Skewed Video Display

dreaminglife · 11-21-2018, 07:56 AM

The image is a still of a video of synth1 open in Reaper. This is happening to WEBM and MP4 video's. I don't know about other formats as I only have these formats. Some of the video's displaying like this were made by me with Icecream screen recorder and some are downloaded video's.

The affected video's play normally in VLC.

Any ideas as to what could be causing the distortion?

Eliseat · 11-21-2018, 10:06 AM

Hm, that's pretty weird. Please check if your default decoder is set to VLC.

Go to options->preferences->media->video and click on show available video decoder

If VLC doesn't show up make sure it is in the video decoder priority at the first position.

Next: Do you have a video processor in your FX chain? If yes, please disable it for a moment to see how the video file runs without manipulation.

Next: You could open one of those videos which show this distorted pictures in VLC, then go to tools->codec information and post the results as a screen shot here in the forum.

That's all for now. Actually I have no idea whats going on with your videos. But maybe we find the failure this way.

analogexplosions · 11-22-2018, 08:17 PM

Ive seen exactly this problem before!

I'm not sure exactly what the root cause is, but it happened a lot with videos downloaded via Vimeo for me. Something with vimeo was messing up the video codec information. To test this, I uploaded an h.264 that played back perfectly in reaper to vimeo, then downloaded it, and got the skewed issue (in both reaper and pro tools, not vlc or quicktime).

To fix, i just used mpeg streamclip to take the downloaded video and export a new one.

dreaminglife · 11-25-2018, 09:18 PM

.

Hi Analog

Some of the video's were made by me in "Icecream Screen Recorder". I've been using "Any Video Converter" to convert them to a usable format but am finding the preset sizes are cutting off part of the video.

It could be that when I make a video I select an area of the screen. This is not always the same and might be the reason for the distortion??

Here are the VLC codecs for 1 of the Video's

My system is Desktop - HP Compaq 8300 Elite SFF, Windows Professional 7 SP1, 8Gb ram.

.

Eliseat · 11-26-2018, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreaminglife

.

Hi Analog

Some of the video's were made by me in "Icecream Screen Recorder". I've been using "Any Video Converter" to convert them to a usable format but am finding the preset sizes are cutting off part of the video.

It could be that when I make a video I select an area of the screen. This is not always the same and might be the reason for the distortion??

Here are the VLC codecs for 1 of the Video's

My system is Desktop - HP Compaq 8300 Elite SFF, Windows Professional 7 SP1, 8Gb ram.

.

This is kind of weird. The first value of the video resolution should be identical on both resolutions. Did you just choose the VP8 codec for fun or for a reason? Those webm codecs are end user codecs for browsers. They are the worst option for editing. I'm pretty sure you just used a preset in your video converter which then made the trouble.

I have no idea what kind of codecs your screen recorder offers but I saw on their website that it outputs mkv. Why don't you leave it that format? Are the files to big? Or the resolution to high? Anyway. Its not a good idea to encode videos more than needed. You always compress compression except if you have lossless base material.

I recommend to take a look at your screen recorder at how it offers encoding adjustments. Try to choose h264 with high quality. (Mkv is only a container format for videos. Inside can be xvid, h264 etc. Mp4 too.) I'm pretty sure you messed up something with the second encoding but its not clear what you did and why.
Most screen recorders also can change the resolution on the fly to make videos smaller. Divide height and width by two to get your videos significant smaller. If it doesn't allow you to change anything its time to change the software. There are several free capture programs out there: OBS-Studio for example.

So please take a look at those codecs. Just dig deeper into it. And don't use webm. If you have the source files, use them instead of re-encoded files. And if the source files have to be converted (for some reason I can't imagine) put them into a editor friendly format like HQ h264 inside mkv or mp4.

Eliseat · 11-26-2018, 12:52 AM

Okay, I just found the preferences of your screen capture software. So it looks like that it offers no size adjustments. Could this be your problem?

You also should think about the resolution. If you want to avoid strange resolution behaviors choose a standard resolution like 1280x720 to record your screen even if it doesn't match the synth one GUI.

dreaminglife · 11-26-2018, 12:17 PM

.
"So it looks like that it offers no size adjustments. Could this be your problem?"

This does seem to be the problem. I have been using the custom sizing option but there are several other sizes available in the recording screens. When I use one of the standard sizes I don't get the skewed screen.

I would prefer to use custom sizes though. They do play fine in VLC and don't know why they skew in Reaper.

Thanks

.

Eliseat · 11-26-2018, 02:34 PM

This still doesn't explain why you encode it a second time. So why?

There are codecs which only support specific resolutions. I don't know if webm is one of them. But anyway. You should try to use a more general codec like h264 in a more general container like mp4 or mkv. Without any second encoding! I use oCam and I can record in every aspect ratio I like with h264. It plays well in Reaper and any other software.

So to make it short: Don't use webm as a editing codec!

dreaminglife · 11-26-2018, 10:10 PM

.
"This still doesn't explain why you encode it a second time. So why?"

Because encoding a second time corrects the skewed video although it cuts off parts of the video image.

I'm using the free version of Icecream and WebM is the only format available in that version.

Have tried quite a few free screen recorders and this one was the best for my purposes at the time.

Could anyone recommend a better free program with more formats available, where you can record from the sound card and a microphone simultaneously. This might solve my problems.
.

Eliseat · 11-27-2018, 12:54 AM

dreaminglive,

I recommend oCam as its easy like a baby toy.
http://ohsoft.net/eng/product/oCam_v465.0.zip

You get this green rectangle which can be moved and sized as wanted to indicate the recording area.

One click at the codecs button to choose the mp4 with h264 codec.
One click at the audio button to choose the audio input.
One click at the menu button to configure the recording parameters.

I make all of my gifs with oCam. Just put the green frame where you want it and hit the F2 key. But don't forget: If you record an area with uncommon ratio you will get in trouble if you try to put it in a second encoding as most encoders offer standard presets with standard video resolutions. So keep that in mind. But this step should be obsolete if you can record with h264 at the first time.

I also tried out OBS studio but it offers not that flexible frame and doesn't get out of the view. Kind of weird handling and more focus on streaming and post production.

Anyway. oCam is more than enough. Try it out. Maybe it fits your needs.

Justin · 12-01-2018, 09:23 AM

There's a bug where this could happen for videos whose width are not a multiple of 4, fixing.

dreaminglife · 12-11-2018, 01:21 PM

reaper.ini

Hi Justin

Just checked this in a a fresh install of Reaper and the video plays fine.

The problem is in my reaper.ini file. I didin't have a good back-up so have attempted to fix the file. Don't really undestand what I did but I matched the video refernces in reaper.ini with a good file and so far it has corrected the problem. Will wait and see if the fix holds.

Looks like a virus or other may have altered my reaper ini file.