text:
Complex filter performance deteriorates with effects on images and multiple overlays
I want to generate a slideshow video that is composed of 1–n input images. Each input image is rendered in the foreground and simultaneously as a blurred background, for a few seconds. The next image will be placed on top of the previous image, and the background changes. Each image should fade in. The background should crossfade.
I've got this working, and the script looks like this:
#!/usr/bin/env bash

ffmpeg \
  -y \
  -hide_banner \
  -f lavfi -i color=black:r=10:s=894x494:d=24 \
  -loop 1 -framerate 10 -i images/trees.jpg \
  -loop 1 -framerate 10 -i images/bridge.jpg \
  -loop 1 -framerate 10 -i images/river.jpg \
  -loop 1 -framerate 10 -i images/woman.jpg \
  -filter_complex "
    [1:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,boxblur=luma_radius=25:chroma_radius=25:luma_power=1[imageBg1];
    [2:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,boxblur=luma_radius=25:chroma_radius=25:luma_power=1[imageBg2];
    [3:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,boxblur=luma_radius=25:chroma_radius=25:luma_power=1[imageBg3];
    [4:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,boxblur=luma_radius=25:chroma_radius=25:luma_power=1[imageBg4];

    [imageBg1][imageBg2]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=6[imageBgFade1];
    [imageBgFade1][imageBg3]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=12[imageBgFade2];
    [imageBgFade2][imageBg4]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=18[imageBgFade3];

    [1:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,fade=in:st=0:d=1:alpha=1,rotate=0.03490658503988659:c=none[image1];
    [2:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,fade=in:st=6:d=1:alpha=1,rotate=-0.017453292519943295:c=none[image2];
    [3:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,fade=in:st=12:d=1:alpha=1,rotate=0.017453292519943295:c=none[image3];
    [4:v]setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,trim=duration=24,settb=AVTB,format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,fade=in:st=18:d=1:alpha=1,rotate=0:c=none[image4];

    [imageBgFade3][image1]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,0,24)'[imageFg1];
    [imageFg1][image2]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,6,24)'[imageFg2];
    [imageFg2][image3]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,12,24)'[imageFg3];
    [imageFg3][image4]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,18,24)'[imageFg4];
    [imageFg4]fps=fps=30,format=yuv420p[finalVideo]" \
  -map "[finalVideo]" \
  -t 24 \
  -c:v libx264 \
  -preset ultrafast \
  -crf 28 \
  output.mp4

I am setting up a canvas of a predetermined size, and a rendering framerate of 10 FPS. Here I can achieve a speed of ~2.7⨉. With 30 FPS, the speed drops to 0.9⨉ (which is, understandably, 3⨉ less).
For testing, the images are here. The output video is here.
The problem is that the complexity of the script (i.e., the encoding speed) increases with the number of inputs. The background is not the problem; using xfade means only one image is shown at a particular time. However, the foreground has to perform the overlay calculations for every image, with up to n overlays. Also, the blurring is done for each frame of the image.
I am aware of the fact that even the ffmpeg manual says:

You can chain together more overlays but you should test the efficiency of such approach.

I cannot think of any other way to improve the performance here. Reducing the FPS could work, since everything is static, except that the fades — they will not look smooth anymore.
Any ideas?

The main cause of slowdown is using boxblur filter on static images that are animated.
Use gblur filter instead, it is generally faster. Also use loop filter to animate static images after heavy processing. About chaining bunch of overlays at end, that can become quite problematic for more images, perhaps using feedback filter from latest ffmpeg version could help, that is still open question.
    ffmpeg -f lavfi -i color=black:r=10:s=894x494:d=24 -framerate 30 -i images/trees.jpg -framerate 30 -i images/bridge.jpg  -framerate 30 -i images/river.jpg   -framerate 30 -i images/woman.jpg   -filter_complex "
    [1:v]format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,gblur=7,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB[imageBg1];
    [2:v]format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,gblur=7,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB[imageBg2];
    [3:v]format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,gblur=7,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB[imageBg3];
    [4:v]format=yuva444p,scale=894:494:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=894:494,gblur=7,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB[imageBg4];

    [imageBg1][imageBg2]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=6[imageBgFade1];
    [imageBgFade1][imageBg3]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=12[imageBgFade2];
    [imageBgFade2][imageBg4]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=18[imageBgFade3];

    [1:v]format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,rotate=0.03490658503988659:c=none,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB,fade=in:st=0:d=1:alpha=1[image1];
    [2:v]format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,rotate=-0.017453292519943295:c=none,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB,fade=in:st=6:d=1:alpha=1[image2];
    [3:v]format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,rotate=0.017453292519943295:c=none,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB,fade=in:st=12:d=1:alpha=1[image3];
    [4:v]format=yuva444p,scale=670.5:370.5:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=width=894:height=494:x=(ow-iw)/2:y=(oh-ih)/2:color=#00000000,rotate=0:c=none,loop=800:1:0,trim=duration=24,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS,settb=AVTB,fade=in:st=18:d=1:alpha=1[image4];

    [imageBgFade3][image1]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,0,24)'[imageFg1];
    [imageFg1][image2]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,6,24)'[imageFg2];
    [imageFg2][image3]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,12,24)'[imageFg3];
    [imageFg3][image4]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2:shortest=1:enable='between(t,18,24)'[finalVideo]"   -map "[finalVideo]" -c:v rawvideo x.nut

Thanks for the suggestions, but when I use the gblur filter and looping, the speed is significantly reduced (3.3 seconds vs 2.3 seconds for a short example). The biggest contributor seems to be the gblur filter (3.2 seconds).

Here, your script takes 41 seconds, and my script takes 7 seconds with gblur and 8 seconds with boxblur. fps for your script is 17 and its 89/86 for my script. So check your usage and logic of my script.

Indeed it works quite well, thanks. I was only referring to the boxblur/gblur difference in my earlier comment. I was able to achieve a 3x speedup now (there are other effects which limit the benefits of your method). What are you implying with the feedback filter?

Accepted for now, thanks for your pointers regarding processing of static images. I would still be curious how the feedback filter could help here?


text:
How can I move a floating text or image with the video?
In this video

you can see a logo next to head that moves with it.
How can  I do that in Premiere?

This is called Motion Tracking. You define a part on the head that will be tracked, and then have another object move relative to this position.
I'm not sure this can be easily done with Premiere, as I've never done that, but it's a fairly standard procedure in After Effects. After Effects has a built-in tracking system, but there are also plugins like Mocha which offer the same features (and possibly a bit more).
There are hundreds of Motion Tracking tutorials online that explain how to do this, but looking for the term "Tracking" should get you started easily. For example, here's a tutorial for Premiere:

Thanks, and all of that with the 3d of the image is there as well? what if some one is walking and hide the person? i need to use mask?

@Y.G.J - yes, you would need to roto-mask the person moving over the text.  After Effects also has tools for doing rotoscoping relatively easily (considering that it is rotoscoping) in CS6.  (I'm not sure which version they introduced it.)

Hi @AJHenderson, thanks! what if i want to have text in the frame but the shot moves and i want the text to be fixed? do i need to make its position for every frame or there is something that do that?

@Y.G.J - Slhck's answer talks about that.  Motion tracking in AE with Mocha can track the movement within the shot and make a set of transformations that will keep the text layer stationary.  You then just need a rotoscoped mask layer if you want to prevent the text from showing when something moves in front of it.

@Y.G.J As AJ said. Plus, you will have to do the 3D animation separately – this has nothing to do with the motion tracking itself.

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sort: votes


text:
How to encode Apple ProRes on Windows or Linux?
Is it also possible to encode video with Apple ProRes on Windows and Linux?

Aside the better (because multiplatform) answers given by the other users in past there was also this plugin for premiere: http://www.miraizon.com/products/codecsoverview.html but if you try to buy it it says that sales are ended, i wonder why. I suggest you ffmpeg too ;)

As of December 2018, Adobe Creative Cloud aps, such as Premier, After Effects and Adobe Media Encoder give you the ability to encode in ProRes without any post-hoc conversion.
If you don't use Adobe CC aps or want a free, open source tool, ffmpeg can encode video using ProRes, and runs cross-platform. ffmpeg is a command line tool, which means that it can be automated.
There are a plethora of free GUIs for ffmpeg for those unfamiliar with the command line.
This ffmpeg command:
ffmpeg -i input.avi -c:v prores -profile:v 3 -c:a pcm_s16le output.mov

will do the trick.
The -profile switch takes an integer from -1 to 5 to match the ProRes profiles:

-1: auto (default)
0: proxy ≈ 45Mbps YUV 4:2:2
1: lt ≈ 102Mbps YUV 4:2:2
2: standard ≈ 147Mbps YUV 4:2:2
3: hq ≈ 220Mbps YUV 4:2:2
4: 4444≈ 330Mbps YUVA 4:4:4:4
5: 4444xq ≈ 500Mbps YUVA 4:4:4:4

The approximate bit-rates are for 1920×1080p footage. All of the profiles are progressive, 10-bit, and little-endian (byte order).
The profiles are explained on the Apple website. There doesn't as yet seem to be support for RGBA encoding in 4444 and 444xq which the official Apple codec supports.
You may also use prores instead of prores_ks, which may be a little faster, but does not offer the 4444 profiles. For more background, please read this FFmpeg Wiki article. The prores_ks encoder is now default, and you only need to specify prores in the command, even when encoding prores 4444.

Could you expand to say what the different profiles are and what they mean?

@hellocatfood I added a link to the Apple website which explains the profiles.

little-endian — whatever that means --> The decoded 10-bit samples are actually stored as padded 16 bits. The lower 8 bits are presented first, followed by the upper 8 bits. Big endian is upper 8 followed by lower 8.

I've tried a bunch of front ends for ffmpeg and finally settled on Tencoder. Widows only. It has a preset for ProRes and is very easy to customize so you can crete setting for often used formats or settings.
It is multithreaded and allows you to do batch processing.

The link you posted doesn't take you to a TEncoder download, instead try this one: https://www.fosshub.com/TEncoder-Video-Converter.html

@cegaton Strange, your screenshot looks a little like that of WinFF

@cegaton Your Tencoder link is redirecting to Internet Friendly Media Encoder. And btw : http://ifme.sf.net/ is redirecting to https://x265.github.io/

On Windows, I recommend FootageStudio 4K. It is a commercial converter (not cheap) that supports many professional formats, including ProRes.

If you look at their download page, in the licensing info at the bottom they state that they use libavcodec and ffmpeg software in their product. So you're paying for the fancy GUI by the looks of it.

"Libav codecs from FFMPEG project" - I think that this is not the same as another interface for ffmpeg.exe

It does seem to look pretty good if you don't / can't use the command line I guess. Still, this grumpy old fart would rather use ffmpeg and spend the money on whisky.

This is the command line I have used to encode ProRes 4444. If you do not include -bits_per_mb you will get low res results in Windows 10. Many posts do not mention this little aspect.
ffmpeg -y -f mov -i input-file.mov -vcodec prores_ks -pix_fmt yuva444p10le -profile:v 4444 -bits_per_mb 8000 -s 1920x1080 output-file.mov

This is not necessary anymore.

You can try ffmbc - a customized version of FFmpeg. Unfortunately there are no builds for linux or windows at the moment so you have compile it yourself.
Related: What is the difference between ffmpeg and ffmbc now?

What advantage does ffmbc have over the regular ffmpeg in the current scenario?

@BartArondson In this case it is irrelevant, but if you are working for Broadcast you can integrate all the other features of ffmbc to your pipeline. See this: https://code.google.com/p/ffmbc/

I used to use ffmbc before ffmpeg had proRes support, but I can't see any difference between ffmpeg and ffmbc now.

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text:
Compare an original video with a transferred video?
I want to compare an original video with the same video but transferred through a device. How can I do that? I want to compare them to improve the transferred video quality.
The video is transferred through a device that controls video cameras in  operation rooms. It's connected to the monitor through HDMI and so whenever a surgent is doing an endoscopy surgery it'll be shown on the monitor but first transfered from this device.
We want to improve the quality of the video if it's not at it's highest quality. To know that, we should compare it with the original video that is directly connected to the monitor.
I have some parameters in mind like brightness, contrast, frame rate, blurriness,... and many other parameters that can affect the video quality.
How can I measure this?

Could you be more specific about "measure everything"? What does "everything entail?

for example measure the frame rate, Color depth, Color Temperature, Resolution, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and so on; important parameters in video Comparision

Got ya. Is there a particular format your original is in? Would you be wanting to compare, say, original film from a film camera with an H.264 digital copy you made from it? I.e., what are the limits of the use case?

No there is no particular format and we can neglect the format it's not very important in my case of study, the most important are parameters like color temperature, white balance, Saturation, Frame Rate, Resolution, Beightness, and other parameters that are enough to use while comparing to get the highest quality, i mean i want sth a device or method that if i compared the two videos with will give me enough informations to decide if the transferred video has the same quality of the original one or not.
Thank you so much for answering

That's too broad. Please add more details about the Original File and the Tranfered, a bit context also would be nice - why you have to convert it and so on... otherwise it is just guessing.

No I don't want to convert anything I have two cases once the original video connected to a monitor directly and the other is where the same video is transferred through a device to the monitor so i want to compare these Two video Qualities using a Device or a Software to see if the Device is outputing the Video as same as the original one.

The Device Controls Video Cameras inj the Operation Rooms and it's connected to the Monitor through HDMI and so whenever a surget is doing an endoscopr surgery it'll be shown on the monitor but first transfered from this device, and we want ti improve the quality of the video if it's not at it's highest quality and to know that we should compare it with the original video that is directly connected to the monitor, and i have some parameters in mind like Brightness, Contrast, Frame Rate, Blurriness,... and many other parameters that can affect my video quality

Nice, but please add this to your question, I could imagine not everybody reads the comments.

Since you wrote me an e-mail, I pasted my response (with a few changes) below so others can find it.

Like slhck says, you can compare 2 digital video files with metrics like SSIM.
Your question also asked about brightness and contrast, and other things which will depend on the physical monitor that the video is displayed on.  If you want to be sure that the right photons come out of the screen, given the pixels it was sent, then you need to calibrate your display.  Google that.
You mentioned using HDMI to carry video signals.  You can relax here: HDMI is literally lossless (no compression at all, and digital, not analog).    8bit is the standard color depth for video, so you're not losing anything here.  It carries at least 8 bits per component (red/green/blue), at resolutions and frame rates high enough for almost any display.  (There are different versions of HDMI.  Almost all monitors support an HDMI version recent enough to drive them at 60Hz or greater, at their native resolution.)
The question isn't really clear about where in the chain from camera to monitor the 2 different video signals are extracted.  Is your "device that controls video cameras" something like a splitter / relay / output duplicator?  (not sure what the proper term would be for one-input, several-output-copies device would be, but probably splitter.)  If it's just an HDMI splitter, it's almost certainly perfectly lossless.

There are quite a few programs that do so-called "full reference" measurement, i.e. comparing an original against a degraded signal:

http://www.acceptv.com/en/products_vqa.php
http://compression.ru/video/quality_measure/index_en.html (commercial)
http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/resources/video-quality-research/guides-and-tutorials/description-of-vqm-tools.aspx (free to use, gives results on a 0-1 scale)
http://mmspg.epfl.ch/vqmt (free to use, calculates various metrics)

These are all outputting some value that you can use to objectively compare different systems.
However, keep in mind that the results you get from such a software may not correspond exactly to what humans would rate. These metrics have been trained on natural images and movie sequences and the results may not be valid for medical purposes.
I would suggest you try VQM (it is standardized by the ITU) and image metrics like SSIM. They perform very good, in principle. Then check whether the results are what you would expect when looking at the videos yourself. You could do a small test with a few experts and let them rate a few sequences, then compare the results with the objective values you obtained from the software.


text:
Can I manually change an .mp4 to .m4v by changing the extension in the Finder (mac) or explorer (win)?
I need to change an .mp4 (h264, AAC-Audio) to an exactly same .m4v. Can I just rename it from "X.mp4" to "X.m4v"? By renaming, I mean clicking on it in Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Win) and renaming it.

Why don't you try it and see if it works? This suggests it could work: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=441377

Yes.
M4V is a slight extension to the MP4 container format. M4V is Apple's version, which adds optional DRM-encryption.
So if the video is DRM-protected (i.e. came from the iTunes store) it should stay as m4v (and will open by default in iTunes). If it's not, it can be used with either extension, and many players will be happy either way. By default, .m4v files will open with iTunes, which may be convenient.

Didn't Apple stop providing content with DRM years ago?

Yes. This Q&A is from years ago.

Be aware that you are not changing anything. If I call you Bob, you are still Jac and even then you are probably posting under a different name. If you have software that naively trusts the filename instead of examining the actual binary headers of the file, this can work for you. If the actual format or encoding is wrong then no name change will fix that.
It is possible that some embedded systems do rely on the filename to filter a list of possible files and provide no way get around the default filters. Renaming the file can be your solution.

Yes, this simple conversion should work fine. Both files are technically mp4 files anyways.
Notably, certain older Apple products, like older versions of appleTV for example, require it to be in m4v format so don't forget to switch it back if you're switching between a Mac and a PC if you are using older mac products.
By default, m4v files will always open in iTunes vs other programs.

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text:
Advantage of converting GoPro video files with GoPro CineForm?
Having worked with GoPro cameras for a few years, I had originally ignored the GoPro CineForm Studio software. Probably out of the usual disregard for packaged software, but also due to it being marketed for a while at the 3D users.
I've added it to my workflow lately at it performs better (somehow) on my Macbook Pro for simple preview/rename/sort operations than VLC does for my tastes. I have tried using the conversion batch processing also, but I was wondering what use turning a 271 MB source MP4 file into a 2 GB MOV file is?
I'm using FCP X as my NLE, which has recently even replaced Lightroom/Quicktime for timelapses, and I'm curious if there's a point to the conversion workflow for this environment? There's a YouTube video by GoPro themselves that doesn't explain this, and they seem to be ignoring user comments asking similar questions.

The GoPro CineForm Studio Manual sums up the advantage as being primarily one of unpacking the compressed and native MP4 file that the device records to. It also introduces metadata, allowing the user to adjust elements of the video such as the contrast or scaling. As these are metadata elements, you can continue to adjust these on the fly, while the media is being edited in your video editor.
Read the guide here.
I'm not sure if this will replace the conforming process I use importing media into Final Cut Pro X, but it's a great addition to the workflow as I look more into open source editing tools.


text:
Fastest way to add a timestamp to a video
Is there any script or application that would add a timestamp to a video (avi or mov)?
Does for example mencoder support this function ? I'm using it to join avi files together.
I would be happy for any suggestions.

What do you mean by "timestamp" ? timecode? You can add it to Quicktime .mov files and a few other formats like .mxf. Or the "Creation time" written by some cameras into the metadata of the files? Or do you want to make a new video with timecode or some other time burned-in?
Please clarify.

If you have Compressor installed (comes with the Final Cut 7 Studio) you can burn-in a timecode to a video. You need to setup a preset at the beginning, but then you can make a droplet for further use.

Virtualdub will allow you to do this with the Add Frame Numbers filter (not just frame numbers, as implied by the name).

After Effects has a plugin called Timecode (located under the Text category) that you simply apply to any video layer and it outputs a timecode box over the video that can be rendered out. It includes settings to change the text size, color, position as well as the display format of the timecode (SMPTE, frame numbers, and feet/frames for 35mm or 16mm film).

In Windows you can do this with the old standard Moviemaker - at least a basic timestamp anyway.
If you are looking for something with a great deal of accuracy Moviemaker probably won't cope.

ffmpeg supports this via the drawtext filter (example).  It's command-line but ultimately has more functionality than anything else I've seen.  If you're a python person, there's a project (ffmpeg-python) that provides bindings that make the various filters far easier to work with.


text:
Sony Vegas 10 Video made from smaller quicktime mov videos look crap on youtube
this has been a painful drama for days, trying to get a nice video on youtube for my girlfriend. It looks great on the mpg file sony vegas generates, but after uploading to youtube it look more than crap.
The original videos were shot with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7 which uses quicktime mov format. The settings of these files are shown below, as seen in the detail tab of the properties of the video:

General
    Name: P1050576.MOV   Folder:
  C:\Users\Public\Videos\maquiagem\3_abril   Type: QuickTime   Size:
  322.52 MB (330,261,322 bytes)   Created: terça-feira, 3 de abril de 2012, 20:55:02   Modified: terça-feira, 3 de abril de 2012, 15:21:00
  Accessed: terça-feira, 3 de abril de 2012, 20:55:02   Attributes:
  Archive
Streams   Video: 00:03:56.000, 30.000 fps, 848x480x24, Photo - JPEG
  Audio: 00:03:56.000, 16,000 Hz, 16 Bit, Mono, 16-bit Big Endian
ACID information   ACID chunk: no   Stretch chunk: no   Stretch list:
  no   Stretch info2: no   Beat markers: no   Detected beats: no
Other metadata   Regions/markers: no   Command markers: no
Media manager   Media tags: no
Plug-In   Name: qt7plug.dll   Folder: C:\Program Files
  (x86)\Sony\Vegas Pro 10.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\qt7plug   Format: QuickTime
  7   Version: Version 1.0 (Build 8261)   Company: Sony Creative
  Software Inc.

I tried several settings, and in my last attempt I used the video tutorial below to borrow the settings:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXa849N9J9s
The resulting video looks great when playing locally (like all the ones before), but after uploading to youtube it has the same problems as the ones I had uploaded before:

I tried to convert the rendered video using the SUPER app, to see if it improves something. THe link in this (just checked and it really look bad, and at a much worse screen resolution.):
watch?v=OUBpdAjuNO8
I also tried to upload directly one of the many quicktime MOV files, to see if the problem is with the original format.
The resulting youtube video is below, there are many problems with the original MOV film after it got uploaded to youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=54neVq4dAa0
I had installed the latest quicktime version. I read somewhere that sony vegas 10 requires an older version of quicktime, the 7.1.6 to work without problems.
I had doubted of this, but I just can't understand how a video run perfectly locally, and after uploaing it looks really bad :/
If nothing else works, I will try to downgrade my quicktime, but looking at the original file on youtube, now it looks the problem is some incompatibility with the mov. I would just had tought that after the video was rendered by sony vegas, this "supposed" incompatibility would be gone...
any help is welcome :) I uploaded the rendered video, if this helps in anyway to find the problem. You can confirm that it looks great locally?
thanks
Emerson

Looks like compression artifacts. Try rendering from Vegas to uncompressed AVI in native resolution i.e. 848x480 @ 24 fps. Then convert in SUPER to mp4  at a bitrate of about 2500 kbps; keep the native resolution and frame rate. Note that your source footage isn't HD, so it will look blurred if upscaled.

What happens if you "disable resample" in the clip properties before rendering. Any better?

Hi, I uploaded the original video if this can help to clear why the final youtube video doesn't work...
http://forum.antinovaordemmundial.com/arquivos/P1050576.MOV

I found this question whilst searching on Google for a solution to my problem. I worked a way to work around this problem here which may be relevant to your problem.

I am looking for the solution to this too. I had the same problem two seconds in to my video

I would try uploading the video to vimeo as well. Or, if you have your own website, uplaod it to there and create a simple page with an embedded player.
My experience is that YouTube sometimes adds a LOT of artifacts when it recompresses things. I've often experienced the problem you're having when I work with YouTube, but rarely with vimeo.
If Vimeo looks closer to your source material and self-hosting looks very close to it, I'd bet that it's YouTube's codec more than anything.
Good luck!

This should be an action of last resort. Youtube is by far the largest video hosting site on the net, and I've rarely seen problems of the sort shown in this case. This is most likely the result of some undesirable encoding parameters in the video sent to YT, most likely the scheme of I/B/P frames used.

Mulvya, where are these settings (I/B/P) done?

I tried to render after settings all video clips with the "reduce interlace flicker" and the disable resample, as suggested, but the result video was bad, and the sound is missing before the third minute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw4raDwhPcM
http://avp.stackexchange.com/questions/3744/sony-vegas-10-video-made-from-smaller-quicktime-mov-videos-look-crap-on-youtube
I also just tried to get the good looking mp4 local file and converting it using formatfactory, but after uploading to youtube the result is still really bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuo-aa_A0UE&feature=youtu.be

Could someone try to use the original file on sony vegas, and try to get upload it to youtube to see if the problem is the original file?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54neVq4dAa0


text:
Video Subtitles Specification [CHK and PAC]
I'm wondering if any of you have experience dealing with CHK and PAC subtitles.
I'm working on a project (from a software point of view) and we need to open these subtitles and convert them into a nicer format that can be used by some standard media players.
So my 2 questions are:

Does anyone know the specification of the subtitle format? (this is bit technical, but will help us open the file and transform the contents to whatever we want)
Does anyone know any application that can transcode these subtitles to other formats?

This might be helpfull Subtitle-Edit for .PAC subtitles.
The .PAC subtitle format is binary format
For other subtitle format, .CHK is far I know the file format for "Chunks" or fragments of hard disk after doing CHCKDISK command. But also the CHK file extension is associated with the SSConvert application used to distribute data format containing multiple streams (typ. languages) of subtitle text, timing and presentation style data for video.


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How can I align photos for stop motion?
I just began to take the same photo everyday, in order to try to make a stop motion over the fall/winter season.
As I have took now 3 photo (that's a start) I realized that they will not be well aligned.
So I'm looking if a software will do this for me. I'm thinking of something where you click 3 or 4 precise point in each photo, and then the software crop/align/resize the picture so they all fit nicely together.
I'm pretty sure this kind of things must exist.

To ease in the alignment of the photos, you could use something like Anazi Stop Motion Animator.
It has an "Onion Skin" feature that allows you to see two different frames at the same time to help in aligning them.
You may find some good advice on how to use this software or what software others are using for this by searching for some stop animation sites.  The only site I have personally seen is brickfilms.com which is a stop motion animation site specializing in animating LEGOs.  On their resources page you might find some helpful advice.


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Using GoPro Studio to edit non-GoPro videos
I'm trying to use GoPro Studio to create a video that includes GoPro video as well as HD video from an iPhone.  GoPro Studio was not able to deal with the .MOV file from the iPhone (the audio was corrupted).
I then used avconv to convert the iPhone video to an .MP4 format file.  The audio now works properly, but GoPro Studio will not let me extract clips from it.  Specifically, the "mark in" and "mark out" buttons are disabled.
Is there a way to convert iPhone videos into a format that's fully editable (and clippable) by GoPro Studio?  Or, is GoPro Studio (a free app) detecting the original source of the video, and only supporting videos from supported sources?
For additional info, here is the format of my converted file:
avprobe version 9.16-6:9.16-0ubuntu0.14.04.1, Copyright (c) 2007-2014 the Libav developers
built on Aug 10 2014 18:16:02 with gcc 4.8 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'IMG_0247.MP4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    creation_time   : 2014-09-01 23:25:15
    date            : 2014-09-01T19:25:15-0400
    encoder         : Lavf54.20.4
  Duration: 00:05:48.16, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 6423 kb/s
    Stream #0.0(und): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080, 6243 kb/s, 29.98 fps, 29.98 tbr, 782775.00 tbn, 59.96 tbc
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-09-01 23:25:15
    Stream #0.1(und): Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 175 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-09-01 23:25:15
# avprobe output


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Video Editor for syncing mult camera videos
I am working on a project on human-robot interaction that involves me capturing videos of two humans working on a task together. Eventually, I will analyze the videos and try to model how these humans are working together.
In order to capture their teamwork effectively, I set up three cameras at multiple angles (one at the starting location of the task, one at the ending location and an overhead camera that spans the entire task area). I have obtained these videos. Each of the cameras were started 1 second apart. This is because all three cameras are connected to a laptop computer, so I didn't want to overload the system with 3 camera worth of the video information at the same time.
The first step in modeling this, is to make sure that all the 3 videos are time-synced so that I can apply any number of modeling techniques that depend on time (such as HMM, CRF, DBN's etc). Furthermore, I would need to freeze frame at every time step (granularity of the time step would be determined later but might be as small as one-tenth of a second) and note different features for my modeling algorithm. I am a complete noob in video editing so if anyone could suggest a software that could accomplish what I desire, I would greatly appreciate it. I have access to all three platforms: Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.04, Mac OS X 10.7 (although I would prefer Windows or Ubuntu as my Macbook is quite old and might not be able to perform video editing with ease).

Once all 3 camera's started to roll, did you 'slate' them, as in say a flash or other visual sync mark that all captured on the same frame?

I did not. However, since there isn't any real overlap between what they are capturing, would this be an issue? Also, 2 of the 3 cameras capture at a different frame rate than the other one. This is because 2 cameras are USB cameras and the overhead camera is an ethernet camera.

@Shaun - if they are different cameras with different frame rates, it is going to be messy.  Things aren't going to line up perfectly and your best bet is probably just to eyeball an approximation, but they won't be the exact same moments since the frame rates differ.

I figured as much. Do you guys have a suggestion of a video editor that could help me do this which doesn't have a steep learning curve?

Not sure if this can help you, but take a look at PluralEyes. It can automatically sync your videos based on audio.
As for video editor, I recommend Sony Vegas Pro

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately my videos have no audio in them. I'll check out both the editors though.


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Is GoPro "Cam_Raw" a true RAW image format?
I've seen this post about what exactly "RAW" is.
My question is about the GoPro Hero 4, which comes with the Protune option for "advanced controls".

Is their "Camera_Raw" format a true RAW image format?
Since it's probably proprietary, will I be able to access the image data using third-party software?

In their description, GoPro uses the term "less compression", but I was under the impression that RAW meant NO compression at all.

@Nir - RAW doesn't even mean that the compression is lossless, but rather that it hasn't been converted to image data yet.  There are lossy RAW formats out there.  RAW data just means that it describes the actual values captured by the sensor prior to applying any processing.  The individual photosites are actually monochrome and get color from a pattern of colored filters over them.

Camera raw sounds like it is effectively similar to RAW because it is describing the light data without any corrections.  What comes in on the sensor is written out, but it does sound like it may be applying the filter, just using a mix of 1:1:1 for the color resolution.  It's theoretically possible to work backwards from this to the full colors, but you may lose some bit depth if it goes from more than 8 bit sensor read out to 8 bit color encoding.  Possibly even worse if it is encoding to 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.
The net effect of shifting color on this kind of a recording would be that there would be fewer total colors described after applying your corrections since you discard a portion of the possible colors that could be described by the format.  (Where as your more traditional RAW doesn't discard any data, so you can be more selective about what you want to remove when you reduce the bit depth later in the process.)

I believe the GoPro Hero 4 records in the h.264 format which is contained inside the MP4 Format.
This codec is a Compression format and dependant on the recording bitrates.
h.264 is a universally accepted format that Allows for very large files to be compressed with minimal loss to the original content. The compression is dependant on the bitrate used; the higher the bitrate, the larger the file, and the lower the bit rate, the smaller the file. Satellite TV channels, although 1080p @24 FPS, are of a fairly low bitrate as they need to fit the bandwidth available. However, even then, sometimes images come across as blocky.
A Raw Image at full Bitrate will definitely be larger than the MP4 Image and taking into consideration, you can't have a video camera that can only take a few minutes of Film, the bitrate needs to be reduced to allow for longer footage.
If the Hero 4 is as good as the Hero 3, the loss of quality will not be something that will be noticeable and as good as if no compression had taken place.
Regarding editing, h.264/MP4 is pretty much the choice of all editing packages now. You may be required to install the latest version of Quicktime to ensure you have the latest codecs.

I wouldn't say that h.264 id a format "of choice" for editing packages. While it is a great delivery codec it isn't a good choice for editing.

I stand corrected regarding my choice of words. h.264 is so common nowadays that one should not have an issue

anq - you can edit your answer to include this. That may earn you upvotes...


text:
GoPro looping settings
I'm using my GoPro Hero3 White as a dashcam.
Setting it to overwrite files, I encountered 2 strange things:

5min settings give me 1min files, and 20min settings give 5min files.
The counter stops at 05:00 / 20:00 even though it goes on filming.

Can anyone help me understand why is this happening and how can I change it?
Thanks, Ronen.

This is as it is described in the manual. These modes are continuously filming, but only saving the last 5min or 20min. This is done by splitting the part up in serveral files, and the oldest one will be overwritten. To your second question: What do you mean by 'counter'?

I assume that by counter OP means the numbers on the front LCD display of the GoPro. The numbers usually shows how long the camera has been filming, but on this looping setting, it shows the maximum time because it is continuously overwriting the oldest footage. So for example after 23:00 minutes of filming, the counter would show 20:00, as this is the amount of footage available from the camera.


text:
Using a Submix track for Multicam in Premiere
In Premiere CC 2014, I am using a Multicam Sequence that uses the topmost audio track when changing cameras.
I have a few audio tracks that I want mix, so I mapped them all to a submix track
Is it possible for a Multicam sequence to use the Submix track instead of the topmost track?


text:
How can I scale more than 300% in Premiere?
I am using the transform effect to scale a clip. I need a scale of around 500%, however the scale control seems to be limited to 300%.
Is there any way I can scale the clip more than 300% using the transform effect?

If you're using an older Version of Premiere:
As mentioned above, you can apply the maximum scale on the original clip,
then nest the clip (right click > Nest), and here apply another scale transformation.
With every iteration of this step you will gain 300%.
Hope this helps.

In my version of the software (Premiere Pro CC 2018) it is possible to scale up to 10,000. I am not sure which of the latest software updates included this.
In earlier versions of the software, you can scale by the maximum amount, create a subclip and add another scale transformation.


text:
Easily replace clips in Premiere Pro
I have a couple hundred video clips in a premiere pro project (uncompressed avi), and it is burning too much space on my hard disk. I want to compress these clips (perhaps to x264).
Is there an easy way to do this? Currently I have to search for each file manually, while the only thing that changed is the extension from .avi to .mp4, and I have multiple projects I want to do this for.

A hacky way is to export the projects as XML, then doing a find-and-replace  in a text editor on the XML file, replacing ".avi" with ".mp4"

Is there a less hacky way? =x for simple projects this may work, but my after effects compositions don't seem get exported correctly to xml

Have you tried deleting/moving the original source files and putting the transcoded mp4s in their place? I'm pretty sure that has worked for me in the past, even though the file extension was different.

Yup... that's the first thing i tried

Did you tried this: http://video.stackexchange.com/a/18293

Go to File > Project Manager.
Select the problem sequence.
In the "Resulting Project" menu, select "Collect Files and Copy"
In its options, select "Exclude Unused Clips" and unselect everything else.
Pick your destination path (not the drive where your .avi are located).
Press OK and start the copying process.

Once the copy is done, select all these files (they are all avi.) and transcode them to whatever you want, without changing their names. That supposes that you are going to export these transcoded files to a different folder than the one where your newly copied .avi files are located.
Once the transcode is done, put a dash in front of the folder in which you copied the original .avi files.
Boot up your Premiere project. The program will ask you to reconnect the missing media. Direct it towards the folder where you put the transcoded .avi files. Because you didn't change the files' names, you'll have no trouble reconnecting your sequence to the newly converted files. No more .avi.

Use ffmpeg to copy your x.264 into an avi wrapper using codec:copy which will bypass transcoding. That way your file names won't change and you shouldn't have to reconnect. If you haven't already transcoded to x.264 then you can do it in one step instead of 2.


text:
What is the difference between 'Set To Frame Size' and 'Scale To Frame Size'?
In Premiere Pro CC; what is the difference between 'Set To Frame Size' and 'Scale To Frame Size'?
I need to blow up a video to fill a larger frame. I am going from SD 720x480 to HD 720x1280 frame size. If I have to do this what is the best way?

Scale to Frame Size
Scales the clip to fit the size used in the current sequence whilst retaining the original aspect ratio to fit within the frame. Essentially, the clip has been rasterized to match the resolution used on the current sequence.
Despite adjustments to the size of the clip, the scale setting in the Video Effects panel for the clip will remain as 100%. This isn't a permanent change, the modification can be disabled by unchecking the option in the same way you enabled it.
If I place a photo which has a resolution of 3264 x 2448 and used 'Scale to Frame Size' to fit it into a widescreen 1920 x 1080 resolution, the photograph will be reduced in resolution. If I wanted to zoom in by scaling the photograph back to 100%, I would lose the original quality.
'Scale to Frame Size' can improve performance when scaling down a large clip.
Set to Frame Size
Scales the clip to fit the size used in the current sequence.
Premiere will automatically apply the scale adjustment under the clips Video Effects, which can be adjusted. The clip retains the original resolution.

Here are two identical photographs, the first photo I used 'Scale to Frame Size' and scaled in the Effects panel by 400%, for the second photo I used 'Set to Frame Size' and scaled by the same amount.
You should be able to see a clear difference in quality when scaled.

You probably won't see any noticeable difference scaling UP when using either of the methods.


text:
Scale, position, and zoom a still image in Premiere Pro CC
I have a photo collage I am trying to move around, scale, position, and zoom in and out of on the images with in the collage. Whenever I go to scale out of the first image and move to the second image it messes up all of the key frames. Am I missing something while trying to do this?
I am trying to achieve the same effect of the linked video below

That's very easy. Simply select all images, press right click -> Nest.
Give it a name and you are done. Now on this single "clip" apply your movement.
If you want to edit the single images, double click the new clip.

If you already have keyframes, than you need to move all of them, not just first. The easiest way to achieve that. is by nesting your current video with all its keyframes in new composition, and add scale, zoom and etc to it. But only you can see, if this workflow fits your needs.
Alternative way will be, to select all existing keyframes, and modify them... But it can become messy and broke pretty fast.

The best way to achieve this, as far as I can see, is by creating a single image file (in Photoshop or GIMP or something) and then importing that into Premiere - unless, of course, you're animating all of the images in or something - then just moving/scaling on one 'clip' as opposed to trying to move and scale across a lot of different clips.
If you are animating the images in, nesting the video would be the best thing to do (as Shultc suggested) though the terminology in Premiere is a 'subsequence', not a 'composition'. To do this, select all of the clips, right click and go down to 'Make subsequence' - this will create a new sequence in your project that you can drop into your main sequence. Edit the content in the subsequence by loading it (double-click) as you would a normal sequence. Any changes you make will be reflected in the subsequence clip.
If you have After Effects, I'd suggest building this effect in there as it's far more useful for creating effects like this than Premiere is, though the process would be fairly similar, you'd just create a pre-composition with your collage in it, then edit (move/scale) the pre-comp in your main comp.


text:
Is there a way in Premiere to process a file like logging and capture?
I have a list of timecode in and out points for the source footage, (the best takes etc).
Is there a way to process a file like logging and capture, processing the in and outs and saving as individual files?
Rather than my current method of using the source monitor, key in the the in point time, then pushing the mark in button, key in the end point time, push the mark out button, the inserting into a sequence.
I need to cut a file as individual clips based on the list.

Try this:
Create a bin in your project window, lets call it "selected-clips".
Use your source window to mark your "in and out" points then drag that 'clip' into your "selected-clips" bin.
Once you have all your clips in, right-click on EACH clip and select "Make Subclip".
Now, highlight all the 'Subclips', right-click and select "Export Media". A window should appear - add it to a queue - Media Encoder should open - then batch export your 'Subclips'.
Done.


text:
Make videos still and stable?
There's a great app for iPhones called "Motion Stills". It can make a handheld "Live Photo" with a minimal movement, totally stable. You can see original Live Photo here and edited with the app here.
The only problem is that the application works only with previously mentioned iPhone's "Live Photos". Can I find there any program for Mac to make the same results with videos? Is it possible in Adobe Premiere?

You should be able to use any software for video stabilization. With ffmpeg you can use either deshake, or vidstabdetect/vidstabtransform.
Depending on how shaky the original video is, you can get rid of the black distracting margins by zooming with the zoompan filter, or cropping with the crop filter. See the links for examples.
You'll probably have to experiment a bit to find out what works for your material. Use ffplay with the same syntax to see directly how the filters work.

Good question. I agree with Aleb, most editos have a stabilization feature, if you can find it, but it does it by adjusting the frames and causing black borders to keep it in a one to one scale, and depending upon HOW unstable it is, the necessary zoom might be greater than you want and reduce your quality.

There are differences, firstly, between still and stable. If you want a video to be still, as if it were filmed on a tripod, then you can use a tracking stabilisation technique. This is when you track a point in the background, and since the background is meant to remain motionless when on a tripod, the computer can compensate by moving the video in the opposite direction to the motion. By zooming in, you can remove the bars at the side that would appear from moving the image out of the screen.
However, if you want steadiness, where the camera still moves, but without violent shaking, such as if you were using a Steadicam, and have the privilege of using professional software such as Premiere, there are methods to achieve this. In Premiere, you can use the 'Warp Stabiliser' effect, and if you ensure that the 'effect' drop-down is set to Smooth Motion instead of No Motion, you should be good to go. But remember that if there is too much shake in the camerawork, Warp Stabiliser could make it look even worse. If you do not have access to Premiere, you can use the previous technique of removing motion completely and adding something like Cinecom's handheld camera effect package in Hitfilm to simulate handheld motion, smoothly.

The effect in Premiere you want to look for is the warp stabiliser effect: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/stabilize-motion-warp-stabilizer-effect.html
As mentioned, this works by moving the video frame to try to keep the contents of the frame in the same place on screen. Obviously this means that the edges of frame become visible, meaning you need to crop or scale to hide them.
Another problem that is a bit more subtle is that perspective and parallax gets messed up by over-use of stabilisation. When you move the camera the position of foreground items to background items changes. If you then take out the movement you're left with the relative motion of the foreground and background, with nothing to explain it.
On top of that, any rolling shutter artefacts will remain, once again, without any motion to explain / mask it.
This can leave you with a steady frame that looks like it's made of jelly, which is really disconcerting. So don't expect motion-stabilisation to be a fix for bad camera work.


text:
Editing text in Premiere Pro
I have a project in Premier Pro.
I added lot of text and clips to my timeline and when I have returned to it the next day I can't seem to find a way to edit the text anymore, all I am seeing is yellow and red line on top of the timeline indicating where the text starts and ends but no way of actually grabbing it to edit it.

Could the font have gone missing somehow?  If you used a normal system font, this would be unlikely, but if you downloaded something, then... maybe?

Try Selecting your Text Tool... the Capital "T" in the tool bar. Using that Click or double Click on the text you want to edit. That should get you there.


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Special effects in 90's movies
How were special effects added in movies like The Shadow ( 1994 ) when CGI wasn't around?
In the following trailer during 00:37 - 00:39 there is a face transition. It's speculated that it was combination of makeup and morphing.

Any idea how this was achieved?

If you are interested in fire overlay, than it can be done with different ways:

Projection of fire on the glass in front of actor
Filming fire and person on the same part of film, and only after that was made manifestation of a film.

If you are about morphing of face, it probably was made same way, how it was made in Michael Jackson music video "Black & White"

You can read about it here. It was made on early computer with specific software.

Oh, but you're very wrong that in 1994 CGI wasn't around. The very film you use as an example had a very extensive VFX and CGI credits list.
In 1993, Flame was already around being used on Silicon Graphics stations. It evolved into the software currently owned by Autodesk, and still one of the mostly used VFX suites in Hollywood productions.
One year before that, Jurassic Park was already in post production, with lots of CGI and software specially made for that film.
CGI has been around since the 70's


text:
replace black frames with previous frames
I have problematic footage from diving due to my camera/SD card - every 4th or so frame is just black, and I want to replace all those black frames with either an interpolation between the previous and next frame or just duplicate the previous frame.
I found this question "remove black frames from vob files with ffmpeg", but I don't want to cut out the frames but instead want to interpolate between the two frames or duplicate the previous frame.
I think I might be able to get all the relevant positions with the black-frame filters etc, but what kind of actions would I use to replace those frames with an interpolation or a duplicate of the previous frame in a fully automatic way (so I only pass my movie file into the script)?
All I've found so far is the "shuffleframes" method, which I could somehow (how?) feed with the position of the black frames and then thereby duplicate the previous frame.
Demo footage detailing the probem can be found here.

Highly related: https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/13423/any-nice-tool-for-replacing-all-black-frames-in-a-video-with-another-frame https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/28407/replace-all-completely-black-frames-with-interpolated-frames

It's possible to have the black frames removed and earlier frames duplicated.
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf blackframe=0,metadata=select:key=lavfi.blackframe.pblack:value=50:function=less -vsync cfr -c:a copy out.mp4

The blackframe filter analyses and registers the proportion of a frame's pixels which are black. The metadata filter keeps all frames which have at most 50% of pixels black. The removed frames create a gap in the video stream. So by setting the video sync method to constant frame rate, ffmpeg duplicates earlier (non-black) frames to fill in those gaps.
You'll have to experiment with the metadata selection value 50 to get the right threshold.

This is amazing. It pretty much achieves what I wanted to (I think). I wonder though how it
a) handles cases where there is multiple directly following black frames
b) why the output files are consistently longer than the input files (duration wise)

why does the output have a longer duration than the input?

Share full log. How much difference are we talking about?

Hi, I'm sorry for the delay in replying. The difference is already some seconds, eg here https://pastebin.com/NfTVtEC0
original file: https://cl.ly/qSfM
ffmpeged file: https://cl.ly/qSMr

Don't see a difference. Mediainfo shows format duration for original: 3 s 532 ms and for new file 3 s 534 ms

Hmm, I aligned them in Final Cut and the top one is the transcoded one and it is longer. https://cl.ly/qSQr And this is only a 3s video... And the audio lines also look different https://cl.ly/qRvs

Your source is variable frame rate. Apparently, FCP can't respect that - it conforms clips to constant frame rate. Which will reduce clip duration if there are frames with individual duration greater than 1/fps seconds.

Rather than replacing with the most recent non-black frame, is it possible to have it interpolate the missing frames? [Edit] I've now asked a new question for this


text:
60fps and 30fps clips exported into one file?
I have two cameras: one films in 30fps and the other in 60fps. These settings cannot be changed (why the manufacturer did that I don't know).
When I export the finished product, which is the better setting to go by? HD 30fps or HD 60fps?
I am using Sony Vegas Pro 13.

Is the end use web playback?

@Mulvya Digital playback on an HD TV with 120hz refresh rate.

Set project to 60 fps and export at 60 fps.

Export to 30p. 29.97 to be exact if there is the option. Exporting at 60fps is only going to bloat the file size (twice as many frames) per second-- if it's 60p and not 60i of data to encode.
Secondly, viewers are akin to watching media playback in or around the 24-30fps range. It's what our eyes are used to, so your viewers wont be distracted as to why the 60 fps has less jutter than your 30 fps material.
Lastly, exporting at 30 fps will convert your 60 fps content to 30 fps by dropping out every other frame. Doing the opposite would mean doubling each 30fps content... and it will not look quite the same.
There are filmmakers that have rallied for moving towards a higher frame rate, lower resolution per frame exhibition format. The Hobbit was one of the most recent films (only one I can think of) that was actually screened in what they coined as HFS (High Frames per Second). I saw it in theaters in this format, and to be honest, it didn't feel like film because of it.
Go 30p. 29.97 Progressive.

Export to 60p for preservation
You will preserve all the frames and the look of your 60p sources, and the 30p frames will be doubled, but with a decent codec this will likely not affect the size of the file because the encoder will use a "frame-repeat" flag.
Export to 30p for uniform look
60p video looks "live", while 30p video looks more "film-like". Combining the two in one video may look jarring to your viewers. Then again, some viewers do not notice differences in frame rates.
Export to 30p and use 60p for slo-mo
You can export a 30p project and create true slo-mo from your 60p content, just navigate to clips' properties and set their speed to 0.5 -- no frames lost, and no fake frames added.
As for whether your viewers will be able to watch 60p - yes, they will. Any TV set supports 720p60 and most do support 1080p60. YouTube supports 60p for several years now. If you want to be extra safe, when exporting to 60p use 720 resolution, that is, export to 720p60.


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gopro hero vs gopro hero4 black video quality diference
I want to buy gopro camera,
I see there is big diference in price e.g.
http://www.gopro.hr/kamere/p/GoPro-Hero/ProductID/9426
cost $200
http://www.gopro.hr/kamere/p/GoPro-Hero4-Black/ProductID/19131
cost $600
big diference in cost, what is diference in quality of video, photo and options ?

Have you looked on the official GoPro website? All the specs and comparison data you could wish for is there.

There are charts on their website, but in short, the Black allows for 4k recording, 60 mbps bandwidth, higher frame rates at various resolutions, simply put, it has a larger bottleneck enabling it to capture more data.
I would suspect the cameras may be perhaps identical, and are firmware locked down into lower levels for the less expensive versions. Bypassing that would be, well very difficult if not impossible.
The Blacks are great, I own a handful and use them all the time.


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do TV broadcasts provide localized advertisements by altering the TV photo
In TV broadcasts of football matches (soccer matches) there are often long displays along the side of the football field that show advertisements. I guess that these displays are made up of electronic lamps, but in the future it might be possible (albeit technically very difficult) to add the advertisements by just post-processing the TV photo in a computer. In this way TV companies could broadcast international football matches with localized advertisement, for instance with one type of advertisement per country.
Do you know of any examples from TV broadcasts of sport events, where image post-processing have altered the TV photo to adjust for different advertisements?

It is realistic to have defined spaces with adverts in for the crowd that can be overwritten in post-processing for televised markets.

This was already done and seems to be done regularly in certain sports. Here is a (German, sorry) article from 1998 where this was done in the UEFA cup game Glasgow Rangers vs AC Parma. There where localized advertisements in Germany and Italy placed on areas originally pink. Here is the only English summary article on the subject that I found using a quick search.
@Mick79 the question was for advertisements per country which is a good idea. In the given UEFA cup game for Germany they showed ads for a nation wide hardware store and a brewery selling nation wide which wouldn't have paid for ad space in this match (Scotland vs. Italy) if they had to pay for the whole international reach (I would think). Targeted advertisement is always better.

What a great idea -- you should enter the marketing field!
I don't know if anyone has thought to do localized advertisements yet, but image post-processing is routinely used, at least on American football broadcasts, to track the field and the marker lines thereupon, so as to provide various forms of in-game analysis.
If they can do that, I'm sure they could turn the field-side displays into green screen to show localized TV advertisements on, but if that happens, then the spectators at the physical location aren't able to see the advertisements! So some of this probably has to do with whether it's the TV station or the Stadium that sells those ads, and whether or not localized broadcast ad revenue would be more lucrative than installed non-processed ads.

Thanks for bringing up the point that there are also local spectators at the physical location. If they only  see some mono-colour displays they will not see any ads.

I disagree and don't believe you should get into marketing.
The point of advertising at big events like soccer matches is to generate cash for the club and exposure for the big brands.
small localised audiences equals small business' and small business budgets.
the clubs will ALWAYS prefer huge, household brand names who can afford to pay the premium for national/international exposure.
Nike paying (for example) £1m is a done deal. One transaction, large amount of money, done.
Organising several sales to many many small companies across the country is both time consuming, resource intensive and a headache. What if for example noone in newcastle wants to buy advertising that week?
The other factor is brand dilution. Big name clubs who get national tv coverage want to be associated with huge names like Nike, Addidas, Microsoft, Audi etc. They don't want "Jim's TV Repairs" or "East Sussex Motors". It makes them look big to have big names and the opposite is also true.
There are so many factors as to why this is a bad idea.

in the question there is no claim saying that such post-processed advertisements are a good thing. The question was just about if such advertisements exist.

No, but in one of the answers the author suggested that the original poster should go into marketing and that it was a great idea.

This post does not answer the question, which was more about the feasibility of adding the advertisements in post processing, not about whether or not it is a good idea.


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Common newbie mistakes for cinematography?
I'm going to make a serious movie, what are the BIG mistakes newbies often do, both in the clipping and the shooting stage?

Common oversights of beginners in pre-production (planning):

No script or plan of action. Even if you are doing something very abstract or experimental, have a plan of how things begin, develop and end. You can always change this as you proceed, but it's most important to have a baseline. This should include your budget of money and time for all concerned.

No research. If you are shooting a documentary or a narrative be sure to do all the fact checking or if this is fiction, make it plausible or not if you desire the comical.

No storyboard. The storyboard is a series of panels like a comic book that describes each scene and the action contained within. This is how the camera will set up for each shot. From the storyboard you can derive a shot list.

No idea of screen direction. Right from the storyboard you should have a good handle on the direction the action moves within the frame as well as taking into account how the camera may move to cover such action whether that is a pan, tilt, crane, handheld, etc. shot. The key here is continuity of movement from shot to shot. Learn about screen direction and cover the 180 degree rule as this also falls under continuity.

No production schedule. Most movies do no shoot each scene in the scripted sequence because you can save a lot of time and money by shooting by location, time of day, or other logistical considerations. I once worked as an Hollywood extra in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". The last shoot or wrap night as they called it was actually a sequence near the beginning of the film. Plan your shooting schedule to optimize each location as appropriate.

Common oversights of beginners in production (filming):

Not locking down exposure, focus, and white balance.

Terrible lighting. Learn about shooting with existing light, and how to make it work with reflectors if need be. If you are shooting indoors, learn about basic 3 point lighting to start. The most important thing is to make sure your subject is lit well and defined.

Terrible sound recording. Learn the basics of sound recording, like setting the level so it does not exceed peak load and not changing the recording level while recording. Also, get creative with sound too, learn about Foley and explore ways to create your own effects.

Camera shake: it's one thing to shoot hand held but if you are trying for a steady tripod shot, make sure you don't touch the camera when its recording. For instance one of my cameras has a remote so I can start and stop it with out even getting near the camera. Also, if you are using a tripod be sure that it has enough weight to handle the wind. For hand held shots shoot wide angle as vibration is proportionately magnified by increasing focal length (zooming in).

Over-zealous use of zooming. Learn to use the zoom feature when it is transparent and does not call attention to itself. For instance a more effective use of zooming in or out is done simultaneously with a pan or tilt (assuming you have a tripod with a fluid head) while following an action. A good example of this is how a sports cameramen will follow a play such as someone trying to steal 2nd base.

Learn to compose a shot. Use the law of thirds in framing a subject, and when to make exceptions. I highly recommend art history 101 for beginners to learn about composition. Study the greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso to understand how to frame your subject and study film history 101 to learn how great directors worked with framing in motion, e.g., Orson Welles' work in "Citizen Kane". Others: Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa to name a few.

Didn't get enough takes to cover the action. Make sure that you have enough good takes of each shot on the shot list. Be sure to allow some flexibility with adding long shots, medium shots, and close ups all with different angles to optimize the light and action. Shooting more is better than less from an editing point of view. Editors love to have tons of stuff to choose from as long as these extra shots highlight the intent and the director is behind it.

Common oversights of beginners in post-production (editing):

Wrong format. Be sure that your camera files are compatible with your video and music/sound editing suite.

Featuring a single shot for too long. Unless you are using a steady moving crane shot don't expect to keep anyone's attention if your shots are too long, and don't have any sense of movement or action. Having a wide variety of long, medium, and close up shots with varying angles to choose from that cut swiftly on action and appear transparent will be more engaging to your audience.

Jump cuts: this is all about continuity, learn when and when not to use a jump cut.
One acceptable form of the jump cut is the 'magic cut' such as some one suddenly appears in the frame like in Star Trek when they beam up. A bad jump cut is when something that may have been in the previous scene is misplaced in the following shot or the reverse is true too. There are a zillion examples of jump cuts. One famous one is Dustin Hoffman driving the wrong way on the SF Bay Bridge in "The Graduate".

Over use of effects. There is a huge temptation to over use an effect you may find interesting, even experienced cinematographers can easily over use something new to them and unfortunately your audience finds this boring and distracting. The golden rule is to use effects sparingly but appropriately when used. The best way to learn this is to see how this effect has been successfully used before by professionals in great movies.

Non-original music. Too many beginners use popular music for their productions. Even if it appears to fit, we've heard it already. Does "Also sprach Zarathustra" have to always play for a sun rise or moon rise? The question you should ask yourself is, how many buddies of mine play music, how many are good and want to work on it with me? Got a friend that can compose? Original music makes any production refreshing and takes your film from the ordinary to the unique as long as you make the music interesting and supports the film action.

Pay attention to the basic rules but don't be afraid to take some risks. My number one rule is that if I break one I better have a darn good reason and it really has to work within the context of the film I am working on.

That was one GREAT answer! Thank you very much for your time and effort in making this!

You are very welcome. This is not a complete list so others may post more and I look forward to learning from their experiences as well.

Best thing ever: PLAN. EVERYTHING.

Great answer that should be memorized by every new film student!

I like to add one more thing that is often overlooked:
Provide excellent catering on set. A hungry crew is not a happy crew.


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How do I PROPERLY slow down a 60 fps clip in Vegas Pro 11?
Let me start at the very beginning:
My project frame rate is 23.976 fps (standard film). When I create such a project in Adobe Premiere and then want to add a clip to the timeline, I can set the frame rate of the clip manually. Therefore, when my clip is 60 fps shot with a Canon DSLr (actually I believe and hope it's 59.94 fps), I can override its fps to 23.976 and then drop it to the timeline, thus getting the perfect slow-motion = as slow as possible without any frames missing in-between.
Now, I don't know how do I do this in Vegas Pro 11. All I can do is drop the clip to the time-line and then set its playback rate to 0.4x original speed (59.94 * 0.4 = 23.976). However, I don't know how safe this is. Is it safe to assume that the playback speed of the clip will be EXACTLY 23.976 fps and there won't be any frames missing in-between, thus creating the perfect slow-motion?

Well, if it looks good, then no one can blame you. (Just advertising for Adobe After Effects here.. ^^ )

I am very sorry I did not understand your question correctly, I have since deleted my answer.

You should be safe setting playback rate at 0.400. 59.94 is actually 60/1.001 and 23.976 is actually 24/1.001, so the 0.4 multiplier is technically exact. Switch off resample to be sure. Of course, how Vegas actually handles this internally is anybody's guess.
One way to test this would be to generate a frame sequence just containing an incremental numeral display (1,2,3...) in AE or similar, then render that as a 59.94p video. Import in vegas with playback 0.4 and resample off and then cycle through the frames to see if there are any duplicates or missing.

Your experiment solves the problem as exactly as possible. Wonder why I didn' think about that before. Thanks!


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How do you subtitle a video?
I am making a small video (not really a film) that has muffled/hard to understand dialogue. The video goes for about 2 minutes and I only need to subtitle roughly 2 sentences worth - so it's not a lot.
I'm using Final Cut Pro 7 and I know how to insert text. What I need to know is what font is typically used for subtitles and what size should this font be?
Subsequently, if two people are talking simultaneously, what is the best way to alter the subtitle so the viewer is aware which subtitle belongs to which character?

Subtitling is a horrible horrible thing, and there are loads of regulations and standards and other bull which can be found here.
As for the font, it really depends on your opinion - if I'm not mistaken Trebuchet Sans and Deja Vu Sans are as close as you can get to the standard DVD fonts.
But all I just said depend on your artistic point of view - if the subtitles makes part of the movie it shouldn't follow the general guidelines - I would strongly recommend using a font that makes sense with the movie (Example: Consolas would be great for a movie like Primer or Tron) and use free style subtitles - like the ones in classic adventure games.
If you're not aware about these games, check out Full Throttle Opening on youtube.
Then again, here's some ideas about people talking simultaneously:
If they are from opposite sexes you can use different colors for each character.
One character's lines could be on the right side of the screen while the other is on the left.
You can even use different fonts (not recommended)
But, according to the usual pattern you should identify the characters who are speaking with brackets and simply show both lines at the same time.
[John Doe] I love you Mary.
[Mary Doe] GTFO, I hate you.

But, as mentioned before, I strongly recommend creating a unique style for your movie, specially since it's only a few lines.

You can also left align the speech for person on left side of screen and right align for person on right side.  Or place the dialogue next to the person on screen.  I've seen this done a lot when TV sitcoms are subtitled, esp. when a scene has 3 or more people in a conversations.  Don't feel limited to the bottom third or center of the screen!

Tips on subtitles.
1) make it clear, be sure the font color is not washed out by the background for instance don't put light lettering on a light background. In a word "contrast". Some title programs will have a shadow or outline to assist when the title is over a mixed light and dark area.
Choose an easily readable font. Consider why highway signs have certain fonts to optimize clarity.
2) make sure your subtitle is on long enough to read. The rule of thumb here and this pretty much goes for any title (exception being fast end credits) is read the title out loud, this will help you define the upper limit of how long to hold the title.
3) conversely, optimized subtitles do not overlap to the next shot as the eye will at first interpret this as a new subtitle. This falls under continuity.
4) Specifically for your situation where you are trying to make something clear in text that is not spoken clearly, consider a bit of editing to keep it concise as you may not
have enough time or room to subtitle the whole thing. This can be difficult as you don't want to be accused of 'putting words in someone's mouth'. On the other hand if you are looking for a comical angle, subtitles can be an effective tickler. Consider the effect of someone mumbling and the subtitle is constructed from a bunch of wingding fonts. Caution with comical intentions, in a world of 'politically correct' police, be sure this is in good taste.
5) There are many ways you can construct a dialog with subtitles. One way is to italicize the same font for the other persons subtitle. Or use the script like method Johnny Bigoode suggests, this is worth sandboxing until you find the best solution that works in the context of your video.
6) I agree with Johnny Bigoode as to allow for your creativity, if you get stuck, search around Youtube for videos with subtitles, ask yourself why some work well and others do not.


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how can I smoothly move a camera without a dolly?
I have a small camera and this is the first time I'm filming anything that is serious. I'm wonder if there is a cheap way I can smoothly shoot footage in a room while moving without a camera dolly.

You want something like a Steadicam.
The idea is to add weight to the camera assembly so that it is stabilized by an increase of moment of inertia. For larger rigs, the entire thing might be supported by the cameraperson's body on a harness.
For smaller applications, the mount point of the camera is right above where you grip the assembly, and the pivot point is at the top of this grip. Then, a rigid strut extends from the mount point to below the grip, and weight is added at the bottom of this strut so that the center of gravity of the entire assembly (camera included) is at the pivot point.
This is an example of something like this that you can purchase, but if you're on a tight budget you might even be able to make something yourself.

To nitpick, it's actually not so much stabilised by gravity as by moment of inertia.

@leftaroundabout Aha, thanks! Moment of inertia

A steadicam is one solution, but there are others.  You could use a slider dolly, camera crane, jib, shoulder mount, or fluid head tripod, depending on the movement you want.

also, wheelchairs make good, cheap, DIY dolly substitutes.


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How much is a good framerate for slo-mo recording?
As per the title, how much fps count should I be considering on a camera if I am looking to do slo-mo shots without framerate lag taking effect on video settings?
On a side note, I don't know if this is counted as Photography or videography. I'm looking at digital cameras that have a good video framerate, though.


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Upload a video to Youtube without losing contrast
I've been trying to upload a video to Youtube which had been created in Vegas Movie Studio HD 11 and rendered as an MP4 file. You may notice the text has become sharper and the watermark is now almost impossible to see:
Video on PC (Played in Quicktime)

Video on Youtube

The entire video is affected by not just the first slide. I have tried to increase the colour settings in Sony Vegas and with Youtube's built-in editor. I have also tried using the built-in Vegas Youtube uploader.
Video Properties

Created and rendered in Vegas Movie Studio HD.
Rendered as HDV 720-25P (Matches project settings)
Audio: 384 Kbps, 48,000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo, MPEG
Video: 25 fps, 1280x720 Progressive, YUV, 18.3 Mbps
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.000

What does the contrast look like in Vegas itself? QuickTime displays files incorrectly to start with, and as such makes it difficult to judge the actual colour and contrast of a movie (it shows everything as slightly washed out).

@OliverG The contrast in Sony Vegas is the same as the rendered file in Quicktime.

Do you have the ability in Vegas to set the gamma of the output file to 2.2.

@DoktorHauser I couldn't find the option to do so in the Render As... dialogue. In the Video FX preset the gamma value is set to +1 and limits at +2 (which is too much in my case)

I worked out a satisfactory solution to this problem. It involves adding the 'Computer RGB to Studio RGB' Video FX to each video track in your Vegas Studio project. This effects the rendered file and project quite a lot but appears normal when uploaded to Youtube:
Quicktime

Youtube

It's possible to disable the track Video FX whilst you work on your project so you don't have to deal with dimmed video. The effects will need to be be re-enabled before you render the project.

The reason you are losing contrast is because of the codec you are using to export to.
YouTube (as well as Vimeo, and practically every other video website nowadays) works using the H.264 codec. Here are YouTube's instructions for how they'd like videos to be encoded for upload.
The TL;DR version of that page:

Container: .mp4
Audio Codec: AAC-LC
Video Codec: H.264

When you upload the incorrect codec - like HDV (mpeg?) you are using above, YouTube has to re-encode your video, resulting in the loss of quality and contrast you have been experiencing.
Now the bad news. From my quick Googling, people have had trouble exporting to H.264 from Sony Vegas. However, Vimeo has a page dedicated to encoding instructions. Here's their tutorial for Sony Vegas 11.


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Can Sony Vegas Pro be used or compared to the output produced by Final Cut Pro for professional use?
I am a PC user and use Sony Vegas Pro. I really like it for editing purposes. I do not like Adobe Premier or Avid which work on Windows and believe that the top 3 tools are AVID, Sony Vegas, and Premier. Can Vegas be used for professional productions today or semi pro; is the quality and tools up to notch? Can it compare to Final Cut Pro which I see professionals use?
The criteria can vary but in general if it is feasible.

Vegas is a mature, full-featured NLE. I use it regularly for professional work from spots, to corporate video to feature films. I've also used it for semi-professional things like editing a video of my stepdaughter's choir concert for a Christmas DVD.
Here's where I run into problems. My producing partner is all about FCP. There's no clean way to export an EDL between our two systems so that we can BOTH edit. We work around it. If there's something with Sony's proprietary HD format that's somewhere between HDV and XDCAM, or DSLR footage from a Nikon, I edit because Vegas imports those clips easily. When FCP imports those formats, it ranges from not recognizing the file to displaying interlace artifacts. On the other hand, my Vegas setup chokes on Canon HDV, so that gets edited on FCP.
Whether using FCP or Vegas, the output is comparable, I'm not saying identical because of inherent differences in how MacOS/FCP and Windows/Vegas implement the various output codecs. Needless to say, though, our material from FCP and Vegas has been used in every media from Broadcast to family videos.
The tool, in and of itself, it not the issue. Professionalism comes from a.) the footage and b.) the skill of the editor. Shoot a corporate video with the onboard mic, no tripod and no lights and Eisenstein himself couldn't make that a professional looking edit. Conversely, light and mic a two year old's dance recital, shoot it with three Steadicams for proper coverage, and you'll get something worthy of a broadcast dance show.
It's just that for some projects, I need a phillips head and for some I need a flathead. It doesn't matter if Vegas in the flathead or the phillips and FCP the other. Which one is the best for the job? No one's comparing MSPaint to Vegas...it's just a tool, and if you use it right, you'll be very pleased wit the results.

The way you've phrased this question makes it meaningless. Of course you can use Vegas for professional and semi-professional work. Of course you can compare the output of Vegas with other professional production tools. The problem is that "professional and semi-professional work" is such a broad field that you will always be able to find some situation where some tool is appropriate. Even MS Paint. (I'm sure someone has manually drawn animation frames with Paint and stacked them up for a music video or short animated logo)
For small projects that you can complete entirely by yourself, all that matters is the final output. If you can produce a product pleasing to your client with Vegas, then go right ahead.
For larger projects where you need to share your intermediate work with other professionals, you may need to use the same tools that they use. But those tools will depend on the other professionals that you work with.
Update: It has been a while since I've used Vegas, but I would guess that it would be a perfectly adequate tool for internal corporate communications work. On the other hand, I doubt Michael Bay uses Vegas much.

great answer thanks, but reasonably speaking no one can use MS paint nowadays for professional work. Is Vegas the equivalent of MS paint?

Actually, my UX friends tell me that the latest version of MS Paint has powerful tools for UI mockups. On the "art" side, there are lots of artists who work with MS Paint at the pixel level. Can you do professional work with marginal tools? Definitely. Will you do your best work and earn the respect of your colleagues? Possibly not, depending on the nature of your work.

Then again, it's all about what you're going for. I kinda view MSPaint as the 2d-art analogue to creating 8-bit music with an Atari 2600 tone generator. If it's the right tool for what you want to accomplish, rock on!

Yes, exactly that.

Yes, you can use Sony Vegas for fully professional productions. I was the video producer for Media Services at a local college and I used Vegas all the time, for all kinds of productions ranging from student programs to publicity videos for the college and its website, and a huge pile of other things, like instructional videos for professors, and publicity and instructional videos for local health care organizations. I've used Final Cut Pro at our local cable access TV studio - they professionalized their production and editing area with JVC professional camcorders and Mac Pros with FCP. FCP is good - it's flexible down to the last pixel. But it's hard! They had several video instructors who were Apple-certified FCP pros. Even they couldn't get folks up to speed without a long winded learning-teaching process. I stayed with Vegas because it could do pro-level effects (we did a lot of green and blue screen) and was tons simpler than FCP.

I am a longtime Vegas user, but have never used FCP. I will list some pros and cons I have for Vegas, and you decide whether any of these important for you.
Pros:

Extremely flexible for setting up project's resolution, frame rate, interlaced/progressive, etc. Can change the settings anytime for the existing project, which, AFAIK, Premiere cannot do.
Similarly, very flexible rendering options - choose encoder and full range of parameters. If you render from interlaced to progressive, need to pay attention to deinterlacing options in the project.
If Vegas can read video file, then it simply loads it, allows to scrub it, and to do all the regular editing tasks without re-encoding into internal format, this is what Apple products (FCP and iMovie) usually do, especially for formats they consider heavy. In particular, when AVCHD was unveiled a decade ago, Vegas had no issues with loading and editing it as is, while iMovie would convert it into something internal. Then Apple came with an idiotic iFrame format because they could not chew through AVCHD. I really like Vegas for no-nonsense editing of whatever you throw at it. On the other hand, if it cannot read it, you need to convert your source clips using external tools.
Vegas has a reasonable set of editing tools like levels, curves, color correction, chroma keying, it shows whether your luma and color in proper range, etc. It does not have a whole lot of pretty filters like Instagram, and its titling is quite basic.
Starting from version 9 or 10 its processing of AVC-encoded files became much faster, I was able to edit 1080p60 AVCHD on a modest 2008 Phenom machine. Presently, I can edit 4K AVC-encoded files on a mid-range i7 CPU without stuttering. Out of Vegas, Premiere and Corel, Vegas is the fastest.

Cons:

Cannot attach marker to a clip, only to a track. This is stupid. This feature was requested more than 10 years ago, yet have not been implemented. On the other hand, if you ripple-edit with markers included, they move along with clips. Not perfect, but some workaround.
Cannot set deinterlacing options per track, only per project. I may have an almost static shot, that I want to deinterlace by combining fields, or I may have a moving shot, that I want to deinterlace by throwing one field away. If I could set deinterlacing options per track, I would arrange my clips accordingly, but Vegas does not allow this.
Vegas starts to choke when the project gets long. If you undo something in a long project, you can see how all the clips on the timeline blink - it seems that Vegas's approach to store the sequence of edit commands it case of undo is not very efficient.
If all you want are straight cuts without additional effects, then Vegas can do DV and HDV without re-encoding, so it renders very quickly by joining pieces together and only re-encoding the broken GOPs. But it cannot render from AVC to AVC without re-encoding. Considering that most modern video uses AVC, this is a huge downside when you need something quickly.
Vegas understands 24p in DV and HDV streams that have flags, but does not seem to understand 24p in AVCHD streams. It does not have built-in standalone pulldown removal either (only as part of DV and HDV decoders). So if I have 24p in 60i stream encoded with AVCHD, I have to remove pulldown using external application, which means extra re-encoding.


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Creating a split screen video of a multitrack recording
It's fairly common to see videos in which, to accompany a piece of music created using overdubs, we see a split screen showing the artist performing each overdub.
What functions, in which software, may be used to create videos like this?
Is it a matter of mixing the audio separately, then manually synchronising the video, or is there software that automates the process?
Answers for any software are welcome, but budget answers (iMovie, Movie Maker) are welcome, as well as any software designed for this specialised purpose.

This question is basically "How do I synchronize video and audio that are recorded separately?" The words "Creating a split screen video of a multitrack recording" don't seem to fit.

In general you should be able to do that with any video editing software.

Professionals use timecode-synced equipment for this job. Low budget productions do this with simple audio marks at the beginning and the end of a take. You can do this simply by clapping with your hands. But using a slate gives you a more significant mark (peak).
The main audiotrack is a separate mix. This is the reference. The videos will be synced track-by-track to this reference. Usually this will be done manually. But Final Cut Pro X can also do this automatically with great success.
The splitscreen itself is nothing special. Just adjust size, crop and position of a track or clip as you like.

WAX is an freeware video editing program.
You can create a split screen effect with either a source image or AVI video file. Import then source files into the MediaPool (Project -> Insert Tracks) then position them on seperete layers on the timeline.
From the MediaPool change to the Plugin Presets tab and drag the desired split screen effects over the video/image you wish to apply.
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I've shown an example above, in the second screenshot you can see I played with some of the settings to adjust the width of the split screen. You can also change the size and position of the video.

Split screen is an effect, that most video-editing softwares offer. In some programs you need to scale, crop and position the snippets.
Usualy you have ONE audio track. Most video editing programs allow to do basic sound editing, but that is not a "professional" workflow. Simple reason: most video editing tools use 1 frame a smallest unit on the timeline. Which makes it difficult to exactly synch audio-tracks.
Synching the video is easier, when you use a clapboard when recording the video. that way you have a "mark" on the video and audio track, that is pretty easy to find. (That's what this thing was and is used for).
Software, that could do the trick: Avid Free DV, Wax and iMovie should help you. (easy video tutorials on youtube - search for "splitscreen imovie")

Vongplayer Windows store, 4 Videos splitscreen, record your first Movie than while playing at same time record the second. While both two Videos at same time sighting record the third. This way add the fourth. Genial, create your own band, miss this for iOS.


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What are the audio production capabilities in Sony Vegas Pro because I see mostly plug-ins only?
I have read that from the NLE video editors Sony Vegas Pro is better than the competitors in terms of the audio editing capabilities. But using it there still seem to be a limited set. Mostly the editing is the addition of plugin effects or to open the audio in another editor. Am I missing something which the program allows?

If you are judging Vegas Pro audio editing on native effects than I don't think it has any edge over others.
I have been using the Pro version for about 18 months now and I find it pretty darn good overall. I am also learning Adobe Premiere and After Effects CS5.5, so far I think Vegas has the edge on the audio for sure.
However, are you aware that Vegas Pro audio editing has the ability to add as many audio tracks as your system can handle (stereo or mono), treat each track with a pan position feature, set individual volume (amplitude) envelopes for each clip, boost or buck the audio overall output of each track, name each track, size the vertical and horizontal view of the audio track as you see fit, record directly to any track, cut any audio clip any way you want, reverse an audio clip with two mouse clicks, and edit Dolby 5.1? And this is only a partial list of some of the built in controls available.
UPDATE: I omitted one feature that I really love, both audio and video tracks can have their order rearranged very easily. With a simple mouse click and drag, you can put that bass line near the drum track or move the voice-over above the music track. I like to move audio tracks as I am building them to keep it tiddy.
:>
This list is not complete and does not include the native sound effects which as mentioned earlier are rather standard with any NLE: reverb, EQ, pitch shift, delay, etc. And yes, AFAIK, it can accept plugins but I have never needed any at this point so I am not aware what plugins are compatible.
I have both Vegas Pro 10 and the home version of Sony Sound Forge. I can export an audio clip to Sound Forge for further effects, it's sort of like Audacity on steroids. As far as I know you can render your audio portion to several formats and export to anything that has the same format. I haven't tried this, but I would think you could easily export your audio as a .wav to Audacity but I have never needed to export the audio for further processing except to test it with Sound Forge, and in that exercise, I just had to copy paste the clip--easy.
I have made video content with Vegas Pro that has had as many as 18 stereo tracks with no issues.
Remember Vegas was originally a multi track audio editor.
I think the best answer is for you to try the trail version of Vegas Pro 11 for free for 30 days and kick the tires and then take a spin:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro?keycode=64506
Disclaimer:
I should mention that I sort of have one hand tied behind my back on this answer as it would be so much more useful to launch Vegas when answering this to review the features. My version of Vegas lives on a machine that is not accessible from the network for security reasons and that location is about 8 miles from where I am typing this.

what a great in depth answer! thanks a ton. I have used audacity with Vegas, which is good. I have used it for audacity's great noise removal which I think it does very well. I am still trying to understand the audio effects and editing which is my achilles heel. I thought of using sound forge, but I want to use Reaper as an audio editor to have complete power over the audio as well.

as a side note, Vegas is actually built on the Sound Forge engine. Vegas grew out of the "watch an AVI thumbnail while cueing your soundtrack" feature in Sound Forge. As @filzilla said, the ability to export to SF for audio work is the real advantage of the two programs as a suite. AFAIK, the plugins are identical between Vegas and SF as well. It's a good integrated suite that plays together a lot nicer than others. (cough FCP/Avid/ProTools cough)

I still have a lot to learn with any editor, and Vegas has been nice to me, things are fairly logical and don't take too long to grasp. Thank you dwwilson66 for contributing--great foot notes on history.