4 Rendering takes a section of the timeline, performs all the editing,
5 effects and compositing, and creates a new media file. You can then
6 delete all the source assets, play the rendered file, or bring it
7 back into \CGG{} for more editing. All rendering operations are
8 based on a region of the timeline to be rendered. You need to
9 define this region on the timeline. The rendering functions define
10 the region based on a set of rules. When a region is highlighted or
11 in/out points are set, the affected region is rendered. When no
12 region is highlighted, everything after the insertion point is
13 rendered. By positioning the insertion point at the beginning of a
14 track and unsetting all in/out points, the entire track is rendered.
15 But you also have the choice to render \textit{one frame}.
17 \section{Single File Rendering}%
18 \label{sec:single_file_rendering}
20 Use the \textit{File} pulldown and select Render to start the render dialog
21 (figure~\ref{fig:render}). Then choose the desired parameters.
23 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
24 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{render.png}
25 \caption{Example of the Render menu}
30 \item[Select a file to render to:] enter the path and filename to
31 write the rendered file to in the textbox below.
32 \item[File Format:] use the down arrow to see file format options.
33 For ffmpeg, which has its own set of options, you will then have to
34 select an ffmpeg file type from the down arrow choices. The format
35 of the file determines whether you can render audio or video or
37 \item[Render audio tracks:] check this toggle to generate audio
39 \item[Render video tracks:] check this toggle to generate video
40 tracks. The Render window will sometimes automatically update the
41 Render Audio Tracks or Render Video Tracks checkbox as allowed by
42 the chosen file format, but you should always check
43 (figure~\ref{fig:render01}). For example, if the PNG file format is
44 selected, only the \textit{Render Video Tracks} will be checked. Or
45 if an ffmpeg format is chosen and the file format does not render
46 audio, the \textit{Render Audio Tracks} will be unchecked. The
47 invalid choices will be ghosted out.
50 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
51 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{render01.png}
52 \caption{Audio and Video tracks automatically checked for Pro file
58 \item[Wrench:] select the \textit{wrench} next to each toggle to set
59 compression parameters. If the file format can not store audio or
60 video the compression parameters will be blank. If \textit{Render
61 audio tracks} or \textit{Render video tracks} is selected and the
62 file format does not support it, trying to render will result in an
63 error message. More details in the section:
64 \nameref{sub:extra_cin_option_ffmpeg}
65 \item[Create new file at each label] the option causes a new file to
66 be created when every label in the timeline is encountered – a
67 separate file for each. This is useful for dividing long audio
68 recordings into individual tracks. When using the Render Farm
69 (described later), \textit{Create new file at each label} causes one
70 render farm job to be created at every label instead of using the
71 internal load balancing algorithm to space jobs. If the filename
72 given in the render dialog has a 2 digit number in it, the 2 digit
73 number is overwritten with a different incremental number for every
74 output file. If no 2 digit number is given, \CGG{} automatically
75 concatenates a number to the end of the given filename for every
76 output file. For example, in the filename
77 \texttt{/movies/track01.wav} the $01$ would be overwritten for every
78 output file. The filename \texttt{/movies/track.wav}; however,
79 eventually would become \texttt{/movies/track.wav001} and so on.
80 Filename regeneration is only used when either render farm mode is
81 active or creating new files for every label is active.
82 \item[Render range:] choices are \textit{Project},
83 \textit{Selection}, \textit{In/Out points}, and \textit{One Frame}
84 for single images like Tiff. For these images, Render range will
85 have \textit{One Frame} automatically checked and all of the others
86 ghosted since nothing else makes sense (figure~\ref{fig:render02}).
87 This makes it easy to set the insertion point where you want the 1
88 frame to be rendered rather than having to precisely zoom in to set
89 the in/out pointers. Note that whichever Render range is checked,
90 remains checked so that if \textit{One Frame} gets automatically
91 checked, the next time you render it will still be checked and you
92 will have to select a different one if desired. That is why you
93 should always check the settings.
96 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
97 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{render02.png}
98 \caption{Render menu displaying a PNG \textit{one frame} option}
103 \item[Beep on done:] as a convenience when a render is complete,
104 check this box. It gives you the chance to work on something else
105 while waiting and still be immediately notified when the render is
107 \item[Render Profile:] another convenience feature to take advantage
108 of if you use specific render formats frequently, is to save that
109 profile for future usage without having to set it up again.
110 \item[Save Profile:] after setting up your render preference
111 formats, use the save profile button to save it.
112 \item[Delete Profile:] if you want to delete a saved profile,
113 highlight the one you no longer want and delete.
114 \item[Insertion strategy:] select an insertion mode from the
115 available choices as seen when you click on the down arrow on the
116 right hand side of the option. The insertion modes are the same as
117 with loading files. In the case if you select “insert nothing” the
118 file will be written out to disk without changing the current
119 project. For other insertion strategies be sure to prepare the
120 timeline to have the output inserted at the right position before
121 the rendering operation is finished.
123 Even if you only have audio or only have video rendered, a paste
124 insertion strategy will behave like a normal paste operation,
125 erasing any selected region of the timeline and pasting just the
126 data that was rendered. If you render only audio and have some
127 video tracks armed, the video tracks will get truncated while the
128 audio output is pasted into the audio tracks.
131 \section{Batch Rendering}%
132 \label{sec:batch_rendering}
134 Batch Rendering automates the rendering of audio/video files in that
135 you can establish a set of job parameters, save them, and use them
136 repeatedly. It also allows for \CGG{} to be run by external
137 programs, with no need for the user to manually interact with the
138 user interface (figure~\ref{fig:batch01}).
140 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
141 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{batch01.png}
142 \caption{Example of the Batch Render menu}
146 If you want to render many projects to media files without having to
147 constantly set up the render dialog for each one, batch rendering is
148 a more efficient method of rendering. To use this feature you need to
149 understand certain concepts.
152 \item You must define a list of Batches (\textit{Job}) before starting the rendering. This is created using the \textit{New} button and displayed in \textit{Batches to Render} dialog.
153 \item Each batch consists of a source project already created in \CGG{}, e.g. \texttt{aaa.xml}, to which we assign the rendering parameters.
155 \item to associate \texttt{aaa.xml} to the batch we use the \textit{EDL Path} input field.
156 \item we decide a name and path for the output file.
157 \item let's set the \textit{File Format} of the output file.
158 \item We configure the file with the Audio/Video \textit{wrench}.
159 \item we decide whether to create different files for each \textit{label} and whether to use a \textit{Render farm}.
161 \item Created the first batch, we will see it appear in the dialog \textit{Batches to Render}.
162 \item Using the \textit{New} button again we create a second batch for another source project (\texttt{bbb.xml}) and configure it at will.
163 \item We continue with the source projects \texttt{ccc.xml}, \texttt{ddd.xml}, etc. until we run out of projects that we want to render in batch.
164 \item Note that each batch has its own name, path and rendering parameters.
165 \item Now we have our \textit{Job}, a list of batches. We can still configure it or modify it if we want to change something. In addition we can delete a batch from the list or we can disable it in the \textit{Enabled} field so that it is not taken into account during rendering, but without deleting it.
166 \item Finally we start batch rendering with the \textit{Start} button.
169 Let's see in detail how to set the Batch Rendering.
171 The first thing to do when preparing to do batch rendering is to
172 create one or more \CGG{} projects to be rendered and save them as a
173 normal project, such as \texttt{aaa.xml}. The batch renderer
174 requires a separate project file for every batch to be rendered.
175 You can use the same \CGG{} project file if you are rendering to
176 different output files, as in an example where you might be creating
177 the same output video in different file formats.
179 You do not have to render an entire projects. We can limit ourselves to an \textit{active region} that we can set through a selection in Cut and Paste mode, with labels or In/Out Points. Or the rendering will start from the Insert Point position until the end of the project. Remember: if we want to render the entire project (and not just one active region) it is important to bring the Insertion Point to the beginning of the timeline. This is the only way we are sure to include the whole project.
181 With all the \CGG{} xml project files prepared with active regions,
182 go to \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}. This brings up the
183 batch render dialog. The interface for batch rendering is more
184 complex than for single file rendering. A list of batches must be
185 defined before starting a batch rendering operation. The table of
186 batches appears on the bottom of the batch render dialog and is
187 called \textit{Batches to render}. Above this are the configuration
188 parameters for a single batch; a batch is simply a pairing of a
189 project file with a choice of output file and render settings.
191 Set the \textit{Output path}, \textit{File format}, \textit{Audio},
192 \textit{Video}, and \textit{Create new file at each label}
193 parameters as if you were rendering a single file. These parameters
194 apply to only one batch. In addition to the standard rendering
195 parameters, you must select the \textit{EDL Path} to be the project
196 file (such as \texttt{aaa.xml}) that will be used in the batch
197 job. In this case, \textit{EDL Path} is not related in anyway with
198 the EDL files as created by \texttt{File/Export EDL}. In batch
199 render mode the program will not overwrite an existing output file
200 and will simply fail, so make sure that no files with the same name
201 as the output files exist before starting.
203 If the batches to render list is empty or nothing is highlighted,
204 click \textit{New} to create a new batch. The new batch will contain
205 all the parameters you just set. Repeatedly press the \textit{New}
206 button to create more batches with the same parameters. When you
207 highlight any batch, you can edit the configuration on the top of
208 the batch render window. The highlighted batch is always
209 synchronized to the information displayed. You can easily change
210 the order in which the batch jobs are rendered, by clicking and
211 dragging a batch to a different position. Hit \textit{Delete} to
212 permanently remove a highlighted batch. In the list box is a column
213 which enables or disables the batch with an \texttt{X} meaning the
214 batch job is enabled and will be run. This way batches can be
215 skipped without being deleted. Click on the \textit{Enabled} column
216 in the list box to enable or disable a batch.
218 The description of each of the columns in the batch list are as
222 \item[Enabled:] an X in this column means the batch job will be run.
223 \item[Labeled:] an \texttt{X} in this column goes hand in hand with
224 create new file at each label.
225 \item[Farmed:] to use or not the render farm.
226 \item[Output:] path and filename for the generated output.
227 \item[EDL:] the path and filename of the source EDL for the batch
229 \item[Elapsed:] the amount of time taken to render the batch if
230 finished. If field is empty, it did not run.
231 \end{description} To start rendering from the first enabled batch,
232 hit \textit{Start}. Once rendering, the main window shows the
233 progress of the batch. After each batch finishes, the elapsed column
234 in the batch list is updated and the next batch is rendered until
235 all the enabled batches are finished. The currently rendering batch
236 is always highlighted red. To stop rendering before the batches are
237 finished without closing the batch render dialog, hit \textit{Stop}.
238 To stop rendering before the batches are finished and close the
239 batch render dialog, hit \textit{Close}. Or you can exit the batch
240 render dialog whether or not anything is being rendered, by hitting
243 You can automate \CGG{} batch renders from other programs. In the
244 batch render dialog, once you have created your list of batch render
245 jobs, you can click the button \textit{Save Jobs} and choose a file
246 to save your batch render list to. Once you have created this file,
247 you can start up a batch render without needing to interact with the
248 \CGG{} user interface. From a shell prompt, from a script, or other
251 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
252 {path_to_cinelerra}/cin -r batchjob.xml
253 \end{lstlisting} substituting your actual filename for
254 \texttt{batchjob.xml}. When invoked with these parameters, \CGG{}
255 will start up and perform the rendering jobs in that list, without
256 creating its usual windows.
258 \subsection{Command Line Rendering}%
259 \label{sub:command_line_rendering}
261 The command line rendering method consists of a way to load the
262 current set of batch rendering jobs and process them without a
263 GUI\@. This is useful if you want to do rendering on the other side
264 of a low bandwidth network and you have access to a high powered
265 computer located elsewhere. Setting up all the parameters for this
266 operation is somewhat difficult. That is why the command line aborts
267 if any output files already exist.
269 To perform rendering from the command line, first run \CGG{} in
270 graphical mode. Go to \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch
271 Render}. Create the batches you intend to render in the batch window
272 and close the window. This saves the batches in a file. Set up the
273 desired render farm attributes in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
274 Preferences} and quit out of \CGG{} if you want to use the Render
275 Farm capability. These settings are used the next time command line
276 rendering is used to process the current set of batch jobs without a
279 On the command line run:
281 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
285 \subsection{More about Save/Use EDL and Save/Load Jobs}%
286 \label{sub:more_save_use_edl_jobs}
288 The \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render} pulldown brings up the
289 Batch Render window to be used for batch rendering as well as DVD/BD
290 creation. There are some additional buttons that can save time and
291 mistakes. These are described next.
293 The \textit{Save to EDL Path} and \textit{Use Current EDL} buttons
294 can be valuable tools for advanced usage or for developers doing
295 testing. Description of how you can expect them to work will help
296 to illustrate how to take advantage of their capabilities.
299 \item[Save to EDL Path] if you have made a change to the EDL, use
300 this button to save the changes so that they will be used in the
301 render operation. Although you can get the same results by using
302 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save\dots}, this capability was initially
303 added to assist developers in testing the batch jobs needed to
304 create dvd/bluray media as it keeps the work focused in a single
305 window and retains the original job name. An example --you have
306 everything all set up with a new job in the Batch Render window
307 using \texttt{generic.xml} for the EDL path and with a job name of
308 \texttt{original\_name.xml}. Then you realize that you forgot to
309 cut out a section in the media that is not wanted in the final
310 product. You can cut that out and then \textit{Save to EDL Path} so
311 your change will be in effect for the rendering. Without this
312 button, you would be using the EDL you started with and the cut
313 would be ignored. Alternatively, if the cut changes are saved via
314 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save as}\dots with a filename of
315 \texttt{new.xml} and then you use \textit{Save to EDL Path}, the
316 current highlighted job displayed in the window as
317 \texttt{original\_name.xml} will be replaced with \texttt{new.xml}.
318 However, it is important to note that the result will be saved with
319 the name \texttt{original\_name} – that is, the new content from
320 \texttt{new.xml} but with the old name of
321 \texttt{original\_name.xml}.
322 \item[Use Current EDL] if you are working on media and still testing
323 out the results, you can take advantage of this click-box to quickly
324 get results. Basically, you change the media, save that change with
325 another name (in order to preserve the original name in case you
326 don't like the changes), and press \textit{Use Current EDL}. As an
327 example, a user creates a new job in the Batch Render window using
328 the current media, previously defined in generic.xml, with the EDL
329 path of \texttt{generic.xml}. The user then changes the media on
330 the timeline, saves the changes via \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save
331 as\dots} with a new name, such as \texttt{new\_name.xml}, and then
332 clicks on \textit{Use Current EDL}. In this case, the EDL path
333 listbox will be automatically updated to the \texttt{new\_name.xml}
334 and the current existing highlighted job will be replaced with the
335 \texttt{new\_name.xml} in the EDL column.
336 \item[Save Jobs] when you have set up the batch jobs the way you
337 want and you think you may have to run them more than once, it is
338 beneficial to save the jobs for later use so you easily run them
340 \item[Load Jobs] reload a previous set of saved jobs. This can come
341 in handy if you did not have the time to render them when you
342 originally set them up, if you need to rerun, or if you got
344 \item[Warn if Jobs/Session mismatched] After you set up your render
345 and press Start, the program checks to see if the current EDL
346 session matches your Batch Render job. If the EDL has been changed
347 since the batch job was created, it warns you so that you have the
348 opportunity to \textit{Save to EDL} path to record those changes.
349 Otherwise, you can dismiss that warning box, disable the warning
350 message by unchecking the box and use the original values. If you
351 never want to be warned about the mismatches, leave the box
352 unchecked (figure~\ref{fig:batch02}).
355 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
356 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{batch02.png}
357 \caption{Batch render with the 4 ghosted buttons on the right side
358 + the Warning message below}
362 \section{Background Rendering}%
363 \label{sec:background_rendering}
365 Background rendering causes temporary output to be rendered
366 constantly while the timeline is being modified. The temporary
367 output is displayed during playback whenever possible. This is
368 useful for transitions and previewing effects that are too slow to
369 display in real time. If a Render Farm is enabled, the render farm
370 is used for background rendering. This gives you the potential for
371 real-time effects if enough network bandwidth and CPU nodes exist.
373 Background rendering is enabled in the \texttt{Performance} tab of
374 the \texttt{Preferences} window. It has one interactive function
375 \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Toggle background rendering}. This
376 sets the point where background rendering starts up to the position
377 of the insertion point. If any video exists, a red bar appears in
378 the time ruler showing what has been background rendered
379 (figure~\ref{fig:back-ren02}).
381 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
382 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{back-ren02.png}
383 \caption{Settings Background Rendering}
384 \label{fig:back-ren02}
387 It is often useful to insert an effect or a transition and then
388 select \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Toggle background rendering}
389 right before the effect to preview it in real time and full frame
390 rates (figure~\ref{fig:back-ren}).
392 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
393 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{back-ren.png}
394 \caption{Timeline with the top red bar}
399 \item[Frames per background rendering job] This only works if a
400 Render Farm is being used; otherwise, background rendering creates a
401 single job for the entire timeline. The number of frames specified
402 here is scaled to the relative CPU speed of rendering nodes and used
403 in a single render farm job. The optimum number is 10 - 30 since
404 network bandwidth is used to initialize each job.
405 \item[Frames to preroll background] This is the number of frames to
406 render ahead of each background rendering job. Background rendering
407 is degraded when preroll is used since the jobs are small. When
408 using background rendering, this number is ideally 0. Some effects
409 may require 3 frames of preroll.
410 \item[Output for background rendering] Background rendering
411 generates a sequence of image files in a certain directory. This
412 parameter determines the filename prefix of the image files. It
413 should be accessible to every node in the render farm by the same
414 path. Since hundreds of thousands of image files are usually
415 created, ls commands will not work in the background rendering
416 directory. The browse button for this option normally will not work
417 either, but the configuration button for this option works.
418 \item[File format] The file format for background rendering has to
419 be a sequence of images. The format of the image sequences
420 determines the quality and speed of playback. JPEG generally works
424 \section{Render Farm Usage}%
425 \label{sec:render_farm_usage}
427 Render Farm uses background rendering, a feature of \CGG{} where the
428 video is rendered in the background, to speed up rendering
429 significantly. Because rendering is memory and cpu intensive, using
430 multiple computers on a network via a render farm is a significant
431 gain. With \CGG{} installed on all nodes, the master node and the
432 clients communicate via a network port that you specify.
434 \CGG{} can distribute the rendering tasks over the network to the
435 other computers of the Render Farm. The render farm software tries
436 to process all of the rendering in parallel so that several
437 computers can be used to render the results. The \textit{Total jobs
438 to create} in the setup or labels on the timeline are used to divide
439 a render job into that specified number of tasks. Each background
440 job is assigned a timeline segment to process and the jobs are sent
441 to the various computer nodes depending upon the load balance. The
442 jobs are processed by the nodes separately and written to individual
443 files. You will have to put the files back together via a load with
444 concatenation, or typically by using a command line tool from a
447 \subsection{Basic Steps to Start a Render Farm}%
448 \label{sub:basic_steps_start_render_farm}
450 The following steps are just a guideline to start your render farm.
451 It is assumed that you already have the master and client nodes
452 communication, shared filesystem, permissions and usernames synched.
455 \item On the master computer, use \texttt{Settings} $\rightarrow$
456 \texttt{Preferences} $\rightarrow$ \texttt{Performance} \texttt{tab}
457 to set up a Render Farm:
459 \item check the \textit{Use render farm} box;
460 \item in the \textit{Hostname} box, keyin your hostname or ip
461 address such as 192.168.1.12 or \textit{localhost};
462 \item enter in a port number such as 401--405 (only a root user
463 can use privileged ports) or $1025$ and click on \textit{Add Nodes};
464 \item you will see something like the following in the Nodes
465 listbox to the right:\newline
466 \begin{tabular}{lllc} On & Hostname & Port & Framerate
468 X & 192.168.1.12 & 401 & 0.0 \\
469 X & 192.168.1.12 & 402 & 0.0 \\
470 X & 192.168.1.12 & 403 & 0.0 \\
471 X & 192.168.1.12 & 404 & 0.0 \\
472 X & 192.168.1.12 & 405 & 0.0 \\
473 X & localhost & 406 & 0.0 \\
474 X & localhost & 407 & 0.0 \\
476 \item set the Total number of jobs to create;
477 \item click OK on the bottom of the Preferences window.
479 \item Now we must join the nodes created to instances of \CGG{}. On the client computers ($192.168.1.12$), on the terminal, start 5 background \CGG{} tasks via:
480 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
481 cd {path_to_cinelerra}
482 cin -d 401 cin -d 402
486 \item Similarly, on the terminal, we must join the local nodes created to instances of \CGG{}. On the master node (localhost), start the 2 background \CGG{} tasks via:
487 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
488 cd {path_to_cinelerra}
492 \item When your video is ready, setup a render job via \texttt{File
493 $\rightarrow$ Render} or \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}
495 \item The results will be in the shared file \texttt{path/filename}
496 that you selected in the render menu with the additional numbered
497 job section on the end as $001, 002, 003, \dots 099$ (example,
498 \texttt{video.webm001}).
499 \item When finished, load your new files on new tracks via
500 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Load} \textit{concatenate to existing
501 tracks} or if you used ffmpeg, run \textit{RenderMux} from the Shell
503 \item If you plan on doing more rendering, you can just leave the
504 master/client jobs running to use again and avoid having to restart
505 them. Or you can kill them when you no longer are using them.
508 \subsection{Render Farm Menu and Parameter Description}%
509 \label{sub:render_farm_parameter_description}
511 Below we describe the Performance tab for configuring a render farm
512 (figure~\ref{fig:farm}).
514 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
515 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{farm.png}
516 \caption{Settings: Preferences: Performance tab, menu
517 to set up your Render Farm}
522 \item[Project SMP cpus] although this field is not Render Farm
523 specific, it is useful for \CGG{} to have the CPU count and for
524 using multiple threads.
525 \item[Use render farm] check this to turn on the render farm option.
526 Once checked ALL rendering will be done via the farm including the
527 usual Render (\texttt{Shift-R}). You may want to turn if off for
529 \item[Nodes listbox] displays all the nodes on the render farm and
530 shows which ones are currently enabled. The Nodes listbox has 4
531 columns -- On, Hostname, Port, Framerate -- which show the current
532 values. An \textit{X} in the \textit{On} designates that that host
533 is currently enabled; \textit{Hostname} shows the name of the host;
534 \textit{Port} shows the port number that host uses; and
535 \textit{Framerate} will either be zero initially or the current
537 \item[Hostname] this field is used to edit the hostname of an
538 existing node or enter a new node.
539 \item[Port] keyin the port number of an existing or new node here.
540 You can also type in a range of port numbers using a hyphen, for
541 example $1501-1505$ when you need to add many.
542 \item[Apply Changes] this will allow you to edit an existing node
543 and to then commit the changes to hostname and port. The changes
544 will not be committed if you do not click the OK button.
545 \item[Add Nodes] Create a new node with the hostname and port
547 \item[Sort nodes] sorts the nodes list based on the hostname.
548 \item[Delete Nodes] deletes whatever node is highlighted in the
549 nodes list. You can highlight several at once to have them all
551 \item[Client Watchdog Timeout] a default value of $15$ seconds is
552 used here and the tumbler increments by $15$ seconds. A value of
553 $0$ (zero) disables the watchdog so that if you have a slow client,
554 it will not kill the render job while waiting for that client to
556 \item[Total jobs to create] determines the number of jobs to
557 dispatch to the render farm. Total jobs is used to divide a render
558 job into that specified number of tasks. Each background job is
559 assigned a timeline segment to process. The render farm software
560 tries to process all of the rendering in parallel so that several
561 computers can be used to render the results.
563 To start, if you have computers of similar speed, a good number
564 for \textit{Total jobs to create} is the number of computers
565 multiplied by $3$. You will want to adjust this according to the
566 capabilities of your computers and after viewing the framerates.
567 Multiply them by $1$ to have one job dispatched for every node. If
568 you have $10$ client nodes and one master node, specify $33$ to have
569 a well balanced render farm.
570 \item[(overridden if new file at each label is checked)] instead of
571 the number of jobs being set to \textit{Total jobs to create}, there
572 will be a job created for each labeled section. If in the render
573 menu, the option \textit{Create new file at each label} is selected
574 when no labels exist, only one job will be created. It may be quite
575 advantageous to set labels at certain points in the video to ensure
576 that a key portion of the video will not be split into two different
578 \item[Reset rates] sets the framerate for all the nodes to $0$.
579 Frame rates are used to scale job sizes based on CPU speed of the
580 node. Frame rates are calculated only when render farm is enabled.
583 Framerates can really affect how the Render Farm works. The first
584 time you use the render farm all of the rates are displayed as $0$
585 in the \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences}, Performance tab
586 in the Nodes box. As rendering occurs, all of the nodes send back
587 framerate values to the master node and the preferences page is
588 updated with these values. A rate accumulates based on speed. Once
589 all nodes have a rate of non-zero, the program gives out less work
590 to lower rated nodes in an effort to make the total time for the
591 render to be almost constant. Initially, when the framerate scaling
592 values are zero, the program just uses package length -- render size
593 divided by the number of packages to portion out the work (if not
594 labels). If something goes wrong or the rates become suspect, then
595 all of the rest of the work will be dumped into the last job. When
596 this happens, you really should \textit{reset rates} for the next
597 render farm session to restart with a good balance.
599 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
600 {path_to_cinelerra}/cin -h # displays some of the options.
603 \subsection{Detailed Setup Description}%
604 \label{sub:detailed_setup_description}
606 {\color{red} CAUTION }, any exact command lines worked as of
607 $01/2018$ on a Fedora system. These can change over time and on
608 different operating systems/levels. Always check/verify any command
612 \item[Set up \CGG{}] A \CGG{} render farm is organized into a master
613 node and any number of client nodes. The master node is the
614 computer which is running the gui. The client nodes are anywhere
615 else on the network with \CGG{} installed and are run from the
616 command line. Before you start the master node for \CGG{}, you need
617 to set up a shared filesystem on the disk storage node as this is
618 the node that will have the common volume where all the data will be
619 stored. The location of the project and its files should be the
620 same in the client computers as in the master computer and to avoid
621 problems of permissions, it is better to use the same user in master
622 and clients. For example, if you have the project in
623 \texttt{/home/<user>/project-video} you must create the same
624 directory path on the clients, but empty. Sharing the directory of
625 the location of your project on the master computer can be done with
626 NFS as described next. Alternatively, you can look up on the
627 internet how to use Samba to share a directory.
628 \item[Create a shared filesystem and mount using NFS] All nodes in
629 the render farm should use the same filesystem with the same paths
630 to the project files on all of the master and client nodes. This is
631 easiest to do by setting up an NFS shared disk system.
633 \item On each of the computers, install the nfs software if not
634 already installed. For example, on Debian 9 you will need to run:
635 (be sure to check/verify before using any command line):
636 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
637 apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
639 \item On the computer that contains the disk storage to be shared,
640 define the network filesystem. For example to export \texttt{/tmp},
641 edit the \texttt{/etc/exports} file to add the following line:
642 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
643 192.168.1.0/24(rw,fsid=1,no_root_squash,sync,no_subtree_check)
645 \item Next reset the exported nfs directories using:
646 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
648 \end{lstlisting} and you may have to start or restart nfs:
649 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
650 systemctl restart nfs
652 \item Each of the render farm computers must mount the exported
653 nfs target path. To see the exports which are visible from a
654 client, login as root to the client machine and keyin:
655 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
656 showmount -e <ip-addr> #using the ip address of the storage host
658 \item to access the host disk storage from the other computers in
659 the render farm, mount the nfs export on the corresponding target
660 path: (be sure to check/verify before using any command line):
661 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
662 mount -t nfs <ip-addr>:/<path> <path>
663 \end{lstlisting} where \texttt{<path>} is the storage host
664 directory, and \texttt{<ip-addr>} is the network address of the
665 storage host. Because all of the computers must have the same
666 directory path, create that same directory path with the same
667 uid/gid/permissions on each storage client computer ahead of time.
668 \item To make this permanent across reboots on the client nodes,
669 add the following line to \texttt{/etc/fstab}:
670 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
671 {masternode}:/nfsshare /mnt nfs defaults 0 0
672 \end{lstlisting} You can make this permanent on the disk storage
673 host BUT the command lines shown, which were correct in January 2018
674 on Fedora, may be different for your operating system or in the
675 future. In addition if your network is not up, there may be
676 numerous problems. If you make a mistake, your system may not boot.
677 To make permanent, add the following line to \texttt{/etc/fstab}:
678 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
679 192.168.1.12:/tmp /tmp nfs rw,async,hard,intr,noexec,noauto 0 0
680 \end{lstlisting} You will still have to mount the above manually
681 because of the \textit{noauto} parameter but you won’t have to
682 remember all of the other necessary parameters. Depending on your
683 expertise level, you can change that.
685 Later, to remove access to the storage host filesystem:
686 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
690 Be aware that you may have to adjust any security or firewalls
691 you have in place. \textit{Most firewalls will require extra rules
692 to allow nfs access}. Many have built-in configurations for this.
694 \item[Configure Rendering on Master Node] There is 1 master node
695 which is running the \CGG{} gui and where the video will be edited
696 and the command given to start up the rendering. Any number of
697 client computers can be run from the command line only, so they can
698 be headless since no X or any graphical libraries are needed. Of
699 course, the \CGG{} software must be installed on each of the client
702 \item Assuming you already have \CGG{} installed on the master
703 node, start \CGG{} by clicking on the icon or by typing the
704 following command on the terminal screen:
705 \texttt{/{cinelerra\_path}/cin}.
706 \item Use the \textit{File} pulldown \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
707 Preferences}, the Performance tab, to set up your Render Farm
708 options in the Render Farm pane.
709 \item Check the \textit{Use render farm} option. By default, once
710 you enable the option of Render Farm, rendering is usually done
711 using the render farm. Batch rendering can be done locally, or
713 \item Add the hostname or the IP address of each of the client
714 nodes in the Hostname textbox and the port number that you want to
715 use in the Port textbox. You can make sure a port number is not
716 already in use by keying in on the command line:
717 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
718 netstat -n -l -4 --protocol inet
719 \end{lstlisting} Next, click on the \textit{Add Nodes} button and
720 then you will see that host appear in the Nodes list box to the
721 right. The \texttt{X} in the first column of the nodes box denotes
722 that the node is active. To review the \textit{standard} port
723 allocations, check the \texttt{/etc/services} file.
724 \item Enter the total jobs that you would like to be used in the
725 \textit{Total job} textbox.
726 \item The default watchdog timer initial state is usually just
727 fine but can be adjusted later if needed.
728 \item Click OK on the Preferences window when done.
730 \item[Create Workflow] While working on the master computer, it is
731 recommended that you keep all the resources being used on the same
732 shared disk. Load your video/audio piece and do your editing and
733 preparation. Add any desired plugins, such as a Title, to fine-tune
734 your work. You want to make sure your video is ready to be rendered
735 into the final product.
736 \item[Start the Client Nodes] To start up the client nodes run
737 \CGG{} from the command line on each of the client computers using
738 the following command:
739 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
740 /{cinelerra_pathname}/cin -d [port number]
742 /mnt1/bin/cinelerra -d 401
743 \end{lstlisting} This starts \CGG{} in command prompt mode so that
744 it listens to the specified port number for commands from the master
745 node for rendering. When you start each of the clients up, you will
746 see some messages scroll by as each client is created on that
748 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
749 RenderFarmClient::main_loop: client started
750 RenderFarmClient::main_loop: Session started from 127.0.0.1
751 \end{lstlisting} As it completes its jobs, you will should see:
752 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
753 RenderFarmClientThread::run: Session finished
754 \end{lstlisting} A quick way to start a sequence of clients is to
756 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh,mathescape]
757 for n in `seq 1501 1505`; do
761 \item[Render Using Render Farm] After you have followed the
762 preceding steps, you are ready to use the render farm. Click on
763 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Render}\dots which opens the render
764 dialog. The most important point here is to use for \textit{the
765 Output path / Select a file to render to} a path/file name that is
766 on the shared volume that is also mounted on the clients. Click on
767 OK to render. The \CGG{} program divides the timeline into the
768 number of jobs specified by the user. These jobs are then
769 dispatched to the various nodes depending upon the load balance. The
770 first segment will always render on the master node and the other
771 segments will be farmed out to the render nodes. Batch Rendering,
772 as well as BD/DVD rendering, may use the render farm. Each line in
773 the batchbay can enable/disable the render farm. Typically, video
774 can be rendered into many file segments and concatenated, but
775 normally audio is rendered as one monolithic file (not farmed).
777 Another performance feature which can use the Render Farm is
778 \textit{Background Rendering}. This is also enabled on the
779 \texttt{Preferences $\rightarrow$ Performances} tab. The background
780 render function generates a set of image files by pre-rendering the
781 timeline data on the fly. As the timeline is update by editing, the
782 image data is re-rendered to a \textit{background render} storage
783 path. The Render Farm will be used for this operation if it is
784 enabled at the same time as the \textit{background render} feature.
785 \item[Assemble the Output Files] Once all of the computer jobs are
786 complete, you can put the output files together by using the shell
787 script, \textit{RenderMux} (from the menubar \textit{scripts} button
788 just above FF), if the files were rendered using ffmpeg, or you can
789 load these by creating a new track and specifying concatenate to
790 existing tracks in the load dialog in the correct numerical order.
791 File types which support direct copy can be concatenated into a
792 single file by rendering to the same file format with render farm
793 disabled as long as the track dimensions, output dimensions, and
794 asset dimensions are equal.
797 \subsection{Quick and Easy Render Farm Setup – The Buddy System
799 \label{sub:buddy_system_way}
801 These steps are for quickly setting up render farm with the least
802 amount of additional system work, but it is non-optimal. It is
803 useful in situations where a few people all show up with their
804 laptops to work together on the same video/audio file and you don’t
805 want to bother setting up NFS for a shared disk.
808 \item Make sure the \CGG{} program is installed on all of the
809 computers and the network between the main computer and the client
810 computers is working. Use the same version if possible.
811 \item Load your video file on the master node and use \texttt{File
812 $\rightarrow$ Save as}\dots to save it to \texttt{/tmp}.
813 \item Move that same file with the same name to \texttt{/tmp} on all
814 of the client computers via rsh or sneaker net -- the ONLY reason
815 you are doing this is to avoid having to set up NFS or Samba on the
816 buddy client laptops that show up!
817 \item Edit your video/audio file to get it the way you want it and
818 add the plugins, such as a Title, etc.
819 \item Check for a set of unused ports in \texttt{/etc/services}
820 file, if username is root usually $401-425$ are available; if
821 non-root, then $1024-1079$.
822 \item On the master computer, in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
823 Preferences, Performance} tab:
825 \item check the box \textit{Use render farm}
826 \item keyin localhost for the hostname or an ip address of the
828 \item keyin the desired port number for each client; and use
829 \textit{Add Node} for each host
830 \item set total jobs to the number of client computers $+1$
831 multiplied by $3$ (or proportion to client speeds)
834 \item On each buddy client, create a job for each port:
835 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
836 /{cinelerra_pathname}/cin -d port#
838 \item On the master, bring up the render menu and name the output
839 files, for example \texttt{/tmp/myoutput.mp4}.
840 \item The client nodes output results will be on their local
841 \texttt{/tmp} filesystems so you will have to again use
842 \textit{rsh/ftp} or \textit{usb sneaker net} to move them over to
843 the main computer. File names will be the render job output file
844 name with port number tacked on
845 (e.g. \texttt{/tmp/hb.mp4001...mp4005}).
846 \item Load the files by concatenate to existing track on the master
847 node or use RenderMux shell script.
850 \subsection{Multi-core Computers Render Farm Setup}%
851 \label{sub:multi_core_render_farm_setup}
853 If you are lucky enough to have a computer with a large cpu core
854 count, setting up a render farm can really take advantage of using
855 all of the cpus. This is much faster than the default automatic
856 threading capability. Since you don’t need to communicate with other
857 computers, you will not have to be concerned about TCP communication
858 or shared disks/files; only localhost nodes. On the terminal, we will open many instances of \CGG{} by connecting them to the jobs created. The number of such jobs can be the total number of CPU threads or not. When you are going to be doing other work
859 simultaneously while rendering a large job, you will want to leave
860 some of the cpus available for that. Be sure to set \textit{Project SMP
861 cpus} in the \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences, Performance} tab to your CPU
864 \subsection{Troubleshooting Tips and Warnings}%
865 \label{sub:troubleshhoting_tips_warnings}
867 \noindent If you have problems running the Render Farm. Here is a
868 list of items to check.
871 \item \CGG{} must be installed on the master node and all client
873 \item It is best to have the same username available on all nodes to
874 avoid problems with access rights.
875 \item Check file permissions and ownership to ensure that the
876 clients all have access.
877 \item If a node does not have access to an input asset it will not
878 die, but just display error messages.
879 \item If a node can not access an output asset, the rendering will
881 \item A port in use when stopped may take up to $30$ seconds to time
882 out before you can restart the jobs.
883 \item Each of the port combinations have to be unique across
884 clients, and not already in use in the network.
885 \item \CGG{} load balances on a first come, first serve basis. If
886 the last section of the video is sent to the slowest node, the
887 render job will have to wait for the slowest node to finish. It
888 would be better to start on the slowest node with the earlier
889 section of the video so keep that in mind when designating port
891 \item If not running as root, a port number in the higher range of
892 $1024$ and above must be used instead of the $400+$ range.
893 \item The master and client jobs on the ports do not go away so if
894 you want to stop them, you will have to kill them via: \texttt{kill
896 \item Check to see if there are services listening on the ports to
897 use: \texttt{netstat -n -l -4 --protocol inet}
898 \item There is a watchdog timer in \CGG{} and if there is no
899 response from a client in the designated number of seconds, it will
901 \item The \textit{localhost} should exist as $127.0.0.1$ in
902 \texttt{/etc/hosts} and as the \texttt{lo} network device in
904 \item If the job loads become unbalanced, you may want to
905 \textit{reset rates} to start over for new framerates.
906 \item If jobs are split in a key section on the timeline, you may
907 wish to \textit{use labels} to prevent this.
908 \item For testing purposes, you may want to start a client in the
909 foreground using \texttt{-f} instead of \texttt{-d}.
910 \item If one of the client computers is unavailable, check to see if
911 there is an \texttt{X} to the left of the \texttt{nodename} in the
912 Nodes listbox. Check the \texttt{X} to disable it which sets ON to
914 \item A red message in the lower left hand corner of the main
915 timeline that reads \textit{Failed to start render farm} often means
916 that the client \CGG{} programs were not started up.
917 \item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmWatchdog::run 1 killing server
918 thread \\ \#address\#} means that the client did not respond in
919 time. You can adjust the timer in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
920 Preferences, Performance} tab.
921 \item When you get the message \texttt{RenderFarmClient::main\_loop:
922 bind port 400: Address already in use}, use a different port.
923 \item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmServerThread::open\_client:
924 unknown host abcompany} means that the hostname of abcompany is not
925 in \texttt{/etc/hosts} so you will have to add it or use the ip
927 \item There are numerous error messages associated with file
928 \textit{open/close/status} or problems with the file that should be
929 dealt with according to what is printed out.
930 \item Other illustrative messages may be shown such as:
931 \texttt{RenderFarmClientThread:: run: Session finished}.
934 And here are a couple of more tips for making Render Farm specific
937 \item Because \textit{index files} speed up displaying the video you
938 may want to share these files with the clients on a shared
939 filesystem. More information on index files configuration is
940 outlined in~\ref{sub:index_file_section}.
941 \item Or, one of the convenient features of \CGG{} is the
942 redirection of the path via \texttt{CIN\_CONFIG} as in:
943 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
944 CIN_CONFIG="/<shared_file_pathname>/<filename_such_as_.bcast5>" cin
945 \end{lstlisting} This means that you can make project related
946 configurations that do not impact the default \texttt{\$HOME}
947 config. You can either export your default \texttt{\$HOME} config
948 or the \texttt{CIN\_CONFIG} config to use on the render farm.
953 If one of the render farm computers is connected to the internet,
954 you should use a firewall to maintain the safety of all of the
955 computers. The ports have to be reachable for the intranet but you
956 do not want the ports to be open to the outside.
958 \section{Some Specific Rendering}%
959 \label{sec:some_specific_rendering}
961 \noindent The next few pages relate to rendering for specific common
964 \subsection{FFmpeg Common H.264 Rendering}%
965 \label{sub:ffmpeg_h264_rendering}
967 Because H.264 is so widely used, the method in \CGG{} Infinity is
968 outlined below. These setup steps make it easy to just get started.
971 \item File $\rightarrow$ Render
972 \item File Format $\rightarrow$ FFMPEG + mp4
973 \item Video Wrench $\rightarrow$ Preset $\rightarrow$ h264.mp4 +
974 bitrate: 6000000 (or whatever) + OK
975 \item Audio Wrench $\rightarrow$ Preset $\rightarrow$ h265.mp4 +
976 bitrate: 224000 (or whatever) + OK
977 \item Set your target path in: Render $\rightarrow$ Select a file to
979 \item Set your timeline in: Render $\rightarrow$ Render range +
981 \item Set your insertion strategy: Replace project (or whatever)
982 \item Press OK to start rendering.
985 \subsection{Lossless Rendering}%
986 \label{sub:loseeless_rendering}
988 Lossless means that in the compression of a file, all of the
989 original data, every single bit, can be recovered when the file is
990 uncompressed. This is different than \textit{lossy compression}
991 where some data is permanently deleted so that when uncompressed,
992 all of the original data can not be exactly recovered. Lossy is
993 generally used for video and sound, where a certain amount of
994 information loss will not be detected by most users or the playback
995 hardware does not reproduce it anyway -- it is a trade-off between
996 file size and image/sound quality. The files created will be more
997 than 10 times larger than usual. Most players will not be able to
998 decode lossless as the bitrate will overwhelm the device.
1000 For x264 lossless compression to work, the only color model allowed
1001 here is yuv420p. Any other specification will be converted to
1002 yuv420p and the data will be modified. Also, keep in mind that the
1003 YUV color model has to be converted to RGB, which also modifies the
1006 To use x264 lossless rendering -- choose File format of ffmpeg, m2ts
1007 in the Render window. Click on the Video wrench, which brings up
1008 the Video Preset window and scroll down in the Compression filebox
1009 and choose \texttt{lossless.m2ts}. \textit{Preset=medium} is the
1010 default, but can be varied from \textit{ultrafast} (least amount of
1011 compression, but biggest file size) to \textit{veryslow} (most
1012 amount of compression, but still HUGE) in the parameter box where
1013 you see $qp=0$. This option is also available for bluray creation.
1015 \subsection{Extra “cin\_” Options for Render with FFmpeg}%
1016 \label{sub:extra_cin_option_ffmpeg}
1018 There are several special parameters that can be used in the ffmpeg
1019 options file to pass values to the codecs that are not normally
1020 available. They're called Global Options. These are explained
1023 \paragraph{cin\_pix\_fmt} The Render menus allows you to choose the
1024 codec input pixel format (figure~\ref{fig:yuv420}). The Pixels
1025 selection provides the available pixel format options for the chosen
1026 codec type; valid choices vary for the different file types. This
1027 list represents the formats that the codec advertises. It is not
1028 always complete, and it may include options that are not legal with
1029 all parameter configurations.
1031 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
1032 \includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{yuv420.png}
1033 \caption{Render \& Video Preset menus displaying Pixel choices}
1038 \item The \textit{Bitrate}, \textit{Quality}, and \textit{Pixels}
1039 fields are only updated when the Video Options are reloaded. This
1040 occurs when you either change the ffmpeg file format, or video
1041 presets compression fields.
1042 \item If the video options preset has \textit{cin\_pix\_fmt}
1043 defined, its value will be loaded as the default. If you override
1044 the default, the value you specify will be used.
1045 \item If the video options preset does not have
1046 \textit{cin\_pix\_fmt}, the default pixel format will be computed by
1047 ffmpeg (\textit{avcodec\_find\_best\_pix\_fmt\_of\_list}), using the
1048 session format as the source choice. The \textit{best} is usually
1049 the format which is most similar in color and depth.
1050 \item If no choices are available, yuv420p for video will be used.
1051 \item You can also specify ffmpeg pixel formats which are not in the
1052 list. The list is provided by ffmpeg as input selection, but is
1053 more like suggestions than fact. For example, the raw formats can
1054 take almost any format, but the rawvideo codec actually specifies no
1058 \noindent Some option files provide \textit{cin\_pix\_fmt} to
1059 suggest a choice for good quality output or to prevent parameter
1060 errors when the other provided parameters conflict with the
1061 \textit{best} pixel format. This is the case in
1062 \texttt{faststart\_h264.mp4} where the \textit{profile=high}
1063 parameter dictates pixel format must be \texttt{yuv420p}.
1065 \paragraph{cin\_bitrate} If you specify the bitrate, you can not
1066 specify the quality.\\ Example: \textit{cin\_bitrate=2000000}
1068 \paragraph{cin\_quality} If you specify the quality, you can not
1069 specify the bitrate.\\ Example: \textit{cin\_quality=7}
1071 \paragraph{cin\_stats\_filename} This parameter is useful for 2 pass
1072 operations.\\ Example: \texttt{cin\_stats\_filename
1073 /tmp/cin\_video\_vp9\_webm}
1075 \paragraph{cin\_sample\_fmt} For audio the preset sample format
1076 default is computed in a similar way as stated above for video or
1077 can be set with the \textit{cin\_sample\_fmt} parameter
1078 (figure~\ref{fig:audio}). If no choices are provided, s16 will be
1079 used.\\ Example: \textit{cin\_sample\_fmt=s16}
1081 \begin{figure}[htpb] \centering
1082 \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{audio.png}
1083 \caption{Render menu showing where Samples is}
1087 \paragraph{Private Options} (muxers). In the window of the
1088 \textit{wrench} in addition to the \textit{View} button, which
1089 allows more global options and changes to the formats, there is an
1090 additional \textit{Format} button that allows you to modify the
1091 Private Options, i.e.\ relating to specific muxing formats. More
1092 information on all these options can be found at
1093 \href{https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#Format-Options}{ffmpeg.org}
1096 \subsection{Two-pass Encoding with FFmpeg}%
1097 \label{sub:two_pass_encoding_ffmpeg}
1099 In \CGG{} for two-pass, you need to run ffmpeg twice, with the same
1100 settings, except for designating the options of pass~1 for the first
1101 pass and then pass~2. In pass~1, a logfile that ffmpeg needs for
1102 the second pass is created. In pass~1 the audio codec should be
1103 specified that will be used in pass~2. For more information on
1104 ffmpeg 2-pass, check
1105 \href{https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/H.264}{ffmpeg.org}.
1106 Different libraries may have different requirements and you will
1107 probably have to determine this by looking online at ffmpeg or
1108 looking directly at that code.
1110 This 2 line ffmpeg 2-pass operation can be functionally duplicated
1111 in \CGG{} in the steps below them:
1113 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1114 ffmpeg -y -i $INPUT \
1115 -c:v libx264 -b:v 2600k -pass 1 \
1116 -c:a aac -b:a 128k -f mp4 /dev/null && \
1118 -c:v libx264 -b:v 2600k -pass 2 \
1119 -c:a aac -b:a 128k $OUTPUT.mp4
1123 \item After you have completed your editing, do a Save Session with
1124 \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Save as}\dots Before starting, be sure
1125 your session is ready for batch render. That is, positioned at the
1126 beginning and nothing selected.
1127 \item Bring up \texttt{File $\rightarrow$ Batch Render}\dots where
1128 you will do the setup.
1129 \item Click on the \textit{Delete} box to remove old jobs
1130 highlighted in the bottom listbox.
1132 \item For the \textit{File Format} choose ffmpeg and mp4 for the
1134 \item Set \textit{Output path} to the path and filename for the
1136 \item Click on \textit{Use Current EDL} to use the designated EDL
1138 \item Click on \textit{New} and you will see a new highlighted job
1139 show up in the listbox at the bottom.
1140 \item Use the Audio wrench to set bitrate to $128000$ ($128k$ as
1141 in ffmpeg example above).
1142 \item Click checkmark OK\@. Open the video tools with the video
1144 \item Set the Video Compression to \textit{h264.mp4} (as seen in
1146 \item Set the bitrate to $2600000$ ($2600k$ as in ffmpeg example
1148 \item Add the following 2 lines after the first line:
1149 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1151 passlogfile /tmp/"{temporary log file name}.log"
1152 \end{lstlisting} Click checkmark OK.
1154 \item Click on \textit{New} to create the second pass job. You will
1155 see this second job in the listbox below. Use the Video wrench and
1156 change pass1 to pass2 as follows.
1157 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1160 \item Click checkmark OK.
1161 \item Click on the \textit{Start} box and watch it go!
1162 \item You can now check the output file for results. At the time
1163 this was documented, \textit{rc=2pass} will be in the output.
1166 If you need to re-render this, the Batch Render will still be set up
1167 but you have to click on the \textit{Enabled} column in the listbox
1168 to re-enable the jobs to run which puts an X there. Click Start
1169 again. You can reuse batch job using the \textit{save jobs} and
1170 \textit{load jobs} buttons in the batch render dialog.
1172 \paragraph{Render shortcuts for webm, h264, h265} are available by
1173 using the option files that are already set up for this purpose.
1174 Use the render menu as usual, with ffmpeg/mp4, choose h264 or h265
1175 \textit{pass1of2\_h26x} for the video and
1176 \textit{passes1and\-2\_h26x} for the audio; with ffmpeg/webm, choose
1177 \textit{pass1of2\_vp9}. When that is finished, you will have to use
1178 the render menu again and this time for video, choose
1179 \textit{pass2of2\_h26x} or \textit{pass2of2\_vp9}. The logfile is
1180 hard coded in the options file so will write over any currently
1181 existing logfile if you do not change it before you start the
1184 \paragraph{Requirements for some other libraries} (used instead
1185 of \textit{flags +pass1} \& \textit{passlogfile}):
1187 \item[x265:] add this line:
1188 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1189 x265-params=pass=1:stats=/tmp/{temporary-log-file-name}.log
1190 \end{lstlisting} at the time this document was written, you should
1191 see in the output: \textit{stats-read=2}
1192 \item[libvpx-vp9, xvid, and huffyuv:]~
1193 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1194 cin_stats_filename /tmp/{temporary-log-file-name}.log
1195 flags +pass1 (or flags +pass2 for the second pass)
1199 \textit{NOTE:} for vp9, the best Pixels is \textit{gbrp}
1201 \subsection{Use case: High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)}%
1202 \label{sub:use_case_hevc}
1204 An example of video profile based on CRF, a quality-controlled
1205 variable bitrate, instead of fixed quality scale (ABR). HEVC
1206 (H.265) was developed as a successor to AVC (H.264) to more
1207 efficiently compress the future large amounts of data from 2/4/8k
1208 videos. In comparison to AVC, an average saving of around 30
1209 percent can be assumed for the same quality. Because HEVC is not
1210 bound to any size format, it is suitable for virtually any image
1213 The following example is HD and FullHD oriented and produces a
1214 picture quality similar to the Blu-ray with some limitations. As
1215 container Matroska (\texttt{.mkv}) is used, but also mp4 and others
1218 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1221 # CRF 16 creates a balanced compromise
1222 # between quality and file size.
1225 # Preset changes encoding speed and generally
1226 # degrades the overall result. Medium (default)
1230 # Additional parameters that are passed on to the codec.
1231 # me=star improves the search for very fast
1232 # movements, but slows down the encoding.
1233 #x265-params=me=star
1235 # Keyint does FFmpeg automatically, otherwise
1236 # the setting must match the frame rate.
1239 # Profile does FFmpeg automatically.
1242 # Source sRBG and retention of color space.
1243 # 720/1080=bt709 if no profile set. Useful
1244 # for formats smaller than 720 if no lossy
1245 # conversion is desired.
1248 color_primaries=bt709
1250 # Output in 10 bit, prevents 8-bit step formation
1251 pixel_format=yuv420p
1254 \noindent \textit{NOTE:}
1256 A CRF of 16 delivers satisfactory results in most cases. However, if
1257 the video material is really \emph{grainy}, a CRF~16 can lead to
1258 unwanted large files. In this case, a trial export of perhaps one
1259 minute should be performed. The resulting bit rate can be used to
1260 correct the CRF to 17,\,18,\,19\ldots -- remember, a CRF of $0$ (zero)
1261 means lossless, the higher the number the stronger the lossy
1262 compression. The approximate calculation of the final file size can
1263 be extrapolated from the sample export.
1265 The color space information must be used explicitly so that it can
1266 be included in the video. \CGG{} or FFmpeg does not write it by
1267 itself. Without this information the players (e.\,g.\
1268 \href{https://mpv.io/}{mpv}) stick to the dimensions of the video
1269 and take the assumed color model from a table. With videos in the
1270 dimensions from 720 to 1080 this is bt709. For smaller dimensions,
1271 e.\,g.\ DVD, bt601 is assumed and for 4k and above it is
1272 bt2020. Normally this is not a problem, but if you want to export a
1273 FullHD without color loss to a smaller size like 576 for example,
1274 you have to inform the encoder as well as the decoder of the
1275 player. This also applies if the videos are to be loaded on video
1276 platforms, where they are then converted into videos of different
1277 sizes. It is a security measure to prevent false colors, such as the
1278 color profiles in digital photos and the copies made from them.
1280 The HEVC tuning has not been considered here, because it is is
1281 rarely used and requires background knowledge.
1285 \item \href{http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/default/}{x265
1287 \item \href{http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/latest/cli.html}{x265
1288 Command Line Options}
1289 \item \href{http://x265.readthedocs.org/en/latest/presets.html}{x265
1293 \subsection{Piping Video to a Command Line}%
1294 \label{sub:piping_video_command_line}
1296 You can pipe a video to any command line on the computer, such as
1297 ffmpeg. This can be especially useful with raw video files. Next
1298 is an example usage.
1301 \item on a terminal window create a named pipe file, for example:
1302 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1303 mknod /tmp/piper.yuv p
1304 \end{lstlisting} load your video and do your editing
1305 \item set up your Render (\texttt{Shift-R}), you can choose a raw
1306 format such as \textit{yuv} or \textit{rgb}
1307 \item for the filename \textit{Select a file to render to}, use the
1308 named pipe as created in step 1 (\texttt{/tmp/piper.yuv})
1309 \item for \textit{Insertion Strategy}, you will want to make sure to
1310 select \textit{insert nothing}
1311 \item click for OK on the green checkmark.(the \CGG{} gui will look
1312 like it is hanging while waiting for a command line to use the
1314 \item on the terminal window, keyin your command, for example:
1315 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1316 /mnt0/build5/cinelerra-5.1/thirdparty/ffmpeg-3.4.1/ffmpeg -f \
1317 rawvideo -pixel_format yuv420p -video_size 1280x720 \
1318 -framerate 30000/1001 -i /tmp/piper.yuv /tmp/pys.mov
1322 A slightly different option can be used instead that may be more
1323 familiar to some. In the render menu after choosing the File Format
1324 of \textit{ffmpeg}, use the pulldown to choose \textit{y4m} as the
1325 file type. This choice results in putting a header on the rendered
1326 output with some pertinent information that can be used for ffmpeg
1327 processing thus alleviating the requirement for
1328 \textit{pixel\_format}, \textit{video\_size}, and \textit{framerate}
1329 on the ffmpeg command line. In this case the format is
1330 \textit{yuv4mpegpipe} instead of \textit{rawvideo}. An example
1331 command line would look as follows (assuming the created pipe is
1332 called \texttt{piper.y4m}):
1333 \begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
1334 ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i /tmp/piper.y4m -vcodec libx264 /tmp/test.mp4
1337 \subsection{Faststart Option for MOV type files}%
1338 \label{sub:faststart_option_mov0}
1340 If you have mov video and want to be able to start playing without
1341 having to first load the entire video, \textit{-movflags=+faststart}
1342 is needed for ffmpeg to put the meta-data, known as the \textit{moov
1343 atom}, at the beginning of the file. Otherwise, ffmpeg puts this
1344 atom at the end of the video file which means you have to wait to
1345 play until the whole video is loaded. Or worse yet, if the file
1346 becomes damaged in the middle and you can not get to the end, you
1347 won’t be able to play anything.
1349 Now you can have the \textit{moov atom} put on the front of the file
1350 (automatically via a second pass). To do this, when rendering using
1351 ffmpeg \& either the mp4 or qt format/container, click on the
1352 video/audio wrenches and choose \textit{faststart\_h264}. With the
1353 \textit{qt} format, settings will just be the default whereas the
1354 \textit{mp4} format uses the highest quality and lowest file size as
1355 possible, but you can easily modify these options in the associated
1356 Video Preset textbox.
1358 %%% Local Variables:
1360 %%% TeX-master: "../CinelerraGG_Manual"