How to make smart shortcuts to Fast Video Cataloger

We want to make it easier to integrate Fast Video Cataloger into your video workflows and with FVC 8.2 we have added more Command line arguments. To get started thinking around the possibilities of this feature we have made a short video that describes creating and editing a shortcut in Windows. Passing arguments and commands to a running instance of Fast Video Cataloger, you can integrate Fast Video Cataloger into your video workflow without heavy programming. This has its limits of course and for deeper integrations and special flows please see our post on scripting at videocataloger.com/blog or contact us for guidance.

 

Thumbnails that auto fit to windows size for easy browsing

We changed the default way thumbnails are scaled. Don’t worry; you can still switch to explicit scaling as in the earlier versions with a simple check-in box.

The why and what on autofit of thumbnails?

We had a bunch of similar feature requests from several users explaining a challenge in their everyday use of Fast Video Cataloger and it goes something like this. Sometimes or quite often when browsing your video catalog you need to look through the inside multiple video clips in a fast manner. This can be time-consuming, depending on your setup of monitors, layout, and video catalog structure, as you might find yourself scrolling a lot in the Video scenes window to make sure you cover everything in all your videos. Since this is a hinder that slows down a common use case we wanted to find a way to speed it up.

The idea of the Fit feature for thumbnails in Fast Video Cataloger 8.1 is to make this as easy as possible. You can switch it on by checking the Fit feature, situated to the far right, in the View menu.

When the Fit is checked the program will do its best to fit all of the thumbnails for the selected video in your window. The goal is to do so without you needing to scroll at all making a browse through of videos much faster. It comes in very handy when you are working on larger screens or multiple screens.

To help the program to fit the thumbnails in the best way for you we have added a setting in the new Interface tab in Preferences(ctrl+p). You can decide between which scaling you allow the Fit feature to function by using the Min scale(20%,25%,50%,75%,100%) and Max scale (100%, 125%, 150%, 175%, 200%)

Interface tab in Preferences let you adapt the scale to Fit feature

There will always be cases when this approach can not work, for videos with many thumbnails or setups with a small thumbnail window. But, for the cases that do match, this will be a good improvement to speed up general browsing.

How to import a video playlist to DaVinci Resolve

This video will show you how to import a video playlist into DaVinci Resolve.

In Fast video cataloger, you can quickly create video playlists.

A video playlist is a list of cuts from videos.

A playlist can be played as if it was a normal video file.

A playlist can work as a video edit outline. 

You can then import the outline into professional video editing software like Davinci Resolve.

Start Fast video cataloger.

Make sure you have the playlist window in your layout

Create a new playlist and give it a name.

As an example, we will edit a cat video, so let us search for cat videos in our catalog

Add a video to the playlist by right-clicking on the video and select “add to playlist”

Or add a segment of a video by right-clicking on a thumbnail and select “add to playlist”

And let’s add a subscribe outtro

You now have a playlist that you can play as a video.

Export the playlist by clicking “Export”

You will see a save file dialog.

Select where to store the playlist, and select XML as the format.

We now have an exported XML playlist.

Open Davinci resolve and create a new project.

Select File, Import, Timeline

Accept the defaults in the dialog

You should now see the timeline and all the imported video clips and can your editing start editing.

In rare cases, the import to DaVinci will fail. The most common reason for a failed import is that the video format is not supported in Davinci Resolve. 

Fast video cataloger supports many formats that are not supported in Davinci. If you import a playlist with these videos, like WMV, you will get an error dialog. If this is the case, you will need to convert the video file.

If the clip start time is not 0 the import might fail. In Fast video cataloger you can set the default playlist start time from the general preferences.

Davinci Resolve and Fast Video Cataloger

 

If you are using FastVideoCataloger and Davinci Resolve you can easily bring the videos into DaVinci resolve for editing just by drag and drop.
Working like this keeps the Resolve project less cluttered
1., Start Fast video cataloger with your video catalog.
2. choose a layout with the video catalog and the search window
3. Search for a video you want to have in your resolve project.
4. We get a list of videos.
5. Click on the video to get a good overview.
6. Have your resolve project open in another window, perhaps on another display.
7. Drag the video from Fast video cataloger to Davinci resolve.

You now have the video in the project and can drag it onto the timeline and edit as usual.

video on 3 tips for metadata headers

This video shows 3 easy tips on the metadata columns in the Video Catalog window.

This video will provide you with 3 short tips on Metadata columns in Fast Video Cataloger. The video-catalog window is a natural starting point for most use cases. Each video has a number of columns populated with metadata.

Tip 1. You can sort the catalog using the headers of the columns

Tip 2. You can resize the columns by grabbing the edges or move columns by grabbing and dragging. This is a great way to set up the layout of this window to fit your need for the work you are doing.

Tip 3. Right-click a column to add more metadata columns to the video Catalog window. Most videos do not have data in all columns but depending on your videos different sets of metadata are important. Download Fast Video Cataloger now and build your video catalog.