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Color Correction filter to dull/desaturate Video
Novice w/ After Effects, but here it goes...I am looking to emulate the style/technique from this website background video https://y.co/
Is there a color correction effect to create this look? Or is it something like a solid color layer blended in a specific way?
I have footage I am going to use as the landing page background on my website, and I want to create this effect so the text feels like it is in the "foreground" and stands out on top of the background video.

If you do a primary color correction on your video to get it normalized (this is assuming your footage looks correct in terms of exposure, white balance, etc); I'd add the following filters to achieve that look without any plugins...
You would have to play with the parameters; I haven't seen your footage, so I can't say how strong a filter would need to be applied.
Either ADD and Adjustment Layer on Top of your Footage Layers; or you can nest your comp into another comp and do your color correction there.

FILTERS
USE THIS ORDER ON YOUR FOOTAGE/ADJUSTMENT LAYER GOING TOP TO BOTTOM

Color Correction - Brightness Contrast:   Reduce Contrast (you will have to play with this as I don't know if your footage is High Key to begin with).  But to get that look, you want low contrast footage behind your text, so that you lift your blacks and shadows up. I wouldn't increase Brightness unless you shot 4:4:4.  But you want very low contrast which basically flattens out the overall image and mutes the colors as well.
Color Correction - Hue Saturation Lightness (HSL):   Reduce Saturation by 50%. Increase Lightness: 2-10%  Leave Hue at 0.
Color Correction - Vibrance:  Now that you've reduced your Saturation; adjust the Vibrance Up till you get the colors to punch through to your liking. You may need to reduce Saturation in previous filter or not reduce it so much as 50, depending on your footage. But pulling back your saturation a decent amount, and replacing it with Vibrance will give you the tonality you're looking for color space wise.
Last Filter: Add Video Limiter Filter, and soft knee your Luminance to 99.90.

Lastly; if you want to knock your TYPE out from your footage background, you can add even a very small amount of Blur. Gaussian Blur; or Fast Blur, Lens Blur is nice but adds render time. All options would work for this.
FOR YOUR TEXT
Adding a even small stroke will help it pop. Use video/film friendly fonts, no fine lines/hairline fonts. Some of my favorite fonts for video are:  Gotham Ultra; Gotham Book, Gotham Medium, Whitney (SemiBold, Book, Book SmallCaps) Operator in Small Caps various weights, and if you want Serif, Mercury is a great font, as is Perpetua with the right weight.
If you are using fine line fonts, such as Gotham ExtraLight, adding a stroke of 1px as the same color of your font, and reducing the opacity of the stroke to 50% will help.
And lastly; adding a drop shadow (very subtle so almost not noticable) with 0 Distance, 0 Spread and Size 10-25 (Depending on Fontsize) and then reducing the opacity of the shadow to 10-40% works well.  I particularly don't like the drop-shadow look; but I do use it to get the text to pop out from my motion backgrounds.
Regardless, you want your text to background footage to have a wide latitude of contrast. So if your footage is bright, you'll either want to darken the footage down, or use a solid color layer on it, something to create a wider spectrum if you plan to use a light colored or white font. That-- or use a dark font.
If your footage is dark, either brighten it up, or use a bright colored font. Same goes for color.
FINAL TIP
I would recommend having your project comp set to 32 Bit Floating Point as far as workspace, even if your footage is 4:2:0.  You'll get better CC results.

Hope this helps.
Martin

With current versions of After Effects "fast blur" has been replaced by "Gaussian blur". It used the GPU so it's faster than fast blur ever was.


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video player that runs videos from pointed directory and updates list of files to play while new file appears in directory
I am not sure if this community is good place to ask, anyway i will try.
I am looking for a video player that has an option to play files from directory, but each time i copy a new file to directory it will automatically update its playlist to play also new file that came into directory. Quite simple but couldn find any software that is constantly looking into directory or at least once every video ends. I use windows 7, 8 or 10.
Any advice?
Kalreg.

If you're able to use shell scripts ffplay could do it.

Serviio is really good. It has a free and paid option. The free version is great.
http://serviio.org/

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Editing Audio after cutting into clips - Premiere Pro / Audition
I have a video with relatively quiet audio. I've already cut my video into clips in Premiere Pro CC, but I want to increase the audio for my entire video without having the volume change from clip to clip, as some have louder moments than others.
If I use "Normalize All Peaks" in Audio Gain, then my volume is different for every clip. If I use "Normalize Max Peaks", then my volume is ok but it's still too quiet.
Is there a way to export the original audio from my video into Audition, edit it there, and then re-import to Premiere without needing to re-cut it?
Using Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe Audition CC.
Thanks in advance for any help.

If you're willing to use third party plug-ins: Alex Audio Butler (alexaudiobutler.com) is perfect for this: it'll create correct voice levels (even withing clips) automatically for you while you edit.
(disclaimer, I am the developer of this tool)

Each track has a volume control as well in Premiere. You can control volume at the clip level, at the track level, or both. I would suggest using "Normalize Max Peaks" and then boosting the volume of the track.

if you normalise and then boost the level of the track you'll get clipping. To bring up the quieter section of the track you could try using a compressor filter on the audio in Audition.

Under Clip > Audio Options > Audio Gain, where you should have found the two options you talked about, you can choose "Adjust Gain By" and boost the volume by the amount in dB you specify.
You can then listen to your audio and tweak it again with the same option. To decrease the volume, just enter a negative amount into "Adjust Gain By".
See Adobe's help page for more information.

You could use the Audio Track Mixer in Premiere, and add a compressor to your channel, but set its ratio to 1:1 (no compression).  Then just use the gain in the compressor's settings to increase the gain of the entire channel.

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

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


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Which filter and what parameters should I use to deinterlace this video?
I want to use a small part of this video:

 .
It has very bad interlacing that I need to get rid of.
I downloaded the mp4 file, which is 1920x1080, 29.971 fps. I don't know much about video processing, and the only thing I can use is avidemux. So I followed this tutorial: http://www.avidemux.org/admWiki/doku.php?id=tutorial:deinterlacing_video .
I tried the Decomb Telecide filter as the tutorial says, selecting "No strategy" and leaving the other options as default. But it didn't get rid of the interlacing. Then I tried the Yadif filter, and then both filters together, and none of these gave any improvement to the video. The interlacing is still very bad, and I don't know why. I've used Yadif filter on other Youtube videos before, and it works every time except this one.
Which filter and what options should I choose to deinterlace this video properly?

It has nothing to do with filters. The only way to deinterlace this video correctly, is by having the original footage. Right now you are using a .mp4 footage, it was already encoded by Youtube (this encoding process includes a deinterlacing too). So, technically you already are using a deinterlaced video.
If you deinterlace it again, it is like you were trying to put an egg white and yolk inside the eggshell, sure you can do it, but you won't get correct results.

This is a lost cause since the interlaced video got already compressed by youtube destroying the pattern, you will not get a clean progressive video from this.

I would think so, but the OP says: I've used Yadif filter on other Youtube videos before, and it works every time except this one.


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What is the right way to export videos with different FPS?
I know about rendering and exporting. But it's about some video clips having different FPS. For example, my current practice project has:
1. Motion Title (29.97 FPS)
2. Video clip 23.976 FPS
3. Other video clips with 24/23.976 FPS.
I have edited all of them in After Effects. And I'm going to export them as .mov/.avi (lossless) and finally export as compressed format (.MP4) using Premiere Pro.
For this, I'm supposed to change Pr sequence settings to 29.97 FPS and drag all clips into it.
Now question is: Would it affect the quality of the clips that don't match with 29.96 FPS?
Another question: Is it better to compress them individually with their respective FPS settings and COMBINE them later with some software (If such professional software exists)?

Generally, all of your assets should be converted to the same frame rate as your final output frame rate before you begin editing. If you do not convert them beforehand, you may have issues with timings. Things that are supposed to be one length end up being a different length. This is especially true if you export a variable frame rate file. Suddenly a 30 second file becomes 28 seconds, or 33 seconds, or some other length. The audio and the video end at different times. Things may play right in some places, but they may be wrong if they are processed and played elsewhere.
To summarize:

Convert all assets to the final frame rate before editing.
Set your project to the correct final frame rate.
Do not export a mixed or variable frame rate file.

Is there any way to convert without loss of quality? What software should I use? Can Premiere Pro or After Effects do this? Like exporting in Ae as lossless format with required FPS? Secondly I don't understand your point very well. If we're exporting different FPS videos in a single project with definite FPS setting, wouldn't it mean we've converted the FPS of all videos? Or do I need to convert them before it like I've mentioned in first line of this comment?

A frame rate conversion on its own doesn't usually cause a loss of quality. A poorly executed frame rate conversion might and that's what happens when you just let the player or down stream processing software do the conversion. You can use either Premier or AE to convert the frame rate. You should use a high quality intermediate codec like DNxHD when creating assets that will later be edited. In theory having mixed frame rate assets in a single sequence shouldn't be an issue. However, I've seen it cause too many problems, so that's why I recommend converting to the target frame rate first.


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Setting track points from Mocha to a solid makes it very small
I'm a newbie to all of this so please bare with me.
I am following this tutorial.
After tracking the movement with Mocha the tracking data is copied to AE.
If I copy the data and past it onto a solid the solid becomes very small.
I have no idea what causes this. Because of the images that are used on the solid I am not able to scale it up.
See before:

And After:

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here?

Unbelievable,
Right after I asked the question I found the solution online.
After tracking in Mocha make sure you click the "Align selected surfaces" button.
I had to search for it but here it is:

After this you can copy your tracking data and paste it in AE.


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FCPX Continues to Crash on one project
I have a project that seems to keep crashing FCPX. The library for it is pretty massive (all in all about 175gb), but its running off a brand new Thunderbolt external with 2.5TB of space free. Problem report screen shot is below. Is it the App or is the library corrupted? How do I fix this, I need to turn this project out soon.
Also, my machine is brand new:
4GHz Intel Core i7
32GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096MB
EL Capitan 10.11.6
The project itself is somewhat complex, lots of color correction and chroma keying. Not sure if that has any effect on it.
Please help?
Matt

You are much better off taking a crash report to Apple and/or the Apple discussions community.  I think that such a specific problem report is beyond the scope of this Video Production forum.

What you could try is on your Mac, create a new user profile from the System Prefs Panel, then log in using that user and try to open up the project using the new users profile.
If this woks then I would finish off the project ASAP and once finished, do a system restore on the Mac to get rid of any errors or issues that might happen again


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how to burn full hd movies (1080px720p) in DVD
How can i burn or write Full HD videos like (marriage videos) in 1080px720p in regular DVD. I tried many softwares but couldn't get the job done.

DVD Video is limited to Standard Def, not High Def (HD).  Blu-Ray overcomes that limitation.  Alternatively you can use the DVD as a filesystem and play arbitrary media using a computer.  But as a media container itself, the DVDs limits are very restricted.

The format is called AVCHD Disk. You can also author Blu-Ray file structure onto a DVD. Depending on the Blu-Ray player you have, it may prefer one or another or play both, although I assume that nowadays Blu-Ray players play pretty much any variation.
Besides file structure, mind the resolution and frame rate. 1080p60 / 1080p50 is not officially supported by Blu-Ray Disc spec, but usually is played by the players. In the 60 Hz land, 720p30 is also not officially supported (720p60 is the proper format for 720-line video) but usually is played by modern players. If your player is not multi-region, it may reject some frame rates, like it may not play 1080p25 Blu-Ray or AVCHD Disk on a 60 Hz machine even if your disk is not region-locked and the machine can play bare 25p files like AVI or MKV.


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Interning on a Documentary
I'm trying to how to film a doc and I've learned in the past that working with a mentor or something like that helps me learn and gain confidence. Anyone have any clues on how I'd find local film crews that might need some free help for someone who wants to learn?


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How to create a Key wording/tagging system that works across editing platforms
I am an intern with the creative team at a large service organization that works around the world.  We have a large amount of footage from years and years of shooting.  I have been brought on to come up with and implement a key wording/tagging system to make finding clips easier. The goal is to make a keyword/tagging system that is future proof.  Meaning the tags will work across platforms in the case that the organization switches editing softwares.  Final Cut X is able to use keywords/tags that are generated in finder.  However Premiere is unable to read these as far as I can tell.  Does anyone have any idea how to make this work?  The other thing I have tried is generating keywords in Prelude and then seeing if those transfer over to Final Cut.  They do not either.  Any ideas on making a system that can work across platforms would be great!
Thanks!
Christian

I would start look at more of an asset management solution Apple used to have Final Cut Server but there are other systems that are similar made by many others, so might be worth starting there and working forward

Seconding that you want to look into asset management solutions. If you are not primarily a media organization, then you can use either digital asset management (assuming they specify that they can handle video) or media asset management products. If you are primarily a media organization, look into MAM solutions specifically. It is tough to recommend something specific without knowing a lot more details, especially budget.

I essentially need something that can help me tag media and then search for that media based on the tags I make.  On the simplest level that is all it needs to do.


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Expressions: Data-generated After Effects Graphic using CSV file?
Is there a way to read a CSV file or spreadsheet containing dates in timecode in one column and data in another column, then use the time/date to pair with footage to display the corresponding data?
Let's say I have a spreadsheet or csv with the number of sales a company has made in one column and in the other column a timestamp by the second or minute of when the sale was made. I then want to create a video showing in "real time" how many sales are being made during the action on screen.
I've seen a tutorial on reading arrays and importing that data into individual comps, but I'm wondering how I can sync data with video

It's a bit unclear what you're asking. When you say "in real time" you don't mean you want it to change as the data changes? If so you're using the wrong ap. I you want to do a graph then yes, you can do it with expressions, but it might be easier to do it in Excel or illustrator and then animate in AE.

Not in real time in that way, as if the video is live, but rather to give the impression that the numbers updating correspond with the time within the video.
I am basically looking for a way to auto create text based on a spreadsheet, and have it be synced with footage.

So what is it you want to know? For how to  import data into expressions look here: http://blob.pureandapplied.com.au/using-data-from-an-external-file-to-drive-expressions/


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How To Add Outro Animation
I'm new to after effects and currently I am using preset effects. How do I add a second animation(outro effect) after the first animation is completed?
example:
timeline:

1 sec- a picture appears
2 sec- the picture is clear now
3 - 9 secs - the picture is still
10 sec - I want the picture to have an outro effect either wipe out or dissolve.

this is realy basi basic. Take the time to do videocopilot 101
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/after_effects_101/ basic explained in no time. This will get you going

To add a dissolve you would want to add keyframes to the opacity property for the image. Park your playhead at 10 seconds and with the image selected hit the letter t. You should see the opacity property for the layer. If the stopwatch isn't blue then click it, which will turn on animation for that property. Go to the time at which you want to end the dissolve and wind the value down to 0. You should have two new keyframes on the opacity channel, and the layer will fade out.
A wipe can be achieved in many ways, one of the simplest is using a mask. With the image layer selected hold the alt / option key down and double-click the quickmask icon:

That will add a rectangular mask the size of your layer. Hit the m key to show the masks for the layer. Park the playhead at the time at which you want to start your transition and click the stopwatch next to the mask path property to animate the mask, tThis will also make one keyframe.
Now move the playhead to where you want the transition to end. Double click on the mask outline in the comp window, and you should see a wireframe outline around it. Drag the wireframe right off the screen, in the direction you want the wipe to go. Hold the shift key to constrain the movement to vertical or horizontal only. This will create another keyframe, and the layer will wipe off.
You can add easing to the keyframes to make the motion more pleasing - hit the f9 key to add ease-in/out. You can further refine the motion in the graph editor (hit this button with the mask property selected)

As for anything in After effects the ways of achieving these effects are limited only by your imagination and skill. Hopefully using native AE tools instead of relying on presets will give you a taste for how it works.


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Building a new PC - What should I spend money on - CPU or GPU?
I've been given the task of building a new PC for my job - because there is a lot of video encoding coming up in the future and my current PC won't really hack it.
Now I kind of have a budget of about 1000, so i'm wondering where I should focus the money on.  I've found the Xeon 1650 V4 which has like 10 cores for about £600.  But then of course that leaves little money for a GPU.  But do I really need it? Couldn't I sacrifice the GPU all together and just use on board graphics, and let the processor do all the hard work with encoding? Because as far as I know anyway, there arn't really any programs that will actually utilise the GPU when encoding.  At the moment I use Handbrake for my conversion as it's quick and simple and I am quite sure that won't use CUDA or my GPU in anyway.
So i'm stuck with what to do really.  I've just done a build for home (i7 6700k, GTX 1070) and It's a lightning fast machine.  But is it really worth getting a GPU and spending nearly half my budget on it if the processor is going to do all the work?

The other question you need ask is whether the apps you use for encoding use multiprocessors efficiently. So  clock speed vs № of cores is another variable. Some good info available here: https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/index.php

Also might be worth looking at the E5-2670 CPU. They're ridiculously cheap for the performance and they're very popular with people building budget machines with lots of grunt/£. Eg: http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

Important question. What quality of encoding do you target? What resolution? Do you need real time encoding?

The right gpu can make the encoding go lightning fast. But if this is going to work for you is completely dependent on the software you are going to be using. I would ask this question on the handbrake forum.


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How do I playout rtmp stream to SDI (Decklink Studio 4K) using FFMPEG command?we are using Windows 7 operating system
ffmpeg -re -i rtmp://server/live/streamname \
-c:v rawvideo -pix_fmt uyvy422 -vf scale=720x576 \
-c:a pcm_s16le -ar 48000 -ac 2 \
-f nut - | /bmd/bmdplay -C 0 -m 2 -f pipe:0
Kindly share the exact command to take this rtmp stream to Decklink Studio 4K card(SDI).

As the docs say,

you need the Blackmagic DeckLink SDK and you need to configure with
  the appropriate --extra-cflags and --extra-ldflags. On Windows, you
  need to run the IDL files through widl

If so, run
ffmpeg -re -i rtmp://server/live/streamname -c:v rawvideo -pix_fmt uyvy422 -vf scale=720x576 -c:a pcm_s16le -ar 48000 -ac 2 -f decklink "Device"

where Device is to replaced with the name of 'Decklink Studio 4K' as indicated by ffmpeg -f lavfi -i nullsrc -f decklink -list_devices 1 dummy


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Does the GoPro Hero 5 Black have improved video quality over the GoPro Hero 4 Black?
By looking at the specifications of the newly released GoPro Hero 5 and the old GoPro Hero 4, it seems to me that they may be the same since both can record video at 4K@30FPS and take 12MP still images. Does the GoPro Hero 5 Black have improved video quality over the GoPro Hero 4 Black, or is it basically the same image sensor as the previous generation but in a new housing?

They added a few bells and whistles, but the video quality remains the same
http://vegasaur.com/gopro-hero5-hero4-comparison


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Which are the best settings for crisp graphic output using After Effects?
I'm new to AfterEffects but a long time adobe user. I'm trying to do a simple animation using hi-res, lossless PNG's which I have tried exporting at their actual size and @2x up to @4x which I then scale down. I have reason to believe it's not the quality of the PNG's that are the issue as a vector square drawn directly in AE has the same blurred effect.
I have tried the many different codecs- Animation, PNG, H.426 etc but they all have the same results.
Extra info:

I use a retina screened mac
Everytime I open in quicktime it converts the video
I haven't changed any settings, I use the default ones and leave the   export options at the highest quality.

Please help! I had such high hopes for AE!

I'm strongly leaning towards this being a retina-screen issue. When I scale down the video to half the size, the render looks exactly as it should be. However I don't know how to deal with this in video. Anyone else have the same issue?

I think I have a dodgy solution which is to double the size of the composition which goes against a lot of the advice I've seen online. People say that newbies should not fiddle with the default settings. I wonder though why not many other people have brought up this issue? AE is meant to be industry standard right so surely there's others who have the same problem.

Render to an image sequence and see how a frame of that looks. And maybe use something else except Quicktime player to view the video, (e.g. VLC or MPCHC) and see if it still happens. Who knows what Quicktime Player is doing when it "converts" the video.

Also, when you say you save the pngs to their actual size do you mean you're exporting them to the same size as the comp? What is the comp frame size and what is the png image size? Could just be that your comp is lower res than your png.

I tested with VLC and rendered an image sequence with the same results. My composition is 1280x720 and the largest of the assets is 956 × 956 which is the twice the size I want i tot be so I scale it down 50%.

OK, so the asset is sharp when it's 956×956, but you then put it in your comp and scale it down to 50% meaning that it is now 478×478 and it looks softer than it did at full resolution. What did you expect to happen?. Video is a raster format. If you put something in a comp it is going to be rasterised, and if you make it teeny tiny you may run out of pixels. That's what designing for the screen is all about.

If you're designing source artwork in Illustrator, take advantage of the fact you can bring your .ai files straight in AE.
On the layer in AE that you put the AI vector, click the 'continuously rasterize' button and you'll get your crisp vector edges back.

OK, so the asset is sharp when it's 956×956, but you then put it in your comp and scale it down to 50% meaning that it is now 478×478. It looks softer than it did at full resolution. Yes, what did you expect to happen? It has lost 75% of the pixels it originally had, it's going to look softer, end of story. Export from AI at the same pixel size that it's going to be in the comp and that's the resolution you have to work to. If it looks too soft, then change your design.
Video is a raster format. If you put something in a comp it is going to be rasterised, and if you make it teeny tiny you may run out of pixels. That's what designing for the screen is all about. You've only got a grid as large as your final resolution to play with.
Let's put it into perspective that will help you visualise it from a print designer's view. If you were designing for print with a dpi of 300, your 720p video frame would measure around 11cm × 6cm (4.3" × 2.5"). Not very big eh? For something this size you wouldn't put in elements with tiny details and expect those details to look super crisp on the final result. Same for video.
Tiny details will get antialiased and look soft - when they're compressed you will lose even more detail. Your job as a designer is to design stuff that looks good at the final resolution. (And if you think that's a drag, try designing for standard definition interlaced content delivered on VHS tapes. You kids don't know how good you gots it).

I'm not sure if you read everything thoroughly. I have tried leaving it at full-res and I've tried scaling it down. Besides, I've established that it's not the assets causing the softness because when I draw a rectangle using the native AE rectangle tool into the composition, the edges are also soft. Also if I import the assets as vector the issue exists. I'm still convinced it's an issue with there not being a @2x export option. Also, you're a bit mean and I'm not a kid. I'm sure you're lovely irl.

when you put the element into your after effects comp what is the size of it on screen? Since your comp is 720px high, unless it's cropped then it must be scaled down, even if it goes from the top to the bottom. And since video is raster, when you scale things down you have fewer pixels to display them. The reason things don't look as sharp as they do in illustrator is that you've got a small number of pixels to display them with, while in Illustrator you can zoom in indefinitely. Do you understand the difference between vector and raster? BTW I'm a grumpy old cuss irl.

What's the difference between vector and raster? 10 years in the graphics industry and I have no idea! Sarcasm. As I said, when I draw a rectangle, the same thing happens. My concern is that all of the advice on the net says to not fiddle with the settings if you're a newb. I'm a newb, I fiddled with the settings and I achieved what I wanted. Now I want to know why there is nothing written about this.

I don't think your settings are the problem. I think you're trying to do something which the medium doesn't enable you to do. But I am speculating, maybe something is skewiff. Render out the comp to a still image Composition>Save Frame As>file and post it, maybe as well as the original png.


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Centering in After Effects
I'm fairly new to AE and I'm having some issues centering different shape elements.
I've been using the Cmd+double click the Pan Behind tool to center the anchor point on circle and rectangle shapes but but it doesn't work the same with straight strokes. So how do I center the anchor point to the center of a straight stroke's path?
Thank you!

It's not just straight strokes, it's any freehand stroke

There isn't really a good way of doing this. But there is a way of doing it.
With the stroke on its own layer, from the align pallet centre the layer to the composition horizontally and vertically.
Now copy the layer's current position value. Then right-click the position property and choose reset,
Go the stroke's anchor point value (not the layer anchor point but the one inside Contents>shape1>Transform: Shape1.
Paste the original position value there, then click on the individual property values and subtract the value there from half the size of the comp (in other words whatever the position property is now). So if the comp is 1920×1080 and the copied value was [999,123] you'd type 960 - 999 in the x channel and 540 - 123 in the y channel.

I guess the easiest way is to have any single strokes on their own shape layer and use the layer transform adjustments. Thank you!

Yesp. You could copy therm back to the other shape layer once you'd adjusted their transforms. I always feel that Adobe kinda messed up with the way shape layers work, it's always a bit messy.

Oh and I was going to say “I wish they'd made it like Illustrator”, which reminded me—a workaround for complex shapes is to do them in Illustrator, bring them in and convert them to shape layers, since AI has much better tools for the job.


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When livestreaming on YouTube, are the primary/secondary feeds meant for fail-over?
We're currently testing live streaming to YouTube for in-house webinars. In the testing setup, we have a camera going to an HDMI splitter, and then the HDMI feeds going to two transcoding boxes. The primary box uploads to YouTube via a public IP (so it bypasses all firewall, proxy, and internal Quality of service settings) and the secondary box uploads via a 4G mobile data connection (with a theoretical 40mbp/s upload).
The primary box uses rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2 as the upload URL.
The secondary box uses rtmp://b.rtmp.youtube.com/live2?backup=1 as the upload URL.
Now, this works. Both transcoding boxes start streaming, the preview button in the Live Control Room is pressed and the source from the primary transcoder comes through fine. I can disconnect the primary transcoder, watch the buffer health drop down to 0 and then after some delay (may be a few seconds, may be a few minutes) the backup video feed kicks in. I've tried tweaking for interaction/less buffering and added delay, but there's always, always a few seconds of buffering.
Is this an officially supported way of using multiple feeds, or is this a workaround method only?


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Footage with different aspect ratio
During a Summer trip, I took various footage with my JVC100 camera and some with my Galexy note 5. Now, I am thinking of using the footage in one movie project. The cell phone footage obviously has a different quality and sometimes I have held the phone vertically. My project is rather experimental and I don't need a very smooth overall look, yet, I was wondering if there are smooth or sleek ways of combining the footage with different aspect ratios and qualities. I would appreciate examples in experimental movies and technical advice.
Thanks a million!

One way to deal with different aspect ratios is to take footage that is not as wide as your output format and duplicate it in another layer. Increase the scale on this other layer and blur the image, then put the original over it. This produces a nice coherent effect where the area outside the original footage is filled with colors that are from the original footage, but are not distracting.
If you're working in FCPX, there's a built-in filter called "Photo Recall" that does this sort of effect. It shrinks the original image, but you can have it fill the frame instead. Other apps probably have a similar filter or make it fair easy to reproduce.

This is done commonly nowadays, but I find it distracting. The moving areas of the blur attract my attention and mislead me into thinking that the frame extends into that area. When I had to show it to an elderly person, he didn't know that that wasn't part of the video. He said: "but things are moving there". Pillarboxing makes it more watchable.


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Toggle between 2 cameras, 2 person to very close up
We have been making video's while talking in 2 chairs.  No one monitors the camera (we don't have a 3rd person)  We'd like to have another camera which could be switched to for close ups of what we are talking about. We have a Canon Power Shot, various Iphones and a Logitech video camera as well as a few tripods.
I don't know how to edit videos and really don't have the time to learn or I could slip a photo into the videos.  That's not what we would like to do. But while I have you, eventually I'm going to need to get into editing the video's cause the door bell is going to ring or something is going to happen, there's no pause button. What's the easiest program for doing this? Or is there a tool which will also pause the recording?
Is there a tool we can purchase to toggle between cameras? I found something that will hold the Iphone on the tripod as well as a blue tooth on off switch for the camera.
This is the final thing we need to churn out videos.  I hope someone can help me.
Thanks!

It's common to set up one master shot, and 2 over-the-shoulder cameras (each one looking at one person's face with the back of the other person's shoulder somewhat in the shot).  These would be 3 separate cameras, all running simultaneously.
I have used Adobe Premiere CC (CC means "Creative Cloud") to edit this kind of a setup.  You can import the footage from all 3 camera angles, sync up the sound between the 3 tracks, and then toggle from camera to camera in real time!  For example:

You shoot a 10-minute conversation with 3 cameras.
You import the three 10-minute tracks into Adobe Premiere CC.
You align them so they are all synchronized.
You play them back and, while they are playing, you can click on the track that you want to see at that moment.  In effect, it will be "cutting" from camera to camera.  That will take you 10 minutes (because you're doing it in real-time).
You export that footage as another video file.  It will show the conversation and will include all of the "cuts" (switching of camera angles) that you did while it was playing in Premiere.

I recommend using the sound from only ONE of the cameras.  You can mute the other 2 cameras.
FYI, there are probably other editing software programs that can do exactly this.  Adobe Premiere CC is just the one I've used.  I like its interface, and instead of paying a large amount of money up front, you pay a small amount per month.

WOW your so far beyond where we are.  I get what you are saying but this is more like a movie type of thing.  So is there no such creature as some sort of toggle switch?  The 2nd camera needs to be off while we are talking and then we'd switch to the close up of a small item on a table... very close details.  I've found the magnifying cameras but it's useless if I don't have the toggle.  I know of 2 people who do this. I guess it's time to find their contact information. Thanks anyway.

I'll bet there is a consumer version of a "video switchboard" that would toggle between cameras like you're talking about. They use those for live new broadcasts. The way I envision it is that all the cameras would feed into the switchboard, and there would be one output that would go to a recorder (or a built-in recorder). As you "toggle", the input from the camera you selected would start being recorded. I've never done this, and I've found I can get the same effect by doing it AFTER I've shot, using an cheap editing program. (Sorry I made it sound so complicated! It's really simple.)


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ffmpeg H264 mp4 and AVCHD avc1 vs HDPR?
I am running the following command to get the stream data for mp4 and AVCHD video files. My goal is to understand the differences if any between the video streams. I used a JVC camcorder for the test.
ffmpeg -i file.mts
ffmpeg -i file.mp4

The result command displayed the following for video streams regarding h264 for the MTS and MP4 files.
h264 (high) (HDPR / 0x332D4341)
h264 (high) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

I gather that the (high) is the h264 profile. What is the HDPR and hex number that follows? The above output is from the MTS and MP4 files respectively. I have searched the ITU's document on h264 and did not find references to avc1 nor HDPR.
Thanks,
Tim

Those are codec tags. Many apps rely on these to decide which decoder to employ. If the tag isn't recognised,  the video won't show even if the app is otherwise capable of working with it

Avc1 is standard.  HDPR looks proprietary


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(FFMPEG) Creating SD Pal Anamorphic
I'm using a shell script to automate some FFMPEG processes. The main part I'm interested in is the options following the -vf flag below:
ffmpeg -loglevel verbose -y -i "${FILE}" -vcodec prores -profile:v 1 -vf scale=720:576,setdar=4:3,setsar=1:1 "${OUTPUTDIR}/${FILENAME%.*}_SD.mov" >"${LOGDIR}/${LOGFILE}"

This script should be generating an SD Pal Anamorphic ProRes LT mov which is being sent to an ad streaming company. The worry we're having is that while this generates a 720x576 file which is good, upon comparison to the previous encoder we were using (Squeeze) using Premiere it appears as though Squeeze outputs a 1.0940 ratio pixel, while this outputs a 1.0 and thereby displays it slightly squished horizontally (more so than our normal anamorphics).
One would assume this is because of the setsar=1:1, therefore changing it to 1:1.094 would fix things, but that just makes it 0.9410 or something in Premiere and squishes it even more!
We're unsure on how the ad streaming company processes anamorphic files on their side, so I don't know whether the square pixels will fly or not.
Another note is that when these files are generated, they are pulled into Quicktime, and if the info screen displays 720x576 it's okay, but if it is followed by another resolution like (780x576) in brackets then the ad streaming company will deny it.

The ad company wants anamorphic? I find that very odd. Reversing the ratio numbers might work.

Can you confirm the spec? If all 720 px are active, then setdar=4/3 is correct but without the setsar. If Rec. 601  is required,  as is likely,  then setsar=59/54 is needed without the setdar

It looks like Free TV Australia requires 601 for SD picture.
Previously when I only set setdar=4:3 and not setdar=1:1 it gave me an incorrect resolution. I'll test your setdar=59/54 when I get the chance though. Thanks for your recommendation!

Last time I uploaded a TVC in Australia (using dubsat) they accepted HD, they even took proRes.


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How to modify audio level of video according to replaygain info?
I have a bunch of music videos I have downloaded from youtube. I usually put them in a playlist in mpc (Media Player Classic). The problem is that the audio levels of the videos are quite different and I have to adjust the volume for each one.
If I hear them in foobar2000 (it's an audio player) there's no problem because it can apply the replaygain info wich I have added to the videos, but mpc hasn's this feature.
Mpc has a normalization option but it is dynamic and is not what I want.
An aceptable solution would be to recode the video with the audio levels corrected. But I want to move the audio level globally to the video, not dynamic normalization. And also I want to leave the video untouched. What tool can I use?

FFmpeg, a free command-line tool, has a volume filter that should do this.
Syntax would be
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -af volume=replaygain=track output.mp4

The af invokes the volume filter with the option set to adjust the volume using the track replaygain value (if present). Video is set to passthrough into the output.

"using the track replaygain value (if present)." - How does one add this replaygain value if it is NOT present?

Maybe I should post another question?


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What to do first: effects or montage?
I have to make a five-minute video for a school project. The video includes a few interviews where I want to have their name and job description slide in, and blur the background to prevent distractions. I was planning to do these edits in AE and make a montage of the interviews in Premiere Pro. So in what order do you recommend to do these activities? Both options have their pros and cons:

If I montage it first, AE has to render the whole video again, and I suppose that's not necessary for the parts where I'm not going to use masks and stuff.
If I edit it first, I'm probably going to apply masks at fragments that I'm not going to use, that's also quite time-consuming.

So which method do you recommend?

Probably the best way would be to first edit your video completely in Premiere Pro and then use the dynamic-link feature. If you do it the other way round, you won't know exactly what footage will be used and on which clips to apply the effects. If you've already edited your clips and put them into a timeline you know how your final film will look and you're able to integrate the effects much better into your film.
For the dynamic-link workflow, create a new timeline in Premiere Pro and do all of your editing (what you called montaging).
After you've done with your final edit, you can bring the clips into After Effects to do the effects. Right-click on the clip you want to edit and select "replace with After Effects composition". Then this single clip will be automatically opened in After Effects and you can apply your effects. The clip in your Premiere timeline will be automatically replaced with the AE composition and you still are able to change your edit later and change stuff in your timeline. Then after you've done all the effects you need render the Premiere Pro timeline and you have your finished film.

I second. Your approach to this should be focused on the story, the graphics are a finishing touch. Cut up your bytes, and condense them down. Cut out all of the ums, ahhs, reconstruct bytes to make them more concise, to pack as much information- the good stuff- into as tight a timeframe as possible.
Now you have a basic string out of interviews ready to work with.
Lay down music. You'll want some breathers. Where the bytes break to music (typically during chorus) and you montage b-roll shots/graphics/supporting visuals.
Construct where where these breathers will be. Create the stringout using the music... if it's a 5 minute piece, most likely 2-3 songs. Make sure you splice them, and pay them off. They need to end. Get your song edits cut, and place markers where your breathers will go, where interviews will go.
Now start placing the interview bytes. Focus on structure and story. That's what really matters. Period.
Next, lay in b-roll. Cover any interview jumpcuts where edits were made, and fill in the breathers. Pay Off and Open each song with graphics and strong visuals.
Lastly, you can take your project output into AE, and create your lower thirds. Graphics.
If you don't want to use the Dynamic Link Flow approach listed above- which does work, but I prefer hard assets rendered to disk, you can build your graphics with your video output from premiere. Then render out just the graphic sections and disabling the video track (so theres no background). Render out as Quicktime Codec Animation 100 Q with Alpha RGB+Alpha.
These files will be uncompressed 100% quality renders of your graphics, and you can drop them back into premiere and re-render a final output.
For archive:  Easiest to just save the entire project to 2 copies on disk, but if you want to archive as a "lay to tape" method, just make sure you render the program clean (no graphics), program dirty (with graphics), then mix minuses, one only music, one only bytes, one only sfx, one only music no mix, etc.
Saving to disk, far easier.


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ffmpeg statement for Anaglyph of Red-Cyan Color
I'm trying to take two input videos (can be in avi, mp4, whatever ffmpeg supports) and combine them into a stereoscopic video with the "ffmpeg" utility that uses simple red and cyan colored glasses (anaglyph). I have tried the following statements with input files of type mp4:
ffmpeg -i left.mp4  -i right.mp4          stereo3d=al:arcc  video_arcc.mp4
ffmpeg -i left.mp4  -vf "movie=right.mp4" stereo3d=al:arcc  video_arcc.avi

I see error messages like:
Error message: [NULL @ 0000000003220940] Unable to find a suitable output format for 'stereo3d=al:arcc'
stereo3d=al:arcc: Invalid argument

My source images are a series of JPEGs that I can convert to any input format. It would be preferrable to use left%06d.jpg" and "right%06d.jpg", but that is an extra layer of difficulty for now.
What command line options do I need for ffmpeg anaglyph red-cyan?

stereo3d is a video filter so it has to be specified via a filterchain or complex. Since you have two inputs, and stereo3d only converts a single input from one form of 3D arrangement to another, you'll have to combine the two image sequences first. For which, you can use the hstack filter, which will place the two sequences side-by-side.
So,
ffmpeg -i "left%06d.jpg" -i "right%06d.jpg" -filter_complex "hstack,stereo3d=sbsl:arcc" video_arcc.mp4

By default, image sequences are treated as 25 FPS and hence so will the output, in this case. If the framerate is different, say 24, then the beginning will be
ffmpeg -framerate 24 -i left%06d.jpg" -framerate 24 -i "right%06d.jpg


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Premier Pro CC 2015.3 Fast forward causes slow rendering
I have to make some fast forwarded videos.
If I fast foward a video track in premier pro (1000%, 10x times faster) it causes VERY slow rendering.
I have an i7-4790k@4.6ghz, 16GB ram and an SSD, and they are mostly unused. CPU usage is around 5-8%, ram 700MB and SSD 1% by premier pro.
Normal speed rendering is fully using the CPU, so thats good.
Example:
1 hour video scaled down to ~6 minutes is more than 30 minutes of rendering.. While the normal speed rendering is almost real-time.
The video should be 1080p 29.97fps, h.264 + aac, maximum render quality is off, use previews is on.
Any solution would be appreciated, I already tried different codecs and nesting sequences, didn't really affect the rendering speed and resource usage.

Is frame blending on? in the render settings at the bottom is a Time Interpolation drop down. Frame sampling is the fastest, frame blending is better quality but slower and optical flow even more so.


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I just want my camera to focus on EVERYTHING when recording.. please help.
I am learning how to shoot DSLR video and am struggling to get my 5D Mark III to focus on EVERYTHING.. It always wants to focus on only one specific area creating Depth of field on everything else and I would just like it to focus on everything.. How can I achieve this?
Like when someone is walking towards the camera I'd like it to stay focused on that along with the background.

There are three answers to this question.
Number 1: use a much, much smaller sensor size.  Every factor of two smaller means you can use half the focal length and enjoy an effective 2 f-stops of depth of field at the same aperture value.  Thus 35mm to m43 means you can use a 25mm f2 lens and get the same depth of field as a 50mm f4 lens.  A 2/3" video camera (broadcast standard) means you can use a 12mm f2 lens and get the same depth of field as a 50mm f8 lens.  A 1/3" video camera (old prosumer standard) means you can use a 6mm f2 lens and get the same depth of field as a 50mm f16 lens.  And you still have the light-gathering benefit of an f2 lens.
Number 2: use a tilt-shift lens to move the plane of focus.  It could be that the "everything" you want can be achieved that way.  See this link for examples of photos and setups.
Number 3: be careful when composing images so that you never have objects closer to the lens than the closest in-focus point, and neither do you have objects further than the farthest in-focus point.  This requires you to actually have control over your scene.
But really, a FF35 camera is usually chosen precisely because it offers very shallow DOF.  You are fighting against nature to try to get a deep depth of field.

The easiest way is to close the aperture down to something like f/8. That should expand the depth-of-field to encompass a wide range. Also, being farther from the camera can help, as well. Note that you'll need to increase the amount of light to compensate for such a small aperture.


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If I limit the color spectrum of a video, will it compress to a smaller file size?
I know that in exporting images, if I use an indexed color format when I save (such as GIF or PNG with indexed color mode), I can dramatically reduce the file size of the resulting export.  My question is if I have a video file that is full of color and filter it so it contains less unique hues, will the resulting file be smaller?  (I have heard that some video compression methods will compress black and white video less than color video.)
Context
I am creating a video for a company's website and they are using it as a video background.  They want it to look as good as possible but be as small a file as possible.  If I limit the colors to their brands colors and a couple necessary ones, I'm wondering if that will help.

In theory, yes, but you could also just increase the quantizer i.e. increase CRF.

You would be better off spending the time eliminating things that cause artifacts, especially macroblocking, like fast motion and sharp edges than limiting your color palette. If you don't induce artifacts, you can increase the compression ratio and maintain quality.

a useful technique is to drop the resolution of the video, but to add a higher resolution semi-transparent overlay to help give an impression of sharpness. Have a look at https://museumvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/ to see this technique in action


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What's the mac software or plugin for filters like those?
I was wondering what software do the professionals use to apply filters like THIS.
Modern series like the ones Netflix is making are another example that use those kind of nice movie filters.
So if u guys could help me, what's a good software, and how to apply this kind of stuff, filters, color corrections, etc.
Thanks a lot.

can you be more specific as to which effect as your question is very board

Color correction, and color changing, in general, I'm just making simple non professional vídeos of a band playing, and wanted to give it a nice touch.

Final Cut Pro X includes colour correction and grading tools, as do After Effects and the free Da Vinci Resolve.

Colour correction is a field that people devote their entire careers to. What makes you think it is as simple as applying a "nice movie filter"? Insulting, much?
That video looks good because it was shot by a skilled cinematographer, with good lighting, good art direction, good editing and good colour grading, as well as some judicious use of effects like the video scan lines which may indeed have been a filter. The fact that the acting and direction are good helps too, though it's the look we're discussing here.
If you want to recreate that kind of look I'd suggest you

become (or hire someone who is) a skilled cinematographer. Should be doable in somewhere between ten years to a lifetime, the best ones are learning until they retire.
become (or hire someone who is) a skilled art director. Once again anywhere up to a lifetime should be enough
become or hire someone… etc. etc.

I'm don't think I'm insulting anyone by asking in which program this kind of stuff is made. I'm also not saying that my filter would get as nice and well polished as theirs (it could take a hundred years for someone to be professional, that was not my question). Maybe I don't know the exact terms, but I just wanted to know a good software, where these "EFFECTS", not to say filter than, are made.


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Fast pans and motion seem to strobe or stutter, why?
I have some high frame rate video from a video camera. It is shot at 50 frames per second. But my editing project is set at 25 frames per second. When I render the timeline out every movement seems to strobe or stutter across the screen.
What can be done to fix it?

what editor are you using? As 3pointedit mentions it is probably interlacing. Most NLEs can deal correctly with interlacing, but you may have to set the interpretation for the footage.

If the original High Frame Rate (HFR) source was recorded with a (non DSLR) video camera there is a good chance that each frame has been created interlaced. This means that when a shot is not moving you have full resolution, but when you pan or the subject moves it will be separated across the frame in alternating lines.
If you remove half of those alternating lines by using "De-interlace" technique you only see half the resolution. If you blur the lines vertically a bit (like 2 pixels) you will get soft pictures that smear during movement.
The reason that the original looks good is because it is played back at full speed interlaced. But that is really 50fps! That is why it looks so smooth.
Its like a ladder has every second rung removed, making you jump each step. It looks weird. This applies to high frame rate footage that is recorded progressively (not mixed as alternating lines), where there are more whole frames. Progressive recording is better vertical resolution because movement doesn't smear across the frame in the same way.
One potential solution would be to try Optical Flow retiming. Some applications like FCPX or Premier Pro use this for slow motion but you can also use it to try and fix interlace to progressive. By adding a 0.5 or 1% speed change, the optical flow effect will try to make new better frames using all of the interlace information.
Alternatively you can get the NLE software to "interpret" the footage when imported so that the interlacing or alternate frame is merged 50% with the first frame in the sequence.
So in future, if you want to make a 24fps or 25fps project from HFR footage, I suggest shooting at a wider shutter angle to make the motion blur more pronounced or avoid fast pans.

Every other frame has been thrown away, so your final frame rate is 25fps. You need to use cinematic techniques to reduce stutter. Use slower shutter speed. Follow the subject. Blur the background. Do not pan fast: either pan slowly or do a whip-pan. Do not pan over vertical objects like trees or a fence.
If you cannot re-shoot, try using motion blur setting in your NLE.


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Use ffprobe or ffmpeg to list ony english tracks
as the title suggests I need command for ffmpeg or ffprobe to list only english sub and audio tracks in a media file;I suspect this may involve using sed, awk, or exiftool--if anyone can explain I would appreciate it. TIA

The command will show entries for those English tracks which have been assigned a language tag of eng:
ffprobe -show_entries stream=index,codec_type:stream_tags=language -of compact video.mp4 -v 0 | grep eng

Output e.g.
stream|index=1|codec_type=audio|tag:language=eng

(On Windows, use findstr eng in place of grep eng)

finally! thanks--I've been asking all over and you're the first one to answer with something I could actually use..:)

With ffmpeg, you'll get a list of streams, showing any tracks that have been tagged with a language type like so:
ffmpeg.exe -i %a% 2>&1 | find "Stream"

Output (showing list of audio, video & subtitle tracks with any language tags):
Stream #0:0[0x83e]: Video: h264 (High) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p(top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x83f]: Audio: ac3 ([129][0][0][0] / 0x0081), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
Stream #0:2[0x841]: Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s (default)
Stream #0:3[0x840]: Audio: mp3 ([4][0][0][0] / 0x0004), 0 channels
Stream #0:4[0x842]: Audio: mp3 ([4][0][0][0] / 0x0004), 0 channels
Stream #0:5[0x853](tai): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:6[0x854](may): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:7[0x855](vie): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:8[0x856](tha): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:9[0x857](ind): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)
Stream #0:10[0x858](bur): Subtitle: dvb_subtitle ([6][0][0][0] / 0x0006)

I know this is a bit old, but I was looking for the same thing and I found a better way.
So first the code for ffprobe
ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=index,codec_name,codec_type:stream_tags=language -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 "location\input.avi"

The results will show only what you're looking for and nothing more, were as with Mulvya results will include more than what you need, so now all you have to do is split the results.
This is how I would do this in batch
For /F "tokens=1* delims=^=" %%a in ('ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream^="index,codec_name,codec_type:stream_tags^=language" -of default^=noprint_wrappers^=1 "location\input.avi"') do (
        Echo. %%a %%b
)
Results:
index 0
codec_type video
codec_name h264
TAG:language und
index 1
codec_type audio
codec_name aac
TAG:language eng

This is how I'd do it in bash, although I'm still learning, so there could be a better way to script this.
for i in $(echo $(ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=index,codec_name,codec_type:stream_tags=language -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 "location/input.avi") | tr " " "\n") ; do
   echo $(echo $i | cut -d \= -sf 1)  $(echo $i | cut -d \= -sf 2)
done
Results:
index 0
codec_type video
codec_name h264
TAG:language und
index 1
codec_type audio
codec_name aac
TAG:language eng

One major difference with the results using ffprobe on windows and Linux, is that with Linux the results show up on a single line, with windows each result appears on a new line, so, with windows we can get away with simply splitting the results, using the delimiter "=", but with bash we need to first split the space, then split by "=".
Now that we've got our results, with either version, you can simply do an if statement to determine the language, although I would suggest doing an if statement to first find "TAG:language" then a nested statement to check what language, I consider this more of a fail-safe, although I doubt there's a codec type/name called eng.

were as  with Mulvya results will include more than what you need --> my command shows fewer fields than yours, as shown in the Output sample.

What you're referring to are the filtered results from the loop, which for mines includes codec_name and shows both streams, if OP doesn't want that, then it can be changed quite easily. But regardless, that's not what I meant regarding the unnecessary data, if I was to run both ffprobe commands, yours would output more data, whereas mines only displays the data I specified in my command, here's an image of the results, in fact, we can output only your results the same way by using "-v error -show_entries stream=index,codec_type:stream_tags=language -of compact f.mp4".

Looks like you missed the -v 0 and grep in my command.


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Which settings • preferences • preset to use in Adobe Premiere when exporting in QuickTime (.mov) format to avoid lines?
My workflow:

Record footage on iPhone
Copy to Mac
Add to Adobe Premiere
When dragging iPhone clips "change sequence settings"
Edit / Cut / Transitions / all that fancy stuff
Nest clips
Speed / Duration to something "instagram-able" (say 25 seconds)
Speed keyframes so initially and on exit it's in real-life speed
Add some music
Export media as QuickTime (.mov) so that later I can synchronise with iPhone
Set maximum bitrate to something really big (30Mbps) so that quality is preserved
Post to Instagram (1 hour of effort for each post)

Now...

What am I doing wrong?
What switch / option / settings / preferences would allow me to avoid... (see image above for a still frame)

Looks like you have interlaced turned on. Try a different method of frame blending


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Convert 29.970030 fps .mp4 to 29.970000
I'm working on web project where the position of the user's mouse triggers a video to play forward and backwards.
Here's my problem: The code I'm using to achieve this requires the video file to be exactly 29.97000 fps, but exporting my work from Photoshop/Premiere gives me 29.970030 fps. Re-encoding the video with Handbrake gave me the same result. Currently using OSX 10.11.6.
Is there a way to "force" Adobe Suite Applications/Handbrake to export video @ exactly 29.97000 fps, or do I need to use a more barebones method (VirtualDubMod, AviSynth, ffmpeg, etc) to achieve this?
Any help/advice is much appreciated!

If your code literally requires 29.97, then use ffmpeg with the argument -r 29.97.

The definition of "29.97" is correctly 30 * (1000 / 1001), which is 29.97002997. That's what you have. I don't know why do you think you need exactly 29.97000, but it's probably a misunderstanding.

Thanks for clarifying! In my case, when I inspected the video file I intend to replace with VLC, the media information panel listed it's frame rate as 29.970000, while the file I created to replace it shows up as 29.970030.
original

replacement

Following up, any idea why the exact frame rate these two files report would be different?

@Androbaut  No idea. In many cases the "frame rate" is actually stored as the frame interval, the inverse of the rate. So true 29.97 might be stored as 33.36666... (mSec per frame), where 29.970000 would be stored as 33.36670. But that doesn't explain where the error arose. As I said, maybe a misunderstanding on someone's part, a bad assumption that "29.97" meant exactly 29.97. It could also be premature rounding, or carrying a double-precision number as a float, or... something else.

Thanks for getting back to me! So, to settle this once and for all, let's say I make my goal (as quixotic as it may be) to have the video file I rendered show up as 29.970000 when examined in VLC (like the other file I referenced above) instead of 29.970030. Is there a way I might be able to modify the frame interval (from 33.36666 to 33.36670)?

@Androbaut  It depends on which codec and container you're using. I don't see any mention of that in your post or comments. If the container is (say) MP4 then you'd need to get the layout of the MP4 header, locate the field(s) that contains this value, and use a binary / hex editor to change the field(s). No change should need to be made to the video data. There may also be tools available to edit the header, like MP4Box or http://mp4ui.sourceforge.net/ or possibly avconv or ffmpeg. Google "video header change frame rate" for more.

This is most likely just a rounding error in the display of a floating point integer. Even if that is not the case, 0.00003 fps is one extra frame every nine and a half hours of video. If the software consuming this file can not handle that, you should change that component, not the encoder.


text:
Where can I found example video in 120fps and up?
Where can I found and download video example in 120fps/240fps and up? I haven't a device to record on that FPS, I want it for learn to create a slow mo video. Thanks

Most slo mo iPhone videos are 120-240fps. Higher production quality videos that have slowed down video usually shoot at 60fps and cut it in half to 30fps. This is due to many high ends cameras not shooting high speed and if they do it is usually at lower resolutions. That is unless they have a camera dedicated for high speed like a phantom flex. The second part about making a slow motion video. You don't really make it. You shoot something that is going to be cinematic slowed down or adds emotion to it when slowed. Then simply cut the video to 50% or less depending on the frame rate. General rule of them is don't go under 30fps as it gets very choppy.


text:
Is there a way to improve quality for videos with snow/confetti/LCD in background?
The effect I'm referring to:

Essentially, the snow/confetti in the shot means lots of motion, hence a lot of the available bitrate is taken up by it, thereby reducing the quality of the other elements in the shot.
In particular, I see this problem with videos that have animated LCD displays in the background:

Those videos are uploaded by the original TV broadcaster (with access to the highest quality original video), and more or less top out looking like 480p, even when viewing at 720p or 1080p. The same quality issues appear in videos on the broadcaster's own site, so it's not just YouTube's compression going overboard:
http://www.mbcplus.com/Player/MusicBox/RetrieveClipInfo.aspx?clipId=736
If a human were deciding what elements in the shot to dedicate the bitrate to, they would obviously allocate it to the foreground objects (the people) at the expense of lowering the quality of the background (the LCD).
Is there any technique (encoding/compression/etc.) that can improve the quality of the foreground elements when such a background is present in the shot?
And I'm sure some people would also be interesting in any techniques that can be done at the time of filming that would produce better results, when they cannot change the content of the shot and have to deal with snow/confetti/animated LCD in the background.

Good question. I wonder if using noise reduction would work? Might be worth having a try with different noise reduction algorithms, because the bandwidth hogging background elements are a bit like noise. Of course if you had the time you could mask / roto out the background and add a bit of blur to it, but in those examples it would be a lot of work.

Yes this feature exists, but it is not widely used yet.
Texas Instrument developped such solution, called SmartCodec, which looks to be implemented in a Samsung video surveillance system: Megapixel Camera This is a HW based solution, that is for market of video surveillance.
I think it would be implemented in future video codecs HEVC, adopted by many boradcaster, and it's called Region-of-Interest Based Rate Control Scheme
HEVC is already released, and in used today, but this feature really looks new. And it will take months~years for it to be implemented in the encoder on the production house, I guess. Apparently, it is something really new, since a paper about that has been accepted for presentation at the ICIP 2016, which took place in september.

To my knowledge, this is active research in the context of video calls in sign language.

Is there any technique (encoding/compression/etc.) that can improve the quality of the foreground elements when such a background is present in the shot?

I don't know of any encoding algorithm that can differentiate between objects in a video and allocate different amounts of bits for those objects based on how important they are. That's not really how compression algorithms work. Maybe with machine learning we will get there eventually, but I'm pretty sure no such thing exists.

Those videos are uploaded by the original TV broadcaster (with access to the highest quality original video), and more or less top out looking like 480p, even when viewing at 720p or 1080p. The same quality issues appear in videos on the broadcaster's own site, so it's not just YouTube's compression going overboard:

The bad quality is caused by the low bitrate in combination with video content that can't be compressed very good (as explained in the video by Tom Scott). Another way to put this is the video has high entropy, i.e. more information than a regular video (without confetti, snow or something similar). To save a video with high entropy in the same quality as a video with low quality, you need a higher bitrate. So if you have control over the final video, just raise the bitrate and you will be fine. Another possibility is to use a variable bitrate. This way, the encoder can allocate a higher bitrate to the parts of the video with high entropy and a lower one for the parts with low entropy, thus raising the overall quality significantly.
If you upload to Youtube, there's nothing you can do. No matter how high the bitrate and quality of your original video, Yotube will compress it upon upload, making it look bad again. You could export your video in 4k, this might help since Youtube uses a higher bitrate for 4k video, ergo better quality. But if your original footage isn't shot in 4k, I wouldn't recommend that.

And I'm sure some people would also be interesting in any techniques that can be done at the time of filming that would produce better results, when they cannot change the content of the shot and have to deal with snow/confetti/animated LCD in the background.

What can you control?
If you want to avoid this mess, get the confetti out of the shot. Turn the LCD screen off. If you can't do that, change the composition and/or pespective so that less of that stuff is in your shot. Zoom in closer on the actors/dancers so they fill more of the screen, ergo less background noise.
But honestly, this is really a Youtube-specific problem because they use a terribly low bitrate for their encoding. I wouldn't compromise my video composition or content to avoid this problem. Just use a different hoster that encodes uploaded videos with higher bitrates such as Vimeo.

Well, of course if we all uploaded and downloaded in 4K this would be much less of an issue. But reality being what it is, we're a long way away from that day, so I don't see this as a YouTube-specific problem. E.g. even the videos on the Korean TV broadcaster's site have the same quality problems, and their site exclusively targets the country with the fastest internet connections in the world. Anywhere video compression is needed will face this problem.

@subuleech Actually, a higher resolution does nothing to improve the quality of your video if you don't raise the bitrate as well. In fact, if you use the same bitrate, the 4k video will probably look worse than a 1080p one. Their website is clearly ancient and/or poorly coded (they still use flash ...), so it's no surprise to me that their video content has poor quality as well. They probably have some encoder running that compresses the video too much, or they use bad settings for their exports as well. Raising the bitrate just a bit can do much for your overall quality.

And I'm sure some people would also be interesting in any techniques that can be done at the time of filming that would produce better results, when they cannot change the content of the shot and have to deal with snow/confetti/animated LCD in the background.

Obtaining a narrow depth of field (which relates to the selection of camera lenses) should help, blurring out some of the 'noise' both in front of and behind the subject.  This may incur more effort on the camera operators to keep the subject in focus.

Maybe you can give video editor (Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc) or video enhancer (AVCLabs Video Enhancer AI) a try.


text:
Premiere sometimes not rendering 4k MXF files from Sony FS5
I'm working in 4k for the first time.  I've got footage from a variety of sources, and I'm working on a 4k timeline (see sequence settings below).
When I try to render between In and Out points, I get the following error when Premiere gets to certain MXF files.  All the MXF files came from a Sony FS5 camera, shooting in one of the flatter "log" picture modes (can't remember exact setting).
It renders some of them fine, but some I had to reconvert into ProRes.
I'd like to work directly from the MXF files if possible.
I'm using a 2015 MacBook Pro 16GB RAM, OS X 10.11.6 with Adobe Creative Cloud 2015, Premiere version 2015.4 release, v.10.4.0(30) build.
Error message when I try to render in Premiere:

Error message from Media Encoder:

Sequence settings:

Problematic clip properties below:
Clip0019.MXF
Type: MXF
File Size: 2.76 GB
Image Size: 3840 x 2160
Frame Rate: 25.00
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 24 bit - 4 channels
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - 4 channels
Total Duration: 00:03:58:14
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0

MXF File details:
Wrapper type: MXF OP1a (type: SingleItem SinglePackage MultiTrack Stream Internal)
File generated by: Sony, Mem  (2.00)
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Long GOP High Profile 4:2:0 Unconstrained Coding

Try remuxing it : ffmpeg -i in.mxf -c copy out.mxf

Premiere supports MXF container file formats with the following formats
P2 Movie: Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra
Sony XDCAM HD 18/25/35 (4:2:0)
Sony XDCAM HD 50 (4:2:2)
AVC-LongGOP
XAVC Intra
XAVC LongGOP
JPEG2000
IMX 30/40/50
XDCAM EX

This is not a complete answer in that it does not address the 4K question.  I don't have a SONY F5 so cannot test, but I suspect that Pro CC 2017 (not 2015) probably does support the MXF format of the SONY F5.  Thus, the correct answer is probably "upgrade PPro CC 2015 to PPro CC 2017".  But again, I cannot test it as I don't have the proper source material.

This is what I did, and 2017 does appear to have fixed the issue.


text:
After Effects Expression, layer not found or missing
I'm using a plugin called Duik 15 to rig a character to turn the right arm into an IK controller, and it has produced an expression that is unable to find one of my layers.
I'm not sure why it's not able to see it, but I'm wondering if anyone has encountered the issue before within their expressions?
Here's the expression that Duik generated, with the problem being on line 2.
//Duik.twoLayerIK
layer1 = thisComp.layer('M R Bicep'); // Not finding me
layer2 = thisComp.layer('M R Forarm');
controller = thisComp.layer('C_M R Hand');
endPos = layer2.effect('IK End')(1);
ctrlEffect = controller.effect("IK M R Forarm");
limit = effect('IK Limit')(1);
FK = ctrlEffect(4);
IKFK = ctrlEffect(3) == 0;
cw = ctrlEffect(1) == 1;
function getWorldPos(L) {
    return L.toWorld(L.anchorPoint);
}
function ik() {
    A = getWorldPos(layer1);
    B = getWorldPos(layer2);
    C = layer2.toWorld(endPos);
    E = getWorldPos(controller);
    a = length(B,C);
    b = length(E,A);
    c = length(A,B);
    x = (b*b + c*c - a*a )/(2*b);
    alpha = Math.acos(clamp(x/c,-1,1));
    D = E - A;
    delta = Math.atan2(D[1],D[0]);
    result = radiansToDegrees(delta - (cw ? 1 : -1)*alpha);
    V = B - A;
    adj1 = radiansToDegrees(Math.atan2(V[1],V[0]));
    IK = result - adj1 + value;
    if (IK < limit) IK+=360;
    return IK;
}
IKFK ? ik() : FK;

And also a screenshot of some of my layers, with the offending code situated inside M R Bicep's rotation expression.

This is on a mac right? Has it only just started hapening? I've been having trouble with layer names in expressions on a mac with the most recent version of AE, specifically with the DUIK scripts. For some reason the layer names end up with invisible line returns in them. It's made DUIK almost unusuable on the mac.

I can confirm this is still happening on Mac, latest version of AE :(

I don't know if this counts as an answer so much as a workaround but I was getting the same error message when I was manually typing in the layer name. There was no typo; the layer definitely existed. It was maddening.
But when I used the pickwhip to link it to the layer, After Effects would automatically generate the 'thisComp.layer("Layer Name Here")' code. Then I just built the rest of my expression around that line. That seemed to work fine.


text:
ONVIF IP-camera Europe
I am looking for an IP-camera model that is cheap, I can order from Europe and most importantly supports the ONVIF standard. The quality of the camera does not matter as it will be used for motion detection or as a light sensor.
I can find an IP-camera in the price range I am looking for (less than 50€), but I am not at all certain whether they have ONVIF support. ZBravo cameras claim to have it, but I couldn't find it on the list below, and I would have to order them form China.
http://www.onvif.org/ConformantProducts/ProfileProducts.aspx

I consulted with a colleague who works with Onvif, and this is what she said:
ZBravo is not an ONVIF member and does not have any cameras listed in the ONVIF conformant product list. Therefore, their cameras CANNOT be ONVIF conformant.
Watch this Onvif Youtube video for more information.
As for camera, there are a lot of cameras that are cheap and support Onvif.
But I would recommend a better suited one, but they might be a bit more pricy.
What do you mean with Light sensor? to check for light conditions? Day or Night? or the amount of light in the area of the camera?
AXIS M1034-W
AXIS M3044-V


text:
Any ffmpeg computing nodes out of there?
Sadly I don't have access to powerful workstations and it happens that I have to convert lot of videos, however I do have an high bandwidth network.
Is there a free/paid computing cluster service where I can upload my ffmpeg command line and my videos and get them rendered/transcoded fastly by a cluster ?
Any workaround on this maybe with amazon or other services istances?

This might get better answers on superuser.

@stib Probably in SU I have to start explaining what is ffmpeg and that is not something edible :D

No, there are tons of ffmpeg questions on SU. FFMPEG is widely used on web servers - youTube uses it, for example. So there is probably already a solution that the web people will be able to point you to.


text:
Projection sizing
I need information about video projection. I am looking at a compact projector from China, yg-600. I need a small one that can project a picture that is approx 36" wide from a close distance of approx 20". I don't under the math but the projection ratio is 1.6:1 and aspect ratio is 4:3. Can someone tell me if this will meet what I need? As I think it get 1.6 foot picture from 1 foot away?
Thanks
John

Google Projection Throw Calculator, the one on the Christie Website is good. You won't get a 36" size image from 20", with any lens I know of. That would be super wide.
The shorter your throw / wanting the biggest screen = wider lens.
Wider Lens = More Expensive typically at least for high quality wides that don't distort. Secondly, wider means typically a hotspot center image... That's why longer throws are preferable.
I used to have Christie 10K HD Projectors. If you have limited space you can use a projection mirror, or series of mirrors to bounce the image and lengthen the throw.
It's not uncommon in home theaters, for people who reverse project to mount the projector in the wall sideways; shoot the image down the wall; to a projection mirror which is behind the screen and bounce it back; simply because of space limitations.
If you use a mirror; your projector will have to have image warping capabilities; at the least keystone correction; H/V flip and preferably depending on if you setup sideways; rotate image.
As far as mirrors; you want a projection mirror; a regular mirror is made with a sheet of glass on top of the silver backing. This will reflect an image with a 2nd ghost image / making the projected result appear slightly blurry.
Projection mirrors/Dental Mirrors are mirrors with only the silver, and no protective glass on top. That said, you have to handle them very carefully.
Hope this helps!

If the image you want is larger than the distance, you need a ratio of less than 1. So no, 1.6:1 will not work in your scenario. For a 4:3 image, a 36" width means a 45" diagonal. You'd need a throw of 76" to get there with a 1.6:1 lens. (rough calculation: no warranty) (-:


text:
What is this thing near a news presenter?

What is this thing (shown by the arrow) in front of news presenters? Sometimes (sometimes→as I've seen) they press a button on that.. What's it called? Its purpose?

Video of them pushing on it might help give context. The only thing I would think they would need to push would be some sort of interaction with a prompt machine.

Looks like a digital clock to me

@fredsbend what would pressing it do to a tele-prompter?

Pause or play the scroll. Sometimes the scroll moves too fast or slow, so you might need to adjust it mid-speech.

But usually someone off screen does it as they pay close attention to the speaker's pace. Having the speaker do mysterious things with an unknown machine distracts audiences, as clearly evidenced by your question.


text:
Changing Key of Audio Premiere
I haven't been using premiere for long, and I want to try to make an MLG meme video.
For this, I wanted to get an audio file and change the note/key of it to match music.
From what I know (which is very little), pitch and key are unrelated. I may be wrong, but when I tried to use pitchshifter, it didn't seem to change the note.
I'm sorry that is a stupid question and I know this question will get negative reputation, but how would I change the note/key of audio files? Would I use audition, or is there something in premiere I am overlooking?

One approach is to change the speed of the clip slightly.  This will change the pitch; speeds above 100% will make the pitch higher, and speeds under 100% will make the pitch lower. You can fiddle around with the percentages until the pitch matches.  Obviously the clip will visually run faster or slower as well, so hopefully you won't need to change the speed too much. If it makes the clip look funny, you may want to separate the audio track from the video track so you can just adjust the audio speed while leaving the video speed at 100%.
As for pitch vs. key, I can tell you what they mean from a musician's point of view. A "pitch" is the vibrations per second (hertz) of a note.  The more cycles per second, the higher the pitch. The word "key" has two meanings.  On a piano, each of the things you can hit is a "key".  There are white keys and black keys.  Each one has a different pitch.  The other meaning of "key" pertains to composition. The "key" a song is written in defines the scale it uses (for the most part). Songs in the key of C major or A minor will be played on all the white keys (unless there is what's called an "accidental" note, which would be one of the black keys).  Songs in the key of G major or E minor are played on all the white notes except for F# ("F sharp"), unless there are "accidental" notes.  There is a major and minor "key" for each of the 12 "keys" in a scale.


text:
Quicktime PNG codecs turn blue on most recent Premiere Pro CC update
I recently updated my copy of Premiere CC to 2015.4, and many of my downloaded effects overlay videos turned blue. (Attached is a blood spray effect). These were all downloaded from the website FootageCrate and are in the "PNG, Timecode" mov format (according to Finder's metadata). I can't simply revert my version of Premiere (at least I don't think so) because I've done some other edits in the current project which had to be converted for the new version.
When I open these in Quicktime, they convert to a different format but lose their alpha channel.

Thanks!


text:
Maximizing FPS of ffmpeg encoding
I am trying to figure out the sweet spot of maximizing FPS of encoding videos into h264/h265. I will be running some videos through Georges Vid.Stab library (https://github.com/georgmartius/vid.stab) to stabilize things like drone of GoPro footage, and others just re-encoding to h265 to reduce filesize / bandwidth used.
I stumbled across the DVE (https://github.com/Sonic-Y3k/dve) project, which is nice except it won't work with stabilizing videos as the process will divide up the original video into many subsets and ask multiple computers to encode them. While they would do the job, when the videos are stitched back together they lose the advantage of the stabilization at the stitching points as they don't have the info needed to say where the start frame "should" be compared to the other servers calculations.
I have also looked at the NVidia Grid, Intel Phi as coprocessors, which would be an option, but I haven't seen anywhere that they are actually supported by ffmpeg at this time.
A GeForce GTX 980 with Maxwell V2 seems like a good option, but I haven't seen any numbers that show the encoding of a file with the GPU accelerator vs without, nor do I know if that is a "good" card or if it is overpriced for what I need, or not enough.
I am currently running a Dell R720xd with 160GB RAM (1333MHz), dual Xeon E5-2690 processors on a RAID 1 with 20TB of storage. I have room for 2 full height / length PCI-E cards, and some half height as well.
I don't mind spending up around $1000 provided the benefits are real.

There are two stages here: applying the stabilization and encoding to H.265. You can run the vidstab analysis on the whole file and then in the 2nd command apply it and segment the processed result. This can be rawvideo or more likely a intermediate codec like DnXHD or ProRes..etc. These segmented files can then be encoded in parallel and stitched together.

Thanks, I had considered that but worried that it wouldn't be able to segment the vidstab configuration file so the servers wouldn't know what to do with a 30 minute configuration file when only having access to 2-3 minutes of video.

You would be segmenting the file after the vidstab is applied.

There is a special NVIDIA API that allows you to encode to h264/h265 called NVENC. It's now integrated into ffmpeg so using it is quite easy.
But before buying an NVIDIA card you should do/know the following:

Check the NVENC hardware capabilities table from the NVIDIA VIDEO CODEC SDK APPLICATION NOTE - ENCODER cause h265 support is limited in Maxwell V2 card you've mentioned. You can also find average encoding speed (fps) there.
There is an artificial limit of two for parallel encoding processes for GeForce cards (check the previous link for more details). If you want more (actually around 30 simulanious encoding streams) you should buy Quadro or, according to this beautiful answer, one can hack GeForce (hardware in fact is the same as in Quadro) which is, of course, illegal.
With any hardware encoder you'll never get the same quality/size as you can get from x264.
Also there is Intel QuickSync hardware encoder integrated in some of Intel's processors (not in your Xeon unfortunately) which I know nothing about, so you have to research this part yourself.


text:
NVidia GTX 180 Composition Display Issues in After Effects and Premier Pro
I have a new NVidia GTX 180 (latest drivers) which is one of the latest high end releases in the GPU market. The problem is I'm experiencing the following issues in the composition(viewport) windows in After Effects and Premier Pro.
Basically parts of the view become cropped out. If I scroll in/out parts of the footage become visible. The only way to see a comp fully is to zoom out incredibly far. Also sometimes the UI seems to be effected moving down the screen.

I should add that I work in After effects professionally, I have tried simple solutions like changing the view quality, clearing caches, preferences, etc.
I haven't received any feedback on Adobe's forums.

I would try using NVIDIA's clean driver tool to remove any video card drivers you have and then reboot and reinstall them and reboot again to see if that fixes it. I'm not 100% sure, but it could also be a bug as Premiere might not fully be compatible with the new gen cards.


text:
What's the difference between 29.97p and 29.97fps?
I'm working in Premiere and I've got one video file that isn't working for me, it's just showing as green. My initial research said to make sure the aspect and frame rates matched up between the video file and the sequence, and the only difference I can see is one is 29.97p, and the other is 29.97fps. What's the difference?

The green screen isn't related to the frame rate values. Premiere can't recognize or decode the video because either it doesn't recognize the codec tag or it doesn't expect that codec stream in that media container or the pixel format isn't supported by the decoder..etc. Will need to see the output by the Mediainfo tool linked in @Jim Mack's answer.

A 29.97p (p = progressive) video is 29.97fps (fps = frames per second) but not all 29.97 fps video will be progressive. Some will be interlaced, (29.97i) having 59.94 "fields" per frame.
So there may be no difference at all. If Premiere doesn't indicate whether the files are interlaced or progressive, use a tool like MediaInfo.


text:
Better transition animations in premiere
Let's say I want to overlay image slideshow or transition infographic over my video in Adobe Premiere. I know I can just add some slide or wipe tranistions to my assets, but those transitions look ugly, they don't have any easing or motionblur support. I also know I can animate those assets in AFX. But even with very good Premiere and AFX roundtrip support, this method still lacks crucial flexibility. For example, if I wanted to change asset display duration later, I have to either do it in AFX (and have hard time syncing it to audio for example), or go around with some freeze frame mojo basically spliting the animated asset in three parts (animation in, still frame, animation out).
I am looking for a way to handle those simple animations directly in premiere. Is there a trick or functionality I am not aware of? Or maybe some plugin? Basic functionality I am looking for is creating a slide tranistion with easing (nonlinear progress, speading up and slowing down) and maybe motionblur.

Red Giant Universe has the support you need.
Part of the video transitions included with Universe that might be useful to you:

Swish Pan/Slide: can create a nice slide with motion blur support and easing
Fade In: creates sort of a zoom effect with motion blur support and
easing.

Also has other transitions like Zoom Blur, Fold .etc. all with motion  blur support and easing.
If you are looking for some free presets I'm not sure about slide or wipe. But Chung Dha has some nice presets. They are keyframe based in Premiere, but you can modify them (but its not as drag and drop as Universe).
You can check them out here: http://www.chungdha.nl/?cat=129
Specifically the last two, namely, Smooth Transition Presets and Motion blur with transform effects.
He also has a tutorials on usability in each transition page.


text:
restart ffmpeg job from failure
Is there a common technique or some sort of strategy for restarting a failed transcoding job from where it had left off when it crashed (or stopped for whatever reason)?
For example, if I have a 2 hour transcoding job and it fails/crashes at 1 hour and 59 minutes, is there some way I can just do that last minutes worth of work and use the progress I already had assuming the partially transcoded file is still available?

A direct option to resume encoding is not available.
And as for manually restarting encoding, that's also not possible. Two reasons:
1) when transcoding to a typical container like MP4, the index is written after encoding is completed. There will be no such index in a partial file if the process died unexpectedly, and so the existing file cannot be parsed.
2) If you cannot accurately identify the last uncorrupted frame encoded in the partial file, your join will not be seamless.

That said, there is a tedious way this can be done. The method hinges on using the segment muxer. You encode to MPEG-TS format but segment the output as it is being generated. Should the job fail, you examine a few attributes and resume encoding based on that data. Finally, you join all segments together.
Step 1: Encode and segment
For best results, audio and video should be done separately. In fact the audio can be done without segmenting since it will encode much faster
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:a aac -vn job-audio.mp4

And for video
ffmpeg -copyts -start_at_zero -ss 0 -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -an
       -f segment -segment_time 0.01 -segment_time_delta 1
       -muxpreload 0 -muxdelay 0 -mpegts_copyts 1
       -segment_start_number 0 -segment_list files.ffcat
job-video%d.ts

Each segment above will contain one GOP, so no frames in a segment rely on frames in other segments for playback.
Step 2 Identify resume point
Suppose the job fails while creating segment #5.
First, you run
ffprobe "in.mp4" -show_entries stream=codec_type,start_time,duration -of compact

This will produce a readout like this
stream|codec_type=audio|start_time=0.000000|duration=356.309333
stream|codec_type=video|start_time=0.040000|duration=356.360000

Note the start time for the video stream.
Now, run it for the first and the last (incomplete) segment
ffprobe "job-video0.ts" -show_entries stream=codec_type,start_time,duration -of compact

stream|codec_type=video|start_time=0.080000|duration=10.000000

You see that there's a positive offset of 0.04 w.r.t the MP4 video stream. Let's call this the initial offset value
Now, for the last stream
ffprobe "job-video5.ts" -show_entries stream=codec_type,start_time,duration -of compact

stream|codec_type=video|start_time=20.080000|duration=4.320000

Step 3 Resume encoding
So, now you run
ffmpeg -copyts -start_at_zero -ss {start_time of last segment - initial offset} -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -an
       -f segment -segment_time 0.01 -segment_time_delta 1
       -muxpreload 0 -muxdelay 0 -mpegts_copyts 1 -initial_offset {initial offset}
       -segment_start_number {index number of last segment} -segment_list files-resume.ffcat
job-video%d.ts

Step 4 Join segments
You'll have multiple .ffcat files - from the first run and all resumed runs. Copy over the entries from all secondary runs and append them to the first file. Avoid duplication.
Run
ffmpeg -f concat -i files.ffcat -i job-audio.mp4 -c copy full.mp4

to clarify, do you know there will be one GOP per segment because as it says in the docs when segment_time_delta "... is specified a key-frame will start a new segment if its PTS satisfies the relation..."?

Yes, the very low segment_time ensures that the delta rarely comes into play. I originally added that option because my initial commands included audio as well. And the format start_time in those cases isn't always the same as the video start_time. Now, it's moot.

If you know the specific portion of the file that the encoding job chokes on, you can use ffmpeg's --ss and -t options to pass over the choke point. You can read more about these options by looking at the tool's documentation.

let's assume failure is unpredictable i.e there is no known failure point.


text:
video editing software recommendation
I'm new in the field of video editing and I'm looking for software which can zoom any portion of video (Magnifying  glass zoom) as below.
Suggest me some video editing software which is capable of doing that except Corel video.
I use 32 bit window 10

The way this is usually done is either by recording the screen at full resolution and zooming out the footage until you want a close-up, or by using a screen recorder which allows you to zoom in as you're recording.
But if you already have footage, any decent editor should allow you to zoom in. Just know that zoomed-in footage will be at a lower quality than recording at the full resolution and cropping.
If you're on Windows, you can try Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas. There are probably others, but those 2 are fairly popular.

Can u please enlist the recorders which are capable of doing this.