Why won't Flash Band correction work? at DVinfo.net

Brian Mills · November 18th, 2009, 10:15 AM

Okay, so I just excitedly installed CB 2.6 after discovering it is now available to download in the States:

I install it, select my folder for corrected clips to go to in Preferences, load a folder in CB of video of a photoshoot I shot, found a clip with a few nasty "flash bands", select "Detect and Correct Flash Bands" from the menu, watch as some processing happens and then ...NOTHING.

It says "Clips Detected: 1, Clips Corrected: 0" and alas, nothing happened. No new, corrected clip of my photoshoot video free from ugly flash bands. Nothing. I am sad.

Anyone get this new feature to work? I threw a clip at it that had several flashes for it to chew on, but it spat back nothing.

Nick Wilson · November 18th, 2009, 10:21 AM

Try checking Preferences>Flash Band and see where it is putting the corrected clip.

N

Brian Mills · November 18th, 2009, 10:44 AM

I checked in the folder for the corrected clips and it was empty. In the Dialog Window the software says: "Clips Detected: 1, Clips Corrected: 0". So it seems to not even process the correction. And I chose a clip with several flashes, so even if it didn't catch all of them, I would expect it to catch most of them (or some of them). It's not doing anything!

Adam Stanislav · November 18th, 2009, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Mills

it is now available to download in the States

It is? Where?

EDIT: Never mind, I just saw the other thread.

Swen Goebbels · November 18th, 2009, 02:18 PM

Brian,

you are not the only one with these problem:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...g-shutter.html

Steve and I have the same trouble. He's using Windows 7 and I use Vista 64. To find the problem it would be good to know on what OS you are working?

Did somebody else here tested the auto falsh detection and got it working?

Swen

P.S.: Brian, maybe it's a Las Vegas problem. lol I just moved from Germany to Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

Nick Wilson · November 18th, 2009, 02:42 PM

Having now done some tests:

- the flash detection is hit and miss, with a lot more misses than hits. The flashes it does detect are not the most obvious ones. It struggles with correcting bursts of flashes, even if detected manually.

- the operation is not intuitive. The Flash Band tab is not populated with detected flashes until you click the Load button, and you need to navigate to the directory where the corrected clips are saved to see the results.

Maybe v2.7 will be better :-)

N

Swen Goebbels · November 18th, 2009, 03:12 PM

Nick,

thank you for your test. Can you please let us know on which OS you installed the Clip Browser?

Brian Mills · November 18th, 2009, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Wilson

Having now done some tests:

- the flash detection is hit and miss, with a lot more misses than hits. The flashes it does detect are not the most obvious ones. It struggles with correcting bursts of flashes, even if detected manually.

- the operation is not intuitive. The Flash Band tab is not populated with detected flashes until you click the Load button, and you need to navigate to the directory where the corrected clips are saved to see the results.

Maybe v2.7 will be better :-)

N

So Nick, what do you mean by detecting "manually"? I only see "In/Out Section" or "Whole Range" as the only two choices. I tried both and couldn't get ANYTHING. When you say manually, do you have to put the in/out marks on the one frame of video you want to correct?

You know what would be nice about now...oh, maybe a PDF MANUAL. SONY, are you listening?

Brian Mills · November 18th, 2009, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swen Goebbels

P.S.: Brian, maybe it's a Las Vegas problem. lol I just moved from Germany to Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

Welcome to Vegas, Swen. We got a lot of problems here, and Clip Browser is only one of them!

Swen Goebbels · November 18th, 2009, 07:26 PM

Brian,

detecting "manually" works like this: Scrub through the timeline to the first frame where you can see a half-screen flash. Then you have first to click on "Load" then you will get access to the "Add" button which will make an timcode point. With the "preview" button you can have a look how the Clip Browser did correct the Flash. The result doesn't look like a perfect result, but when you watch the clip at normal speed it looks good for me at least way better than without correction.

However, I still can't get the automatic mode to detect some flashes. I allways thought it can't be that hard for a software to do this. Just have a look for a frame with and without flash on your waveform monitor of you NLE... that's a big brightness change for just one or two frames. Cheap picture cameras can detecting automatically a smiling face nowadays, but a Broadcast Tool can not find a flash in the picture? Strange.

Nick Wilson · November 19th, 2009, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swen Goebbels

Nick,

thank you for your test. Can you please let us know on which OS you installed the Clip Browser?

Mac OS X 10.5.8

Nick Wilson · November 19th, 2009, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Mills

So Nick, what do you mean by detecting "manually"? I only see "In/Out Section" or "Whole Range" as the only two choices. I tried both and couldn't get ANYTHING. When you say manually, do you have to put the in/out marks on the one frame of video you want to correct?

You know what would be nice about now...oh, maybe a PDF MANUAL. SONY, are you listening?

The manual is attached - it came with the download of v2.6 from the Sony UK site.

You can tell it (by clicking the Add button) that a frame has flash banding. However, it doesn't seem to handle consecutive frames with flash artifacts and, given that the auto detect didn't find any banding, it seems unlikely that auto correct will know what to do with the frame.

November 18th, 2009, 10:15 AM	#1
Brian Mills Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 126	Why won't Flash Band correction work? Okay, so I just excitedly installed CB 2.6 after discovering it is now available to download in the States: I install it, select my folder for corrected clips to go to in Preferences, load a folder in CB of video of a photoshoot I shot, found a clip with a few nasty "flash bands", select "Detect and Correct Flash Bands" from the menu, watch as some processing happens and then ...NOTHING. It says "Clips Detected: 1, Clips Corrected: 0" and alas, nothing happened. No new, corrected clip of my photoshoot video free from ugly flash bands. Nothing. I am sad. Anyone get this new feature to work? I threw a clip at it that had several flashes for it to chew on, but it spat back nothing. __________________ Brian Mills, Videographer/Editor www.gordovideo.com

November 18th, 2009, 10:44 AM	#3
Brian Mills Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 126	I checked in the folder for the corrected clips and it was empty. In the Dialog Window the software says: "Clips Detected: 1, Clips Corrected: 0". So it seems to not even process the correction. And I chose a clip with several flashes, so even if it didn't catch all of them, I would expect it to catch most of them (or some of them). It's not doing anything! __________________ Brian Mills, Videographer/Editor www.gordovideo.com

November 18th, 2009, 10:21 AM	#2
Nick Wilson Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Northampton, UK Posts: 259	Try checking Preferences>Flash Band and see where it is putting the corrected clip. N

November 18th, 2009, 02:18 PM	#5
Swen Goebbels Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Aachen, Germany and Las Vegas NV Posts: 107	Brian, you are not the only one with these problem: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...g-shutter.html Steve and I have the same trouble. He's using Windows 7 and I use Vista 64. To find the problem it would be good to know on what OS you are working? Did somebody else here tested the auto falsh detection and got it working? Swen P.S.: Brian, maybe it's a Las Vegas problem. lol I just moved from Germany to Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

November 18th, 2009, 02:42 PM	#6
Nick Wilson Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Northampton, UK Posts: 259	Having now done some tests: - the flash detection is hit and miss, with a lot more misses than hits. The flashes it does detect are not the most obvious ones. It struggles with correcting bursts of flashes, even if detected manually. - the operation is not intuitive. The Flash Band tab is not populated with detected flashes until you click the Load button, and you need to navigate to the directory where the corrected clips are saved to see the results. Maybe v2.7 will be better :-) N

November 18th, 2009, 03:12 PM	#7
Swen Goebbels Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Aachen, Germany and Las Vegas NV Posts: 107	Nick, thank you for your test. Can you please let us know on which OS you installed the Clip Browser?

November 18th, 2009, 07:26 PM	#10
Swen Goebbels Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Aachen, Germany and Las Vegas NV Posts: 107	Brian, detecting "manually" works like this: Scrub through the timeline to the first frame where you can see a half-screen flash. Then you have first to click on "Load" then you will get access to the "Add" button which will make an timcode point. With the "preview" button you can have a look how the Clip Browser did correct the Flash. The result doesn't look like a perfect result, but when you watch the clip at normal speed it looks good for me at least way better than without correction. However, I still can't get the automatic mode to detect some flashes. I allways thought it can't be that hard for a software to do this. Just have a look for a frame with and without flash on your waveform monitor of you NLE... that's a big brightness change for just one or two frames. Cheap picture cameras can detecting automatically a smiling face nowadays, but a Broadcast Tool can not find a flash in the picture? Strange.