Video Playback and Exporting

[Riddler]

Originally Posted by airon

There's Prores, but the same problem there persists until Apple puts out a 64-bit version of Quicktime for Windows.

How frustrating! I sense that my next few days are going to involve lots of watching progress bars as I try to find a suitable alternative!

What are other people using when operating at 64bit?

[airon]

They aren't using 64-bit applications for the most part, because Protools is a 32-bit application.

The Prores types that folks recommend btw are Prores LT and Prores Proxy.

[Riddler]

I'll have a look into the Prores stuff again, but maybe I'll have to resort to a GOP codec for satisfactory quality under 64bit.

Apparently there is a 64bit version of Pro Tools on the way, so maybe these codecs will be able to work at 64bit in the near future.

Looks like I'll just have to be patient!

Thanks again,
Tim.

[mim]

Originally Posted by Riddler

How frustrating! I sense that my next few days are going to involve lots of watching progress bars as I try to find a suitable alternative!

What are other people using when operating at 64bit?

We synchronise two reapers on two computers. One is the "master" W7 x64/ Reaper x64, the other is the "slave" W7 x64/Reaper x86 quicktime decoding.

We use LTC because it is easy to setup and solid. But we are planing to move on mtc because there is a js plug in that send MTC even if reaper is not playing (something not possible with LTC - but since we do mixes only, it's not a big deal).

[BlackBart]

I get a lot of Quicktime ProRes files, and clients want a ProTools session as delivery format. So, I route my mix stems to a ProTools slave with the original ProRes vid playing. I also have a transcoded "Reaper 64 friendly" vid file playing on my master Win7 x64 Reaper computer.

That works well.

[Riddler]

Originally Posted by mim

We synchronise two reapers on two computers. One is the "master" W7 x64/ Reaper x64, the other is the "slave" W7 x64/Reaper x86 quicktime decoding.

We use LTC because it is easy to setup and solid. But we are planing to move on mtc because there is a js plug in that send MTC even if reaper is not playing (something not possible with LTC - but since we do mixes only, it's not a big deal).

I've previously used Chaingang http://www.humatic.de/htools/chaingang.htm but was trying to move away from having a dedicated PC for video. Although containing it on one PC means more of a resource overhead, using 64bits means 16GB of RAM available rather than 4GB, so I thought that would be fine.

Are you referring to the vVIMTC plugin for sending MTC on stop? I use this all the time when I'm mixing http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.p...ghlight=vVIMTC

Blackbart, care to elaborate on that setup? Which version of Pro Tools are you using? What circumstances dictate needing a PT session as your deliverable?

Thanks for the responses!
Tim.

[mim]

Originally Posted by Riddler

Are you referring to the vVIMTC plugin for sending MTC on stop?

Yes, this way editing audio to video should be easier/faster.

[BlackBart]

Originally Posted by Riddler

I've previously used Chaingang [url]http://wBlackbart, care to elaborate on that setup? Which version of Pro Tools are you using? What circumstances dictate needing a PT session as your deliverable?.

Shows editing in AVID like to get a PT session with stems. They usually have the audio in a separate PT session for mixing. They can then import the music session and have everything lined up without having to think about any offsets.

I take lightpipe out of my RME card on the Reaper box and send it to the RME card on the PT box. I also use the vVMTC plugin...works great. Unfortunately, PT likes to see MMC to really chase properly. Reaper doesn't have it...that's why I have the transcoded vid on Reaper.

I use 4 monitors...2 at eye level, 2 above. The top 2 have the Reaper and PT vid displays. I always want to make sure everyone's in sync. The bottom left monitor always shows the Reaper arrange window. The bottom right KVM switches the Reaper mix, PT, and other slaves.

[airon]

Updated to reflect the recent updates in 4.11 pre3, which enables Reaper 64-bit users to use the 32-bit Quicktime libraries for playback.

Blackbart has already confirmed that ProRes Quicktimes now work in the Windows x64 version of Reaper.

Activate OS decoding in the Preferences/Video page.

[Christophe]

Thanks for keeping this thread up to date, Airon. It is now linked from the video support wiki page as well.

[Riddler]

Originally Posted by airon

Updated to reflect the recent updates in 4.11 pre3, which enables Reaper 64-bit users to use the 32-bit Quicktime libraries for playback.

Blackbart has already confirmed that ProRes Quicktimes now work in the Windows x64 version of Reaper.

Activate OS decoding in the Preferences/Video page.

Excellent! Can't wait to try this out.

[spindlebox]

This is ALL very confusing to me. I cannot figure out how to install the FFMPEG builds.

At the very top of this thread, I went to the x64 link given and tried that, but got a screen with a list of things that didn't appear to include .dll files.

SO-

I tried importing a WMV file into reaper and I get a dialog box that says "building peaks" and it just freezes and locks Reaper up.

I need some serious help here. I'm sorry for my ignorance in this area!!

[joaobgb]

For Win x64 go here:
http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win64/shared/ (this is the link in the first post)
- download the first 7z (7zip) file, it has 'latest' on the name
- open the file with 7zip or winrar or any other program that works
- open the bin folder and extract or drag the .dll files to the directory where you have reaper.exe (Usually this is "c:\program files\reaper\"). Don't copy the .exe files, there's no need for them.

Don't forget to install the K-Lite 64-bit codec pack (link in the first post), as Airon says, for all other format other than quicktime, OS decoding works better (to work with these codecs go to the "video/REX/Misc" tab in Preferences and check "Use OS video decoding instead of FFmpeg when possible").
I normally install both the x64 and x86 packs, this way you have all the codecs you may need for both 64 and 32 bit applications you might have on your computer.

[spindlebox]

joaobgb

You rock!!! I got it working! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!

[boka]

airon, thanks for the descriptions/instructions. They are really useful!

[delfine]

Thanks for this thread.

I'd like to try using FFMPEG's "-vcodec copy" to preserve the original stream without encoding and cut down on render time. All clips are from the same camera and are the same size, encoding, framerate, etc.

Is it possible to set up a new FFMPEG profile for the render dialog in Reaper using custom commands?

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

[emspace]

Originally Posted by airon

Where to place the files :

Reaper installation directory where you find the "reaper.exe" file. Usually this is "c:\program files\reaper\"(on 32-bit systems) or "c:\Program Files (x86)\REAPER" on 64-bit systems.

Question, shouldn't these be reversed?

"Program Files (x86)" should be for 32-bit applications.

Thanks for this guide, BTW!

[Reaktor:[Dave]]

Reaper 32-bit will be installed to "c:\program files\reaper\" on a 32-bit system.
Reaper 64-bit will be installed to "c:\program files\reaper\" on a 64-bit system.
Thus, Reaper 32-bit will be installed to "c:\Program Files (x86)\REAPER" on a 64-bit system.

So airon is right. You're quoting the 32-bit reaper section.

P.S.: I think, Reaper's 64-bit installer standard path is "c:\program files\reaper (x64)\", though it shouldn't matter.

[Tod]

Originally Posted by Reaktor:[Dave]

Reaper 32-bit will be installed to "c:\program files\reaper\" on a 32-bit system.
Reaper 64-bit will be installed to "c:\program files\reaper\" on a 64-bit system.
Thus, Reaper 32-bit will be installed to "c:\Program Files (x86)\REAPER" on a 64-bit system.

So airon is right. You're quoting the 32-bit reaper section.

P.S.: I think, Reaper's 64-bit installer standard path is "c:\program files\reaper (x64)\", though it shouldn't matter.

Heh heh, not that it's that important but on my Win7 comp 32 bit is under C>Program Files (x86) and 64 bit is C>Program Files.

Also, if you do a portable install you have to direct the install to the appropriate program folder. I'm not sure about the non-portable one.

[Reaktor:[Dave]]

Originally Posted by Tod

Heh heh, not that it's that important but on my Win7 comp 32 bit is under C>Program Files (x86) and 64 bit is C>Program Files.

That's how it's supposed to be.

[kidz biz]

thanks for this easy to follow guide.

[stevep314]

Is it possible to view the 'internal' video on an external screen ?

Maybe via the video out on a graphics card or a blackmagic / aja card?

Thanks!

Steve

[airon]

As far as I can tell, no.

Perhaps if the video out was integrated as a desktop screen that you can drag windows to, but if not, it's probably not possible.

Most gfx cards now come with HDMI outputs, though perhaps the screen refresh rate is an issue.

What would you like to achieve precisely ?

Do you require precise refresh rate control of the video monitor ?

[airon]

Updated the first post on the first page.

The 32-bit version of Reaper does not do well with the latest FFMPEG libraries. A working version of the libraries can be found in the post linked to above.

[Dstruct]

REAPER 4.151 + newer Libav 32bit http://win32.libav.org/win32/libav-win32-20120127.7z doesn't work anymore!


Maybe due to

Jan 27 2012

Major versions of the libavformat and libavcodec libraries have been bumped, thus breaking ABI and API compatibility with the recent 0.8 release. As usual, the ABI should be considered unstable until further notice (a few weeks at most).

This step allows us to remove a large amount of obsolete code (over 3000 lines). Users who still did not update to the latest API must do so now to be able to use this new major version. The bump also allows us to enable protocol private options in libavformat and fix some outstanding problems with options passing in the libx264 wrapper.

Furthermore, the legacy ffmpeg conversion tool has been removed. Only avconv is available now. Shared builds of Libav now also disable the avserver tool. avserver can only be linked with Libav statically because it uses internal library symbols (volunteers to fix this are very welcome).

Latest working version (32bit) is http://win32.libav.org/win32/libav-win32-20120126.7z


FIXED (4.26)

[Riddler]

Originally Posted by stevep314

Is it possible to view the 'internal' video on an external screen ?

Maybe via the video out on a graphics card or a blackmagic / aja card?

Thanks!

Steve

Hi Steve,

My setup works as Airon has described, I've a desktop which stretches across two screens; one 22" monitor in front of me and a 32" monitor mounted on the wall fed via the HDMI output on my video card. The video window is full screen on the 32" monitor. Works great!

Is that what you're after?

Tim.

[airon]

Originally Posted by Dstruct

REAPER 4.151 + newer Libav 32bit http://win32.libav.org/win32/libav-win32-20120127.7z doesn't work anymore!

Latest working version (32bit) is http://win32.libav.org/win32/libav-win32-20120126.7z

We need some folks to verify this on their system. I'll change the recommendation, though perhaps Christophe will have updated Reapers video capabilities until then.

[weisch]

Thank you a lot for your effort and tips
Trying it out now.

[Dstruct]

Originally Posted by airon

We need some folks to verify this on their system. I'll change the recommendation, though perhaps Christophe will have updated Reapers video capabilities until then.

Some Libav news:

Feb 28 2012

The tree is hereby declared stable again. There will be no more API or ABI compatibility breaks until the next major bump.

http://www.libav.org



DONE (4.26)

[BlackBart]

I can't seem to export a working h.264 vid file. Audio is fine, but vid is black. The xvid encoder works fine, but xvid doesn't play well with quicktime on windows.

I've installed all the listed codecs.
Reaper x64/win7 x64.

thanks!
BB

[Riddler]

Slight problem here, I hope someone can shine some light on this...

Last week I was doing some VO work for the BBC and the Quicktime files they sent me had two audio streams (one program audio, one VO audio). When REAPER imported the quicktime video, it only displayed one audio stream.

I've tried importing the video using Cubase and it shows each of the two audio streams on their own separate tracks, as one would expect.

I worked around this problem by exporting the audio from the Quicktime in another program, then importing that audio into REAPER alongside the Quicktime video.

My question is: does REAPER recognise more than one audio stream in a QT video? If so, how can I get it to appear on a track? If not, could we get this feature added?

Thanks in advance,
Tim.

[airon]

That'll hinge on whether FFMPEG can do it, or whether Cockos can use the Quicktime libraries to extract the audio.

Video appears as an item in Reaper. To get both audio tracks out of one item, it might have to display them as takes, though I'm not even sure that is practical.

I'm highly suspect of Quicktime audio anyway, regarding it as little more than a guidetrack 99% of the time.

If the audio is important, requesting separate audio is probably a good idea, so no video editor can accidentally sample-rate convert it or truncate it to 16-bit.

Protools just extracts the audio, but it doesn't play it out of the Quicktime itself. Would you agree that Reaper should give the user the option to extract any 2nd or great audio track from a Quicktime ?

[Riddler]

The audio streams encoded with the Quicktime video are provided purely as a guide. In this specific case, the director had supplied a temp VO in one stream which was being replaced by the presenter's VO. In the case where there is audio destined for broadcast it would be delivered in it's own appropriate format.

I agree that the best option would be for a prompt asking whether the audio should be extracted onto independent audio tracks. I need to handle the audio tracks separately anyway as the program audio is sent to the VO talent's monitor feed and the guide VO is used for me to work out cue locations and script timing etc.

What is the best way to request implementation of this audio extraction idea?

Thanks for your help,
Tim.

[airon]

Christophe is going to see this post, but you can also place a request in the Issue Tracker.

http://forum.cockos.com/projectpost....ue&projectid=2

Post a link to that here as well. I'm sure a couple of video folks will vote for it.

[BlackBart]

Here's an interesting one...
I do scoring to video, and wanted to edit-lock the vid track, so I could move around regions without changing the vid track. No-can-do in Reaper, so I made an FR (please go to the link below and vote).

As a workaround, I made a background project with just the vid, and linked the transports. The project plays, but vid only is visible when the project is in the foreground..

What do you think of, when no vid is present in the foreground project, making the background vid visible? Maybe a FR?
thanks,
BB

[Riddler]

OK, my first feature request has been submitted!

I'd be grateful if anyone who's been affected by this issue of multiple audio streams could vote for it.

http://forum.cockos.com/project.php?issueid=4024

Thanks,
Tim :-)

[Riddler]

Blackbart, I've just voted for your FR too. I also write to picture and that would be a great feature.

Tim :-)

[BlackBart]

Originally Posted by Riddler

Blackbart, I've just voted for your FR too. I also write to picture and that would be a great feature.

Tim :-)

Thanks Tim...voted for yours as well. Anything we can do to improve vid compatability is a good thing.

[BlackBart]

Christophe,
Would it be possible to enable the Video on background projects, if no Video is present in the foreground project?

Having a separate project for the Video playback opens up a world of flexibility when scoring to picture.

thanks,
BB

[airon]

Voted on both.

Blackbart, you'd probably profit a lot by the second-most voted on request, Edit Groups. That combined with area selection, and you'd be set to edit even hundreds of tracks with a easily customized focus on any group of tracks.

You folks also require the BPM + SMPTE time rulers, and all of us in post production require time-based grids of course. I just wrote about my experience with Reapers automation system compared to a session on Protools HD with an Icon which was sobering, again.

Remember to add your votes and words to the devs about the importance of those requests.

My guess is that Christophe is the one who can do the Quicktime audio track extraction. They created a bridge to the 32-bit Quicktime libraries for the 64-bit version of Reaper, so hopefully that's not a huge problem if FFMPEG isn't quite up to that kind of task.

@Riddler, can you play alternate audio tracks in VLC ? If so, we might stand a chance of FFMEG doing this easily.