title: Workflow & Operations
---
-<ul>
-<li>Session > Open Video - add/replace a video to/on the timeline
-</li>
-<li>Window > View Monitor open/close external video monitor window
-</li>
-<li>View > Video Monitor > … settings of the video monitor
-</li>
-<li>Session > Export > Video
-</li>
-</ul>
-<ul>
-<li>Drag the video in the timeline - right click and choose 'lock' to prevent accidental drags
-</li>
-<li>Audio-Region > context-menu > Position > Lock to video – audio-region(s) are moved along with the video.
-</li>
-</ul>
+<h2>Overview of Operations</h2>
+
+<dl class="narrower-table">
+ <dt>Session > Open Video</dt><dd>Add/replace a video to/on the timeline</dd>
+ <dt>Window > View Monitor</dt><dd>Open/close external video monitor window</dd>
+ <dt>View > Video Monitor > …</dt><dd>Various settings of the video monitor</dd>
+ <dt>Session > Export > Video</dt><dd>Export session and multiplex with video-file</dd>
+ <dt>Drag the video in the timeline</dt><dd>Re-align video and move 'locked' audio-regions along</dd>
+ <dt>Context-menu on the video-timeline: 'lock'</dt><dd>prevent accidental drags</dd>
+ <dt>Audio-Region > context-menu > Position > Lock to video</dt><dd>mark audio-region(s) to be moved along with the video.</dd>
+</dl>
<h2>Adding Video</h2>
</p>
-<p>
-<img src="/files/a3/a3_video_open.png" class="medialeft" alt="video-open-dialog" width="300" />
-</p>
<p>
The first step is rather straight forward: The panel on the right side allows to seek through the video and displays basic file information. It is also useful to check if the video format/codec is supported:
</p>
<p>
-<br/>
-
+<img src="/files/a3/a3_video_open.png" alt="video-open-dialog" width="300" />
</p>
<p>
-<img src="/files/a3/a3_video_import.png" alt="Video Import Dialog" width="300" />
+<br/>
</p>
<p>
The second step analyzes the video file in more detail and offers import options:
</p>
<ul>
-<li><strong>Import/Transcode to Session</strong>. This is the default. The video will be imported in a suitable video-format/codec for the timeline and video monitor and saved inside the session folder. A location different than the session folder can also be chosen (extrnal disk, network storage of the video server on a different machine…).
+<li><strong>Import/Transcode to Session</strong>. This is the default. The video will be imported in a suitable video-format/codec for the timeline and video monitor and saved inside the session folder. A location other than the session folder can also be chosen (external disk, network storage of the video server on a different machine…).
</li>
<li><strong>Reference from Current Location</strong>. Only useful for opening files that were previously encoded (are already in a good format/codec) use with care.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
-By default the video is imported using the original width/height. If it is a large video (e.g. full-HD) it will make sense to scale it down to lighten CPU and disk I/O required to play it. For editing sound-tracks, a small representation is usually sufficient. The default bitrate is set to use 0.7 bits per pixel. Some key values: the average DVD medium uses 5000kbit/sec.
+<img src="/files/a3/a3_video_import.png" alt="Video Import Dialog" width="300" />
</p>
-<h2>Working with A/V</h2>
-
<p>
-<img src="/files/a3/a3_videotimeline.png" alt="Video Timeline" width="600" />
+<br/>
</p>
<p>
-Well now,..
+By default the video is imported using the original width/height.
+If it is a large video (e.g. full-HD) it makes sense to scale it down to decrease the CPU load and disk I/O which required to decode and play the file.
+A small, low-quality representation of the image is usually sufficient for editing sound-tracks.
+The default bitrate in kbit/sec is set to use 0.7 bits per pixel. (compare: the average DVD medium uses 5000kbit/sec; at PAL resolution this is about 0.5 bits per pixel - but the DVD is using the <em>mpeg2</em> - a denser compression algorithm than the <em>mjpeg</em> codec used by ardour.)
</p>
+<h2>Working with A/V</h2>
-<h2>Exporting Video</h2>
+<p>
+Well now,..
+</p>
<p>
-<img src="/files/a3/a3_video_export.png" alt="Video Export Dialog" width="300" />
+<img src="/files/a3/a3_videotimeline.png" alt="Video Timeline" width="600" />
</p>
+
+<h2>Exporting Video</h2>
+
<p>
The video-export will take audio from the current Ardour session and multiplex it with a video-file.
</p>
</p>
<p>
-The soundtrack of the video is taken from an audio-export of ardour's master bus.
+The soundtrack of the video is taken from an audio-export of Ardour's master bus.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
-Audio Samplerate and Normalize Audio are options for Ardour's audio exporter. The remaining settings are options that are directly passed on to ffmpeg.
+Audio-samplerate and normalize-audio are options for Ardour's audio exporter. The remaining settings are options that are directly passed on to ffmpeg.
</p>
+
+<p>
+<img src="/files/a3/a3_video_export.png" alt="Video Export Dialog" width="300" />
+</p>
+