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Kino Preferences
Preferences is the set of program options that you can customise to
control Kino's behaviour and defaults. The preferences are currently
saved to ~/.gnome2/kino if you want to manually edit or remove the file
to reset to "factory" defaults.
The defaults contain the settings for DV encoding used by the FX mode
when creating new DV from external sources.
- Normalisation
- Select the desired video signal format: NTSC or PAL.
- Audio
- Choose the audio sampling frequency. We recommend 48khz.
- Aspect Ratio
- Typical video is 4:3. Movies and new digital television standards
use 16:9 (widescreen).
- Base File Name
- Enter the path where you want to store captured video
followed by a file name stem. Do not add the extension.
Kino generates a sequence number and optionally a timestamp
that it appends to the stem file name. It also generates
the file extension, currently .avi or .dv.
- File Type
- Currently, Kino only supports Raw DV and DV AVI file formats. You can
choose between standard DV1 or DV2 formats. DV2 is more compatible
with other applications because it creates a separate interleaved
audio stream. However, if you are only capturing for Kino use or
for another program that supports DV1, then choose it because DV
natively interleaves audio with the video and the audio stream
in DV2 is wasteful. MPlayer and Avifile only playback DV2 AVI.
Current versions of Windows DirectShow do support DV1, but
Windows application support for DV1 is inconsistent.
The OpenDML option only applies to DV2. OpenDML allows for very
large files (greater than 1GB). DV1 is natively OpenDML.
If configured during the build and compilation, Quicktime DV files are also
supported.
- Auto Split Files
- Generate a new file whenever Kino detects a new scene
while capturing video.
- Put Timestamp In File Name
- If enabled, during capture, Kino appends a date and time to the base
file name specified above.
- Write Every n Frame
- This is time-lapse record function. If entered, Kino skips
n frames between capturing a single frame and adding it to the AVI.
- Frames per File
- Set the maximum number of frames a single AVI/DV is to contain.
Kino will automatically split capture into multiple files if
the number of frames in this setting is exceed. Set to zero to
not use frame count as a criteria for file splitting.
- Max File Size
- Set the maximum number of megabytes a single AVI/DV is to contain.
Kino will automatically split capture into multiple files if
the maximum size in this setting is exceeded. Kino supports very
large file sizes exceeding 2GB. Set to zero to not use file size
as a criteria for file splitting. If both this and Frames per File are
set to zero and Auto Split disabled, you can capture very large files
limited only by the usual 64 bit and physical constraints.
- DV Capture/Driver
- Kino uses raw1394 or dv1394 drivers for capturing DV from IEEE 1394.
Choose a driver and enter the device file name. The default is the
raw1394 driver with the /dev/raw1394 file.
- DV Capture/raw1394 Interface
- This provides support for multiple IEEE 1394 host adapters,
NOT the individual plugs on a single adapter. Nothing needs to
be done to address a plug on a single adapater, as 1394
automatically takes care of this. This is a zero-based number.
- DV Capture/Frame Buffers
- The maximum number of complete frames that can be buffered by the IEEE 1394
capture thread.
- VCR (AV/C) Control/Device
- Kino detects all cameras on the bus that support the AV/C command
set. Select one from the list. It attempts to read the name of the
device from its Configuration ROM, but not all devices implement it.
If the name is not readable, then the numeric node is used. Most users
only have one AV/C device connected anyway. You do not need a camera
supporting AV/C to capture video! It is only used to control the
tape transport mechansim.
- AV/C Control/Poll Interval
- Kino uses AV/C to poll the device for timecode and transport status
information. This value determines the delay between each polling cycle.
Some devices do not like an intensive amount of polling, so you can reduce
it and slow it down by increasing the poll interval. On the other hand,
some devices do not at all mind the lowest value of 10ms.
- DV Export/dv1394 device
- Kino uses dv1394 to export DV over IEEE 1394.
Choose your driver and set the device file name. See
Linux 1394
for information on dv1394 device files.
- DV Export/Frame Buffers
- The number of DMA buffers used by the video1394 device. Set this to a
higher value if you experience buffer underruns.
- DV Export/Timing
- These two timing entry fields let you tweak the parameters of the
DV export algorithm to achieve successful results. A value of
0 for either field selects its built-in default, which has been
deemed compatible for most users based upon current feedback.
However, if you need to adjust them, then it helps to know the
built-in values to use as a starting point for experimentation:
Setting |
PAL |
NTSC |
Increment |
1 |
2436 |
Threshold |
16 |
38400 |
- DV Export/SYT Offset
- video1394 must generate a timestamp in DV transmission
stream that must be a fairly precise offset of the bus'
master cycle timer. This can vary on systems due to latency
or device compatibility. Values between 18000 and 20000 seem
to work for most users.
- DV Export/Pre-Roll
- The export pre-roll is an initial period of export when the first
frame is repeated over and over. The idea is to allow time for the receiving
device to synchronize to the incoming signal before sending the rest of the
movie. Some devices take longer than others. You can adjust this for your
device, or if you insert an initial frame containing color bars, for example,
you can let it repeat for a certain duration too.
- Display Method
- GDK: very compatible with X servers and the X Windows
client/server architecture. Not very fast.
Does not maintain frame aspect ratio.
XVideo (Xv): requires XFree86 4.x and supporting hardware
and X server. Run 'xvinfo' from the shell to get information about
support on your system. Very fast and Kino maintains both frame and
pixel-accurate aspect ratio. You can not take a screen capture of
the video preview in this mode. XVideo is similar to Microsoft
DirectDraw.
Reduce Xv: Similar to XVideo above with the same advantages
and disadvantages. This variation, however, uses half of the data
bandwidth that is needed for compatibility on some X servers and
hardware. The reduction in data bandwidth does invoke a scaling
CPU overhead thereby affecting performance.
- Deinterlace Preview
- Due to the nature of NTSC and PAL video, interlacing can result in
interield motion. Setting this to either the lower
or upper field options does a fast deinterlace by doubling the lines from
one of the fields. The results in an effective 50% reduction in resolution,
which is just fine and looks decent if you are just viewing at 50% size
anyway. The linear blend option is a slower with fair results when viewing
at greater than 50%; it tends to blur the image some.
- Drop video frames as needed
- When enabled, Kino uses sophisticated algorithms and threads
to sacrifice the video frame rate in order to provide better
audio quality of play back and to provide an overall playback
rate that is consistent and true with time. Basically, only
disable this if you are interested in seeing if you machine
is fast enough to decode DV in realtime. If you machine is not
fast enough, then your will hear audio clicks and gaps.
- Preview on External Monitor
- If you use the dv1394 driver for IEEE 1394/DV Export, then you can
enabled this option to send the video out while scrubbing video in Edit
and Trim mode.
- Enable preview during capture
- To reduce the chance of dropped frames during video capture
to disk, disable this option. If you have a fast enough system,
you can turn this om and get a live preview of the video being
captured.
- DV decode quality
- You can adjust the quality of the DV decoder to reduce
the processing overhead for increased playback performance.
This does not affect the quality of DV exported over
IEEE 1394 back into your camera.
- DV decode quality/Clamp luma values
- DV decode quality/Clamp chroma values
- ITU-R 601 specifies that the legal range for luma is 16-235 and
for chroma is 16-240 regardless of NTSC, PAL, or setup issues. However,
some users take advantage of the footroom or headroom below or above
these ranges to encode additional information for things such as
luma keying. The luma and chroma clamp options permit the range checking
to be disabled to preserve the superblack and superwhite.
These options also apply to the encoder used by the FX
renderer.
You can enable or disable audio and set the OSS device file
to use for your machine. Kino only supports OSS at this time.
If you are running a sound server in your desktop environment
such as esd for GNOME, or aRts for KDE, then Kino cannot open
the sound device unless your driver explicitly supports it.
For example, the SoundBlaster Live series cards and driver support
multiple opens.
- Enable Audio Scrub
- Normally, audio only plays in the Edit and Trim modes
when you choose playback, regardless of speed or direction.
However, it does not play audio as you navigate using
the keyboard or scrub bar (and the transport state is
stopped or paused.) Enable this option to play audio
as much as possible, if only for brief moments.
Enable this if you have a Contour Shuttle Pro or Sony USB
Jog/Shuttle controller. (See the README_jogshuttle file for more
information on Kinos Jog/Shuttle support.)
- USB Input Device
- The device that Kino will use for input events from the
Jog/Shuttle. This will usually be on the form
"/dev/input/event0". The actual device can vary depending on your
other USB devices and the order you insert them into your
PC. Changing the device will not take effect until you restart Kino.
- Button Mappings
- Kino will let you assign actions to the buttons on your
Jog/Shuttle. Simply press the button combination you wish to
assign an action to, and select the action from the bottom list of
actions. Alternatively you can select the buttons by using the
lists. You can assign actions to single buttons or combinations of
two buttons. In the latter case then please note that if you have
assigned an action to a single press on button 1 and also to a
combination of 1 followed by 2, Kino will perform both actions if
you press 1 followed by 2. You can clear an action by selecting
the "<none>" action
- Disable Key Repeat
- If you find that your keystrokes are buffering and you
inadvertently have to wait for Kino to process all of them,
then you might enable this option. If enabled, Kino only operates
on the oldest event in the queue and discards all pending events.
On the other hand, enabling this option may require you
to use the keys more slowly in order for Kino to receive the
ones you do intend it to process.
- Save SMIL projects with relative file paths
- File references normally use an absolute path name.
However, relative file names are also possible with this option,
Relative file names are relative to the SMIL file's directory.
This is especially useful if you keep all related files of
a project together in a directory because you more easily move
the project directory or backup and restore to another machine.
- Two pass image encoding
- This results in higher quality rendered output in FX, but it is twice
as slow.
- Expand Storyboard by default
- Make Storyboard to expand all scenes to expose children whenever it
must redraw.
- Use Insert by default in Trim
- Overwrite is normally the default Mode in Trim. Set this to make Trim
use Insert mode by default.
- Default Project Directory
- Set the default directory used by the File/Open and File/Save
dialog. This default is used until a new directory is chosen during
the current Kino session. Then, on the next session, Kino reverts back
to your default project directory.
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