in video editor, clips get blurred #57397

Look at my last comment for more accurate report!!!

System Information
Ubuntu 18.10, running on intel haswell graphics.

Blender Version
Broken: 2.79 release from Ubuntu Apt. 2.8 build from 4th October had this problem as well.

Short description of error
When a video is passed through blender video editor, the detail is reduced(gets blurred), as if it is averaging 2x2 pixels for each one or something. The resolution in blender is identical to that of the video clip, so it should not do any scaling that could cause that. The resolution of my video is 2880x1080.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
Here is a frame after passing through blender:

Here's how it should look:

Open them in browser tabs and do Ctrl+tab between them to see the difference clearly - focus on the cars and road lines to see detail loss, also zoom in if screen resolution is lower than video.

Blend file and shortened video:
demo.blend
M17-0001_short.mov

Added subscriber: @stevefredpatrick

#61569 was marked as duplicate of this issue

Added subscribers: @iss, @ZedDB

@iss I'm guessing this is because we don't just take the raw input and output it? (There is some conversions going on in the pipeline first)

@ZedDB That shouldn't be the case.

@stevefredpatrick Can not reproduce (2.8 build) this when exporting image provided to PNG.
Can you send .blend with export settings that would reproduce issue? Maybe short movie with the same codec, if this is movie->PNG issue.
There is some color shift too, which shouldn't be there with settings of .blend file you provided...

Nice lens though...

@iss I used the provided .blend file and saved the provided video clip in the same folder.
Then I compared the output to the "how it should look" image.
Did you also use the .mov file?

Sorry it tried to embed movie, but I can't display it... I see it now, will test again.

Added subscriber: @Sergey

Ok, so I can confirm this. There are 2 issues:

Pixel format conversion glitch:
In this image(top 3 pixels is reference image, bottom 3 "decoded" image), it is clear, that image is stretched by 1 pixel

Issue is in FFMPEG's swscale in anim_movie.c when converting to AV_PIX_FMT_RGBA, as changing flag SWS_FAST_BILINEAR to SWS_BILINEAR or SWS_BICUBIC seems to produce correct result.
swscale with any of those 3 flags was done in about 60ms.

Invalid colorspace:
May be same/similar to #60947 (FFMpeg color offset) but not sure...

I will look at this later this week and see if I will be able to fix this.

Added subscriber: @eguerras-2

Please read this, because it it of key importance here:

This blurring does NOT happen when choosing Codec: HuffYUV. The output in HuffYUV codec is lossless, pixel by pixel.
This blurring does NOT happen if the original video has chroma subsampling 4:2:0.
To see this blurring, you need both the following characteristics:
(a) Original footage that was either 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, and
(b) Rendering to lossless H.264 Codec (though I have not tried any codecs other than H.264 and HuffYUV).

Hence, the problem is as follows: when encoding in H.264, a 4:2:0 chroma subsampling is applied, no matter if the user chooses the 'lossless' option. If the HuffYUV codec (lossless) is chosen, the output is 4:4:4 and the full resolution is preserved.

Tested in Blender 2.79b. To reproduce, just import this image and make a few seconds video out of it:
http://www.ozone3d.net/public/jegx/201412/chroma-subsampling-test-4k-tv.png

Try the codec HuffYUV, and compare with H.264 lossless (Codec: H.264, Output quality: Lossless).

Many users do not notice this problem because most domestic cameras, and well as any footage ripped from DVD, Bluray and YouTube, is 4:2:0. You'll notice the subsampling only when you import pictures or get 4:2:2 footage from capturing video with special devices. I am getting around it by encoding to HuffYUV and then transcoding the final video externally.

This is confirmed in 2.80, hash 0e78e3038d, Linux 64-bit. Please see the attached .blend files, both rendering a 1 min video of the attached picture chroma.png.
chroma.h264.blend

chroma.huffyuv.blend

I attach the corresponding screen captures where the results can be compared:

This is the result of creating a h.264 allegedly lossless video:

And this is the result of creating a huffyuv lossless video. See the text crisp and clear:

The importance of this bug has been deemed only 'medium', probably because there the workaround of using HuffYUV to later transcode outside Blender, but those HuffYUV files are enormous.

Ok I went back to this. The colour difference in the example is my mistake, I think I originally took a screenshot of GNOME video player (it changes the colours when no one asks it to).

Complete method to replicate the bug:

Set blender resolution to 2880x1080, 100%
Enter video editor mode
Import the video sample I provided in first post
Render a frame, save it as a PNG
Open that clip in VLC and take a snapshot, will save a PNG
Compare

Here is a clearer comparison I made using this method:

To me it looks like actual blurring, not just chroma 4:2:0 conversion. But I may be wrong. At least there is no colour difference, sorry for the original low quality report.

In #57397#614243, @iss wrote:
Ok, so I can confirm this. There are 2 issues:

Pixel format conversion glitch:
In this image(top 3 pixels is reference image, bottom 3 "decoded" image), it is clear, that image is stretched by 1 pixel

Issue is in FFMPEG's swscale in anim_movie.c when converting to AV_PIX_FMT_RGBA, as changing flag SWS_FAST_BILINEAR to SWS_BILINEAR or SWS_BICUBIC seems to produce correct result.
swscale with any of those 3 flags was done in about 60ms.

I think you are completely right about this!

It is a bit odd that resizing is done even when the image does not need to be resized.

This issue was referenced by 13ab6b7bb6

This issue was referenced by 1f55786791

Changed status from 'Confirmed' to: 'Resolved'

Download

What's New

Blender Studio

Manual

Developers Blog

Documentation

Benchmark

Blender Conference

Development Fund

One-time Donations

in video editor, clips get blurred #57397