text:
How to correct aspect ratio
I have a movie in AVI format from a toy helicopter that reports an corrupt or missing index but still plays in VLC very wide and short.  When I click Video -> Aspect Ratio -> 4:3 the file plays as it should, but I have to do this each time I open a file.
Video file info: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p, 720x240, 59.94 fps, 59.94 tbr, 60 tbn
The video dimensions are 720x240 and according to the instructions the video should be 720x480
I am looking for suggestions for video conversion software that will allow me to change the aspect ratio.  I am using a Mac, but have access to Windows PC as well.  Freeware is preferred.
I have tried Handbrake 0.9.9 on Mac, but I can't seem to find a method of increasing the vertical size beyond the original 240.

FFMpeg has an option to modify the aspect ratio of a video file without actually modifying the video, see http://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#Video-Options
For example, in your case, the desired aspect ratio is 720 / 480 = 1.5 (3:2) (which is NOT 4:3, it should be 540 in that case)
So your command line may look like:
ffmpeg -i input_file.avi -c copy -aspect 1.5 output_file.avi

This copies both audio and video streams unchanged to the output file, and specify into the file's metadata that the aspect ratio is 1.5 as a hint for video players.

+1 for using -aspect with stream copy mode.

Most likely the video is 4:3 with non-square pixels. It sounds like it's interlaced DV-sized footage and each sample (field) is actually 720x240, which is normal standard def NTSC with a pixel (not picture) aspect ratio of 10/11ths. (See here for example.)

@user1118321 most probably true, but if, as the OP says, there are "missing index" messages, it is probably corrupted or muxed incorrectly. Manually fixing the video using the technique described in my answer will not hurt. In truth, ffmpeg can set the PAR (aka SAR) as well as the DAR, but this involves using video filters, which do not allow the "copy" codec.

AVIdemux can do that when encoding, but i cannot remember if it allows you to do that when you chose to copy the stream without reencoding (you don't want to reencode, since it will not only be time consuming, but also lossy).
If you are willing to change it from AVI to MKV (VLC and most other players will have no problem playing it) you can do that with MKV-merge with no problem. It will be in the settings of your video stream, just set the display resolution to what you want it to be.
I am not 100% sure, but i would bet that both these are compiled for both Windows and Mac.
If you are not afraid of the command line, i would recommend avconv from libav package. It not only allows one to set the display aspect ratio with the -aspect parameter (just like ffmpeg did), but also to manipulate the pixel (aka sample) aspect ratio, which then recalculates the display aspect ratio automatically. That second approach, however, would require the stream to be decoded and reencoded again. So you you have:
No reencoding:
avconv -i input.avi -aspect 4:3 -c:a copy -c:v copy output.avi

With reencoding:
avconv -i input.avi -vf dar=4:3 -c:v libxvid -c:a copy output.avi

or
avconv -i input.avi -vf sar=1:1 -c:v libxvid -c:a copy output.avi

Keep in mind that unless you are doing something very creative, it makes little sense to specify both dar and sar, since the last one you mention will basically override the settings set by the previous one.

Instead of
avconv -i input.avi -aspect 4:3 -c:a copy -c:v copy output.avi

I tried on ffmpeg 5.1
 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -aspect 16:9 -c:a copy -c:v copy output.mp4

It works (I tried to convert 4:3 to 16:9)


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How to Sync a Layer's Position, to a Layer in Another (Time Remapped) Comp
So we are making a 2D animation. We have character assets in PSD.
We have a "Character" Comp which contains the following: "Eyes" Comp, "Mouth" Comp and "Body" Comp.
"Body" has the 2-second walk-cycle of the character. Which is time-remapped to a loop in "Character". But as character walks, its body goes in a wawy upwards and downwards motion.
The problem starts there: We have to sync "Eyes" and "Mouth" to body's up and down motion. Parenting the said layers' position to the body asset's position is not an option, because the body asset has only 2 seconds of animation. After that, "Mouth" and "Eyes" just stops wherever they were.
I think there must be a way to do this with expressions. But since we are not a code-savvy studio, we can't sit down and write one.
How can we achieve such a goal?
Thanks for the help.
Edit:
You can download our comp from here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/v255kgid7ej56m0/walk.zip

So, to understand you correctly. You have 2 comps in a main comp and comp 1 has animated assets inside itself and you then went ahead and time remapped comp 1 inside the main comp and now need to sync the motion of comp 1 to comp 2? (not an asset inside comp 2?)
It might be helpful if you could upload a simple AE file that shows the issue.

Comp 1 has animated assets inside and it is time remapped inside main comp, yes. Comp 1 in Main Comp does not have any motion there. I want to sync Comp 2's motion (position) to a asset's inside Comp 1. Will provide the AEP file asap.

If you want to link certain properties through several composition you can only do this with expressions. They are really not difficult though and its a matter of 1-2 lines.
F.e. to get the position of a layer in a different composition you can do this:
comp("Comp Name").layer("Layer Name").transform.position

Just alt click the position stop watch of the layer you want to apply that position to and enter that command.
To break it down. This select first the comp you want by name and then selects the layer you want within that comp:
comp("Comp Name").layer("Layer Name")

This part says that you want a value from the transform menu and the name of the value is position. Position could also just be rotation or any other property:
.transform.position

Note that you often get multiple values at once. For example position can have 2 or 3 values depending on if the layer is 2D or 3D. This multiple values are given to you in something called an array or vector. What comes now is only needed if you want independent axis control and not the position value of all 2 or 3 axis's applied to your layer.
So in order to f.e. only get the position of the y axis you can do this:
y  = comp("Comp 1").layer("layer1").transform.position[1];
[transform.position[0],y]

The made-up variable name y in this case is getting the y-axis value of layer1 assigned. by adding [1] at the end of position. Using [0] would give you x and [2] would give you z.
This part is what you call the return value. You write it in the form of an array/vector. Meaning [x-axis-value,y-axis-value] or [x-axis,y-axis,z-axis]. transform.position[0] just means I want the x value of THIS layer where I'm entering the expression in. So you can still control that axis manually.
[transform.position[0],y]

In order to account for the time remap you would need to apply the same remapping to comp2 that you applied to comp1.
If that's not what you are after I might have to see an example project.
Edit: So if you use time remap to loop layers and not to fine tune your animation you shouldn't use it in these situation. In order to retain a better control you should use a simple expression on the animated assets of your looping composition in order to loop you animation.
loopOut(type = "cycle", numKeyFrame = 0);

Add this to every layer property that is animated and make the comp length as long as you need, your 2 second animation will now repeat as long as your composition is, you just have to stretch your layers length to the new comp length. This solves your issue.
If you have more sub-comps in you sub-comp you will have to increase their length as well of course so you can stretch them to the end of their parent comp.
For more information on this expression have a look at this: http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/expression_shorts_-_loop

We tried exactly that. But the problem with that is that does not work properly in time remapped comp. Time remapped comp has only 2 seconds of animation. So after 2 seconds, there is no value in ".transform.position".

Then just time remap the comp2 in the same manner?

I looked into you comp. Am I correct assuming that you only time remap in order to loop your animation?

I edited my answer, I tried that method on your project and the face wobbles along just fine after the 2 second mark.

While the loopout expression is better, to use the value of the property at an arbitrary time you can use valueAtTime. This does what it says on the tin: myProperty.valueAtTime(t) returns the value of the property myProperty at the time t. Now the property you want is the position of the other layer, and the time you want is the value of the time remapping of the current layer (timeRemap), so in the expression above you'd use comp("Comp Name").layer("Layer Name").transform.position.valueAtTime(timeRemap)

Thanks everyone. But it still doesn't cut it. So if I do not use that expression on timeRemap, then where can I put that? As you can see, we use that expression in our loops. But expression is in time remap. Also, I can't exacty add loopout expression to assets, because we are using a rigged null-controlled ik puppet. I can not add timeremap to nulls.

No no you don't add time remap to anything. You just add it to every layer that has keyframes and they layer will loop these keyframes forever with that expression. You use it instead of time remap and use it on the layers in your comp instead of the comp itself.

So I add the expressions to the animated properties as expressions, right?

Correct. It wont remove any of your keyframes but take them and loop them forever. All you need to do is increase the length of the layer as needed and it will loop the animation as long as you layer is long.

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text:
Need help finding the right video production software
I have the following situation:
- I need to create a movie in the format .mov or .mp4 on Windows 8.
- As sources I have already 10 .mov files in a format 1600x1200 on Windows8. (originals)
- I need to speed up some parts of my video up to 30 from the original.
- I need to export the constructed video again as 1600 x 1200 in .mov or .mp4 with the same quality as the originals.
I tried to do this already with my tools I already have, but I did not succeed:
My Software:
- Microsoft movie maker
- Handbrake
- Movie Studio Platinum 13.0
- Windows8
I like the simple MovieMaker, but it cannot handle/produce 1600*1200.
Also Movie Studio Platinum 13.0 can't produce 1600*1200 and I am not able to speed up the video more then 4x.
Any hints ?
UPDATE
My Speeduf problem is solved, but I am still searching for a performant reliable software to create videos in the format 1600*1200.
I have Movie Studio Platinum 13.0 which is unusable. It produces black screens in some parts of the video and it lags. I have a high performant computer with 24GB of ram.
Can someone suggest any software ?

Is it 1600x1200 or 1200x1600?

Its landscape 1600 width and 1200 heigth

Do you mean speed it up 30x, or speed it up to 30 fps? What is the original frame rate?

Does Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve support 1600 x 1200 ?

Resolve requires Windows 10.  Windows 8 is a strange and unfortunate choice, but, whatever.

@audionuma Yeah. You can pick any resolution you'd like. (It needs to be dividable by two.)

@TimothyLukasH.it doesn't even have to be divisible by 2.  At least not in Studio.  I can't imagine that they limited it in that way in the free version since it's basically full featured aside from a few high end modules.

You could use Davinci Resolve. The free version can do all the things you want.
It's a professional software tho, so you'll maybe need to read into it.
But you can allways ask here, we can guide you further if you're stuck.

I'd second Resolve.  Especially with the last couple versions it has become a true professional NLE and the free version is very full functional with the studio version being only a one time $300 fee which includes functionality that would typically cost thousands of dollars.  It does mean a steeper learning curve, but it's a curve that will serve you well if you decide to branch to any other professional NLEs since pro NLEs in general work pretty similar.

The one gotcha here is that they'll have to use Resolve 12 since they aren't on Windows 10.  12 did have NLE functions, but it was not nearly as refined as it is in 14 or 15.

Blender VSE is an option that can do those things you need. It uses ffmpeg to do its renders. The main drawback is it renders very slowly, forcing things to a single cpu core, as well it lacks certain things you might want such as sharpeners and support for specific formats like textfiles and gif. Or if you were making 2d text for example it has only basic single font functionality as a preset.
However it offers, in conjunction with the 3d viewport and python scripting, ways to address many of these issues. For the most part it's an open toolbox, it can go as far as you program it to.

Resolve can handle custom resolution just fine.  The rest of the issues have been moved to chat.

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LifeSize DVI Input from multiple devices with in-line scaler
We have a number of meeting rooms that were equipped with an AV cabinet and projector each. There's a local PC and input for mobile devces at the meeting table.  All of the cable runs are HDMI (those longer than ~10m are supported by active Kramer Cat6 Baluns). We've standardised on 1080p for our displays. Locally, everything works well.
We've upgraded two of these rooms for conferencing. This includes: A second, wall mounted TV and a LifeSize Express 220. Input are handled by a Kramer VS-84 (or VS-44) matrix switcher, such that the image to the Projector is mirrored to the DVI-I Input of the LifeSize unit, making it possible to present to remote participants from any of the input devices with ease.
Now, the LifeSize 220 series doesn't support 1080p input for presentations. This wasn't regarded as a significant issue, since a compressed, downscaled input was judged sufficient for passive observers.
To rectify this, we installed a Kramer VP-424 scaler in-line between the switch and the LifeSize. (HDMI in and out). This would give us a clean 720p feed to the LifeSize while all the local displays stay at 1080p.
Here's where the problems come in: At both sites, output from the scaler was being corrupted or not displayed. The pattern of this varied depending on the input device and the scaler used:

Kramer VP-424: Macbooks and iOS devices Display, but are subject to very regular (1/s) single-frame flashes of noise with audible popping sound. Windows laptops display cleanly
CYP SY298H: Similar to the Kramer, with audible poppping, but the image would drop to flat blue and 'No Input', or appear squashed up into the top 1/6 of the screen.
Extron DCS 301: A clean display from Windows laptops, but a no output whatsoever from any Apple devices.

We've also tried:

Many (many) cables.
Direct device input to the Lifesize (Everything works, as the device will downscale to 720p on connection, but it requires manual connection wrangling prior to meetings, which isn't sustainable)
Discussing with our installer. (They're being brilliant about this, but they're as stumped as we are)
Discussing with LifeSize support (Also very helpful, but there are too many variables and 3rd party products for them to suggest anything concrete)
Not having the scaler: All inputs are corrupted as the switch tries to feed 1080p into the LifeSize.

We can't enforce input device type, as support for everything is required in our environment. We can't really mandate 720p across the board as, although it's sufficient for passive viewing, the presenter still needs 1080p (lots of small text and Wireframe 3D in some cases).
I'd love a one-shot solution to this, but if anyone can give me some pointers in how to further debug the problem, I'll be in their debt. (I can provide diagrams of the setup, if it'll help)
EDIT 1
At AJ's Suggestion, I removed the switch from the equation. (Mackbook 1080p@60 -> Scaler-> Lifesize). To start with, the issue was just as apparent. Then I tried something we'd eliminated previously, and switched off the HDCP on Input option.  Suddenly I'm looking at a clean, scaled 720p image!
So I put the switch back in line and now all I see is what we saw with earlier tests: A blank screen. Still, this means that without the switch in place, HDCP isn't needed. If I can disable it in the entire chain, then we might be sorted. I'll report back when I've done some further testing.
EDIT 2
Something I didn't point out previously: If I take the codec out of the equation (Mac -> Scaler -> TV), then I don’t see any problems at all, regardless of the HDCP setting.
So we have HDCP being agreed from device to switch to (if it's enabled) scaler. It looks like the scaler -> Lifesize negotiation is where it's failing. Both agree on HDCP support, but then something goes wrong that causes this regular popping.

Posting as a comment since this is more of a guess than an answer, but it sounds like something is going wrong with negotiating the signal between the matrix switch and the scaler, possibly because the input switch is negotiating with the TV and input as well.  Does it work correctly with the scaler without the switch (or with the TV removed from the system)?

Not a combination I'd tried before, so I gave it a go (See edit)

ok, that actually kind of confirms my suspicion but I don't know enough about the particular hardware you are using and HDCP to figure out what exactly it is.  It is certainly negotiation related though since turning off part of the negotiation (the content protection part) made it start working for you.  From what I recall, switches and HDCP tend to not get along well because the two displays conflict with each other on the negotiation.  I'd ask the switch manufacturer about it probably because I think the ball is in their court.

According to Lifesize, there's no HDCP support at all, so it's odd that we're getting any input at all while it's enabled.  I think my only option is to disable HDCP support at the switch (if possible) so that opportunistic devices (like Macs/iOS) don't bother with it. I'll leave this question up and follow up if I make any progress in that direction.

I've found an answer to my specific problem that's a little ugly, but might be of some use.
The basic premise is to ensure that the first device in the chain does not support (or is capable of disabling support for) HDCP. Macs and iOS devices are opportunistic when it comes to HDCP; they'll always attempt to negotiate it, but will fall back to unencrypted when there's no protected content playing.
The Kramer VP-424 scaler has a setting "HDCP on input" that will, when disabled, prevent that negotiation. By putting one of these inline between the input and the switch, HDCP never starts and the whole chain is unencrypted:
Mac -> VP-424 (HDCP Disabled, 1080p output) ->VS-84H Switch -> VP-424 (HDCP Disabled, 720 Output) -> LifeSize Codec.
The scaling doesn't have any noticeable effect on image quality or unduly effect sync times, which is a bonus. I still get 1080p out to the local projector and downscaled 720p to the codec.
As I say, it's neither pretty, nor cheap; but it works.


text:
What exposure changes do I need to make when shooting with a teleprompter?
As background, I have a very low budget setup, complete with using an iPhone 6 as my camera (with Filmic Pro as the software, so I can manually change things like exposure and focus). I made a teleprompter which has been working for me out of a cardboard box (coated on the inside with black tape) and an iPad (since I'm reading song lyrics, I don't need an operator). I used to be able to get video that was good enough quality for my purposes. I am shooting with Cowboy Studio umbrella lights in my garage.
My question is this: since adding the makeshift teleprompter, the video became darker and much grainier. I think it's because it's basically shooting through a black tunnel, and I have to crop the edges off. Within Filmic Pro, I have manual access to ISO and shutter speed, as well as a separate "Exposure Compensation" which seems to change the previous two values. How can I remove the darkness and graininess? I've tried increasing the ISO or decreasing the shutter speed, but my video ended up looking like badly done stop-motion animation. Did I go too far? Do I need to change the lighting setup?

This is my setup from the rear, including both lights, the backdrop, and the cameraphone tripod and box-prompter.

This is my setup from the side, showing distance from cameraphone/tripod to microphone, which is where the talent (me) stands.

Can you post a picture of the setup? Are you using a beam splitter (two way mirror)?

I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. I am using plain glass from a picture frame, not tinted or anything.

Okay, I added two pictures. I took a third one which shows more closely how the two tripods and the box-prompter are positioned, but I don't have high enough reputation to post three and I'm not sure exactly which part of the setup will help the most.

I can't really see it clearly enough, but why do you need the box and the glass? Why not just put the iPad as close to the iPhone as you can without the rig?

Without the reflection, the talent wouldn't be looking at the lens, or camera, and that would be noticeable.

Then you should be using a beamsplitter instead of regular glass. Regular glass is not optically designed for what you are trying to do.

I don't understand why shooting with a camera through regular glass would affect the exposure.

I think it is because the reflection is acting as filter that is blocking the light. A beamsplitter is optically designed to reduce the light to the camera in a very specific way. A reflection on regular glass, doesn't have those same properties.


text:
daVinci Resolve: Split-clip shortcut on German keboard
What is the keyboard shortcut for split clip on German keyboards in daVinci Resolve 15 ?
While a clip was selected in the edit tab's timeline and the playhead was over it, I tried Ctrl+\ (=Strg+AltGr+ß), Crtl+ß , Ctrl+< and Ctrl+> , but none of these worked.

It seems like this key simply doesn't work on German keyboards.
It's probably because you have to press Alt-Gr to get the "" sign on a German keyboard, and the software doesn't accept that additional key.
You can, however, redefine this function to another key. In contrast to some documentation, this cannot be found in the project settings, but directly in the first main menu entry "DaVinci Resolve|Keyboard Customization".

You can search for split there and choose the command in the timeline group:

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text:
How to work with R3D and RMD files? FFMPEG?
I am getting collections of files of the types
A0123-random-name.RMD
A0123-random-name.R3D

Googling tells me R3D is a raw RED file and RMD is Red Meta Data - data about the processing to be applied.
Can ffmpeg work with these combinations of files? If so, what is an example command line?
If not, what other software can I use to convert these files?

What software are you editing/working with usually?

R3D files are essentially just a custom container that holds video encoded in JPEG2000 and PCM audio. Though ffmpeg only supports the RED container until version 3, not the newer version 4 (see this).
You can convert RED version 3 files the same way you would convert any other video with ffmpeg.
F.e. to h264 use the command below. Doesn't make much sense though to use h264 for further editing, you will have to use an intermediate codec and or container that your software supports:
ffmpeg -i input.r3d -vcodec libx264 -preset slow output.mp4

The usual way though is to use the free REDCINE-X tool provided by RED:
https://www.red.com/downloads?category=Software&release=final
It allows you to transcode your r3d files into pretty much any desirable format as long as its supported by V4W (Video for Windows, e.g. all codecs installed on your system). Or QuickTime on Mac.
Redcine is also the only useful way to do something with the RMD files.

Redcine-x tool is the good solution for me!

You can use red official program "REDline"
Download It from here https://www.red.com/download/redline-linux-beta
It's a shell script. to install it. From properties change it's permission to allow execute.

Now open it in terminal and install it
$ sudo <filelocation/file.sh>

if you are in a installer directory you can install it by running
$ sudo ./file.sh

Now after installing it.
Currently it's a command line program.
normally you can convert R3D (red video files to other formats like openexr,tiff , jpeg ) files to image sequences and also you extract audio too.
Now if i want to convert  a R3D files to jpeg sequences the command would be like this
$ REDline -i <filelocation/file.R3D> --format 3 -o filename

let me explain what are these commands and options are
here REDline is our program for converting R3D files to image sequences
-i means video for converting
--format 3 means convert to what format currently the program supports DPX , Tiff, OpenEXR , JPEG, SGI, R3D Trim, Apple ProRes and Avid DNX formats. now what does 3 means 3 means convert R3D files to image sequences. so how can you convert to Tiff format use number 1. for other formats you can use
DPX = 0, OpenEXR = 2, SGI = 4, R3D Trim = 102, Apple ProRes=201, Avid DNX = 204
-o means output file name because you are converting to jpeg image sequences the program will automatically name it.like wise
filename.000000.jpg
filename.000001.jpg
filename.000002.jpg
filename.000003.jpg


text:
Why isn't ffmpeg used in movie production or broadcasting tool chains?
Is the assumption in the title true?
What is preventing the use of ffmpeg when producing a movie or broadcast quality material?
Are there any prominent or well known users of ffmpeg?
What is used instead of ffmpeg? Quicktime pro? Final Cut Pro/Adobe Premiere/Avid media composer?
Edit:
One interesting indication of ffmpeg usage could be job offer listings from major media firms where they are looking for ffmpeg skills.

If you say "ffmpeg skills" do you mean "I am able to read documentation and use (standard) tools" or do you mean "I know the sourcecode and can add any feature you want". The former is nothing special, the later is highly sought.

FFmpeg is probably being used more than you believe. I think the BBC uses it for some workflows, there is evidence that Laika and Weta may use it, and there is a fork called FFmbc which is targeted for professional broadcast usage.
YouTube probably uses FFmpeg to decode as shown by some unique decoding issues (but this was several years ago that I read about this and I'm not sure of the current status).
Also see the FFmpeg Projects page for a small list of who uses FFmpeg in their projects.

Could you please add some reference link about the usage of ffmpeg at BBC or Laika, or somewhere else?

@dontomaso No, unfortunately. These are just inferences from observing who is asking questions in the ffmpeg-user mailing list and some discussions in various IRC channels. Perhaps you can ask on ffmpeg-user who is actually using ffmpeg and get answers straight from the source.

Some of the FFmbc development was funded by the BBC. They are credited inside the source code.

I work as an assistant editor on feature films, and use ffmpeg all the time, primarily for two purposes:

Transcoding files to be uploaded for producers to view on digital dailies systems (Dax, PIX, etc). I've written up shell scripts that accept property-of and recipient strings as command line input, along with target bitrate, and then generate the desired files with a watermark made from those inputs. It's convenient, faster than AME, and more stable than a Compressor cluster. When I figure out how to do SMPTE timecode and feet+frames burn-ins with ffmpeg, my use of the application will expand further.
Transcoding files for editorial whose original video or audio are in codecs or formats not supported by AME or Compressor. For example, clips needed for temp can be pulled from BDR or DVDR video discs, ingested into an mkv file, and then from there transcoded with ffmpeg to editorial-ready DnxHD or Prores.

I don't use ffmpeg for any sort of final or critical output, and I only use it in a few limited ways that I've extensively tested. But in answer to the original question - I do use ffmpeg a ton on both film and TV work, and think it's a great tool that helps me get through many of my regular tasks quickly and well. I couldn't guess how many other people in features or TV are using it. I frequently recommend ffmpeg to other AE's, but most folk have a command-line aversion.
ffmpeg's use in professional film and broadcast settings is probably also limited by the learning curve of not just the application's own syntax(es) but also the exposed complexity of video formats. Sometimes in ffmpeg a user has to know a ton about source and target codec in order to get things done. Use Compressor or AME to transcode from one codec to another and you'll never have to deal with perusing a long list of different YUV pixel formats, or having to make sure that your target file's height is divisible by 2 to avoid an x264 error. Those of us who enjoy learning arcana and carving our way to solutions are probably silently using ffmpeg at work.

I don't use ffmpeg for any sort of final or critical output. Can I ask why?

I use it in my professional production chain all the time. Last week I was using it to batch through dozens of videos that needed subtitles burnt-in. It would have taken me weeks of tedious labour with Final Cut, it took me a couple of minutes burning the srts in with ffmpeg, and I was able to automatically rename the files and compress them for the various playback devices at the same time, and keep editing in the background.
I'd say unfamiliarity with the command line is the major reason most people don't use it. Typy-typy is too scary, they need clicky-clicky. Though there are definitely some areas - archival preservation for one, where it is one of the main tools of choice. In any situation where you need to automate video manipulation or conversion there is really nothing that beats it.

The main reason is support, usability and control.  First, lets clarify that FFMPEG is an encoder, QuickTime Pro is a video utility that happens to include multiple encoders and Final Cut Pro is a non-linear editor and has nothing to do with encoders other than the fact it can output to an encoder (generally QuickTime I believe).
For big budget commercial projects, the emphasis is going to be on having the highest possible quality encoding which often will involve manual review of the content and tweaking the way things are encoded to minimize artifacts and maximize the quality.  Commercial encoders or even proprietary ones used internally by encoding houses have far more control, support and development than ffmpeg.  It's great for a free tool, but it isn't a high end commercial product.
For smaller commercial projects, you may find some users, but most often people use the encoders that come with their NLEs at that level (such as QuickTime Pro or Adobe Media Encoder).  The main reason at that level is convenience since they are tied directly in to the NLEs and are easy to configure and behave well with good quality results.
I can't guarantee that there aren't any production chains that use FFMPEG or a modified form of it, but in general, it is worth simply pointing out that not all encoders are created equally and while ffmpeg does very, very well for being free, it isn't the best option in all cases all the time, even if for business reasons rather than technical ones.

It is debatable that commercial encoders have more active development that ffmpeg. Just look at the large number of commits to FFmpeg per week. Of course the commercial stuff will not disclose their information. As for quality I can get what I want with FFmpeg, but AME is often more annoying than useful. How to encode with ffmpeg from Adobe Premiere Pro may interest some users.

There is more to amount of development than the number of commits.  There is the level of responsiveness to industry concerns that come up.  If a production studio has a problem with a commercial encoder, they can get direct professional support.  They can't do this without having their own in house developer for FFmpeg.  That said, nice link about the using ffmpeg with Adobe Premiere Pro.  I'll probably give that a shot as I'm always a fan of having more options available even if I generally find AME to be useful.

FFmpeg has good, free user support and interested developers can also be hired for employment or direct consulting support.

@LordNeckbeard - yes, but a production company isn't a software company and doesn't want to have to deal with developers.  They want an organization to be the knowledge expert on it for them so they don't have to worry about it.  This is the same reason that commercial software continues to do well in so many other areas where there is similar open source products available.  I'm not saying you couldn't necessarily accomplish the same thing with FFmpeg, but by the time you do, it's likely going to cost more than commercial options.  That's just a general rule of thumb for FOSS.  It's time vs $

I'd like to add that our team uses FFMPEG pretty regularly, but the learning curve was not pretty. I think this holds back a lot of other video pros I talk to. I've heard countless stories of people who tried FFMPEG once or twice, got an unexpected result, and returned to the encoder they're more comfortable with. I can't really blame them, time is money. We use FFMPEG because we make backend video frameworks, and easily being able to access FFMPEG from Python and command line are invaluable to us.

The codec quality thing is definitely an issue.  I'm a sound designer and I generally have to turn over review quicktimes as MP4s with AAC, and the stock ffmpeg AAC encoder is atrocious, you gotta go Fraunhofer. It just gives me the heebeejeebees about using FFMpeg for any video encoding apart from just draft stuff.

@iluvcapra The stock AAC encoder is no longer experimental and is now claimed to be better than FDK-AAC for bitrates over 96kb, though I don't personally know how true that is.

@Prometheus It's good to know, I use ffmpeg pretty routinely now though I only export audio as LPCM.


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Windows Software to record from Webcam & Screen
I'm looking for software which can simultaneously record video from my computer's web cam at the same time as recording the content displayed on screen.
More Detailed Requirements

Run on Windows 7
Be cheap (< ~70 USD)
Be simple (i.e. easy to learn for basic recording features at least)
Record videos up to 3 hours in length.
Quality is not overly important so long as it's possible to see and hear what's going on.
The video will be published as a file; we don't need any broadcast/streaming facilities
Basic post production video editing tools (examples below) would be useful, though not essential

adjust audio levels in sections of the video
cutting and splicing facilities
ability to switch between cam, screen, and composite feeds

Background
My specific use case: we're about to have a number of software demos for various products and would like to record these.  We can then make these videos available to the end users so they can see what was said & get an idea of what the products looked like without them needing to sit through each demo (saving them time, easing the logistics of organising the demos and keeping number of people present down to avoid too many tangents).  We're likely to also use this tool for some user training videos once the eventual products are selected.
Research
So far I've found a number of potential solutions, but have no personal experience with any.  Reading their sites though they claim to record from various input sources it's not clear if simultaneous input (i.e. cam & screen) recording is possible, or if there are limits on video length.

NCH Debut:   http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture
Open Broadcast Software:   http://obsproject.com
Many Cam:   http://manycam.com
XSplit:   http://www.xsplit.com

Any recommendations would be much appreciated; thank-you in advance.


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320 kbps MP3 -> laptop sound card -> studio headphones = what is the bottleneck?
I am usually listening to

a) 320 kbps MP3
b) Spotify over WiFi

on my

c) Samsung Galaxy S4
d) HP laptop with internal sound card (I can't even google what card is there)

over

Sony Mdr-V6 closed headphones.

What is the bottle neck in my sound quality? What should be my upgrade path?

upgrade headphones?
buy external sound card for the laptop?
buy headphones amplifier?
improve the audio source?*

*I can/will not use CDs as audio source as this is not compatible with my lifestyle.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is not about Video Production, within the scope given in the help center.

File format
Bit rate tells surprisingly little about quality in the case of mp3 files. There are old encoders where no matter how low you set the compression, there will always be audible artifacts. But LAME and the like have long gotten over this, and properly done 320 kBit mp3 is for listening purposes lossless, just like CDs are. Note anyway that mp3 is an outdated standard; I'd like to recommend switching to OGG Vorbis but practically this wouldn't gain you anything.
Network
What digital connection you use to transfer the file from the source to the DA unit has no influence on the sound whatsoever1. WiFi is fine as long as its avarage transmission rate can keep up, which should never be a problem nowadays (apart from complete dropouts if the connection breaks down somehow, of course).
Sound card
Laptop on-board sound cards are horrible, so off the top I'd say that's your bottleneck. However, the one thing they usually manage quite well is driving headphones. The main problems that such sound cards have are

Awful mic preamps.
Bad AD/DA units.
Insufficient (or no) shielding against interference from power supply bursts etc.

You don't need the mic inputs. Even low-quality DAs of today can actually reproduce properly bandlimited audio quite faithfully. And the interference issues mostly turn up when you connect to some other audio device (with ground connection), but not so much with headphones. The headphone amplifiers themselves aren't great of course, but since that's quite an easy job electronically they still don't have easily audible influence on the sound. One remaing problem is high volume levels, especially in mobile devices, for power-supply (as well as, possibly, heat dissipation) reasons.
You may try an external sound card, it might improve you listening experience; but perhaps not significantly.
Headphones
Like any kind of speaker device, those actually have more influence on the sound than any properly designed purely electronic component2. That's often not so much considered a flaw as a characteristic; HiFi speakers aren't really designed to transmit with flat response at all, but to transmit "nicely sounding", which obviously isn't quite well-defined.
Studio monitors and -headphones are, in principle, designed to operate as linearly as possible. Incidentally, this means they don't really sound "good": they're most of all supposed to reveal any issues in the material. Sound engineers value this, obviously. But again, mastering engineers anticipate that most listeners will use technically inferior speakers, and set up the mastering accordingly.
Music source
This, in a way, means the actual bottleneck is probably the orginal source; not the file format but the mastering. Indeed many of today's records are mastered quite horribly IMO, grossly overcompressed etc..
Of course this depends on what style of music you hear. Classical music and Jazz are least affected, Pop through Electronic and Metal are most. What can you do about it? It's nothing you could fix by buying better listening equipment; if anything you could get worse equipment to better match the master engineers' expectations.
Just try and be selective about what tracks you listen to, that's the advice I'd give you. A great recording3 over 30$ equipment is much more enjoyable than a bad recording over 1000$ equipment.

1Actually, that's only true for asynchronous transport, as in your case. If you need realtime performance, then there are sure enough a couple of issues in the digital transmission.
2Of course, I'm leaving out deviced designed to alter the sound here, like EQs etc..
3Sure enough, in the recording studio they will have needed expensive equipment. Recording has much higher demands (e.g. low-noise mic preamps) than listening.

What a comprehensive answer, thanks! I will google and comment more.

Its most likely your sound card. HP is notorious for using extremely cheap components on non essential hardware, such as your soundcard. It is the same way with all 3 of my HP computers.


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What title(s) should a one-person film crew receive in the credit role?
I recently worked on an interview series that had the following contributors:

Producer
Interviewer: Person who contacted and arranged the interviews
Me, the "predator" (one-person film crew) who set up mics, selected angles and composed shots (one per interview for 8 interviews) like a Cinematographer/DP, operated the camera during the interviews, filmed B-roll, and edited the footage.

Now I'm filling in the credits and getting ready to suggest what to call me to the client. I was thinking of this (in which I am named as Cinematographer and Editor):

Interviews by [name]
Cinematographer [me]
Editor [me]
Music by [name]
Producer [name]

Does this seem appropriate? Should I limit myself to one line in the credit role? Is there only a Cinematographer when that's a separate person from the camera operator? In other words, what title(s) should I be credited with?
My reasoning is this: I did the professional work of a DP/Cinematographer and also ran the camera. But I don't want to look back on this once I've been doing this longer and think, "Wow, that was kind of pompous."

Sounds like you directed it. Would be simple to just put Director, I think one can assume you did everything then if there is no editor or DP credited.
The director is responsible for the overall vision of the flow of the piece.  They oversee filming and work with a cinematographer, if applicable, to determine the right look for the film, work with actors to get the right performance and then work with the editor to make sure it flows.  They are basically the person chiefly responsible for adapting the screenplay or concept of the film in to a finished movie.
For Example:
If you create a documentary completely by yourself, lets say you spend 20 days in Antarctica, you film everything you narrate, when you get back you edit it, and then do sound and music.  At the end of the day you directed that documentary, which for all intensive purposes is the highest credit you could receive, if the film ends and says directed by x.  People watching are not going to stand up and go "Wait who shot this film?" It is implied that you did it since you directed it and nobody was credited under you.
Another way this is sometimes credited to avoid confusion is simply doing created by

I think this makes sense, but because I'm relatively new to film production, could you modify your answer to explain why it sounds like I directed it? Thanks for your already satisfactory answer.

@LuceGoose I gave you a scenario that explains it, also gave you an alternative option

Very helpful explanation.

I would take a look at some of tested.com's videos. They often have one guy do camera work and editing, and he is credited twice.

Thanks for the suggestion. This is a good idea, but it doesn't answer the question. Perhaps you could reproduce some of the Tested.com credits in your answer.

@LuceGoose - my interpretation of this answer is just that other people do crediting multiple times if the same person did multiple roles, so it isn't outside norms if you decide to do that.

I believe he was credited as camera op and editor

As long as there are no union people on the job, it doesn't particularly matter how you do credits.  There are plenty examples of both multiple credits to the same person or just doing the most general job they did (such as simplifying the roles of cinematographer, editor and director in to one role).
I've personally done both on different projects and primarily have used the length of the film and the number of people involved as a basis for the credits.  If it is short, I recommend using the shortened version since it would be awkward to do long credits on a short film (for example, the classic Bambi Meets Godzilla).  Similarly, if there are only a couple people and it would just be the same names over and over again, a shortened form makes sense.
In this particular case, if you opt for the limited list, I'd most likely go with Director or, with two options, director and editor.  The director generally oversees making sure that the story is told well and that the film flows, so it is most encompassing of the roles you did, with editor being the next biggest impact role.
If there are a decent number of names (10+ maybe) and the film is more than a few minutes long, I'd probably switch over to multiple listings as roles are distinct enough and there are enough names it doesn't seem too artificially inflated.
Note that if there are any union people involved, this guideline is likely to go out the window though as unions have their own rules about how crediting works and you will need to follow those guidelines to comply with union contracts.

Solid guidelines. Very useful information. Didn't answer my specific question but this is a valuable response and I'm glad it's here. Thank you, AJ.

@LuceGoose - good call, I added a paragraph talking about what I'd go with for short credits in this case.  I was so focused on generalizing the answer I forgot to answer the specific.  Thanks for pointing it out.  This actually started out as a comment because I liked both answers already here, but it got too long.


text:
A device or a method for comparing original and transferred video
I want to compare a video that is transfered through a Device and the original video by connecting them to a monitor or to a device that can measure everything for me and give us a full complete list of the differences so we can know how to improve our device in a way that give us the same result as the Original Video, and if you have any other methods to do so it would be really helpful and appreciated.

authors: ณัฐพล กรวงศ์รักษา


text:
After Effects added an extra move to the animation, how to get rid of it?

As you can see in the Value Graphic, the second part of the line is a broken line, but I didn't make it that way, and I can't fix that.
That causes the shape to continue moving forward a little bit instead of going back immediately.
I didn't set easy ease or staff like that. It happens every time, but I don't know what is controlling this!
Help!

OK, I finally figured it out. This bug is known as "Boomerang Effect".
Reason: Bezier will cause After Effects randomly mass up the path of the shape.

So you can simply right click the keyframe than select "Keyframe Interpolation" from the menu, than set "Spatial Interpolation" to "Linear" instead of "Auto Bezier", it'll fix everything!
These two video tutorial helped me a lot: AE Boomerang Effect, Part 1 and AE Boomerang Effect, Part 2 they explain the principle of this problem.


text:
Want to learn the new iMovie
Can you recommend a good site with some online training for the latest iMovie on OS X? I have tried to play with iMovie over the years and I never seem to 'get' how it is meant to be used.
Right now I have about 1.5 hours of raw video taken with my iPhone 5s of a set of student presentation and I (naively) wanted to make a short 'highlight real' of it. But once I import the video into iMovie I am not sure how to use its features.
(Note that I am very proficient on my mac in every other respect, software development, html, photoshop, illustrator, all those I manage just fine, but iMovie is so confusing. I feel like I just need a 20 minute leg up in a tutorial or something like that.)

I'm generally a fan of Lynda.com. If you are a student (especially in a college environment), you may have free access to Lynda at your library. It looks like there are a series of tutorials for iMovie on their site:
http://www.lynda.com/iMovie-training-tutorials/229-0.html
Alternatively, if you search Youtube for iMovie training, you'll likely some good stuff as well (even reposted Lynda.com videos). I suspect that after about an hour of video tutorials you'd have a good sense of the key features of iMovie.


text:
What is the most compatible compression/Codec to in Handbrake use for video that will be played in Chrome and Safari browsers?
I am going to re-sample a bunch of videos to be played through web browsers.
(Current video is large, 3 MB for a 4s clip. Hoping to compress by 90%).
Use:  These videos will be played in a web-based eduational app. They'll be up to about 5 seconds and be played in the latest Chrome or (on iOS/Mac) Safari browser.
I'm using Handbrake (.9.9.5530, latest) . These must be playable in Chrome and Safari (latest versions) browsers without any pluggins (and would be nice to be playable in the latest FireFox and IE).
(I'm also open to using another free or cheap encoding software that will let me do batch processing.
What are the recommended settings (Video Codec, Quality (and constant or avg bit rate, etc.)
My top priority is compatibility.

How are you planning to embed the final video file into a web page without using plugins? This will help us determine the best codec for this problem.

I'd assume he means HTML5 .  Google up an x264 encoding guide for ffmpeg / x264.

If compatibility is your top priority, then you should include two alternative versions of your video on your website, like in this HTML example.
As for the exact formats I would suggest:

H.264 and AAC in MP4: Chrome, Firefox 22+ on Windows, IE9, Safari 3.1
VP8 and Vorbis in WebM: Firefox fallback for Mac and older versions on Windows.
(If you need support for even older browsers (IE6-8), and mobile (Android, WP7), you could add mediaelement.js to your website.)

Make sure to put them in that order to make the fallback work. H.264 or MPEG-4 are recommended because they are the only formats to have hardware acceleration on newer devices.
Compression settings: start by using constant quality with default settings for video and 128 Kbps VBR audio. For H.264 make sure to not exceed Main Profile and Level 4.0. And since Handbrake doesn't do the WebM format, you could try Miro Video Converter.

Why would you ever use Main, not High, profile, for anything?  I thought HW decoders were usually either baseline or high, so worse compression (no 8x8dct) for no or very small gain in combatibility.

The Main profile recommendation comes from the mobile device world. For example most Apple A4 and A5 processors are H.264 Main profile limited. More specifically iPod Touch 4G & 5G, iPod 1 & 2, iPhone 4, AppleTV 2G & 3G (model A1427). Anything beyond is High profile.

Yeah I googled a bit after posting that comment.  Unfortunately it seems there are a fair amount of HW decoders that support Main but not High, so a year or two of phones.  I guess it makes sense that 8x8dct might require different logic blocks on a FPGA or ASIC, unlike the case for software where it's not hard.  (CPU power to decode CABAC is the hard part for going from baseline to main, for software I think.)  Anyway, blargh, are we never going to get rid of sub-optimally encoded videos, thanks to crappy devices?  As soon as we do, devices with partial h.265 support will come out... square 1

h.264 + aac in .mp4.
Google up an x264 settings guide.  (or use -preset slower).  If you're doing something that the MPEG-LA would charge patent royalties for, screw them and use VP8 or VP9, with maybe a fallback to Theora if that helps compat.
Old question, but check the quality at the start of the video if using x264.  If it's not good, use 2-pass.  I forget if it's only 1pass ABR (average bitrate) mode that does this, or if it also happens sometimes with CFR (constant quality regardless of source resolution or complexity, normally the go-to choice for one pass).

There's a table here showing support for the various video codecs by the four main browsers around today. For Chrome and Safari the only option that plays on both is h.264 in an mp4 container.
I've found that main profile h264 video plays best across most modern devices, but you can wind it back to base profile if you're having problems. This is a good discussion about the differences between the profiles.
A quality setting of 20 is a good place to start; it's a good compromise between size and quality, but you could tweak depending on your results.

h.264 is probably the easiest.  Just about anything plays it, particularly if you use a base profile (which reduces effectiveness, but also simplifies the playback for lower powered devices).


text:
Arbitrary angles or slices for split screens
Is there a software or plugin for video software that allows for arbitrary numbers and angles of split screens, and if so, what is it called?
I.e. For a particular effect I wanted to split a screen in to 6 pieces the same way you would cut a pie.
OR
I.e a non rectangular grid of split screens.
This kind of assumes there is a some kind of masking feature built in to allow non rectangular non 4:3 or non 16:9 screens.
I am targeting Windows 7 and 8 mostly, but if there is specific linux based video editor that fits the bill, don't hesitate to recommend it.

For software recommendations to be helpful it is necessary to know which OS you use and which software you are working with (in case someone wants to recommend a plugin). Generally After Effects can mask any shape, so this would work for you as a solution.

I don't know of any software that makes this trivial to do, however After Effects can certainly accomplish it.  You would need to make multiple masks that would show portions of the same video and then position them however you want.  You could even derive the masks from a shape imported from Adobe Illustrator that you could slice up however you wanted to ensure that you get full coverage.
This technique is still non-trivial and would take some time to do manually, but you could then manipulate each of the shape layers however you wanted using motion keyframes in After Effects.


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How to bring a SketchUp Animation into After Effects
I made a simple animation in SketchUp and am trying to bring it into After Effects. When I do the AVI is all black in Footage and Composition.
Reading around it sounds like the most common issue is Codec but beyond that I'm a bit clueless here. When I open it in Adobe Media Encoder it shows H.264 Match Source - High bitrate which from what little I understand the H.264 should be acceptable?
Is there something else I should be looking for? How can I get the animation from SketchUp into After Effects?
EDIT WITH CLIP PROPERTIES:
In Adobe Premier Pro the clip's properties show:

Type: AVI Movie
File Size: 508.9 MB
Image Size: 1280 x 720
Frame Rate: 24.00
Total Duration: 00:00:08:01
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0

AVI File details:
Contains 1 video track(s) and 0 audio track(s).
Video track 1:

Size is 508.88M bytes (average frame = 2.63M bytes)
There are 193 keyframes.
Frame rate is 24.000 fps
Frame size is 1280 x 4294966576
Depth is 24 bits. Compressor: none.

Additional information:
Lavf54.34.100

The H.264 Match Source is the preset for output that you have selected, not the type of the input.  (The match source means that the output will match the resolution and frame rate of the source video.)  You need to actually get the media info from the properties of the clip in After Effects.  It is probably a missing codec.

Where would I find this? Right clicking the AVI found Interpret Footage but dont see anything about Codecs in here so thinking its the wrong place.

I don't have my Adobe collection in front of me at the moment.  I think that it it right click and then properties.  It might be in Premiere Pro that it provides the details though.  I work between the two so much that I sometimes forget which one has which feature when I'm not sitting at my editing rig.

It was Premier that had the properties. Just updated question

Not sure on the AVI but kept searching and found http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18827

What OS are you using?
Vista 64 bit has codec issues, so if it is indeed a Vista 64 bit you need to export as a series of images (which is best anyway) and compile it in after effects.

I'm on Windows 7 so don't know why it was an issue to begin with but did the Export as Images instead. Then did a simple Import (Ctrl+I) which detected the jpeg sequence and that worked perfectly. Smaller file size then the AVI SketchUp exported too.

The image sequence should work.  This is actually a more standard way to work with animations (though generally a format supporting alpha channel is used so that transparency can be brought over).   I generally use TGA sequences for anything computer generated.  There are also video formats that support alpha, but it's easier to re-render frames and replace them when using an image sequence.  The downside is generally size since there is minimal compression on an image sequence, but the quality is hard to match.  Not sure if SketchUp supports alpha export though.

I actually modeled a quick half circle behind my object, extruded it up, and gave it a lime green color. Then Keylight worked perfectly for what I needed off the image sequence.

If it is really that basic, you can do 3D shape extrusion natively in After Effects itself and then any of the 3D filters or camera tracking will work as well.

Good to know but I had already modeled it to put in the SketchUp warehouse. Would these be beyond the AE capabilities? http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?viewer=0993762843802082456008667&scoring=m

Yeah, probably, the built in functionality is very, very basic.  I haven't played with it all that much though because I generally use SoftImage for my 3D needs and export depth maps.

First thing you should check is to make sure you don't have any 3rd party codec packs installed (like k-lite or etc), as they can cause a lot of problems when Adobe apps try to encode/decode movies.
Do you know what codec you're using. Avi is a container, not a codec, so you can put different file types inside of an Avi file.
Unless you're married to using avi, follow these instructions.
1) open your project
2) go to export -> animation
3) if you're on Windows click the box next to "Codec"
4) Then you'll want to look through the dropdown for "Compressor" and find something that Adobe supports
If you want list the codec choices you have, and I'll let you know which to use.


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Is it bad form to have a different number of audio tracks from video tracks?
In Premier when adding a new Audio or Video track it wants to add both. In industry is it considered good form to leave empty tracks, say:

V2 Movie Clip
V1 Title
A1 BG Music
A2 nothing

Or is it better form to delete those extra tracks or not add them to begin with so instead it looks like

V2 Movie Clip
V1 Title
A1 BG Music

I always avoid excess tracks.  You can add as many or few tracks of each types as you want in "Add Tracks..." Simply adjust the number of tracks to be added by clicking on the number.  It defaults to 1 video and 1 audio track, but that can easily be changed each time you add tracks.
You can also add an individual track to either by right clicking in the header area and saying Add Track.
As far as industry standards go, I've never heard of a standard and I've never known anyone to think anything of having unused tracks, but cleanliness is always a plus.  There is certainly no standard to intentionally use excess tracks, but in my experience nobody is going to think anything if there are a few excess tracks either.  Generally cleaning up after yourself does look a little more professional though.

Ya so far I've been avoiding them too but is that the industry standard? If I ever have to work on a team for video editing does everyone avoid the excess tracks?

@Ryan - updated to address industry standards.  I didn't mention it because there aren't any other than just general cleanliness and professionalism, but I've never heard a strong opinion against the presence of 1 or 2 unused tracks.

edited question with an additional one instead of making a whole one

@Ryan - generally it is preferred to separate questions when possible to make it easier for others to find answers in the future.  That question is really going to require a separate answer too because it is a non-trivial answer.

will do, thought it might be fairly trivial like this one seems to have been


text:
After a clip ends should that track be re-used?
Say you have file100.mov run for 10 seconds on track A1 and V1. At the 11 second mark track A1/V1 is effectively empty. Is it better to "recycle" that track with file200.mov or to put file200.mov onto track A2 even though there is no overlap?
If its best to use the same track when not overlapped would it be beneficial to slice the below as soon as the cross dissolve ends on V3 and move the rest of MVI_6260.MOV to continue running on V2?

It depends on what technique you are using for editing and what purpose you assign to each track.  In a non-linear editing (NLE) program like Premiere, it is extremely common for almost all editing to be done on a single video track with additional tracks only being used when something needs to be layered on over top of what is currently on Video 1.  (Such as titles).  When doing this type of editing, it doesn't matter where exactly you put the cut when you are doing transitions.  The clip will keep playing as long as it is needed for the transition (unless it runs out of footage in the source file.)  So in your example, if V2 and V3 were both on the same track, you would just need the one instance of Cross Dissolve and the clips on V2 and V3 would both be used for the duration of the dissolve effect.
In composition software like After Effects however, each video or asset is on it's own layer and has it's own track.  The difference is that composition cares about the layers themselves and how they combine where as non-linear editing cares about what clip is currently being displayed and how you change between them.
It is also possible, particularly in large, multi-camera projects to synchronize the video clips from different sources on different tracks in an NLE and then choose which track you want to be active.  This is known in some systems as A/B or multi-camera editing.  Premiere does support mutli-camera editing and formerly had an optional A/B editing mode.

is there any difference in filesize / render time / quality doing it 1 track vs multi in a non-linear (premier)?

@Ryan - There might be a slight performance gain from doing it 1-track since it doesn't have to check if the second track should be over the first on every frame, but it shouldn't be a significant difference as the process for rendering consists of mixing the video down to a single video track and however many final audio tracks are selected for the output (generally 2, unless you are in a surround mode).

edited question as I went to clean up tracks

@Ryan - updated my first paragraph to answer that part of the question.  It does take a little getting used to understanding how that works.


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Is there a way to do both Extruded Text and Layer Modes natively in After Effects?
I followed Video Copilot 3D Shadows tutorial to create a nice shadow on my text. Because of the angle I'm doing though which is much more ... perspective I suppose you could say it could really use a little depth to it. I looked up if AE could do extrusion (also since I've been told some basic 3D is built-in to AE by members of this exchange) and found How to Extrude Text in AE. The problem is this tutorial tells me to change my Renderer to Ray-Traced 3D as a prerequisite for extrusion but if I do that it tells me Blending Modes don't work and clicking okay anyways seems to agree as my ground on Multiply goes back to Normal with no option to change.
Extruded Text

Extruded Text moved into scene

Extruded text when I try to make it 3D for shadows, light and placement in scene

Is there a native way in After Effects to combine both Layer Modes and Extruded Text?

You can work around it using multiple compositions.  Do one composition to generate the 3d layer and then use that composition within another to handle the blending (or vice versa depending on your needs).

Could you give a basic outline? I guess I'd do Raytace write the text, extrude the text, save that comp. New file, load that comp but in classic 3d and it'll still be extruded - then I add the ground and light and whatnot? Is that what you mean? Will I need to get the text into position as best as possible prior to doing the extrusion or can I save that for when I'm working with the shadows?

@Ryan - not a new file, just create a new composition within your project.  I believe the renderer is per composition, though I don't have access to my AE machine at the moment to verify.

just tried that and it didn't work. As soon as I brought the comp with the extruded text into the Classic 3D "scene" the extruding flattens out. Edit Q with screenshot.

@Ryan - ok, I'll give it a shot when I get home today.  I was actually planning on working on some 3d AE stuff for a conference I'm working this weekend already anyway.

@Ryan - when I nested a ray-traced composition as a layer in a classic 3d composition, it worked as I expected.  I'm not sure what is happening in your scene.

I just ran it again and isolated exactly where the issue happens. Maybe you did something different? New screenshots above.

let us continue this discussion in chat


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What is the best way to plan and sync voiceover?
I'm working on an informational video which has some live action product shots, animation created in flash, a backgroud music track, and a voiceover track.
I've got total control over everything so I can edit the animation or re-record the voiceover (I do the voiceover myself). I just read http://www.directvoices.com/plaza/syncing-voice-over-to-video/ for example but it doesn't really go into specifics of how to do the planning or the fine tuning.
I'm trying to figure out what the best methodology is for planning and executing this. This is what I currently do but it feels very clunky to say the least:

Record Audio Track
Make animation in Flash with no Audio
Bring into compositing software (I use Premier CC2015) and do my best to trim and move tracks around. At times adding still frames to extend parts of the animation.
If I have to then I go back into Flash to make more animation to fill empty areas. I try not to have to redo the audio as much since its much more time consuming and would then have to start the entire syncing process over as well since talking isn't as easy as controlling a timeline.

There's got to be a better way to do this though, I'm just not sure what it is.
Should I just do the entire video and then play it while I record the voiceover? That would work for parts where the audio is short and the animation long. But is more difficult on parts where the audio is long and the animation is short.

I'm quite surprised to hear you say that recording audio takes more time than animation. I've always found it to be the reverse.

@stib I don't like the way my voice sounds, some words particularly just sound weird read aloud like "Reader" which comes up a lot in my scripts, then any time the phone rings, door chime, a/c kicks in, paper shredder, etc ruins the recording (since this is being done at my office). So first it takes me a bunch of tries to get a halfway decent recording then I have to remember all the post-production cleanup for it. The animations are extremely simple. Maybe once I get better at animations they'll take longer.

In addition to @Mulvya answer I will suggest to use not Flash, but After Effects for animation, if possible. Then you will be able to make Dynamic Link to your AE project. Than will be easier to jump between applications.
But when you work with animation, you deferentially need to have voiceover first. Like in cartoon development.

If the audio is primary and the visuals convey or complement the narration, then record the audio first. Use the audio timings to guide the pacing of your animations - if some demo takes longer than its oral exposition, the music should fill in there. But you can't really avoid the step where some sentences need individual adjustment or some animations need to hold more, or less, at places. Post production is iterative, and I wouldn't expect to evade that.

Try the "Time Remapping" in After Effects to sync your animation with the recorded voice over easily and efficiently.
You just need to move around the key frames in the timeline to match the animation to the sound track.


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How to fix fragmentation when rotating a shape in AE?
Working on a caption animation and after rotating my arrow it left a strange fragment, almost like a stroke that got left behind. I'm looking at the white line on the top arrow:

I've tried finding it with selection thinking maybe it really is a stroke left behind but couldn't:

Then I proceeded with my AE Composition, brought it into Premiere, and just did an Export hoping it was just a memory issue. It doesn't appear to be the case however because its showing up all the way through to my .mp4 file. It appears to be transparent since instead of looking white it looks like the background its atop:

Any ideas why this occurs and how to fix it?
Edit
If I adjust one of the Arrow's Paths you can see even more of this strange line / mask thing:

However, at least as a beginner I don't see anything in the layers that would create this.
I also tried enlarging the rectangular portion instead and it didn't reveal the mask:

Changed layer order and still nothing:

Try opening up the layer's form properties. Maybe there is a wild stroke layer or path that doesn't belong there.

@J0hj0h I just checked again and everything appears right to me but I am pretty new to AE. I updated the question with additional information that might offer some clue

Try pressing the m-key twice on each of your layers. This will bring up all the attributes that aren't default and that were changed. Maybe you're lucky and find something that way. Other than that I don't know what you layer 2 is, maybe that's a wild shape layer? :)

Found it! Some Puppet Pin I guess left from when I was trying to figure out how to rotate it around the center point (I now know Center Anchor). FYI: MM doesn't do anything. Maybe you changed yours? On my default is UU.

@J0hj0h if you want some rep leave it as an answer and I'll mark it correct. Especially if you know WHY a Puppet would cause that

Oh, sorry for the wrong shortcut! I reckon, MM was to open all mask properties... I don't really know, why the puppet tool would behave that way. Just answer it yourself. ;)

uu will open all modified properties, iirc.

I found it through the Layers Panel. There was a Puppet Pin modifier. I have no idea WHY the Puppet Pin caused this to occur but removing it solved my issue.


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How to manage Premiere Files to avoid versioning duplicates?
With Adobe Creative Cloud it seems like every few months Premiere updates and then wants to resave my project in the new version with added numbers after it. It has really cluttered and complicated things. I'm sure if I was more experienced when starting out I could've avoided this but video isn't really my specialty.
I'm working on an all new promo video though which makes for a good opportunity to clean this mess up and avoid it going forward. How can I do this?
Here's a screenshot to show the .prproj mess:

Use folders. Drag old versions into a folder, and keep only the current versions in the top level. Another organisational rule I have is to keep source material, renders, and project files in separate folders (if not separate drives).

@stib please leave that as an answer, comments aren't permanent.


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How do I connect my Alesis iO2 Interface with video camera Nikon D3200?
I want to run my condenser microphone through my Alesis iO2 interface directly into my D3200 Nikon video camera, which has a 3.5mm jack input.  Can I simply run a 1/4" output from the Alesis with an adapter into the Nikon's audio input?  Since the Aleis is powered by a USB into my computer, I am curious whether such a configuration will work?  I am very new to the recording world, so any insights or suggestions would be much appreciated.

What are you trying to accomplish?  This is a very, very weird objective and there is likely a better way to accomplish whatever you are trying to do.  Why do you need to record the audio in both places?  If you are recording the audio on the PC, you should not need it on camera and vice versa.


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How to link URL in flash media player to red5 server
I am trying to test a flash player for red5 live streaming video and in flash CS6 I have put a player component on the stage and not sure what url to input the live stream source?
I can test and see it working in mysite.com:5080/demos/publisher.html but cannot work out how to get that streaming video linked to my flash player.
update: it is not as simple as entering RTMP url as has failed on every attempt with all possible parameters and in any case the question now is what stops anyone from going to any given url with 5080 port and taking advantage...something to hash out in future with the help of mister AJ.

I don't know this particular product, but based on what you are describing, I think this may help.  The player in flash probably wants the actual streaming media link.  When you go to the html page, you are accessing an HTML page that probably has an embedded player.  Flash streaming actually uses RTMP rather than HTTP, so you would need to find out what the RTMP URL is and provide that to the Flash video player.
Update: So to do a live stream, you need to use the rtmp link to the publishing point on your server.  You then need to use the publisher to send a feed to that publishing point.  Whatever name you provide in the publisher will be the name of the file that you need to feed to your viewer.  Everything gets relayed through the server.

i have created the player and installed the red5 server but don't know what rtmp url to input..i must be missing many steps with javascript.

sorry , thanks for your answer but it is essentially my question.

@user5274 - if you can give the actual URL, I should be able to tell you what the RTMP link is from the source of that HTML page.  Alternately, if you view source on it, you should see an RTMP:// link, use that.  The http link doesn't work because the Flash player needs an RTMP stream, not an HTTP stream.

I know, I created the flash player in flash cs6 which adds vplayer component and you must add in that rtmp url- i cannot work out which rtmp link should be because the one on my server has my server IP not my home ip from where i am broadcasting- if you see what i mean?

@user5274 - The RTMP link will need to go to wherever your red5 server is running.  You should be able to enter it as a normal URI.  Have you been able to see the video running correctly anywhere?  If so, you can get the RTMP link from the source that allows you to view it.

@user5274 - I can jump in the Audio Video chat room if you want and we can discuss it at more length if you want.  It looks like you have enough rep on another SE site to be able to use the chat.

let us continue this discussion in chat

it is all working in the demo and can see it stream live as well on mysite.com:5080/demos/ by putting in IP of my domain but I don't know how to get that link working on my site in a page because then somehow need to give IP of where CAM is streaming via player i created.


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converting to .MJP files
I would like to convert some short videos to .MJP format, and none of my preferred tools for video conversion can do this. Can anybody suggest free software that can achieve this? OSX preferred, but Windows is available if necessary.
EDIT:
All I can tell you is that I have a (newish) device that has a video screen and contains a memory card holding four .MJP files that can be shown on the screen.
The videos play, with sound, so I know the files are valid. If I copy them over to my Mac, no software that I've found can play them.
I would like to replace the video files that the device shows, but this requires converting my videos to .MJP format. I have put one of the existing files at https://app.box.com/s/kbtvfbpowqwbp1aym88m if anybody wants to examine it.

What is the MJP file format?  All I can find about it are some very, very legacy formats that don't appear that they were ever widely used.  I doubt you will find anything for working with them that is current since I can't even find a current player for them.

All I can tell you is that I have a (newish) device that has a video screen and contains a memory card holding four .MJP files that can be shown on the screen. The videos play, with sound, so I know the files are valid. If I copy them over to my Mac, no software that I've found can play them.
I would like to replace the video files that the device shows, but this requires converting my videos to .MJP format.
I can put the existing files on a public directory if anybody wants to see them.

That and/or the name of the device might help identify what the files are.  It might just be that they renamed the extension on some other format.

Ok, posting some more details I found.  Apparently mjp is a form of Motion JPEG in an LG specific container.

http://www.openthefile.com/ext/mjp/4458 and http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/mjp both suggest mplayerx (http://mplayerx.org/) can play them. It would make sense to post a file for people to examine. If mplayer or ffmpeg can play them, chances are mencoder or ffmpeg can encode to the format.

unfortunately, MPlayerx can not play these files. I have put one of the files at https://app.box.com/s/kbtvfbpowqwbp1aym88m  Thanks in advance for any additional insight.

I had a quick look with a hex editor. The file starts with ffd8 followedby a JFIF version 1.1 segment header. It is possible if you encode a a single frame to JFIF 1.1 the device might display it as a still image. It might be just a sequence of JFIF segments prefixed by ffd8. I don't have time to look more at the moment.

Thanks for your attention, but whatever these files are, they're more than just a sequence of still images — they also play sound.

Valid point. This might be relevant https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/vancouverhackspace/4veroun0HR4 If the player at http://www.3xlogic.com/software plays your files we will at least have identified the format.

Good find! Unfortunately, when I try to open one of the files with the 3xLogic DV Player, it freezes and I get an error box that reads "Digital Video Player has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." To be fair, the program is marked as working only through Windows 7 and I tried to use it in Windows 8. Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows 7 installation handy.

You can try using either of the two Motion JPEG codec's available with Quicktime and see if either of those works after renaming the extension.  Motion JPEGs are kind of a major pain though because it's literally just a sequence of JPEG images for each frame within the video and the exact specifications of the container can vary.  This can result in files not being recognized or result in incorrect playback rates or poor audio sync.
The best bet would probably be to see if LG has any utilities for converting videos to their format for your device, though it is possible no such software exists.


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Update media source directory for Final Cut Pro X event
While "cleaning" my OS drive, I decided to move all project media files (video, audio and pictures) to my network storage. As expected, Final Cut cannot locate the files, that were tied to my projects.
Is there a function to update the file paths by "scanning" the new directory?

When you link one media file in an event, FCPX should find the other media files automatically.
For example, if you had media files in a folder, then moved the contents of that folder elsewhere, linking one file from that folder back to the FCPX media reference should let FCPX see the rest of that folder and automatically relink the rest of the media from that folder.


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Issue with Opening Downloaded ASF Stream files in Adobe Premiere Pro CC
I am a newbie to video editing and I've been trying to take some files I downloaded from a stream online (public government videos), to make an Adobe Premiere Pro video out of them. Here's an example link to a file I downloaded that I want to edit:
mms://stream.miamibeachfl.gov/tv20%20archive/design%20review%20board/drb_20130806.asf
The problem I am having is that the ASF files have an issue when I try to import it or just open in the Source Monitor in Adobe Premiere Pro. The "Conforming" notice shows at the bottom right, but it stalls there after about 1% and I have an error in the Events dialog which says the following:
"File importer detected an inconsistency in the file structure of XXX.avi. Reading and writing this file's metadata (XMP) has been disabled."
I thought the files were possibly too big to use in Premiere (some are over 1GB), so I used some freeware programs to trim them down, thinking this would help. However, even then it doesn't work, or if it does work to trim the file and convert to AVI, I get the following error when trying to open the new file in Adobe Premiere Pro: "Unsupported format or damaged file"
Here are the properties of a sample file I am having problems with, which I get from the Premiere Pro menu -> Get Properties For -> File:
"File Path: C:\Users\Daniel Desktop\Documents\Google Drive\Consulting\Activism\DATA SOURCES\VIDEOS\plb_20120327.asf
Type: Windows Media
File Size: 1.4 GB
Image Size: 320 x 240
Frame Rate: 29.97
Source Audio Format: 32000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 32000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 11:03:16:05
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0"
I am not sure why this issue is happening but based on the file issues, maybe there is some setting I am missing?
Any tips or help would be much appreciated. I can't start video processing if it's not possible for the video to load. Thank you!

Premiere Pro will handle files much MUCH larger than 1GB, I've been working with files upwards of 8GB since Premiere 6 (not CS6, but rather the version before CS was a thing, so like 8 versions of Premiere ago.

Also, did you simply rename the file to AVI to try and get it to work?  ASF has nothing in common with the AVI structure, so you can't just change the extension.  (I noticed that the error is talking about an AVI.)  Is the error wrong or did you do something to transform it to an AVI?

@AJHenderson, no I used a converted program to convert to AVI. However, based on your answer I believe this is more to do with the low quality of the stream than the conversion to AVI

The link you gave is for a streaming media file, not a download.  Most likely, whatever ripper you used to pull down the file did a poor job and produced a faulty file.  It may actually play back since most playback applications are rather permissive when it comes to errors in the file, however a professional editing package like Premiere will tend to throw errors if there are major problems in the file since it won't be able to generate suitable output from the file.  The best bet is probably to try and find a non-streaming version, particularly since the quality of the streaming version is VERY low.

Thank you - the only option I have is via this stream. In this case, is there anything that I can do in order to download the stream and convert it to something suitable?

You can use a stream ripper to download it, but you'd have to play around with different stream rippers until you find one that works well.  I don't have any particular experience with stream rippers.

OK great thank you. I have requested the full files on DVD from the government office, hopefully that should do the trick.


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Is there a cheap Teleprompter software that supports foreign languages?
I work for a software company that offers Video Coaches to our clients.  We are offering Coaches in foreign languages and the current Teleprompter software we are using does not support anything but English. We have been able to work around Spanish by replacing accented and special characters with standard English ones, however, this makes it harder for the talent as some words change meaning without the accent.
Beyond that, we are going to be filming Chinese Coaches soon and we will need Simplified Chinese to be supported by the software (we have been unable to think of a workaround).
I have the trial version of PromptDog but have not been happy with the 'Talent Window'.  I don't like that it cannot be expanded to full screen and the text can only be flipped horizontally (we need to flip vertically with our current setup).  It is also difficult to set up the Talent Window as I cannot see the talent monitor from the computer.  Ideally, the second monitor would be filled to full screen automatically.  It would also be convenient if the software could easily import .doc files (PromptDog does not).
I apologize ahead of time if this question is not appropriate for this forum.  I participate in the Music Practice and Performance page and software questions are generally closed.
UPDATE: Budget is up to 500 USD but preferably under 300 USD
UPDATE2: Though I have awarded the bounty, I did not receive a specific recommendation that fulfilled my specifications.  It did point me in a good direction and provided resources to find other software options but I would like to award the official answer to one that provides a specific software that meets my needs.

Can you provide any more details about your needs.  Also, is there a reason a more traditional sequencing software wouldn't work for your needs?

@AJHenderson - I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say 'more traditional sequencing software'.  In general, I am looking for a teleprompter software that allows a second monitor to display the prompting text and is able to support foreign languages, such as Simplified Chinese and Spanish.  I'm not sure what other details I could provide but if you can point me in a direction I will add further details to the question.

I use software called MediaShout which is a general purpose media sequencing and presentation software package.  It can be run full screen on another system and display text on each slide that can be automatically filled in from a text file.  That particular software is targeted at churches, but similar software exists for more general cases as well.

@AJHenderson - So that would be comparable to PowerPoint, right?  I'm looking more for a teleprompter with scrolling text.  The scrolling feature helps keep the talent's eyes in a similar place, compared to slides where the eyes will have to go from top to bottom while reading.

What platform's do you have available?

@AJHenderson - We are currently using Windows XP but will be using Windows 7 soon.

If you have a Mac, Presentation Prompter had a few good reviews I found when doing some research.  I don't have a Mac to try it, but it appears to have mirror modes and is listed as having RTF support.
It is also worth pointing out you may be able to setup the necessary mirroring on a particular output desktop rather than having the prompting software have to support it.  This could possibly make the software that didn't have the needed mirroring option work for you.
If that doesn't work, MirrorScript appears to have a free teleprompting software that works with PC and international characters.  They also offer an entire list of alternative prompting software that might be worth looking in to if they don't meet your needs for other reasons.

Thanks, I will be looking into MirrorScript today and checking out the other suggestions on that page.


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Where does Camtasia store files locally?
I uploaded them as guest, but they are not listed online even though I provided a valid email address. Windows 7

Could you perhaps provide a little more information? Just reading this right now is slightly confusing... Did you try uploading to a website, or just producing a video locally?

Also, letting us know what platform and OS may be of use. If this is Windows for instance, look in the "documents and settings" (Win7) or "Users" (Win8) for the login that was implementing Comtasia at the time.

Actually guys the website says that it won't save it locally once the internet connection becomes available.


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HDD Partitioning
When organising visual assets for Video Production,
Does it make a performance difference if an internal 3.5" HD is paritioned (eg: VIDEO 2TB + PHOTO 2TB)
OR is it better to just have 1 parition and 2 folders?
Thanks in advance

Personally, my vote would be to close this as off topic as I think it can be covered fine by super-user, but I don't want to cast a binding vote without giving the community a chance to decide.

Optimising storage solutions for Videos and Photos in Video Production doesn't seem too far 'off topic' does it?

the thing is that video production doesn't make any difference, it could be music files, database servers, games, whatever.  Performance considerations of drive partitions is unrelated to video production in the strictest sense.  It's just a question of how broadly do we want to make the jump.  The more generalized form of the question would be "What is the impact of drive seek time on Video Production?" and then the non-video production question would be "how does partitioning impact seek time?" to which the answer is "not at all" or "possibly makes it worse".

This question appears to be off-topic because it is about general computer hardware.  This is already addressed on SuperUser in this question.

I'm not sure this is on topic here, but...
Unless you're doing a lot of simultaneous access to the partitions or folders, there should be no discernible performance difference. It's all head movement and caching.

It DOES make a difference, though, that you keep your editing application on one physical drive and your video files on another. But you probably knew that.

Even if he IS doing simultaneous access there still wouldn't be a performance difference.  Partitioning makes no difference at all because it's still accessing the same drive.

AJ - That's why this might be off topic... There are definitely differences in performance between separate folders and separate partitions, but they won't manifest until you stress the drive with a lot of accesses to both 'at once'. One reason is that with two partitions, the MFTs / Volume Indexes are separated by half the drive surface, where two folder entries may be contiguous. But in almost all scenarios there's no practical difference.

I do access both Partitions simultaneously quite often. Might look at simplifying the setup across other 4TBs currently installed. - Thanks all for the input.

@JimMack - good point.  Partitions may make it worse since seek travel time could be slightly longer, though aren't most drives fast enough now that the head travel time is just about as fast as the time waiting for the platter itself to come around?

@AJ - For any given drive the linear and rotational seek times are spec'd, so the OP could look them up for his model. Caching plays a big role, possibly overwhelming mechanical effects. A lot depends on file size, type of access etc. Only profiling would tell for sure. Mixing long linear reads/writes of video files with intermittent, random smaller photo files would be a great test. (-:


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Best way to trim and save an existing mp4
If I have an existing MP4/H264 video file and I need to trim the start and end,
Then save it as an MP4 again,
Are there any recommendations on export settings?

You can use ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, to do this
Without recompression
ffmpeg -ss 02:45 -t 03:05 -i orig.mp4 -c copy -map 0 -avoid_negative_ts make_zero cut.mp4

This will copy a 3m 5s portion of the original MP4, starting at 2m 45s. Since the codec of the video stream in a MP4 usually uses temporal compression, the cutpoints may not be exact and some frames before and after may be included in the trimmed file. Since there's no recompression, quality is identical to the original.
With recompression
ffmpeg -ss 02:45 -t 03:05 -i orig.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -map 0 cut.mp4

This will precisely cut the specified portion but will recompress the content. The crf value controls the video quality - smaller value produces better quality but a larger file. The b:a sets the bitrate of the audio output.

this sounds awesome - just googled the steps involved in setting up ffmpeg on my mac and it looks a tad 'challenging' – any non-command line apps available?

You can download a binary from my first link - no installation needed. Specifically - https://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/

Downloads are .7z files. Not sure what to do with these...

Wondering if there are any paid GUI apps?

7z files are compressed archives like ZIP. Get 7zX from http://7zx.updatestar.com/ and extract the files.

Does 7z work with Macs?

7z is an archive format - it doesn't care about platform. You need a Mac.app which can compress or extract 7z, which the app in my last link does.

You can also use MPEG Streamclip for simple editing tasks like that. Just open your file, set in and out point and export again.

Does MPEG Streamclip allow for trimming/saving/uncompressing MP4s? Thanks

Well, if it is as simple as selecting a "middle" part of a video - thus cutting off a part of the beginning and the end, it does. Just give it a spin, the software is free and can be downloaded without charge.

Yes - just trimming bits off - so is it just 'save as mp4' with maximum quality settings for no compression?

I don't quite understand the export part of your question. There is no such thing as an uncompressed mp4 file. You can save the video uncompressed but typically not in an MP4 container. So if you mean "compressed but with a good quality", suggesting you some settings would require to know the size of your video frame (SD, HD, 4k?)... Generally, converting to a higher bitrate than the video was originally recorded in will obviously not make the video any better then it is.

As the source file is already an MP4, I'm looking to retain as much quality as possible. Wasn't sure what best export/save settings are when resaving an MP4 as MP4 again from MPEG Streamclip.

A bitrate if 20-50mbit will create very high quality HD video, probably you will not notice a difference to your original files.

Yes, use MPEG streamclip! You can set your in and out by using the I and O keys and export to many different codecs. The website is http://www.squared5.com.
I've been using it professionally for years.


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Resolve (Correct/Grade) > XML > FCPX
Can an XML exported from Resolve contain corrections/grading decisions (made in Resolve) that FCPX can apply to the a single large ProRes file, or does a new ProRes large file need to rendered from Resolve?
Typically when we film a talking head I capture a single large ProRes file.

No, a grade can not exported as xml. Fcp xml is some kind of improved Edit decision list (human readable) containing an ordered list of the reel, timecodes and basic editing properties. However I'm sure you can export a LUT out of Resolve and apply it to your original footage in Final Cut. Related: http://video.stackexchange.com/a/20054/6685

That's a pretty good idea - save a Resolve grade as a LUT and load it in FCPX. Thank you.

The suggestion to correct/grade in DaVinci then export a LUT for FCPX works an absolute treat!
The DaVinci manual touches on this process on p39. It says limit yourself to Primaries palette and Custom Curves [as these are the only ones that can be converted into a LUT]

Glad I could help although this does not really answer your question :) Since it's basically a color transformation, the mentioned limitations are absolutely fine (IMO).