New Video Tool: Video Sheets; 1.5 Final Update

[tyloniusfunk]

Video Contact Sheets 1.2.2
Motion contact sheets from any video file

I have created an application that takes any video file and generates a thumbnail composite video, which I call a video contact sheet. The composite video is composed of numerous clips playing concurrently, each one a small fraction of the source video. This allows for quick and easy evaluation of the source file and convenient searching for desired clips within a lengthier video. The software supports batch processing, so video contact sheets for large video archives may be generated without extensive user manipulation.

Version 1.5 features optional "translating" thumbnails, which allows for seamless looping (as shown below). This allows you to view the video sheet continuously without a jarring jump cut every thumbnail duration.

[newpball]

Very interesting.

Edited to add: I downloaded this program and tried it and immediately got:

opencv_core2410d.dll missing

It seems to me you need to either link the open cv and other libraries stuff in the exe, create an install or you must make it a requirement for users to install it. Also even after I added opencv in the path it missed other dependencies.

I would strongly recommend always before you announce an application to test it on a brand new (virtual) Windows installation first. If there are dependencies you need to deal with that.

I await anxiously for a working program because it has an interesting potential.

[hech54]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

[tyloniusfunk]

Very interesting.

Edited to add: I downloaded this program and tried it and immediately got:

opencv_core2410d.dll missing

I've repackaged the application with all dependent libraries and tested on a non-development computer. I'm a novice at releasing things publicly and I really appreciate the helpful feedback.

[tyloniusfunk]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

Do you mean a 32-bit version?

[newpball]

Very interesting.

Edited to add: I downloaded this program and tried it and immediately got:

opencv_core2410d.dll missing

I've repackaged the application with all dependent libraries and tested on a non-development computer. I'm a novice at releasing things publicly and I really appreciate the helpful feedback.

Cool, it works now!

Here is a sample:


One main comment: please don't use DIVX, it sucks, you should really use H.264, much better and since you are using ffmpeg that should be no problem, and please use high quality settings, no point in having a great app that shows compression artifacts.

I know you originally intended this to be some indexing tool, which is great, but make sure you implement displaying a timecode start for each box, this is obviously essential for indexing, but it also would be nice to be able to run it with parameters, for instance to define the duration and start and end frames of each box. Perhaps a simple parameter file, for instance like so:

<General>
Duration= NumberofSeconds
MaxFrames=Number
Mode=BlackOnFinish|RoundRobin|Queued
<Frames>
1000, 5000, Y
12000, 15000, N
....
...
</Frames>
<Compression>
CODEC=H.264|DIVX
Level=High|Medium|Low
Resolution=SD|HD|QHD|UHD
</Compression>

Anyway, just a thought, you get the idea.
But I am sure you already have millions of ideas.

Way cool, definitely has potential!

Marketeers will love it on a wall!

[hech54]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

Do you mean a 32-bit version?

Yea...I'm an old fart. They'll pry XP from my cold, dead mid-tower PC(I also hate laptops).

[newpball]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

Do you mean a 32-bit version?

I think he is refering to the fact that opencv does not run on XP.

I think that is a good thing, please don't waste time supporting obsolete operating systems.

[newpball]

I am testing this now on a 12GB file.

Works fine!

[hech54]

I think he is refering to the fact that opencv does not run on XP.

I think that is a good thing, please don't waste time supporting obsolete operating systems.

The most popular Windows OS is Windows 7....second most popular is XP.
Not bad for "obsolete".

[pippas]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

Do you mean a 32-bit version?

Will there be a 32 bit version for Win7?....

[newpball]

Lol, you can use this recursively, so here is 10000 screens.
An almost four hour tennis final compressed to 1.3 seconds:

[Baldrick]

Looks like a fun software. But rar....use 7z or zip.

[newpball]

Looks like a fun software. But rar....use 7z or zip.

It could be more than fun.

If we can get this in high quality H.264 (or 265) and with start timecodes displayed (with proper shading so it is readable) and use this on a video player that would be able to open an individual box at full resolution (which is nothing but the original video rendered between two timecodes) this would be a marvelous application.

Is there any video player that can interpret mouse click locations?

Because, each processed video shows 10x10 boxes, it would be easy to determine which box is clicked on and then calculate the start and end timecode of the original video (videolength divided by hundred and taking into account the video framerate).

Sort of like a video browser.

Wait, HTML5?

[poisondeathray]

It does look fun

It could be used for some animations /effects, not just "contact sheet" or "preview" purposes

[tyloniusfunk]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

Do you mean a 32-bit version?

Will there be a 32 bit version for Win7?....

That's certainly in the cards. I'll look into it, but it'll probably have to wait until next weekend.

[newpball]

Very interesting.

Not so much for us XP users.

Do you mean a 32-bit version?

Will there be a 32 bit version for Win7?....

That's certainly in the cards. I'll look into it, but it'll probably have to wait until next weekend.

Personally I would not bother, spend your valuable time to improve the tool instead of making it compatible with 'relics from the past' 16 and 32 bit architectures. Also it seems to me that opencv is not even supported in XP. Furthermore, my 12GB test gave me a memory working set way above the 4GB 32bit limit.

[tyloniusfunk]

One main comment: please don't use DIVX, it sucks, you should really use H.264, much better and since you are using ffmpeg that should be no problem, and please use high quality settings, no point in having a great app that shows compression artifacts.

I know you originally intended this to be some indexing tool, which is great, but make sure you implement displaying a timecode start for each box, this is obviously essential for indexing, but it also would be nice to be able to run it with parameters, for instance to define the duration and start and end frames of each box. Perhaps a simple parameter file, for instance like so:

<General>
Duration= NumberofSeconds
MaxFrames=Number
Mode=BlackOnFinish|RoundRobin|Queued
<Frames>
1000, 5000, Y
12000, 15000, N
....
...
</Frames>
<Compression>
CODEC=H.264|DIVX
Level=High|Medium|Low
Resolution=SD|HD|QHD|UHD
</Compression>

Exposing all these options in an .ini file is definitely something I want to do.

[newpball]

Exposing all these options in an .ini file is definitely something I want to do.

I am certainly prepared to help you test it.

Honestly I cannot wait to test with say a 100x100 in QHD with H.264 HQ!

You might want to use this for your ini stuff as you do not want to reinvent the wheel:

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_36_0/doc/html/program_options.html

Look for response files.

Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with boost.

[tyloniusfunk]

VCS 1.1 now available with optimized memory usage for 32-bit support.

I had to rewrite substantial parts of the program, and it's still possible to run out of memory in 32-bit, but it's fairly useable now.

Coming soon: Configurable settings for output resolution and grid dimensions.

[Baldrick]

Coming soon: Configurable settings for output resolution and grid dimensions.

[tyloniusfunk]

1.2 is released! Includes support for user input via .ini file. Currently output resolution and grid size are configurable, with more on the way.

This version also includes a new "thumbnail duration" feature that will automatically generate a grid size to result in the desired clip duration.

[newpball]

I will check today.

Thanks.

Bye the way you should talk to the people doing this



http://hammultiplayer.org/

It seems to me that your software would fit greatly inside their thumbnail options, then they can show living instead of frozen thumbnails.

[tyloniusfunk]

http://hammultiplayer.org/

It seems to me that your software would fit greatly inside their thumbnail options, then they can show living instead of frozen thumbnails.

Cool, I'll check this out, thanks!

[Baldrick]

Tested a 1920x1080 and it works perfect! Thanks.

[newpball]

OK, I got it to work now.

Still I would prefer you change the codec to H.264, Divx is really old and quite inferior.

Also it would be nice to make the 'timestamp' an option so you can turn it off.

Here is a problem though, the font you use for the timestamp does not scale, if I render a 4K with many thumbs the timestamp is taking the majority of the frame. Best for now would be an option in the ini file to simply allow a user to turn timestamps off completely.



Also it seems the new source code is not updated in the source tree.

[pippas]

Thanks for the 32 bit version.. and for the duration adjustment. Excellent app... very useful. Divx works fine for me for this 'contact' task... although I do prefer H.264 for my 'real' encodes!

One request.... could you make the 'timing text' colours selectable?... black is not always the easiest to see......

[aazerty]

Hi tyloniusfunk ,

Just for your knowledge .

I work under Windows XP SP3 .

I have Downloaded :
VCS1.2 32bit.rar
VCS1.2 32bit.exe

No one works . unvalid 32b application

Thanks .

Cheers .

[newpball]

Hi tyloniusfunk ,

Just for your knowledge .

I work under Windows XP SP3 .

I have Downloaded :
VCS1.2 32bit.rar
VCS1.2 32bit.exe

No one works . unvalid 32b application

Thanks .

Cheers .

Told you guys before XP does not support opencv.

Why the author decided to waste his time in implementing support for 32 bit is really beyond me he could have invested his time instead to do H.264 (since the code is using ffmpeg that should really not be a lot of work).
I just hope he is not going can opencv to support XP now. But you never can tell......

Edited to add: it seems with some changes people can get it to work on XP as well. Again I hope the author does not waste his time with this.

[Cornucopia]

And I hope he does (as it isn't a waste of time for many of us, just you).

Scott