2 <h2>Overview of Operations</h2>
5 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Session > Open Video…</kbd></th>
6 <td>Add/replace a video to/on the timeline</td></tr>
7 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Window > Video Monitor</kbd></th>
8 <td>Open/close external video monitor window</td></tr>
9 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">View > Video Monitor > …</kbd></th>
10 <td>Various settings of the video monitor</td></tr>
11 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Session > Export > Export to Video File…</kbd></th>
12 <td>Export session and multiplex with video-file</td></tr>
13 <tr><th><kbd class="mouse">Left</kbd>-drag the video in the timeline</th>
14 <td>Re-align video and move 'locked' audio-regions along</td></tr>
15 <tr><th>Context-menu on the video-timeline: <kbd class="optoff">Lock</kbd></th>
16 <td>Prevent accidental drags</td></tr>
17 <tr><th>Audio region context menu: <kbd class="menu"><em>Name_Of_The_Region</em> > Position > Lock to video</kbd></th>
18 <td>Mark audio region(s) to be moved along with the video.</td></tr>
22 <h2>Adding a video</h2>
25 Adding a video is a two-step process: selecting a video file, and choosing
26 import mode and optionally selecting an audio track to extract. Only one video
27 can be present in the session, so opening a video when one is already opened
28 results in replacing the video.
31 <h3 class="clear">Launching the video server (optionnal)</h3>
33 <figure class="right">
34 <img class="mini" src="/images/launch_video_server.png" alt="The Launch Video Server dialog">
36 The Launch Video Server dialog
41 Importing a video makes Ardour start the video server automatically. If
42 the <kbd class="option">Show video Server Startup Dialog</kbd> option in the
43 <kbd class="menu">Video</kbd> section of the
44 <a href="@@preferences#video">preferences</a> is checked, the
45 <kbd class="menu">Launch Video Server</kbd> window is shown, allowing more
46 complex operations, e.g. connecting to a remote video server instead of a local
50 <h3 class="clear">Selecting a file</h3>
52 <figure class="right">
53 <img class="mini" src="/images/set_video_track.png" alt="The video open dialog">
60 This step is rather straight-forward. The panel on the right side
61 allows to seek through the video and displays basic file information.
62 It is also useful to check if the video format/codec is supported.
65 The lower part of the window shows some options:
68 <li><kbd class="option">Open Video Monitor Window</kbd> to automatically show
69 the video monitor (Harvid). This can also be done later by using the
70 <kbd class="menu">Window > Video Monitor</kbd> menu which is binded to
71 <kbd class="mod2">V</kbd> by default.</li>
72 <li><kbd class="option">Adjust Session Framerate to Match Video Framerate</kbd>
73 which can also be set later with the <a href="@@session-properties-dialog">Session Properties</a>.
74 Having the session and video framerate at the same value allows their sync not to
78 <h3 class="clear">Import options</h3>
80 <figure class="right">
81 <img class="mini" src="/images/transcode-import_video_file.png" alt="The Transcode/Import Video dialog">
83 The Transcode/Import Video dialog
88 This step analyzes the video file in more detail and offers import options:
91 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Import/Transcode Video to Session</kbd></th>
92 <td>This is the default. The video will be imported in a suitable
93 video format/codec for the timeline and video monitor and saved inside the
94 session folder. A location other than the session folder can also be
95 chosen (external disk, or network storage of the video server on a different
96 machine) by using the <kbd class="menu">Output File:</kbd> field.</td></tr>
97 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Reference from Current Location (Previously Transcoded
98 Files Only)</kbd></th>
99 <td>Only useful for opening files that were previously encoded (are already
100 in a good format/codec for Ardour). Should be used with care.</td></tr>
101 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Do not Import Video (Audio Import Only)</kbd></th>
102 <td>Useful for extracting audio only.</td></tr>
106 By default the video is imported using the original width/height.
107 If it is a large video (e.g. full-HD), it makes sense to scale it down
108 to decrease the CPU load and disk I/O required to decode and play the
112 A small, low-quality representation of the image is usually sufficient
113 for editing soundtracks. The default bitrate in kbit/sec is set to use
114 0.7 bits per pixel (in comparison, the average DVD medium uses 5000 kbit/s;
115 at PAL resolution this is about 0.5 bits per pixel, but the DVD is
116 using the <dfn>mpeg2</dfn>—a denser compression algorithm than the
117 <dfn>mjpeg</dfn> codec used by Ardour).
121 The <kbd class="menu">Extract Audio:</kbd> offers options regarding the Audio
122 part of the stream, allowing to either not extract audio, or to choose which audio
123 stream to add to the session.
126 When extracting any audio, if it includes <a href="@@timecode-generators-and-slaves">
127 LTC timecodes</a>, those can be extracted and used to sync the video by checking
131 <h2>Working with A/V</h2>
133 Working with A/V in Ardour is similar to working in a pure audio setup, except
134 for the presence of a video timeline in the <a href="@@ruler">ruler</a> zone,
135 and a Xjadeo video window, showing a preview of the result.
138 <figure class="center">
139 <img class= "mini" src="/images/video_timeline.png" alt="The Video Timeline">
146 The Xjadeo window supports some user interactions, such as showing some OSD
147 information or changing the zoom level. Xjadeo's documentation is available
148 on its <a href="http://xjadeo.sourceforge.net/xjadeo.html#heading8">website</a>.
151 <h2 id="export">Exporting Video</h2>
153 <figure class="right">
154 <img src="/images/export_video_file.png" alt="The Video Export Dialog">
156 The Video Export Dialog
161 The video export will take audio from the current Ardour session and
162 multiplex it with a video file. The soundtrack of the video is taken from
163 an audio export of Ardour's master bus.
166 An arbitrary video file can be chosen. For high quality exports, the
167 original file (before it was imported into the timeline) should be used.
168 This is the default behaviour if that file can be found. If not, Ardour
169 will fall back to the imported proxy-video which is currently in use
170 on the timeline. Any existing audio tracks on this video file are stripped.
173 The range selection allows to cut or extend the video. If the session is
174 longer than the video duration, black frames are prefixed or appended to
175 the video. (Note: this process may fail with non-standard pixel aspect
176 ratios). If Ardour's session range is shorter, the video will be cut accordingly.
180 Audio sample-rate and normalization are options for Ardour's audio exporter.
181 The remaining settings are options that are directly passed on to ffmpeg.
185 The file format is determined by the extension chosen for it
186 (.avi, .mov, .flv, .ogv, .webm,…).
187 Note: not all combinations of format, codec, and settings produce files
188 which are according to specifications. For example, flv files require
189 sample rates of 22.1 kHz or 44.1 kHz, mpeg containers can not
190 be used with ac3 audio-codec, etc. If in doubt, one of the built-in
191 presets should be used.
195 Ardour video export is not recommended for mastering! While ffmpeg
196 (which is used by Ardour) can produce high-quality files, this export
197 lacks the possibility to tweak many settings. We recommend using
198 <a href="http://www.biggmatt.com/winff/">winff</a>,
199 <a href="http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html">devede</a> or
200 <a href="http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/">dvdauthor</a> to mux and master.
201 Nevertheless this video-export comes in handy to do quick snapshots,
202 intermediates, dailies or online videos.