Why can't I get fade in/out to work?

[tk-421]

I don't understand why this is so difficult.  I have tried a version from 2012 and I just got the current Windows 64 bit version.

I want to fade my video clip out at 5 seconds and fade back in at 10 seconds.  So I go to filters > fade out > s, 5 > press ok > fade in > s, 10 > press ok.  Nothing changes in the video or the preview window, even with "Played filtered" checked.  What am I doing wrong?  I tried all different times, seconds, milliseconds, you name it, doesn't work period.

In programs like Sony Vegas or Windows Movie Maker it's just a simple drag of the mouse on the video clip.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Should work, check made steps and demo video:
Load video
Change Video Output: [Copy] to [Mpeg4 AVC (x264)]
Select Output Format: Mkv Muxer

Select Video Output: [Filters] in Transform:
Fade to black

Set start and end time of this fade:

&Start time (ms) 0 h: 0 m: 0 s, 0
&End   time (ms) 0 h: 0 m: 5 s, 0

Fade type select [in]

Next

Fade type select [out]

&Start time (ms) 0 h: 0 m:  6 s, 0
&End   time (ms) 0 h: 0 m: 10 s, 0

Select Preview, play video.

time format:

Hours:
0 h:
Minutes
     0 m:
Seconds
         6 s,
Miliseconds
              0

YouTube: Avidemux Demo:
Fade to black Filter, How to
See the difference with: Fade filter, How to

[tk-421]

I followed your directions and I was ABOUT to say it doesn't work, but I figured it out.

The problem is the way fade in/out filter is worded.  I don't know if it's different on the Linux or Mac versions, but on Windows it goes like this.

Left to right
&Start time (ms:) 0 h: 0 m: 0 s, 0
& End time (ms:) 0 h: 0 m: 0 s, 0

So I was putting in "s", 5, thinking that it was 5 seconds, but it must be 5 milliseconds or maybe it's 5 hours, who knows?  I tried the ms column before, but you can only put 2 digits.  50 milliseconds is not 5 seconds.

Basically what I wanted to do here is join similar clips and have a fade in/out so they would transition smoothly.  So I appended 4 clips and then set the fade in/out filter and saved the file.  It did work, but it's not perfect.  The transition to the next clip sort of has a hiccup.  Doing a cross fade in Sony Vegas is definitely an easier method, for both the audio and video.  Perhaps the Avidemux team could think of adding a way to cross fade clips?

Anyway I appreciate your help.  I suppose the fade in/out filter is better suited for a full video or one clip, not clips appended together.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

avidemux is not a full-fledged video editor :

Avidemux is a simple tool for simple video processing tasks. The keyword here is simple: it does not offer tools like a timeline, multitrack editing, you cannot freely move or splice audio and video clips from various sources. However, Avidemux allows you to do elementary things in a very straightforward way.

source: Avidemux wiki

Perhaps you get a better result just using Filter
- Black replace a section by black
between the appended clips.
see small sample: Filter black applied from second 6 to 10: Filter Black

timeformat:
hour h : minutes m : seconds s, milliseconds
input goes in front of the units indicator, sorry for not pointing out better.