Alpha channel videos problem on AIR 3.8 beta Android

Hi, I've found a strange behavior on the beta 3.8 SDK. When I load and play a FLV video with alpha channel it becomes completely black, but if I re-load it, it shows well. This does not happen on applications created with the release, 3.7 version of the SDK.

I think I am encountering the same issue with Air 3.8. Although I am not using the alpha channel and the video is a quicktime (.mov),
the video appears black (I can hear the audio playing).
I cannot switch back to 3.7 because that gave a error uploading the apk to the new google play console because of signing issues,
the upload issues were fixed in 3.8.

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Alpha Channel Video Preloader

We are creating a project that includes a number of alpha channel videos of the course narrator and other characters. Playback works well however, before each video plays, there is a brief "loading" message and then the video pops onto the screen and plays.
I understand the need for the pre-loader, however, I am hoping there is a way to add a "poster frame" to avoid the jarring impact of a person suddenly appearing over a realistic background. A little too much like a magic trick.
We would like to try a poster frame similar to the commonly used "Flash Media Playback" player provided by adobe for flash video on websites found here http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaplayback/index.html
Flash media playback allow the use of a jpg file that loads immediately before the video buffers.
Alternatively, are there any other "tricks" to make it appear that the video is present on the screen before it begins to play?
Appreciate any ideas on this.
Thanks
Jeff

Probably because you're not actually encoding "nothing" when creating transparency. An alpha channel is an additional 8-bit grayscale channel, and it probably can't or isn't compressed as much as the RGB channels, or else the transparency would not be clean. The only way to decrease the file size is to lower the total bitrate, which will subsequently have an impact on the quality of the "visible" video.

Captivate and Alpha channel video insertion black background

I have been trying in vain to insert a green screen video into a Captivate presentation. I used Serif MovieMaker5 to export the video as a ".mov" with the chroma key as a transparency. It works great if I want to overlay the .mov format file over another video in other SW platforms, but when I run it through the "Adobe Media Encoder" (AME), the background ends up black. Importing it into Captivate just ends up with a black box containing the subject of the video on top of the slide.
I think I've tried every setting in the AME with no luck.
I've seen this problem elswhere on Adobe forums, but I haven't seen a solution. Why the black background after encoding with the AME, and is there a setting I have missed? Do I need to start from a different format...say .AVI, but the output doesn't give me an option for a transparent or alpha output. The problem seens to be with the AME, but I don't know for sure.
Any ideas? I'm using Captivate 5 and the Serif, MovieMaker 5 editing SW. The output seems to work everywhere in the ".mov" format, but not when converted to .f4v by the AME

I actually solved the problem by trying to use the Adobe Media Encoder (AME) on CS3. CS3 only codes in ".flv." It worked fine! I also noticed in CS3 that there was a check box for including an "alpha channel." I could not find one in AME CS5, but there was an "exclude Alpha" box. So I looked, and I see that the AME CS5 was exporting the file as ".f4V." For some reason, my installation defaults to .f4v, and it never occured to me to change to a ".FLV" output. When I did, a box to "include Alpha" appeared, and the video works just fine.
One of the issues was that the format was listed as "FLV/F4V" on the "Source" screen. I just assumed that, since FLV was first, that would be the default output. I never looked at the suffix of the converted file. Shame on me! I was also surprised that the default was F4V, since FLV is more common, and F4V is supposed to be an improved version.
CP GURU Wrote: I don't know "Serif MoveMaker", but isn't it possible to export to FLV / F4V directly instead of .mov? I normally use Adobe Premier or Adobe After Effects and here I can export an FLV/F4V with an alpha channel that works well in Captivate.
Unfortunately, the Serif MovieMaker SW does not output to "Flash." It's one of the better of the "inexpensive" video editing SW offerings. Since I am only making short training courses, quality isn't a big concern. The big thing is that it be easy, and have chroma key capabilities. It is, and does, and I'm happy with it. I would love to have "Adobe After Effects" (AAE), but the cost can't be justified. I am seriously thinking about a cloud subscription, but the eLearning suite is not included, and I'd rather spend my limited budget on upgrading to eLearning CS6.
Thanks for everyones help!!!!!!!!!!
Bob

On export, strange color bleeding/alpha-channel-ish problem but no alpha . . .

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this. When I tried to export a project from Premiere today, I got some unwanted rainbow colors on the white text. The video clip was made in After Effects. I assumed that I must have been caused by an alpha channel (as I think I have seen something similar to this before with alpha screw ups), or some other unusual setting. But codec is straightforward and frequently used (Avid HD). The file from AE looks fine. It looks fine on the Premiere timeline. Only the export from Premiere is screwed up. Every codec I tried - H.264, MP2 . . always the same issue. The only type that didn't screw it up was DV AVI. But this is SD resolution is no good for me; it was just a test. Does anyone have any ideas what may have caused this.

Still no ideas?
I imported another clip, rendered in a different after effects project. I also copied it into new sequences with new sequence settings. I'm still getting the same thing! HELP!

Alpha channel video makes for a larger-than-target bitrate flv

I'm looking for some information regarding the final bitrate of alpha channel encoded video. We are producing transparent flvs. When targeting a number, say 200kbps, in Adobe Media Encoder, the final encoded flvs has a bitrate of sometimes as high as 350kbps or 400kbps. And that's just the video.
When I encode without the alpha channel with final flv video bitrate is basically exactly what I targeted.
I'm assuming GSpot and MediaInfo to look at the final flvs.
Why doesn't Media Encoder produce and flv at the target bitrate? Why the higher bitrate? Is there a way to set the final target for an flv? Is there better software?
Thanks,

Since the lounge is for non-technical discussions, you need to start at
http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere and select the forum for the product you are using
I will GUESS you are using some flavor of Premiere Pro, so that is most likely where you should post

Question about embedding alpha channel video in PDF

I've been reading a bunch about the multimedia aspects of Acrobat and adding video and flash content. Does anyone know if you can have video with transparent background inside of a PDF document? Are there any special tricks involved with this?
Thanks.
Jeff

never mind, figured it out. Had to keep the object tag there otherwise the video floated to the bottom of the page

Alpha channel video issue with After Effects

For some reason, a perfect mask in After Effects produces a
thin gray border around the mask in flash when converting to FLV.
Has anyone had this problem? Tried everything.
Thanks.

I think you want the after effects forum?
peterlevin wrote:
> For some reason, a perfect mask in After Effects
produces a thin gray border around the mask in flash when
converting to FLV. Has anyone had this problem? Tried everything.
>
> Thanks.

Encoding with an Alpha Channel Using Quicktime Pro

I am pulling my hair out trying to encode a green screen video that will play on a website so the website shows through the transparent alpha channel. Problem is when I encode to .flv or .mp4 the alpha channel is never retained even when I check "encode alpha channel" in the .flv export setting window. I have downloaded a trial version of Sorenson Squeeze and even that couldn't retain the alpha channel.
The video I am using was exported out of Final Cut Pro 7 using Quicktime Conversion using the Animation Million of Colors PLUS codec and when I test that it does indeed have a transparent alpha channel so something is happening when Quicktime Pro is encoding it.
Can anyone recommend a way to export a .mp4 or .flv with the alpha channel?
Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give.
Benjamin Jones

You can also export a RGB video (without alfa) with any codec, and a second pass with obly alpha - it depends if you need that as a final export (then use codec than can export alfa) or intermediate format (then you can use image sequence or 2 pass video).

How can I get an AIR application to a video output via DeckLink card with alpha channel?

Hi there!
Anybody knows how to get an AIR application to a video output via DeckLink card with alpha channel?
The reason is because we want to develope tv show games with air.
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See if these have iMac Nvidia drivers:
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Alpha channel basics from Canon 7D video

Maybe I'm missing something basic here, as I am pretty new to messing with alpha layers/channels on VIDEO. I otherwise have a pretty good understanding of alpha when it comes to animations, photos, etc.ffects
I am trying to make the black in a video of some flames into an alpha layer so I can use them as particles in After Effects.
( like in this video http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/green_smoke/ )
I understand the codec/format restrictions for alpha channels, but the problem is I can't seem to get the black to come out as an alpha layer at all.
I've tried Quicktime with the None codec and FLV and the other formats that are supposed to support alpha channels.
I THINK what's wrong is that the format that the Canon shoots in doesn't have an alpha channel natively so exporting the video into different formats is not having an effect. If this is the case, how does one go about making the black parts of a video into an alpha channel.
I know there are ways to make green into an alpha channel (greenscreening). I can't for the life of me figure out how to get premier OR aftereffects to recognize the straight black as an alpha layer though.
I've looked at some 30 tutorials trying to figure this out, but it would appear I am incapable of asking the right question to get the answer I want.
There's the export settings.
Perhaps someone can point out my gross missunderstanding of what I'm trying to do, or otherwise set me on the right track.
Below is a clip from within aftereffects... the arrow shows that the clip SHOULD have alpha properties... i think, but when I turn off the alpha channel EVERYTHING dissapears.
Do I need to d something in aftereffects? I dunno, I'm lost.
If someone thinks they can help I am willing to make a youtube video showing what I'm doing.

awesome... exactly what I was looking for
you'd think when spending an hour or more asking the question "how do you add an alpha channel to a video" this would think this would come up
having a weird issue now with it rendering a box in the lower right hand corner though... it bugs me that I don't know why it's there... but i'll just crop it out
again... thank you!

How to export a video with an alpha channel that can be switched off

Hi!
I'm stuck with something that I think might have a simple solution:
I need my video to have an alpha channel while still keeping all the RGB information in place too. This is for Syntheyes, which can take the alpha channel for a video and use it as a garbage matte while tracking.
The problem is that if I draw a mask around my video and then export as a PNG (with alpha), the RGB information seems to be gone even when I choose to ignore the alpha channel. I know how to edit the alpha channel in Photoshop while still keeping the RGB elements untouched, but how should I do that in AE?
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Okay I will answer my own question:
This worked as soon as I did a proper export as a PNG image sequence. I did my tests with only single frames by using the "save frame as file" -function, which did not work properly (the rbg information was gone).
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Draw a mask on the video layer and export with alpha. The RGB will be there, even though the mask hides it in AE.

Motion tile a video with an alpha channel

Hi!
I'm trying to use the motion tile effect to fill transparent edges that are the result of stabilization with the prodad mercalli plugin. The problem is however that because the stabilization hasn't been done using keyframe movement in AE, it sees the transparent edges as part of the frame and applies the motion tile so that the transparent areas stay intact. In other words the motion tile effect doesn't see that the image is moving around because only the alpha channel is changing.
Is there any smart ways to solve this problem in AE so that I can apply the motion tile effect to get rid of the alpha transparency around the edges of the stabilized footage?
Any help will be appreciated!

Hi and thank you for helping out!
Unfortunately I didn't get this to work with shift channels. I'm not sure what you meant by separating the components? I put shift channels on the videoclip and told it to use alpha from the video of the alpha.
Actually I'm a bit confused on why shift channels should help. The way I see it, the problem is that the "motion tile" effect is seeing the "whole" pixel dimension of the video that also includes the alpha channel and is applying itself to the whole frame instead of just the opaque area (the actual stabilized video). Because of that the motion tile effect is tiling the whole frame, including the alpha of it which leaves transparent gaps between the two tiles.
Maybe there was a miscommunication between us or should I just try the shift channels effect again? If that's the case, then could you explain what you mean by separating components?
Thank you very much!

Alpha channel problem with Pixel Bender blendShaders

I'm using Pixel Blender to try and create a blend shader for a Flex 4.0 app.
It looks like this:
<languageVersion : 1.0;>
kernel PixelReverse
<   namespace : "com.abc.def.filters";
    vendor : "EdAlive";
    version : 1;
>
    input image4 foreground;
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    evaluatePixel()
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        if((bgPixel.r == 0.0) && (bgPixel.g == 0.0) && (bgPixel.b == 0.0) && (bgPixel.a == 0.0)){
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It looks correct in the Pixel Bender preview window.
When I use it in a Flex project with proper 32 bit png images, the filter seems to work correctly, except it sets any partial alpha value on the images to fully opaque (like a 1 bit alpha channel).
Because the image preview looks correct in Pixel Bender, I'm assuming it's a problem with the bitmap data that Flex is passing to the blend shader filter.
I tried changing the filter to simply output a copy of the foreground firstly, and the background second, to test.
When returning a copy of the foreground, the imags weren't visible on stage, either because the pixels were transparent or because it was really returning the background pixels, camouflaging the images.
When returning a copy of the background, the images were just black rectangles.
The images are being place on stage programmatically inside an mx Module, and having their depth property set.
They also have draggable behaviour, where the current drag object is layered above all else during the drag.
I'm actually using a subclass of mx.controls.Image, but am simply setting the source property with preloaded bitmap data, so I'm am fairly sure the subclass is not a factor.
I hope this is enough information for someone to be able to provide some help.
Thanks

Please make sure you have installed the latest graphics drivers, from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us, for your graphics card.

Using video with alpha channel

I purchased a video clip from istock, the video clip is an .mov and has a alpha channel included. The video clip is santa clause over a black background and tagged at the end is a white solid of the video (I assume this is the alpha channel) How do I use the alpha channel to help key out the vidoe clip that I need. here is a link to the actual video clip I purchased. http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-video-11011749-santa-claus-with-alpha-channel-ntsc.php
Thanks Ja

As Szalam said, the b/w image can be used as a luma matte.
Also check if the actual piece of footage has an embedded alpha channel, i.e when you import it AE should know there is an alpha channel and let you know in the top of the project window when you select the element (or "interpret footage").
Alternatively just drag the footage to a comp and enable the checkerboard background to see if there is transparency. These three approaches are the same...just different ways of finding out about the alpha channel.

Question: Quick Look in Finder; problems with alpha channels

Hi
"Quick look" in Finder is great for quick presentations of a folders selected contents but it only works with images that contains no alpha channels or masks. Is there any way to work around this to display say PhotoShop documents with alpha channels? Or any plug-ins/applications that can help?
thanks.

This has been broken forever in OS X, and I don't know why, because it used to work just fine. I suspect the engineers did something to QuickTime that causes this problem, but it has been borked for so long I don't remember when the ability to correctly display files went wrong. I just remember that once upon a time all sorts of things from Apple worked correctly in displaying such files, but pretty much nothing does now. This includes the Finder, Preview, QuickLook, and various third-party image browsers that use Apple's own system level image handling abilities, such as VitaminSee or CocoaViewX. When I need to actually see what's there, I browse with Adobe's Bridge.
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Alpha channel videos problem on AIR 3.8 beta Android

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