text:
After effects expression how to round DOWN or remove numbers after decimal point
Thought this would be simple but doesn't seem so.  How can I remove all numbers after the decimal point in an expression, or round down to 0 decimal places (which is the same result)
For instance I have an integer: 2903.99302
I want to remove everything after decimal place, so that it results in 2903
Can't find how to do this.  Some ideas:
num = 2903.99302;
dec = num.search(".");  // OR dec = num.find(".");

result = num.substr(0, dec);

or
num = 2903.99302;
result = num.rounddown(0);

or
num = 2903.99302;
result = num.toFixed(0);

Apparently AE can also use JavaScript in recent versions.  I'm on version 2021 and it's not basic javascript functions aren't recognised so not sure if there's some weird syntax...

Normally I would use Math.round like this when trying to display text:
slider = (effect("Slider Control")("Slider").value);
tidying = (Math.round(slider * 100))/100;
SourceText = "$" + tidying + "bn" +"\r" +"DEBTS";

the .value is sometimes needed to force AE to look at the slider as a number, not as an object.
tidying is being done to round (up) to 2 decimal places
\r gives a line break
text is appended with +”text”+
If you want to round down, you can use
Math.floor()

instead

I came up with this hacky way to round down but it's not as clean as Math.floor() so replaced - thanks!
num= 2903.99302;     fix= num.toFixed(0);     len= fix.length;     str= num.toString();     new = str.substr(0,len);     result= parseInt(new);


text:
After Effects: How to do Organic Contraction effect
I've seen this effect in a lot of videos, you can take a look here:
video link
Which key word identifies this contraction movement effect? Or how can we do that?

"pulsing" may be a better search term for you

There's a 3D deformation happening here, along with an optical glow on the bass beats.
I would guess this was made in After Effects, using the plugins Trapcode Form or possibly Plexus with Sound Keys applied to a deformer using the bass in the music.  Then an Optical Glow added which gets more intense using the same keyframes from the bass.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Automated source text animation based on split
I have newly started in AE and I came across source text animation.
I have a requirement where I want to show multiple text on source text keyframe animation. I was wondering instead of writing each text on the keyframe is there a way to automate this.
For example, I have created two text layers and the empty layer is referring to the data source (text source) and I know how to split them based on a delimiter. Please refer to the screenshot.
t=thisComp.layer("test1-test2-test3").text.sourceText;
word=t.split("-");
word[2]

Now, Is there a way for me to tell AE to increase the value dynamically inside word[] in line 3 by +1.
If possible, I desire the code to return word[0] at 0000; word[1] at 0001 and word[2] at 0002.
Many thanks in advance.

Found it
t=thisComp.layer("test1-test2-test3").text.sourceText;
word=t.split("-");
n = time/thisComp.frameDuration
word[n]

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


text:
Does After Effects expressions follow BODMAS
In algebra the well-known BODMAS acronym represents the priority / order that operations are calculated in:

Brackets
Order
Division
Multiplication
Addition
Subtraction

When writing expressions in After Effects, will operations follow this order, or in what order are they calculated?

After Effects (as of version 16, released 2020) uses the V8 Javascript engine to interpret expressions. This is the same as used in many web browsers, such as Chrome.
It's pretty easy to test if it follows BODMAS (The O in which stands for Order BTW). On a text layer alt / opt-click the stop watch for text source and paste this:
let brackets = 2 * (1 + 1);
let order = 1 + Math.pow(2, 2);
let divMult = 1 + 2 * 2 + 4 / 2;
"Brackets: 2 * (1 + 1) should be 4, result: " + brackets +
"\n" + "Order: 1 + 2^2 should equal 5, result: " + order + "\n" +
"Division and Multiplication: 1 + 2 * 2 + 4 / 2 should equal 7, result: " + divMult

Spoiler alert: it does.


text:
After Effects: Detect if Lines are Intersecting
I have two lines (The lines are imaginary, i have two Nulls as endpoints for each line)
I want a fifth Null two appear where the lines intersect.
I have used this code so far:
p1 = thisComp.layer("red_end").transform.position;
p2 = thisComp.layer("red_start").transform.position;
p3 = thisComp.layer("blue_end").transform.position;
p4 = thisComp.layer("blue_start").transform.position;

m1vert = Math.abs(p1[0]-p2[0]) < .0001;
m2vert = Math.abs(p3[0]-p4[0]) < .0001;

if (! m1vert){
m1 = (p2[1]-p1[1])/(p2[0]-p1[0]);
b1 = p1[1]-m1*p1[0];
}
if (! m2vert){
  m2 = (p4[1]-p3[1])/(p4[0]-p3[0]);
  b2 = p3[1]-m2*p3[0];
}
if (m1vert && m2vert){
  x = value[0];
  y = value[1];
}else if(m1vert){
  x = p1[0];
  y = m2*x + b2;
}else if (m2vert){
  x = p3[0];
  y = m1*x + b1;
}else if (m1 == m2){
  x = value[0];
  y = value[1];
}else{
  x = (b1-b2)/(m2-m1);
  y = m1*x +b1;
}
[x,y]

The fifth Null does appear in the intersections when the lines intersect, but also miserably stumble around on screen when the lines don't intersect.
I want the Null to go to a specific position whenever the lines don't intersect.
So how would I do that?
Any help is appreciated.

The fifth null doesn't wander randomly, it just extends the red and blue lines off beyond their ends. You need to detect whether the intersection point is on the segment between the start and end nulls for each line.
You can test for it with this rather horrifying conditional: basically it tests to see if the intersection is outside the bounds of each point's x then y coordinates.
Replace the last line of your expression with this:
if ((x > p1[0] && x > p2[0])||(x > p3[0] && x > p4[0])||(x < p1[0] && x < p2[0])||(x < p3[0] && x < p4[0])||(y > p1[1] && y > p2[1])||(y > p3[1] && y > p4[1])||(y < p1[1] && y < p2[1])||(y < p3[1] && y < p4[1])){
    value
}else{
    [x,y]
}

Another version, does the same thing but with nice readable code, and a re-useable function:
function outsideBounds(samplePt, p1, p2){
  if (samplePt[0] > Math.max(p1[0], p2[0])) {return true}
  if (samplePt[1] > Math.max(p1[1], p2[1])) {return true}
  if (samplePt[0] < Math.min(p1[0], p2[0])) {return true}
  if (samplePt[1] < Math.min(p1[1], p2[1])) {return true}
  return false
}

if (outsideBounds([x,y], p1, p2)||outsideBounds([x,y], p3, p4)){
    value
}else{
    [x,y]
}


text:
Starting with voice acting
I hope this is the correct place to ask this question. If it is not please point me to the right site for this.
A lot of my friends have said that I would possibly be decent in voice acting, it has also interested me.
Now my question is,

how do you start with something like that. Is it common for voice
actors to have their own equipment?
Are there sites where you can
register as a "voice" actor so that people come to you for something,
paid or unpaid?

Welcome! I don't this question is quite on topic and I'm not sure there is a proper SE site for the question. However, there are many getting started guides. I can tell you that for anything short of work on feature films, you will be expected to have your own equipment, including acoustically treated workspace and appropriate, high-quality Internet access.

Is it common for voice actors to have their own equipment?

Yes, unless you want to pay more than you will get for simple jobs. Transportation + Studio recording fee.
Get a USB microphone https://duckduckgo.com/?q=usb+microphone There are some not too expensive.
Before buying one read some reviews and HEAR some reviews, youtube is a good place for it.
You could start with a cheap one, and if the business is for you, get a more pro mic for cleaner and brighter sound.

Are there sites where you can register as a "voice" actor

Yes... if you are one. But you are not yet, you do not even know if you would like to do that. Like all activities, you can become good at something or just not.
So, first of all, try youtube, publish some video narrating a story, try royalty-free classic stories, (you can not simply buy a book and use it, even if the original copyright has already expired because the version could still have it)
Find noob writers and ask them about recording one story and make a channel.

You also can use a website where people pay a small fee, like Fiverr, record some demos, and see if people are willing to pay you for the quality of work you offer.
Compare prices. Do not offer the cheapest price or you will never know if they want you for the price or for the quality.

If it is a feasible road to you, you need to take courses. Again, there are pro-people and people that just want to play doing stuff. There is a lot to learn in the field. As a talent to be nurtured and as a business.

Final note.
Do NOT do something because your friends tell you. Do something because you want to!

One edition to make the answer on-topic on this video production site:
Offer your voice as a voice-over talent for documentaries with a small budget.

Thanks alot for your answer. It helps my find the start of my adventure. On your note to not do it because friends say so. I have been playing with the idea of trying this out for a while now and my friends have just gave me the push in the right direction


text:
What is "Key Frame Distance" in Adobe Media Encoder?
How does changing the Key Frame Distance control (as seen below) work in terms of quality and speed?

This is an answer I found on the adobe forums after googling it:
The keyframe distance is the maximum number of frames before the encoder inserts an i-frame, which is the highest-quality frame of an MPEG stream (ie, it has all the information for a single frame of video inside of it rather than relying on the frames around it to reconstruct). In between the i-frames are b-frames and p-frames, which are "difference" frames that reconstruct that frame of video by looking at the nearest i-frame and applying all the "difference" frames from that point forward (or backwards). The collection of an i-frame and all its connected p-frame and b-frames is called a GOP, or "Group of Pictures". So in essence the "keyframe distance" value determines the length of each GOP.
Note that Premiere automatically inserts a new i-frame for scene changes, irrespective of the keyframe distance value. This is to assure video quality at the start of a new scene since there wont be enough in common from previous b-frame and p-frames.
Generally speaking, the more i-frames you have, the higher the image quality of video, but also the larger the size of the video. So the value you choose for keyframe distance is a balance between the file size you want the video to fit in vs quality. If you're not concerned with file size or the file size generated is within reason then you can just leave it to its default value. Otherwise you can tweak it as part of the process to get the file size down to where you want it to be (in combination with the other encoder parameters such as bitrate).

It's not only quality / filesize that are affected, one other result of changing the GOP length is that shorter GOPs make it easier to seek to a specific frame, as well as shuttle forward and backward. This is the reason that most editing codecs are all-i-frame (if you're interested there's a recent post by someone asking about using all-I-Frame h.264 instead of say ProRes here: https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/29414/intra-frame-h-264-h-265-compared-to-dnxhr-or-prores-as-intermediate-codecs-for). Of course that does dramatically increase the size.

So Is it good to make the value 1 for a composition based on an audio spectrum? , @stib

Depends on what you're doing with it. All-i-frame compression will be significantly larger.

This is the equivalent to Sony Vegas macroblocks.
If you set it to 1, every frame will be built entirely, but if set to the the default 4 every frame will be divided by four.
This is designed for the compression ratio - if you're using it -
Depending on the profile, if using High for example, uses the h264 maximum compression rate that is 8.
In other words, a video of 640x360 at 60 fps is 13824000 bits per second: in baseline profile must be constant br at 1 macroblock.
This is the fastest rendering for any video editing program, because these are uncompressed values.
If you wish to add compression in render, use High profile, and divide the bit rate by 8.
If using variable bit rate, set the half of it to average and the divided by 8 total in the maximum bit rate and use 8 macroblocks.
If using  premiere, set the entire 1728 br and key frame distance to 8 too.
But in every case, when using in render compression, picture quality is not guaranteed.
If in doubt, always use uncompressed values.

Macroblocks are spatial divisions within a frame and have nothing to do with KF distance. For codecs upto H.264, they are fixed at 16x16 pixels. Parallel encoding breaks the frame into slices, not macroblocks,


text:
How can I correct shadow/highlight with free software?
I have this short video and I'm trying to decrease the highlights on it since there are some overexposed areas in it.
I know some Adobe products have this shadow/highlight feature (I know it from snapseed and other image processing software) but I'm on Linux and I don't have access to software like Adobe Premiere.
Is there any open source software that I can use to apply this filter? (Preferably that's available on Linux.) So far I have tried OpenShot and DaVinci resolve, but I couldn't find that feature in any of them.
Thank you!
PS: If you have some programming-based answers (like using Python), that's also welcome.

Davinci Resolve certainly has this feature. This kind of thing is precisely what it is made for. Try this tutorial I found in two seconds when searching for 'colour grading resolve' https://blog.pond5.com/24628-basic-color-correction-and-grading-in-davinci-resolve/

@stib From what I could tell from the tutorial, it doesn't have the highlight/shadow filter that I want. It has other color correcting  features (like hue, saturation and luminance), I don't see highlight specifically. Could you point out where you see that feature, please?

@TomCho At the bottom of the color wheels, there's a 1/2 toggle.  Click the 2.  That reveals Temp, Tint, MD (similar to Adobe's "Clarity" in Lightoom), Col Boost (like "Vibrance"), Shadows, and Highlights.

Also, Clicking the disclosure triangle next to "Primaries Wheels" reveals "Log" color wheels, which are a little different than Lift, Gamma, Gain.  The high and low regions don't overlap the middle.  Plus, you could always use curves, qualifiers, or a combination of all the above.

@JasonConrad I see. I'm not familiar at all with these software so it was easy for me to miss that, but you're right, that worked. If you write an answer I'd be happy to accept it

If you have Davinci resolve, use it. If you do have it, get it and use it :o)
There are several ways to handle light and shadows, you just need to understand that lights are normally the light zones and shadows, the dark... Pretty obvious.

On Resolve, you can use the color panel.

Boost or lower the highlights on the gain wheel.
Or use the curves and
Move the curve.
And see the results here.

There are more advanced ways to do it, like selecting color ranges, and you can find tutorials on the internet. But the tools are there.

Keep in mind that on the overexposed areas, if the range is clipped, no program will recover information where there is none to recover.


text:
Is Davinci Resolve 16 good for beginers?
I have just started video editing. I have little experiences, and I want good free software for video editing.
When I was searching on the internet I came across Davinci Resolve 16. T know it's profession software but is the community for it big enough to get started?

That's a difficult question to answer. It depends on the person learning, how well they can teach themselves and the search skills they have for finding answers. I suggest you have a go with it, and if you come across any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask them here. It is professional level software, reasonably intuitive, and most of all, if you find out that it's not for you, you haven't lost a Tolar.

Why is "free" (no money) important?

As far as I know, in Resolve you only have to pay premium for the cloud collaborative features.
Its not beginner software like iMovie or WMM, but rather comparable to Premiere, the cheapest rate for which is 20/month if you have a student email.  Among free software, Resolve is definitely one of the best options out there.
While it is a professional tool, it's very intuitive for basic functions and it has the core features you'll find in other professional editing software.
Edit: Free version includes 4k

I have tried it yesterday. I like it. Realy.

The free version of Resolve lets you export up to UHD 4K (3840x2160), inclusive.


text:
Gradually speeding up a video in Vegas Pro
In Vegas Pro 17, how could you make a video speed up gradually — like 100% increasing to 110%, increasing to 120%, increasing to 140%...so it goes faster and faster smoothly?

This question has multiple answers, telling us what editor you're using would be a big help.

Im using Vegas Pro 17

That can be pretty simple if your video editor support this.
For example here's how you do it in Adobe's Premiere Pro:


text:
AfterEffects: How to make audio sine waves like this?
Alright, there are many tutorials on audio spectrums in AE, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_-aycDYsJM
I want to make a visualizer like this, however, where the waves more mimic sine waves: https://dribbble.com/shots/3364622-Sound-Waves
Ive tried flipping this switch in AE, but this doesnt give me the desired result, especially w the secondary waves of less opacity next to the main wave-

How can I accomplish this and have it be reactive to audio?

Try using the analog lines, but turn up the number of frequency bands, a LOT. Like to a thousand or so. To get single lines use side a or side b in the side options. You can also change the upper and lower frequencies to focus more on parts of the audio that are interesting. Then repeat with different settings to achieve multiple lines.


text:
Efficiently compressing an AVI video
I have a few AVI videos of very high bit-rate ( 6.0 Second video is 72 MB in size ). I want to put these videos in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, and since there are a few 10 such videos the size of the presentation file is getting too high.
I  want to compress these videos to have a reasonable size. I used ffmpeg to compress these videos. I used the command
ffmpeg -i input.avi -vcodec msmpeg4v2 output.avi
and it gave me a compressed video of size 9.0 MB. But these new videos are not playing smoothly in Powerpoint (they are playing in other media players though).
it is playing with hiccups. I assume I compressed the video with wrong parameter/encoding making it difficult to play.
Can anyone suggest me the optimum parameter/arguments to use with FFmpeg in compressing these videos? The output of ffmpeg -i input.avi is given here.
ffmpeg version 2.8.15-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.10) 20160609
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0ubuntu0.16.04.1 --build-suffix=-ffmpeg --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --cc=cc --cxx=g++ --enable-gpl --enable-shared --disable-stripping --disable-decoder=libopenjpeg --disable-decoder=libschroedinger --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libiec61883 --enable-libzmq --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-libopencv
  libavutil      54. 31.100 / 54. 31.100
  libavcodec     56. 60.100 / 56. 60.100
  libavformat    56. 40.101 / 56. 40.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 40.101 /  5. 40.101
  libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[mjpeg @ 0x23154c0] Changeing bps to 8
Input #0, avi, from '11_stte_frst_mode.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
  Duration: 00:00:05.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 120249 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg (MJPG / 0x47504A4D), yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 3200x2464, 120629 kb/s, 60 fps, 60 tbr, 60 tbn, 60 tbc

I'm using Ubuntu 16.0, I have also a Windows machine. But it will be easier if I can fix in Ubuntu.
The details of the output file is this,
ffmpeg version 2.8.15-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.10) 20160609
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0ubuntu0.16.04.1 --build-suffix=-ffmpeg --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --cc=cc --cxx=g++ --enable-gpl --enable-shared --disable-stripping --disable-decoder=libopenjpeg --disable-decoder=libschroedinger --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libiec61883 --enable-libzmq --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-libopencv
  libavutil      54. 31.100 / 54. 31.100
  libavcodec     56. 60.100 / 56. 60.100
  libavformat    56. 40.101 / 56. 40.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 40.101 /  5. 40.101
  libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
Input #0, avi, from '../11_stte_frst.avi':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
  Duration: 00:00:05.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 14859 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: msmpeg4v2 (MP42 / 0x3234504D), yuv420p, 3200x2464, 14887 kb/s, 60 fps, 60 tbr, 60 tbn, 60 tbc

Your output is 3K video at 60fps. That's going to be tough for most average machines to play on its own (without whatever overhead powerpoint imposes). Do you really need such a high res video at that frame rate?
First thing I would do is drop the frame rate to 30fps, and if it's acceptable, maybe scale the resolution back closer to 1080p.
Last thing I would do is drop the AVI container and msmpeg4v2 codec. Use h.264/mp4, it's more compatible with more devices, and can leverage hardware decoding on many machines.
Putting it all together you'd have
ffmpeg -i input.avi -r 30 -vf scale=1920:1478 output.mp4


text:
How to make a dolly effect?
I was watching vertigo last night which is directed by alfared hitchcock and I saw some scenes in which he used 'dolly effect' I was wondering how do you make that effect?

Google for "vertigo effect" or "dolly zoom".

I simply explain it to you.you just go near or far from your subject but maintain your frame same by zooming out or in (by changing focal length) so in this way you get background compression or expansion and when you combine all these pictures just like you do in hyperlapse. Hope you got it...

The "Vertigo effect" is achieved by zooming in while tracking out, or zooming out while tracking in. When done right the size of the subject stays the same in frame, while the perspective shifts unnaturally, giving an uncanny feel to the footage.
The effect is achieved in-camera. It could be replicated in post by separating the planes of the image along the depth axis and replicating the real-world camera movement, but it would be highly labour intensive, compared to doing it on set.
P.S. Just to be suuuper pedantic, a "dolly" is a sideways movement, a movement forward or backward is a "track".


text:
Can I split audio before it gets to my sound recorder?
In the past I have been using a wireless lav for interviews recorded directly to my DSLR (Canon 60D).  I recently switched to a double audio system using my Zoom H4.
One  suggested setup was to channel the wireless lav directly to the Zoom then to split the headphone audio out of the Zoom to both the headphones and the DSLR audio for reference. However, this means the DSLR audio level changes if the headphone volume is adjusted.
If instead I split the audio coming out of the wireless lav to both the Zoom and DSLR audio (Rather than splitting the output of the headphone jack), then the audio levels could be adjusted appropriately and wouldn't change.  Will that degrade the audio quality? Is that recommended?

"Will that to grade are you a quality?" Not sure what that means.

I changed it to say "Will that degrade the audio quality", if that's not what you mean please revert.

Technically if you want to be sure that you are getting the highest possible audio quality you need a pre-amp that you can use to split the signal. But the effect is going to be very small.
When you split a signal you are relying on the impedance of the two input devices being high, and the output impedance of the source being low, and everything being even across the frequency spectrum. Most modern equipment has high input impedance and low output impedance, so that's generally fine–you will get a couple of dB drop because you're splitting the signal across two outputs–but what could go wrong is that you will get e.q. shifts because the impedances might not be perfectly flat across the whole range of frequencies.
However it is unlikely to cause much of a problem for recording interviews, most likely it would only be a real issue if you were recording something like musical instruments. In an interview things like the room acoustics are going to have a far greater effect on the audio quality. Either way, a splitter cable is only going to cost a few bucks, so it's worth a test.

You could, in theory, also use a distribution amplifier. But most of the affordable, portable ones are line level only, so you are right back to needing a pre-amp.

Don't wireless lavs output at line level? I'm pretty sure mine does.

To be honest, I haven't dealt with analog audio in several years and microphones in even longer. I took quick look at some specs and it seems that there is a mix of output levels. So a DA would be an option and mic pre might not work, depending on its input and output specs.

Good point. I wouldn't use a splitter with a mic output, that would probably cause problems.

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


text:
Viewer for DNxHR HQX files
I'm using Avid DNxHR HQX as an intermediate codec to go from Resolve to Premiere, but I can't find a viewer that will play it.
MPC-HC, MPC-BE, MPDN, Windows Media Player even the dreaded quicktime player all refuse to play it. The only thing that works is ffplay.
Anyone know of a player that can handle this codec yet?

Potplayer plays the HQX HR file I generated using ffmpeg. You have to tell Potplayer to use ffmpeg's MP4/QT demuxer by setting Preferences -> Filter Control -> Source/Splitter -> MP4/QT to FFmpeg MP4 Source/Splitter.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm using mpv now, looks pretty good!

Here is the link to the White Paper on the codec.
AVID DNxHR CODECS
You can download the codecs for Quicktime here:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE

I have the codecs installed, but I still can't play back DNxHR, only DNxHD. Maybe there's something going wrong.

Same -- after installing the codec, I was still unable to play the video, at least not with Windows media player

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


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How to digitise old NTSC home videos for highest quality (with PAL player)?
I have some old VHS home videos that I'd like to digitise to preserve them, and I'm looking for the "best" way to do that with my setup. The videos were recorded around 1990, in the USA. I'd say they are in NTSC format, but I've also heard that VHS don't have NTSC or PAL, so I'm not sure. They play on my PAL VHS device, even in color. I am guessing that it converts the video to PAL60 for playback. The colors are slightly dull, but I don't know whether this is a feature of the camera, the old tapes, or any conversion. Another issue is that there is a bit of clipping in very bright/dark areas, but I think nothing can be done about that.
What I have right now is the following: German (PAL) VHS with the old tapes, connected via SCART->white-red-yellow cables to  generic USB digitalization device, connected to the computer.
A couple of questions:

The documentation of the USB device says that a S-Video cable will improve the quality, should I use one?
Would I get a big improvement from using a different VHS player? NTSC devices are hard to come by here and probably pretty expensive. I found that sometimes the USB device or its driver corrects the colors (that I assume suffer from the NTSC/PAL thing), but I'm not sure whats going on there.
While I'm at it: the signal seems interlaced. I was planning on recording it via VirtualDub, and then possibly deinterlacing it. A test worked pretty well, and removed any jaggy artifacts. I can generate 60Hz, but I've read that I should either not deinterlace it or convert it to 30 Hz.

Slightly related... http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/8533/best-practice-recording-vhs-to-digital

VCRs can play back whatever type of signal is on the tape as it just reproduces the signal on the tape on to the output line.  Your capture device is able to process the NTSC video that was recorded on the tape.

@AJHenderson: Ah OK, that makes sense, thanks. My recording software seems to recognize the signal as NTSC, but only sometimes. I think there is still some kind of conversion going on, as supposedly my VCR can play NTSC videos to a PAL TV. I wonder if the S-Video connection gives the "raw" signal, as opposed to the composite (yellow) connection...

For VHS, the signal will be kept highest quality if you connect via s-video, so yes, you should use an s-video cable if your VCR has an s-video output.
Depending on how good your VCR is, you may get a significant improvement from a better deck.  Quality of the read heads on various VCRs can vary a fair bit and while the majority of the difference was in recording quality, there were difference in playback quality as well.  That said, finding a good VHS deck in good condition is probably difficult these days.
I'm not sure about the color correction, most likely it is something specific to your capture device.
The signal is most certainly interlaced.  Both NTSC and PAL were interlaced formats.  NTSC video should be 29.97 frames per second.  That is the NTSC standard.  The resolution should ideally be 720 by 480 using oval pixels with a .9 pixel compression.
You didn't ask about it specifically, but using a DV codec should give the maximum quality though it will also be quite large.  Once you have a DV codec capture of the VHS tape, then using a traditional 2 pass transcode to either h.264 (viewing on computer or blu-ray) or MPEG-2 (DVD) should work well.

If your capture computer is fast and has plenty of storage space, capture with a lossless codec like UTvideo, or lossless x264.  I don't see how running your stuff through (lossy) DV compression is a good idea.  (better than trying to make the final encoded in realtime, though, if that's all you meant.  Because good deinterlacing is slow.  And then you can spend more CPU on the h.264 encode, too.)  For the final encode, x264 works just as well in one-pass mode, as long as you're using crf (target quality) instead of abr (target bitrate).

Also, NTSC VHS can have stereo audio.  Not all VHS decks play back stereo audio.

@PeterCordes that's a valid point. I was thinking that dv would be an ideal balance of size and quality as it is designed for that kind of video and very common, but if space and data rates are sufficient a pure lossless format is better.

I've never heard the term "oval pixels" before. Do you have a reason for calling them oval instead of rectangular?

Just that they were originally illuminating phosphors which tend to not be square.  Rectangular works too though.

VHS is composite video on the tape, so I don't see how you can gain anything from s-video out?

@Prof.Falken - it depends if they were originally S-VHS or not.

@AJHenderson, ah, yes that is true. I have never encounted an S-VHS tape, ever, in the wild, so I didn't think about this use case. And that would require the camcorder to have been S-VHS too, I guess.

@Prof.Falken yes, the camera would have had to be S-VHS as well.  I had one, but they weren't super common.  There might also be some signal stability gains depending on how long your cable run is, but mostly the advantage would be with an S-VHS tape.

As far as deinterlacing: With a good deinterlacer (QTGMC, or at least ffmpeg's yadif=3,mcdeint=2), you can get smooth video at 60000/1001 (NTSC) fps.  If your source has quick motions that you'd like to look smooth, even in slo-mo, then deinterlace 640x480i60 -> 640x480p60.  If you really need small files, you can drop every other frame of the deinterlaced output to go 640x480i60 -> 640x480p30.  Check if your capture is top-field-first or bottom-field-first before deinterlacing, as yadif -> mcdeint needs to be told.
With a higher frame rate, each frame has more similarity with the previous frame, so it takes less than twice the bitrate to get the same image quality from a good lossy codec like x264.  I got very good results from deinterlacing a NTSC DV recording of a musical theatre show my brother was in, making the final output 720x480p60.  (actually 60/1.001, thanks NTSC...)  I used ffmpeg -i vid.ts -vf yadif=3:1,mcdeint=3:1:10 -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -qp 0 -preset ultrafast deint.lossless.mkv to do the slow deinterlace to a lossless scratch file, and from there I could play around with -vf framestep=2 to go from 60p to 30p, and with various bitrates and encode settings to make a final encode.  I settled on a 60p encode at crf=25, nr=250.  (x264's built-in noise reduction is nothing fancy, but my source didn't need much since it wasn't an old VHS tape :P)
If you aren't 100% happy with the deinterlace, you could always keep the original capture as an archive, along with the command you used to deinterlace, so you can redo it again without change if you don't have any better ideas next time you want to work with it.  Something like x264 in interlaced mode (since you'll feed it 60i content packed as 2 fields per frame, 30fps).  crf = somewhere between 10 and 14 or something should be far enough beyond visually transparent that you'll still get good results deinterlacing that.  But still with a low enough bitrate that it's not too hard to keep forever.

The 2020 and beyond answer:
for whatever reason, the "SCART2HDMI" adapters floating around on eBay and Amazon, include electronics that used to be included in professional VCRs and TV studio equipment.
To make a long story short, if you use one of these adapters, you will not only get better color saturation, but also the audio will not drift out of sync with the captured video.
Once you have the signal in HDMI, you can capture it with a regular HDMI capture device, either directly to memory card (SD) like in the linked video, or directly to a computer with an HDMI capture card.
The image will already have been de-interlaced, so you are working with progressive ("normal") video from that point forward.
The only downside is that the deinterlacing is not always perfect. (Hardly ever noticeable in practice though.) The upside is that you will not get dropped frames, teared image, and out of sync sound, like you inevitably get with the composite to USB capture dongles and the like.

Do you have a link to such products? I'm very wary of going out for myself searching for bleeding edge tech, so a direct link to a relatively cheap product would be a godsend.

@Prometheus, this is the (sort-of-no-name-generic-brand) I bought. https://www.teknikmagasinet.se/produkter/hemteknik/kablar-kontakter/adaptrar/zap-scart-to-hdmi  Look for something that is visually the same, and you should be good. The other side of the equation, HDMI capture, there is more competition and many good products for you to choose from.

I would not want interlaced video deinterlaced without my desire. Is it deinterlaced into 25p or 50p?

@RustyCore, 60p, and there's a button to switch to 50p. I agree I would prefer to not have deinterlacing at all, but this is the best consumer solution overall at this time. Since the deinterlacing keeps the temporal resolution (i.e. does not try to downgrade to 25p/30p) a second post-process pass in the computer can improve the results even more.)

Get the video into some kind of file (digitize) like avi or mpeg. Use DVD flick to burn it to dvd disk, its free and can convert NTSC and Pal playable disks. Honestech made a $10 box (Bought at BigLots) to usb converter that converts VHS to DVD it makes them fit a 4.7 gig single layer disk (new $79 USD). No brainer. Since VHS is 640 x 480 its low rez compared to most types today. I'm in the USA and convert to UK to send to relatives,never had an issue with either method.

Hi Steve, welcome to Video Production on Stack Exchange.  It does seem like what you are suggesting may be a viable way to get from VHS to digital or even DVD, however it's rather difficult to follow your answer.  For example, you mention a $10 box but later comment about something being new $79.  If you could clarify what you are suggesting as to how to digitize files from a VHS tape to files on the computer, it would greatly increase the benefit of this answer.  Thanks.


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Hardware requirements for multiple TV channels (cable TV) digitization
I'm planning to start a service which archives TV video content (at low quality). I'm exploring what hardware and video digitization equipment will be needed.
The TV channels in the geography I'm looking at are unencrypted and are provided through coaxial cable wires (similar to standard 'Cable TV' in the US).
There are about 200-250 channels, each of which is to be digitized and archived. I'm looking for a cost-effective, scalable solution which can be scaled up from an initial set of 5-10 channels to a max of 200. I'm not sure how TV tuner recommendations which work only for 3-4 channels at a time would scale up cost-effectively.

So these are all standard-definition channels using NTSC?

I'm assuming you're talking about digital cable, since it's 2012.
The way this works is that your equipment tunes into a frequency over which a multiplex is broadcast. That's a digital stream that can be demultiplexed into a number of sub-streams. Each sub-stream is a TV channel.
There are standards for these things. The sensible thing to do (especially since they're unencrypted channels) is to use DVB receiver cards in a PC. I'd use Linux, but it's up to you.
You mention archiving these at "low quality". The problem here is that the channels are broadcast at a given quality, and the broadcaster has already done the hard work of digitising and compressing the content. If you want to lower the quality, you'd have to demultiplex, decompress, scale, and compress, and that's a lot of processing. Compression is especially expensive in terms of processing.
Since storage is cheap, and getting cheaper, I'd suggest storing the streams exactly as they arrive. This is what DVRs (e.g. Sky+, digital TiVo etc. do).
You have a choice between demultiplexing, and storing the streams you want individually -- or simply writing the whole multiplex to disk. Demultiplexing is cheap; but not as cheap as simply dumping every byte the tuner supplies you onto disk. Demultiplexing, of course, allows you to pick and choose which channels to discard.
I'm afraid my 2 minutes of Googling didn't reveal what the bit rate of a cable TV multiplex is - but it shouldn't be difficult for you to find out. Once you know that, it's simple sums to work out how quickly you'll fill disks, and what kind of sustained write speed you'll need.
There is free software available to drive DVB cards. One example is OpenDVB. It would be worth doing some reading around the MythTV community. Although they'll be focussed one or two channels at a time, they'll know their way around the technology, and the software is modular.
You'll need a DVB card for each multiplex you're recording, since each one can only tune to one frequency. Depending on what you discover about bit rates, it may be worth splitting the task between several computers - but in theory one computer can have multiple DVB cards.
As a vague guide on CPU power - reading from the tuner and demultiplexing take negligible amounts of CPU work. Any PC CPU of the last 10 years could do it without breaking a sweat. Encoding/compressing is really hard work. A top-end modern CPU has trouble compressing SD video in real time. To do it at all efficiently, you'd have to offload it to dedicated chips (which is how camcorders etc. manage it).

You would need some sort of set-top box to get the signal out of coax into a video format, right? What country/area is this in? Who is the provider of these channels? Do you have the permission/co-operation of the broadcasters?
The main issue you're going to run in to is how to view all 250 channels at once, and output them to something that can record. You can typically only receive one or two channels simultaneously down your wire for cable TV. What format are the channels you want to record being broadcast in? I assume DVB-C? You're going to need a way to tune into that signal and you can only tune into a single frequency at a time with a single receiver. You'll need 250 tuners, no matter what.
Assuming you can get 250 signals (some sort of super-splitter/amplifier?) and connect 250 set-top boxes (mount em all in racks), you will still need 250 tuners, one for each channel. You could buy 125 dual tuners (@ approx $80ea with a bulk discount = $10,000) and put 3 cards into a computer (42 cheap computers @ approx $150ea = $63,00) that run nothing but capturing & recording TV (then I presume copying the data to some massive SAN for archival?). Roughly $17,000 to record 250 channels is only $68/channel. Doesn't sound too far fetched to me.
Sounds like an interesting idea though. Would love to see what you end up doing.

You don't need 250 tuners. Just a tuner per multiplex. One frequency; several channels.


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25 frames per seconds and 30 frames per seconds footage in one seq
I filmed a short interview with 2 cameras. one shots in 25 fps and the other in 30 fps. When I open the sequence in Premiere I have to choose one frame rate and then one of the clips is out of sync.
I use the sound only from one camera and have problems with the sync.
How can I fix this?
Thanks
Jonathan

Fix how?  What result do you want?  Are you hoping for a variable-FPS output video, where it's 30fps for clips from that source, and 25 for clips from the other?  That's perfectly valid, and containers like mp4 and mkv can store proper frame times.  The problem is that I think most video NLEs don't support doing that.  (The problem for an NLE is how to support a fade from one clip to another, rather than a cut.  So it would need a whole special mode for working with different-FPS sources.)

i want to export one video with sound in sink. Doesn't matter the frame rate. I nothinced that with some of the clip, the moment i import them to the premiere they get out of sink

"sync" is the word you want.  Sink is what you wash your hands in.  I don't know the answer to your problem, since I don't use Premiere.  If it will only work with clips of the same frame rate, then the only option is interpolating/duping or dropping frames from one to make it match the framerate of the other.  There's a limit to how good that can look (i.e. not very, unless interpolation is very smart.)

I'd be very interested to hear if there are any editors that can output variable-FPS videos, when cutting between clips of different framerates.  (or for slo-mo / sped-up effects).  Variable-FPS monitors are coming, and software support for VFR playback has existed for years already, at least in ffmpeg/ mplayer (and now the mpv fork of mplayer).

VFR playback may have existed for years, but unless you know exactly that your audience is using software / hardware that supports it, it sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The surest way to make this work is to convert one set of material so the two have matching frame rates. No frame rate conversion is perfect, but moving from 25 to 30 is more likely to look better because no frames need to be dropped. Instead you'll get interpolated or repeated frames. Be sure that your "30 fps" is really 30.00 and not 29.97 before you start. Premiere should tell you, but you can also use MediaInfo or other standalone tool
If Premiere can do rate conversion use it; otherwise try ffmpeg or similar.

Premiere should be able to deal with source material that has different frame rates in the same sequence.
In your project window, right click the footage and choose Modify>Interpret Footage.

In the dialogue that appears you should be able to specify a frame rate for the material. If this is set correctly Premiere will interpolate the footage to match the frame rate of any sequence it is cut into, without slowing it down or speeding it up, so theoretically the sound should stay in sync. In the best of all possible worlds, that is.


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Producing Portrait orientation stop motion videos
I wonder about the following problem:

The usual orientation of a smartphone is portrait.

The usual orientation of a movie/video is landscape.

When I have a lot of portrait pictures I can easily watch them on my smartphone holding it upright:

When I make a stop motion video out of these pictures, the video is usually forced to be landscape, e.g. 4:3 or 16:9. Watching this video on an upright held smartphone results in:

Even when I rotate my smartphone I still get something like this:

which is not satisfactory.

I'd like to see my stop motion video like this:

My question is:

How do I produce portrait orientation videos (in format 3:4 or 9:16) that are
  naturally displayed on upright held smartphones?

I am looking for specific advices concerning specific video-producing software, preferably Windows MovieMaker and MAGIX Video.

This is most likely a problem related to the app you are using to create/view these stop-motion videos. If you have portrait-orientated pictures, creating a video accordingly is simply a matter of setting the right video dimensions (i.e. video width and height in pixels); basically every video editing software allows you to set this manually or choose from a number of presets. If your smartphone displays it like this:

the video was probably exported with incorrect settings, e.g. a widescreen preset; in that case, the video might contain black borders at both sides, which might be why your phone is displaying the video like this. How did you create this stop-motion video in the first place? Your questions sounds a bit like you used some smartphone app, which leads to all kinds of problems, including the video dimension and orientation issues you get when you can't set custom video parameters.
Edit: Since you used the windows-movie-maker tag, I should mention that this is the single most useless video editing program in all known and unknown universes, dimensions and planes of existance. The best solution to any problem related to Windows Movie Maker is switching to another program that actually does anything of what it's supposed to do.


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What is the proper workflow for slightly different framerates, i.e. 30, 29.97, 29.976?
Same curiosity applies for 24 and 23.976.
My primary concern is loss of quality. I want to work exclusively in 30.000 frames per second; if I understand correctly, some software defaults to 29.97, and some recording devices use 30 implying 29.97, and some screen capture software use exactly 30 as it should be.
I'm just concerned with recording 30.000 1080p RGB video with my Canon 60D and editing it at 30.000 1080p RGB (not YCK or whatever) in Premiere Pro, so I'd like to understand how these standards work with each other, how they convert, and how they play back.
Are there dropped frames or interpolated frames? If I convert a video from 30 to 29.97 and back and forth many many many times, will video quality degrade? What codecs and file formats should I work in to ensure 1080p or UHD support at exactly 30fps or 60fps RGB?

You do know that your Canon 60D records in YUV not RGB, don't you? Converting to RGB won't improve the video, but it will incrrease file sizes.

First off, you are correct in your assumption that 23.98 and 24 are indeed different. They are not effectively the same, and they are not "rounded up". Sometimes 24p means 23.98, and sometimes it means 24. They are both separate and it can be quite problematic to treat them the same.
But in practicality, you don't need to worry about the quality, especially if you are using something like Premiere, which is very good about matching your sequence settings with those of your footage (and warning you if they aren't the same).
Your 60D does indeed shoot in 23.98, and modern editing software will know the difference. You can make a 23.98 sequence yourself if you wish; your footage will suffer no quality loss, as no conversion is actually occurring.
Thankfully, the reason we have to distinguish between 23.98 and 24 is that we are moving on from the standards and hurdles that lead to drop-frame frame rates. Plenty of new cameras (such as the RED) can shoot 24fps, and they actually mean 24. And doing exactly that can be quite nice.
So yeah, don't worry about it. Just always match settings with your footage, but newer versions of Premiere do this without fail, faster and accurately.

From a software point of view, 30 are 29.97 are effectively the same frame rate, rounded for simplification. The same is true of 24fps and 23.976 where 23.976 is simply the precise video compatible version of 24fps.
In pure software environments the distinction should be ignored by the software and the more precise references are often omitted to avoid confusion. I always specify the precise rate when possible, but it should be unnecessary.
All video electronics run at 29.97 precisely so the distinction can be important in field production and playback when synchronization of electronic devices is critical.

authors: ธนภัทร บุญรอด


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How does HDR movie work?
The new DSLR camera released by Canon, 760D, has capability of recording HDR movie. My question is how does this work? In still photography, when setting the camera to HDR, the camera will take 3 shots (the mirror will flip 3 times), with different shutter speed to adjust the exposure and then process it to combine into 1 picture.
For movie, definitely the mirror will need to be flipped all the time while simultaneously need to record at different exposure level. So how does the camera manage to handle this?

For DSLRs, when shooting video the mirror does not cycle between each frame, it stays up the entire time. In fact, the shutter does not cycle between each frame either: it stays open. The sensor is read out electronically at specified intervals.

@MichaelClark Sounds great. Why not converting this into an answer?

Because it doesn't really answer the crux of your question: it merely addresses one of your mistaken assumptions.

At a guess, it will be a similar technology to HDRx from RED or Magic Lantern - 2 frames instead of one recorded for every single video frame.

Reference 1: http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/hdrx-high-dynamic-range-video
Reference 2: http://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/a-simple-way-to-shoot-hdr-video-footage-using-magic-lantern--ae-20993

In Magic Lantern every frame is recorded at 2 ISO values, in the case of the RED camera, two frames are captured instead of one with different shutter speeds with the second frame "2-6 stops faster".
The selection of ISO/"stops faster" is carried out by the user in both case prior to recording.
All that has to be done then, is to blend the resulting "dual frames" into a single video frame for an HDR video.
Also, keep in mind that you do not need 3 frames for an HDR - you just want to cover a greater range than a single exposure can cover, this can be 2 frames or 200 frames. For video it is 2.

You could also do it with a single frame from a camera that converts the raw data from that single frame into two disparately processed frames, one darker and one lighter. There is as much information in a single 14-bit raw file as there is in a -3, 0, +3 series of JPEGs.

@Michael Clark You can, however normally one uses HDR to capture a dynamic range beyond what the sensor covers. I would not refer to compressing a single RAW file as HDR - plus, very few cameras record RAW video (outside of very expensive professional models).

High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDR imaging) is much broader than combining multiple images into a 32-bit floating point file. It is any photographic method that allows a scene with a higher dynamic range than the display medium to be rendered by squeezing that range into the display medium. In the 1850s it was what Gustave LeGray was doing by combining an image of a sky and another image of the beach to create seascapes. In the mid 20th century it was what Ansel Adams was doing with the zone system and dodging and burning

Since the predominant display medium today is an 8-bit JPEG displayed on an 8-bit monitor, squeezing all of the information of a 14-bit file with 10-12 stops of dynamic range into a JPEG file with about 7 stops of DR is a form of High Dynamic Range imaging.


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Converting from 3/4" video to digital.
Our company has approximately 27,000 hours of video stored on 3/4" video tapes. We have begun the process of converting the video digitally with the current setup:

Sony U-MATIC VO-5850 & Sony UVW-1800 Betacam
AJA FS1 & AJA Io XT
Macbook Pro

We are going through the process tape by tape and need to choose a vendor to assist us in the digital conversion process.
My questions are

Does anyone have experience with or can recommend a service provider in the New York Metro area?
Are there any recommended steps / equipment we should consider incorporating into our current and future process?
Is there additional information we should incorporate that would help with selecting a Media Asset Management system?
How should we go about storing the digital files inexpensively?

Any help is appreciated.
All the best,
Kevin

Assuming DVD quality would be enough, you may consider archiving 720p mpeg-4 files with a bitrate of 2 Mbits, which would equate roughly to 1 hour = 1 GB data.
That would mean 27,000 hours = 27,000 GB = 27 Terabytes.
So you need to consider a 50 TB storage system (including redundancy and overhead) and a tape backup system as well (LTO-6 has an uncompressed capacity of 2.4 TB per tape, so that would be relatively easy and cheap, the entire archive would fit into 13-14 tapes).
Higher quality requirements would increase the bitrate, hence the GB/hour ratio, and all values should be adjusted accordingly.
The tough part is the actual acquisition... analog video tapes have to be read at normal speed so 27,000 tapes, assuming 1 hour each, means 27,000 hours = 675 weeks = almost 10 YEARS... !!! To hope finishing this in a reasonable time (say 2 years), your company would need to set up at least 5 acquisition stations each with its own tape unit and computer (and operator). The operators, while saving, should monitor that there are not problems with the cassette and fill the metadata into the DAM system.
DAM systems, there are many, also open source, the choice depends on the use that will be made of the resulting digital video archive.

Where is the 720p coming from? The tapes are 480i.

There are lots of things to consider before committing to an operation of this size, but there is also an imperative to act quickly.  Given that it's SP Betacam and Umatic the tapes are probably beginning to reach the end of their playable life. In a decade they may all be paperweights.
A good place to start is the U.S. Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative in particular this report on Digital File Formats for Videotape Reformatting
In N.Y. I know of a consultancy called Media Matters. We haven't used them, but we have used a report they produced as a guide in our digitisation process.

For that kind of quantity, you probably want to look in to a robotic solution that can load and transfer tapes unattended in to a cataloged system.  Doing a quick search showed SAMMA as one promising option.
I don't have any direct experience with this particular kind of problem, but I can't imagine that manual tape loading or buying an entire robotic system could be cheaper than hiring someone with a robot to handle it.  SAMMA does appear to have U-MATIC support.

I would recommend a very old school approach:

Buy as many SP and U-Matic play only decks that you can find that work and will play, not record. UMatic is dirt cheap, and SP is right next to it for a play deck.
Set up some old Windows XP systems. Think 5 years old CPU speed. DualCore.
Get your hands on the same number of Canopus DV Storm2 Cards; hard to find. - WHY?  The DV Storm2 Cards allow 1 Computer to capture simultaneously three (3) streams of SD quality video 480i (Same standard as both SP and U-Matic); and will on the fly, compress it to DV Codec. Which is 12 GB per Hour of footage.
This was years ago (although the systems are still sitting in a closet); we had 6 of these systems set up, each with 3 MiniDV Players.  So we could capture the footage at 6x3= 18 normal speed. Hand us 18 hours of tape, 1 hour to capture. All to a networked hard drive.
Now you will need 1 additional part; SP / U Matic will not have firewire out. Which is all the Canopus DVStorm2 will accept if you want 3 capture streams at once... But place in an analog to FW BlackMagic converter box ($300) on each output... and you're in business.

The capture quality on the Canopus cards is fantastic (for SD/DV). But the fact that if you use the above setup; you could get up and running for a very low cost:
(6) Dell XPS Workstations @ $300 Each. XP OS.
(6) Canopus DVStorm2 Cards with the Add on Canopus Breakout Bay giving you (3) inputs.   Pricing... hard to find. Very.
(18) Black Magic Adapters @ $300 Each
(18) Decks @ $300 Average Price considering UMatic should be free.
$12,600 total cost not including the DVStorm Cards, which when available can go for a few hundred to a thousand. Depending on if theres a buyer.
27,000 Hours of tape, if you hand feed the decks, keep them running in 2 shifts, 15 hours a day = 15 x 18 = 270 Hours a Day Captured. Add a third Shift: 396 Hours a Day.
Youll need rewinders, or extra decks to keep things moving. But thats what I would do.
Low cost, high output. You could set up 10 systems if you can budget it. But with 6 running 24x7 you could get your capture done 70-80 Days if you stay on it. Double the systems: 30-40 days.
Hope that helps!

I just realized I answered a really really old topic. Woops.


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After rendering, the 'Crop' effect cuts off more than I chose
I use Adobe Premiere and I would like to crop some of clip. When I'm setting all on preview mode everything looks good, but after rendering more area is cut off.
Before

After

Please add some information about what you're trying to accomplish, which crop effect you applied and preferably also some screenshots of the preview and the rendered output.

Have you done everything in between taking those screenshots except rendering the sequence? If not, have you tried turning it off an on again (i.e. Premiere, the PC and deleting the preview files)? Also, it would probably be of use if you could post a picture of the effect settings of the crop effect you applied as well. It would be interesting how the video looks after exporting the sequence as well


text:
Live video and sound recording (NOT from a security camera) sent to a remote server
What is the least painful way to achieve this?:

Video and audio recording on a HD video camera (NOT a security camera) in XP quality, with 1 HDMI output and WIFI capability
Somehow connect the camera to a laptop and send the signal live to the Internet (the distance between laptop and camera is not a problem so I would prefer using HDMI over WIFI because of the problems involving WIFI)
Destination: a remote server, which will be web streaming the signal to clients (I'm not in charge of the streaming part, just until the signal reaches the server)

My trade is computers (I have no problem with the computer part) but I have almost no idea how video and audio recording works, so I would really appreciate basic information or sources. I have tried looking for information and tutorials on this subject but EVERYTHING I can find is related to IP surveillance video cameras, instead of a personal video camera sending the signal to a non-surveillance server.
My plan so far is:
-Record the signal
-Send it to the laptop (I would require a HDMI capture device because the laptop only have 1 HDMI output and not input)
-Establish a VPN (virtual private network) between the laptop and the server over the Internet
-Send the signal from the laptop to the server and store it on a shared folder
Is there a better way? I'm totally open to software and hardware suggestions. Thank you.

What do you mean by "XP quality?"

All newer camcarders have wifi and can stream directly to a computer or even the internet.
Here is a simple example
http://shop.panasonic.com/support-only/HC-V250K.html
scroll down to Real Time Broadcasting, Remote Shooting / Remote View

Your project requires :

a PC with a video ingest card
a software to transcode/mux the video data to an appropriate network format

Have a look at VLC for the software. depending on the bandwidth available between the camera site and the remote server, you need to determine which bitrate and codec is appropriate.


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Output via Compressor comes with bad quality audio (no problem via Share of FCPX)
Synopsis
I use Compressor to export my FCPX project to h264 .mp4 files.
Playing the file I exported today, the audio quality was bad (sounds muffled). This problem appears only in the output via Compressor.

Playing on the FCPX timeline -> OK
Playing the output exported via "Share" feature and "Apple Devices 720p" setting -> OK
Playing the output exported via Compressor -> NG

There were no problem two months ago. I don't make any changes in the export settings.
Any ideas or solutions?
Environment

Mac OS X 10.9.5 (Marvericks)
Final Cut Pro X 10.1.4
Compressor 4.1.3

Setting of Compressor

Output of ffprobe
audio of previous output (good quality)
Stream #0:0(jpn): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 63 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-11-29 10:42:07
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio

audio track of this time output (bad quality)
Stream #0:0(jpn): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 44 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-07 14:28:54
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio

Looking at bitrate above, it's less than one of the previous output.
I retried the encoding with setting the audio bitrate to 128kbps.
Stream #0:0(jpn): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 86 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2015-02-07 13:15:43
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio

However the problem was not solved.

I notice you're exporting as mono. Is the source track mono? Sometimes when you blend two stereo tracks into mono they can interfere if the two channels are out of phase, which can cause a muffled sound. Try deleting one channel or inverting the phase and see if that helps.

@stib Thanks. The FCPX project allows either of Stereo or Surround as the audio channels configuration. (I choose Stereo in this case.) So tried two solutions. 1) I checked the "Channel Configuration" of "Audio" inspector and check only one mono track. 2) Change the export setting to stereo.  However neither of them solved this issue.

FCPX project -> Play through timeline = OK
FCPX project -> Compressor -> ProRes422 = NG (muffled sound)
FCPX project -> Compressor -> AAC Mono = NG (muffled sound)
FCPX project -> Compressor -> AAC Stereo = NG (muffled sound)
FCPX project -> "Share" -> Master (h264) = OK (but the size is too large)
FCPX project -> "Share" -> Master (h264) -> Compressor -> AAC Mono = OK

These are sum-up of results in my trial and error.
The 6th trial resolved my problem, although it is not a perfect solution.


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How to render MP4 using After Effects Script with Adobe Media Encoder
I can add my composition to Adobe Media Encoder Queue using below command
app.executeCommand(3800);

Now how i can render it from Adobe Media Encoder using render command like this
aerender -project /path/to/project/  -comp "Composition"  -v "ERRORS_AND_PROGRESS" -output output.mp4'

Thanks

It's a little unclear what you're trying to do. Are you trying to start the media encoder render queue from the command line?

Thanks. Exactly. I want to add my composition to Adobe media encoder render queue and then render it with aerender, all using after effects script

Why not just use the second command? If you want to render something you don't need media encoder, you can just use aerender.

Thanks. Stib
actually i want output in MP4 format and AE latest version doesn't support MP4 as an output format so thats why i want to use Media Encoder

try to install x264 via "mega-codec pack" and choose avi->x264

Did you ever find a solution on this? I'm having the same issue, and looking for a way to automate rendering of mp4 videos

No. I rendered video using Adobe After Effects default renderer and add an extra step using FFMPEG to convert to Mp4

Better later than never.
Since After Effects CC 2015.3 (13.8) you can send your comp to AME queue and render it immédiate with the recently used template.
app.project.renderQueue.canQueueInAME --> false is there is nothing to render in AE
app.project.renderQueue.queueInAME(false); --> false = no render, true = render immedialty in AME
Adobe exemple :
// Scripting support for Queue in AME.
// Requires Adobe Media Encoder 11.0.
{
    if (app.project.renderQueue.canQueueInAME == true)
    {
        // Send queued items to AME, but do not start rendering.
        app.project.renderQueue.queueInAME(false);
    }
    else {
        alert("There are no queued item in the Render Queue.");
    }
}

My exemple of use :
var resultFile = new File(outputVideoPath + outputVideoName)
var renderQueue = app.project.renderQueue;
var render = renderQueue.items.add(comp);
render.outputModules[1].file = resultFile;

app.project.renderQueue.queueInAME(true);

More details : https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2230567


text:
Motion tracking in very shaky footage?
I have footage of me sitting in a boat filming a friend that is riding a wakeboard. The footage is very shaky and as the boat turns around 180° every now and then, the background is constantly changing.
I tried to set the motion tracking point at my friend's head but the point is just flying all over the place. How can I track the motion in this shot?

Get ready to count frames.

So I basically have to reposition the tracking point frame by frame?

if your footage is very shaky, i'm afraid that's the only option. Let's hope someone more experienced has an answer for this!

Latest Blender release have new features for shaking footage tracking, but I'm afraid I can't compare it to after-effects since I've never used that. If you want you could give Blender a try and tell us.

@YoMismo I installed Blender but I don't understand anything when I open the program. It seems like it can't even open a .mov file...

Welcome RandomWhale :) Can you upload a gif to the question to see what you have? Sounds possible via blenders tracker, you only have to make sure the search area is big enough. For the 180 degree shot you possibly have to track it manually, but this depends on the shutter and or the motion blur of it :)

Have you switched to motion tracking?, default area is 3D when you start the program, you need to swich to motion tracking. Press the icon to the right of help in the top bar menu and select motion tracking.

@poor for blurry motion tracking it would be better track-match-blend 2

Yeh, thats the right one: https://cloud.blender.org/training/track-match-blend-2/ sorry Yo :)

This is the amount of shake the video has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1blSnioVn-c

Ok, thats very shaky :) As I mentioned, try to increase the search area. If you decide which tool you want to use, please add it to your question.

I just had a meal and now I got so extremely tired that I will postpone this to tomorrow.

Stabilize it then apply motion tracking...

Sadly, your options are really still the same as any other footage.  You run the stabilizers and they will do the best they can, but if it is way too unstable, there is nothing that can be done as you don't have details of a consistent shot.  Some higher end commercial software will try to rebuild what is missing, but the results are not generally very good, particularly if you are on a moving vehicle.
Likely you are simply out of luck.  You really needed a physical stabilization rig at time of shooting for something that extreme.

If you have access to adobe premiere pro CS6+ or after effects CS5.5+.
Try using the warp stabilizer effect and see how well it handles it.
It would automatically attempt to stabilize the footage (and rolling shutter).
This is probably the easiest thing to try first before doing manual frame by frame tracking.
You can see a video by adobe giving a quick overview of it here:
http://tv.adobe.com/embed/902/12454/


text:
What's the best way to video chess/go/baduk/weiqi board from above (i.e. top down view)?
Are there special equipment to fix a camera in a top down view?

(This is an alternative to mounting a camera above a game board.)
If it proves difficult to mount and operate a camera above the board, consider using a mirror as an alternative.  The camera can be placed on a normal tripod, and a mirror can be mounted above the board on a 45-degree angle.  The camera then shoots the image in the mirror.

The image will need to be flipped vertically in post-production to avoid showing a mirror image of the board.

This has the advantage that the camera operator can adjust things without having to climb a ladder.

It's a good suggestion. It swaps the issue of placing the camera to placing the mirror. I don't know which is more difficult to do.

@xiaodai I'm not sure which is more difficult either! But mirrors usually have a wood frame which should be able to rest in a homemade stand more easily than a camera (depending on the design of the camera).  And as stib pointed out in his/her comment, the camera operator doesn't have to climb a ladder.

Just remember to flip the image horizontally with your editing software, or the board will appear reversed.


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Video editing workflow : Shall I export small sub clips as individual files from the main clip before final output?
I have a one single video file captured by GoPro camera having 1 hour of duration. I would like to make sub-clips out of it from here and there for about 15-30 seconds.
First I can open a source clip in the preview window and use the In and Out points to choose just the part of the clip and export them as individual sub-clips in mp4 files. Then I can import these sub clips back to the timeline for combining them. I have seen some pros doing this (GoPro Media Proffessionals) and some products which only does this, but I'm a little worried about the quality, because I will be rendering/encoding for twice the same clip, which I may encounter a loss of quality. (I assume using a lossy codec)
Indeed, I used to open the source clip in the preview window and use the In and Out points to choose just the part of the clip and then assemble clips together in the timeline without exporting them.
My question is what should I do for the best results? If I need to export sub clips which video codec should I use?
I'm using Adobe Creative Cloud, with GoPro Sudio as a footnote.

I've never used GoPro Studio, but there's no reason you should have to export out the sub-clips individually to use them in your timeline. It may make sense for you to do that if you want to send the individual files to other editors, but even then, you could just send the raw footage with the project file. Another reason could be if you only wanted to work with a few minutes of the footage. You could export out a sub-clip of what you will work on so that you don't have to work with such a large file. However, if you are taking sub-clips from many different spots in the raw file, just work with sub-clips of the raw file in your timeline.


text:
How can I merge/link two video clips in Premiere?
Every time I search this problem in Google the only options are how to link audio clips to video or how to sync audio to video clips.
I need to combine/link/merge a picture to a video clip, so that if I edit one the same thing happens to the other clip, like merging layers in Photoshop.

MERGING VIDEO CLIPS
To combine video clips there is something called Nested Sequence.
A very powerful technique.
When adding clips to a timeline you are working in what is called a sequence (normally named Sequence 01), drop your two clips into your timeline and rename your sequence 01 to something like 'My day trip to the market'.
Select a different video clip and drag and drop it onto the 'new item' button. Bottom right of the Project window.
That would create ANOTHER sequence which you can rename as your 'master sequence' from what would probably be called 'sequence 02'.
Now you can drag and drop your original sequence like a clip INTO your master sequence. And tada.
The wonderful thing about nested sequences is you can go back and re-edit it and it would update in all your other sequences where you use it.
MERGING AUDIO AND VIDEO (original answer regarding merging audio and video)
Import your clips into the project.
Select your video and audio clips (so they are both selected)
Right click and 'Merge Clips...'
It will ask to sync on in (start of audio and video) or out (end of audio and video).
Click ok and you would now have a merge file of both your video and audio clips that you can manipulate as a single clip.
Hope that helps.

No this doesn't work. drag and drop your original sequence like a clip INTO your master sequence won't let you, you can't drop one sequence into another. It simply places one sequence next to another.

I ended up replacing the video clip with a after effects composition. then i added the picture to the clipping after effects and it was there in premiere as one clip.

I am not sure if what you're asking is possible but here are some ideas that might help.
Linking the groups: Well you can group the 2 files together Clip > Group.
Applying a effect to multiple video clips: If you want to copy the effects you can select the affected clip, copy the effect in the Effect Controls clip preview panel and simply paste it to the clips individually or select all the clips and ctrl+V or if your original clip has only that one effect (no opacity key framing etc) you can copy the clip and in the drop down panel (right click) select paste attributes.
You could also save the effect setting as an effect preset and then apply the new effect preset to other clips.

highlight the two clips you'd like to combine, right click, go to "nest," and then create your new nested sequence :)

Yes to LINK a title and clip you can right click, go to "nest," and then create your new nested sequence like KR1DL1 said above. This is the best and its awesome.
Link two clips, link video, premier pro cc, premier cc
Took me a while to find this.
Nesting.

It looks like you had intended to include some links to other sites but they appear to be missing. Can you add them and summarize their contents in case they become unavailable?


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How to burn timestamp onto video?
I want to burn timestamp from the video meta data on to the video.
I'm having great difficulty in finding a good tool that does that.
Is there a video editing tool out there that allows timestamp to be inserted and change the font of it?
I am editing HD videos.
Also is there a tool out there that allows changing the timestamp on the meta data for correction?

dunno if stackexchange will notify you about my comment on my answer, that I mostly re-wrote it.  Well anyway, it sucked so I did.  Commenting here because I know that will pop up a notification for you.

possible duplicate of Adding a time stamp to a video

Video editing software usually DOES come with this ability.  After Effects, Premiere, Vegas, etc, all support doing this very simply.  Some of them add their own time code rather than time code from meta, so you may have to adjust the start point to match your actual time code, but the end result should still be the same.
For example, in Premiere, the following screen shot shows the effect under Video Effects/Video/Timecode as well as the options associated with it.

It is worth mentioning that in Premiere, it does appear that the font is fixed on arial, though size and position can be adjusted.  After Effects, however, will allow for font of your choosing.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Can you give me bit more info on how to apply the timestamp on to it on premier?

@Kash - updated my answer to include a screen shot with where the effect is, what the settings are and how it looks.

FFmpeg's drawtext filter can burn timecodes into frames.
edit: I misread the docs before.  I saw the timecode option to the filter, and missed seeing that there was a pts available for text expansion.  See the edit history for the longer-and-less-useful answer.
I eventually got around to trying it, and here's the command line I cobbled together from pasting and tweaking some examples:
ffmpeg -i /f/p/moto-g\ camera/VID_20141225_140557099.mp4 -filter_complex "drawtext=fontfile=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSerif.ttf: text='frame %{n}\\: %{pict_type}\\: pts=%{pts \\: hms}': x=100: y=50: fontsize=24: fontcolor=yellow@0.8: box=1: boxcolor=blue@0.9" -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 16 -x264-params keyint=60 -map 0 foo.mkv
Note the actual text to be printed needs a lot of escaping, to protect it from the shell, then from ffmpeg's arg-to-drawtext.  To modify it, change the text='frame %{n}\\: %{pict_type}\\: pts=%{pts \\: hms}' part of that ffmpeg command.
example output: "frame 0: I: pts=00:00:00.0000"  (I/B/P are frame types, from %{pict_type}.)
Modify x and y to put it somewhere else in the frame.  (you can use x=iw/2 to put it horizontally in the middle.  iw = input width.  (anchor = top left corner of the text, I think?))  Modify other params to change colors or whatnot.
This works even with VFR video.  I checked with video from the camera in a Moto G phone, which makes variable frame-rate video.  The first second has 30 frames.  A later 1-sec interval in the video has 17 frames.  (Indoors, not very well lit, so I think it's lower FPS to get more light, not because it can't write to flash storage fast enough.)  The timestamps it puts in the MP4 container are correct, so it plays fine.
The encode parameters -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -preset faster -crf 16 -x264-params keyint=60 are my suggestion for what you might want for scratch files with timestamps burned in: you just want it to encode fast, and don't care much about filesize since you're just going to use it locally, since it has timestamps scribbled all over it.  (There's even a superfast.  Don't use ultrafast except for lossless mode, though.)
keyint=60 will make sure there's an I frame at least as often as every 60 frames, for efficient scrubbing.  Leave it out if you don't need to be able to efficiently framestep backwards; lower it if you want high-rez seeking to be faster.
Use -map 0 if you want multiple audio and metadata streams copied into the output, instead of just the first audio and first video tracks (and no e.g. chapter metadata).

basically re-did my answer, because I mis-read the docs the first time.  >.<  turns out ffmpeg can burn in timestamps without needing to be told the FPS or anything stupid like that.

Thanks @peter-cordes . FFmpeg looks amazing - just checked out their website. But it does look quite complex and requires lots of pure coding :S

Heh, it took lots of coding to write, but using it is at the simplest just a matter of finding a recipe and then using it on different input files.  On Mac, Windows, or GNU/Linux, you could set something up to let you drag a file onto a script, so the script runs ffmpeg on your file, making a new output file named in_name-timestamped.mp4 or something.  Probably easier to do it from within the editing tool you already use, though, if it formats the timestamps in a way you like.

Screenshot please?

On Windows, if you put a Shortcut to a .bat on your desktop, dragging a file onto it will run the .bat with the dragged file as a command line arg.  So you write a bat file that uses %1 as input and timestamped-%1 as output.  On GNU/Linux, you either put your command in a shell script and use it from the command line yourself, or you make a .desktop file that lets you send files to it from a graphical file browser.  I assume something similar is possible on OS X.

I went away to learn bit about the ffmpeg and the installation. I now know some basic stuff! @PeterCordes

I using windows so I changed the font location to this:
ffmpeg -i in.mts -filter_complex "drawtext=fontfile=/Windows/Fonts/arial.ttf: text='frame %{n}\: %{pict_type}\: pts=%{pts \: hms}': x=100: y=50: fontsize=24: fontcolor=yellow@0.8: box=1: boxcolor=blue@0.9" -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 16 -x264-params keyint=60 -map 0 out3.avi

But I got this error:
[Parsed_drawtext_0 @ 03ba4060] Option 'pts' not found
[AVFilterGraph @ 03d8b8a0] Error initializing filter 'drawtext' with args 'fontfile=/Windows/Fonts/a
rial.ttf: text=frame %{n}\: %{pict_type}\: pts=%{pts \: hms}: x=100: y=50: fontsize=24: fontcolor
=yellow@0.8: box=1: boxcolor=blue@0.9'
Error configuring filters.

Do you know what this error is and how to resolve? @PeterCordes

Your commandline, copy/pasted into a shell and changing the input file and font, works for me.  My quoting works for a Unix shell, I guess DOS cmd.exe has different quoting rules.  (Or actually, I think cmd.exe passes the entire arg as one string, and every program needs to do its own quote-removal.)  I don't have a working Windows with ffmpeg setup right now.

However, I can tell you what the command line ffmpeg sees should be:  I ran echo ffmpeg ..., so see what happens after bash's quote remval.  ffmpeg -i in.mts -filter_complex drawtext=fontfile=/Windows/Fonts/arial.ttf: text='frame %{n}\: %{pict_type}\: pts=%{pts \: hms}': x=100: y=50: fontsize=24: fontcolor=yellow@0.8: box=1: boxcolor=blue@0.9 -c:a copy -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 16 -x264-params keyint=60 -map 0 out3.avi

If I were you, I'd get a decent Unix shell for windows.  Git comes with bash compiled with mingw.  (http://git-scm.com/download/win)  Not a full cygwin bash, just minimal port to windows.  The installer sets up "new git bash here" context menu entries for folders for explorer, too.  It still runs in a DOS text window, instead of a decent terminal emulator, so copy/pasting sucks a bit, but it's pretty usable and very lightweight.   The other option, of course, is to figure out how to quote your command for cmd.exe. :P

BTW, I guess quoting is problem error, rather than a version of ffmpeg that doesn't support pts, because your error message says ffmpeg was interpreting pts as an option to the drawtext filter, NOT as part of the string argument to the text option.  So the : in the text arg must not have been getting quoted properly.  Probably a difference in how \\\ inside double quotes is handled in bourne shell vs. DOS.

Also, don't put h.264 into .avi containers, unless you need to.  mkv is a nicer container, and so is mp4.  AVI doesn't really properly support B frames (which can reference future frames).  Video streams are stored in decode order.  With B frames, that's not the same as display order.  IIRC, this is what makes B frames (even xvid with b frames) in avi a hack.

Another option is Sony Vegas Pro + Vegasaur extension.
Using this extension, you can extract recorded date/time information from video files and burn it onto video. Font, color, size etc. - fully customizable.

Try Davinci Resolve.  Very easy and capable burn in capability.
See my video tutorial on how to use this helpful feature.

Thank you.
Dan Benson

Hi Daniel, welcome to Video.SE.  Could you include at least a basic level of detail in your answer here.  Video tutorials are great, but if off-site links go dead, then this will no longer provide an answer.  Due to this, answers that don't provide at least a basic explanation of the external resource may be down voted or deleted.


text:
Is there any method to create an audio visualizer as seen in video below
So I've been looking for a certain effect to add to videos for my channel, and in doing so I can safely say that the internet is filled with useless and endless templates for simple audio visualizations or ungodly expensive suites that can't do what I actually want to do. (or at least similar)
There are three videos below, I believe them to have been rendered in After Effects.

this one is why I know it to be After Effects,

The uploader says to have been using javascript math expressions, alas I can not find anything where I could learn how to do anything close to that. Particles or no particles.  I'm more looking at trying to find something I can learn from rather than "can someone do this."  If there is any free resources out there I could possibly use?
The channel I linked has long been abandoned.
Edit: I can't even add the tags to this post of "Particles" or "Visualizer"

If you're on a mac, you should look into "Quartz Composer".  It's free from Apple if you register as a developer.  It's what they build all of their screensavers with, and it's waaay easier to learn than javascript.  I believe there's still also a large-ish support community, although I haven't been involved since OSX Leopard.

Audio Spectrum effect that comes with After Effects. Just apply the effect to a solid layer and there will be a dropdown of the layers in the current composition, select the audio layer.


text:
How to specify CRF quality settings for different encoding software
Is there a way of specifying a quality setting for h.264 that is not software dependant?
I'm trying to help a colleague create a specification for outside contractors when they deliver video to us for use on our website as h.264-compressed mp4 files. We can specify a bitrate, but that doesn't work so well if we want variable bitrate / constant quality (CRF) compression.
If I knew they would be using libx264 to do the compression I could give them a range for the -crf setting, but they'll be using all sorts of software to do the compression. So how do I specify quality, except by saying something vague like "visually lossless" or "good quality"?

For VBR, can't you specify both the average bit rate and quality level (essentially, minimum bit rate)? If you have to meet a specific target, you may have to use CBR.

That's going to be challenging because not all encoders are equal, and even "video professionals" don't always know what they're doing, so your results will probably vary wildly. Can you require a lossless (or acceptable quality lossy) intermediate format and you can re-encode to your specifications?

That's what I've been suggesting. I've never had to contact a contractor to get them to supply me with an mp4 because I've only got a ProRes master, but the reverse is quite common.

But just as an academic exercise, would specifying a profile + level do the job? I usually encode Main Profile for compatibility, could I specify level 3 or higher?

It depends on the devices you want to support if the video is going straight from contractor to client, and level limits may be encountered depending on the chosen level and the output parameters (Example. See the warnings in: ffmpeg -f lavfi -i testsrc=s=hd720:d=5,format=yuv420p -c:v libx264 -level 3 output.mp4)

I only explicitly use profile and level if the playback device requires it. Otherwise I just let x264 choose.

Profile and level would be the same as specifying a bitrate, with additional restrictions on rez/fps, and on ref frames.  Also, for the love of science, get people to use High profile unless you actually want the videos to play on crappy old phones or other hardware players.  8x8dct helps a lot, esp. at HD rez.  (It probably helps less at very high bitrates, though, so for very very high-bitrate masters it's maybe not losing as much quality.)

Also, level is just an upper bound on bitrate.  Setting a level limit for x264 just makes sure it doesn't exceed it;  It doesn't tell it that you want it to max out the bitrate as much as possible within that level.  I assume other encoders would have a level setting separate from quality / bitrate targets.

Any decent encoder can hit a target bitrate (with 2pass), but still spend the bits intelligently to achieve similar quality throughout the file.  x264 2pass figures out what CRF will give the desired bitrate (pass1), and then uses it (pass2).  (source: Dark Shikari.  cf. the links I dug up for my answer on this question about VBR streaming).
You only get CBR with x264 if vbv-maxrate = bitrate, and even then it's can be VBR within the buffer size.  (h.264 is never going to be strictly CBR like mp3 or something, unless your I frames look HORRIBLE :P)
However, you probably meant variable-across-clips, rather than the usual within-one-file meaning, because CFR as a quality target is clearly much better than blindly setting a target bitrate for many different sources.
(Is there a word for this?  flexible bitrate?  Other than target-quality, as opposed to target-bitrate.  CRF targets a heuristic for quality, not strictly a quality target.)
Anyway, in that case, I have no idea what other encoders support.  Lossless h.264 is probably the best format for sending files around.  It's significantly smaller than huffyuv or utvideo, and can support up to 10bit.  (actually, I think FFmpeg can decode higher bit depths, but x264 can only produce files up to 10bit.)  Or I guess you could get them to send you slightly-lossy pro-res files, if that's a lot easier for your workflows.
LordNeckBeard brings up the question of whether you're delivering these files directly to clients.  If that's the case, you should probably require that they encode with x264 with at least preset=slower, so you can just give them a crf value if you're already requiring x264.  The rate-distortion tradeoff matters for final files that you're going to stream many times.

Oh, one encoder-independent proxy for quality is average quantizer.  If they do use x264, they could just use a CRF below your required average QP.  (psy / AQ both raise quantizers, but gains perceived visual quality.)  x264 with very low subme can look worse at the same average QP (but this affects CRF, too).  Anyway, if you require that, and they DON'T use x264, it might be inconvenient for them to even find out.  ffmpeg's h.264 decoder doesn't keep stats to print average QP, but might export QP per frame so you could use -vf codecview.

If they don't use x264, they could find some target quality mode if there is one, or maybe a fixed-QP mode (which would probably be worse RD, but at least of known quality).  Make sure you put your reasoning along with any such requirement.  i.e. "average QP < 14.  (Use an encoder setting that is well beyond visually transparent, as we will be re-encoding this.  For x264, crf = 12 would be ideal.)"  As long as they know the reason for your rule, they will know that the actual QP isn't what you care about, but rather visual quality.

also, nvm, codecview is for visualizing motion vectors, and showinfo doesn't print per-frame average QP.  I looked over the whole list of ffmpeg's video filters, and none of them will print QP values :/

Thanks for your answer. I think the take-home message is that if we want to have quality control for our web video we ask contractors to deliver masters and do the encoding ourselves.

Yeah, if storage space to archive the masters on your end isn't an issue, it's a LOT more useful to have them.  In the future, you can go back and produce encodes at different bitrates, or with VP9 / HEVC, or for different streaming scenarios, or do whatever else.  Or just change your settings for new encodes, without having to ask your contractors to update their settings.  If you did have your contractors do the encodes, you could always look at the x264 settings string it embeds in the h.264 string, to make sure they used high enough subme, and other settings.


text:
How can I create a video from an image sequence that is named with a date in the FFmpeg?
I am using FFmpeg
I'd like to create an mp4 using an image sequence.
But the images are not named sequentially, like 1, 2, 3, 4... Instead they are named with a time stamp in the form yyyy-mm-dd-mm.
How can I create a script to achieve this?

Which operating system?

The windows~~~~

@Mulvya Since he mentioned PowerShell, I assume that's Win7 or higher.

I don't see any mention of Powershell or Windows by the OP.

You can do it with scripting by renaming the files. I don't have a Windows machine at hand at the moment so I can't test this but this is what I would do in power shell:
First navigate to the directory containing the image sequence,  then
mkdir sorted_images;
$serial=0;
Get-childItems *. jpg | sort-object date | %{
Cp $_ (".\sorted_images\image_{0}.jpg" -f ($serial.toString("00000")));
$serial++}

That script should copy all the jpg images in the current folder to a new folder and rename them with a five digit serial number. Try it out on some test images first because I haven't tested it myself.

It's rather a powershell-specific question than FFmpeg, but here you go:
ffmpeg -i <input> <some_encoding_options> -f mp4 "my_filename_"$(get-date).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm")".mp4"

Change the parameter of ToString to whatever you want, you can find more info about PS date formatting syntax here.
A little cheatsheet (all of these have leading zeroes):

yyyy year
MM month
dd day
hh hour in 12-hour format
HH hour in 24-hour format
mm minute


text:
Can't export .mov with premiere pro cs5.5?
I'm trying to export a mpeg format sequence to .mov (I need it to be quicktime for a ceratin reason). When I choose the format, e.g. quicktime animation or quicktime H.264, It opens an 'encoding' window, and stays on 0% forever.
Exporting other formats works great. What could be the problem?
I'd be happy to include more information as soon as I know which info is relevant.

Which OS are you using? From your Q, it appears that you just want to convert a clip, has it been edited in any way? If not, that opens up non-Premiere possibilities.

Eventually I've exported it as mp4 and then converted to mov using SUPER converter which I recommend, but still would like to understand what went wrong. I'm using win 7. Video shot with 5d. Also, I found out that it IS possible to export .mov out of different sequence settings. Or maybe 5d is just too much for my 4 GB computer?

Are you using Adobe Encoder or are you exporting directly from Premiere Pro? Also, what settings are you using?

Install or reinstall the Quicktime player.
That's all.
:)

Sounds like your Quicktime install has been messed up, possibly by iTunes or something else installing Quicktime.  Try reinstalling Quicktime Player or the whole of Premiere if you can face it...

Installing Quicktime did it.