a) It requires much more work and we have many things, many of which are higher priority. Please volunteer.
b) It is often a bad idea due to multiple generations of lossy compression.
With middle quality, labelled “good”, the result is not usable.
We have had this dialog option for 1.5 years, and it works good for me and many others. This dialog says it is for “Edit-friendly conversion” and integrated into Shotcut by replacing project files. It is not intended to be a general purpose transcode tool. How it plays in other players is not our concern. Edit-friendly also implies intra-only compression, which is heavier.
Make it easier by removing the “advanced” button in “convert”, and always display all.
I disagree. This dialog is used for several purposes, and many of our users will change things without understanding what they are doing (a.k.a. “dangerous and tricky”). Simply putting the options under a section with the heading “Advanced” is not as explicit as clicking it.
I did not understand the meaning of the tickbox in properties > convert > advanced > “override frame rate”.
You probably do not want to use that with the deinterlace option. In theory, I think it can be used together, but I do not know if we tested that. If it is not giving expected results, maybe we need to disable one when choosing the other.
Our engine does not currently support deinterlace at double rate, and it is not a simple change.
It is my design intention that any of the options can be used in any combination. If anyone finds a combination that does not provide expected results, please report it to me.
In the case of the deinterlace option, you do not need to override a frame rate - the doubled frame rate will be calculated automatically.
I agree. The scope of work is too great to do in a short time - which is why we decided to offer this two-step solution which required much less work to implement.
I just tested converting a PAL SD DV file to 100p using the Blend option, output to MP4, and it worked fine for me. I also tested same clip to 60p using the Interpolation option, output to DNxHD MOV, and that worked as well. I loaded each in Automatic video mode to adopt their frame rate, and they played fine, and stepping frame-by-frame shows a unique image per frame. I also tested with a NTSC HDV input, deinterlace, and unnecessarily specifying a framerate override to 59.94 fps. Maybe it is possible that some source format+codec causes a problem, but that is largely out of our control. DV and HDV are most important to me, that works well, and so this feature (deinterlace + framerate override) is staying.
Best by people who know most implications. For “override framerate”, suggestion to add “in [where?]”
(in the generated file? /in global Shotcut setting / in default of export definition?)
SInce I found out the combinations by testing, I suggest these label texts:
“Deinterlace field by field (doubling frames)” instead of “Deinterlace”
“Convert frame rate”: (instead of “Override frame rate”)
“Rate conversion mode” (instead of “Frame rate conversion”).
and this dropdown only active when “Convert framerate” is checked (same like the framerate numerical), because if I understand rightly, it is not relevant if deinterlacing alone is checked, and in this context, the dropdown content “Duplicate” would irritate.
I tested deinterlacing 50i (25fps) and at same time convert to higher framerate (100p by ‘blend’; 60p by ‘motion compensated’) and both worked well. So no need to disable one when choosing the other. Great feature alltogether! Allowing quality results when mixing footage of different standards.
P.S: I may have to supplement my own suggestion. What happens when “deinterlace” is not checked? I suppose, converting the frame rate to the project setting? And if “deinterlace” is checked? I guess, no frame-rate converting except the doubling by deinterlace. Are there separate options to de-interlace with and without rate converion? I think yes and they should be kept. To avoid others guessing and to make it self-explaining, the framerate conversion could be set by a ‘radio button’ of 2 checkboxes of which one or none can be selected, so in total 3 checkboxes:
deinterlace field by field (doubling fps)
convert frame rate to project setting ((if that’s what it does))
convert frame rate to numeric input.
with second option as default; last option un-checking second option and vice versa; first option possible alone or together.
For what it’s worth, I like most of the labels the way they are.
“Deinterlace” by itself is the most correct because “field by field” or “deinterlace to field rate” may not necessarily be the final outcome if someone overrides the frame rate at the same time.
If someone wants to know if deinterlace is frame rate or field rate, they can see the value in the numeric input box for perfect clarity. So it isn’t necessary to specify it in the label and risk being in conflict with a frame rate override.
“Convert frame rate” implies a conversion when a conversion isn’t necessarily always happening, such as the case of deinterlace to field rate. “Override” is precisely what’s happening if specified.
I actually like the “Rate conversion method” label @Steve2 proposed, but the current label is equally clear to me.
The second and third options seem redundant to me. The numeric input shows what the rate would be from deinterlace whether single- or double-rate is used, and what the rate would be if an override is specified. One text box covers all the bases. “Convert to Edit-Friendly” works strictly at the media file level and has no awareness of the project frame rate (it doesn’t even require a project to use it), so there can’t be any project-related settings or labels. Hence, the redundancy with option 2.
The lots of guessowork and un-certainty in my case show the necessity of well explaining labels which serve not only for those who have created it and already know the implications.
And if “deinterlace” is checked? I guess, no frame-rate converting except the doubling by deinterlace.
Correct
Are there separate options to de-interlace with and without rate converion?
That is not as useful since the editor engine can already deinterlace at frame rate. Again, this is not a general transcode tool. It is intended to provide a) optimized (edit-friendly) media and b) fill gaps in the engine (i.e. variable frame rate in addition to the things in Advanced).
To avoid others guessing and to make it self-explaining, the framerate conversion could be set by a ‘radio button’ of 2 checkboxes of which one or none can be selected, so in total 3 checkboxes:
deinterlace field by field (doubling fps)
convert frame rate to project setting ((if that’s what it does))
The convert to edit-friendly feature is not intended to be only project-specific. So, it does not offer to convert to project setting, which may change at a later point. You can already choose the current project frame rate without the need to clutter the UI with an additional option.
“Deinterlace field by field (doubling frames)” instead of “Deinterlace”
That is perhaps too complicated for a label, but it can go into a tooltip. There is already a tooltip that you can review. What could make this more clear is that the numeric frame rate field (when Override frame rate is off) doubles when Deinterlace is checked (although I think there are some exceptions beyond the obvious of progressive source).
“Rate conversion mode” (instead of “Frame rate conversion”).
I do not think this is better or worse, but the strings have already been submitted to translators. I do not like to change them unless it is really beneficial.
I prefer “Convert” here since we have “Frame rate conversion.”
These are helpful comments. I tried to balance clarity and brevity, but there might be room for improvement. I will leave the labels alone for now because of the translation timing as Dan mentioned. But I will also keep them in mind as the UI evolves over time.
Good catch. This is now fixed.
The default value in the Frames/sec field is set to the project frame rate. So, if you choose “Override frame rate” and do not change anything else, it will convert to the project frame rate.
I don’t understand how this works. If I start Shotcut in Automatic video mode with no project in progress, then drag in one of my 240fps slow-mo videos and say Convert to Edit-Friendly, the default override frame rate is 240fps, which came from the video file, not the project. This makes sense to me. But if no project is loaded and it’s in Automatic mode, wouldn’t the override default be 25fps in that scenario?
No. 240 came from the project video mode which was set automatically by Shotcut when you opened the first video file.
Notice that in the menu “Video Mode” is under the “Project” heading. In Shotcut, you are always working in a project - even if you haven’t bothered to save it or name it yet.
I believe it would be very helpful to GENERALLY create more tooltipps and as precise as possible, before confusions happen. User can’t do this because it becomes guesswork as you can see in my case…
Maybe this is my chance to ask these fundamentals: (or where best ask?) :
What is the meaning and all impacts of the global setting “Video-standard”?
is it a setting at all? saved in the project file? or as setting, restorerd on program opening?
What is the meaning of the option “automatic” and why can’t I see the result (the automatically defined standard)?
What is the meaning of the export preset “Default”?
How can I simply transfer the format properties [aspect-ratio, size, fps] from the proprtties of a clip to the format setting for export > advanced?
The first video dragged to the timeline (other peope say: first opened video) defines the standard. Standard of what/ where exactly. And what means first ? Since program opening, or before filing as project?
what does edit-friendly conversion without extended options (if not converting the frame rate fitting to the project rate)?
on which occasions does the conversion dialog pop up automatically?
But using the convert video option in Shotcut (where you can convert it into a compatible format, checking the deinterlace option results in 50p deinterlaced video with bwdif as far as I can tell)
I wrote that comment before I added the bwdif conversion feature in Shotcut. Nonetheless, it is still true that Shotcut can not do frame-doubling-deinterlace in real time on interlaces sources. It can only do it through the conversion pre-processing step.