Fast Video Cataloger 8.5 released

Today (28/1-2023), we are super happy to announce that Fast video cataloger 8.5 is available for download.

Download from our website or by clicking update in the installed software (you will find it in the Help menu)

Thumbnail Notes

We added a new mode for the video thumbnail where you can edit the text to each thumbnail next to it. Select this mode from the Start menu.

Scrub the video

When moving the mouse over the thumbnail in the video catalog window, you scrub through the captured thumbnails for the video. Double-click to play from that time. This is not accessing the video file, so it will still work with disconnected videos.

Add in between thumbnails

When hovering over a thumbnail, you now get a button to add a thumbnail in between that thumbnail and the previous/next. This should help you quickly add more thumbnails where it makes sense.

How to find videos that has a cast

In Fast video cataloger, you can assign actors to a video cast. Actors can have names, portraits, and more. Actors could be used as actual actors, but you can also use them for clients or other entities related to a video and where you want to add some more metadata than just a simple tag.

You can search for actors from the search window, but what if you want to search for videos that do not have an actor assigned or videos that do have an actor?

You can not do that kind of search from the search window, but it is possible from the scripting API. Remember that you can also bind buttons or shortcuts keys to scripts if these kind of searches are important for your workflow.

Here is an example script that will select all videos that have an assigned cast from the current search result. Simply copy and paste this into the script window of Fast video cataloger.

select cast

script to select video cast

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Runtime;
using VideoCataloger;
using VideoCataloger.RemoteCatalogService;


class Script
{
  static public async System.Threading.Tasks.Task Run ( IScripting scripting, string arguments ) 
  { 
    scripting.GetConsole().Clear();
    List selected = new List();

    var catalog = scripting.GetVideoCatalogService();
    VideoQuery video_query=new VideoQuery();
    VideoFileEntry[] all_videos = catalog.SearchVideos( video_query );

    long[] VideoToSearch =new long[1];

    foreach ( VideoFileEntry entry in all_videos )
    {
      VideoToSearch[0] =entry.ID;
      Actor[] video_actors = catalog.GetCast(VideoToSearch);
      bool has_cast =true;
      if (video_actors.Length == 0 )
        has_cast =false;
      if (has_cast)  // use !has_cast to select video without a cast 
        selected.Add( entry.ID);
    }
       
    ISelection selection = scripting.GetSelection();
    selection.SetSelectedVideos(selected);
  }
}

How to arrange your video workspace in Fast video cataloger

Fast video cataloger has a lot of functionality, in this video, we show how to arrange your video workspace for efficiency.

You can find the Fast Video cataloger features in different windows.

You typically only need some of it, depending on your task at hand.

If you want to browse your videos, you do that in the video catalog window. A search is done in the search window, edit video details in the detail window, etc.

This video shows how to create layouts for new users.

How to set keywords to video scenes

How to set keywords to video scenes in Fast Video Cataloger

Fast Video Cataloger lets you assign keyword tags to specific scenes in videos. You can then search for these tags to find a specific moment in a video. This video shows how to add a keyword to a scene and how to search for that keyword.

 

 

For this example, we will use a tutorial video about the software.
Select the video.
Look at the timeline of the video.
Select the scene to get a keyword.
Make sure you have the keywording window open in your layout.
Make sure the checkbox for tagging a scene is selected.
Write the keyword, or use one of the keywords you have used before.
You now see the tagged scene has a changed color tint.
If you hover the mouse over the tag you see the assigned keywords.
Now we will try to search for this video.
Make sure you have the scene search window in your layout.
Go to the scene search section.
Click on the keyword
You will see the matching scenes.
Click on the thumbnail to play the video from the tagged point in time.
Tagged scenes will also match video file searches.