figure 1: The library panel part 1

figure 2: The Library panel part 2

The basic building blocks of the Silverstack library are projects, bins and folders. Every project you create in Silverstack contains by default different kinds of “Smart Folders” and a “Volumes” sub-item. Based on that you can add an unlimited number of folders, bins and smart folders by right-clicking on any item of the project tree.

Project

A “Project” groups all information and data of a single project. In Silverstack all clips, jobs, volumes and destinations are assigned to one project. It may additionally contain information like the producer, name of the DIT or a production logo, which you can edit in the Statistics overview of the selected project.

The number behind every element of your project tree indicates the number of versions it contains, whereby duplicates are not counted. The number behind your “Project” item indicates the number of versions contained by it, with only counting one version of each referred clip.

Bin

A bin contains clip versions, but no other bins or folders. It is the smallest container unit in Silverstack. Bins are the only element to contain versions directly, folders and projects only group a set of bins.

There are two different types of Bins:

• Video Bins:   
• Audio Bins:   

Sorting of Bins

You can organize the library by dragging and dropping bins and folders in a custom order or selecting a certain criteria to sort them by:

The bin sorting options in detail:

• Custom Order: Reflects and stores the custom order the user created with drag & drop.
• Name (A-Z): Sorts bins and folders by Name from top to bottom from 0 to Z.
• Name (Z-A): Sorts bins and folders by Name from top to bottom from Z to 0.
• Date (oldest – newest): Sorts bins and folders by creation date, oldest date first, newest date last.
• Date (newest – oldest): Sorts bins and folders by creation date, newest date first, oldest date last.

Folders stay on top. Audio bins are automatically sorted separately at the bottom of video bins.

Folder

Folders are used to create logical project structures like shooting days. A folder can contain bins and other folders but not clips directly since clips always have to be enclosed by a bin.

Folder structure can easily be duplicated by choosing “Duplicate Folder Structure” from the context menu:

Fig. 3: Duplicating the folder structure of a folder

Smart Folder

Additionally there is an element called “Smart Folders” in the Silverstack library, which describes a folder with integrated filtering function. Using smart folders you can find clips with a certain attribute in the dedicated project very easily. The default smart folders filter the library for clips without backups, with a high rating, a flagging or clips that are registered today. For a closer look to the smart folder section go to the Working with smart folders article.

Volumes

By selecting “Volumes”, Silverstack outlines all used storage devices and their according information. You can also reveal the files in the finder by clicking the reveal button. Additional information about your volumes can be found in the right sided panel. There you have the possibility to make comments, eject the volume, get the status of your free disk space print a volume report or give your hard-drive a playback priority.

figure 4: The Silverstack “Volumes” window

RemovedFromPFDStart

Related articles:

Manage your Project

Organize your Material

RemovedFromPFDEnd

The post The Clip Library: Bins, Folders, Smart Folders and Volumes (Beta Version Silverstack 6.5) appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Overview

The transcoding functionalities of Silverstack have been updated with Silverstack Lab 6. The update contains a faster transcoding engine, an updated user interface, more transcoding options and a lot more (details below).

Individual Clip vs Combined Clips Transcoding

Silverstack Lab offers two different basic transcoding options:

Fig. 0: The two main transcoding options in Silverstack Lab

• Individual Clips (one file per clip): The Individual Clips “standard” transcoding option creates one transcoded clip per source clip.
• Combined Clip (single file with multiple clips): The Combined Clip transcoding option is able to create one transcoded clip for multiple source clips.

The Combined Clip transcoding option has restrictions compared to the “standard” Individual Clips option. Please refer to the article Combined Clip Transcoding in Silverstack Lab to learn more about this special transcoding option.

Continue with this article below to learn more about the standard case of transcoding to individual clips.

Transcoding Configuration vs Starting a Transcoding Job

Silverstack Lab separates the configuration of the transcoding settings from the actual starting of a transcoding job:

• The section “Transcoding Configurations” will explain how to adjust the settings for your transcoding job.
• The section “Starting a Transcoding Job”  will explain how to execute a transcoding job.

Transcoding Configurations

The transcoding settings can be found in the transcoding tab of the right bar. Click the transcoding icon  to access the transcoding tab:

Fig. 1: Configure the transcoding settings in the transcoding tab of the right bar

The upper part of the transcoding tab shows the custom transcoding configurations. The lower part shows the detailed settings for the selected configuration. The settings will be applied and stored to the configurations immediately.

Locking Transcoding Configurations

Fig.2: Locking transcoding configurations

Transcoding configurations can be locked to avoid changes to them by clicking the lock icon on the right side of the “Settings” header bar. Locked configurations will be shown with a white lock icon in the table*.

Transcoding Settings

Audio & Video

Video

• Codec: Select the output codec depending on your requirements. There are different options available (also shown in Fig. 3):
  • H.264
  • H.265 / HEVC  (available starting from macOS 10.13)
  • ProRes 4444
  • ProRes 422
  • ProRes 422 (HQ)
  • ProRes 422 (Proxy)
  • DNxHD LB 1080p 36 8-bit
  • DNxHD SQ 1080p 145/120/115 8-bit
  • DNxHD HQ 1080p 145/120/115 8-bit
  • DNxHD HQX 1080p 220/185/175  10-bit
  • DNxHD SQ 720p 145/120/75/60 8-bit
  • DNxHD HQ 720p 220/185/110/90 8-bit
  • DNxHD HQX 720p 220/185/110/90 10-bit
  • DNxHR LB 8-bit
  • DNxHR SQ 8-bit
  • DNxHR HQ 8-bit
  • DNxHR HQX 10-bit

Fig. 3: Available transcoding options

• Container: Select the container for the file. The following options are available:
  • Quicktime (.mov): Available for all codecs  (ProRes, H.264, HEVC and DNx codecs)
  • MXF OP-Atom (.mxf): Available for DNx codecs.
  • MP4 (.MP4): Available for H.264 and HEVC codecs.

• Size (for H.264 and ProRes): This drop down menu allows you to select the final resolution of the transcoded clips:

Fig. 4: Available frame sizes

• H.264 Bitrate Options: 

Fig. 4b: The H.264 bitrate calculator

The H.264 manual bitrate options allow you to enter a specific bitrate in the textfield or provide help for a choice of quality in the “H.264 bitrate calculator” (see fig. 4b).

The bitrate calculator lets you choose the intended quality from “poor” through “good” to “best” and calculates the resulting bitrate based on the selected resolution and the intended frame rate.

• Duration (Limit to In/Out points): By enabling this option Silverstack only transcodes the part of the clip between the in and out points set in the library.

Audio

Tick the checkbox to include audio in your transcoded clips.

• Format:
  • Linear PCM
  • ACC – Good Quality *
  • ACC – High Quality *

• Channel Layout:
  • All Tracks: All available audio tracks (separate tracks, no mute/solo/level taken into account) **
  • All Tracks (Skip Muted Tracks): Transcodes all available audio tracks but includes neither muted audio tracks nor muted audio clips. **
  • Stereo Mixdown: The custom audio mix created in the audio panel

Source

Choose different decoding options for the source formats:

• ARRIRAW:
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• SONY RAW
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• REDCODE RAW
  • 1/8 resolution
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• Canon RAW
  • Quality:
    • Full Resolution
    • 1/2 Resolution
    • 1/4 Resolution
  • Debayer Mode:
    • High Speed
    • High Quality
• AVC-Intra / XAVC
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• ProRes
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• Panasonic V-RAW
  • Soft (GPU)
  • Default (GPU)
  • AHD (CPU)
• Phantom Cine
  • Soft (GPU)
  • Default (GPU)
  • AHD (CPU)
• Cinema DNG
  • Soft (GPU)
  • Default (GPU)
  • AHD (CPU)
• Blackmagic RAW
  • 1/8 resolution
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution

Compositing

• Resizing:
  •  Fitting Strategy:
    • The zoom to fit (Adding black bars/Without black bars) option will adjust the horizontal resolution of the clip to fit in the selected final size.
    • Zoom to fill will affect the vertical resolution of the footage to the final size, cropping the sides.
    • 1 to 1 will zoom the footage to 100% in the center of the image to adjust to the final selected size, cropping everything else.

figure 5: resizing example results

• Grading: 
  • Look Source: Choose how to manage the color data for the clip:
    • As set in Library: enable this setting to include the looks applied to the clip in the Library. For more information on how to apply looks, please check the article The Silverstack Look Library.
    • None: Disables the color processing and transcodes the clips unmodified (as recorded).
    • From file: Reads the clip metadata and applies the color processing described in the embedded looks. In case there is no look embedded, Silverstack applies the default Log to Rec.709 conversion for the specific format.

• Frame lines: You can enter a custom aspect ratio to apply it as frame lines to the transcoded clips. Additionally, choose from different appearances in the “Appearance” dropdown.

fig. 5b: Enter a custom aspect ratio in the combo box

All entered aspect ratios will be saved in the dropdown and sorted in alphabetical order:

fig 5b: The list of custom aspect ratios

Comments to the aspect ratios can be added in brackets after the aspect ratio (see example “2,39:1 (Cinemascope)”).

The list of aspect ratios is shared between all three places in Silverstack Lab where aspect ratios can be set: In the transcoding configurations (as explained here), in Crop, and in the Visual Controls for framing assistance.

Overlays

• Burn Ins: Choose from different options to burn in metadata in the transcoded clip:

Fig. 6: Burn in options

Note: The «Custom Text» burn in option (Silverstack Lab only) allows to add metadata wildcards into the custom text field. For instance, it’s possible to display «Scene: [scene value]-[shot value]» as shown in the following figure by writing «Scene: $scene$-$shot$» in the custom text field.

Find a list of all available keys in the article Custom Burn-In Wildcard Keys.

Fig. 6b: custom text wildcards for metadata burn ins

• Burn in Parameters: The following parameters can be adjusted for the burn ins:
  • Margins: A horizontal and vertical margin to position the burn ins in the frame.
  • Font: Sets the font style for the burn ins.
  • Font Size: Sets the font size in pt.
  • Transparency: Sets the transparency level for the burn ins.
  • Text Color: Sets the text color to “White” or “Black”
  • Background: Sets the background to a “Box” shape or adds an “Outline” to the text.

• Image Overlay: Choose an image overlay (.png, .jpg, .tiff) to be burned into the transcoded clips.
  •  Overlay parameters:
    • Size: Sets the size of the image (0 -100 %)
    • Position X: Sets the position in horizontal direction
    • Position Y: Sets the position in vertical direction
    • Transparency: Sets the transparence (0 – 100 %)

Metadata Export

Choose a target application to automatically export a metadata file to transfer detailed clip information to different 3rd party systems.

Choose from the following export tools and formats:

• Adobe Premiere Pro  (.XML)
• AVID Media Composer (.ALE)
• Final Cut Pro 7 (.XML)
• Final Cut Pro X (.FCPXML)
• COPRA Dailies System (.XML)
• Pomfort XML Metadata (.XML)

Select the destination tool and click the “Configure…” button to define the detailed settings for the metadata file export. Click the links to the tools above to learn more about the configuration of the metadata exports.

The Transcoding Preview

When the transcoding tab in the right bar is showing Silverstack automatically switches to a transcoding preview to be shown in the playback view:

Fig. 7: The transcoding preview

The transcoding preview displays a preview of the transcoding configurations applied to the currently selected clip.

Starting a Transcoding Job

The «Transcode» button

In order to start transcoding the clips, first select a folder or bin in the Library panel. Then click on Transcode to open the wizard. There you will be able to select the clips you want to transcode. Click on continue to select the destination and transcode settings.

Fig 8: clip selection wizard

Now you are able to select where the transcoded clips will be stored. You can add and remove destinations by using the «+» and «-» buttons. Alternatively, it’s also possible to modify each destination path and path wildcards. You can select from the configurations previously configured in the transcoding configurations tab:

Fig. 9: The transcoding destination step

Click the current configuration to open the list of all available transcoding configurations:

Fig. 10: The transcoding configurations dropdown

When the checkbox “Add to Library” is checked the transcoded clips will automatically be ingested into the Silverstack Lab Library after the transcoding job is done. Transcoding statistics will be available for the clips in the statistics view.

Click “Start Render Job” to start the render job. It can then be traced in the jobs panel.

Path Wildcards for Transcode Destinations

Path Wildcards can be used to customize the transcoding path with available metadata. Click the “Path wildcard” icon in the status bar (see fig. 13) to access the path wildcards settings for the selected destination:

Fig. 11: The path wildcard window

It is also possible to rename the transcoded clips by leaving out the “/” and optionally also adding a file extension. Here’s an example:

Fig. 12: Path wildcards for transcoding destinations

Hint: It is also possible to copy and paste path wildcards like plain text.

Multi Destination Transcoding

Silverstack Lab is able to transcode to multiple destination formats at a time. In certain cases (see below), the transcoding of the configurations has to be run sequentially. The transcoding wizard will give you a hint if the transcoding will be run in parallel or sequentially:

Fig. 13 : The info message about parallel or sequential transcoding

In case of sequential transcoding you can open the “Learn More” panel to get details about the transcoding order.

The following settings can influence the parallel execution of the transcoding job:

• In/Out Points
• Debayer settings
• Decoding resolution

Make sure to set the above settings to the same value when transcoding to two different configurations to avoid sequential transcoding.

Management of Transcoding and Offload Jobs

Silverstack Lab is generally able to transcode and copy at the same time. Transcoding jobs as well as copy jobs run in the background while the app is still fully accessible.

Optionally you can choose to pause transcoding jobs when offloading and while playing back clips. To do so go to the “Copy&Jobs” tab in the Preferences and select the according checkbox “Automatically Interrupt Transcoding Jobs during Playback and Offload”:

Fig. 14: The “Copy&Jobs” tab in the preferences

Selection of Preferred GPU and eGPU Support

In the preferences tab “Copy&Jobs” inside the “Transcoding” section you can select the preferred GPU for transcoding. Silverstack Lab automatically shows all available GPUs in the dropdown and lets you select the preferred one for transcoding:

Fig. 15: Select the preferred GPU in the preferences

Silverstack Lab also supports eGPUs (external GPUs) that can be attached to the machine the application is running on. Properly attached and installed eGPUs will show in the dropdown and can then be selected as the preferred GPU.

eGPUs can provide speed advantages for formats that require a lot of GPU work. Please be aware that while some transcoding tasks could be faster using an eGPU, other tasks/formats could suffer in speed. This heavily depends on source formats and transcoding configurations.

Transcoding Functionalities Overview for Silverstack Lab

• Multi Destination Transcoding
• Many custom transcoding preset
• All available burn in options
• Watermarking
• Transcoding resolutions higher than Full HD (1920 x 1080)
• Transcoding statistics
• Separate audio channels in transcoded clip
• Transcoding to DNx codecs (MXF, OP-Atom)
• Use of second GPU for transcoding
• Frame lines burn-in for transcoded clips
• Automatic metadata companion file export

*Only available for ProRes and H.264

** Not available for AAC audio codecs

Keywords: dnx36, transcoding, dnx

The post Transcoding in Silverstack Lab (Beta Version Silverstack 6.5) appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Silverstack allows to crop clips to a custom aspect ratio. Cropping is non-destructive as long a crop setting is not used for transcoding.

Cropping can be set via the “Crop” popover in the General Info tab on the right side of the main window. Learn more about the right sidebar in the article The Information Panel.

Crop Clips to a Custom Aspect Ratio

Go to the “General Info” Tab and scroll down to the “Processing” section where you can find the “Crop” entry.

Fig. 1: Crop in the Processing section

Click the little grey button with the pencil to open the popover:

Fig. 2: The Crop popover in the General Info

Crop Options

There are 2 crop options available:

• Crop to an Aspect Ratio
• Crop to a Custom Resolution

Selecting “None” will make sure no crop will be applied or all current crop factors will be removed from the clips when hitting “Apply”.

The “Source Resolution” and “Resulting Resolution” give you information about the original and the resulting image resolution:

• “Source Resolution”: Native resolution of the clip as also displayed in the General Info under “Format -> Resolution”
• “Resulting Resolution”: The cropped and/or desqueezed resolution. The factor relevant for the calculation of the Resulting Resolution are displayed below (e.g. “Desqueeze (2.0) and Crop”)

Please be aware that the decoding resolutions of the player do not affect the calculations of resolutions in the “Crop” popover.

The area that will be cropped is highlighted in the playback view.

Crop to an Aspect Ratio

Select the second tab “Aspect Ratio” and enter a custom aspect ratio into the combo box or select one from the list of presets.

Crop to a Custom Resolution

Select the third tab “Custom Resolution”.

You can enter a custom pixel resolution to crop to. The specified pixel resolution will be cropped out by default from the center of the image.

An offset can be applied to shift the cropped area inside the image. The arrow buttons provide help to shift the cropped area all the way to the respective original image margins.

Click “Apply” to crop the current image to the set specified crop settings.

Apply Crop to Multiple Clips

To apply a crop to two or more clips select multiple clips from the table view and open the “Crop” popover:

Fig. 3: Multi edit for crop

The number of altered clips is displayed in the popover. Click “Apply” to apply the set crop factor to all selected clips.

Tags: crop, multi edit, multiedit, aspect ratio

The post Crop Clips (Beta Version Silverstack 6.5) appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Overview

The transcoding functionalities of Silverstack have been updated with Silverstack 6. The update contains a faster transcoding engine, an updated user interface, more transcoding options and a lot more (details below).

Silverstack separates the configuration of the transcoding settings from the actual starting of a transcoding job:

• The section “Transcoding Configurations” will explain how to adjust the settings for your transcoding job.
• The section “Starting a Transcoding Job”  will explain how to execute a transcoding job.

Transcoding Configurations *

Silverstack XT offers multiple custom transcoding configurations while Silverstack offers one custom transcoding configuration.

The transcoding settings can be found in the transcoding tab of the right bar. Click the transcoding icon  to access the transcoding tab:

Fig. 1: Configure the transcoding settings in the transcoding tab of the right bar

The upper part of the transcoding tab shows the custom transcoding configurations. The lower part shows the detailed settings for the selected configuration. The settings will be applied and stored to the configurations immediately.

Locking Transcoding Configurations

Fig.2: Locking transcoding configurations

Transcoding configurations can be locked to avoid changes to them by clicking the lock icon on the right side of the “Settings” header bar. Locked configurations will be shown with a white lock icon in the table*.

Transcoding Settings

Audio & Video

Video

• Codec: Select the output codec depending on your requirements. There are different options available (also shown in Fig. 3):
  • H.264 (Quicktime Container)
  • H.265 / HEVC (Quicktime Container, available starting from macOS 10.13)
  • ProRes 4444
  • ProRes 422
  • ProRes 422 (HQ)
  • ProRes 422 (Proxy)

Fig. 3: Available transcoding options

• Container: Select the container for the file. The following options are available:
  • Quicktime (.mov): Available for all codecs  (ProRes, H.264, HEVC)
  • MP4 (.MP4): Available for H.264 and HEVC codecs.

• Size (for H.264 and ProRes): This drop down menu allows you to select the final resolution of the transcoded clips:

Fig. 4: Available frame sizes

• H.264 Bitrate Options: 

Fig. 4b: The H.264 bitrate calculator

The H.264 manual bitrate options allow you to enter a specific bitrate in the textfield or provide help for a choice of quality in the “H.264 bitrate calculator” (see fig. 4b).

The bitrate calculator lets you choose the intended quality from “poor” through “good” to “best” and calculates the resulting bitrate based on the selected resolution and the intended frame rate.

• Duration (Limit to In/Out points): By enabling this option Silverstack only transcodes the part of the clip between the in and out points set in the library.

Audio

Tick the checkbox to include audio in your transcoded clips.

• Format:
  • Linear PCM
  • ACC – Good Quality **
  • ACC – High Quality **

• Channel Layout:
  • Stereo Mixdown: The custom audio mix created in the audio panel

Source

Choose different decoding options for the source formats:

• ARRIRAW:
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• SONY RAW
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• REDCODE RAW
  • 1/8 resolution
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• Canon RAW
  • Quality:
    • Full Resolution
    • 1/2 Resolution
    • 1/4 Resolution
  • Debayer Mode:
    • High Speed
    • High Quality
• AVC-Intra / XAVC
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• ProRes
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution
• Panasonic V-RAW
  • Soft (GPU)
  • Default (GPU)
  • AHD (CPU)
• Phantom Cine
  • Soft (GPU)
  • Default (GPU)
  • AHD (CPU)
• Cinema DNG
  • Soft (GPU)
  • Default (GPU)
  • AHD (CPU)
• Blackmagic RAW
  • 1/8 resolution
  • 1/4 resolution
  • 1/2 resolution
  • Full resolution

Compositing

• Resizing:
  •  Fitting Strategy:
    • The zoom to fit (Adding black bars/Without black bars) option will adjust the horizontal resolution of the clip to fit in the selected final size.
    • Zoom to fill will affect the vertical resolution of the footage to the final size, cropping the sides.
    • 1 to 1 will zoom the footage to 100% in the center of the image to adjust to the final selected size, cropping everything else.

Fig. 5: resizing example results

• Grading: 
  • Look Source: Choose how to manage the color data for the clip:
    • As set in Library: enable this setting to include the looks applied to the clip in the Library. For more information on how to apply looks, please check the article The Silverstack Look Library.
    • None: Disables the color processing and transcodes the clips unmodified (as recorded).
    • From file: Reads the clip metadata and applies the color processing described in the embedded looks. In case there is no look embedded, Silverstack applies the default Log to Rec.709 conversion for the specific format.

Overlays

• Burn Ins: Choose from two different options to burn into the transcoded clip:

Fig. 6: Burn in options

• Burn in Parameters: The following parameters can be adjusted for the burn ins:
  • Margins: A horizontal and vertical margin to position the burn ins in the frame.
  • Font: Sets the font style for the burn ins.
  • Font Size: Sets the font size in pt.
  • Transparency: Sets the transparency level for the burn ins.
  • Text Color: Sets the text color to “White” or “Black”
  • Background: Sets the background to a “Box” shape, adds an “Outline” to the text or with “None” adds no background.

• Image Overlay: Choose an image overlay (.png, .jpg, .tiff) to be burned into the transcoded clips.

•  Image Overlay Parameters:
  • Size: Sets the size of the image (0 -100 %)
  • Position X: Sets the position in horizontal direction
  • Position Y: Sets the position in vertical direction
  • Transparency: Sets the transparence (0 – 100 %)

The Transcoding Preview

When the transcoding tab in the right bar is showing Silverstack automatically switches to a transcoding preview to be shown in the playback view:

Fig. 7: The transcoding preview

The transcoding preview displays a preview of the transcoding configurations applied to the currently selected clip.

Starting a Transcoding Job

The «Transcode» button

In order to start transcoding the clips, first select a folder or bin in the Library panel. Then click on Transcode to open the wizard. There you will be able to select the clips you want to transcode. Click on continue to select the destination and transcode settings.

Fig. 8: clip selection wizard

Now you are able to select where the transcoded clips will be stored. You can add and remove destinations by using the «+» and «-» buttons. Alternatively, it’s also possible to modify each destination path and path wildcards. You can select from the configurations previously configured in the transcoding configurations tab:

Fig. 9: The transcoding destination step

Click the current configuration to open the list of all available transcoding configurations:

Fig. 10: The transcoding configurations dropdown

When the checkbox “Add to Library” is checked the transcoded clips will automatically be ingested into the Silverstack Library after the transcoding job is done. Transcoding statistics will be available for the clips in the statistics view.

Click “Start Render Job” to start the render job. It can then be traced in the jobs panel.

Path Wildcards for Transcode Destinations

Path Wildcards can be used to customize the transcoding path with available metadata. Click the “Path wildcard” icon in the status bar (see fig. 13) to access the path wildcards settings for the selected destination:

Fig. 11: The path wildcard window

It is also possible to rename the transcoded clips by leaving out the “/” and optionally also adding a file extension. Here’s an example:

Fig. 12: Path wildcards for transcoding destinations

Hint: It is also possible to copy and paste path wildcards like plain text.

Multi Destination Transcoding*

Silverstack XT is able to transcode to multiple destination formats at a time. In certain cases (see below), the transcoding of the configurations has to be run sequentially. The transcoding wizard will give you a hint if the transcoding will be run in parallel or sequentially:

Fig. 13 : The info message about parallel or sequential transcoding

In case of sequential transcoding you can open theWildcards for Transcodes panel to get details about the transcoding order.

The following settings can influence the parallel execution of the transcoding job:

• In/Out Points
• Debayer settings
• Decoding resolution

Make sure to set the above settings to the same value when transcoding to two different configurations to avoid sequential transcoding.

Management of Transcoding and Offload Jobs

Silverstack Lab is generally able to transcode and copy at the same time. Transcoding jobs as well as copy jobs run in the background while the app is still fully accessible.

Optionally you can choose to pause transcoding jobs when offloading and while playing back clips. To do so go to the “Copy&Jobs” tab in the Preferences and select the according checkbox “Automatically Interrupt Transcoding Jobs during Playback and Offload”:

Fig. 14: The “Copy&Jobs” tab in the preferences

Transcoding Functionalities Overview for Silverstack and Silverstack XT

The transcoding functionalities of Silverstack have been updated with version 6. Silverstack and Silverstack XT come with a different set of functionalities concerning Transcoding.

• Silverstack 
  • Single destination transcoding
  • One custom transcoding preset
  • Timecode and Clip Name burn in options
  • Watermarking
  • Transcoding resolution up to full HD (1920 x 1080)
  • Stereo mixdown audio channel layout for transcoded clip

• Silverstack XT
  • Multi destination transcoding
  • Many custom transcoding preset
  • Timecode and Clip Name burn in options
  • Watermarking
  • Transcoding resolutions higher than Full HD (1920 x 1080)
  • Stereo mixdown audio channel layout for transcoded clip
  • Transcoding statistics

* Silverstack XT only

**Only available for ProRes and H.264

The post Transcoding in Silverstack and Silverstack XT (Beta Version Silverstack 6.5) appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

In the license window you can activate the software with a purchased license and manage other aspects of licensing.

Trial Period and Read-Only Mode:

Without a valid license you can use the software in a trial mode for 10 days. You can extend the use at any time by entering a valid license.

After the trial mode or after a purchased license has expired, LiveGrade Pro still works in read-only mode. You cannot interact with hardware, but you can browse all information stored in the application’s shot library, and even create reports and export data.

License Manager

Add License:

By clicking the “Add License…” button a panel opens that allows you to activate a license. In the “License Key” field you enter the license code that you received after purchase. A license code typically has the format: LGPro-123456AB-12AB-12AB-12AB-123456ABCDEF.

If you have entered license codes before, you can choose them directly with the button with the triangle besides the license key field.

In the “License Location” field is a field for you to descriptive the computer you are running the license on (see “License Location” below).

Click “Activate License” to activate the license. A working internet connection is needed so that the software can validate the license code against Pomfort’s license servers.

If the activation fails with the error message “Activation failed”, there are three possible reasons for that:

• You don’t have a working internet connection (or the Pomfort license servers are temporarily not reachable),
• the license code is not correct (e.g. a character or number is missing), or
• the license is activated on another computer already.

If the license is activated on another computer already, deactivate the license there first.

Installed License Keys:

The license table shows all installed Pomfort licenses on the computer with their expiration date. It also includes licenses of other products. Licenses (e.g of other products) that cannot activate the installed software version are greyed out.

By clicking “Reload Licenses” the licenses and their activation and expiration information are refreshed from the Pomfort’s license servers.

You can deactivate a license by selecting it in the table and clicking “Deactivate License”. The license can now be activated on another computer (see article How do I migrate a license from one computer to another?).

License Location:

The license location text will appear in the Pomfort Account (see below) and is helpful for managing and locating multiple licenses in different computers. You can edit the license location by clicking the “Edit Location…” button. You can either choose an arbitrary name (for example “Second Unit Notebook”), or use the computer’s name as set in the Sharing tab of the System preferences by clicking the “Use Hostname” button. When clicking “OK”, the license location will be transferred to Pomfort’s license servers.

Purchase License:

By clicking “Visit Store…” the Pomfort online store opens in a browser window where you can purchase a license. You will receive a license code by email only minutes after finishing the purchase process.

Pomfort Account:

After the purchase of your first Pomfort product, you can create your personal Pomfort Account on Pomfort’s license servers. In Pomfort Account online system you can see an overview of all your purchased licenses (of all products) and troubleshoot issues with your licenses.

The post The License Window appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

LiveGrade Pro comes with support for AJA FS-HDR devices. LiveGrade Pro uses the “Dynamic 3D LUT” of AJA FS-HDR to apply a grade to the live signal via a network connection.

A list of all devices supported in LiveGrade Pro can be found in the Knowledge Base article All Supported Devices in LiveGrade Pro.

For general information about setting up LiveGrade with HD-SDI devices please refer to the article HD-SDI Setup for LiveGrade.

Adding the AJA FS-HDR as a Device

In order to receive look information from LiveGrade Pro, the AJA FS-HDR needs to have a working network connection with the Mac where LiveGrade Pro is running on. Once a correct connection is established, launch LiveGrade and you can proceed to add the AJA FS-HDR as a device. In order to do that, you can choose “Slots” in the main menu and then “Add Device”. Alternatively, you can add the device through the Device Manager.

After that, a configuration window opens:

By hitting “Refresh” you can search for compatible AJA FS-HDR devices connected to your network. All AJA FS-HDR devices found will show up in the table view. Select the intended device and click “Add Device” to add the box to the selected slot.

Working with the AJA FS-HDR device in LiveGrade Pro

In the main LiveGrade window, the AJA FS-HDR device is now displayed in the corresponding grading slot as a device.

After selecting the correct grading slot you will be able to adjust the look that is sent to the AJA FS-HDR device by modifying it in the Main Window of LiveGrade Pro.

Currently the FS-HDR’s “Dynamic 3D LUT” mode is available only in 4K mode, this means that the same 3D LUT will be applied to all four channels of the device. Please note that 4K/UHDR mode must be switched on to use the Dynamic 3D LUT.

Checking the Connection Status in the Device Manager

To learn more about the connection state of the AJA FS-HDR device, you can open the Device Manager by clicking on “Devices” above the Grading Slots view.

If connected properly the AJA FS-HDR will show up as a “Device” row in the Device Manager with a green indicator confirming a positive connection status. By clicking on “Config…”  an info window opens where you can see all information available about the connection of LiveGrade Pro with your AJA FS-HDR device.

The post Setting up AJA FS-HDR appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The device manager contains all controls to setup devices and slots, and represents the core configuration dialog for attached and controlled hardware devices.

You can open the device manager either by clicking on the “Devices…” button in the slot bar, or by choosing “Manage Devices…” in the “Slots” menu.

The device setup is saved and restored on every application restart. So once the devices are configured, they will show up in the same way after the computer, the devices, or just the application performed a restart.

The device manager

List of Slots:

The device manager shows the same list of slots as the slot bar in the main window.

You can add a slot by clicking the “Add Slot” button on the bottom of the window. You can delete a slot by clicking the “Delete Slot…” button in the slot.

Each slot can have a descriptive name, type into the text field to edit the slot label. The slot label also appears in the slot user interface in the main window.

List of devices in a slot:

Each slot contains a list of devices. Each device is represented by a device row with an icon. You can move devices from one slot to another by dragging and dropping the device rows.

Some devices also can act as an image source, such as LUT boxes that support frame grabs. For these devices an additional row is added that represents the image source.

Each device shows information about the identity or the connection of the device, such as a device name or IP address.

Manage devices in a slot:

You can add devices by clicking the “Add Device…” button, and choose the device type from the shown menu.

You can delete a selected device by clicking the “Delete…” button.

Configure a device:

Devices can have different configuration options.

• LUT boxes can be identified with the “Blink” button, a cycle of primary colors will be displayed on the output image of the LUT box to identify the right physical device.
• With the “Config…” button you can configure connection options of the specific device.
• Some device offer the possibility to set video range options and color management options.

Slot and device configurations:

You can save and restore entire configurations of slots and devices with the “Save and Restore” button. The list of slots and devices with their configurations can be stored in an external file, and restored from such a file at a later time.

This can be used either to transfer your hardware setup to another computer (e.g. when replacing a computer), or to switch between different hardware setups with the same computer (e.g. when switching between an advanced setup in a DIT cart and a smaller, more mobile setup.

Refresh controls:

“Reload Devices” re-initializes the connections to all devices.

“Refresh ICC Profiles” reloads the list of ICC profiles for color management settings.

Link slots:

You can link slots to interact with multiple slots simultaneously. This can be used e.g. for parallel processing of signals, e.g. for parallel SDR and HDR viewing of the same signal, or for interacting with multiple camera signals at the same time.

The post The Device Manager appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Create Editing Proxies in Silverstack Lab

Silverstack Lab allows to create DNxHD and DNxHR MXF clips (OP-Atom) that are optimized for editing in Avid Media Composer. Take a look at the article Transcoding in Silverstack Lab to learn more about transcoding in Silverstack Lab.

By enabling the checkbox in the transcoding configuration settings you can additionally create AAF files that enable an easier ingest workflow for Media Composer:

Fig. 1: Enable the checkbox “Create AAF” to create AAF files along with the MXF clips

Transfer Editing Proxies to Avid Media Composer

To transfer editing Proxies to Avid Media Composer you have to move the created MXFs into a certain folder on an external volume to be detected:

/Volumes/[YourVolume]/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/

In this directory you have to create numbered folders the MXF clips have to go into, so e.g.:

• /Volumes/[YourVolume]/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/11
• or 
• /Volumes/[YourVolume]/Avid MediaFiles/MXF/12

Going forward there are multiple ways of ingesting the created proxy clips into Media Composer. You can either:

• 1. Drag & drop the created AAFs into a Media Composer Bin
• 2. Have Media Composer create an .mdb file in the MXF structure and drag & drop it into a Media Composer bin:
  • 1. Open Avid Media Composer (AMC) and your project to have Media Composer detect the media
  • 2. Go back to the ../MXF/11 folder in Finder and drag & drop “msmMMOB.mdb” into a bin in AMC

The post Create and Transfer Editing Proxies for Avid Media Composer with Silverstack Lab appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Silverstack Lab can provide transcoded clips as well as metadata from its library in a compatible format for ARRI Webgate cloud services. In Silverstack Lab you can export an ALE file that accompanies the transcoded clips and provides extended metadata to be available on the ARRI Webgate platform. The proxy clips can be uploaded together with the ALE where the additional metadata is then available.

There are two ways in Silverstack Lab to export an ARRI Webgate compatible ALE:

• Automatic: The automatic metadata export as part of the transcoding configuration can be set to automatically export a ARRI Webgate ALE after the transcoding job finishes and the transcoded clips are reingested into the library
• Manual: The manual export can be reached from the “Export” menu in the toolbar and in the context menu of the bin. It allows to manually trigger the export for the ALE for the bin with already transcoded clips in the library

Creating an ARRI WebGate compatible ALE when Transcoding

The automatic metadata export option allows to automatically create a companion metadata file when a set up in a transcoding configuration that is used for transcoding clips.

You can learn more about Transcoding in Silverstack Lab in the equally titled article.

To set ARRI Webgate as target application for the automatic metadata export, first go to the transcoding configurations tab of the right sidebar. Select the transcoding configuration from the list that you would like the export to happen for.

Fig. 1: Automatic Metadata Export configured for the transcoding configuration

Scroll down to the “Metadata Export” section. Select “ARRI Webgate” and press the “Configure…” button to select its content.

Fig.2: Configure the content of the ARRI Webgate ALE

When now transcoding to the adapted configuration you selected the metadata export for, the ARRI Webgate ALE is automatically exported to the same folder as the clips after the job finishes and the transcoded clips are automatically ingested into the “Transcoded Clips” folder of the Silverstack library.

Manual Export of an ARRI Webgate Compatible ALE

To manually export an ARRI Webgate compatible ALE select the intended bin inside the “Transcoded Clips” folder and choose “ARRI Webgate” from the “Export” menu:

Fig.3 : Manually exporting an ARRI Webgate ALE from a transcoded clips bin

The wizard leads you through the source selection (to select the clips that should be part of the ALE) and the content selection (which metadata should be part of the ALE).

Click the “Save ALE…” button to export the ALE to the intended directory.

Supported  Structural Metadata of ARRI Webgate

Some columns of the ALE file need to have a certain syntax to correctly translate the metadata into the structural metadata of ARRI Webgate. You can read more about the metadata workflow for ARRI Webgate in their guide.

The following structural metadata is supported by the Silverstack Lab ALE:

• Scene / Scene- Shot
• Take
• Episode
• Reel
• Shoot Date
• Circled Take / Good Take
• Clip Comments
• Start (Start TC)

All other metadata from the ALE will also be displayed in ARRI Webgate but does not form part of the structural metadata.

Upload Clips and Metadata to ARRI Webgate

It is either possible to upload the ALE directly with the clips in the ARRI Webgate uploader or you can later use “Add metadata (ALE)” to add metadata to an existing playlist.

Fig.4: ARRI Webgate uploader example with one clip and ale

Find more details about uploading clips and the metadata workflow for ARRI Webgate in their guide.

The post Preparing Clips and Metadata for ARRI Webgate appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

There are a variety of keyboard shortcuts available for commands in the main menu of Silverstack. Shortcuts can help greatly in boosting your productivity.

Many shortcuts are already predefined. You can also set shortcuts for selected commands that you perform quite often and that do not hold default shortcuts in order to memorize the interaction with Silverstack more easily.

To inspect the exact list of available keyboard shortcuts go to Silverstack > Keyboard Shortcuts… . This will open the Keyboard Shortcuts Editor (figure 1).

Figure 1: The Keyboard Shortcut Editor

Listing and Searching Keyboard Shortcuts

The keyboard shortcut editor shows a table with a list of all actions in the main menu and their currently set keyboard shortcut. You can search the list by typing into the search bar on top of the table.

Edit Keyboard Shortcuts

To edit a keyboard shortcut:

1. Select “Map Keys” to allow changes on the key mapping list.

2. Choose the row with the command.

3. To set or modify a shortcut press the key or keys to use as the new keyboard shortcut. You can use modifiers, numbers, letters and characters individually or in combination.

4. To  remove the associated shortcut permanently press ⌫ (delete / backspace) button.

5. Close the Edit Keyboard Shortcuts window when you are done.

If you choose a shortcut already assigned to a command, a warning dialog box will be displayed that shows which command already used the chosen shortcut.

Figure 2: Alert showing used keyboard shortcut

Select “Cancel” and choose another key for your current command, or select “Reassign” which removes the shortcut from the  old command and sets it for the selected command (figure 2).

Restoring Default Keyboard Shortcuts

You can reset all keyboard shortcuts to latest version default by clicking “Restore Defaults…”.

Note : Both of these steps executes an automatic restart.

The post Editing Keyboard Shortcuts in Silverstack appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

With LiveGrade Pro you can interactively change the color appearance of live signals. The processing of the image is in general not performed within the computer, but with the use of external processing devices such as LUT boxes, cameras systems, or monitors.

LiveGrade Pro’s color grading feature focus on primary color correction transforms (e.g. ASC-CDL, 3D and 1D LUT, and curve editor). For these transforms typical controls are availabl, and grouped int the user interface as “nodes”.

For most of the attached devices such as LUT boxes, the transforms of all nodes are combined into one transform whenever you change anything in the grade. That transform is then automatically converted into a 3D LUT and sent to the device, often multiple times per second – as long as you modify the controls, such as turning a know.

With some devices such as cameras, ASC-CDL values and lookup tables are updated independently in the camera.

The automatic and continuous update of the attache device allows interactive look control and fine adjustments of the appearance of the live image.

LiveGrade Pro’s grade controls

Nodes: 

The grade controls for the currently selected slot are grouped in “nodes”. A node can contain for example controls for a ASC-CDL transform, or for loading  a 3D LUT preset. Nodes are applied to the live signal from top to bottom, the top node is applied first, and the following nodes subsequently. If the grade node is reset or freshly added, it doesn’t affect the image. Change the controls of a node to give the node effect to the image. Each control or group of controls in grade nodes has a button with a little arrow that resets the controls.

You can enable and disable single nodes by using the checkbox on the left of each node. Disabled nodes are greyed out.

Nodes can have names. Click on the small pen symbol that appears when you move the mouse over the column on the left of each node. You can use names to better identify nodes with different roles (e.g., “pre LUT” and “post LUT”). Node names are also used when applying node presets from the look library for identifying nodes to be updated.

Note: Grade controls can be invisible, if the entire slot and control area is minimized in height. Drag the bar above the grade controls or the slots in order to make space for displaying grade controls.
The video scopes have a minimum height that also influences the minimum height of the grade controls. Open the scopes in a separate window or hide the video scopes in order to resize the grade controls to smaller height.

Grading mode control:

LiveGrade Pro comes with a set of grading modes, targeted to different color pipelines. There are basically four different groups of grading modes:

• ASC-CDL + 3D LUT modes, (typical color pipelines for a broad range of cameras and projects)
• ACES modes (for use in projects that choose the ACES pipeline),
• device specific modes (targeted to the capabilities of certain devices), and
• freestyle modes (without any limitations in color pipeline, but reduced compatibility).

With some grading modes you can edit the list of used nodes in the grade controls. An “Edit” button appears in the bar with the grading mode if the grading mode allows modification of the grade nodes. For example in the “CDL Advanced” mode you can add more grade nodes, e.g. for additional 3D LUTs or ASC-CDL nodes.

Note: In order to match looks with clips for dailies creation and create the same color appearance on dailies as on the live image, it is needed to coordinate the grade mode and the node pipeline with the dailies creation process.

Look name:

When creating a look preset in the look library or a shot entry in the shot library, a look name will be added. You can prepare and edit this look name in the look name field of the grade controls.

Look display modes:

In a slot you can switch between different look display modes. Look display modes temporarily enable and disable specific grade nodes:

• Graded: All nodes are enabled. The result image shows the original image with all nodes applied.
• Bypass: Only 3D and 1D LUT nodes are enabled. The result image shows the original image with only these nodes applied, this will result in a “neutral” image.
• Original: All nodes are disabled. The result image shows the original image with no nodes applied.

Disabled nodes are greyed out.

With the “False Color” control you can enable and disable the false color mode. The false color mode is always applied to the current result image.

Each slot also has controls to switch look display modes in the slot user interface.

Reset look:

With the reset look controls you can reset a look. “Neutral” clears and resets all nodes. “Reset colors” leaves 3D and 1D LUT nodes untouched and only clears all other nodes such as ASC-CDL nodes.

Video scopes:

The video scopes panel offers histogram, waveform, and vectorscope inspection tools with individual settings. The video scopes show the analysis of the current image of a slot with the current grade nodes applied.

The histogram and vectorscope also include a curve overlay that display the result curve of the combined transforms of all active grade nodes in the slot. The result curve is always shown, also when there is no current image available in a slot.

You can show and hide the video scopes from the main menu and from the toolbar. You can open the video scopes in a separate window by clicking on the “Toggle Windowed / Docked View” button in the bar above the video scopes.

Configure video scopes:

To switch between different types and combinations of video scopes choose the controls in the bar above the video scopes.

You can configure the update frequency of the video scopes from the wedge menu in the bar above the video scopes. The update frequency can have an impact on CPU use of your computer. Lower update frequency (e.g. less updates per second) lead to less CPU usage.

The post Grade Controls appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The slot UI summarizes all information for a slot, and acts as a tab user interface element to switch between tabs. The selection of a tab is indicated by a blue background.

Slot details

Slot name:

Each slot has an automatically assigned character and a label. You can edit the label in the device manager.

Clip identifier:

The clip identifier can be used to uniquely identify shots in the look library. A common clip identifier format consists of a camera character, reel number, and clip number (e.g. A003C012).

There are different ways keeping the clip identifier updated, so that each created shot gets a meaningful and unique clip identifier:

• Increase clip and reel numbers: By default the clip name is assembled from the slot character, the “Clip” field and the “Reel” field of the slots metadata. There are shortcuts in the main menu for increasing the clip number and increasing the reel number (and resetting the clip number to 1) in the “Slot” menu.
• Clip name from camera metadata: If the attached devices provide camera metadata, the actual clip name from the camera is often available. This automatically will use the clip name of the camera as the clip name for a saved shot.
• Edit the clip name manually: You can also edit the clip name manually.

You can configure clip identifier updating for each slot separately in the menu of the “Configure metadata” button of each slot. There is also a setting for the default behavior for new slots in the preferences.

Summary of configured devices:

Small icons represent the configured devices in a slot. The number of icons shown is limited to three, if more devices are configured, only the first three are shown.

If a device has a connection problem, a yellow warning symbol is shown. The device icons offer tooltips for quick access of the device name, and the warning message in case of a a problem.

Below the clip name, a summary indicator is shown, that is also visible, when the slot is in “Tabs only” mode.

You can configure the devices, add new and remove devices of a slot in the device manager.

Reload devices:

Clicking this button manually triggers a reconnect to all devices of a slot. Sometimes this can solve connection problems, e.g. when a connection was lost due to bad Wifi.

Current image:

If one of the configured devices of a slot provides frame grabs (e.g. from a LUT boxes or attached camera) or live image (e.g. from a capture device), the current image is updated in the slot.

The image shown here can also be shown larger in the viewer window.

The image shown here is also the image that is analyzed by the videoscope.

You can use any frame grab stored or imported image from the shot library to be shown here. This can be used to review the current look of a slot with other images. Choose “Set as Image for Current Slot” from the context menu of a shot row in the shot list, or drag a shot from the shot list on to the image of the slot.

A little “A|B” icon on the current image indicates, that a reference image is set, that is used in the image viewer for comparison. You can remove a reference image by choosing “Remove reference” from the context menu of the current image.

Update framegrab:

With the update framegrab button you can manually request a new framegrab from the attached device. If the shown image is a live image (e.g. from a capture device) or no current image is shown, the update framegrab button is hidden.

Save still image:

With the save still image button you can save the current image as an image file to the file system. A temporary overlay will show the path the image file is saved to.

You can configure the file system location, the format, as well as the naming convention of the still image file in the preferences.

Display options for slot:

In a slot you can switch between different look display modes. Look display modes temporarily enable and disable specific grade nodes:

• Graded: All nodes are enabled. The result image shows the original image with all nodes applied.
• Bypass: Only 3D and 1D LUT nodes are enabled. The result image shows the original image with only these nodes applied, this will result in a “neutral” image.
• Original: All nodes are disabled. The result image shows the original image with no nodes applied.

Disabled nodes are greyed out.

With the “False Color” control you can enable and disable the false color mode. The false color mode is always applied to the current result image.

The controls for the display options of the currently selected slot are also accessible from the bottom bar of the main window.

Slot metadata:

The fields in the slot metadata table can either me edited manually, or updated automatically with camera metadata from the attached devices:

• An “A” icon indicates, that the metadata field is updated automatically from the device,
• a little pen icon indicates, that the metadata field is edited manually, although metadata for that field is sent by a device, and
• no icon indicates, that the metadata field needs to be edited manually, because no metadata for that field is available from any device.

You can switch between editing and automatic update by clicking on the little icons.

For the “Clip” and “Reel” fields you can use the up and down buttons to quickly increase the clip and reel numbers.

You can configure which metadata field is shown in the menu of the “Configure metadata” button.

You can configure how many rows of metadata are shown in the menu of the “Configure slot appearance” button.

You can configure, which device should be the source of the metadata (if multiple devices provide metadata) in the menu of the “Configure metadata” button.

Time code:

Time code is shown, if one of the attached devices provides time code information.

You can configure which device should provide time code (if multiple devices provide metadata) in the menu of the “Configure metadata” button.

Timecode can later be used in workflows where stored shot and look information shall be matched to recorded camera clips.

Configure metadata:

When clicking the “Configure metadata” button, a menu with all available metadata fields, as well as options for the metadata processing, merging, and display.

“Metadata from…” and “Timecode from…” let you choose what should be used as the source for that information in case multiple devices provide that information. When “Combine metadata from all devices” is checked, metadata fields from multiple devices are merged.

The “Clip identifier” submenu lets you choose a scheme for the updating of the clip identifier. You can choose either predefined schemes, or create your own by choosing “Edit custom clip identifier…”.

The metadata fields are grouped in sections, you can show and hide a single metadata field by checking or unchecking it. You can show and hide entire sections by clicking on the section heading.

If a metadata field’s value is automatically updated from a device, the value is shown behind the field’s name.

“Add entries with values from devices” adds all metadata fields that currently have values from devices.

“Apply selection to all slots” will set the selection of displayed fields of all other slots to the selection of displayed fields of the current slot.

The post Slot User Interface appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The (always latest) change log for the Livegrade Studio 5 application can be found here:

https://updates.pomfort.com/livegrade5-studio/changelog.php

The post Change Log for Livegrade Studio appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Background Information

The Codex virtual file system (VFS) “creates” the files on the virtual volume after the mount happened not all at once but clip after clip. This is also referred to as “indexing”. Depending on how full the card/magazine is, this process can take several seconds and there is no progress indication on the device manager.

If the Silverstack file scanner in the Offload Wizard is scanning the volume during that time (shortly after mount) it may only see the clips already “created” by the virtual file system to that point. If then an offload is started, only the files indexed can be detected and therefore copied.

Behavior of Silverstack

Silverstack 6.5.6 and later contains a mechanism that triggers a rescan automatically when the content of the VFS changes to make the situation in which not all clips are scanned as unlikely as possible.

However until now it is technically not possible to be 100% sure the content on the virtual file system is complete and there can be situations where the rescan mechanism also does not help.

To communicate this potential situation Silverstack presents the following alert as an informational hint to the user to do a manual check and make sure to copy the complete content of the drive:

The alert that Silverstack presents after scanning a Codex VFS

How to Make Sure To Copy the Complete Drive Content?

1. To initially have a higher probability the drive is fully indexed, we recommend waiting a few minutes between mounting the Codex drive and starting the offload process in Silverstack. This will give the virtual file system some time to create a complete file index. Be aware that the alert will be presented nonetheless as it is only informational and shows up every time when scanning a Codex VFS.
2. Make sure to check the clip list in the “Ingest” section of the Offload Wizard:

   The clip and files list in the offload wizard

   The list shows what has been detected by Silverstack and all the clips and files listed here will be copied. Check back with the continuity department or other responsible persons on set to know how many clips you should expect on the mag.
   If the list does not contain all the clips you would expect give the mag more time to index, check its content in Finder and restart the offload process in Silverstack.

The post Codex VFS Index Might Be Incomplete Alert appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

What is a module?

A module is a bundled set of features (usually for a very specific kind of workflow), that can be added on top of your already purchased software. The following modules are currently available:

Livegrade Pro and Livegrade Studio:

How can I purchase a module?

Modules can be purchased by sending an enquiry to sales@pomfort.com. When sending your enquiry, please make sure to include the following information: Name, email address, length of production, kind of production (commercial, feature film, etc.), as well as the main country of your production. Our sales team will get back to you with an offer as soon as possible.

Can I get an evaluation license for testing?

Yes, we can provide you with an evaluation license to test the workflow. An evaluation license can be requested by sending an enquiry to sales@pomfort.com. When sending your enquiry, please make sure to include the following information: Name, email address, length of production, kind of production (commercial, feature film, etc.), as well as the main country of your production.

How do I activate my module license? 

Module licenses are activated the same way as any other license. Like with any other product, you will receive a license key as soon as your purchase has been completed. The license key has the following structure:

LGPMQG-123456AB-12AB-12AB-12AB-123456ABCDEF

Make sure to download the latest version of the “base” software (Silverstack, Silverstack Lab, Livegrade Pro or Livegrade Studio). Activate your module license by manually entering the license key into the License Manager which can be found in the main menu. To enter the key, click “Add License…“. After this step you will be able to use the additional feature set of your module license.

Please be aware that you have to be connected to the internet for activating your license.

Please contact support@pomfort.com if you experience any problems to activate your license key.

The post How can I add a module to my purchased software? appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

In addition to defining routing presets (see Controlling an External Video Router for more information) Livegrade Studio has a dedicated view for directly controlling a video router and monitor routings visually. 

The video router view displays all inputs and outputs of a connected video router, and lets you interactively change routings.

Show and Hide the Video Router View

You can show and hide the video router view with the “Router” button in the toolbar. You can also “undock” the video router view from the main window by clicking the window button on the right top of the header bar of the video router view.

Connecting to a Video Router

Choose an auto-detected router in the “Router” popup button, or choose the router model family you have (AJA Kumo or Blackmagic Design Smart VideoHub), enter the IP address or hostname of your router and click the connection button besides the field for the IP address. You can disconnect the video router at any time by clicking the connection button again.

Managing Connections 

The Video Router view displays all connections between input ports and output ports currently active in the connected video router.

Usually an input port can be connected to multiple output ports, but an output port can only be connected to one input port. Connections between ports are displayed as colored lines.

Input ports are displayed on the top of the view (on the left in vertical layout), output ports are displayed on the bottom of the view (on the right in vertical layout). The ports display the port number in the router (the circled number), and one or two rows of the name of the port.

Names of ports can be configured in the administration interface of your video router. Please refer to the manual of your router how to do that.

When connections change (either from within the application or from outside, e.g. by using a hardware control panel or the web UI), the changing connections flash in white to indicate the change.

Changing Connections via Selecting Ports

You can select a port by clicking on it. The port and it’s current connections get highlighted. You then can click on one of the ports of the other port type to change a connection:

For example when an input port is selected first and an output port is selected second, the output port changes its connection to the selected input port. You can achieve the same effect by selecting an output port first and selecting the input port second.

Changing video routing connections by clicking on ports

You can select ports also from the utility menu in the wedge button in the header bar of the Video Routing view, or from the main menu by choosing one of the entries in the “Interactive Video Routing” submenu of the “Video Routing” menu in the application menu.

You can assign keyboard shortcuts to the selection of ports with the Keyboard Shortcuts manager.

You can assign MIDI events to the selection of ports with the MIDI mapper.

You can also right-click on each port button to inspect and change the connected port(s).

Changing Connections via Drag-and-Drop

Each port has a small colored circle besides it. You can drag a line from this circle to the port that you want to make  connection with.

Video Routing Configurations

You can setup video routing configurations as shortcuts to changes of one or more connections. See Controlling an External Video Router for more information.

Configured video routing configurations show up as menu items in the in the wedge button in the header bar of the Video Routing view.

You can also use the current state of the video router with all its connections as a starting point for a new configuration. Choose “Save Current Connections…” in the menu of the wedge button in the header bar of the Video Routing view.

Configuring the Video Routing Interaction

You can view connections either in horizontal layout or vertical layout. Choose “View in Vertical Layout” or “View in Horizontal Layout” menu items in the in the wedge button in the header bar of the Video Routing view to change the layout.

You can set the color of the connection lines in the Preferences.  Choose a color scheme in the “Interactive Video Routing Appearance” section of the “Advanced” preferences tab.

The post Interactive Router Control appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The application comes with the capability to run scripts from within the application. Scripts can be run manually (e.g. via keyboard shortcuts), or automated (via the Automation Manager).

The application provides environment variables to pass information of the current state of the application (e.g. current slot name, currently selected folder name) to the script.

Installing Scripts

You can use any script that is executable in Terminal. The script language is only limited by the available interpreters on your computer. macOS comes with most common interpreters pre-installed (e.g. Python, perl, Bash, ruby), but you can also install you own interpreters (e.g. Lua).

In order to be usable by the application, scripts need to be 

• installed in the Scripts folder in ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/LivegradeStudio5/and 
• have the executable-flag set.

You can open the Scripts folder by choosing “Show in Finder…” in the “Scripts” submenu of the application menu. Move any scripts to this folder.

For a script file to be executable by the application, the executable flag must be set for that script file in the file system. You can use the Terminal to set the executable flag:

$ cd “~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/LivegradeStudio5/Scripts”
$ chmod +x MY-CUSTOM.SCRIPT

All scripts also need to start with a Shebang with an interpreter directive (e.g. #!/usr/bin/ruby ) so that the application knows what interpreter to use in order to run the script.

Running Scripts

Installed scripts that have the executable flag set will show up in the “Scripts” submenu of the application menu. 

You can run these scripts manually by choosing the menu entry for a scripts.

You can assign keyboard shortcuts to run these scripts with the Keyboard Shortcuts manager .

You can assign MIDI events to run these scripts with the MIDI mapper.

Automating Scripts

You can let the application run scripts automatically on certain events by configuring script actions in the Automation Manager.

Example Script and Environment Variables

If the Scripts folder doesn’t contain executable scripts (e.g. on first start of the application), a sample shell script is installed in the Scripts folder, that illustrates the use of the environment variables. 

You can inspect the script by choosing “Show in Finder…” in the “Scripts” submenu of the application menu.

Debugging Scripts

You can see the output of a script in the Automation Manager’s “Logs” tab – no matter of the script has been run manually or through automation. 

The log shows both the standard output pipe and the standard error pipe.

The event log is cleared when the application quits, so you only see log entries of automations since the last start of the application.

If a script doesn’t exit with exit code “0” (which is the default exit code), the application plays the system beep.

The post Scripts and Automation appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Livegrade comes with support for Cobalt systems. The application sends look metadata to the Cobalt system whenever the user applies or manipulates a look in Livegrade.

Cobalt systems process signals with a 3D LUT, so the application sends the current grade as a 3D LUT to the Cobalt system, e.g. when being used in the CDL and LUT grading mode.

For general information about setting up LiveGrade with HD-SDI devices please refer to the article HD-SDI Setup for LiveGrade.

Adding a Cobalt System as a Device

In send the 3D LUTs to the Cobalt system, the device must have a working network connection with the computer running Livegrade.

Once network is set up, launch Livegrade and you can proceed to add the Cobalt system as a device in device manager. In order to do that, you can choose “Slots” in the main menu and then “Add Device”. Alternatively, you can add the device through the Device Manager .

After that, a connection dialog opens where you can enter the IP address of the Cobalt system.

Working with the Cobalt Devices

In the main window, the connected Cobalt system is now displayed in the corresponding grading slot as a device icon.

After selecting the correct grading slot you will be able to adjust the look that is sent to the Cobalt system.

Checking Connection Status in the Device Manager

To learn more about the connection state of the Cobalt system, you can open the Device Manager by clicking on “Devices” above the Grading Slots view.

If connected properly the Cobalt system will show up as a “Device” row in the Device Manager with a green indicator confirming a positive connection status.

The post Setting up Cobalt Devices appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

MIDI controllers offer an easy possibility of mapping application features to physical buttons (besides configuring custom keyboard shortcuts).

To inspect the list of available actions and controls for mapping to MIDI controllers go to “MIDI Controller Mapping” in the application menu. This will open the MIDI Controller Mapping window (figure 1).

Listing and Searching MIDI Mappings

The MIDI Controller Mapping window shows a table with a list of all actions in the main menu as well as additional controls with their currently set MIDI mappings for a certain MIDI device. 

Choose the MIDI device in the pop-up button. You will only see mapped events for that events in the table below.

You can search the list by typing into the search bar on top of the table.

Edit MIDI Mappings for Main Menu Actions

To set or edit a MIDI mapping for a menu item in the main menu:

1. Choose “Button” as control type.
2. Select “Map Controls” to allow changes on the key mapping list.
3. Choose the command row.
4. To set or modify a MIDI mapping press the button on your MIDI controller.

The MIDI channel and MIDI note will appear in the control row.

To remove the associated MIDI mapping press ⌫ (delete / backspace) button.

Close the MIDI Controller Mapping window when you are done.

Edit MIDI Mappings for Grade Controls

To set or edit a MIDI mapping for a grade control:

1. Choose “Encoder” as control type.
2. Select “Map Controls” to allow changes on the key mapping list.
3. Choose the control row.
4. To set or modify a MIDI mapping turn the knob or encoder on your MIDI controller.

The MIDI channel and control number will appear in the control row.

The application supports absolute and relative / endless encoders. You can set the behavior with the checkbox “Encoders are relative”.

When using absolute encoders the application simulates relative encoders: 

• In the middle position the mapped control is not changed.
• As long as the encoder is right / higher than the middle position, the mapped control will be increasing.
• As long as the encoder is left / lower than the middle position, the mapped control will be decreasing.
• Return the encoder to the middle position to stop any changes of the mapped control.

To remove the associated MIDI mapping press ⌫ (delete / backspace) button.

Close the MIDI Controller Mapping window when you are done.

Reset Mappings

You can remove all MIDI mappings by clicking “Clear All Mappings…”.

The post Setting up MIDI Controllers appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Livegrade can provide look metadata to QTake systems. Therefore the application treats the QTake system similar to a LUT device and sends updated look metadata to the QTake system whenever the user applies or manipulates a look in Livegrade.

QTake supports one ASC-CDL and one 3D LUT (in that order or operation). So Livegrade will send ASC-CDL as well as LUT information to QTake (e.g. when being used in the CDL and LUT grading mode). In QTake the look metadata shows up in a “LOOK” effect. For information about setup and use in QTake, please see the QTake manual.

For general information about setting up LiveGrade with HD-SDI devices please refer to the article HD-SDI Setup for LiveGrade.

Adding QTake as a Device

In order to receive look information from Livegrade, the computers running Livegrade and QTake need to have a working network connection.

Once network is set up, launch Livegrade and you can proceed to add the QTake system as a device in device manager. In order to do that, you can choose “Slots” in the main menu and then “Add Device”. Alternatively, you can add the device through the Device Manager.

After that, a configuration window opens. By hitting “Refresh” you can search for QTake systems connected to your network. All QTake systems found will show up in the table view. Select the intended device and click “Add Device” to add the box to the selected slot.

You can also specify a custom IP address.

Setup in QTake

Here are a few starting points for the setup in the QTake system:

• Make sure “QTAKE LUT server” is enabled in the QTake preferences.

Once a connection is made:

• Load a “Look VFX” filter with the right channel.
• Assign the “QTAKE LUT server” to the grading controls.

Please refer to the QTake documentation for further details.

Working with the QTake connection

In the main window, the connected QTake system is now displayed in the corresponding grading slot as a device icon.

After selecting the correct grading slot you will be able to adjust the look that is sent to the QTake system.

Checking Connection Status in the Device Manager

To learn more about the connection state of the QTake system, you can open the Device Manager by clicking on “Devices” above the Grading Slots view.

If connected properly the QTake system will show up as a “Device” row in the Device Manager with a green indicator confirming a positive connection status.

The post Setting up QTake Interaction appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.