manual/include/video-timeline-setup.html

<p>
  No configuration is required if everything is to meant be run on a single
  machine, and the version of Ardour comes from <a href="http://www.ardour.org"
  title="http://www.ardour.org">http://www.ardour.org</a>. Everything is
  pre-configured and included with the download/install.
</p>

<h2>Single Machine</h2>

<p>
  If Ardour is compiled from source, or installed from a 3rd party
  repository, three additional tools will need to be installed manually, which are
  used by Ardour to provide video features:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>xjadeo (the video monitor application): <a
    href="http://xjadeo.sourceforge.net/" title="http://xjadeo.sourceforge.net/"
    rel="nofollow">http://xjadeo.sf.net</a></li>
  <li>harvid (a video decoder used for the thumbnail timeline):
    <a href="http://x42.github.io/harvid/" title="http://x42.github.io/harvid/"
    rel="nofollow">http://x42.github.com/harvid/</a></li>
  <li>ffmpeg, ffprobe (used to import/export video, extract soundtracks and query
    video information and encode mp3 for export): <a
    href="http://ffmpeg.org" title="http://ffmpeg.org"
    rel="nofollow">http://ffmpeg.org</a></li>
</ul>

<p>
  Ardour requires xjadeo &ge; version 0.6.4, harvid &ge; version 0.7.0 and
  ffmpeg (known to work versions: 1.2, 2.8.2, 5.0)
</p>

<p>
  The Ardour development team is in control of the first two applications.
  ffmpeg however can be a bit of a problem. To avoid conflicts with distribution
  packages, Ardour looks for <code>ffmpeg_harvid</code> and
  <code>ffprobe_harvid</code>.
</p>

<p>
  All four applications need to be found in <code>$PATH</code> (e.g.
  <code>$HOME/bin</code> or <code>/usr/local/bin</code>). For convenience the
  binary releases of harvid include ffmpeg_harvid and ffprobe_harvid.
  Ardour binaries from ardour.org do include all relevant tools and most
  GNU/Linux distributions also provide those.
</p>

<p>
  Binary releases of the video-tools are available from ardour.org via a dedicated installer script:
  <a href="https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/master/tools/videotimeline/install_video_tools.sh"
  title="https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/master/tools/videotimeline/install_video_tools.sh"
  rel="nofollow">install_video_tools.sh</a>.
</p>

<p>
  The easiest way to install the video-utilities on Linux is by running the following
  line in a terminal:
</p>

<kbd class="cmd lin">sh -c &quot;$(curl -s -L http://git.io/tVUCkw)&quot;</kbd>

<h2>Studio Setup</h2>

<p>
  As Setting up a proper A/V post-production studio can be a complicated task, it
  is advised to read the info in the previous section to get familiar with
  the tools involved first. As much as the Ardour team streamlines and simplifies
  the <em>single machine</em> setup, the <dfn>studio setup</dfn> is focused on
  modularity.
</p>

<ul class="fixme">
  <li>TODO:</li>
  <li>Synchronization ardour &rarr; video-display-box should be accomplished by
    external means. Jack-transport(netjack), MTC, LTC
    (<abbr title="Open Sound Control&mdash;&quot;postmodern MIDI&quot;">OSC</abbr>
    and/or ssh-pipe work but introduce additional latency + jitter)</li>
  <li>Ardour launches <code>XJREMOTE</code> (environment variable, default
    &#039;xjremote&#039; which comes with xjadeo).</li>
  <li>Either use a custom shell script that ssh&#039;es into the remote box and
    launches/controls xjadeo there, selects the sync-source and passes though
    communication between ardour &iff; xjadeo via ssh (xjadeo is launched stopped with
    the session).</li>
  <li>&hellip;or override xjremote&#039;s behavior&mdash;instead of IPC with a local
    running xjadeo-process, using <abbr title="Open Sound
    Control&mdash;&quot;postmodern MIDI&quot;">OSC</abbr> for example. Xjadeo would
    run permanently and Ardour will just tell it to load files and set offsets via
    <acronym title="Open Sound Control&mdash;&quot;postmodern
    MIDI&quot;">OSC</acronym>. See <a
    href="http://xjadeo.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=xjadeo/xjadeo;a=blob_plain;f=contrib/xjremote-osc"
    title="http://xjadeo.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=xjadeo/xjadeo;a=blob_plain;f=contrib/xjremote-osc"
    rel="nofollow">xjremote-osc</a> example script.</li>
  <li>If the video server runs remotely, Ardour needs to be configured in Ardour &gt;
    Preference &gt; Video (hostname of the video-server).</li>
  <li>Ideally the machines have a common shared folder (NFS or similar).
    Ardour&#039;s import (audio-extract) and export (mux) functionality depends on
    having access to the video file. Also Ardour's video-import transcodes the file
    into a suitable proxy-format that allows reliable seeking to any
    frame&hellip;</li>
</ul>