manual/include/workflow-amp-operations.html

<h2>Overview of Operations</h2>

<table class="dl">
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Session &gt; Open Video&hellip;</kbd></th>
  <td>Add/replace a video to/on the timeline</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Window &gt; Video Monitor</kbd></th>
  <td>Open/close external video monitor window</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">View &gt; Video Monitor &gt; &hellip;</kbd></th>
  <td>Various settings of the video monitor</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Session &gt; Export &gt; Export to Video File&hellip;</kbd></th>
  <td>Export session and multiplex with video-file</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd class="mouse">Left</kbd>-drag the video in the timeline</th>
  <td>Re-align video and move 'locked' audio-regions along</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Context-menu on the video-timeline: <kbd class="optoff">Lock</kbd></th>
  <td>Prevent accidental drags</td></tr>
  <tr><th>Audio region context menu: <kbd class="menu"><em>Name_Of_The_Region</em> &gt; Position &gt; Lock to video</kbd></th>
  <td>Mark audio region(s) to be moved along with the video.</td></tr>
</table>


<h2>Adding a video</h2>

<p>
  Adding a video is a two-step process: selecting a video file, and choosing
  import mode and optionally selecting an audio track to extract. Only one video
  can be present in the session, so opening a video when one is already opened
  results in replacing the video.
</p>

<h3 class="clear">Launching the video server (optionnal)</h3>

<figure class="right">
  <img class="mini" src="/images/launch_video_server.png" alt="The Launch Video Server dialog">
  <figcaption>
    The Launch Video Server dialog
  </figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
	Importing a video makes Ardour start the video server automatically. If
	the <kbd class="option">Show video Server Startup Dialog</kbd> option in the
	<kbd class="menu">Video</kbd> section of the
	<a href="@@preferences#video">preferences</a> is checked, the
	<kbd class="menu">Launch Video Server</kbd> window is shown, allowing more
	complex operations, e.g. connecting to a remote video server instead of a local
	one.
</p>

<h3 class="clear">Selecting a file</h3>

<figure class="right">
  <img class="mini" src="/images/set_video_track.png" alt="The video open dialog">
  <figcaption>
    The video open dialog
  </figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
  This 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>
	The lower part of the window shows some options:
</p>
<ul>
	<li><kbd class="option">Open Video Monitor Window</kbd> to automatically show
	the video monitor (Harvid). This can also be done later by using the
	<kbd class="menu">Window > Video Monitor</kbd> menu which is binded to
	<kbd class="mod2">V</kbd> by default.</li>
	<li><kbd class="option">Adjust Session Framerate to Match Video Framerate</kbd>
	which can also be set later with the <a href="@@session-properties-dialog">Session Properties</a>.
	Having the session and video framerate at the same value allows their sync not to
	drift off.</li>
</ul>

<h3 class="clear">Import options</h3>

<figure class="right">
  <img class="mini" src="/images/transcode-import_video_file.png" alt="The Transcode/Import Video dialog">
  <figcaption>
    The Transcode/Import Video dialog
  </figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
  This step analyzes the video file in more detail and offers import options:
</p>
<table class="dl">
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Import/Transcode Video to Session</kbd></th>
  <td>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, or network storage of the video server on a different
  machine) by using the <kbd class="menu">Output File:</kbd> field.</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Reference from Current Location (Previously Transcoded
  Files Only)</kbd></th>
  <td>Only useful for opening files that were previously encoded (are already
  in a good format/codec for Ardour). Should be used with care.</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Do not Import Video (Audio Import Only)</kbd></th>
  <td>Useful for extracting audio only.</td></tr>
</table>

<p>
  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 required to decode and play the
  file.
</p>
<p>
  A small, low-quality representation of the image is usually sufficient
  for editing soundtracks. The default bitrate in kbit/sec is set to use
  0.7 bits per pixel (in comparison, the average DVD medium uses 5000&nbsp;kbit/s;
  at PAL resolution this is about 0.5 bits per pixel, but the DVD is
  using the <dfn>mpeg2</dfn>&mdash;a denser compression algorithm than the
  <dfn>mjpeg</dfn> codec used by Ardour).
</p>

<p>
  The <kbd class="menu">Extract Audio:</kbd> offers options regarding the Audio
  part of the stream, allowing to either not extract audio, or to choose which audio
  stream to add to the session.
</p>
<p>
	When extracting any audio, if it includes <a href="@@timecode-generators-and-slaves">
	LTC timecodes</a>, those can be extracted and used to sync the video by checking
	the option below.
</p>

<h2>Working with A/V</h2>
<p>
  Working with A/V in Ardour is similar to working in a pure audio setup, except
  for the presence of a video timeline in the <a href="@@ruler">ruler</a> zone,
  and a Xjadeo video window, showing a preview of the result.
</p>

<figure class="center">
  <img class= "mini" src="/images/video_timeline.png" alt="The Video Timeline">
  <figcaption>
    The Video Timeline
  </figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
  The Xjadeo window supports some user interactions, such as showing some OSD
  information or changing the zoom level. Xjadeo's documentation is available
  on its <a href="http://xjadeo.sourceforge.net/xjadeo.html#heading8">website</a>.
</p>

<h2 id="export">Exporting Video</h2>

<figure class="right">
  <img src="/images/export_video_file.png" alt="The Video Export Dialog">
  <figcaption>
    The Video Export Dialog
  </figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
  The video export will take audio from the current Ardour session and
  multiplex it with a video file. The soundtrack of the video is taken from
  an audio export of Ardour's master bus.
</p>
<p>
  An arbitrary video file can be chosen. For high quality exports, the
  original file (before it was imported into the timeline) should be used.
  This is the default behaviour if that file can be found. If not, Ardour
  will fall back to the imported proxy-video which is currently in use
  on the timeline. Any existing audio tracks on this video file are stripped.
</p>
<p>
  The range selection allows to cut or extend the video. If the session is
  longer than the video duration, black frames are prefixed or appended to
  the video. (Note: this process may fail with non-standard pixel aspect
  ratios). If Ardour's session range is shorter, the video will be cut accordingly.
</p>

<p>
  Audio sample-rate and normalization are options for Ardour's audio exporter.
  The remaining settings are options that are directly passed on to ffmpeg.
</p>

<p>
  The file format is determined by the extension chosen for it
  (.avi, .mov, .flv, .ogv, .webm,&hellip;).
  Note: not all combinations of format, codec, and settings produce files
  which are according to specifications. For example, flv files require
  sample rates of 22.1&nbsp;kHz or 44.1&nbsp;kHz, mpeg containers can not
  be used with ac3 audio-codec, etc. If in doubt, one of the built-in
  presets should be used.
</p>

<p>
  Ardour video export is not recommended for mastering! While ffmpeg
  (which is used by Ardour) can produce high-quality files, this export
  lacks the possibility to tweak many settings. We recommend using
  <a href="http://www.biggmatt.com/winff/">winff</a>,
  <a href="http://www.rastersoft.com/programas/devede.html">devede</a> or
  <a href="http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/">dvdauthor</a> to mux and master.
  Nevertheless this video-export comes in handy to do quick snapshots,
  intermediates, dailies or online videos.
</p>