Techniques
Video processing software
0 replies 526 views
0 replies 526 views
11-12-2020, 11:15 AM
During this Tuesday's digital meeting on video, I mentioned a few things. Below I expand and add to what I mentioned in the meeting.
Free video processing software that is very good (open source too):
kdenlive (runs on linux, windows, macs):
https://kdenlive.org/en/
In some recent reviews I saw, users thought it was better than davinci resolve.
The top video processing software is ffmpeg: https://ffmpeg.org/
It pretty much does everything, including HDR. The downside: it is command line only. It is one of the few programs that I have seen than can take a series of 16-bit tiff files and make a 10 or 12-bit/channel HDR video.
One of the best video viewers: VLC https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/3.0.0.html
Regarding discussion over whether or not one can see a difference between 4K 30 Hz and 60 hz depends on content and how fast things are moving, and the display device. Most TVs these days have an option to interpolate to 120 Hz. Depending on the speed to the processor, this can be very very good or bad, smearing out detail in what is called the "soap opera effect." Let's say you have that option turned off. Interestingly, on very fast action you may not notice jerky playback, but it will be obvious on slow pans, or slowly moving action, e.g. people mingling at a party. On more recent TVs, like LG OLED tvs of 2019 and later, I find the interpolation very good, and much more pleasant to watch than having the interpolation turned off. But on earlier models, interpolation made horrible soap opera smearing effect. On computer playback to a monitor as opposed to smart TVs, it depends on the software used and speed of you computer. So whether you notice a difference between 30 and 60 Hz, it depends on both content (how fast things are moving) and the hardware doing the playback and whether or not it is interpolating to a higher frame rate.
Most modern smart TVs also upscale 2K content to 4K, and given good 2K content, the upscaling can look almost 4k (close to 4k streaming quality).
But none of this compares the the high dynamic range (HDR) quality of modern 4K OLED hardware and similar technologies. For jaw dropping video, produce 4K (or 8K) HDR (10 or 12 bits/channel) and play the video on OLED monitors. While most computers now have hardware support for 4K HDR, software is still lagging. Most 4K cameras still do not do HDR, but that is changing. VLC will do HDR playback, but kdenlive does not yet process 10-bit or 12-bit HDR. For that, check ffmpeg. The revolution is coming--it just got slowed down by the pandemic.
Roger
Free video processing software that is very good (open source too):
kdenlive (runs on linux, windows, macs):
https://kdenlive.org/en/
In some recent reviews I saw, users thought it was better than davinci resolve.
The top video processing software is ffmpeg: https://ffmpeg.org/
It pretty much does everything, including HDR. The downside: it is command line only. It is one of the few programs that I have seen than can take a series of 16-bit tiff files and make a 10 or 12-bit/channel HDR video.
One of the best video viewers: VLC https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/3.0.0.html
Regarding discussion over whether or not one can see a difference between 4K 30 Hz and 60 hz depends on content and how fast things are moving, and the display device. Most TVs these days have an option to interpolate to 120 Hz. Depending on the speed to the processor, this can be very very good or bad, smearing out detail in what is called the "soap opera effect." Let's say you have that option turned off. Interestingly, on very fast action you may not notice jerky playback, but it will be obvious on slow pans, or slowly moving action, e.g. people mingling at a party. On more recent TVs, like LG OLED tvs of 2019 and later, I find the interpolation very good, and much more pleasant to watch than having the interpolation turned off. But on earlier models, interpolation made horrible soap opera smearing effect. On computer playback to a monitor as opposed to smart TVs, it depends on the software used and speed of you computer. So whether you notice a difference between 30 and 60 Hz, it depends on both content (how fast things are moving) and the hardware doing the playback and whether or not it is interpolating to a higher frame rate.
Most modern smart TVs also upscale 2K content to 4K, and given good 2K content, the upscaling can look almost 4k (close to 4k streaming quality).
But none of this compares the the high dynamic range (HDR) quality of modern 4K OLED hardware and similar technologies. For jaw dropping video, produce 4K (or 8K) HDR (10 or 12 bits/channel) and play the video on OLED monitors. While most computers now have hardware support for 4K HDR, software is still lagging. Most 4K cameras still do not do HDR, but that is changing. VLC will do HDR playback, but kdenlive does not yet process 10-bit or 12-bit HDR. For that, check ffmpeg. The revolution is coming--it just got slowed down by the pandemic.
Roger
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