User Manual Essentials USER MANUAL
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Introduction Thank you! Scope of this Guide About this Guide 5 5 5 6 Assumptions 6 Conventions 6 Important Note Introduction to VCube Essentials 7 8 What is VCube Essentials? 8 Experienced VCube Users Installing VCube Essentials Creating a First VCube Essentials Composition Quick Settings Synchronizing VCube Essentials with Pyramix Managing VCube Essentials Resources 8 8 9 11 13 16 Output Page Diagnostic Tools 16 System Tab 17 Playback Info Tab 19 Buffer & Cache Tab Index 21 23 : iii
: Document revision-02 Date: 5th-July-2011 : Page 4
Introduction Thank you! Thank you for purchasing Merging Technologies VCube Essentials video player software package! VCube is the "Swiss Army Knife" of video players with options available for playing back all common (and not so common) SD and HD file formats. Whether replacing an existing QuickTime® Video Player when upgrading to Pyramix 7, or as a packaged bundle with a new Pyramix 7 system, VCube Essentials is your entry into the world of VCube.
About this Guide Assumptions This User Manual and the other documentation assume you are thoroughly familiar with PCs and Windows terms and concepts. If the PC is new, please ensure the machine is working correctly before attempting to install VCube. Note: Although VCube version 3 runs under the 32 bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, it does not support the “Aero” style transparency display features present in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Note: All features described in the documentation are available in the Advanced Mode. If the user-interface is set to Simple Mode some features may remain hidden or unavailable. To change the UI Mode: User Interface > WorkSpace > UIMode: Advanced [Alt + F3] User Interface > WorkSpace > UIMode: Simple [Alt + F1] Navigation In electronic form, all the Contents and Index entries and Cross-references are hyperlinks. I.e. Clicking on them will jump to the relevant item.
Introduction to VCube Essentials For many years the Virtual Transport module in combination with the QuickTime® Video player and the Direct Show Video Player, either sold as stand-alone options or included in certain Pyramix software bundles, has provided the opportunity to play back video clips efficiently, synchronized with Pyramix on the same CPU, with very little encumbrance to the system itself.
• If the VCube Essentials build number does not match that of Pyramix, logon to the Support / Download page on the Merging Technologies website and obtain the correct, corresponding releases of both installers. 2. Launch the VCube installer and proceed with the installation of VCube to your system in the same location where Pyramix is already installed. 3. Import your VCube Essentials Activation Key. This key is included in the e-mail notification provided by your local Merging Technology sales partner.
TimeCode in the Timeline and then use the Place to Cursor button in the Media File Browser. For further methods of offsetting clips or offsetting the incoming TimeCode used to synchronize VCube, please refer to the VCube User Manual. Media File Browser bottom buttons Note: VCube only displays recognized media files and will mask any other files present in a folder.
Quick Settings VCube SD and HD Quick Settings Tip: When creating a new composition by placing Media Files into the VCube Timeline manually with the Load& Auto-Config button, ALWAYS use the Quick Settings functions to preset the VCube to the appropriate format in which you wish to display your media before attempting playback. The Quick Settings are accessed via the Settings menu or by keying Alt + F5 (SD) or Alt + F6 (HD).
Quick Settings VCube can play virtually any video format in the timeline and will compensate for frame rate, resolution, aspect ratio, pixel size, color depth down sampling or size differences automatically to the best values possible but the overall settings should be aligned to a single video format listed in either one of the two Quick Settings menus. These Quick Settings help to avoid accidental user omission of an important setting that may hinder the proper display of video played back by VCube.
Synchronizing VCube Essentials with Pyramix Currently, as of Pyramix v7.1 and VCube v3.1, synchronization of the two programs is achieved via Virtual Transport. The following checklists will help you set up all three programs with adequate settings. Pyramix Checklist for Synchronization Pyramix Settings All Settings > Remote Control > Virtual Transport page 1. Launch Pyramix 2. Open the All Settings menu in Pyramix (Alt + G) 3. Open the Remote Control > Virtual Transport sub menu 4.
VCube Checklist for Synchronization VCube Settings page : Format & Sync Tab 1. Launch VCube Essentials 2. In the Settings page open the Format & Sync Tab 3. Scroll down to the Synchronization section and check the Follow VT button to activate it 4. Un-check the VCube as VT Clock Master button Virtual Transport Checklist for Synchronization VT - Client pane 1.
• Clock Master • TC Master • Lock 4. In the Pyramix Client verify that the Chase check box is off 5. In the VCube client verify that the following check boxes are checked on: • Lock • Chase 6. In the VCube Client verify that the following boxes are checked off: • Clock Master • TC Master Note: Note: Take special care to always use the same TimeCode base in both Pyramix and VCube to insure proper synchronization through VT. I.e.: 25 to 25, 29.97 to 29.97, 23.98 to 23.98 etc.
Managing VCube Essentials Resources Pyramix and VCube are powerful real-time audiovisual applications, both with the potential to play out massive amounts of sound and HD picture data while recording audio and performing real-time editing processes. When the resources of your workstation are understood and well balanced, multi-tasking of Pyramix and VCube is a powerful audiovisual tool.
System Tab The first diagnostic tool in the Output page is the System Tab. This shows a real-time graph of the overall CPU usage and the Memory consumption of VCube itself. The CPU display shows a graphical percentage plot of each CPU core for use by VCube under Windows to the right and on the left an average percentage of all cores combined.
Memory Below the CPU graphs is a graph showing the estimated memory consumption of VCube. This memory consumption graph does not include the other processes running under Windows so it is good to compare the memory consumption graphs of the Windows Task Manager under the Performance tab with that of VCube for comparison purposes. To access the Windows Task Manager key Ctrl + Shift + Esc (or Ctrl + Alt + Del and choose Start Task Manager) and click on the Performance tab.
not remedy playback stalls then investigate further to determine if your media volume is adequately outputting media to VCube or use a smaller more efficient version of the HD video encoded in a different format or at a different bit rate. Buffer Tab The Buffer tab shows three graphical plots: 1. Available Video Buffer 2. Queued Buffer 3.
6.Current FPS Output Page - Playback Info Tab Note: The remaining counters not listed above either do not apply to VCube Essentials due to the absence of an AJA® video board in the system or are not helpful in determining the cause of poor playback. Video and Audio Disk Read graphs The Video and Audio Disk Read graphs show the delays between the moment a media frame is requested from a disk volume and the moment it is available for use by VCube.
Read Drop Counter The Read Drop Counter shows a continuous display of how many frames of video were dropped (due to insufficient throughput of the media volume to the VCube playback engine) during a single playback pass. If the raw media data arrives late to VCube because the disks are too slow, then VCube does not even have a chance to process them. Note: Stopping and restarting playback resets the values in all the counters so consult them during playback.
Introduction : Buffer & Cache Tab Page 22
Index A About this Guide Advanced Mode Assumptions 6 O 6 7 Output Page Diagnostic Tools P Playback Info Tab 19 Preview Drop Counter B Buffer & Cache Tab Buffer Tab 19 21 21 Q C Quick Settings Conventions used in this document 6 CPU 17 Creating a First VCube Essentials Composition Current FPS 21 R 9 11 Read Drop Counter Resources 16 21 S D Documentation 16 Scope 5 Simple Mode 7 Support 7 Synchronizing VCube Essentials with Pyramix System Tab 17 6 E Experienced VCube Users 8 I T Install
