Mixed questions about Avidemux

[Silox]

Hi guys,

I'am using Avidemux and I have some question / requests about it.

1.) Why is there no fullscreen option? I know you said Avidemux is no player but I think thats not the point. If I did edit my video then I would like to preview it first or just any parts of it. Otherwise the zoom option keys 1-4 are not really a help.

2.) What about the click-able function icons right under the menu. There are just 4 icons I can click and the rest of that bar is empty. How to customize that bar with more functions to prevent using the menu / shortcuts? I would like to have an close icon button to close any loaded media without using menu / SC. How to add another buttons?

3.) Would be nice if you could add a option in settings to load a new file as new file itself without to append it each time if I drag & drop a file into Avidemux so this is really annoying specially if you have to edit / cut many files one by one.

4.) Logo Filter. Could you add also negative X & X values? I see I can not move the logo more to left side & top because the minimum value are 0 unfortunately. In some cases I need to move the logo a little out of the visible area. The same I can do for the right side & bottom what is good but I also need the same possibility for left side & top. Would be nice if you could add this too.

5.) Active Filter Preview / Selected filter preview. There is a problem with the added filter layers. Just a example, if I add a Color Balance filter first and a second filter (LOGO) on position 2 in the list and select the last filter in the list and press preview then it does preview all filters together what is ok so far. The problem is why it can not preview the Color Balance & LOGO filter together in filter mode? In some cases I need to see both (or all) filter together with the chance to change the Color Balance value of video layer only and adjust them with the LOGO layer colors. I just can set the LOGO filter at position 1 and Color filter at position 2 and then I double click on CB filter and I see both together but also both will changed (in preview) and the LOGO filter changes too whats the problem. So I wanna see both at the same time but just wanna edit / change coler of the video only and not the LOGO. Can you change that?

6.) Is there no play function for the marked area only? Also no loop play for that too?

7.) I'am using the latest version 2.8.2 and see that my mouse-pointer icon does change when I seek the slider for or backward (round loading icon). Is that normal now in this version?

So I hope I did not forget any question to ask so far and I hope you guys don't mind about asking them.

Thank you

[eumagga0x2a]

1. Exactly, not a video player, therefore no need for fullscreen from my POV. However, an ability to inspect all areas of the picture even on small screens and at high zoom levels is sorely missed.

How to customize that bar with more functions to prevent using the menu / shortcuts?

IMHO nothing can even remotely compete with keyboard shortcuts for using an application efficiently. Especially the Ctrl+W (Command+W on macOS) shortcut is very comfortable as far as a keyboard is attached. However, I do think that a toolbar button to run a user-configurable script might be very useful (scripts cannot close a video ATM, however).

Regarding 4, it would require some changes in the core and break compatibility with existing addLogo configurations (i.e. with existing project scripts), but maybe.

Could you please rephrase 5 so that my foggy mind can follow?

The problem is why it can not preview the Color Balance & LOGO filter together in filter mode?

I don't really get what you mean by "filter mode". We have on-the-fly previews in configuration dialogs of many video filters, we have a preview function in the filter manager which displays the output of the entire chain of enabled filters up to the selected one (you can temporarily disable filters in the chain) and we can also preview the output of the complete filter chain in the main window.

To 6: No. I am not enthusiastic about adding this capability as seeking back to the start of a selection can take a huge amount of time depending on video stream properties, availability of hardware-accelerated decoding and on post-processing.

To 7: yes, it is a feature. Depending on video codec, resolution and post-processing (especially tone-mapping for HDR sources), even decoding a keyframe can take a lot of time and visual feedback is needed.

[Silox]

Hello eumagga0x2a,

thanks for your answer.

So I think a fullscreen option would be very welcome for all of us. Maybe you can think about it one more time.

About keyboard shortcuts you mention as very comfortable, maybe just for poeple who like to work with shortcuts but many do not. Otherwise, what about persons with an handicap who can not using the keyboard comfortable? Adding more buttons for shortcuts would be welcome too to save unnecessary detours. All basic functions should also have buttons and not just shortcuts, otherwise you could also remove all existing buttons you know. Just let the user decide. In my case I would like to have buttons to prevent detours. So in the button bar are just four buttons so let us use the free area too (optional).

About the LOGO. Just check this out and try to add the neg values for X & Y. Would be good if you could do that.

About point 5. As I said, its only possible to preview all filters at once by selecting the last filter in the filter-list and press preview and in this case I see the final result what is OK so far. What I'am talking about is that its not possible to preview all active filters at once and JUST to edit / change only any selected filter.

Example: Load any video, then enable filter, pick any filter like color temp as first filter, then pick second filter LOGO and load any tiny image. Now you got the color filter as first one and the LOGO filter as second filter = 2 layers. This order means that the color filter on position 1 does not affect the image in the LOGO filter which is set after color filter on position 2 = OK. Now, I want to preview both filters at same time in edit mode but this is not possible. When I doubeclick on first filter / color then it does not show any other filters on the preview image, its just showing the color filter alone for the video. If I doubleclick the second filter (LOGO) then it does show all filters in action. So what I mean is (hard to explain), I need to preview all filters at once which are active BUT I only want to see the filter changes of the video only and NOT of the LOGO. Do you know what I mean?

1.) Temp color filter
2.) Logo filter with any logo image etc

Now doubleclick the first temp color filter and now you just see the video itself in preview window but not Logo filter image. If you doubleclick on LOGO filter then the preview window shows the video with changed color of filter from position 1. But it is not possible to let show all filter in a preview + choosing one filter to edit the video only and let un-changed the view of the others. I made some images showing the problem and showing how it works when using VirtualDub2.

Next image below...

Next image / working in VD2...

...
So is it clear now what I mean? So what you should do is that you need to show all active filters in the single preview windows of the filters itself WITHOUT to change anything except the video image. In the last image you can see that, I do change the color value to yellow/ish and it does only affect the video image layer and not the logo image which keeps gray. In this case I can adjust colors of video itself and seeing the original logo image what does not change = Good. Somehow this method is not doable in Avidemux yet and thats a pity. I just wanna change the color of video only + seeing my logo image at the same time what should keep unchanged. Maybe you can make it work to preview all filters at once and just edit the selected one only.

[eumagga0x2a]

So is it clear now what I mean?

Yes, thank you for this perfectly executed presentation. You wish to have filter controls accessible while in preview in the filter manager. This would IMHO require a full rewrite of the latter and of all filter GUIs in Avidemux. If you are interested, feel free to submit patches, I don't have time and motivation to work on it.

Regarding a dedicated close button for currently loaded video, this won't work nicely in an application like Avidemux which resizes its GUI depending on loaded video (you click and the window is yanked from below the mouse pointer). In some sense, the open video toolbar button is already a close button as opening a video using this icon will close the currently loaded one. Something along the lines of a custom script toolbar button with scripting gaining ability to close a video might make sense, IMHO.

Redesigning the toolbar and making important functionality, currently hiding in submenus, easier accessible looks indeed like a valid goal.

[Who]

IMHO nothing can even remotely compete with keyboard shortcuts for using an application efficiently. Especially the Ctrl+W (Command+W on macOS) shortcut is very comfortable as far as a keyboard is attached. However, I do think that a toolbar button to run a user-configurable script might be very useful (scripts cannot close a video ATM, however).

Keyboard shortcuts are great for people with excellent memories. However, not all of us are blessed with that kind of memory.  Personally I NEVER use keyboard shortcuts for anything other than cutting and pasting text - seriously, in over 30 years of using computers the only keyboard shortcuts I can remember well enough to use regularly are Control-C, Control-V, and Control-X (and their Command- equivalents in MacOS). And that's it.  For EVERYTHING else I do point and click.  If my mouse stops working I am unable to use my computer until I get a replacement and I can't even shut the computer down cleanly.

This is also why I don't do programming - I can't remember the various commands and what they do.  It sometimes takes me hours to write even a short bash script because I have to look up every single command I need to use and figure out how to use it.  Now I find ChatGPT can write those short scripts in seconds if I can just give a good description of what I want the script to do, and often the script it produces actually works!  But I digress, but anyway I cannot fathom how anyone can remember a bunch of keyboard shortcuts, because I sure can't, and I suspect I am far from the only one.  I would posit that most programmers and developers have much better memories (maybe bordering on photographic) than the average person.

[Silox]

Hi again,

hmmm, what a great answer eumagga0x2a! As I see you are not willing to change / add anything of my ideas / requests also not some simple thing like adding another button and connect this with the already present CLOSE file function? You just need to add a button into resources and write few lines at WM_COMMAND message and thats it. Just remember the old ADM versions like 2.5.0 what also had more buttons (11) in the tool bar. So I don't see any problem by adding another buttons. Otherwise, if you don't wanna add a another button for the close file function then it would be also fine if you would add another checkbox in the settings in first tab under "check for updates" you can set another checkbox called "Enable Close File on Drag & Drop". Just let this new option unchecked in default mode and people like me can check that option who prefer a direct unload of the old file during a new drag and drop operation. In this case you don't need to add another button.

In some sense, the open video toolbar button is already a close button as opening a video using this icon will close the currently loaded one.

Is that a joke? Most of us using drag & drop function and not the open button to pick any file. We all are looking for good tools which also present a good handling (user-friendly) but somehow you don't see this like me what is really pitty. Also the idea not to implement a simple fullscreen mode is total not comprehensible but adding a strange ZOOM view mode which works pretty bad (there is no sense to zoom into the left top corner of the video @1) seems to be more important for you. Even to play just the selected video part is not possible. There are missing few basic functions in your app which would make ADM to a better editor you know. But anyway, its not the first time I meet some strange thinking coding guys. All in all its just a pitty (for us all) as I said already.

PS: Maybe one hint for the future. Think forward.

[butterw]

Drag&drop will attempt to append multiple segments. you can use CTRL+W to close the currently open video or use the toolbar open icon to close the current video and load a new one.

+1 to the idea of adding a new customizable button in the toolbar.

[Silox]

Drag&drop will attempt to append multiple segments. you can use CTRL+W to close the currently open video or use the toolbar open icon to close the current video and load a new one.

So this is the problem what I was talking about already in my pre posts. I don't wanna attempt another files when using drag & drop function. I always have to use the menu itself to choose the "close" entry or using CTRL+W = detour. Also using the OPEN icon in toolbar does not close the file except I choose another file to load = detour. Lets say you wanna check different video files from diffrent sources and most of us using filemanger tools or just Explorer itself you do see already all video files and then you just pick the file you want and drag & drop it into the app. In case of ADM you always have to close the file first before you drag next file into or otherwise you get a error message if the file does not match with the video datas of the first loaded video. Thats just a nonsensical. On a fresh drag / drop I do normally expect a single load with an unload of the old file and no append operation. In the menu you see already a Append menu entry (2) Strg+A you can choose when you need it. Also here, in most cases user do edit single videos and not videos to append which is more the exception. I will give you a another example to understand what I mean about simple & fast & user-friendly handling what is the A&O. Just open your explorer any folder with some videos you wanna check. Now start any video-player (VLC) and move it next to the visible file-list. Now you can just drag / drop any video into the player app to play it right away and then drag / drop next one and so on. On that way you can check videos quickly without to unload any video or open the filemenu to pick a other video etc what is total waste of time and detour = Not User-Friendly. Somehow you guys do not think in all possible directions to make specific processes simple and save unnecessary detours. Also using shortcuts is not always a good alternative because some of us don't like it or just can't use it you know. ADM is not a new tool and simple things like that should be added already a long time ago so that makes me wonder why its not happend already in the past. Some things are just pretty simple and obvious. Not sure whether I'am the only one who is seeing it like that. You always have to give the user the possibility to choose (if possible) without to force them to go into specific given direction. If you can make function & methods simplify without much effort then just do it to increase the User friendliness = Thumbs up!

[butterw]

In the case of a single selected video, Drag&Drop clean opening the new video makes more sense IMO than Appending to the current one. But that's not the way Avidemux has worked so far. Also Avidemux lacks a proper user configuration file, so currently adding many new user preferences isn't practical.

Avidemux just needs an extra developper who understands GUIs to contribute the required improvements...

[Silox]

In the case of a single selected video, Drag&Drop clean opening the new video makes more sense IMO than Appending to the current one. But that's not the way Avidemux has worked so far.

That's the problem. The app is just much limited for the user to make own basic / handling setups. So when I do use ADM then just to make keyframe cuts using the older version 2.7.5 which is best version for that task. I was trying the latest version 2.8.2 but this is buggy unfortunately also with KF cutting and I get different & bad results out when using this latest version instead of the older version.

Problem 1: Wheel issue. Did anyone recognize that the wheel (keyframe jumping) dosen't get the focus on the first mouse click after you did click any button (play, frame forward / backward etc any button)? So you have to click twice on the weehl to set the focus and move it. So this is really bad if you edit a video. The old version does not have this problem and the wheel is working on first mouse-click.

Problem 2: Keyframe error message. Each time if I use the wheel or keyframe buttons back / for when the video is on start or end you get this message (can't change to next keyframe or pre keyframe). Just disable that error info message. So its clear that nothing is comming anymore before timecode 00:00:00.000. Just show nothing then. Also same with the end of the video. There is also a problem with the keyframe jump to the end of the video. Just load a video and press END key or the B button under the wheel to jump to the end of video. Now press one frame backward (left key) and then press one keyframe forward (up key) and now you get also that keyframe error message instead that the app jumps to the end of the video. Just remember, keyframe jumps should work for START (first frame) of video / keyframes in video itself & END of video (last frame). Not needed to show any error messages so this is just annoying & unnecessary.

Problem 3: Time-Stamps. Compared with bot ADM versions you will get different time stamps for same video. In the older version some videos do not start from 00:00:00.000 (target time display) and start with any higher time.
Example: Both versions compared. Below some images I made to show the differents when using old / new version / VirtualDub / FFprobe....

...as you can see the times are all diffrent (messed) for same video. Correct times you can see in ffprobe & VD2 but not in ADM and thats also a problem. As video editor I want to get out correct results and not some round about stuff. Now lets try to select the entire video from start - end using A/B marker. In the newer version (first image) I get same selection length of 00:16:58.266 like in B field (entire video is shown with a length of 00:16:58.299). After saving the selection as new file just in copy-mode I get those video lenght results out: 30545 frames instead of 30549 = missing 4 frames. If you try the same with the older version which starts with "00:00:00.033" and I do select start - end A/B and save the selection in copy-mode then I get the right results out in the new saved video with 30549 frames = Original. This means that the older ADM version is still working better as the latest version (I have also test versions between but they also work not correct). All in all you should use better the older engine of version 2.7.5 which works much better as the newer ones. Otherwise check what the problem is and fix it. There are also problems when you append same video again and trying to make keyframe cuts which results into wrong error messages if you try to save it = not happen in older version. Sometime I also get "video to short" info if I try to save the video as it is without selection etc but in older version I don't get this error and saving works. Why?


So all in all there are still problems when using ADM you guys should check out again and fix them. One point I don't understand is why you devs not doing some tests to see whether everything is working before releasing a new version. Anyway, just my opinion. ADM is a nice tool on first view but no highlight after a deeper view & tests so there is still much air upwards to make it better. It just depends on you dev guys of ADM. Follow the ideas / bug reports of your users (like ME) and add & fix them or not. So for myself I can just say that I do prefer exact working tools (not "so lala" / round about / Hmmm, schau mer mal) with a logic and additional simple handling (no detours). Just can say it again, why the hell is there no close button / option.  So thats one thing I can really not understand also tomorrow not. Sorry, but you as coder should know it better. The entire button toolbar is free except 4 buttons + zoom info and you don't use it for other function / buttons. But adding another 2 themes like dark-theme! This is so useless, the default theme is fine and I personal hate dark theme apps. You should better care about other important things as I told before and not don't put your attention on extra goodies cheese like that theme stuff. Anyway, just try to do something with my posts or not. Your choice.

[szlldm]

Now lets try to select the entire video from start - end using A/B marker. In the newer version (first image) I get same selection length of 00:16:58.266 like in B field (entire video is shown with a length of 00:16:58.299).

The new version works correctly in this regard. The B marker is (and always was) an excluding marker, meaning the frame where the B marker is, is not part of the selection. Older versions had bugs in this regards. If you want to include the last frame, you shouldn't set the marker B.


Problem 1: it looks like a bug. You can use the mouse wheel on it though.
Problem 2: indeed very annoying. However the solution is not trivial, for various reasons.
Problem 3: other than the (probably) rounding error in the total length, the times are correct in the new version.

[eumagga0x2a]

Problem 1: Wheel issue. Did anyone recognize that the wheel (keyframe jumping) dosen't get the focus on the first mouse click after you did click any button (play, frame forward / backward etc any button)?

Confirming the very minor but interesting issue, affects only navigation buttons in the navigation widget, not the marker buttons and the delete button between them, maybe related to activity / busy indicator, but not sure. The issue is very minor because there is no need to drag the thumb slider, just requires an extra click at the same mouse position.

At least on Linux, the mouse wheel can be used to move the thumb slider as far as the mouse pointer is placed within its boundaries, no matter where the focus is.

Problem 2: Keyframe error message. Each time if I use the wheel or keyframe buttons back / for when the video is on start or end you get this message (can't change to next keyframe or pre keyframe). Just disable that error info message. So its clear that nothing is comming anymore before timecode 00:00:00.000

ACK regarding silencing the error popup at zero linear time.

Also same with the end of the video.

No, absolutely not. Depending on structure of the video stream, the first keyframe may be also the last keyframe (or all subsequent keyframes may have invalid timestamps). Additionally, the last frame has usually a non-zero duration (a large portion of your post arises from a misconception that the PTS of the last frame is or should be equal the duration of the video), nothing prevents this non-zero duration from being really long, even if such cases are uncommon. Therefore it is IMHO a valid goal to let the user know that attempts to advance using the "go to the next keyframe" button or the thumb slider are futile.

Now press one frame backward (left key) and then press one keyframe forward (up key) and now you get also that keyframe error message instead that the app jumps to the end of the video. Just remember, keyframe jumps should work for START (first frame) of video / keyframes in video itself & END of video (last frame).

This is plain wrong.

Problem 3: Time-Stamps. Compared with bot ADM versions you will get different time stamps for same video. In the older version some videos do not start from 00:00:00.000 (target time display) and start with any higher time.

Correct, since 2.8.0 (IIRC) Avidemux creates by default a segment layout with start time in reference video aligned at the first keyframe. This is the same as setting the B marker to the first keyframe in earlier versions and deleting the selection.

As video timestamps in Avidemux cannot be negative, it has to compensate for the frame reordering delay (i.e. in all video streams which make use of B-frames) by making the presentation timestamp of the first keyframe a positive non-zero value. This is different from many libraries and applications starting with FFmpeg which handle the frame reordering delay by making the decode timestamps of the first few frames negative.

After saving the selection as new file just in copy-mode I get those video lenght results out: 30545 frames instead of 30549 = missing 4 frames. If you try the same with the older version which starts with "00:00:00.033" and I do select start - end A/B and save the selection in copy-mode then I get the right results out in the new saved video with 30549 frames = Original. This means that the older ADM version is still working better as the latest version

I assume you try to edit an Open-GOP-style H.264 stream. The obsolete version you refer to didn't know how to tell droppable early B-frames from early B-frames used for reference and kept them all = more artifacts at the start of video depending on the behavior of the video player.

There are also problems when you append same video again and trying to make keyframe cuts which results into wrong error messages if you try to save it = not happen in older version.

Please cite the error messages. The ability to check Open-GOP H.264 streams for possible problems at cut points like retrograde POC were not present in 2.7.5. Unjustified warnings due to bugs in POC calculation should be quite rare in 2.8.1 and subsequent nightly builds.

Sometime I also get "video to short" info if I try to save the video as it is without selection etc but in older version I don't get this error and saving works. Why?

Please provide a sample video. If editing steps are necessary, please provide precise steps necessary to reproduce the error.

[Elstar`]

1. Exactly, not a video player, therefore no need for fullscreen from my POV. However, an ability to inspect all areas of the picture even on small screens and at high zoom levels is sorely missed.

Well, you could implement some scrollbars... ADM definitely lacks them. More zoom options (such as in Virtualdub) could be useful too.

[Silox]

The new version works correctly in this regard. The B marker is (and always was) an excluding marker, meaning the frame where the B marker is, is not part of the selection. Older versions had bugs in this regards. If you want to include the last frame, you shouldn't set the marker B.

What are you talking about!=? The area from marker A - marker B are the frames which get saved. If you select just ONE frame only then you have to set marker A at start then you go forward one frame and set marker B and now you have selected one frame only = area between A & B. Now check this new result and you see the one frame in your video. When I do select entire video with A&B marker from start & end then I also do expect to get all frames saved specially in copy mode. Once again, when using the latest ADM version I get 2 different results out...

Code Select Expand

1.) Just load a video / choose copy mode V/A / save the video
2.) Just load a video / press marker A / press end key / save the video
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outputvideo from task 1 = same video as oirignal = Correct!
Outputvideo from task 2 = NOT same / missing 4 frames at the end = Wrong!
------------------------------------------------------------------------You should get out the same results out if you do select the entire frame area. In case of latest version this does not happen (only showing it) what tells me that something is going wrong. In this case there are missing the last 4 frames in the video in case of task 2 but not in case of task 1. In my example video the frames have a length of 00.033 / 00.034 / 00.033 = 00.100 = 3 frames.

Now lets have again a look on the time stamps when using ADM old/latest/VD2/ffprobe.

Here you can see already the differents in ADM old/latest and correct times in VD2 & ffprobe. The video length is "16:58.300".

Code Select Expand

ADM old: Starts after first frame 00.033 but showing right duration of 16:58.300
ADM new: Starts at 00 but showing wrong duration of 16:58.299 - why? Where is the time of 00.001?
As I said, the original video has a video duration of 16:58.300 & 30549 frames!

Code Select Expand

ADM old does show the entire correct duration but ADM new not.
ADM old I can select a total duration of 16:58.299
ADM new I can select a total duration of 16:58.266
ADM old with total selection does output a video with a duration of 16:58.300 & 30549 frames = Correct!
ADM new with total selection does output a video with a duration of 16:58.167 & 30545 frames = Wrong!
Have a look on ADM new image above I did post. The B button what is showing the total duration (you can click on it) of 16:58.299 does also NOT jump to this position and only jumps to 16:58.266. In old ADM it does jump to 16:58.299. Even when old ADM is not showing the time correctly for 100 % its working nevertheless more correct as the lastest ADM version. The only thing you have to do it TESTING.

The issue is very minor because there is no need to drag the thumb slider, just requires an extra click at the same mouse position.

So thats your excuse? Just needs a extra click! Great answer! I have an answer for you too. Its a bug you don't have in version 2.7.5 so just fix it. What the heck is wrong with you guys? Always having excuses for anything or what? (Bin ich hier im falschen Film oder was?)

No, absolutely not.

Just test it! Its also happens randomly sometimes. Just check the start / end to trigger the error messages.

This is plain wrong.

Test it! I would just recommend to wake up and stop dreaming eumagga0x2a. Test the things by yourself I was talking about all the time and then you will recognize them too.

There is also a problem when using copy-mode setup and trying to cut NOT on keyframes. Normally you should get a info message of the endpoint of keyframe of selection "Continue or not?". But this info message does not popup always when I have set marker on NOT keyframe positions and then the selection gets just deleted without any info. Why does it just show the info box when having not set the B marker on keyframe? In case of A marker it does not show the info box = wrong. Pos start / end of selection must treat same.

All in all, just check again the time stamps show and handle them correctly (entire duration) as I said already. All you can also reroduce by yourself so you just need to test a little more intense. Lets make ADM better (again or for the first time). Your app is not the first one I'am trying to help to improve with bug reports and new ideas. You just have to listen to me, Burli! I like ADM but I know you get improve it much more and I just don't check why you don't want you know.

PS / Off-Topic: Also eumagga0x2a, jetzt sieh mal zu das du die Probleme gebacken bekommst sonst quarken wir nächstes Jahr noch hier rum. Komm in die Puschen und mach mal voran und komm mir net wieder mit so komischen Ausreden um die Ecke! Also weißt bescheid was zu tun ist ne. Hopp!

[szlldm]

What are you talking about!=? The area from marker A - marker B are the frames which get saved. If you select just ONE frame only then you have to set marker A at start then you go forward one frame and set marker B and now you have selected one frame only = area between A & B. Now check this new result and you see the one frame in your video. When I do select entire video with A&B marker from start & end then I also do expect to get all frames saved specially in copy mode.

The first half is true, meanwhile you conradicts yourself int the last sentence.
If you set marker B on the last frame as on your screenshots (which is not equivalent to marker B at the end!), the last frame is not included into the selection.