slow motion app

[andiwm2003]

Hi,

I have videos from an "Action HD" camera shot at 120FPS at 850*480. I would like to play that at 12 FPS or 24FPS or 30FPS without dropping any frames or loss of quality.

I can't find any cheap, simple programs doing this although it seems at the surface a quite simple task.

I don't know what the exact encoding is but the files are MP4 with H.264, AAC, QuickTime Text.

Is there any good program that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, is simple to use and maintains the quality of the movie and doesn't drop frames?

Thanks, Andi

 

[AcesHigh87]

It's not as "simple" a task as you imply.

First off, the footage is shot at one frame rate and you wish to play it at another. That in itself involves the footage needing to be interpreted properly and likely transcoded.

What editing programs do you have available to you? Simply trying to play it isn't the answer because video apps such as quicktime will treat clips with their proper framerate. To get your smooth slow-motion you'll want to transcode your 120 FPS video at say 29.97 FPS which should get you 1/4 speed. You may have to add time warp filters to achieve it but it depends what you have.

Also, there's never anything smooth about 12 FPS. Sure it's 1/10th speed which sounds great on paper but 12 FPS will flat out just look weird.

 

[adamneer]

Any video editing program will allow you to simply change frame rates. What you are requesting is a much more complicated task, asking for a program to not only change the frame rate, but to fill in the added space with additional frames. There are a few options that do this quite well, but they are not cheap and will require you to already have an editing application such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe After effects does a nice job on its own, using a feature called "pixel morphing" or pixel blending. I use a plugin called Twixtor, which is available for Final Cut, Premiere and After Effects, among others. It uses a similar tech as that built into after effects, but with much better control and results. Read up on 'motion vectors' for more info on how these things work.

 

[andiwm2003]

thanks for the input so far. I realize that this is not that simple, hence i wrote "it seems at the surface a quite simple task".

The point I don't understand is that there is the information for 120 frames per second in the video. You can extract that as picture sequence with mpegstreamclip. The files are relatively large. So there should be no need to " fill in the added space with additional frames. ". But i guess i'm missing something. I thought programs like quicktime simply display every 4th frame to have it run at 30FPS but I guess that was naive.

In any case I have no video editors beyond iMovie (that only seems to support up to 60FPS) and quicktime pro. I also have the free program from GoPro. That can convert 120FPS videos to whatever speed you want at decent quality. But it's cumbersome to use and seems to convert my 850x480 videos to 1200x720 by default.

I thought with millions of "action" cameras out there supporting 60, 120 and even 240FPS there would be easy to use converters out there. Especially since those cameras deliver only mediocre quality to begin with and the users usually don't expect IMAX quality as end product to show their friends.

Well, seems there is a business idea for a good programmer with video knowhow.

 

[ChrisA]

The point I don't understand is that there is the information for 120 frames per second in the video. You can extract that as picture sequence with mpegstreamclip. The files are relatively large. So there should be no need to " fill in the added space with additional frames. ".

Unless you reduce the frame rate by an EXACT intriguer ratio. Like going from 120 fps to 30 fps you have to interpolate two frames. for example try showing a 120 fps video at 29.9 fps. There are several ways to do that.

Most people who are seriously into video end up getting something like FCPX. So if you ask some experts how to do something they are going to tell you how THEY do it.

What are doing doing with all this video, not having an editor? Getting one is likely your best option.

 

[andiwm2003]

...................................
What are doing doing with all this video, not having an editor? Getting one is likely your best option.

I think it's obvious I'm not a video pro at all. Aside of just playing around for vacation videos for family and friends there a some semi-serious uses of these slow-motion videos.

Basically I want to film someone running and then look at there feet to identify if they are running technically clean and balanced or if they have problems with their feet (pronation, supination, checking if their shoes fit). This can be quite helpful. A similar application is in skiing (carving). You can check if they are carving on the edge or if they are not. As I said only semi serious uses, still mostly for fun. Video quality is in such a case not so important as long as the video is clear and not blurred due to the rendering/reencoding.

 

[Jim61]

Have you tried 5DtoRGB lite. I have never used it but I think it can be used for slow motion replay of higher frame rate video.

 

[adamneer]

They might sell millions of them, but many people choose only to use the 30fps or 24 or 29.97 settings, especially when you consider the drop in resolution when upping the framerate. the others, will either just watch the clips back in their native fps, or have already discovered their options for framerate conversion.

the reason i mentioned using the more "advanced" software for filling in frames was because you mentioned in your original post that you were thinking of dropping it down below the standard 23.976 threshold, by which i assumed you were hoping to go beyond a clean division in frames to 23.97, 24, 29.97 or 30. as mentioned above, the need to fill in frames is generally negated by turning out a new frame rate that equally divides your original, but this is not likely to happen without at least a few frames either being dropped or reinterpolated. in any event, i would imagine even this would be fine for your needs. but if your intention is to slow it down by a much larger percentage, you would want to use the more advanced software to do so, as i mentioned before. i have to believe that iMovie would be at least a good place for you to start. you will have to see what options that program gives you, as i'd imagine it has the ability to reinterpolate your footage to a standard rate (23.9 to 30)

 

[Johnsyounger]

Motion has a decent optical blend....

 

[Jim61]

I'm not sure if the original question is actually about converting video to another frame rate but having all the captured frames played but at a reduced speed. Instead of having 10 seconds of video at 120 fps you have 40 seconds at 30 fps.The frames aren't changed, just the rate at what they are displayed. I suggested 5DtoRGB as I believe that this is what it does. That's why I have it although I haven't tried it out yet. As the name suggests it's for 5d footage but may work with other AVCHD sources. It's a free program and there may be others that do the same thing. Below is an extract from the online user guide.

"Frame Rate Selection: Use this to set your footage play at an arbitrary frame rate. This is useful for "overcranking" effects, like when shooting at 60 fps for 24 fps output. You can also use this for "undercranking" effects or any other special purpose. Keep in mind that this option does not "convert" footage from one frame rate to another. It wouldn't be useful for converting 29.97 fps material to 23.976, for example. It simply sets the playback rate of the video without changing the frame count."

 

[adamneer]

another option would be to import the video into photoshop and make a GIF out of it. then you can set your frame speed to whatever you want in the animation timeline. not sure how long of a clip you are planning on working with, but as long as you keep them to a few seconds only, it should be fine.

 

[Borntorun]

Considering that the footage you mentioned was shot with a slightly-above average consumer grade camera, costing probably in excess of $500 or so, surely you can invest in FCPX and Compressor?

If you are prepared to do so, I can certainly help you.

You cannot expect a Volkswagen beetle to perform like an F1 Ferrari. If you want to do specialised tasks, expect to have to pay specialised prices.

 

[wataingi]

What you want to do is "interpret" the footage at a different frame rate, not just put a slow-motion effect on it. I do this in either After Effects or Premiere. If you don't have access to one of them, I believe you can still download a fully functional trial version.

Download a trial version of Adobe Premiere:
http://www.adobe.com/downloads.html

Import the footage by double clicking in the file browser, dragging the file in, or going to File>Import.

Right click on the movie file.

Go to Modify>Interpret footage. Under "Frame Rate," tick "Assume this frame rate" and enter the frame rate you want.

You can then edit the footage in Premiere or export it in the format of your choice.

 

[andiwm2003]

Considering that the footage you mentioned was shot with a slightly-above average consumer grade camera, costing probably in excess of $500 or so, surely you can invest in FCPX and Compressor?

If you are prepared to do so, I can certainly help you.

You cannot expect a Volkswagen beetle to perform like an F1 Ferrari. If you want to do specialised tasks, expect to have to pay specialised prices.

Actually those cameras are $150 bucks. The quality is below consumer because they are made for robustness. So investing 500+ in software for one task makes not much sense. Also most of the apps suggested here are made to produce movies that can be played on a HD TV. I'm thinking more youtube level.

In any case thanks for everyones input. Video is complicated and clearly a pro business.

What I currently can do is use the free mpeg stream clip and export all frames as JPEG. The I use Quicktime to play the image sequence at any FPS I want to (1FPS-120FPS) In theory there is no limit on the FPS unless MPEGStreamclip can't export the image sequence above a certain FPS.

It's a cumbersome process but it is actually fairly fast. A 30sec movie ends up as 3600 jpegs and quicktime can play them directly from there. I can then export the whole thing a .mov if I need to.

The process of going through 2 programs, creating 3000+ jpeg's should be avoidable.

But it seems that there are only two ways to do it in the moment: the cheap complicated way and then the professional high quality way. Seems I will be stuck with the complicated way.

 

[adamneer]

have you tried just using Handbrake? its not the simplest interface for novices and its more geared towards encoding and compression but its free and it will pretty much handle any video file known to man.