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Video lightens just before transitions - WHY?
Grumpy Goat [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Jul 22, 2019 16:08 Messages: 14 Offline
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I noticed that in my videos, whenever there is a a change betwen clips (whether it is a slash cut or an actual applied transition like Fade, Shove, etc), just before the transition (like maybe a second or two) the video lightens a little (like a little added exposure) then the transition happens. I don't believe that it occurs on the other side of the transition.

This has been happening for a while and not just with PowerDirector 19/365.

There are no gaps between the clips. The videos I notice it on are from my GoPro Hero 7 Black recording at 1080p / 60 fps.

It is somehwat irritating, this phenomenon.

Any ideas what is causing it and what I can do to get rid of it?
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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I imagine there are many factors involved, and the possible solution(s) will depend on which ones are actually happening. While you've provided some details on when you see the issue, it would help immensely if you could tell us more:

Are you seeing the issue when previewing on PD's timeline, in the finished (produced) video, or both?

If it's present in the produced video, are you seeing it on a Windows player (Windows Media Player, VLC, Movies & TV) or online (YouTube, IG, FB) or both?

Does it matter how long the first clip is before the cut or transition? In other words, does the issue happen with a 1 second clip or does it need to be 10 seconds or longer to occur?

Do you have any CLUTS or presets applied to any involved clips? Any editing changes to brightness/contrast/saturation, etc.?

Are any of the clips overlaid (like picture-in-picture)? Are any titles used immediately before, during, or immediately after the cut or transition?

It would also help to see a screen recording showing us exactly what you see. You can post it online and share a link or upload it to a cloud folder on Google Drive or OneDrive and paste a shareable link to it here.
JL_JL [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline
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Grumpy Goat, you might try pref > Timeline preview output color: > RGB, default is usually YUV and see if that helps at all if you issues is editing display.

Jeff
Grumpy Goat [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Jul 22, 2019 16:08 Messages: 14 Offline
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Thanks for the reply and the questions, which I will answer in-line below.

Quote I imagine there are many factors involved, and the possible solution(s) will depend on which ones are actually happening. While you've provided some details on when you see the issue, it would help immensely if you could tell us more:

Are you seeing the issue when previewing on PD's timeline, in the finished (produced) video, or both?
The issue does not occur during the editing process. I occurs in the finished video - both when played back on my local computer and also when streamed from YouTube. So it is not the YouTube rendering process.

If it's present in the produced video, are you seeing it on a Windows player (Windows Media Player, VLC, Movies & TV) or online (YouTube, IG, FB) or both?
When played back locally I use Windows 10 Movies & TV. Streaming from YouTube I use MS Edge. Windows 10 is up to date as are all my video drivers.

Does it matter how long the first clip is before the cut or transition? In other words, does the issue happen with a 1 second clip or does it need to be 10 seconds or longer to occur?
Clip length does not appear to have any bearing on this issue. I have no 1 second clips; all my clips are ~5 seconds or longer.

Do you have any CLUTS or presets applied to any involved clips? Any editing changes to brightness/contrast/saturation, etc.?
No to all - no CLUTS or exposure / contrast / saturation edits - just video straight out of the GoPro, chopped and snapped together into a vid.

Are any of the clips overlaid (like picture-in-picture)? Are any titles used immediately before, during, or immediately after the cut or transition?
No to all - no PiP, titles etc. Just straight clip to clip, jump cut or transition such as Fade, Slide or Shove etc.

It would also help to see a screen recording showing us exactly what you see. You can post it online and share a link or upload it to a cloud folder on Google Drive or OneDrive and paste a shareable link to it here.
Here is a clip I recorded using CyberLink Screen Recorder 4. Here is the same clip on YouTube.



JL_JL - Thanks for the suggestion but the issue is not seen when editing in Preview, although my setting is indeed "YUV". What is that anyway - never seen "YUV" as a colour profile but I have seen "RGB" and "sRGB" ...

As said above, the issue is in the finished product and (I suspect) maybe only with the footage from my GoPro Hero 7 Black. I have not done any tests using others cameras to record video, but in videos that were created using other cameras I have not noticed the issue.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 28. 2020 09:41

optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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Wow, thanks very much for the detailed answers and for both clips showing the issue.

That's quite surprising and not anything I've seen before in a directly produced clip. The issue has come up on YouTube when the produced video's bitrate was not at a high-enough value. There's a long PD18 thread where that was a secondary issue, but you can see the YT-only artifact here.

That issue seemed to be related to producing with SVRT.

Can you share the producing profile you're using and whether it makes a difference to produce using SVRT, with the hardware video encoder/Quick Sync, or using only the CPU (no Produce options checked, and Hardware decode unchecked from the Preferences | Hardware Acceleration settings?

Since it seems related to your specific GoPro clips, can you share a few of them via OneDrive? You can also take one of your projects and trim a few clips so they're only 1 or 2 sec long. My guess is that if they're shorter than the time the artifact lasts, the "lightness" will remain for the entire time until 2 seconds past a transition on a longer clip.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Oct 03. 2020 23:14

JL_JL [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline
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Grumpy Goat, thanks for the additional info, yes that setting should not affect produced output, at the time it was unclear when and where you saw the issue.

The raw clips and a project would help considerable to see if the issue can be replicated. Additionally, the "Produce" profile you utilized would be beneficial. The "Video lightens just before transitions.mp4" file downloaded from OneDrive has some unique characteristics that often are not present in a PD produced mp4 clip with standard UI profiles. You might try a default H.264 produce profile and see if the issue replicates.

Jeff
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi Grumpy Goat, Jeff & optodata -

I just threw some GoPro7 clips (UHD, not 1080p) in the PDR19 timeline, split them up & added a mix of 1sec basic transitions plus a music bed to (sort of) replicate Grumpy Goat's scenario. Didn't have 1080 clips at hand, but I doubt that's related to the issue.

When produced using Best Profile Match to HEVC MP4 3840x2160 59.94fps @ 60Mbps, I couldn't replicate the lightening issue prior to transitions.

Agreed - an uploaded (shortened) project or some sample clips would help nail down the problem.

Cheers - Tony
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Grumpy Goat [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Jul 22, 2019 16:08 Messages: 14 Offline
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All,

Sorry for not getting back to the thread sooner - was busy with work. I had decided to wait until this weekend to do some experimenting since I was going to create some footage anyway.

Based on my suspicion of the reason for the problem, I took a portion of the video I made today, edited it so that there were many transitions in it, then I rendered twice into two videos - one where I used SVRT and one where I used the Intel Quick Sync option.

I then put these two videos together (back to back) and uploaded to YouTube so you can see the result.



Focusing on the sky in the video shows this lightening about 2 seconds before the transition, and a return to correct exposure about 2 seconds after the transition.

The problem is SVRT. At least when using the video of choice for me - 1080p / 60 fps / H.264. There is no problem with the Intel Quick Sync option is used.

I will nto be using SVRT any more until this is fixed.

Any comments on this? Can

Thanks to all for your help.
optodata
Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline
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I'm very glad you've narrowed down the problem, and it makes perfect sense that the issue is with SVRT as it bascially just copies the existing video data from the source clips to the produced file except for the 2 seconds before/after a transition, where it has to render/produce the clips to join them.

Clearly something goes wrong when it makes the switch to rendering and then goes back to "copying" the source video.

However, this issue isn't going to magically fix itself. It has to be reported to CL, verified in their lab and then forwarded to engineering before they'll release an update. They'll also need to see your original source clips (like I requested previously) and they'll need to see the DxDiag test results from your PC.

You can report the issue here, and be sure to put in a link to this discussion so they can see everything that's happened. If you can share a clip or two here, I'd be happy to report the issue if you'd prefer to not deal with the inevitable back & forth.
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