Graphic Overlay Preferences

This page is a comprehensive description of what each specific preference in VirtualVTR and VirtualVTR Pro will do. It does not offer overall guidance on particular setups.

These parameters and functions are ONLY available in the VirtualVTR 'PRO' version of the software. Owners of the standard VirtualVTR software can order an upgrade to these facilities from Gallery.

VirtualVTR Pro features an intermediate frame buffer in between the Movie and the Video output hardware. This frame buffer is used for a variety of purposes, although primarily it is used to superimpose graphics on top of the video frames before they are output from the Video hardware. This overlay can include Timecode burns, Video streamers and other text. The frame buffer can also be used to convert color spaces in order to better match unusual movie codec formats with limited support on video output hardware. See more details on this in the 'Misc Options' section.

Show Timecode
This option will burn in the current Timecode position to each frame as it is displayed. Users may control Font, size, style color and position of the text completely. To offer a controllable and consistent position on screen, XPos(ition) and YPos(ition) are specified in n/1000, so that the middle of the screen would be 500 ( / 1000 ). Note that the Font name must be entered _exactly_ in order to select a different font.

Show Feet + Frames
This option is similar to the show Timecode option described above, but taking Feet and Frames. The zero footage position is defined using the 'Feet + Frames' dialog in the VirtualVTR Edit Menu.

Show Text String
This option allows the user to burn in any free text over the top of the movie during playback. This can be used to insert real time copyright burns when preparing material for distribution to editors.

Streamer Active
VirtualVTR Pro includes powerful functionality to synchronize and display a vertical wipe style Video streamer, as commonly used for ADR, Foley and Music scoring to prompt viewers to cue positions. The Streamer comprises a vertical bar which sweeps from left to right over a period of time, meeting another bar which is parked at the right edge of the screen. This meeting of the 2 bars marks the end of the streamer, and the point to which you are synchronised. Everything about the streamer can be customised, including streamer duration, physical size and color of both bars, position of the end marker (you may need to move it in, if your monitor is not displaying overscan video). You can also select the 'blend' option for the main streamer bar, which will attempt to make a semi-opaque streamer, which is less distracting for viewers. Note that the blend option only operates in an RGB color space overlay buffer, and requires you to select a non-solid color for the streamer. You can also compensate for a late responding view with the 'talent adjust' option which adjusts the sync point automatically. The synchronisation point for the streamer (and the other synchronised events - GPI, beeps etc) is entered using a variety of methods which are discussed later in this page.

Beeps / Punches
Along with (or instead of) the Video streamer, it is common in ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement) to prompt the speaker with a series of beeps, which lead up to the sync point. The number of beeps and the pacing of the beeps is adjustable as is a talent adjust. As an alternative to the traditional 'Hollywood-style' vertical bar streamer described above, VirtualVTR Pro also offers 3,2,1 punches which are more common in Europe. These are synchronised with the beeps and present themselves as a 1 frame long white circular punch in the picture with a 3, 2 or 1 superimposed. This option is enabled with the 'punches' check box.

Running Cursor
Another user prompting technique which is used in Europe is the 'running cursor'. This is a thermometer style display which fills up DURING the take (rather than leading up to it), and allows users to pace themselves during a long cue in order to fit the entire line into the prescribed time. This is especially useful for non lipsynced voice overs, and for language dubbing where time pacing is important, but lipsync is not necessarily perfectly matchable because of language differences. Note that the running cursor needs to know the duration of the take, and hence it is not available with the simple 'mark in time' sync point method. In order to use the running cursor, it is currently necessary to either mark and In _and_ and Out point, or to be controlling the VirtualVTR Pro streamers from Gallery's ADRStudio application, and sending the 'Stramp SRX Setup' midi command from ADRStudio (VirtualVTR Pro is emulating the Stramp SRX's running cursor). See ADRStudio documentation for more details.

Letterbox Mask
Sometimes it is desireable to mask off the top and bottom of a video picture. This may be to present an alternative aspect, as seen in a pan and scan playback, or to mask off older window burns which you are replacing with the new ones above. The areas covered with the mask are set to black.

Ext. Video Muting
Another common practice for European ADR is the need to 'mute' (to black) the video before and after a take. Once again, this is controlled via ADRStudio event sequence Midi messages. The Video Muting option must be enabled in the Misc. Options in order for it to respond to the incoming video mute instructions.

Marking a Sync Point
All of the synchronised events detailed here are based around a single timecode mark which is the sync point. The Streamer, beeps and punches lead up to it, and the running cursor begins at that point. Marking this sync point can be done in a variety of ways. The simplest is using the 'Apple-M' menu (for mark Sync In point) item in VirtualVTR Pro. If you are using the running cursor, you can also use Apple-K (for mark sync out point). These menus will setup the entire synchronised event sequence. You can also mark the sync points using a Shuttle Pro or MCS3 controller, by assigning the 'ADRStudio Mark In' and 'ADRStudio Mark Out' functions to your favoured buttons. Another method involves the companion application 'VTR Remote' which can run on a different CPU (for example a Pro Tools system) which is feeding MTC to VirtualVTR as a slave. The VTR Remote application has a 'mark sync' button which sends a Midi message to VirtualVTR Pro telling it to mark the current frame as the sync point. Finally you can completely control VirtualVTR Pro's synchronisation from ADRStudio, which will send real time instructions to trigger the streamer, beeps, running cursor etc during its preparation to roll. These same real time midi Sysex instructions can be sent by other software or hardware which supports them. VirtualVTR Pro emulates the following streamer devices - 'MOTU Video Timepiece / Digital timepiece', 'Tesla Streamer', 'Stramp SRX', and limited support for messages supported by 'Pro Cue 1'. Contact Gallery for specific information about midi messages to trigger Streamers, beeps, GPIs and Punches, Running Cursor, and Video Muting.

Miscellaneous Options
As mentioned above, the overlay frame buffer can be in different video color space formats, in order to match up with different types of Video card which favour particular color spaces. If it is supported natively in hardware by your video card, RGB is the best option, since it offers blendable streamers, and most software decompressors are good at converting into RGB (since its the same format used for display on a mac monitor). However some video cards do not support RGB in hardware and using RGB will result in a very sluggish software conversion as the frames are dispatched to the hardware. For these devices, VirtualVTR Pro also offers an 'r408' color space which is 4:4:4:4 YUV. Some video cards natively support this color space, and so it becomes a good choice for them. Some video devices support neither RGB, or r408 and cannot be used with the overlay layer. For these devices, you should not enable the graphic overlay. Similarly any hardware compression based devices, such as the IgniterLT, older base Igniter cards (without uncompressed option), and Firewire DV bridges do not support uncompressed frame output and should not be used with the Graphic Overlay mode.

Guidelines for Common cards:
DeckLink SP - RGB Mode
Igniter RT / base Igniter with Uncompresed Option - r408 Mode (YUV)
Igniter X / Pipe (either, although this has not been tested in RGB Mode)
Mac VGA monitor - RGB Mode

The Overlay layer can also be used to map unusual Video formats to the cards which do not support that format. In essence, there are several conversions taking place. Without the graphic overlay, when a movie is played, containing video of codec format '2vuy', through a video output card which supports formats 'r408' and '2vuy', there will be no problem since QuickTime knows that it can simply send unconverted '2vuy' pixels directly to the card. However, in a situation, for example where you have a movie with a 'WRAW' format (which is uncompressed AVI), these cannot be understood by the video card driver, and so no picture would be displayed. Fortunately, you also have the option of passing the video through our Frame buffer, which as we know, can be setup in formats 'RGBA' or 'r408'. QuickTime has its own decompressors which may be able to convert from 'WRAW' into 'RGBA' and from there we can pass RGBA to the video card. So in this case the overlay layer has been used as an intermediate conversion space for the video to match unsupported color spaces to different video cards. Similarly the overlay buffer can be used for resizing non-standard sized frames to fit video hardware expectations. This is setup in the VVTR Preferences 'Conform size to' menu. This is very useful in a common situation where users want to play FUSE captured video (which is MJPEG A 768 x 576 video) on a DeckLink SP (which expects 720 x 576 video). Without the conform size option, no picture will be displayed. It is also possible to program VirtualVTR to perform pan and scan operations (contact gallery for detailed information on this)

Note that any changes made in the Overlay settings are typically not reflected until the movie is closed, and re-opened.

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