Video fades are looking a bit rough

[poulhoi]

Hello.
I'm a bit of a video noob so you'll have to excuse any ignorance on my part.
I'm using the Video processor preset to have video item fades affect the video playback. On long fades it doesn't look very nice; there's clearly visible "stepping", so it's not smooth, and the blacks seem pretty noisy to me. This happens on playback in Reaper and in the export file when I export as MPEG-4, h264.
I'm not sure what settings could affect this, so not sure what else I should write here. But I am on macOS Mojave 10.14.6 if that matters.

Thanks in advance.

[vanhaze]

Thx for your post !

I am experiencing the same issue.
Fades are not looking fluid at all and they never have for me, using Reaper for years.

OSX Catalina 10.15.7
Reaper latest version.

[EpicSounds]

I don't think this is user error poulhoi

I can see the steps on long fades too, and I tried it 3 different ways.

example
https://youtu.be/kGpGKdcR5Sc

[poulhoi]

Thanks guys. That's too bad. Still for quick fades it's usable enough in most cases, I think.

[Justin]

Does it look any better if you force the colorspace to RGB?

I just did a test, 8 sec linear fade, and it does seem to be a bit steppy near the end, I guess:

YV12 colorspace:

normal YV12 https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test.mp4

Changing the "item fades affect video" preset to be this:

// Item fades affect video
input_track(0) > 0 ? (
  input_info(0,project_w,project_h,0,ta=0);
  ta < 1 ? (
    gfx_blit(input_next_item(0),1);
    (gfx_a=ta^1.7)>0 ? gfx_blit(0,1);
    gfx_set(1);
    gfx_str_draw(sprintf(#,"%.4f",ta),0,0);
  );
);

(^1.7 tweak) YV12 https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test2.mp4

(maybe that helped?)

and RGB colorspace:

// Item fades affect video
input_track(0) > 0 ? (
  input_info(0,project_w,project_h,0,ta=0);
  ta < 1 ? (
    colorspace='RGBA';
    gfx_blit(input_next_item(0),1);
    (gfx_a=ta)>0 ? gfx_blit(0,1);
    gfx_set(1);
    gfx_str_draw(sprintf(#,"%.4f",ta),0,0);
  );
);

normal RGB: https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test_rgb.mp4
(^1.7 tweak) RGB: https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test2_rgb.mp4

Thoughts?

[poulhoi]

Originally Posted by Justin

Does it look any better if you force the colorspace to RGB?

I just did a test, 8 sec linear fade, and it does seem to be a bit steppy near the end, I guess:

YV12 colorspace:

normal YV12 https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test.mp4

Changing the "item fades affect video" preset to be this:

// Item fades affect video
input_track(0) > 0 ? (
  input_info(0,project_w,project_h,0,ta=0);
  ta < 1 ? (
    gfx_blit(input_next_item(0),1);
    (gfx_a=ta^1.7)>0 ? gfx_blit(0,1);
    gfx_set(1);
    gfx_str_draw(sprintf(#,"%.4f",ta),0,0);
  );
);

(^1.7 tweak) YV12 https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test2.mp4

(maybe that helped?)

and RGB colorspace:

// Item fades affect video
input_track(0) > 0 ? (
  input_info(0,project_w,project_h,0,ta=0);
  ta < 1 ? (
    colorspace='RGBA';
    gfx_blit(input_next_item(0),1);
    (gfx_a=ta)>0 ? gfx_blit(0,1);
    gfx_set(1);
    gfx_str_draw(sprintf(#,"%.4f",ta),0,0);
  );
);

normal RGB: https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test_rgb.mp4
(^1.7 tweak) RGB: https://music.1014.org/._/8sec_fade_test2_rgb.mp4

Thoughts?

Hey Justin. Thank you for responding. This does actually look a lot smoother than the original preset, just from testing it quickly. So I think this is a winner