helps you