Fast video cataloger 5 now supports video scripting in C#
I have created a new video that will help you get started with video scripting in Fast video cataloger 5.x. Use the scripting functionality to automate your common tasks in Fast video cataloger. Automating tasks will save you a huge amount of time and will let you avoid boring repetitive tasks. With scripting you can also extend the use of the program beyond what we initially designed it for. And, you can use Fast video cataloger as a powerfull tool when you need to create custom video solutions.
In the video you will learn how to run and edit a video script inside Fast Video Cataloger. You will also learn where to find the provided sample scripts and the documentation for the video scripting API. We provide a sample solution for Microsofts Visual studio. I will show you how to use the sample solution to develop video scripts and get help with the script API through intellisense and catch common errors by compiling scripts inside Visual studio before you run them inside Fast Video Cataloger.
Watch the video below to get a short step by step guide to help you get started. Then, make sure to download Fast video cataloger from our download page and try it for yourself. Video scripting is really not that hard once you get started and most users will see practical results just by tweaking the provided samples.
In Fast Video Cataloger 5 you can now easily add your own custom properties though the Extended video properties feature. You access this new feature from the video details window.
We think the extended video property feature will be very useful in a number of common business settings. It allows you to use Fast video cataloger for solutions we didn’t knew about when we created the program.
Extended video properties is especially useful when you create custom solutions with Fast video cataloger. Using extended video properties together with scripting allows you to store per video data.
We recommend to use the default properties when they are available. Many things can be expressed with the default fields and keywords.
If you have not updated to the 5.x version of Fast video cataloger you can do so from the download page.
The video keyword manager is a new dialog that give you a number of functions that will save you time. We added this functionality in Fast Video Cataloger 5. If you have not updated to the 5.x version you can always get the latest version from https://videocataloger.com/download/. It is worth giving it a test as it can save you quite a lot of time when working with your videos. Here is a short video presenting the new video keyword manager.
If you have not already doing it… I highly recommend starting to use color for your keywords. Colors makes it much quicker to find the keyword you are looking for when you have a large video collection with lots of keywords.
The fifth generation of Fast Video Cataloger, FVC5 has finally arrived and is available for trial or download. This is a very big deal as you will find out when you test it. We are so very proud and we hope you will like it as much as we do.
So what is all the fuzz about? Whats new in Fast Video Cataloger 5?
In a big rewrite of the program we are proud to say that Fast Video Cataloger is now a 64 bit program. It is a needed upgrade as more and more catalogs are getting really big and with 64 bit technology we welcome that developent.
Speed improvements for catalogs is always a focus and this release is no different. With this release we belive we have the fastest video cataloging software in the world for catalogs of more than 5000 videos.Using comparable hardware.
We have also improved speed on catalogs running of a USB disk.
By frequent requests of customers we have now added coloring of keywords and a new keyword manager.
You may now add your own video properties as an extension to the ones installed from start. These are off course searchable as well, we know that there is a need to go outside of the ordinary properties and this is the solution.
We have added support for advanced scripting via a scripting console. The scripting is done in c#. We have even added a few examples so you can get started. We are looking forward to see more examples from the community.
Lots of small nice improvements (renaming of genres, auto load on mouse over thumbnails, shortcuts when you hover over a thumbnail and so on).
Are you an existing customer? Congratulations….. FVC5 is free for you.
For all of you that are already customers, this update is for free, simply go to the download page and get your copy. Before updating please make sure you have a backup of your catalog (as always) and (this is very important) please install this version in a new folder separate from your previous installation.
Fast Video Cataloger 5 is a 64 bit program and it will only run on a 64 bit version of Windows. If you try to install it on a 32 bit version of Windows it will fail during installation and the program will not start.
When trying to choose a video database solution, there are a number of questions you need to consider. Here are the main factors to weigh up when it comes to evaluating a video database solution based on your requirements.
Disclosure: We, VideoStorm Sweden AB, are the developer of Fast video cataloger one of the possible solutions for any video database solution. You can download a free trial version of the software from this url: https://videocataloger.com/download/
Do you need a personal or company solution?
Is the video database for personal use or for a company? If it is for personal use you might want to look at vidine, a great solution for personal videos.
Are you using it for movies or custom videos clips?
If you are looking for a personal media center to watch movies, there are plenty of cheap software solutions designed just for that. Consider Plex or Kodi – both of which are great applications that also let you automatically pull-in data from known movie databases. There is a huge difference between software designed for movies and for custom video clips. Media centers are great for known movies, and where the focus is more on watching the movie than searching between and inside movies. Select a video database solution that is designed for the types of videos you are going to have in your database.
Do you need to search individual video scenes?
Do you need to assign keywords to individual video scenes and search for them? Do you need to quickly browse scenes inside videos? Do you need to mark new points in a video as a scene?
Do you care about speed?
Slow software is frustrating to use, and will take you longer to get your job done. Desktop software will always be faster than any a cloud solution. Desktop software that can make use of multiple CPU cores and the GPU will be significantly faster.
Are you only using Windows? Or a mix of systems?
Select a video database solution that is designed for Windows if you are a Windows user. Cross platform solutions is not going to take advantage of the hardware you have and be less ideal than a solution build directly for the operating system you are using.
Do you care about security?
If you care about security you will want to pick a solution that allows protection. Protection of the video database as well as the video clips, and that can play encrypted video clips without having to first decrypt them. Even if not all your videos need to be protected, it might be good to have that option for videos you do not want to spread outside of your company.
Do you need to add extra metadata with your videos?
Do you have extra data to store with your videos like pictures and notes?
How many people need to access the database simultaneously?
Do multiple users need to write to the video database simultaneously? Do many users need to read from the catalog simultaneously? Considering how the video database will be used will not only determine the software to use, but also the setup of that software and the guidelines for your users.
Do you need to make adjustments or a custom solution?
Off the shelf software will always be a cheaper option than custom video database. A custom solution can actually be costly and may well result in a worse solution than an off the shelf software adjusted to your needs. Make sure the software you decide on can be customized the way you need it to. Can it be scripted? Can you add custom meta data? Can you assign custom keywords? Can it use all your screens?
Why consider Fast video cataloger as a video database solution?
Fast video cataloger is a fast custom video database solution for Windows that allow you to index and search videos as well as individual scenes. It is easy to setup and evaluate. Download a free trial version and feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need a longer evaluation period.
Are you looking for software to allow for multiple computers to search a video database over your network?
Fast video cataloger is the perfect solution if you are using Windows as operating system. You can download a free trial version of the software from this address: https://videocataloger.com/download/.
First make sure the software suits your need by testing it as a local program. The software works exactly the same in a network setup but testing a local installation is easier. If you are doing an evaluation I highly recommend doing the first step of that evaluation on a local setup as is gets you up and running in minutes.
Do you need to search a shared video database over a network?
Do you need multiple people writing to the catalog?
If you want multiple people writing to the database you need a server setup. Fast video cataloger is available both as a server version as well as a client only solution. Please contact us at support[at]videocataloger.com if you are interested in evaluating the server version. It is pretty easy to setup and we are happy to help you get started. Today we only provide the server version on direct request to make sure we can help everyone get it setup correctly. We do expect to open it up later as a public download once we have enough training material available.
Do you only need multiple people reading your video database?
We have written a whitepaper on how you can easily do this with the normal version of fast video cataloger. Download the whitepaper as well as the free evaluation software from https://videocataloger.com/download/
Fast Video Cataloger 5 gets extensive video scripting and automation support
The release of Fast video cataloger 5 is getting closer. Today I want to talk about perhaps the biggest and most powerful feature we have ever added to the program. This is not for everyone but if you are an advanced user this it can be a true game changer.
We added true support for scripting to Fast Video cataloger.
Enter video scripts in the scripting console window.
I decided to use C# as a scripting language after careful evaluation. C# is a very powerful language and one of the language we have used to write Fast video cataloger (We use C, C# and C++). With the new scripting support you can extend the program to optimize workflows for your users and enable new workflows by integrating Fast video cataloger with other programs. Since the scripting language is c# you can also build on everything that is available in the .net library including building a graphical user interface for the extended functionality.
Scripting is introduced in 5 and you will have full direct access to the video catalog. In other words you can do everything with the catalog that Fast Video Cataloger does. We also provide access through script to part of the user interface. For example, you can easily check what video is currently selected and get data from that selected video.
We have no idea how this is going to be used but we do expect to continue to develop the scripting interface based on your feedback.
To run scripts we have added a new window where you can enter scripts and also print output from scripts to help debugging. The script window is obviously not the best place to develop scripts. We recommend one of the dedicated development environment like for example visual studio code where you get syntax highlights and so much more. However, the script window allow you to tweak scripts and to play around with the sample scripts we will release together with version 5.
We also made it possible to create new actions that launch scripts. That way you can your favorite custom scripts always one click away.
We would love to come in contact with users who wants to use the scripting support to make sure the API supports what you need. This is the initial release and we expect to expand this in future updates of the program based on yours and other feedback.
Fast Video Cataloger 5 will get new extended video properties
The release of Fast video cataloger 5 is getting closer and today I want to share one of our more frequently requested feature. One that we have added to the next release of program, extended video properties.
But first a lile detour. From time to time people request that we add new video genres to the program. I always tell them to skip genres and instead use the keyword function instead. Keywords is way more powerful and flexible and there is really no reason to use the genre.
We have added editable genres. Just right click on them in the video details window. Even if you can now change the genres I still hold to my old advice to prefer keywords.
But, we have also added something even more powerful to Fast Video Cataloger 5. You will be able to edit your own user video properties. We understand that there are people and companies that use the program for things we have not even considered. So we have made it possible for you to define your own video properties.
On the video details window there is now a new section with “Extended video properties” for your catalog.
custom video properties from the video details window
Click the edit button to add your own custom properties to your catalog. If people use this I am sure we are going to extend this feature even more in the future based on your and others feedback.
To go with this new feature we have also extended the search function. There is a new search block for extended video properties that can be combined with other search criterias.
Please give it a try and let us know if this is helpful or if there is something we could do to make this even more useful.
Video cataloger 5 will let you do video keywording in color.
Fast video cataloger 5 is not far from being released and it has lots of small and big improvements. Today I will share a bit about what we have inproved with keywords, search and color. Update: Fast video cataloger 5 is now available for download.
Improvement to video keywording
Over the years we have had several requests where users want to remove keywords from their catalog.
Previous the only way to remove a keywords was to remove it from everwhere it was used. Only then was it removed from the catalog and not listed in the suggested keywords.
In Fast Video Cataloger 5.0 we introduce a new keyword management dialog.
In the keyword management dialog you will be able to see statistics on how each of your keywords are used. You can rename a keyword in one place and the change will be propagated to everywhere that keyword is used. This has been a common request from users who has discoverd a misspelled keyword thats been used on alot of videos. Hopefully this new feature will save time.
Another new feature in the keyword dialog will let you quickly remove a keyword from all videos where it is used. Just click a button and the keyword will be removed from the entire database (as always… don’t forget to make regular backups of your catalog from time to time… there is no way to get back keywords once they are deleted).
Finally, we added colors to keywords!
You can set the color yourself from the keyword dialog. Colors are available for all types of keywords; video keywords, scene keywords and actor keywords. The default colour for new keywors is “white” but as mentioned you can easily change that.
Coloring keywords give you one more dimension of organizing and with some clever use you should be able to quickly find the keywords you are using the most. Hopefully this addition will allow you to work even faster with your video collection.
