EComper Black Border

[gavspav]

When I create a clip using EComper it seems to have a black border around the image.
This seems strange as the manual states ecomper doesn’t render.
But if I drag the clip I’ve made into my composition and resize it you’ll see it does obscure the other clip. Here’s a screengrab. The clip to the lower right is the original. The overlay is one I made with ecomper and resized to show what is happening. A bit confusing I realize!

I tried opening the clip with vlc and it doesn’t appear to have a border but it plays like sh*t!

[Timo]

Hi Gavin. This might happen when you combine videos of different sizes in midiclip. Is that what happened? If not: Can you perhaps share the project with me that you used to generate the clip? Maybe I can figure out what happens.
Cheers
Timo

[gavspav]

No they are the same size. Just one clip. I’ve sent you an email and the project!

[Timo]

Hi Gavin, I puzzled today with the files that you have sent me and this is what is going on:

• EboSuite makes a new video based on the midi notes that are playing
• If there is a gap between the notes it will fill that gap with a black dummy video
• There is an issue currently with the combination of framerates/video dimensions you use that are different than the black dummy video which results in two issues: weird size or flickering and out of sync video and audio

I cannot fix this quickly and there are other reasons that it is better not to focus on this in the near future, but I do have a workaround:

• make sure all the videos have the same dimensions and framerate (that is already the case in the example you sent)
• fill the gaps with a black dummy video with the same dimensions and framerate as the source.

Here is how that looks like:

The ‘legato’ button on the bottom left can also really help to make sure there really are no gaps.

I think the easiest way to generate the correct dummy video is to use FFMPEG in the terminal like this:

ffmpeg -i dummy.mov -s 960x720 -filter:v fps=29.52 -c:v hap dummyTest.mov

This generates a file with dimensions 960x720 and framerate 29.52 fps, (both files are in the zip below
dummyVids.zip (1.8 KB)

To quickly check the fps and dimensions of the input file you can use

ffmpeg -i input.mov

I hope this is clear and doable workaround, sorry for the hassle.

You also reported that dragging is currently broken in the eComper. I will try to fix that for the next version
Cheers
Timo

[gavspav]

Thanks for looking into it.
Is there a recommended framerate/dimension to avoid this issue?
Bit of a workflow killer otherwise! I’m lazy. I might end up using ecrop!

[Timo]

Yeah, sorry about that, the eComper is a bit dated and used to work better for some odd reason.
Easiest fix is try to leave no gaps in the composition. We hope to bring a better solution for this in the future.

[gavspav]

Just pass it off as a feature. To stop me making epileptic inducing content!