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Fix the switch between the image and video.
mirha494 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Aug 26, 2009 17:34 Messages: 33 Offline
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Hello all. I have a issue with my PD8 that I am trying to fix. I don't know if this is possible but I have split my video into several parts and for each of these parts I took a screenshot and placed it between the videos. Little hard to explain but here is how it looks (see the attached video below please). P.S you will need to wait 60 seconds for the video to start downloading so have little patience please.

http://www.easy-share.com/1910033390/Cruyff Test-2.mp4

Now, what I would like to fix is the visible switch between the video and the image. I have seen other (budget) editors like Windows Movie Editor do this which means that when you actually take a screen shot and put it between two sequences you can't see the visible switch between the image and videos.

Is it possible to fix this on anyway because as it is now, it is clearly visible as the image becomes little more darker than the video when the switch is performed.

Thanks in advance. /Mirsad

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 25. 2010 13:24

Cap'n Kevin
Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline
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Hi Mirsad,

I watched your video.....I saw that the video paused....you placed a Title over the paused video(still image), then the video progressed again...paused again....another Title over the still image, etc. etc.

Now, what I would like to fix is the visible switch between the video and the image.


Now I am not trying to sound like I don't know what you are talking about....but the video does switch to the image...so I don't know what you are talking about.

What do you mean exactly? It seemed fairly smooth ...I tried to see what you might be referring to. My eyes were not negatively distracted by anything in your video...well, that might not be saying much....my eyes are 50 years old!! There was a slight Woop Dee Doo(that's a technical term) when the video started back up...sort of like it started a few frames backwards from where you paused it. Is that what you are referring too?

Could you be more specific about what you mean by "switch"

Kevin

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Apr 25. 2010 13:55


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mirha494 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Aug 26, 2009 17:34 Messages: 33 Offline
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Quote: Hi Mirsad,

I watched your video.....I saw that the video paused....you placed a Title over the paused video(still image), then the video progressed again...paused again....another Title over the still image, etc. etc.

Now, what I would like to fix is the visible switch between the video and the image.


Now I am not trying to sound like I don't know what you are talking about....but the video does switch to the image...so I don't know what you are talking about.

What do you mean exactly? It seemed fairly smooth ...I tried to see what you might be referring to. My eyes were not negatively distracted by anything in your video...well, that might not be saying much....my eyes are 50 years old!! There was a slight Woop Dee Doo(that's a technical term) when the video started back up...sort of like it started a few frames backwards from where you paused it. Is that what you are referring too?

Could you be more specific about what you mean by "switch"

Kevin


Hello Kevin, first of all thanks for the quick reply. Second I would like to thank you for the funny words, you actually mad me laugh pretty high for a few seconds :

Now, let me explain. What I am trying to explain is the switch between the image, when the video is paused and then the switch to the video again. Something like this


Video|Image|Video|Image|Video|Image

Now, when the image is displayed, you can actually see the switch between the video and the image as the image becomes little more darker than the actual video. This guy (se the link below) actually used the Windows Movie Editor and in his video (he is also using images and video, I know that because I have asked him) you can't spot the actual switch between the image and the video.

I hope this makes sense and that I have explained a little bit better what I am actually talking about :

http://www.oleole.com/videos/freestylefootball/freestylefootballtutorial9neckstall/mv33i.asp

P.S I have downloaded the Corel Video Studio and created a clip from the same video that I used for PD8. Here is the result and you can clearly see that the switch between the image and video is not visible as the image and the video have the same light strength while in the video above created with PD8 this is visible.


Video created with PD8

http://www.easy-share.com/1910033390/Cruyff Test-2.mp4


Video created with Corel Video Studio Pro

[url]http://www.easy-share.com/1910033886/Cruyff Corel.mp4[url]

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 25. 2010 14:29

vn800rider
Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline
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Just using the downloaded file, and putting it into PD I can observe the following :-

The first title appears at 06:17 when the frame freezes Presumably when the still image is used?

The title remains until 11.16.

If you step back and forwards a frame at a time, the frame after the title goes shows a slight movement backwards, not forwards.

This is even more apparent on the next title end at 19:01, when the frame after the title end actually appears to be a frame from earlier in the movement, in particular look at the white stripe down the black shorts and some other body positions.

Whether this is a rendering artifact related to the title or it is a misjudgement of splits and still image inserts I can't tell.

In general it is important to ensure that any still image used for this purpose is really the last frame before the "insert" and not something close to it.

I don't know if this relates and contributes to your perceived problem. Without having the original project , I might be going off on a tangent.

Cheers
Adrian

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.
mirha494 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Aug 26, 2009 17:34 Messages: 33 Offline
[Post New]
Quote: Just using the downloaded file, and putting it into PD I can observe the following :-

The first title appears at 06:17 when the frame freezes Presumably when the still image is used?

The title remains until 11.16.

If you step back and forwards a frame at a time, the frame after the title goes shows a slight movement backwards, not forwards.

This is even more apparent on the next title end at 19:01, when the frame after the title end actually appears to be a frame from earlier in the movement, in particular look at the white stripe down the black shorts and some other body positions.

Whether this is a rendering artifact related to the title or it is a misjudgement of splits and still image inserts I can't tell.

In general it is important to ensure that any still image used for this purpose is really the last frame before the "insert" and not something close to it.

I don't know if this relates and contributes to your perceived problem. Without having the original project , I might be going off on a tangent.

Cheers
Adrian



Hello Adrian, what I am doing is to simply scroll the slider on the moive and when I found an appropriate sequence I simply just click on the freeze frame and that's it.

I don't know if there is any other technique to do this on? If so then I would really be thankful. Maybe you have some own tips that you use for this purpose in order to skip the visible switch and dark light between the image and video as on my video above.

Thanks in advance /Mirsad
vn800rider
Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline
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I would expand the time line down to frame level and then move through the clip to choose the exact frame you need to freeze.

Split the clip, check the snapshot preview - I seem to think that PD sometimes takes the next frame forward - if necessary move a frame back and take a snapshot.

Insert the snapshot at the split, change the duration and add the title track etc etc, and then check that the frame after the snapshot is still OK - very occasionally you might have to delete a frame maybe.

This should give you a "seamless" transition because, in effect, all you have done is stopped a frame at a point, for a time, and then the video carries on.

Remember that the "," and the "." keys allow you to move back and forward a frame at a time.

I have to say I don't see the change in colour/brightness that you refer to but I do see a slight jump.

Hope that helps.
Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.
Cap'n Kevin
Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline
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Adrian wrote:


I have to say I don't see the change in colour/brightness that you refer to but I do see a slight jump.


I have to agree with Adrian....I don't see the variation between the video and the still image, but I do see the jump.

Kevin
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vn800rider
Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline
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Probably because we're really old Kevin, most of my faculties are fading anyway but then, whilst I am several years younger than you, I've had a much harder life.

Cheers
Adrian

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 25. 2010 15:38

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.
JL_JL [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline
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Mirsad

The back frame skip that Adrian eluded too and the lighting change you note is totally obvious. Almost appears like a white balance issue or adjustment in the still to me. I have noticed that with my footage as well with PD8, regardless of what type of screenshot I capture (bmp, jpg...). Yours is very obvious as you have so much "white" sky in the background.

I have not found a way to fix it, just manage it. If you have less “white” in the background of the split/still it goes virtually unnoticed. What graphic card are you using?

Jeff
James Dotson
Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline
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Maybe I didn't look close enough, but I didn't see any major problem. Instead of inserting a screenshot, try using a freeze frame. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM
Cap'n Kevin
Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline
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EDIT: I missed his Freeze Frame Reference

I think Jaime might be on to something.....I was assuming the screen shot was a Freeze Frame.....but it probably wasn't.

How did you capture your screen shot image?

Kevin

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 26. 2010 02:37


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JL_JL [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline
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Hello Adrian, what I am doing is to simply scroll the slider on the moive and when I found an appropriate sequence I simply just click on the freeze frame and that's it.

Mirsad said above it was a freeze frame.
Cranston
Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Aug 17, 2007 02:26 Messages: 1667 Offline
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Can I throw in my 2 more cents worth? Not that’s it needed.
(And by the way, the age of my eyes falls somewhere between Kevin’s and Adrian’s)

But… what player is everyone watching the Mirsad's video on? When I watch Misrad’s video in Quick Time player, I see absolutely no darkening in the sky or anywhere else, when the switch to still/freeze/snapshot/pause happens. However I do see that it “appears”, that a bit of Sharpness (found in Color Adjustment in the Fix/Enhance room), has been applied to the still/freeze/snapshot/pause, as I notice that the still is slightly sharper than the footage. Which is usually the other way around on my system, and is why I often do Sharpen a freeze/snapshot up a bit.

I also watched the video in VLC Player, and I still didn’t see this darkening.

But… in the VLC player, if I go to Tools > Extended Settings > Video Effects, and bump the overall Brightness slider way up, then, and only then, can I indeed see a very noticeable change in Brightness (or "darkening"), at the switches between footage and stills. However, once I returned to the default settings, I could not see any change at all

So… perhaps, as was kind of suggested by JL, it may be a matter of what video card one is using? Because once an exaggerated Brightness is applied to the whole clip, there is indeed a quite noticeable change in values between the footage and stills. So it does appear that something is going on, or that there are some value changes happening or built in to the production. But again, at normal/default settings, it is not noticeable on my system at all.


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Cap'n Kevin
Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline
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Yep....I missed the Freeze Frame reference in his post.....Probably a result of inventing the new video editing term.."Woop Dee Doo" but more likely because of my ailment TMB.......Too Many Birthdays

Kevin
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Cap'n Kevin
Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline
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I got to thinking about this problem....it was only 2:30 am, but for some reason my brain was functioning.

When you click on the Freeze Frame button PD8 saves the Snapshot in 4 different file types (jpg, bmp, png & gif), which can be changed in the Preference settings.

This is going way over my head in technical knowledge so I am probably incorrect in my thoughts here.....But you might want to change your settings to have it save the image Snapshot to a .bmp

Is it possible that you might have it currently as a default of .jpg and this uses a file compression that might cause a shift in its contrast? Would a .bmp be the best setting?

I am not an expert....well....that's obvious, but I am familiar with the preferences and that is something he has the ability to change. The question is...will it have the effect he desires or any at all?

Kevin
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Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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Quote: Probably because we're really old Kevin, most of my faculties are fading anyway but then, whilst I am several years younger than you, I've had a much harder life.

Cheers
Adrian


Ha, Adrian's that's the "oldest" joke you've told today!!

I've been following this post and screen sharing with Adrian, plus he's been talking in my ears, and concur with what he's written.

I store my snapshots as png files. I might regret that... but it's what I do.

Dafydd
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JL_JL [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline
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Quote: This is going way over my head in technical knowledge so I am probably incorrect in my thoughts here.....But you might want to change your settings to have it save the image Snapshot to a .bmp

Is it possible that you might have it currently as a default of .jpg and this uses a file compression that might cause a shift in its contrast? Would a .bmp be the best setting?
As I said in my post, it does not matter on my system what format you choose, it appears a white balance issue always exist.
Quote: I have noticed that with my footage as well with PD8, regardless of what type of screenshot I capture (bmp, jpg...).


Are you seeing difference between the various settings with your setup or just throwing topics and see if they stick? Same is true for the freeze frame vs screenshot, do you see a difference in behavior on your system to be onto something? On my system they appear to be the exact same function, PD just presents them differently to the user.

I viewed the video with QT and with PD8 after import. Both present the video the same for me concerning this issue. For me the issue is very obvious if you toggle back and forth one frame in the still to one frame in the video. You see the slight resolution difference mentioned by Cranston but most noticeable is the “white” sky changes. I calibrate my screen color profile monthly with a spyder so I probably don’t think its monitor settings for me. I should be representing a standard color profile. I was able to minimize the issue in PD8 and this clip by doing my own white balance. Select the still, adjust white balance to either the white Tshirt or a position in the “white” sky, do the same exact white balance adjustment in the video. The change in “white” color between still and video becomes almost transparent during playback, no significant change in green grass is added. For some reason I think the stills captured on my system with PD8 (Freeze or screenshot option) appear to have a slightly different color profile compared to the basic video. I do not have this white balance/color profile issue with brand “B” editor, for me it appears unique to PD8. If I have time I will interrogate the exact color profile (numeric) of the same pixel between the two pics and compare.

Those that can see it, JL (nvidia), Cranston [under certain conditions] (ATI), Misrad (don’t know), those that can’t vn800rider (ATI), Cap’n Kevin (ATI), Dafydd [didn’t mention if he notices] (nvidia), so most likely not strictly a card anomaly as it appears hit and miss if I have everyones cards correctly.

Jeff

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 26. 2010 20:35

mirha494 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Aug 26, 2009 17:34 Messages: 33 Offline
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Thanks for all the answers, I have tried the .BMP example but with no success.

My graphic card is pretty solid so I have hard to believe that it is causing the problems --> http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html

Here is an update on what I have done.

1. I used the "," and "." to move through the RAW movie in the timeline without any cutting in order to find a appropriate point to freeze.

2. After I found the appropriate point I simply freezed the image there and only removed the "Sepia" effect that is automatically added after you freeze the video.

3. I create 4 projects and each of them is created by using the 4 type of image types available in PD8 which are:

GIF, PNG, JPG and BMP.

I have also uploaded the whole project (it is about 300 mb with the raw MTS video and it can be downloaded below).

http://www.how-to-play-soccer.net/Project-325mb.zip

Also, if you want to check out the .MP4 files only with the 4 types of image format you can find them below.

http://how-to-play-soccer.net/Project-with-MP4-Files-Only.zip

Now, you can check all the four clips (named GIF.mp4, PNG.mp4, JPG.mp4 and GIF.mp4) and you will notice the light switch between the video and the image.

I hope that someone (after all this) can really help me out to get rid of this.

Now, when you guys have access to the project maybe you can spot or give me tips what is actually causing this?

Thanks a lot for the answers that you have already provided me with.

P.S in the raw video I am making fun of myself so do not be surprised by the sounds I make : :

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 26. 2010 16:52

mirha494 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Aug 26, 2009 17:34 Messages: 33 Offline
[Post New]
Quote: Thanks for all the answers, I have tried the .BMP example but with no success.

My graphic card is pretty solid so I have hard to believe that it is causing the problems --> http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html

Here is an update on what I have done.

1. I used the "," and "." to move through the RAW movie in the timeline without any cutting in order to find a appropriate point to freeze.

2. After I found the appropriate point I simply freezed the image there and only removed the "Sepia" effect that is automatically added after you freeze the video.

3. I create 4 projects and each of them is created by using the 4 type of image types available in PD8 which are:

GIF, PNG, JPG and BMP.

I have also uploaded the whole project (it is about 300 mb with the raw MTS video and it can be downloaded below).

http://www.how-to-play-soccer.net/Project-325mb.zip

Also, if you want to check out the .MP4 files only with the 4 types of image format you can find them below.

http://how-to-play-soccer.net/Project-with-MP4-Files-Only.zip

Now, if you study all the four clips (named GIF.mp4, PNG.mp4, JPG.mp4 and GIF.mp4) and you will notice the light switch between the video and the image.

I hope that someone (after all this) can really help me out to get rid of this.

Now, when you guys have access to the project maybe you can spot or give me tips what is actually causing this?

Thanks a lot for the answers that you have already provided me with.

P.S in the raw video I am making fun of myself so do not be surprised by the sounds I make : :
Cranston
Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Aug 17, 2007 02:26 Messages: 1667 Offline
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Misrad,

Go to the… Directors Chair > Edit > Preferences > Editing, and in the Timeline field, uncheck the "Add An Effect And Title When Using Freeze Frame" box.
I wonder if even though you are removing the Sepia effect later, that there are still some remnants of it remaining somehow. By not automatically introducing the unwanted Sepia to the freeze in the first place, should eliminate that as the possible culprit to the darkening you describe.

JL wrote:
Are you seeing difference between the various settings with your setup or just throwing topics and see if they stick?
I think the Cap'n is trying to contribute to the "conversation", in the same consistently helpful and friendly manner, that many members and visitors to the forum have benefited from.



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