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Line between photographer and video
Just been reading an article on dpreview about the panasonic gh4. The newest hyrbid that almost seems like a crossover product between photography and videography. The 4k video sounds pretty cool. 30 still per second at 8MP!
It just seems to me that the two arts are becoming less divided. Is the record button going to become the new shutter button?

Related question on Photography.. http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/38727/will-there-be-a-need-for-cameras-at-all-once-we-have-4k-video/38734#38734

I'm seeing that pattern too! To me, the difference between still cameras that can take several great photos per second, and video cameras that take 30 (or 29.97) HD frames per second, has always been pretty hazy.  I agree with you -- I think they're converging.

There's a big difference, however, between THINKING like a still photographer and thinking like a videographer. The effort that goes into the composition in a still picture is undistracted by all of the concerns in a good moving shot -- the flow of the action and lighting and focus in the shot, the quality of the audio and, literally, many tens of other things. The hardware similarities seem to be minor compared to the wet-ware differences.

Having done both professional photography as well as professional videography, I have a lot of experience in both of these areas.  They have many similarities, but also many differences.
The technical capabilities of the tools have already converged to some level and will continue to do so.  DSLRs are one of the more popular choices for shooting video now due to the low cost and high quality as well as interchangeable optics.  Major TV shows have actually been shot on DSLRs. (The last two episodes of House were shot on the Canon 5D Mark iii for example.)
That said, the fields themselves are no closer to converging than they have ever been.  From the perspective of a photographer, capturing 30 images in a second is largely noise.  There are some environments where it is helpful, such as sports, but in general a photographer is looking for one perfect image while controlling as many variables of that moment as possible.  A videographer on the other hand is controlling the behavior of their camera to capture a scene as it unfolds.
The language of the mediums, while similar in terms of composition and many techniques, such as lighting, is completely different when it comes to how emotion and story is communicated.  Photography cares about capturing the essence of a moment in crystal clarity while video is concerned with capturing the beauty of motion and telling the story through flow.
Similarly, on a technical level, the quality of image we can capture at slower frame rates will be higher for quite some time still (until we are regularly hitting the diffraction limit for practical sensor sizes).  We will get burst capabilities that rival film much sooner, but they will be to large buffers that fill rapidly.
Just at the 35mm format, we need video to be in the upper 20s or low 30s of megapixels before we hit the diffraction limit reliably.  Until that point, the most quality for a photographer will come from shooting the moment rather than just capturing all moments.  Even when we can capture all moments, sorting out the perfect moment from among all the images would be more painstaking than simply capturing the one moment that is needed.
Additionally, trying to capture all moments well detracts from how well you can look for and capture that one perfect moment.  Photography requires focus on the moment while video requires focus on the whole time of the shot.  They are different mindsets with different technical goals and requirements that require a different use even when using the same tools.

I guess both mediums are telling a story.
Photography has the added challenge of creating that story in a single image.
Whereas video is more forgiving in that additional context can be created/unravelled across multiple frames.

Conversely, photography only has to worry about telling the story in that moment, video has to be able to keep it up through a moving shot rather than looking for that one perfect moment.


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Choppy slide titles animation in Premiere
Look at what I mean: Youtube link
Titles slide to the center all choppy, laggy, like they are skipping frames... I tried with better quality 1920 etc... but all that does is enlarge my picture which isn't really helpful considering I have a small raster picture to start with and the animation is still sluggish. What gives?
These are my Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 settings for exporting video:
format:h.264
w: 320, h: 240
frame rate: 30
aspect: D1/DV PAL (1.0940)
TV standard: NTSC
Profile: high
level: 1,3
render at maximum depth: "checked"

bitrate encoding: VBR, 1 pass
target and maximum bitrate: 0,18

use maximum render quality: "checked"

PS.: How can I improve quality of the video, setting it to 1920*1080 just enlarges my video, which pixelates my raster picture in the video.

What is the actual frame rate on your sequence in Premiere?  Faster frame rate in export won't help if the sequence frame rate is slow.

hmmm, how do I check the sequence frame rate?

I don't have Premiere in front of me at the moment, but I believe it is the properties of the sequence.  Try right clicking in the list of media for the project or using the Sequence menu while you have the sequence open.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Slow Video Render? incl. New & Old PC Specs
So I've been recording gameplay & posting it on YouTube for a few years now. Primarily using Sony Vegas as it always seemed to be the community standard. Never really had an issue.
Since I built my new PC about a year ago, which on all accounts is superior to my previous PC my video render time seems to have slowed down quite substantially. Granted, I am now rendering in 1080p. BUT - Would that actually make much of a difference, opposed to 720p? I can't confirm or deny whether I've tried rendering in 720p with the new machine as I honestly can't remember. However, I did render a 1080p video on my old PC and it didn't take anywhere near an hour! I've only rendered about 10/15 videos on my new PC over the past year, trying to get back into it.
For example:
- a 20 minute video used to take about 15-20 minutes to render on my old PC in 720p.
- A 20 minute video will take almost an hour to render on my new(ish) PC in 1080p
Could this be due to new hardware not being.... As good? In certain areas? Or should I be experiencing a faster video render?
OLD PC:
Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit
Asus P6TSE
Intel i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
6GB Corsair Dominator @ 1600MHz
Nvidia GTX 260 896Mb
1250w Cooler Master Real Power Pro
Western Digital 1TB HDD

NEW PC:
Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit
Asus Rampage IV Extreme Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor
Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI332G186C0QK)
Asus GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK)
Kingston 240GB SSDNow V+200 Drive SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SVP200S37A/240G)
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD

Any help is very much appreciated!!
Thanks!!

Rendering in 1080p takes up more resources than 720p, so it is normal that your render is slower than usual, even though your new hardware is superior. 1280x720 = 921600 pixels per frame, 1920x1080 = 2073600 pixels per frame. The software has to render 2.25x the amount of pixels per frame, so you can expect it to take about twice as long.
the 770 GTX has 1536 CUDA Cores, the 260 GTX has 192, so your new graphics card is far superior for video rendering. In theory it should be a lot faster for video rendering.
Depending on your version of Sony Vegas, you can enable CUDA for your Nvidia graphics card, this should increase the speed. Go to Options >> Preferences... and go to the video tab. In version 12.0 there's a dropdown menu labeled "GPU acceleration of video processing". Set the value of the dropdown value from "Off" to your Graphics Card ("NVIDIA Corporation (GeForce GTX 770)")
If you're not using 12.0, it comes down to selecting the right render settings in the Render As... menu. Since you're uploading to YouTube, I recommend rendering as Sony AVC (.m2ts) and selecting the template 'Internet 1920x1080-30p'. The ratio rendering time to video length should be about 1:1. Still, Sony Vegas 12 had a lot of updates regarding GPU acceleration and rendering in general, so consider upgrading.

A few possibilities I see.
First, yes, 1080P really is that much larger and more complex than 720P.  720P is only 1280 by 720 or 921 thousand pixels per frame.  1080P on the other hand is 1920 by 1080 or over two million pixels of information per frame.  You have more than twice the data to process, so it would be expected to take more than twice the time on similar hardware.
Second, you didn't mention frame rate, but that can make a substantial difference as well.  If you were doing 24fps in 720 and are now doing 30 or 60fps, that would be massive.  Similarly to before, if you increased from 24 to 30, there would be more than 1/5 more time.  From 30 to 60 would be more than double.
Third, I don't know Vegas, but most decent editing systems support CUDA acceleration of rendering (using the GPU to render).  If your software doesn't have support for CUDA on your new graphics card, but did on your old, that would have a major impact on render performance.
Forth, are you using similar bit-rates?  The bit-rate you use impacts the level of compression and the level of compression can have a major impact on speed.  The more you compress, the more it has to look for patterns, so moving from 720p to 1080p without also increasing the bit rate of the final video would result in a significant slow down as well.  (Same goes for if you are using quality based rendering/encoding and increased the quality level.)

Thanks for your response!  It's very much appreciated and has really put things into perspective!  I'll have a fiddle with my render settings when I get home.  Thank you :)

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


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Video fails to play in QT browser plugin. Encoding problem?
I have a video that fails to play in the QuickTime plugin in Internet Explorer on Windows 7, but it plays fine in the standalone QuickTime player. I suspect that this may be an encoding problem, and I wanted to ask the experts. I did not personally encode this video, but I am assigned to troubleshoot the problem. If it is, in fact, an encoding problem, I would like to be able to point to specific evidence.
The file: https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/digital/video/9781587143991/ccent_icnd1_media/video/0_0_0_0_0_icnd1_video_intro.mp4
A file that works (if it helps): https://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/digital/video/9780321765147/9780321765147_01.mp4

Looks pretty standard, and nothing I tried it on complained. MediaInfo says there's a stream with ID #2 it calls "Menu". Could that be messing up IE? What is the failure -- does it play at all, or play badly (corruption etc)?

Have you tried it on more than one computer?  My guess is something is wrong with the configuration of how IE tries to use QuickTime on that particular computer.

@JimMack It doesn't play at all. I get a question mark over the QuickTime icon. I wasn't able to determine any way to access an error log or similar from QuickTime.

@AJHenderson I'm able to play the video in many other ways. I'm trying to fix this particular use case not for me, but for other users who have this issue. A workaround is OK (i.e. use another browser, or download and open in QT proper), but a fix on our side would be preferable.

@DustinRasener - I thought I mentioned it, but I see now I did not.  I tried your link in IE and it works fine on my computer.  My guess is that the problem is either the client or the way it is embedded.  Are you able to include a link to where the video is actually embedded?

@AJHenderson I get this issue in a non-embedded scenario. It's attempting to play through the QuickTime plugin, in the browser (IE 8), when I navigate directly to the video. Screenshot: http://imgur.com/EypGeFj Thanks for your time and attention on this! It's perplexing.

@DustinRasener - I've tried it on two computers so far.  On one without Quicktime, clicking the link you provided results in Windows Media Player opening and playing the file fine.  On one with Quicktime installed, the video plays in browser just fine.  I do have a bunch of codecs and additional video support on the machine that I tried with Quicktime though, so I'll give it another shot tonight with one that is closer to a consumer machine.  So far, I have not been able to replicate the problem in any version of IE though, so I doubt it is exclusively the fault of the video file.

@AJHenderson I agree that it probably isn't the fault of the video file, per se. My suspicion is that the file has a ... quirk? that the QuickTime plugin is not able to handle, while other players can.

Well the program that encoded the file that works was Apple QuickTime so not much of a suprise that it's working. QuickTime can be a little picky when it comes to mpeg4/h264 encoded files.
I looked at the files and possible factors are the encoding profile and maybe the GOP setting. Basline Profile Level 3.0 for the broken one and Main Profile Level 3.1 for the working one. GOP setting of M=1, N=120 and N=1 for the broken one. Could be that the Quicktime Plugin wasn't made to handle that.
An easy fix would be to re-encode it with Quicktime Pro or the free and open source tool Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ and choose one of the Mobile presets for apple devices or simply the "Normal" preset.


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What is the optimal codec and encoding parameters to encode Video Podcast?
I've got recorded PowerPoint presentation (video podcast) - static slides, mainly texts, some static infographics with voice of the presenter (speech only). It lasts about 1 hour and encoded to .avi format using default parameters in Xvid occupies about 500 MB.
I want to re-encode it so it occupies as less space as possible to publish it as online video. I presume that the size up to 100 MB should be achievable (static slides + 1 hour of mp3). Could you please advise which encoder should I use (preferably Windows command line) and what are the best settings to achieve that?

Related... http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/10050/best-format-for-audio-track-with-a-single-few-images/

The best bet is either a slide show player or a variable frame rate video format.  Since your image doesn't actually change for large periods of time, formats that normally use a fixed frame rate are not going to produce nearly the quality of results of a VFR format.
Handbrake is one option which appears to support using a VFR format.

I would recommend the h264 codec as it produces reasonable quality at small size and it provides broad compatibility.
The open source encoder x264 is considered as the best one out there.
I can't recommend any command line parameters but there are several good programs that make use of the x264 encoder.
I like Vidcoder which is a fork of the popular Handbrake software.
You will see that even with the default settings you achieve a much smaller video size at comparable quality.


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Free Software for Drawing Overlays
I'm trying to draw some geometric shapes on a video as overlay, e.g. draw a box around a part of a video to emphasize. I've seen many videos on youtube that do this, and I'm sure I can do it using commercial packages such as Premiere or AVS video editor. I wonder if there is any free software that can do this?

Just about any decent NLE should be able to do this, including the free ones.  Normally it just consists of overlaying an image with either alpha (transparency) channel capability or using a luma or chroma key to remove a background of a fixed brightness or color.

iMovie comes free with a Mac, and it allows "Picture-In-Picture" images. You can create art with a transparent background, using a free program such as GIMP, then save it in PNG format (not JPG) and then drop it over your video in iMovie.
For emphasizing sections of your video, you can also create a whole image that is partially transparent (like a black image that is 30% transparent) and "remove" a section of it (so the transparency of the "hole" is 100%).  It will look like smoky glass with one perfectly clear part.  When you lay that over your video, it will look like the rest of the screen was darkened except for the part in the perfectly-clear "window". Kind of a nice effect. :)


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Force subtitles to play as default
I've added different language subtitles to individual m4v movies, and they show fine when selecting the subtitle track in both Quicktime and VLC. I would like to have them so that the subtitles display by default. Any way to do this?

You can use MP4Box 0.6.2-DEV-rev453 (May 2016) or higher to do this:
mp4box -add alfa.mp4 -add bravo.srt:txtflags=0xC0000000 -new charlie.mp4

Example
This will mark the subtitle stream in the output file as forced.
However, this mark will only be recognized starting with these versions of
programs:

MPC-HC 1.7.10.207 (May 2016)

VLC media player 3.0.0-20161101 (Nov 2016)

I have seen mentions to this post on the FFmpeg mailing list about a
patch that implements disposition for FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i alfa.mp4 -i bravo.srt -c copy -c:s mov_text -disposition:s forced charlie.mp4

However after having tried it with both "forced" and "default", the subtitles
marked by FFmpeg are not recognized as forced by either MPC-HC or VLC.

Afaik apart from Blu-ray's and DVD's only MKV supports forced subtitles.
If you want the subtitles to be "burned" into the video. Meaning they are part of the pixel frames you can use a tool like ffmpeg. A nice tutorial specific to mp4/m4v can be found here: http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/277706-How-to-add-subtitles-permanently-to-existing-mp4-h-264-file?p=2305682&viewfull=1#post2305682
MP4 definitely can not show forced subtitles in software. There might be another format other than MKV that supports forced subtitles that I don't know of but mp4 definitely doesn't have that in its specs.


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How do I properly bake a texture in Cinema 4D?
I'm trying to bake a texture into a model, but the results are terrible.
Here is the way it should look:

But every time I bake it, it comes out looking like this:

Am I missing something?

How are you attempting to bake it?  It looks like not only is it losing a lot of resolution on the texture, but it also appears to be deforming your geometry.

I am using the 'bake object' command under 'objects'. This is how i see it in so many tutorials, but i'm not getting the same results.

ah, yeah, outside my knowledge then.  Most of my experience is with the other 3 of the big 4. :(

When you bake an object in C4D you get several options which passes you want to be applied in the final baked texture. You might want to try to generate new UV's by not ticking the "keep UVs" setting. If you want to bake lightning you have to tick the luminance pass for that.
Also be aware that the baked object might look horrible in the viewport but will look perfectly fine when rendered. Thats just a thing of how the OpenGL viewport is interpreting the material.
Though you're model does look a bit weird after baking. Are you sure this was a polygon object and not a nurbs object or a diffrent non poly object generated from a plugin and you are missing some interpolation? If thats the case you might want to turn it into a poly object first, maybe some subdivision setting differed for rendering and the viewport.


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Filter commentary from AC3 stream in MKV
a question from a a total non-expert in video/audio editing.
I have an MKV file (let's call it X) which contains an AC3 file which has some constant and unnecessary (for me) comments for visually impaired persons.
I have extracted the AC3 stream from X but am totally unfamiliar with AC3 stream internals and was wondering if there would be a way to easily filter out these comments from the AC3 stream? My personal guess is 'no', as I suspect the comments and the 'real' audio payload have already been muxed to respective AC3 channels but in the off-chance that I am wrong....
I've been able to extract AAC stream from another lo-fi MKV (let's call that one Y) and add it to X and this approach works but I am unsatisfied with the quality of that particular AAC and would like to use the AC3 without having to search for yet another, separate MKV (let's call that one Z) which contains the proper AC3 which I would then include into X.
I guess there is also the possiblity of suppressing the audio altogether from X's AC3 with an appropriate band-pass filter and leaving voice-only from AAC stream with another band-pass filter and then combining the two but that seems like an awful, complicated, clunky and forced solution which is really a last-resort measure (it's probably easier to just find another MKV and download it).
Any thoughts/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

What does MediaInfo or similar tool show for the various streams from the MKV? It's possible that the commentary is in a separate stream which you can eliminate by copying all the others using ffmpeg or similar

There are three streams only - each for respective language. I do not see separate commentary stream.

Then it seems like the commentary was mixed down into the main audio, which makes it nearly impossible to separate. I hope someone else has a suggestion, but I wouldn't expect much.

Indeed - as I suggested above, it could conceivably be done but it would be a mountain of effort - as far as I can see it, at least. I was hoping AC3 was keeping such streams separate and has algorithms which mix it in on-the-fly based on user selection (it would more efficient that way)....however, thinking about it, that may have been a long shot. Thanks for your comments.


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ffmpeg capture audio in raw format
I would like to capture audio with ffmpeg in .raw format. Here is what I do to capture in .mp3 format :
ffmpeg -f dshow -t 10 -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer" -y "sound.mp3"

note that I don't want to capture in .mp3 then convert in .raw

Please include the complete ffmpeg console output from your command.

Relevant: http://stackoverflow.com/q/4854513/1256347

Use sound.wav as your output, instead of sound.mp3.  Or if you literally mean raw PCM data with no headers, not just uncompressed, then try
ffmpeg -f dshow -t 10 -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer" -f s16le -y "sound.pcm"

Play it back with
ffplay -channels 2 -f s16le -i sound.pcm

Unless you really need headerless, I'd suggest WAV files for ease of use.  Sample format, rate, and number of channels stored in the file is a Good Thing.


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h264 settings for large flat areas of slowly changing colour
I'm doing an animation for a projection mapping that simulates the sun casting shadows on a structure as it moves through the sky. Basically it's just big flat areas of colour that change over about five minutes as the "sun" rises and sets (in another projection). It's played off a Brightsign playback gizmo, and I'm using h.264 main profile as the codec in an mp4.
The problem I'm having is that the encoding isn't dealing very well with the content. Even though the colour is completely flat, when the pixels all change value over time I'm getting bands of noise and blocks appearing. They're subtle, but they're annoying.
Is there any tuning I can do using libx264 to optimise it for large flat areas of colour where all the pixels simultaneously change over time? There is absolutely no movement in the frame, just the colour of the whole area changing, quite slowly.
My current ffmpeg command is pretty generic:
ffmpg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -preset slow -profile main -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -an output.mp4

Please include the complete ffmpeg console output. Can you provide a short input sample? Does reducing -crf to ~18 help? Does -tune animation make a difference? If nothing helps you can look into using the gradfun video filter upon playback.

The first thing I would try is to add -force_key_frames to your original command, drop the preset and lower the -crf value. The following example sets a key frame every second.
ffmpg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -profile main \
    -force_key_frames expr:gte(t,n_forced*1) \
    -crf 15 -pix_fmt yuv420p -an output.mp4

As a second resort I would use a series of png images (instead of mov) as the input and use a very low crf. This way you can really make sure that there is no banding in your input and the highest quality in the end material. If you can't directly render to png, then convert the original material.
Here is an example:
# turn the original into pngs
ffmpeg -i input.mov -f image2 -threads 0 /tmp/%05d.png

# turn the pngs back into mp4 (assuming 25 fps)
ffmpeg -ar 48000 -ac 2 -f s16le -i /dev/zero -r 25/1 -f image2 \
  -i /tmp/%05d.png -c:a libfdk_aac -c:v libx264 \
  -profile main -vf "fps=fps=25" -force_key_frames expr:gte(t,n_forced*1) \
  -crf 10 -threads 0 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

ps. You should get in the habit of including a silent audio track for media device playback because of syncing issues.

Depending how the content was made, the banding might be introduced when you're converting your content from RGB colorspace to YUV. You can try to make an h264 while keeping RGB colorspace, although I've read it's not easy. Are you able to use another codec?

The bands you're referring to could well just be a limitation of the 8-bit colour space.
In theory the way to solve this is to use 10- or 12-bit colour space through every stage from rendering, to editing and mastering, through to output and even in the screen or projector.  However your final output is probably going to be displayed in an 8 bits per channel space whether you like it or not.
So the practical way to do this is to render at 10- or 12-bit colour and dither down to 8-bit from the master.  The dithering will prevent the visual appearance of banding when displayed at 8 bits per channel.
Note that this is not a limitation of h.264 or any encoder but of the colour space used and the noise-free nature of the rendered animation; if real life was this noise-free it would also show this banding in 8-bit colour spaces.  There is unlikely to be any setting you could choose in your encoder in order to solve this.  To confirm, render to an uncompressed format and you will probably still see the banding.
Note: dithering from a 10- or 12-bit render is not the same as just adding some noise to an existing 8-bit dither - while this may disguise the banding a little bit simply by making it less distinct it doesn't solve it.  But you could do it in a pinch.

thanks, but it's probably not the limitations of the 8-bit output. Banding occurs with gradients. These are flat areas of colour, with every pixel the same value. The compression is introducing the banding as the the pixels change in time.

In that case have you played with lower CRF values?  20 may not be transparent in mostly flat areas of color with animation.  With rendered animation you should be able to get away with much lower CRF values (such as 16).  You can test with something very high quality like 10 or even lossless just as a point of troubleshooting to see if the quantization is a factor at all.


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Using Pharrell Willaim's 'Happy' song for Organizational Video
I would like to shoot a small video in our organization using Pharrell William's 'Happy' song. What about IP issues, if any! We are trying to promote our company brand through it. But there wont be any mention in the song, as such! The song stays unmodified. We would mostly go for a small logo at some part in the screen.
Please help me in DMR


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What Video Camera and Tool is best to Produce Interviews & Small Docus for my Contruction Company?
I would like to start making some interviews at events and put them on our website. I was first thinking of using my iPhone and Windows Movie Maker, but I like to create professional-looking content.
Could you help out?

Related for editing software - http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/3018/what-beginner-video-editing-software-should-i-use

This question may be too broad as it is currently stated.  I'm willing to leave it open and see what the community feels, but you could write several books worth of material on this question.

The most important tool that you have for video production is knowledge. The equipment that you use simply helps you to make that knowledge work. 90% of quality video production is recording good footage to start with. The remaining 10% of the equation is editing it to make it watchable. It takes skill to cut footage down and arrange it so that it's watchable. So, before you buy any equipment, consider your purpose. Who's going to see the video (audience) and what effect do you want leave your audience with? What's your budget? Can you afford the time necessary to become competent, and afford

This question is really super broad, possibly too much so, however I will try to offer some general tips for starting out in video.
The most important thing with video is having a stable shot.  Whatever you do, you will want to use a tripod when shooting.  If you don't have a stable shot, then no amount of equipment, editing or content is going to make up for it.
Next, you need good lighting.  If you don't have proper lighting, you can't have good composition.  To read up more on lighting, I suggest looking for basic information on three point lighting.  It isn't a panacea, but it's a good starting point from which to build.
Next, you need to make sure the shots are well composed.  This is a bit of an artistic call and while concepts like the rule of thirds can be helpful guidelines, really, look at what other videos do and try to match the way they pose and position subjects within the frame.
Finally, of pretty much least significance is the gear itself.  In a pinch you can use a smartphone camera for shooting video.  It has been done and a skilled editor can make use of such footage.
Moving a step up from that, you have low cost, limited functionality but high quality cameras like the GoPro which can capture great video, but are very limited in their range of functionality.  Camcorders can also work if you need a little more functionality at a slight cost in image quality.
Another step up from that, if budget allows, is to move in to DSLR cameras to use for video.  It's important to be aware that many DSLR options do not support auto-focus while shooting, though some newer ones do offer auto-focus during video.  DSLRs have the major advantage of larger sensors than camcorders and smartphones.  This means that they can get a much nicer depth of field and allow for background blur to be achieved much more easily.
Editing is an even more complex beast.  There is a wide range of editing software options available and the ones that do the best jobs are generally not the easiest to learn.  Additionally, editing is more than just understanding the software, it involves understanding the language of video and how video is used to communicate ideas.
This question already addresses video editing software from a beginner's perspective, so rather than elaborate here, I'd suggest checking the existing question that already covers that portion of your question.

Don't underestimate the importance of sound. Viewers will tolerate visual mistakes much more than auditory ones.
When someone is speaking, background noise needs to be minimized. Remember that background noise sounds much louder on a recording than it does in person. Use a shotgun mic or a lavalier to record dialogue very close to the person speaking.

Max there are a myriad of camera out there that you can use to get the desired look but it all comes down to budget.  Also, getting a 'good' camera doesn't mean that your footage will look 'professional' and if you know how, you can create some good looking video with very little.
I would say that the iphone can actually be a great solution.  As far as image quality you can get some stunning footage (post 4 ideally):
http://vimeo.com/83505519 (5s)
--
its a simplistic answer but on a budget you can get your iphone video to look 'professional' by:

Recording audio separately
Do some colour grading on your film (there are a myriad of plugins work like filters that you can put on your video ie. Magic Bullet)
consider purchasing a lens adapter for your iphone (http://vimeo.com/13475664)

Hope this helps.

Magic Bullet Looks : http://www.redgiant.com/products/all/magic-bullet-looks/

The best overall setup for what you are trying to do on a small budget is going to be a DSLR camera.
You can get a Canon Rebel T3i for under $500.
If you get a shotgun mic for $60-$100 you can get great quality audio without having to use a dedicated audio recorder. A dedicated audio recorder is the best method, however it can add additional editing time, create syncing problems for new users and be difficult.
Using a better quality mic directly into your video recording is the best compromise since you will have better quality added directly to the footage.
The best video editing program that is easy to learn and can generate professional results at low cost is Adobe Premiere Elements. It will also prepare you to eventually use Adobe Premiere Pro which is the professional grade version of the software.
Elements will let you have multiple video and audio tracks, this means you can do voice overs, add background music and title effects if you want to. Premiere Elements is only $70.


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Superimposing 2d photoshop cartoon into video footage
I am using after effects and I want to place a drawing of a character behind a person in the video footage to make it look like the character is standing in the distance behind the person in the film. Is that possible? I have been thinking about masking but the video is treated as one object and not separate objects.

You will need to create 2 layers, one with the foreground person and one with the background, with the animation in between. Since you only have the one layer, you need to duplicate it, and send one copy to the front. You then have to remove everything except the foreground from the front copy.
How you do this will depend on your footage. I'm assuming you haven't shot against a green screen, so just keying out the foreground character (using something like Keylight) isn't going to work, unless you're lucky enough that the character happens to be standing in front of a well-lit object of a flat contrasting colour. In that case you'll have to rotoscope.
So, welcome to the world of rotoscoping, roto to its friends, except it doesn't have friends because it sucks. Basically rotoscoping means animated tracing of live footage. Disney pioneered it for their early hand drawn animation, but today it mostly means manually creating an animated matte.
If you have AE CS5+ you'll have the roto brush tool, which is like the magic wand from Photoshop, but it follows movement over time. Often it can do the heavy lifting and get you a nice clean foreground and background plate. Here's a link for the CS6 version, and they've given it some more love for CC with it's own refine edge tool. If you watch the Adobe videos it looks like a walk in the park, but unfortunately it doesn't always work like it says on the can. If your foreground and background are similar in colour, or are very detailed or grainy using roto brush might actually take longer than doing it by hand, because the matte will start to wander and it can be hard to convince it to go where you want it to go.
So your plan C is doing it by hand, which is a whole bunch of fun. My advice: get comfortable. I always use a graphics tablet when I'm doing roto, at least make sure you've got a good mouse, and a well set up workstation. Get some music playing or listen to a podcast or the radio. This may help stop you going insane. Now the important stuff is organised it's time to get to work.
First, play through the action. Try to analyse the movement, breaking it down into separate parts. If the character is walking for example, you might want a separate mask for each leg, to avoid having to create and destroy masks and handles as the legs cross over each other. The same for arms and hands.
Then you need to start drawing your masks. Do NOT start tracing frame by frame, that way is the short road to pain. Draw the mask around the foreground element you're starting with at the start of the shot, and then jump to the end of the shot and move all the points in the mask so that they are match up to where they were at the beginning - for example if there's a point on the end of the character's nose n the first frame, try and put the same point on the end of the characters nose in the last shot. Wait - you did set a keyframe for that first mask didn't you? I forget at least once every roto session.
Ok so if you play the shot back now you'll see that the mask starts out right, gets progressively wrong, and then goes back to being right. Find the point at which it is the most wrong and correct it, creating a new keyframe. Sometimes you'll need to create new mask handles, don't worry, AE interpolates them well, though deleting handles can be problematic.
Now play between your first and second keyframe, find where the mask is furthest out of whack, stop and add a keyframe there, and the same for the section between the second keyframe and last keyframe. And repeat, putting in-between keyframes where the mask is most out of line. You'll find that as you progress the mask will start getting closer and closer to where it needs to be, even on the in-between bits, until you're correcting very small errors. You may well have to keyframe every frame, depending on the shot, but doing it this way will mean that the computer is doing most of the work for you, compared to starting at the beginning and working frame by frame.
Remember that with AE if there is a single handle that has to be tweaked then it will create a new keyframe for the whole mask. So make sure the whole mask is right each time you make  anew keyframe. If you just concentrate on one bit and then realise after you've set keyframes for your whole shot that one handle is a couple of pixels off you'll have to edit each one of them again.
Another tip is to work in the layer window rather than the comp window. this will speed up the rendering, and avoid accidental clicks on other layers. I usually turn off the mask rendering (in the view options at the bottom of the layer window) because it lets me see what's happening outside the mask as well as speeding up display.


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Adobe Media Encoder CC - No output sound
After I finish my project in Adobe After Effects I export the project to Adobe Media Encoder.
I choose the default setting Youtube HD 1080p 29.97. After render all the video I get no sound on the video.
Any help?

Often by default the Audio Output checkbox is not checked in After Effects.  When you go to add the composition to the render queue, make sure Audio Output is checked.

Well, I don't add it to the After Effects queue. I add it to the Media Encoder queue. Is there any problem mixing video parts with different fps rates?

@NunoBatalha - there is no problem with different FPS rates that should cause there to be no audio.  There are issues that it will result in frame interpolation which may result in artifacts and minor audio sync issues, however it shouldn't result in no audio.

@AJHanderson - I've solved the problem. But didn't really guess why I had no sound... The only thing that I changed was some parts of video that were over other parts.


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Chroma Key video software for command line
Do you know about any video processing software that can do chroma key of two video files, but run from command line as well?
I have two static video files (let's say MP4, same length) - one with green bg and another to be used as background video. I need to do chroma key effect. And it doesn't have to be perfect.
Two video files -> [software] -> one output video. Just so.

Relevant questions on other stackexchange sites: http://stackoverflow.com/q/8299252/1256347 and http://superuser.com/q/549448/141595

While not a direct solution, AVISynth supports creating a mask from a Chroma key using ColorKeyMask.  You can then use that mask to blend the two layers together by using Mask on the top layer and then Layering them together.
You could then just feed files in to the script and use FFMPEG or something similar to write out the frame stream from AVISynth.
Note that you will still need to adjust the color of the background and the tolerance if they lighting isn't really consistent between shots of the green background though.


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Black halo / ghosting on transparent layered PSD file imported into FCPX
In Photoshop, I have prepared a scene to be animated in FCPX. I just selected a part of the clouds and copied into a separate layer, with 10px feather to avoid rough edges. However, when I import the same PSD into FCPX, the feather becomes a black halo. Anyone know how to fix this?
See examples below:

Do the layers maybe use a certain blending mode in Photoshop which is not supported in FCPX?

As Final Cut Pro is not made by Adobe, it does not have the same exact processing engine for dealing with the effects in a PSD.  This appears to be an artifact of the difference in processing between the systems.
To work around this, I would recommend exporting the components as TGA or some similar file format that has alpha support.  Simple alpha blending is far more likely to blend in a predictable manner between applications.

Thanks AJ. I'm not using any special blend mode in the PS files, so I was just guessing that this problem would happen for many when importing PSD files to FCPX (which is promoted as a new feature). I managed to work around it by exporting layers individually as PNGs, but that's a more cumbersome workflow.


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FCPX ken burns zoom in and out
How can i apply ken burns to zoom in and out ? it can only either zoom in or out then move to the second clip
I want to zoom into specific target then zoom back in to make it fit to the next clip


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Keying Out Smoke Against a Black Background
I have a video of smoke shot against a black background. I would like to make the background transparent so the smoke shows over the video in the background.
I originally tried Remove Matte but that didn't seem to have any effect on the smoke video. I then tried Color Key and I was left with what you see below. (Original smoke is on left, the "keyed" version is on the right.)

I am using Adobe Premier Pro CC (v7.2.1). What is the best way to cleanly remove the black background while leaving the smoke. The goal is to have the smoke over the background video.
I am a novice at this so please use clear instructions. If an option is buried in a menu, please tell me which menu. What I have tried has come directly from the Premier's Effects Panel.

While chroma-keying is a good technique for dealing with solids, it doesn't work so well when dealing with transparent or semi-transparent objects.  Because the difference can be very subtle, you want to copy the difference instead or blend off luminance.
In Premiere, you can use the Set Matte effect to set a track as a luminance matte.  In the case of the sample of smoke from mmphilips post, the luminance was a bit low so I put it in a separate sequence and used curves to boost the overall luminance.  I then placed the matte on Video 3 and made it invisible.  I then placed the Set Matte effect on Video 2, pointed it at Video 3 and specified that it should use Video 3 as the matte.

The same thing can be accomplished in After Effects in a similar manner.  Again two copies are placed on the composition and the top most is made invisible.  The modes option toggles is clicked to bring up the proper controls and luminance is chosen for the second layer so that the third layer is used as a matte.  As shown, I applied curves to the third layer directly to make it blend more naturally.  Note that in this screen shot I actually inverted the matte layer and thus used inverted luminance, but those steps aren't necessary, I just made an error while getting it working and didn't bother to correct it.

Note how this results in much smoother results than a luminance key or chroma key since a luma or chroma key makes a hard cut off and is not able to do alpha blending based on the intensity of the smoke.  Smoke however is somewhat transparent and you want to be able to see through it where it is darker.  That's why this blending technique works.

While this is a very good answer that will produce good results, the "proper" way would be to simply use the "screen" blend mode as mentioned by Justin Brunson in his answer. Its the standard way of dealing with any particle type stock footage on black background.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't try the other ways mentioned here, not every footage is made for the screen blend mode.

I'd disagree on this not being a proper way to do it.  Screen blending is simpler and is also proper, but this gives greater control over the masking and way that it blends without impacting what you are actually blending.  This is a more advanced technique, but perfectly valid.  Without tweaking the mask, the result would actually be very close to screen as it is blending the smoke/particle layer on to the base via luminosity, which is the same result as a screen blend.

Thats why I put it in qoutation marks. Every way that gets you there is a proper way. The screen blend mode is just the most common way to do it. You also have control over the outcome by using a level and or curve adjustment.

First off, you would normally use After Effects for special effects such as Chroma Keying. That being said, Premiere Pro is capable of chroma keying quite decently. Here's an example using free smoke effects by JohnnyFXEffects.
Set up your scene as you usually would, and then go to the 'Effects' tab. (1) From the 'Keying' folder, select the 'Chroma Key' option. (2) Simply drag and drop it onto your smoke video file. (3)

Next, select your smoke clip by clicking it, and go to the 'Effect Controls' tab in the upper left workspace. (1)  Expand 'Chroma Key' (2) and click the eyedropper icon in the same column as "Color". (3) Next, select the color you want to chroma key away by clicking in an area of your video with that color. (4)

Keep fiddling with your Chroma Keying settings untill you get the desired result. I found that setting similarity to around 7,5% (1) and Cutoff to around 50,0% (2) gave me a decent result.

Optionally add a few more video effects untill you get the desired result.

The simplest way would be to set the blending mode of the smoke clip to "screen". You'll find this setting in the "Effect Controls" panel under Opacity.
Screen basically ignores black. A better description is found on Adobe's site: http://helpx.adobe.com/en/photoshop/using/blending-modes.html

+1 for being a simpler way than using an independent mask.


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DVD burned through Nero has only .nrd file
A DVD was given with a .nrd file alone on it (Nero was used to burn videos from a camcorder to the DVD).
Is it possible to recover the video and convert to a mpeg format? Assume acquiring software is not a problem.
I have tried using Nero Burning ROM 2014, but cannot see an option to convert to mpeg format.

I believe NRD is Nero's version of ISO.  Someone likely created the NRD file when authoring the DVD and rather than burning the NRD file to the disk, they burned the file itself on to a disk.  Try doing a burn image with Nero Burning Rom and select the NRD file as the image.


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Google glass sample video
I would like to make a video showing a possible interaction with Google glass. I have worn it once and don't even have one.
What I am thinking now is to use

 an iphone 3d printed headmount attachment with gopro headmount
I want the video to be as natural as possible (that it looks like shot from a glass close to eyes)
example:

Thanks for your suggestions

It sounds like you know what you want. What's the question??

It would be nice if you could add a little more detail about what you are expecting as an answer.

It looks like he is asking for suggestions on gear that feels like you are wearing google glass. I mean I would just go with gopro head attachment and record.

There's several techniques you can use to emulate Google Glass' eyesight videos. The next best thing would probably be to buy a pair of camera (sun-)glasses. Judging by what you're trying to achieve, your best option is to buy any camera from pivothead, they all film full-HD 30fps video. Other options include the SunnyCam Glasses and the iVUE Camera Glasses. There's also the Zeal HD Goggles, but those are probably impractical in temperate environments.
Alternatives include the GoPro Hero 3 (Head-mounted camera, as you suggested), the ContourROAM2 (Waterproof) and the Braun SixZero (or any other head/helmet-mounted camera). If you're on a tight budget you might want to manufacture some sort of head-mounted camera yourself.

I have Glass and the camera isn't that great, so you could probably just duct tape your iPhone (in a case so it doesnt get sticky junk all over it) straight the the plastic part of the gopro headmount, and you'd have a better camera.


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How to add a scoreboard to a pre-recorded video file
I have a pre-recorded video file of a sport game and I need to add a scoreboard on top of it. Imagine a basketball game where the score is changing dynamically and quite often so there are a lot of modifications that must be done on the scoreboard.
I'm trying to find a painless way to do it as using something like Adobe Premiere, for example, would require a creation of a separate title/label for each change in the score board and then a lot of back and forth deleting and adding new titles on the sequence line. It's doable but it takes a lot of time and I'd rather have a tool that would allow me to do it in real time while watching the video. Any suggestions?

Have you ever heard the expression: 'Good, fast and cheap. Pick any two.'?
A good and fast way would be to hire a professional post-production studio capable of layering over the video a scorebdoard graphic, and layering over the graphic a character-generator input. You sit in the chair behind the editor and tell him what scores to input and when. The new edit master would have your scores popping on in sync with the action. This will not be cheap, but you didn't say that you want 'cheap.'
You could also use a programming environment like Flash to layer-on the scoreboard and add sequential cue-points to the video. Then you'd write some code that would insert the proper score at the proper points.
This is, potentially, cheap and good. But you'll need to get some programming skills and that won't be fast.
I think that a better idea would be to realize that good video work, like all good craft, is NOT painless. Just do the work. And, by the way, Adobe After Effects would make this job almost fun.

I'm looking for do it yourself solution so option one won't do the trick for me.
Writing code - I need to do it in real time while watching the video so that solution won't cut it as I'll have to watch it at least two times.
Adobe After Effects - same thing, I don't think there's a painless way to do it in real time and going frame by frame and inserting titles/lables is exactly what I'm trying to avoid.
I'm just hoping to find out of the box software solution that's available out there but it seems that nothing like this exists...

@mmvsbg I think Craig was suggesting for the coding side that you build a tool that would support adding them through scripting. This would be time consuming up front but then quick and easy to use. There would be a lot of up front cost and difficulty to build it though.

Part of the Flash/Actionscript approach would be to code real-time interaction. So the code allows you to type in the score and hit ENTER to make the score go up on the board WHILE you're watching. Easy! Just takes a year or two of programming chops.

By the way, i'm curious: how many times does the score in your video actually change? I imagine that in the time it takes to write and read a few of these posts you could change a bunch of scores with an out-of-the-box compositing tool.

I've considered coding it but that would indeed take same time and I asked the question here in order not to re-invent the wheel but alas.
I need the score board for a few different sports and the most intensive changes are in snooker and darts. Something changes there basically after every shot so I need a very robust software that would allow me to react in real time.

Check out Derivative's TouchDesigner. Its a real-time compositing and rendering software that we use in our studios. It's used worldwide for really complex projects, so you could easily make a little patch in that where you could make 2 UI buttons and link those to some incrementing numbers, then composite the numbers onto the video and record it. Then you could watch the video, click the buttons, and have the output at the end when you're done.
It's a visual programming language, so you get the benefits of being able to make simple programs without doing full on programming.
It's a little difficult to wrap your head around the first time you open it, but there's a very active community that could help you out, and a free, educational licensed version of the software you can use if you're not making any money on the project.
Link to software:
http://www.derivative.ca/
Link to community forum:
http://www.derivative.ca/Forum/


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Looking for a solution to remotely control timed video capture
I'm trying to set up a system where a presenter gives short presentations (typically 60 seconds) in front of a backdrop on a daily basis, with the files being ultimately destined for the web.
The limiting factor here though is that ideally the system should be operable by the presenter only - no technical or production staff will necessarily be available to help. So what I'd like is a way for the capture to be triggered remotely by the presenter standing in front of the camera (by a foot switch most likely, but I'm open to other options), and the take will then be recorded to file on the associated capture PC, and will stop after a pre-defined time (60 seconds, 90 seconds, etc). If it's not possible to set a timer, we do have the ability to use a hardware timer device which will send a serial signal.
The studio is all set up and ready, the only missing link is the actual capture solution. We were looking initially at the Aja Ki Pro Rack, but it doesn't make it particularly easy to get at the files - the device has to be put into a different mode, and the files have to be downloaded either through a web interface, or by removing the hard drives and copying the files to the PC.
Then we were looking at various BlackMagic devices, such as the H264 Pro Recorder, but I couldn't see how I could remotely trigger the capture using the bundled MediaExpress software.
I'm open to using alternate software such as Final Cut or Premiere. Does anyone know of a solution that will let me trigger a remote capture with no human operator sitting at the PC, ideally with the ability to set a timer to stop the record as well?

This is interesting, but out of my depth. Just curious, why do you prefer the timer instead of a stop command?

Because the videos in question will (almost) always be destined for an automated system, which is designed to have specific-length videos. As stated, ideally the recording/producing system will be operated by only one person - the presenter in front of the camera. So automating as many things as possible - including stopping the record after the predefined time period - is required.

I have no practical experience, but you might take a look at using a (linux) computer with blackmagic decklink or intensity pro card.
There are command line tools like bmdtools which (should) allow you to interface the capture card.
https://github.com/lu-zero/bmdtools
You could then pipe the video input to ffmpeg to record.
I don't know of a setting to provide to ffmpeg to limit the capture-duration, but you could maybe create a script starting and stopping both commands at the right time.
This might be helpful: http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5109
If you are using such a setup with a computer, the next stages of your workflow could be scripted as well.
edit: I can't really find any information about this, but if you can read/record the H264 stream which the BMD H264 recorder outputs in ffmpeg or vlc, It will be a lot less demanding for your system. The other two options mentioned above will have to do the encoding in software.


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Unable to concatenate videos due to identical MOOV atoms
I am cutting out segments from a long mp4 file and then rejoining parts of them. However, since FFMPEG apparently keeps the same MOOV atom for the trimmed files as the original, it looks to FFMPEG that the trimmed videos are all identical since they all have the same MOOV atom, and therefore only uses the first segment when trying to join the videos. Is there a way around this? Unfortunately since FFMPEG is embedded in an Android app, I can only use version 0.11.

so don't use mp4 for your temporary files?  mkv works well, and if you're ONLY using ffmpeg, try nut for scratch files if you ever run into a problem with mkv.  (e.g. nut worked for -c:v rawvideo where mkv didn't, for me, since mkv didn't have a type ID for that kind of rawvideo.)

Without knowing the exact details of your workflow it is hard to answer this question, so more information would be greatly helpful.
One approach would be to use raw video during your "joining" phase of the algo to strip the moov atom. The final step would be to convert your concat'ed raw video back into mp4.

Thank you.  Basically it was for an app (that I'm no longer working on) that allowed you to record a long video and then mark where you wanted to strip out content. Imagine recording a football game for instance, with a lot of stops and starts in action and you just want to strip out the filler and have a video with only the action.

I see. If you are no longer interested in an answer, then it is a good idea to delete your question.

I'm still curious to see if there's an actual answer to this question :). Who knows what the future holds.


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Is There A Fraps Alternative That Records Different Audio Sources To Different Tracks
I was wondering if there is a Fraps alternative that records audio from different sources to different tracks. unless fraps has this capability??

Hi and welcome to Video.SE. Right now the question is not very clear. Could you clarify (by using the edit function) what you mean by different audio sources? I would understand it in a regular audio recording setup, but as Fraps is used to record gameplay I'm not sure what is meant. Do you maybe mean the microphone and the game-audio?

Yes let me clarify. I have multiple sources, that being includes but sometimes is not limited to; my mic, teamspeak (communication with other), and the game of itself or whatever I am doing.
What I hope to do is to turn up/down individual sources at will, so as to not sacrifice the other audio sources.

I believe this will be difficult to do without specific hardware. Bandicam software separates different inputs (computer sounds, mic in, etc.) onto different tracks, however this isn't what you're looking for, so I won't make an answer.


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How to achieve the short particle bursts in this gif?
I've tried to create the short bursts similar to this gif but I can't seem to get the exact effect. I'm using particle world in after effects. Another problem I'm running into is the texture has some color overlay I can't get rid of.

Could you post what you've produced already? That might help us hone in on what you could be doing differently. That should also let us see the color overlay problem you've mentioned.

I got it, thanks. I had to use Particular. Particle World couldn't achieve what I was trying to do. The clip I'm working on is NSFW. I didn't think it would be appropriate to post.

You could post that as an answer, along with what you needed to configure - you are allowed to accept your own answer.

Generally its totally possible to achieve this with Particle World, just play around with gravity adn particle emission rate and animate them accordingly.
If you need a more advanced particle system use a plugin called Particular by Red Giant Software. Though its not free and costs money.


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Problem with colors of camstudio recorded video
I am using windows 7 and try to capture a video of my screen using camstudio 2.7. I am using camstudio lossless codec v1.5. The problem is that colors in my recorded video are inverted somehow. For example blue color is red. How I can repair this. I want just normal screen video.

You might want to check the recording setting, maybe a non-standard color space is being used or the video is simply being interpreted falsely by your video player.
Try to play it with a different player.
If thats not the issue you should double check the record setting you are using for this codec or maybe change the codec you are recording with.


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How to configure crtmpserver for live streaming?
This is what I would like to do.

A Linux laptop has a webcam connected to it and captures video and audio in real time
The laptop sends the live video and audio stream to another Linux server which has a better internet connection than the laptop, via RTSP or RTMP or something similar
Any clients that wish to view the stream connect to the Linux server by means of some software such as VLC

The steps 1 and 3 are not a problem, I think I know how to do them. But:
How do I configure the Linux server in step 2 so that it accepts an RTSP stream input and publishes it in some address such as rtsp://my.ip.address/stream.mp4 for example, which can be opened in VLC by any computer? Is crtmpserver the right tool for this? And how do I configure it? I've read like ten different web pages that explain some example configurations for crtmpserver but haven't really found what I was looking for.

I'm pretty sure you can use vlc to both stream and restream it. I use vlc to stream all my tv channels to all my devices(rtsp, mp4, html5).
Search for vlc media player streaming like
https://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/ch04.html

https://net7mma.codeplex.com has a server and client implementation which is compatible with VLC and was created for exactly the scenario you cite. From the website:

This project's goal is to allow developers to deliver media to clients freely in less then 10 lines of code utilizing standards complaint protocol implementations. It also aims to provide a re-usable set of classes for working with Rtsp and Rtp/Rtcp and Sdp.

There is a new download link if you wish to try this software out:
https://github.com/juliusfriedman/net7mma

If you just want a plain RTMP stream, you might look at the nginx-rtmp module which looks quite easier to set up than crtmpserver.
Just a general suggestion: H.264 compression is a bit CPU-intensive, so if your server is more powerful than your notebook and the server to notebook-connection is good, it might be an idea to stream just "plain frames" with nearly no encoding or compression to the server and let it handle the rest.

It looks like it isn't particularly trivial, however crtmpserver have a tutorial on their wiki here.  It looks like you have to configure a lua file and then doing a new cmake of the server.  (So very much non-trivial.)
As an alternative, there are other servers that may do this for you more easily such as Red5 and also Adobe has a free offering mentioned in this question.

A Linux laptop has a webcam connected to it and captures video and
  audio in real time

Im using ffmpeg version N-80213-g9511a08 and my system is Ubuntu 15.10
ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -s 320x240 -i /dev/video0 -f flv -s qvga -b 750000 -ar 11025 -metadata streamName=aaa "tcp://server_ip:6666/live"

The laptop sends the live video and audio stream to another Linux
  server which has a better internet connection than the laptop, via
  RTSP or RTMP or something similar

start crtmpserver.lua
./crtmpserver/crtmpserver crtmpserver/crtmpserver.lua

after running the previous command it will show incoming stream like
/home/altanai/crtmpserver/sources/thelib/src/protocols/liveflv/inboundliveflvprotocol.cpp:51 _waitForMetadata: 1
/home/altanai/crtmpserver/sources/thelib/src/netio/epoll/iohandlermanager.cpp:119 Handlers count changed: 11->12 IOHT_TCP_CARRIER
/home/altanai/crtmpserver/sources/thelib/src/protocols/liveflv/baseliveflvappprotocolhandler.cpp:45 protocol CTCP(16) <-> TCP(2) <-> [ILFL(3)] registered to app flvplayback
/home/altanai/crtmpserver/sources/thelib/src/application/baseclientapplication.cpp:251 Stream INLFLV(1) with name 127.0.0.1_51036 registered to application flvplayback from protocol ILFL(3)
/home/altanai/crtmpserver/sources/thelib/src/protocols/liveflv/inboundliveflvprotocol.cpp:184 Stream metadata:

        0.000
        Lavf57.37.101
        0.000
        30.000
        240.000
        2.000
        732.422
        320.000

Any clients that wish to view the stream connect to the Linux server by means of some software such as VLC

ffplay -i rtmp://server_ip:1935/live/aaa

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


text:
In Final Cut Pro 7, is there a way to playback a Ganged Browser clip in real time with the Canvas/Timeline?
Opening a clip from the browser and ganging it with the Timeline, then playing the timeline, only results in the Viewer being updated when playback stops. The only real-time ganging you get is when you are scrubbing clips.
Is there any way around this, or is it just not possible and/or only possible with multicam clips?


text:
What is the max video fps Nikon D5100?
I want to play around with slo-mo videos but don't have proper gear for it. Is there a way to get my D5100 to shoot at a high fps (maybe by reducing the video res)?

I think you're out of luck.
Official specs say 30fps max, and I can't find any documentation of a possible hack.
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Digital-SLR-Cameras/25478/D5100.html
The most widely distributed slow-mo camera is probably the iPhone 5s-- I bet you could borrow one to play around with.

The base limitation comes out to 30fps.  MagicLantern (for Canon) and the Lumix GH2 hacks are two of the most advanced hacks out there right now, and neither of them has been able to get faster sampling reliably working beyond what is normally possible.
It really comes down to a basic hardware limitation in terms of how fast data can be moved and how fast the sensor can be read, cleared and reset for the next frame.  If the sensor can't be cleared for the next shot more than 60 times a second, there is no way to get faster than that no matter how low bit rate you go.


text:
Video Format Compatibility with GoPro cine studio
Can a video recorded using Edmund optics camera in mp4 format be played and edited in GoPro studio? The video I have recorded can not be imported.

GoPro Studio allows constant frame rate H.264 .mp4 and .mov files. Your camera might use a variable bitrate which doesn't seem to be supported by GoPro Studio (Source).
You can transcode the video to a constant frame rate video by using the tool Handbrake and choosing a constant frame rate in the "Video" tab. Choose the "High Profile" preset for a good quality encoding or choose your own quality settings.
You might also want to force a certain framerate that comes close to your average frame rate instead of using "Same as source" if Handbrake makes a automated decision.


text:
Slow Premiere performance after Mavericks upgrade
After installing Mavericks, Premiere has slowed to a crawl.
It seems to have the most trouble with AE comps imported through Dynamic Link.
I believe this is related to the App Nap "feature", but disabling App Nap on all Adobe programs hasn't cleared it up.
When a Dynamic Link clip need to be rendered, it will estimate 9 minutes or something ridiculous. The Energy tab in Activity monitor shows that App Nap is active on Aftereffects, even though it's supposed to be disabled. By clicking back and forth between Premiere and AE (not constantly), I can get the render time back to ~30sec like it should be.
Any thoughts? Is there a background process that needs to have App Nap disabled? Could it be something else entirely?
Mid 2011 iMac, 16 GB RAM, OSX Mavericks, Premiere Pro CC 7.2.2, Aftereffects CC 12.2.1.5

I don't know the Mac version particularly well, but if the application is still app naping, it sounds like something is wrong with how app nap was turned off.

I have found that apple loves to run background processes on their machines. Go into activity monitor and see whats running. Chances are there are a bunch of things running you dont need. For one (I think its called sataliteLookup) there is the process that looks for software updates automatically. It will free up some CPU time for you. Chances are there are lots of little things like this that came with Mavericks that are running.


text:
How to make video with moving text and objects?
I want to make a video with moving text and objects like in the youtube video link below.

What options/tools should I explore? Only think i can think of is making animations in Powerpoint, recording the full screen as video and then later adding audio/music to it.
Any better options?
newbie alert - I am a coder, so not very good with making videos - but willing to learn/explore all options.


text:
How Was This Isometric Vector-looking Video Made?
I'm dying to find out how this beautiful video was made - what program produces these semi-3D animated marketing pieces?  There are flat lines curving around text content in a fixed camera view...it looks very unlike 3D Studio Max or something, that would be using lighting and moving camera angles etc.
http://vimeo.com/92630207

As this is mostly hand drawn animated vector graphics you could do these kind of videos in most 2D animation software. Lighting in this case isn't rendered by the program but painted by the artist.
In most cases this would be done in Adobe After Effects as it offer very sophisticated timeline animation tools and works very well with vector graphics. There are also still quite a few people using Adobe Flash for these kind of animations.
You are not limited to these two software options though, you can definitely do this in Apple Motion or Sony Vegas aswell.
An artist would draw the single elements for the video in a vector graphics program like Illustrator or Inkscape and then these would be animated in a 2D animation software package like mentioned above.
You might want to have a look at this article from the maker of this specific video, it explains the design process quite well: https://www.behance.net/gallery/CBRE-Animated-Infographics/15921655

It is also possible that some of the parts could be using the basic 3d capabilities of After Effects itself, but I concur that it is most likely AE.

Sure it might animate in 3D space. Though the animated footage is definitely 2D.

Thank you for the detailed answer.  The article you linked to is where I initially found the video.  He does describe some of the process, but not his tools or workflow.  You can see my comment in there asking how he did it, but I received no answer :)  Well that does it, time to learn me some After Effects!!!  Thanks again guys.


text:
Combine video and audio TS segments coming from HLS stream
Apple HLS streams MPEG-2 TS files containing video and audio data in packetized elementary stream format. These segments (.ts files) can be joined in order to build final video.
Recent version of HLS can now produce segments with video data only in TS files, and audio data only in another TS files. This is used to serve multilanguages video.
Regardless of HLS itself, how can I process to remux TS files containing video data, and audio data, in one TS file? Joining TS files together doesn't work; I get data from first TS file combined with the same type of data from next TS files (only video or audio).

I don't know enough to give an actual solution, but some reading seems to indicate that FFMPEG may be able to deal with this.

I just checked and yes, you are right. FFmpeg handles HLS with multiple audio tracks. I will take a look at source now.

You can use tsMuxer to add the audio stream from one .ts file into the .ts file containing the video or vice versa. This is called muxing and doesn't affect the quality of the audio or video in any way.

Do you have a m3u8 file? If so, I assume you can just do
ffmpeg -i indexfile.m3u8 -acodec copy -vcodec copy output.ts

You could also convert it directly into the mp4 container:
ffmpeg -i indexfile.m3u8 -acodec copy -vcodec copy output.mp4

This does not work when the indexfile.m3u8 has a separate url for audio and a seperate url for video_01.m3u8

@chovy: Can you show me that file? I think it should possibly work with option -map and maybe a second option -i which takes the same inputfile (in your case video_01.m3u8).

it works if i do ffmpeg -i <audio-stream> -i <video-stream> -async 1 -c copy test.m3u8


text:
Connect a Sony HandyCam to a MacBookPro for streaming
I have a Sony HDR-CX330 HandyCam which does a good job recording low light events for us. Now I would like to stream some of these events live.  The Camera has HDMI out, but I'm not sure how I get this into a MacBookPro.  I think I need some kind of capture device but I'm not sure which one or how to search for it.
What do I need to get live video into the laptop?

What is you budget?  What kind of quality are you looking for?  What infrastructure do you plan to use for live streaming?  These all matter in determining the best approach.

Also, which model Macbook?  Old ones only have firewire, some have both firewire and thunderbolt, and newer ones only have thunderbolt.

2014 MacBookPro. (http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/) I'd like a generic solution for streaming: YouTube Live, Skype, etc.  If I could get it to be delectable as a webcam, that would do for now. We are cost conscious.


text:
DSLR chip overheating and max clip length
So I shoot with my Nikon D5200 a lot, one problem that bothers me especially when shooting conferences etc is 20 minutes cap for single clip length.
I don't see any way to overcome it other than wait for new firmware or some third party hack like ML for Canons. But while looking into this issue I found numerous claims, that this max clip length cap is there to prevent camera's chip from overheating. Now that is what bothers me, I find it pretty hard to believe since I usually make just one second gap between clips and shoot like that for hours and my camera doesn't protest in any way. Wouldn't there be any additional fail-safe (like overheating alert) to prevent damage to the chip if this issue was so serious?
On the other hand I don't want to risk my camera so I would like to be sure that continuous video shooting poses no threat.

So is this chip overheating just hoax? I've also heard that this
limit is there because of tax reasons.
Or even if this overheating
    issue is real, does it create enough heat to damage the chip while
    shooting in continuous sequence of 20min clips?

(I am talking about Nikon D5200, but I guess it applies to all DSLRs, by chip I mean CMOS photosensitive chip, to be clear)

First, while sensor temperature is a real thing that can result in elevated noise levels, I'm not aware of a sensor in recent history that had a heat related shutdown (outside of harsh conditions anyway) or that could accumulate enough heat to be a threat to the chip.  Most of the non-sense out there about sensor's overheating is completely uninformed rumors or based on older sensors where heat was more of an issue.  There may be some exceptions in specific models, but they are not a major issue in runtimes or live view itself wouldn't work regardless of recording.  (Live view uses the sensor just as much or more than video recording does.)  There are three main factors that can limit record time.
The first is card speed.  If you have a memory card which is not fast enough to sustain writing at the data rate of the video you are recording, the buffer of the camera will slowly fill and when it runs out of space, there is no way for the camera to continue recording.
The second is a limitation of the FAT file system used in many digital cameras.  Video files are very large and the FAT file system used in many cameras is simple and outdated.  It has a limit of 4GB per file and when you reach that limit, the file has to end or it will become unreadable.  In the case of your D5200, this is the reason for the 20 minute cut off.  Other cameras get around this either by using exFAT (a newer card format) or simply splitting the video between files.  (One file ends and a new file begins while the camera uses it's buffer to store frames.)  The later is, for example, how the Canon 5D Mark iii deals with 4GB file size limits.
The third and largest limitation is that of import taxes that the EU imposes on "video recording devices."  Video recording devices are defined as anything that can record more than 30 minutes of video and it is a 15% tax.  Thus, most manufacturers impose a completely artificial 29 minute 59 second time limit on video recording so that the device is not a video recording device.  Some manufacturers offer different versions in Europe than the rest of the world, but most just put the limit everywhere.
Third party firmwares are often able to deal with both the second and third situation (both by file splitting methods normally), however the first situation can only be addressed by getting a new, faster memory card.


text:
Autofilm function / add many clips and transitions by one click. Which open source video editing software for linux suited?
I want to make a short movie from a holiday trip where I have taken many pictures and clips. I know the simple "autofilm"-feature of windows movie maker and it is quite useful. Because I switched to Kubuntu I am now looking for an open source video editing software which has compareable features:
- add many clips/pictures to time line
- create random transitions between all clips and pics
- create a Ken Burns effect (pan and zoom) for all pics
Of course these automatically added adjustments should remain editable. I tried Kdenlive, here I do not find a "add random transition for all clips/pics" feature. In OpenShot I can only add a manually adjusted Ken Burns effect but fo 300 pictures this would be too time consumptive ;)
Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!

Has anyone an idea?

no ideas for an suitable open source video editor?


text:
Batch splitting ProRes into equal-length segments
I routinely have to take ProRes footage and break it up into twenty minute segments of both ProRes and h.264. The computer I'm currently using to do this does has Premiere but not FCP. Any ideas on how to automate this as much as possible?
It's important that the edits are exact down to the frame; I've had problems in the past using Compressor 3.5 for this process where consecutive clips would not play seamlessly from one to the next.

I would use ffmpeg. Just write a sript in any scripting language you prefer and tell ffmpeg to encode new files depending on the total duration of the source file and let it only encode a certain amount of time.
You can completely automate this sort of workflow with ffmpeg.


text:
What video formats should I support (as of 2014)?
I run a website that has offered downloadable instructional videos for 7 years. We have traditionally supported both mp4 and wmv formats.
I would like to simplify my life by just offering one format if possible. Do I still need to support wmv format? Or is this still an issue?
If I could support one format, which would it be?
Thanks

MP4/h264 is widely supported today. I'd even say it's the most supported video format since the existence of digital video (without having actual statistics to back that claim).
There is really no reason to deliver .wmv anymore when targeting a multi platform audience, the version of Windows Media Player that came with XP doesn't support MP4 but newer versions definitely do and the market share for that version should be very very low. Most users have adopted third-party players like VLC and even companies usually install at least one third-party video player on their computers that will very very likely support MP4. MP4/h264 has wide hardware playback support (unlike wmv and its possible codecs) and runs without any issues on any platform (unlike wmv).
So yes, in my opinion it's absolutely safe to only deliver MP4 videos as long as they are properly encoded. Using Level 3(.1) would be a safe bet, its supported by practically any software and hardware that is capable of playing MP4/h264.
If you deliver for web it is also a good practice to also deliver a .webm encode as well. If it only targets local playback I would still stick to mp4/h264. While we now have h265 it is very badly supported in comparison.
It will probably take another 8-10 years until we have the same rate of consumer adoption.

Anything playing on an old iPad 1 will work on most probably any device.
I think "main profile" was important when encoding, check for details here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/sp580
And always try on a real device ;)


text:
Spot removal tool
I took videos with my DSLR and then saw that there is a speck of dust in my sensor. With stills I can use Photoshop's or Lightroom's "Spot removal tool".
Is there spot removal feature in video software? What is it? (Does Adobe Premiere have it?)

There is not a spot heal tool in PremierePro, but there are a couple of things that you can try.
If the spot is on a stationary portion of the video clip, you can...

Export a frame using the frame export button  located under the program monitor.
Then clone the spot out in Photoshop using your retouch tool of choice.
Erase all of the frame except for the area that has been retouched, and save as a transparent PNG or PSD
Place your fixed frame (previously created PNG or PSD) over the portion of you video in your sequence.

If the spot is in an area that has a lot of motion, you can...

Open the video in Photoshop and use the healing tool to frame by frame clone out the blemish.

I'd like to emphasize that it's possible to keyframe the motion of the clone stamp tool (or healing brush) on video in Photoshop.  The first time I read your post, I thought you were talking about opening each frame individually.

Also like to point out that there's a good tutorial on how to do this with both Photoshop and After Effects on Lynda.com Unfortunately requires subscription, but you could sign up for a free trial. http://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-tutorials/Repairing-Enhancing-Video/149128-2.html

The reason I didn't say anything about keyframing is that he said the spot was from dust on the sensor, so it won't be moving very much!


text:
ffmpeg-php with fixed width and height and without stretch or squish
Hi there I googled for hours but no success to solve...
This code works for me
exec("ffmpeg -i $SourcePath -ar 22050 -ab 32 -f wemp -vf scale=500x400,setdar=16:9  $uploadpath1 2>&1");

but the output video will be stretch or squish...I don't want it...what can I to do?

Why are you doubling the size in the first place?  You can't simply increase image quality.  This doesn't do anything other than increase the file size and decrease the overall quality.

The quality is not my business...I want to define an standard size frame for my all videos...and each inputed video change to this size frame but without stretch or squish

Are all your videos the same aspect ratio to begin with?  If they are not, you will need to do cropping then?  If they are, is there a reason you can't scale at playback?  Display size is independent of actual pixels in the video.

What is the reason for forcing videos into this frame size? If you want fixed dimensions you should only scale the video down to a fixed width, not both, and add the black borders in your application.

I want to do it as youtube...all youtube videos are same width and height to show...

Have you looked at this answer to a similar question? http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/9947/how-do-i-change-frame-size-preserving-width-using-ffmpeg?rq=1


text:
GoPro video lose color quality while exporting in Premiere CC
I am trying to solve this know gamma shift problem upon exporting from Adobe Premiere CC.
I have video recorded by GoPro Black edition.
The video quality is great but after compiling the video in a film by Premiere CC I loose
the quality of the color.
I have tried x264 but I still have this problem.
Probably I have not understood properly the reasons.
I do not think it is calibration problem, in fact (to my mind), if I open with vlc or quicktime, on the same computer (mac retina with maverick) the original video and the exported one I clearly notice the difference.
WHY?, same computer, same movie, same player the only thing is that I open the file with Premiere CC and then exported it.
I used the highest quality and I tried the H264 and x264 even with gamma correction of 2.2 the video does not look the same.
This is extremely annoying especially for underwater movies.
Please any help?
I can't get out of this problem.

Can you post screenshots demonstrating the difference you are seeing?

You may also find http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/10305/upon-export-in-premiere-pro-colors-lose-saturation-when-previewing-in-quicktime relevant.  From your current question, I'm not sure it is a dupe, but there is a decent possibility it may be.

This might indeed be a dupe of Upon export in Premiere Pro, colors lose saturation when previewing in QuickTime.
Are you using QuickTime .mov as your video container or MP4? If it's the former you will find your solution in the answer above.
If not, this might just have to do with your settings when encoding to h264. Try to export in a lossless codec and see if you get the same result. Then try an application like Handbrake with High Profile and see if you still get the same issue. H264 is a lossy codec and with a low-bitrate you can get washed out colors.


text:
Do actors have rights over the footage?
I was recently involved in filming and one of the actors walked out partway though. She has since convinced the other actors to sign a document with her stating that no footage filmed involving them is to be used.
The script was written by the producer and all of the cast and crew were hired on an expenses only agreement. While there is no official contract, the job listing and email correspondence back this up. I have looked up the copyright law in the uk and here is what it says:
According to http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-employer.htm
"Where a written, theatrical, musical or artistic work, or a film, is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work (subject to any agreement to the contrary).  In the course of employment is not defined by the Act but in settling disputes the courts have typically had to decide whether the employee was working under 'contract of service'.
Where a person works under a 'contract for services' he may be considered by the courts to be an independent contractor and his works may then be considered to be commissioned works."
Contracts for service are further defined here http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-commissioned.htm
"When you ask or commission another person or organisation to create a copyright work for you, the first legal owner of copyright is the person or organisation that created the work and not you the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing."
Given my understanding, the actors have no legal say in the footage, raw or otherwise, only the script writer/producer, director and cameraman have a stake. I guess you could argue their case if it was being used for something totally different, but all it's wanted for is to keep the project going. I'm pretty convinced that if I'm right, and the actors don't have a legal leg to stand on, that we could convince the others to come to the table and discuss terms for continuing the shoot. The actor who walked out is totally replaceable given that she only shot a couple of takes. I think that this is why she has worked so hard to try and stop us using footage of the other actors too -if she hadn't we would just shrug her off and recast the role.
Can anyone shed any light on this?

This sounds more like it is asking for legal advice than advice about video production.  You should really talk to a lawyer familiar with the local laws.  It seems like it comes down to a question of if a performance or use of likeness is copyrightable or not, but it is a complex situation that needs a legal expert who can review the case in detail.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is not about video production, but is about copyright law.

This is off-topic, but just for interest there was a recent (very bad) US court ruling on this topic: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140226/12103626359/

Actors certainly have no rights to the footage itself, without other agreement, that would belong to the cameraman shooting the footage, however, just because they don't have claim to the footage doesn't mean they don't have claim to the contents of the footage.
The writers most likely have copyright for the script content they produced, the director has copyright for the influence of their directing, the actors may have copyright for their likeness and performance.  The makeup artists have copyright for the makeup they do.  Everyone acting in a creative capacity that is copyrightable in your jurisdiction will generally be the owner of that copyright unless otherwise agreed upon.
Thus, the actors have no claim on the footage itself, but they may possibly have a claim on their performance or use of their likeness.  They can't decide what is done with the footage without permission of the cameraman, but they can possibly restrict what can be done with their performances and image.
It really depends on local law and that is going to require a local legal expert that can review the case and any applicable agreements in detail.  The specific details of your situation aren't some simple case that can just be answered on an internet Q/A site, as copyright is a tremendously complex thing on any collaborative project.
This is also why it is important to do contracts for even relatively basic projects.  You don't want to ever have to rely on a contract, but problems do come up and it is important to be clear on who is responsible for what.


text:
Best file format workflow for Final Cut Pro 7 on Maveriks
i am having problems exporting my project in Final Cut Pro 7.
All the clips i am working on are mov in h.264.
I want to export correctly a master file, that will be converted in web format, hd... with MPEG Streamclip.
But i am experiencing problems with frame freezes, and coding problems.
Can you suggest me a tutorial, a guide, a book, a video course where to learn the perfect workflow for video production with Final Cut Pro 7 on Maveriks?
Or do you have any suggestions to help me?
Thank you guys.
Luca

It isn't really clear what you are asking.  Why are you trying to use MPEG Streamclip instead of simply exporting in the format you need?  Final Cut Pro has built in encoder support for outputting in your final web formats of your choice for a pretty good number of formats.

I ended exporting in APPLE PRO RES HQ and then converting in MPEG Streamclip.
Final Cut Pro was giving me bugged files!

Likely your issues were stemming from trying to edit with H264 files.  This is something that FCP hates!  Convert all your h264 footage to ProRes before you start editing (using Compressor, MPEG Streamclip, or the awesome Magic Bullet Grinder) and then edit with the ProRes files.  Output your final 'Master File' as ProRes and then use Compressor to encode that file to various formats for delivery.

In FCP7 when importing the files you should be using the "log and transfer" option, you need to change the import format to ProRes (As stated above), do all your editing and then exporting using FCP7 or Compressor to a Master ProRes or which ever other format you want to use. This is how I used to edit my Canon 7D files before FCPX
If you can use FCPX you can natively edit the h.264 files and export directly, this is how I work currently with .MOV files from my Canon 7D

Cheers for the edit Pat, I was at work and thought it was the right wording


text:
How do I record decent sound during an interview?
I’d like to get a decent sound while recording a video interview (two people). What I have:

Panasonic GH3 camera
Tascam DR-40 Mk II sound recorder

What I’d like:

Get as close as possible and keep the noise down.
Keep the number of devices down.
Battery-operated is a plus.

It looks like two lapel microphones are the way to go. But the recorder I have can’t record from two sources at once, should I get a mixer? Also, I’d love the microphones to be connected wirelessly, but a bundle of a wireless lapel mic and the receiving station looks quite expensive. What are my options?

You should definitely get a mixer!
The "complete" setup for audio would include:

a field mixer (like the PSC ProMix just for example) - needs XLR in/out
lavolier microphones
shotgun mic (or other very directional mic) with boom or pistol grip - this way you aren't stuck with the lavoliers all the time!
cables connecting the microphones to the mixer
your recording device
cables connecting the recording device to the mixer
headphones to monitor the sound coming in, and going out, of the mixer

Note I say your recording device, because theoretically you could record to the camera (not recommended).
The monitoring part is pretty crucial, because you don't want to be surprised in postproduction.
I prefer more directional microphones, because lavoliers can pick up some kinds of ambient noise.  Note however: a shotgun requires skill and endurance to use correctly!  Not to mention, an extra person on your crew.
I would also avoid wireless if you can.  It seems cool, but there's always some unexpected source of interference, and it can potentially add a lot of time to your set-up.
I hope this helps!

A mixer is really overkill if he only needs two inputs.  Lavolier mics or shotgun mics is a good option and XLR based inputs are a neccessity to use good quality mics, but any multi-line capture device (such as a Zoom h4n) can capture more channels at a cheaper price with less work needed in the field.  Unless you need immediate feedback or need to mix on the fly, with a dedicated sound tech during your recording, a field mixer doesn't really help a whole lot.  It also doesn't really matter if you go direct in to camera as long as the camera has a decent ADC (depends on the camera).

Also, shotgun mics are generally more prone to ambient noise since they are used at a distance, they are, however, less prone to localized noise, such as cloth brushing near the mic.  Proper placement of a LAV is critical to getting good audio from one though (just like with a shotgun mic).


text:
Avid Media Composer 8 - is it possible to edit two video sessions at same time?
I am editing multiple interviews of people and there is video, graphic and audio components that are shared between these different interviews.   Is it possible to have two edit sessions running at same time and how

It isn't really clear what you are hoping to accomplish by having two editing sessions open at the same time.  How are you planning to use two separate sessions simultaneously in your workflow?

Are you talking about having two projects open at one time? As far as I'm aware, Avid MC doesn't let you do that.
But you can import Bins from another project and technically do what you want that way. Otherwise I would just make one project for all the interviews, and separate them with bins if they're all sharing some elements.
EXP:
Interview1 Bin (containing the clips for interview 1)
Interview2 Bin (containing the clips for interview 2)
SFX (Shared sound effects)
Music (Shared music)
GRX  (Shared graphics)