Best codec and software for timelapse videos

[iceman]

Hi guys

I'm hoping people like Alex(ch), Phil Hart and others can help me.

Since I got my new laptop I lost all the codecs I had installed on my other one, and can't remember what I used for creating AVI's and/or MOV's for timelapse etc.

What codec do you guys use? What's the best one for good quality (minimal artifacts) while still keeping the file size reasonable?

And what software do you use to convert the hundreds of images into a movie?

Do you have to resize the images to be a particular format for the codec (eg: 640x480 or 800x600 etc)?

Cheers

[En1gma]

For my timelapsing, I use apple codecs.

It appears to maintain very good quality.

although, when it comes to compression, i would use either of the following - leaning more towards .mov

x264
DivX (avi)
.mov/.mp4

The norm these days is one of the above.

As for processing, I do the following

- Batch process my images by resizing the JPEG in PS or Pixresizer (http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm) and naming in sequence -E.G mov0001.jpg 0002.jpg etc..

- use quicktime pro (File>Load image sequence - also choosing your FPS required )

Then I have 2 options from here
- Quicktime can also compress and save for web, but you are limited to 1.5mbit stream compression which would lose a bit of quality.
- save as uncompressed .MOV format, then compress in Handbrake, and choose how I would like to compress along with the resolution I would like to keep. this would then save in .mp4/.mkv

This would yield a plain no audio timelapse - If I wish to further edit, I just use windows movie maker.

Download the free program - http://handbrake.fr/ - Handbrake

Also, a good codec pack to download is K Lite codec pack - http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

Rob

[alexch]

Hi Mike,

K-Lite codec pack is good. I use XVid from there for my AVI encoding, and x264 AVCHD from Sony Vegas for smaller files.

AVI settings (almost lossless):
1920x1080
Frame Rate: 24
Field Order: None (progressive scan)
Coded: Xvid MPEG-4
Xvid settings:
Encoding type: Single pass
Target quantizer: 3

1.5 minutes of video = 350MB


For lossless AVCHD (x.264) I use 16MBit/sec and 1920x1080
For online sharing: 1280x720 and 3Mbit/sec
Sony AVC is a proprietary codec that comes with Sony Vegas, but i a sure ffmpeg from K-Lite codec pack will offer something similar.


I use Nikon Capture NX 2 for batch processing and Sony Vegas Platinum HD to produce movies from sets of still images, but you can use VirtualDub (free), here is a short howto:
http://timelapseblog.com/2009/08/04/using-virtualdub-for-time-lapse/
Hope it helps,
Alex

[iceman]

Thanks Rob and Alex, very helpful indeed.

Do you load them onto youtube or vimeo to publish them? You don't make the user download 350mb? :)

[alexch]

The 350Mb is for the local archive :)
1280x720 AVCHD with 3MBps bitrate takes 35MB, but I still use Vimeo, I know Phil is using paid Smugmug account for video sharing.

Alex

[Bassnut]

Mike

Ive stuffed around with quite a few apps to make a time lapes movie.

Apart from actually converting images to a movie, as mentioned above, I found the hardest part was processing so many images, including curves, convert, resize etc. Then I twigged to the obvious answer to this step, PS actions.

It was suprisingly simple and amazingly powerfull. You click the action record button with one image up, and do all the things you normally do to an astro image, curves, levels, selective noise reduction, anything, including resizing. Then you stop and save this "action".

Then you select action play back with your entire stack selected, and it simply plays back the action on every image one at at time (fast) and bingo, fully processed, converted, resized images ready to convert to a movie.

I have seen actions before as Im sure you have, but I was amazed at how easy it was to make your own. And you just use an app you already have with all the tools your used to.

[En1gma]

I have not delved too much into uploading onto youtube (although I do have a couple on that youtube seemed to of been compress further and killed it's quality and added artifacts). Nevertheless. I do have quite a few timelapses in the works - Which will no doubt end up on either of the above you mention. Leaning more towards youtube



Thanks for that link alex, Gave it a test run just then. This will now be my program of choice

Rob

[Phil Hart]

Although I'm giving a presentation on this at IISAC shortly, I know a lot less on these issues than you might think!! :P I've never had the time to research/learn all this properly so just fumble my way from one timelapse to the next most of the time.

Like, Alex I use Sony Vegas for the bulk of my timelapse work, including some video editing (cropping/levels/colour etc) which could be done on the JPGs images beforehand if you don't have video editing software.

+++ for free Virtual Dub. this is how i started making my first AVI's but I don't use it so much now.

Another great free application is "Streamclip". If you have your large uncompressed AVIs from Virtual Dub, or in my case FullHD movies from Sony Vegas, StreamClip makes it really easy to resize and convert to different file formats with a number of Codecs included as well. I use H264 for MP4 files or often Apple Photo JPEG for AVI files. If you have Quicktime Pro installed it can render Quicktime MOV files as well.

+++ Fred's suggestion of Photoshop actions (but didn't realise he was so far behind the times ;)). I have lived off these for years!! For those who have Lightroom, this is an even better option. In either Photoshop or Lightroom, you can also clone out your sensor's hot pixels and then easily apply that same fix every time you capture a new set of JPGs. Unless your sensor has a lot of hot pixels you can easily get away with this rather than dark frames.

For sharing online, I use smugmug: http://philhart.smugmug.com/Astronomy/Stars-in-Motion (http://philhart.smugmug.com/Astronomy/Stars-in-Motion/10317254_qVP9n#713326615_nnVRd)

Much better quality/resolution options than YouTube/Vimeo (at least when I last looked). With a pro account you can offer Full HD resolution online.

Now I've given away all my secrets and have nothing left to present at IISAC! I will be doing a presentation on the weather instead! :lol: (only half joking!)

Phil

[iceman]

I downloaded Sony Vegas to trial it out, and so far it seems pretty good.

However when I try to create an AVI, it crashes - doesn't seem to matter what codec I use.

It creates mp4 files ok, but they're very compressed and the video turns out very very dark.

Any suggestions?

[RB]

Years ago, back when computers didn't have a lot of grunt, I used Premier to muck around with short videos.
Now with my new i7 Toshiba laptop I plan to try Premiere CS5.
It's been a long time since I've done any editing but I've heard some good things about CS5.
Maybe give this trial version a go too Mike.

[Phil Hart]

Not too sure.. there are some Sony Vegas forums out there too.

Try creating a high res .m2t file and use StreamClip to convert and resize that. Also try the .wmv export from Vegas. That seems to generate pretty usable quality videos.

Phil

[Bassnut]

Ive just tried Virtual dub (small jpegs to AVI). Its fast and simple to use.

[Bassnut]

One thing ive noticed, may not be your problem, but if you reduce image size in PS and save with the "progressive" jpeg option, some codecs cant take that. I found "standard" works.

[mswhin63]

I use Cyberlink Power Director, can load them directly onto Youtube from the application and also let you see how much data to upload as well.

[iceman]

It appears it might be related to a memory problem on my laptop (ie: not enough!).

It creates .m2t and mp4 files ok, but they're still rather compressed (only ~30-70meg) and too dark. I can't seem to find any settings for m2t or mp4 that have a lower compression.

It crashes when I try to create an avi using one of the codecs.

If I try to save as uncompressed avi or wmv, I get a 'not enough memory' error and it just stops.

I was able to use VirtualDub to create an avi from the images, no problems there. But obviously VDub doesn't let me do the pretty cropping and panning that Vegas does :)

On an unrelated but slightly related question, what's the deal with putting music in videos? If you put copyright music in, it'll get stripped by youtube? Where do you get the music from then?

Cheers

[mswhin63]

There are loads of places, Google "Stock Audio"

[h0ughy]

Mike i created a MP4 file but with a H.264 codec - that is what i showed as IISAC for the Qld Astrofest footage. that was created in windows movie maker as a wmv and then converted in adobe media encoder

[iceman]

Can Windows Movie Maker do the cropping and panning?

Not sure why I'm running out of memory - I should have almost 2gig free going by the resource monitor.

I'm getting quite a a few 'hard faults' when Sony Vegas starts and runs.. not sure why. hmm just reading now, that just means it's swapping to the page file. No big deal. I shouldn't be running out of memory though.

[iceman]

Just answering my own question after having a lot at Windows Movie Maker..

It can do it, but of course it's designed to do that when you're looking at a slideshow of images (like yours was, Dave), rather than within the timelapse movie.

[h0ughy]

the timelapse stuff the images were set to 0.1sec, and the images were set to 6 sec with the panning function added for good measure ;) was done in the one go. so the video panning is no;)