mysterious watermark in (Sorenson) SVQ3 video

[Madison Bullard]

I am attempting to restore this archival footage of George Gershwin playing piano:

http://www.producerslibrary.com/displayProduct1.do?product_id=100306&product_name=V-0220_010

The file resulting from the "Download Clip" button uses Sorenson Video v3 (SVQ3) codec.

If you download the clip yourselves, you will notice that the "Producers Library" watermark appears in some media players (MPEG Streamclip, MPC, or by using QTinput in avisynth), but does NOT appear in others (VLC, specifically). VLC does not indicate any hidden subtitle or video tracks. I can't find any mention of watermarking features with SVQ3.

As I am altering both the video and audio source with AVIsynth to arrive at my final product, I am unable to get rid of the watermark. I have not found any clues as to how I might disable the watermark (which obviously isn't hard encoded into the video track).

I know SVQ3 isn't a commonly used codec (I hate it as much as the rest of you!), so information might not be plentiful, but any leads you might have for me to explore would be very helpful.

[Ghitulescu]

VLC uses its own codec, maybe it's the codec that's still on "trial".

[sneaker_ger]

Try ffmpegsource (http://code.google.com/p/ffmpegsource/).

[Madison Bullard]

@Ghitulescu: That is a possibility. I opened the file with Nero Showtime 3, which just happened to be on my machine, and it too did NOT display the watermark. Could it be that Nero uses its own codec as well?

@sneaker_ger: I'll try that and post with results. Thanks.

edit: Yes! Replacing QTInput() with FFVideoSource() in the avs did the trick. Thanks for the help!

[benwaggoner]

Sorenson Video 3 Pro included the ability to include a bitmap watermark in the bitstream that would be composited in the decoder. This was because codecs and bitrates of the era often made watermarks really ugly after compression. I fear this might have actually been my idea, in fact :)... I was working very closely with Sorenson on product planning back then. Yeesh, it was released 10 years ago last month. I suspect I'm getting old...

If only I could have talked them out of YUV-9...

Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if non-Sorenson decoders for SVQ3 didn't include the watermark support, since it wasn't a commonly used feature, and something that most users would probably prefer to not see.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Sorenson Video 3 Pro included the ability to include a bitmap watermark in the bitstream that would be composited in the decoder.
So it's not one of QuickTime players weird visual/annotation options then?

Anyway Madison, if it helps you, here's the same file re-muxed into the .MKV container: http://www.sendspace.com/file/bqv4vv


Cheers

[Dark Shikari]

See libavcodec/svq3.c for stuff related to the watermarking.