Duplicate Frame Removal

martin-brennan wrote on 7/26/2019, 6:32 AM

Using MEP Premium 18.0.3.261

file: 1280x720 (19:9) 25.00fps

I've recorded an hour of a lightning storm the other night (01:25 am) - using our security camera.

what i'd like to do is remove ALL of the frames where "nothing is happening". I was hoping this could be done as - for all intents and purposes - the "nothing happening" clips are so dark they're probably identical.

Is it possible to remove these and maybe leave myself with 2-3 mins of clips containing lightning flashes?

are there any plugins that would do this?

thanks

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 7/26/2019, 3:25 PM

@martin-brennan

AFAIK there is no plugin that would do exactly what you want, however there may be a work around.

With the video on the timeline, use the Scene Recognition function - right click the video to select - to see if it will detect the flashes as a scene change - you may need to adjust the sensitivity setting - and enure you have Cut at all markers selected.

If scenes are detected then you can manually remove the unwanted parts more easily.

If no scenes are detected then you will have to do the finding and removing manually.

HTH

John EB

martin-brennan wrote on 7/27/2019, 4:30 AM

Hi John

thanks. Stupidly it never occurred to me that scene recognition was the way to go.

this has worked very well at isolating sections that contain a lightning flash - each flash being the beginning of each scene created.

however, with the "cut at all markers" selected how am i supposed to remove the redundant scenes?

the problem I am having appears to be related to some pre-set position (of the scene) in the timeline - i'll try and explain:

■ 58 min video creates 115 scenes - lightning being the first ½-2 secs of some scenes.

■ i can happily remove any scenes containing no lightning

■ trying to cut/remove "non-lightning" portions from scenes containing lightning appears to work, until

■ moving these scenes together (to create a lightning montage) results in the scenes no longer containing lightning....it's as if the original movie properties - ie what was originally at that point in the timeline is visible instead.

haven't the foggiest how to resolve this

johnebaker wrote on 7/27/2019, 4:58 AM

@martin-brennan

. . . . moving these scenes together (to create a lightning montage) results in the scenes no longer containing lightning....it's as if the original movie properties - ie what was originally at that point in the timeline is visible instead. . . . .

That would suggest you are dragging the clip by its left edge which extends the clip back out rather than moving it.

Change the mouse mode to All tracks - shortcut 7 - and use the U key to trim the end of the clip off after positioning the cursor to the start of the unwanted portion. The gap created automatically closes up which makes it easier to move the cursor to the next trim point.

HTH

John EB