avchd, hdv & dv player with metadata tools
 

Options

Options for the Player, Tools, Batch Processor and Capture DV can be found in the Tools>Options menu of the main DVMP Pro window. This pops up an Options dialog box with the following sections:

  • General - general settings and the "Save as default" checkbox
  • Decoders - video and audio decoders for HDV, AVCHD and MPEG-2 PS files
  • Rendering - gives you a choice of renderers
  • Scenes - choose the triggers which define a "scene"
  • Burn-In - settings for the Burn-in tool
  • Positioning - set positions for burnt-in text
  • Appearance - set the font and size for burnt-in text; also the language and format for the recording date and time
  • Output - set the output file type for the burn-in tool
  • Capture - settings for the Capture DV window
  • Splitter - settings for the AVI file splitter
  • Modify Metadata - settings used for modifying DV metadata
  • Export Metadata - settings used when exporting metadata to a CSV file
  • Export Subtitles - settings used when exporting metadata to a SRT subtitle file

These sections are described below.

General

Metadata Display Settings

You can set the format of the date as displayed in DVMP Pro to dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd.

You can also choose the format for the display of drop-frame timecode. The delimiters can be all semi-colons, or just a semi-colon between the seconds and frames fields.

If you check the Display file progress as frame number checkbox, the file progress timecode will be  displayed as an absolute frame number instead of as a timecode.

The above settings are also used by the Export Metadata and Export Subtitles tools.

Checking the Display Geotagging locations in decimal checkbox will cause the latitude and longitude geotagging values to be displayed as a decimal fraction of degrees instead of in degrees, minutes and seconds (e.g. 49.01981 degrees instead of 49° 01' 11.3 E).

Also, if you check Display Geotagging data then the metadata pane in the player will display GPS Geotagging information such as latitude and longitude instead of the camera exposure information. This only works for AVCHD files (or standard definition MPEG-2 PS files) produced by video cameras which are equipped with GPS units.

All of the above settings take effect immediately. If you already have a file open in the DVMP Pro player then the displayed metadata will change as soon as you click OK.

Remember Main Window Position

By default, when you start up DVMP Pro it will appear centred on the screen with its default window size. Also each time you open a new media file, the window is automatically resized to give you the maximum resolution available from the video frame on screen. However you may prefer the window to stay at a position and size that you choose - that's where this option can help.

If you check this box, then when you Exit from DVMP Pro it will save the position and size of its main player window. Then when you next start it up it will appear with the same size and position on screen. Also, each time you open a file the window position and size will remain unchanged.

Save All Settings As Default

If you check this box and click OK then the settings in most of the sections will be saved as default. Next time you start DVMP Pro this will be how the settings will appear.

Note that the settings in the Modify Metadata section are not saved as you will probably want to set these to different values for each modify operation. By default all of the Modify Metadata check boxes are un-checked.

Decoders

Decoders are used when playing and burning-in DV, HDV, AVCHD and supported MPEG-2 PS files (e.g. Sony HDD/DVD or MOD files). DVMP Pro does not come supplied with decoders for HDV, AVCHD and MPEG-2 PS files, so you must already have suitable decoders installed on your PC in order to play and burn-in these file types. The Decoders options allow you to see a list of suitable decoders that are already installed on your PC, and lets you select the decoders that you want DVMP Pro to use.

Remember to also check the Save all settings as default check box (in the General options section) if you wish DVMP Pro to always use the selected decoders in future.

Microsoft DV Decoder Settings

This allows you to set the resolution of the DV decoder used to play DV AVI and Raw DV files. If you have a low resolution screen or an older PC you may gain better performance by selecting Half resolution. You do not have to select a decoder for DV file types.

MPEG-2 Video Decoder

This allows you to select the MPEG-2 video decoder that is used to play and burn-in HDV and MPEG-2 PS files. You will not be able to play HDV or MPEG2-PS files until you select a decoder here.

DVMP Pro does not have a built-in MPEG-2 video decoder. It uses one of the MPEG-2 decoders that are already installed on your system.

If you click the Select button, a dialog box appears which presents you with a list of MPEG-2 video decoders that are currently installed on your PC. DVMP Pro creates this list by examining the capabilities of installed decoders and making an assessment of which are likely to be able to handle HDV video at high resolution.

If this list is empty, then no suitable 3rd party MPEG-2 video decoders could be found on your PC, and it will not be possible to play HDV or MPEG-2 files until you install a suitable decoder.

If your PC has Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows 7 installed then these operating systems come with a suitable MPEG-2 video decoder, so you do not need any other 3rd party video decoders to play and burn-in HDV and MPEG-2 PS files. When you first run DVMP Pro on these versions of Windows, this built-in MPEG-2 video decoder is automatically selected and saved by DVMP Pro so you do not need to select it yourself. However you may still prefer to use an alternative decoder from the list if you find that it provides better performance.

If you are using other versions of Windows then you will need to install a suitable MPEG-2 video decoder if there is not already one in the list. See further details and recommendations of suitable MPEG-2 decoders.

Select the required MPEG-2 decoder from the list. 

You may then find that the Properties button becomes enabled which tells you that you can change some of the properties of the selected decoder - these properties change the internal operation of the decoder. If the Properties button is greyed-out then the decoder does not support the changing of its properties.

If you want to examine or change the decoder properties, click the Properties button and a dialog box will appear showing the existing settings. Click OK to save any changes you made, or Cancel to leave the settings unchanged.

Warning: Some of the decoder properties may prevent DVMP Pro from working correctly. Do not make changes to decoder properties unless you are confident that you know what you are doing. Be sure to make a note of the existing property settings before you attempt to change any of them, so that you can set them back again if you notice any adverse effects.

Most decoders store a separate list of property settings for each program that they are used in, so you will probably find that changing settings in DVMP Pro does not change the settings for the same decoder when used in other programs.

Also note that the saving of properties and the Properties dialog box itself is administered by the decoder itself - not DVMP Pro. Therefore DVMP Pro is not aware of what property settings are available to each decoder or what they actually do - they are completely private to the selected decoder. That is why it is important not to make any changes to the properties unless you know what you are doing!

Some decoders seem to have a problem saving their properties if the decoder is currently in-use. If you find that the property changes do not seem to be remembered, check for any running programs which may have a video file opened and either close the video file or exit the program completely - then try changing the properties again.

When you have chosen a video decoder from the list, click OK to select it.

Remember to also check the Save all settings as default check box if you wish DVMP Pro to always use this decoder in future.

You will probably want interlaced video to be deinterlaced during playback, but to remain interlaced within the burn-in tool. If so, then you may need to change one or two properties of the video decoder. Click the Properties button and find a setting called Deinterlace or Deinterlace mode - if it has a value called "VMR" then choose it, otherwise if there is value called "off" or "weave" then choose that (weave effectively means off). The "VMR" value is preferable to "off" or "weave". If the deinterlacing setting is just a check-box then uncheck it. Now look for a setting called Set interlace flag in output media type - if it exists then switch it on. Finally, look for a setting called Quality - if it exists then set it to "Obey quality messages".

AVC Video Decoder

This allows you to select the video decoder that is used to play and burn-in AVCHD files. You will not be able to play AVCHD files until you select a video decoder here.

DVMP Pro does not have a built-in AVC video decoder. It uses one of the decoders that are already installed on your system.

If you click the Video Decoder's Select button, a dialog box appears which presents you with a list of AVC (H.264) video decoders that are currently installed on your PC. DVMP Pro creates this list by examining the capabilities of installed decoders and making an assessment of which are likely to be able to handle AVC/H.264 video at high resolution.

If this list is empty, then no suitable AVC video decoders could be found on your PC, and it will not be possible to play AVCHD files until you install a suitable video decoder.

If your PC has Windows 7 installed, it comes supplied with a suitable AVC video decoder. When you first run DVMP Pro on Windows 7, this built-in AVC video decoder is automatically selected and saved by DVMP Pro so you do not need to select it yourself.  However, you may prefer to select an alternative if there is one in the list of AVC video decoders. See further details and recommendations of suitable AVC video decoders.

As described in the MPEG-2 Video Decoder section above, you can also click the Properties button for some AVC video decoders and change their internal settings. For example you may wish to change the deinterlacing properties of the video decoder.

Warning: Some of the decoder properties may prevent DVMP Pro from working correctly. Do not make changes to decoder properties unless you are confident that you know what you are doing. Be sure to make a note of the existing property settings before you attempt to change any of them. For more details see the MPEG-2 Video Decoder section above.

Select the required AVC video decoder from the list.

AC-3 Audio Decoder

This allows you to select the audio decoder that is used to play AVCHD files and MPEG-2 PS files which contain audio in AC-3 format. You will not be able to play these files until you select an audio decoder here.

DVMP Pro does not have a built-in AC-3 audio decoder - it uses one of the decoders that are already installed on your system. Windows does not come supplied with a suitable AC-3 decoder, so it may be necessary to install one yourself.

See further details and recommendations of suitable AC-3 audio decoders. At present we only recommend "AC3Filter". When you first run DVMP Pro it will check to see if AC3Filter is already installed on you PC - if so, it is automatically selected and saved, so you do not need to select it yourself.

If you click the Audio Decoder's Select button, a dialog box appears which presents you with a list of AC-3 audio decoders that are currently installed on your PC.

If this list is empty, then no suitable AC-3 audio decoders could be found on your PC, and it will not be possible to play AVCHD and MPEG-2 PS files that contain AC-3 format audio until you install a suitable audio decoder.

As described in the MPEG-2 Video Decoder section above, you can also click the Properties button for some decoders and change their internal settings.

Warning: Some of the decoder properties may prevent DVMP Pro from working correctly. Do not make changes to decoder properties unless you are confident that you know what you are doing. Be sure to make a note of the existing property settings before you attempt to change any of them. For more details see the MPEG-2 Video Decoder section above.

Select the required AC-3 audio decoder from the list. Choose AC3Filter if possible.

Rendering

This allows you to choose between the VMR9 and VMR7 renderers. It is recommended that you leave VMR9 selected, but some older graphics cards (or buggy drivers) may play "blank" video using VMR9 - in such cases choosing VMR7 may solve this problem. Note that VMR7 may use video overlay if your graphics card supports it. Also VMR7 is not supported by Microsoft on Windows 2000.

You can also choose between the windowless or windowed mode of the VMR9 or VMR7. Windowless mode is recommended, but the older windowed mode (also refered to as compatability mode) is sometimes useful for supporting older graphics cards.

Note that windowed mode may be the only mode which works in virtual machines such as VirtualBox and VMWare Fusion due to the limited capabilities of the virtual graphics drivers.

Although DVMP Pro runs on Microsoft Windows only, you can run it within VMWare Fusion hosted on Apple's Mac OS. This is one way of running DVMP Pro on a Mac, but currently this must be considered an experimental unsupported feature.

Force Display Aspect Ratio to

The Force Display Aspect Ratio option can be used to force the video to be displayed in the player as 16:9 or 4:3. You should find that nearly all of the supported video file formats play with the correct display aspect ratio, so we recommend that you leave this option un-checked.

However, a quirk of MOD files is that the camera always flags them as having a 4:3 display aspect ratio, even when it is really 16:9, so they will be played as 4:3 (horizontally squeezed). The best remedy for this is to use the popular program SDCOPY to "fix" the display aspect flags in your MOD files - the files will then play correctly as 16:9. However if you are in a hurry and just need to view your unfixed MOD files in 16:9, then the Force Display Aspect Ratio option will prove useful. Note that this option applies only to playback of files, not to any of the tools.

Scenes

This allows you to choose the items of metadata which define a "scene". The first time you run DVMP Pro the default will be for Recording date/time discontinuity only to be checked, which means that a scene-change is considered to occur when the date and time jumps out of its natural sequence which will usually have been caused by the camera being stopped or paused during recording.

You can re-define a scene-change by checking any combination of metadata items. Whenever the chosen items change value then a scene-change is triggered. For timecode and recording date/time  which are continuously changing then the trigger occurs when there is a discontinuity.

For Tape Index point, the trigger occurs when the marker is detected. For Dropped Frame then the trigger occurs when a dropped frame is detected.

 

Burn-In

This allows you to select which items of metadata are burned-in when using Tools>Burn-In Metadata or Tools>Direct File Processing>Burn-In Metadata.

If you simply want to time-stamp the video frames with the date and time that the recording was made, then you would select only the Rec Time and Rec Date items. You might also like to take  a look at this time-stamping AVCHD tutorial.

The metadata items are:

  • Timecode
  • User Bits
  • Frame Type
  • Recording Time
  • Recording Date
  • Shutter speed
  • Iris (f-stop)
  • Auto-Exposure Mode
  • Gain in dB
  • Focus Distance in metres
  • Focus Mode
  • White Balance
  • Image stabilizer (steadyshot) on/off
  • Audio details
  • Custom text

Just check the items that you want to be burned-in.

The right hand column of metadata items are GPS Geotagging items which only apply for AVCHD video cameras which are equipped with GPS units. The Geotagging items are:

  • Latitude
  • Longitude
  • Altitude
  • Speed
  • Track (direction of movement)

Audio only applies to DV files as there is no audio metadata for other file types.

Frame Type applies only to HDV, AVCHD and MPEG-2 PS files.

You can also check File progress. This is not an item of metadata, but simply a frame-count into the DV AVI,  HDV, AVCHD or MPEG-2 PS file. It is the same as the File progress in the bottom-left of the player's metadata display. You can choose File progress to be burned-in as a zero-based frame number or in the format hh:mm:ss:ff by checking/unchecking Display file progress as frame number in the General section of the Tools->Options menu.

File progress can be useful if you just want to burn-in a simple frame counter, or a timecode which always starts from 00:00:00:00 at the beginning of the file.

The Rec time and Rec date items can also appear in a variety of formats by providing your own formatting string - this includes support for a large number of languages and multi-national fonts. See below for details of how to format the Date and Time for burning-in.

Custom text allows you to burn-in a line of custom text which may contain a brief message or perhaps your own identifier that is used in your video project. The text can also contain a format code which will automatically be filled with the name or pathname of the video file. See below for more details of how to use the Custom text feature. 

 

Burn-in Mode

The Burn-in Mode allows you to choose whether to burn-in all frames of the file, or just burn in for a short period when there is a scene change. You can choose the duration as a number of seconds or frames.

A scene change is defined by the items that are checked in the Scenes section of the Tools>Options menu. The checked items are effectively scene-change "triggers". If the Date and Time of Recording is the only item checked then a scene change will be triggered whenever there is a discontinuity (i.e. an unexpected jump) in the recorded date and time. This is the most intuitive definition of a scene change, and probably the most useful, but you can redefine the meaning of a scene change simply by changing which triggering items are checked in the Scenes section.

Another useful example for video professionals is if you use run-time (or time-of-day) timecode where the camera continuously increments the timecode in real time whether the camera is running or not. There will therefore be breaks in recorded timecode whenever the camera is paused. So, by checking only the timecode item you can define a scene change as a timecode discontinuity, then you can burn-in for N seconds (or frames) whenever the timecode jumps.

Note that currently the Start of Scenes for... option can only be selected for the DV AVI file type.

Basic Text Properties

In the Basic Text Properties section of the Burn-in options page, you can select the brightness of the burned-in metadata text and the text outline as a percentage. 0% is black and 100% is peak white. You can also set the transparency of the text - 0% is opaque and 99% is almost invisible.

 

Text Layout

The layout and appearance of burned-in metadata text is chosen by selecting one of the three text layouts:

  • Advanced
  • Fixed, 80% title safe
  • Fixed, 90% title safe

One of the Fixed layouts is the easiest choice but is less flexible than the Advanced layout.

In a Fixed layout, the text is positioned in columns (a similar layout to the metadata pane which appears when a file is being played) at fixed positions on the video frame. You can not change the text's size, position or the font, and you can not change the format of the recording date and time nor specify any custom text.

Fixed layout does however allow you to choose between an 80% or 90% Title Safe Area which gives a limited control over the text placement. The Title Safe Area confines the metadata text within the chosen central area of the video frame to ensure that it is not cropped by some TV displays. You can choose 80% title safe (which means that 10% to the left and right, top and bottom of the frame is kept clear of text), or 90% title safe (where 5% all around is kept clear). If you are burning-in widescreen (16:9) video and you want to confine the text within a 4:3 safe area you should check the Always use 4:3 area check box. The text is positioned at the bottom of the title safe area.

In a Fixed layout, the format of the recording date can be set to dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd by chosing one of these 3 formats on the General options page.

When you have a Fixed layout selected, the Positioning and Appearance option pages remain greyed-out.

If the Fixed layouts are too restricting for you, you can instead select Advanced.

The Advanced layout allows you to choose the text size and font of the burned-in text. It also allows you to independantly position each item of metadata text anywhere in the video frame. You can also choose a flexible format and language for the recording date and time, and you can provide a custom text string.

When you select the Advanced layout, all of the controls on the Positioning and Appearance option pages become enabled.

Positioning

On the Positioning page there is a set of spin controls for each metadata item which allows you to set its position horizontally (X %) and vertically (Y %). The horizontal and vertical values start at 0 at the bottom-left of the video frame and increase to a maximum of 99 at the top-right.

The X and Y positions are expressed as a percentage of the video width and height. This is because the pixel dimensions of the video frame can vary widely depending on the video format, so using percentages rather than pixel dimensions allows us to be more consistent with size and positioning.

As an example, a frequent requirement is to burn-in only the recording date and time. Advanced layout allows you to position the date and time anywhere in the video frame, using any font and size that you wish. And this works for DV, HDV, AVCHD and supported MPEG-2 PS file types.

The group of controls at the bottom of the Positioning  page are used to set the position of the GPS Geotagging items. These only apply to AVCHD video cameras which are equipped with GPS units. They also apply for Sony AVCHD cameras when they are set to standard definition mode and create MPEG-2 PS files. The Custom text control sets the position of a  user-provided text string - see below for more details.

When you first start DVMP Pro, a set of Positioning settings is automatically selected to get you started. You can then adjust them to suit your requirements. Remember to check the Save all settings as default check box (on the General page) to ensure that your changes will be remembered in future invocations of DVMP Pro.

When you are experimenting with positioning, choose a very small file to burn-in, then you won't have to wait long to see the results.


Appearance

The Appearance page has controls that allow you to select the Font (including bold and italic properties) and the height of the burned-in text. Note that the font height is expressed as a percentage of the video frame's height.

These controls only work in Advanced layout mode (see the Burn-in options page).

If you leave the Custom rec date and Custom rec time check boxes un-checked then the format of the burned-in date and time will be the same as that displayed in the metadata pane when the file is played in DVMP Pro (the date format will be dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd as set on the General options page). But if you check one of these boxes then you can instead provide a formatting string which gives you much finer control.

Custom rec date and Custom rec time allow you to define how the date and time will appear using a set of formatting codes which begin with a '%' character. The '%' formatting codes are all listed here.

Using these codes and ordinary text characters you can define exactly how you want the date and time to appear in the burned-in file. As you type into the Custom rec date and Custom rec time edit boxes, an example of the final text (with the formatting codes expanded) will appear immediately beneath.

The Rec date/time locale control allows you to choose the language that is used in the burned-in Custom rec date and Custom rec time text. There is a wide range of languages (e.g. several variations of English, French and Arabic), and when you choose one of them the Cust rec date and Cust rec time example text changes to the script used by that language. The selected Font must contain the characters used in the chosen language, so you can also change the selected Font and this will immediately be shown in the example text.

 

Here are some more examples of languages and formatting codes:

The Custom text control alows you to provide a short piece of arbitrary text (up to 255 characters in length) to be burned-in with the metadata. This might be a comment, or an identifier that you use in your video project. You can also use one of the following special formatting codes which expand to the name or pathname of the input file:

Custom Text formatting code Description
@P The full pathname of the file
e.g.  C:\example\path\name\myfile.avi
@F The file name (including file extension)
e.g.  myfile.avi
@f The file name stem (the part of the file name that preceeds the extension)
e.g.  myfile
@e The file name extension
e.g.  avi
@@ The '@' character

When you are happy with all your formatting strings, remember to check the Save all settings as default check box (on the General page) to ensure that they will be remembered in future invocations of DVMP Pro.


Output

The Output page allows you to choose the file type of the burned-in file, and change some associated settings.

Note that the Output page does not apply for the burn-in of DV AVI files where the output file type is always DV AVI and has no output settings. If you only work with DV AVI files then ignore the Output page.

Output file type

When burning in AVCHD, HDV or MPEG-2 PS input files, you can choose between the WMV or AVI output file type.

WMV uses Microsoft's VC-1 encoder to compress the video stream. AVI allows you to choose from a wide range of video compressors that are already installed on your PC.

WMV is useful for producing files for playback on PC, while AVI is more flexible and also allows you to choose "Uncompressed" video for the highest quality.

The WMV file type always uses Microsoft's VC-1 video encoder/compressor. The VC-1 encoder is supplied with Windows 7 and Vista. It will also be present on Windows XP provided that you have Windows Media Player 11 installed. If the VC-1 encoder is not present on your PC you will not be able to use the WMV output file type.

WMV and AVI have their own set of options which are enabled when you choose either WMV or AVI.

WMV Output Settings

The WMV Output Settings allow you to adjust a set of options which apply only to the WMV output file type. These are greyed-out if you select AVI instead.

You can adjust the Quality setting used by the VC-1 encoder (which uses VBR mode). There are 29 levels of quality (0-28) chosen by moving the slider. Higher values will produce visually better quality video, but will also produce larger files.

You can also choose to resize the video while it is encoded. This can be useful if for example you wish to produce a low resolution video file for playback on your PC. Check the Resize video to option and set the required width and height in pixels. The whole video frame will be resampled to this new size. This means that if the new width and height have a different ratio to the original width and height then the output video may appear stretched when played back. However if you also check Preserve the Display Aspect Ratio then the frames will automatically be stretched on playback so that they have the same proportions on screen as the original video. If this sounds a little confusing, then just realise that in most cases when resizing you will also want to check Preserve the Display Aspect Ratio.

If you check the Include audio stream in output WMV file box, the output WMV file will also contain the audio stream as well as the burnt-in video. For HDV input files the audio stream will be stereo LPCM, and for AVCHD it will be the same multi-channel AC-3 audio as in the input m2ts/mts file. For MPEG-2 PS input files the audio stream will be either LPCM or AC-3 depending on the audio type of the input file - this also applies to Sony's NXCAM variant of AVCHD which may have either LPCM or AC-3 audio. If you leave this option unchecked, the output file will contain only the burnt-in video with no audio stream.

Please note that Windows Media Player 11 (or later) may have problems playing WMV files that contain AC-3 audio. This is because from version 11 WMP uses "Media Foundation" (instead of "DirectShow") to play WMV files which is more restricted and is unable to use the DirectShow AC-3 decoder. Therefore, if you encounter problems playing the WMV file in Windows Media Player (or importing into Windows Movie Maker) then you can either select the Use AC-3 Decoder option that converts the audio to the PCM format which is more compatible, or you can use an alternative media player such as "Media Player Classic Home Cinema".

If you check the Use AC-3 Audio Decoder box, then if the input file's audio format is AC-3 it will be passed through the AC-3 Audio Decoder which is set in DVMP Pro's Decoders options page. This decodes the AC-3 audio and stores it as PCM in the WMV file. If the input file's audio format is not AC-3 then this option has no effect. See below for more details about this checkbox and multi-channel audio.

AVI Output Settings

Here you can adjust a set of burn-in options which apply only to the AVI output file type. These are greyed-out if you select WMV instead.

You can select the video compressor that is used when burning-in HDV, AVCHD and MPEG-2 PS files (ignore this setting if you are burning-in DV AVI files).

As each frame is burned-in it is passed through a video compressor and stored in the output AVI file. For more details see the Burning-in HDV M2T Files section.

If you click the Select button, a Select Output Video Compressor dialog box appears which presents you with a list of 3rd party video compressors that are currently installed on your PC. DVMP Pro creates this list by examining the properties of the installed compressors and making an assessment of which are likely to be able to handle high resolution video frames and store them in an AVI file. Compressors which fail this assessment are not listed. See further details of recommended compressors.

The name of each compressor in the list is followed by its fourcc code (if available) in square brackets. This describes the compression scheme used by the compressor. Some compressors are supplied with a utility which can be used to change their compression scheme - in this case the displayed fourcc code is the compresssor's setting at the time the Select button was pressed. If this all sounds too confusing, just ignore this paragraph - in most cases you won't need to be concerned with this level of detail.

Some compressors have a built-in "property sheet" which contains settings that allow you to change the compressor's internal behaviour (such as its compression ratio). If the selected compressor has such a property sheet then the Properties button is enabled - you simply click the Properties button to view the compressor's property sheet. You can then view the current settings or change them and click its OK button to save your changes.

Warning: some settings may prevent DVMP Pro from processing files correctly, so do not make any changes to the compressor properties unless you are confident you know what you are doing - at the very least make a note of the settings before you attempt to change any of them, so that you can change them back again.

Most compressors store a separate list of property settings for each program that they are used in, so you will probably find that changing settings in DVMP Pro does not change the settings for the same compressor when used in other programs.

The displayed list of compressors contains both lossless and lossy compressors, so you can select whichever type of compression you prefer from the list. You can also select "Uncompressed" but beware that this will use a lot of disk space. Then click OK to submit your selection.

If you check the Include audio stream in output AVI file box, the output AVI file will also contain the audio stream as well as the burnt-in video. For HDV input files the audio stream will be stereo LPCM, and for AVCHD it will be the same multi-channel AC-3 audio as in the input m2ts/mts file. For MPEG-2 PS input files the audio stream will be either LPCM or AC-3 depending on the audio type of the input file - this also applies to Sony's NXCAM variant of AVCHD which may have either LPCM or AC-3 audio. If you leave this option unchecked, the output file will contain only the burnt-in video with no audio stream. (Note that this option does not apply to the DV input file type where the burnt-in output file will always contain the same audio data as the input file.)

Please note that some video editing programs and utilities may not support the AC-3 audio format within AVI files, or may have incomplete support for it. If you have checked the Include audio stream in output AVI file and find that the resulting burned-in AVI file can not be read by your video editing program (or it behaves erratically when playing or processing the file), then look at the input file's audio properties in DVMP Pro (File>Properties menu) - if the audio format is AC-3 then check the Use AC-3 Audio Decoder box (see below) and try the burn-in again.

If you check the Use AC-3 Audio Decoder box, then if the input file's audio format is AC-3 it will be passed through the AC-3 Audio Decoder which is set in DVMP Pro's Decoders options page. This decodes the AC-3 audio and stores it as PCM in the AVI file. If the input file's audio format is not AC-3 then this option has no effect. This option can be useful if other programs have no (or incomplete) support for AC-3 audio stored in AVI files - PCM is compatible with most programs. The only AC-3 Decoder we recommend is "AC3Filter", and if you have that selected, then provided you set its output format and sampling rate properties to "AS IS" then multi-channel AC-3 will be converted to multi-channel PCM. Please note that this option relies on "AC3Filter" being selected as your AC-3 Audio Decoder - it may not work if you have a different AC-3 decoder selected.

If you find that your video editing program does not support multi-channel PCM then you can set AC3Filter's output format property to "2/0 - stereo" and the output AVI will contain 2 channel stereo PCM instead. Also beware that AC3Filter's other properties will also affect the output audio so you will probably want to ensure these are set to default values before you perform a burn-in. You can see the AC3Filter properties by going to DVMP Pro's Decoders option page and clicking the AC-3 Audio Decoder's Select button - then in the "Select AC-3 Audio Decoder" box choose "AC3Filter" and click the Properties button.

If you check the Transparent background (alpha channel) box, the output AVI file will contain the metadata text written over a uniform transparent backgound (instead of written over the input video frames). You may find this useful in video editing programs which correctly support alpha channel/transparency in imported files. You can then import both the original video file and the transparent-background AVI file onto separate tracks, line them up, and the original video track will show through the transparent area - the metadata text will then appear to be written across (and correctly anti-aliased against) the original video track. You could then apply whatever effects/fades you want to the metadata text.

A burn-in using the Transparent background option will usually proceed faster than a "regular" burn-in because the original video frames do not need to be decoded, but you can make it even faster by also checking the Crop to selected metadata box. This produces much smaller frames in the output AVI file because they are cropped closely around the text of the metadata items that you selected. Because this omits large areas of uniform transparent background, the output AVI file size is usually much smaller and the burn-in proceeds much faster. As these cropped frames have a smaller width or height than the original video frames, you may have to adjust the position of the text on the video editor's track. Note that the Crop to selected metadata option can only be used with the Transparent background (alpha channel) option.

For the transparent background option to work correctly it requires an Output AVI Compressor in DVMP Pro and a video editing program which both correctly support alpha channel transparency. The only well-known compressor which correctly supports the alpha channel is Lagarith, and you must specifically switch on its alpha channel support by setting the "Mode" in its Properties to "RGBA". If you select a compressor which does not support the alpha channel (or its support is switched off) then the resulting burnt-in AVI file will just contain the metadata text over an opaque black background. You can then only be sure that a transparent burn-in has succeeded by importing the burnt-in AVI file into a video editor or other program which correctly supports alpha channel transparency.

Please note that currently Adobe Premiere Pro and Elements ignores the alpha channel transparency if you had checked the  Include audio stream in output AVI file box and the input file's audio format is AC-3 (nearly always the case with AVCHD files). The inclusion of an AC-3 audio stream seems to make Premiere ignore the alpha channel. This may be a bug in Premiere, but if you encounter this problem, you can check the Use AC-3 Audio Decoder box which will cause the audio to be stored in the AVI file in PCM format instead of AC-3 format - the alpha channel should now be recognised correctly by Premiere. See above for more details of the Use AC-3 Audio Decoder option.

Remember to also check the Save all settings as default check box if you wish DVMP Pro to always use the selected compressor for burning-in in future.

Capture

Here you can change the settings for the Capture DV window of DVMP Pro. The Capture DV window is invoked from the File>Capture DV menu.

The Capture DV window allows you to capture via your PC's firewire port from your DV camera (or HDV camera in DV mode) to DV AVI files on the hard drive.

For further details see the Capture DV page.

Capture stops when ...

This allows you to specify what will cause capture to stop automatically.

If User stops capture manually is selected then capture will continue indefinately until you click the Stop Capture button on the Capture DV window (or the hard drive partition is full).

Capture duration reaches allows you to specify the duration that capture will last in hours, minutes and seconds. When the time is up, capture will stop automatically.

If No frames are delivered for is selected, then capture will stop if no frames are delivered by the camera for the specified number of seconds. Typically when the camera is playing a tape, frames are not delivered when an unrecorded area of the tape is encountered. You could therefore use this option to stop capture when the tape reaches the end of its recorded section. However if the tape had previously been striped, then it might still deliver blank frames for the whole length of the tape.

In any event, capture will also stop if the camera is powered off or unplugged. If this happens the AVI capture file will be created and closed correctly.

AVI file type

This allows you to choose the AVI Type 1 or 2 of the capture files.

Use Splitter to create multiple capture files

If this check box is checked then a new AVI capture file is created when the selected trigger on the Splitter section is activated  - e.g. when there is a timecode or date/time discontinuity. See the Trigger on section of the Splitter section for a list of triggers.

If this box is unchecked then capture will be made to a single AVI file until you click the Stop Capture button on the Capture DV window or until capture stops automatically.

Slave to camera

When you are recording to tape with your camera, it is sometimes convenient to live-capture the same footage to the hard drive at the same time. As you pause and resume recording using the camera's pause button, capture to the hard drive pauses and resumes at the same time without you having to click any of the buttons on the PC screen. If you check this box, the live-capture operation of the PC is effectively "slaved" to the camera controls as described.

If the box is unchecked then you will always have to use the Capture DV window's buttons to pause and resume capture.

Use current date & time

If this check box is checked, the captured files will have their recording date and time metadata overwritten with the current date and time. This means that the captured files will have the date and time of their capture instead of when the video was originally recorded on tape.

 

Splitter

Here you can change the settings used by the file splitter. The file splitter tool is found in Tools>Split File

Note that currently the splitter tool can only be used for DV AVI files.

Trigger On

This allows you to specify what will cause a file-split to occur. You can choose to trigger a file-split on one of the following:

  • Timecode discontinuity
  • Date and Time of Recording Discontinuity
  • Change of User Bit values
  • Tape Index Marker occurance

For Timecode Discontinuity, you must select a number of frames - this is the threshold for the file-split trigger to fire. It is assumed that the timecode will increment for each consecutive frame, so a discontinuity will have occurred if the timecode jumps forward by more than 1 frame, or stays the same, or jumps backward. But by changing the number of frames in the edit box you can cause the split to trigger only if the discontinuity is the specified number of frames or greater.

For example, if you set a threshold value of 1 then this means the trigger will fire if the timecode increases by 2 or more frames between consecutive frames, or if the timecode is unchanged or goes backward. A value of 1 frame therefore means any deviation from naturally incrementing timecode. If you set the threshold value to 2, then the trigger will fire if the timecode increases by 3 frames, or jumps back by 1 or more frames.

If timecode disappears or re-appears, then this will always trigger a file-split.

Timecode jumping backwards can cause problems for later batch capturing which will assume that timecode always increases throughout the tape. If the next section to be captured has earlier timecode than the previous section then the tape will be wound backwards, but if the section is actually later on the tape then the required section may not be found.

To avoid this problem, DVMP Pro adds a letter suffix to the Reel Name whenever a split occurs on backward-jumping timecode. This will cause the batch capture facility to stop and prompt for a reel change. The operator can then manually reposition the tape at the start of the required section and allow the batch capture to continue.

If you choose Date/Time Discontinuity as the trigger then you must select a number of seconds - this is the threshold for the trigger to fire. This works in a similar way to the timecode threshold value. Comparing two consecutive frames, the date and time may be said to be continuous if it increases by 1 second or stays the same. There is no "fields" value, so a detectable discontinuity will have occurred if the date and time increases by 2 or more seconds or goes backward. By changing the number of seconds in the edit box you can cause the split to trigger only if the discontinuity is the specified number of seconds, or greater.

For example, if you set the threshold to 1 second, then the trigger will fire if the date/time between consecutive frames increases by 2 secs or goes backward (i.e any detectable discontinuity). If you set the threshold to 2 seconds, then the trigger will fire if the date/time increases by 3 secs, or goes backward by 2 or more seconds.

If the date and time disappears or re-appears, then this will always cause a split to occur.

If you choose User Bits change, then a split will occur whenever the user bits values change.

If you choose Tape Index marker, then a split will occur whenever a tape index marker is detected in the AVI file.

File name format

The File name format section allows you to choose a variable suffix for the output file names. File splitting can generate many output files, so a suffix is added to the end of each output filename stem to ensure that it is unique. You can choose the type of filename suffix from one of the following:

  • Sequential file number (nnnn) adds a numeric suffix, starting from 0001 and incrementing for each new split file that is created.
  • Timecode (hh.mm.ss.ff) adds a timecode suffix. The value is the timecode of the first frame in the split file.
  • Date/Time (yyyy-mm-dd hh.mm.ss) adds a date and time suffix. The value is the recording date and time of the first frame in the split file.
  • User Bits (nn.nn.nn.nn) adds a set of user bit values as a suffix. The values are taken from the first frame of the split file,

In applicable cases, if there is no timecode/date/time/userbits value stored in the first frame then the values will be a series of "-"s.

Existing files will not be overwritten. If when a new split file is to be created there is already a file with the same file name, then the new split file will have a numeric (n) suffix added to uniquely identify it.

Pre-roll Delay

If your workflow requires later batch capture from tape, then problems can be caused if the tape deck pre-rolls back over a timecode discontinuity.

Setting a pre-roll delay of 1 or more seconds will cause the splitter to ignore the first 1 or more seconds of footage after a split trigger occurs - the first N seconds of a split will effectively be discarded. This means that when offline editing is performed on the split files it will be impossible for the editor to set an in-point which would cause later batch capture to pre-roll back over a timecode discontinuity.

If you set a pre-roll delay of 0 seconds then no frames will be discarded.

 

Modify Metadata

Here you can change the settings used by the tools Tools>Modify Metadata and Tools>Direct File Processing>Modify Metadata. The settings affect both of these tools.

Currently this tool can only be used for DV AVI files.

Sometimes you may need to "fix" an AVI file by changing some of the DV metadata that is stored within.

You can change:

  • Timecode
  • Date and Time of recording
  • User bits
  • Drop-frame timecode to Non-drop or vice versa
  • Widecreen flag

This will operate on the whole AVI file.

Check the check boxes for the items that you wish to change, and change their associated settings as required. If an item is left unchecked then it will be unchanged in the output file (i.e. the same as the input file).

Note that the settings on the Modify Metadata section do not get saved by the Save all settings as default option (in the General section). The default is always for all items on the Modify Metadata section to be unchecked.

Timecode & Date and Time

For Timecode and Date and Time items, you can choose Adjust by or Start from.

If you want the file to begin with a specific timecode or date/time value, set the required values in the edit boxes and select the Start from radio button. The first frame will have the specified value which will then increase unbroken for the whole file.

If you want the existing values to be increased or decreased by a specified amount, set the value in each edit-box to the required positive or negative amount and select the Adjust by radio button.

The Zero buttons set all the values on their immediate left to zero.

If you are using the Adjust by option, here's a helpful feature which avoids the need to do timecode calculations: you can set each value independantly to a positive or negative amount. So for example if your AVI file starts with the timecode 00:00:03;24 and you want it to start at 00:00:01;29 instead, then you would usually have to do some timecode maths to come up with the correct amount to subtract. But in DVMP Pro you can simply enter -2 secs and +5 frames and off you go!  This useful feature can also be used for adjusting the date and time values.

For the Date and Time item you can instead select Extract date and time from file name. This works like Start from except that the start date and time values are extracted from the file's name (not from the values in the Modify Metadata section). You will usually want to use Start from instead as it is more flexible, but if you are processing multiple files using DVMP Pro's Batch Processing then it can be useful for adding a different date and time to the DV metadata for each file that is processed. For example, if you have captured lots of analog video to DV format it will not contain any date and time information in the DV metadata - you can then use Extract date and time from file name to add different dates and times to each file's metadata. You can do this by manually naming the DV AVI files in one of the following two formats:

my video yy-mm-dd hh.mm.ss.avi
my video yy-mm-dd.avi

The first format contains a date and time, and the second contains just a date. yy is the year expressed as 2 digits, mm is the month, and so on. The format must be exactly as shown in highlight with each value 2 digits in length, and the date and time format must appear immediately before the .avi file name extension. DVMP Pro will extract the date and time from the file name and use that as the start values to modify the date and time metadata in that file. If the time is not specified then the time 00:00:00 is used as the start time.

Note that all characters before the yy are ignored by the extraction, so it's OK if your file name has the year in 4-digit form - the century will just be ignored because metadata does not actually store the century.

For example, the files below

Capture 08-04-15 23:45:15.avi
Capture 2008-04-15 23:45:15.avi

will both have date and time metadata added to them beginning with the date 15th April 2008 and time 23:45:15. The date and time extracted is shown highlighted.

Set User Bits (00 to FF)

Here you can specify new values for the user bits. The value in each of the four edit boxes is a hexadecimal number from 00 to FF. (i.e. comprising the characters 0 to 9 and A to F). These User Bit values are assigned to all frames in the output file.

Change NTSC Timecode to

For NTSC files you can choose whether the timecode in the DV metadata is in drop frame or non-drop frame format. If you have Change NTSC Timecode and Timecode modification both checked, then the drop/non-drop conversion is performed before the timecode modification.

This setting is ignored for PAL files.

Change Widescreen Flag to

For Change Widescreen Flag you can specify whether the flag is set to indicate that the video's display aspect ratio is 4:3 or 16:9. This can be useful if another program or utility had set this flag incorrectly.

Export Metadata

Here you can change the settings used by the Tools>Export Metadata tool.

You can choose to export metadata For all frames where each line in the export line corresponds to a video frame.

Alternatively you can choose At any change or discontinuity. This outputs a line only when one of the metadata values changes, or when the timecode or recording date and time jumps out of its normal sequence. If an item of metadata goes from being present in one frame to being missing in the next frame (or vice versa) this is also considered to be a "change".

You can also choose At each scene change. This outputs a line only when there is a scene change. A "scene change" is defined by the metadata items that are selected in the Scenes section - a scene change occurs when one of these selected items changes or when the timecode or recording date and time jumps out of its normal sequence.

If you check the Export Header box, a header line will be inserted at the start of the export file which contains the names of each field separated by commas. When this is imported into a spreadsheet (for example) the names will appear as column titles. If you do not need a header then leave the Export Header box unchecked.

Export Subtitles

Here you can change the settings used by the Tools>Export Subtitles tool.

You can choose to export All metadata where all items of metadata (except GPS/Geotagging) are exported as 5 columns, similar to the arrangement seen in the metadata pane when a file is being played. Or you can also choose Date, Time & Geotagging where the date, time and GPS latitude, longitude etc are exported in columns, similar to the arrangement seen in the metadata pane when Geotagging data is being viewed.

A frequent requirement is to only output the recording date and time. The remaining settings allow you to do this and choose how the date and time are positioned. You can choose the date to appear immediately above the time (or vice versa), or the date and time to appear on a single line with the date positioned to the right or left of the time.