Frame Based Trimming

Topaz Video AI Ideas
#1

I utilize the trim function extensively, and in in combination with enhancement or frame interpolation. In V3, the trim function is a regression in capability as provided in V2.

Issues with the time based trim:

  • Applying start and end times - dragging the start and end slider does not provide the granularity to trim accurately.

  • Editing Trim - after initial selection, editing the trim start and end times to exact split second or even second is not possible, it often changes. I cannot figure out why this is.

I either spend too much time trying to get the correct slice of video output through dragging the slider as slowly as humanely possible possible or repetitively changing the times. In most instances, it is never exactly correct and you therefore have to edit the output in an external video editing program.
By comparison, V2 allowed for more accurate trimming by utilizing start & end frames - this could be done by stepping through frame by frame with the keyboard arrow keys or input of the exact frame numbers for start and end positions.

Advantages of the frame based trim, as experienced through using it in V2:

  1. It’s 100% accurate.

  2. You can run enhancements on long videos in sessions and parts, selecting exact frames. For example do frames 1 to 10k today. At a later stage resume from frame 10k + 1 to frame 20K. Joining resulting clips is 100% accurate. This provides the capability to resume processing as it were, if you note down the last frame processed at the end of each session.

  3. Following on from 2, you can run different models on different portions of the original source knowing that once rejoined it is accurate.

Please consider changing V3 to a frame based trim.

Can you specify selection with frame numbers in Video Ai 3 yet
#2

I think this is in the works, but I cannot find where anyone from Topaz has said so.

Since they are using ffmpeg under the hood, that’s probably where the issue comes from. I started using ffmpeg about a year before VEAI for my Plex videos. I wanted to cut out intros and other random things. I spent days researching how to do that with ffmpeg and I could only find time-based ways to do it. Because of that, I’m not surprised at all that that is how TVAI is setup. However, they did figure out how to start the frame count at the correct number when exporting to images, when you make a trim in TVAI. To me that feels pretty close.

#3

It is possible that they will make the GUI preform some logic like the answer found here, but there is next to no chance that they are going to modify ffmpeg to be able to cut at exact frames.

Since video sources are widely different and complex, it will be difficult to always get the correct frame rate from the source and therefore calculate the desired frame to start the cut on. Proof of this fact can be seen right now in the preview window of TVAI. Every DVD source I have loaded into it does not trim where I told it to, and becomes out of sync when playing back. If I convert the DVD source to a constant frame rate before loading it into TVAI, it works as expected.

#4

I agree. You can also move frame by frame through the trim line via the cursor keys, but as far as I saw it does not move the start and end marks this way. As a workaround maybe convert the video to images before opening those in VE, maybe via the free tool “Free Video to Jpeg Converter” and work with these.