Fade to black filter clarified interface request - please?

[hiro]

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[ edit Sept. 5th, 2017 ]

  GOOOOD news: it's just been fixed! 

http://www.avidemux.org/nightly/win64/avidemux_r170903_win64Qt5_458.zip

Thanks, Team

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Hi

Now that the great, outstanding and almighty Avidemux encodes to HEVC H.265, PLUS accepts "Lagarith" .avis (thanks again for that / I didn't dare to ask, but some users did, and it sure helps!),

PLUS complies with old Win. XP again, with no tweaking (i.e. excellent, since I permanently use several Windows versions, from XP to 10),

will its "Fade to black" filter remain in that poor non-intuitive state or condition?..


I am NOT (even) asking for a complete rework ââ,¬â€œ that would very SIMPLY be, all in one window: "Fade in XXXXX s. YYY ms." + "Fade out XXXXX s. YYY ms." (or hours:mn:s:ms: on each of the two lines)...


But at least, could that "Fade to black" filter window be fixed, so that its use would become clear to everybody?

The filter itself works OK. But the placement of "(ms) h: m: and s," (why s comma?) mentions do mess up the UNDERSTANDING of its use.

I tried (by modifying "libADM_vf_fadeToBlack.dll"), but was only able to replace "Start time (ms)" with "Start H:M:S:ms:", and "End time (ms)" with "End H:M:S:ms:".

Between the fields, I couldn't replace "h: m: s," with... nothing at all

OR better: with what anybody would expect ââ,¬â€œ as follows and to be clear:

H: BEFORE 1st field; M: BEFORE 2nd field; S: BEFORE 3rd field; MS: (or ms:) BEFORE the 4th field.

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Figuring what to input where... took me a while. Here's what finally worked with Avidemux 2.6.8 and 2.7.0 (BTW, I didn't find the "Fade to black filter YouTube" video very helpful...):

As a simple (as can be) example, say we want to begin some video with a 2 seconds fade IN, and: end it with a 2 seconds fade OUT: to black, effect.

Before launching the filter, take note of the ââ,¬â€œ exact / precise! ââ,¬â€ video duration, as it will be needed to set the filter in order to get a CLEAN fade-out effect:

hit the End keyboard key to send the cursor to the very end of the video; and, on Avidemux main interface, read the bottom left "Time:" field, INCLUDING the milliseconds info.:

in my case / example (on some very short video sample), I got 00:00:07:960

Note: avoid any video or sample that already begins and/or ends with some fade from/to black effect or else, or with black frames (= too confusing here)!

Of course, select one of the video codecs, as no filter can be applied in "Copy" (= no recode) mode.

Click the "Filters" button", and double click the "Fade to black" option (filter).

In my case, it defaults to "Fade type: OUT"... Don't forget to switch to "Fade type: IN" ââ,¬â€œ for now.

And, enter "2" (without quotes of course) to the THIRD field of the BOTTOM line ââ,¬â€œ that SEEMS to be the "minutes" setting, but that actually sets the SECONDS!

And OK. Click "Preview" button to test (slide the cursor).


ââ,¬â€Ã¢â,¬â€Ã¢â,¬â€ Now, to set a fade OUT effect, double click the "Fade to black" option (filter) AGAIN.

This time, if it defaults to "Fade type: IN", don't forget to switch to "Fade type: OUT".

ââ,¬â€ Top line of fields: 3rd field: enter "5", and 4th (last) field: enter "960" (that is: milliseconds, obviously);

[ edit ] or one more millisecond to make sure = 961 instead of 960;

in other words, fill the top line of fields with: the whole ââ,¬â€œ precise ââ,¬â€œ duration of the video, minus the duration of the wanted fade out effect itself (2 seconds in my case).

ââ,¬â€ Bottom line of fields: just type in the whole video duration. In my case: 3rd field: "7" (seconds), and 4th field: "960" (milliseconds).

And test preview again.


Note: if you type anything else than the very exact video duration, either it won't fade all the way to black, but to some darkened end frames instead

ââ,¬â€œ or to black OK, but... back to one or a few normally bright frames, AFTER fading out; in a word, to a sloppy effect... 

Again, if you want it neat'n'clean, make use the precise duration of your video ââ,¬â€ and that usually includes a few milliseconds ("ms" *) at the end.


[ * No, I am NOT promoting "M$".  ]


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[Jan Gruuthuse]

... (why s comma?) ...

Time notifications are to international standards.

It is also possible to add fractions of a second after a decimal dot or comma, for instance the time 5.8 ms before midnight can be written as

    23:59:59.9942 or 235959.9942

source: A summary of the international standard date and time notation by Markus Kuhn

[Jan Gruuthuse]

[hours]: [minutes]: [seconds], [milliseconds]
Filter: Fade to black
Decimal (dot or comma) is most likely influenced/set by the Operating System international localization settings

[Jan Gruuthuse]

(BTW, I didn't find the "Fade to black filter YouTube" video very helpful...):

The above mentioned video, Fade to black IN or OUT,  is the result of this video: Fade to black Filter, How to

[eumagga0x2a]

will its "Fade to black" filter remain in that poor non-intuitive state or condition?..

Yes, it will remain in the current pitiful state until it gets some love. Submitting high quality patches would speed up the progress immensly.

I am NOT (even) asking for a complete rework ââ,¬â€œ that would very SIMPLY be, all in one window: "Fade in XXXXX s. YYY ms." + "Fade out XXXXX s. YYY ms." (or hours:mn:s:ms: on each of the two lines)...

Well, this is pretty much a complete rework (why not?), and yes, the custom time chooser is bad.

I tried (by modifying "libADM_vf_fadeToBlack.dll") [...]

The time chooser is provided by the shared lib (libADM_UIQT...).

[hiro]

Thanks Jan Gruuthuse and eumagga0x2a for your replies ââ,¬â€ and for this info.:

The time chooser is provided by the shared lib (libADM_UIQT...).

I did... what I could to make some use of it, and attached * modified .dlls: tested OK on Windows XP & 10 with Avidemux 2.6.8 and 2.7.0 ââ,¬â€ in case they'd be useful to some users;

e.g. http://avidemux.org/smif/index.php?topic=17314.0 , https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/335966-Fade-in-out-using-Avidemux , etc.

- - - - - - - - - -

* ~1.11 MB "7zip" file (i.e. more than 192 kB), so I uploaded it there:

https://forum.videohelp.com/attachments/42884-1503258296/Avidemux_Win__FadeToBlack-flt_quick-mod_aug-2017.7z

or

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/384757-Avidemux-Win-2-6-8-2-7-0-Fade-to-black-filter-mod#post2494386


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[eumagga0x2a]

A half-assed temporary hack to make the time chooser a bit clearer pushed. Ideally, a time chooser should include a preview and implement boundary checks.

[hiro]

  Hey - yeeweee! 

Start time 00 h 00 m 00 s , 000
+ same to End time...

+ whole video duration now showing by default at End time: very goody!

http://www.avidemux.org/nightly/win64/avidemux_r170903_win64Qt5_458.zip

Ain't that A LOT better? Now, I (soon) won't have to explain tedious stuff over & over anymore.

Thank you VERY MUCH~A~WHOLE~LOT!


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