2 issues: black levels, and clip animation preview behavior

Miggy

I still have these 2 issues even after I reloaded my system.

After exporting, dark video information (black screen, shadows, etc) often aren't true black as they are in the original but are gray / blotchy. I first noticed this when putting a blank clip in between two video clips that's supposed to be solid black.

Adding an effect to a video clip on down the line in the sequence (in other words, not the first clip on the sequence, but say the 4th)... when animating the effect, moving the scrubber back and forth is supposed to show the current clip in the preview window - or at least I thought it supposed to / used to. Now it jumps back to the beginning of the sequence and will scan up to however long the clip I'm working on is. In other words, I have a sequence that's 5 minutes long total. The clip I'm doing the effect on is the 4th clip in the sequence and it's 10 seconds long. Moving the scrubber back and forth in the animation window jumps back to the beginning of the sequence and shows the first 10 seconds of it. This makes it hard to line up effects because you're not seeing the right video information in the preview window. The way I was getting around it before I reloaded the system, thinking it might just be my VP corrupted, was to temporarily move the clip I was working on to the beginning of the sequence so that the preview would show what I was actually applying the effect to.

borate

In repeated tests, was unable to duplicate your results...

Created a pure black frame in a graphics program and compared it side-by-side in Videopad to a black blank frame. Export showed no difference between the two.

Set up an eight-minute, five-clip video and plotted effect keyframes for several clips. Preview always displayed the scrubber position as the effects window was scrolled.

Miggy

Thanks for testing, borate.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't using some setting incorrectly.

I never had problems before I upgraded. I'm starting to wonder if VP has some slight incompatibility problem with the new Ryzen 7 processors.

As far as the effects preview window, to make sure we're on the same page. When the effects window is open and extended, to where you're putting in keyframes - that scrubber you move back and forth should move the sequence scrubber at the bottom only in that particular clip (for those 10 seconds or whatever). But with mine, when I slide the scrubber in the effects window to the beginning of the clip, the sequence scrubber goes back to the beginning so I see the beginning 10 seconds of the sequence in the sequence preview window instead of the clip I'm working on.

borate

Think I see what you describe. Click the CLIP PREVIEW tab above the preview window and you should see only the clip as the scrubber is scrolled through the effect.

Miggy

I'll check into that when I get home. Thanks.

Miggy

borate,

I now see what you mean about switching over to clip preview tab to only see the clip preview. However, I like to see how the changes I'm making affect the sequence as a whole as a lot of times I'm lining up objects that are overlaid. Anyway, I have it set for dual preview mode so I have clip preview and sequence preview side by side. I tested it both ways, and I have the same problem whether using dual preview or single preview with the the sequence view undocked.

I uploaded a video I captured of what's going on. It only captured the main window and not the effect window, so you just have to imagine you see the effect window. You can see the cursor move where I am moving the effect window scrubber. I picked two short videos, the first a game of people playing Turkish Checkers and the second of a dog playing a piano. As you can see, as soon as I start moving the effects window scrubber, the sequence scrubber moves back to the beginning of the sequence. And when I move it back and forth, both videos pop in and out of view. It's hard to describe, but you'll see it.

[Unneeded Video deleted]

borate

Duplicated here. May be a bug, and has been reported.

Miggy

Thanks for the verification borate.

I'm relieved that this one is not just me. I don't know what version introduced this bug, I just know it didn't do this when I first started using VP.

c_major_2

Hi Miggy,

Yes the effect window preview problem is reproducible. We are working on it.

Do you still have black screen export issue? What codec and output format are you using?

Miggy

c_major,

Yes, still having issue with dark portions of videos. My current project uses clips from Star Wars. This effect is really noticeable in Vader's suit. I'm not sure on the codec. I haven't changed anything, so whatever VP uses, I guess?

I usually export to .mp4 but I just tested exporting to .avi and same thing. I also have played it with different players.

Here's a video I uploaded to YouTube to illustrate it. I took the first 10 seconds of the famous Bark Side video and faded out the last 3 seconds. You might have to put YouTube on full screen to see the effect. After it fades out, you can still see portions of the screen that aren't black but gray and blotchy. It seems that how much this happens is variable. I have gotten smooth blacks before, but I have to export over and over. My most recent project i finally faded out to white and then to black and it worked fine (but maybe I got lucky)?

[Unneeded Video deleted]

eta:

Here's another video I made that shows it even better. I put a blank black clip in the middle of 2 short videos and you can see the artifacts all up and down both sides and along the bottom of the screen.

[Unneeded Video deleted]

If I didn't point out, it looks correct when I preview it in VP. This just shows up after exporting.

[deleted]

Hi Miggy

The black between the clips looks black here......

Nat

Miggy

Nat,

I sure see the artifacts on my screen. I took your screen shot, cropped out the screen, then blew it up. Do you see it in this picture?

For some reason I can't see where to embed a picture in the post; Insert other media doesn't do anything.... Anyway, this is a link to it.

http://www.landowonder.com/black clip.jpg

borate

You might want to check playback elsewhere. Here, using MPC-HC for playback, all your examples are solid black - no artifacts.

Miggy

Okay, that's odd. I'm not seeing it on my laptop.

I'll have to figure out what's going on with my monitor - fairly new, Dell 27" that has a great picture otherwise. That, now that I'm thinking about it, didn't used to do this.

borate

https://www.nch.com.au/kb/10265.html

Miggy

I have the latest drivers, as it's set to tell me as soon as a new driver is available.

I take back what I said earlier about not seeing it on my laptop. It's still there, just my laptop screen is a little darker and harder to see it.

I did a test of first creating a solid black picture using paint. I fullscreened that and my computer monitor shows it pure black. I then used that to create a video with VP and the result is that is shows black as it should. I added a blank black clip after the black picture I made, exported that. it shows the picture I made black, but the clip has the blotches.

borate

Precisely the test made earlier and just repeated - per your instructions. No discernible difference between the black image created with Irfanview and the VP blank, black image.

Miggy

Thanks for the test. Your video shows up correctly on my monitor.

I uploaded the one I did. Can you check if you see anything on your end?

I can't see it playing in a normal window, but can after changing the YouTube player to fullscreen mode.

It's almost like there's an afterimage of what was previously shown. The blotches are in the shape of the "Black Clip" text I made to indicate that the blank clip I inserted is about to come up. For a second or so after "Blank Clip" goes away, it's barely visible. But then it becomes more prominent.

[Unneeded Video deleted]

I ran that clip through VP and made a screenshot of the anomoly:

http://landowonder.com/snapshot.png

borate

Link one looks exactly like the one I posted - all black. The .png is also black, but does have some very minor artifacts towards the center of the image.

Monitor gamma may play a role in what you see. Gamma of 2.2, the sRGB standard, is what is being displayed here.

[deleted]

Well, I have to agree all the images appear a uniform black. This is a part of your image on a pure black background. It's indistinguishable..... left border trimmed off to compare.

Nat