User manual

441
Video
Operations
About the QuickTime video playback engine
In Cubase for Windows, you select a playback engine in
the Device Setup–Video Player page:
• Make sure to read the section “Before you start” on
page 440.
• Generally, you can expect most Windows hardware to
work with DirectShow.
On a Windows system, the DirectShow and Video for Windows players
are provided by the operating system, so you don’t have to install any ad-
ditional software.
• Under Windows, QuickTime 7.1 must be installed on
your computer for QuickTime playback to be available.
There is a freeware version (a QuickTime installer is included on the Cu-
base DVD if required, or you can download it from www.quicktime.com)
and a “pro” version, which offers additional video cutting options. The
player engine is the same in both versions, so for mere playback in Cu-
base there is no need to purchase the “pro” version.
• Under Mac OS X, only the QuickTime playback engine
is available, supporting the formats AVI, MPEG, Quick-
Time and DV. If your system has a FireWire port, there is
also a FireWire option – see below.
Importing a video file
Video files are imported in the same manner as audio files.
• By using the File menu (Import–Video File).
• By using drag and drop from the Windows Explorer/
Mac OS Finder, the Pool or the MediaBay.
This requires that a video track has been added to the Project and that
you drop the video file onto this track.
• By importing the file to the Pool first and then dragging
it into the Project window (see the chapter “The Pool” on
page 270 for details).
Note:
• You can only have one video track in each project. The Video
track is added like other tracks in the Project window by using
the Add Track submenu on the Project menu. If a project does
not contain a video track when you import a video file via File–
Import–Video file, this is added automatically.
• All video files on the track must be of the same size and com-
pression format.
• The Import dialog has an option for extracting the audio from a
video file (see “Extracting audio from a video file” on page
443) and for generating a thumbnail cache file for the video
file, see below.
Video import preferences
In the Preferences dialog (Editing–Video page), there are
two options that affect the import of video files:
• Extract Audio on Import Video File
When this is activated, the audio will automatically be extracted and im-
ported into the project when you import a video file. This way, the audio
will also be included when you insert a video e.g. by using drag and drop.
When you import video files by using the File menu, you can activate this
option separately for each imported video file on the Import dialog.
• Generate Thumbnail Cache on Import Video File
When this is activated, a thumbnail cache file will be created automati-
cally when you import a video file. This is handy, as a cache file will also
be created when you import a video file using drag and drop. When you
import video files by using the File menu, you can activate this option
separately for each imported video file on the Import dialog, see below.
!
QuickTime as a video playback engine is available
only if you have QuickTime 7.1 (or higher) installed
on your computer. If you don’t have QuickTime, or if a
version lower than 7.1 is installed, this option will not
be available in Cubase.