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Finding a video in an existing catalog

Finding the videos you are looking for should be easy; it is one of the strong points in Fast Video Cataloger. You get an excellent visual overview in the Video Catalog window by viewing in Icon mode in conjunction with the Video Scenes window. You can visually browse through your video catalog very fast.

You can easily filter your video catalog on keywords, actors, genre, rating, filenames, title, description, file path, or archived media. The video list is sorted by clicking the headings in the Video Catalog window.

Finding specific scenes in one or more videos from your entire video catalog is achieved using the Scene search tab in the Search window. Your recent search history is available as quick links to speed up your work.

Fast Video Cataloger has a docking user interface, enabling you to set up custom layouts that work best for you at the moment. You can spread out your interface across multiple computer screens and take advantage of the visual powers in Fast Video Cataloger.

Your Layout is automatically loaded when the program starts and automatically saved when you exit. You can also save a favorite layout from being restored at any time. We have created a default layout for you that is always available only one click away.

Top menus

At the top of the program windows, there is a menu.

File takes you to the file page where you can open and create catalogs as well as access other tools that works on the entire catalog.

Start shows icons where you would start with a new catalog i.e. add videos from a folder or one by one. Start also has buttons to set the main modes of the software. How should the video catalog window display videos and how should the video scenes window display thumbnails.

Layout let you switch between different layouts in the software and save edited layouts.

View let you toggle all the windows in the software. Functionality in Fast video cataloger is organized into different windows.

Help contains links to help and support.

The default layout

In Fast Video Cataloger\'s default layout, the work area is split into four main Window Areas, as shown below. The default layout is first loaded when you set up a new catalog. You can restore to this Layout via Layout and the Reset button.

Left Window Area

The area to the left contains many windows where you do actions that affect your whole video catalog. To open or close these windows, look in the View menu.

The Search window lets you filter your video collection by searching on video Content, Keywords, Cast, Archives, Extended properties, Scenes, and more. You view the result of a video search in the Video catalog window. You can view the result of a scene search in the Scene search result window.

You can read more about search in 4.3

Add Videos

The Add Videos window helps you add new videos to your video catalog and monitor progress as videos are indexed.

Video Catalog

The Video Catalog window shows all videos in your video catalog. The selected video in the list is the selected active video. Important! The active video will determine what you see in many other windows. The purpose of the Video Catalog window is to provide you with an easy way to navigate and overview all your videos.

The Video Catalog window can show your videos in either Details view or Icon mode.

The Details View shows videos in your current video catalog represented by ID, Name, Preview image, Length, Path, Link, and exact time when you added the video to the video catalog.

You can change the columns\' order by drag-\'n\'-drop and change the different columns\' sizes, including the preview thumbs, by dragging the edge of the column header. You can sort on any of the columns by clicking the column headers.

If you right-click the header column, you can edit the visible columns per layout. You can also add extended properties to your columns.

The Icon mode shows each video with the preview thumbnail and the title. You can select Small, Medium, Large, or Huge Icon mode.

To switch modes, right-click on a video and select Details, Small Icons, Medium Icons, or Large Icons in the View submenu. The current view mode is saved with the Layout and restored the next time you run the program.

Clicking a video brings forward the Video Scenes window. Double-clicking a video plays it from the time of the displayed thumbnail in the Video Player window.

Right-clicking invokes the context menu mentioned above, including the options to Copy, Paste, or Remove From the Catalog and an additional submenu item called File. Inside the File pop-out menu, you can play or Edit in an external player or editor. Delete the video file from the computer or open the folder where the video file is stored. Re-index will scan the video again for thumbnails and replace the current thumbnails with the new ones.

If you move the mouse over the image preview you scrub the thumbnails for the video. If you double-click when scrubbing the video you will start video playback from the time of the scrubbed thumbnail.

You can navigate the window with the cursor keys.\ \ If you hold down CTRL you can select multiple video with mouse clicks.

If you hold down SHIFT and click you can mark a rang of videos.

Using the keyboard you can navigate with the arrow keys and use Space to add or remove videos from the current selection. Use Enter to clear selection and only select the marked video.

Video Wall

In the Video Wall window, you view animated captured video frames from the current selection of videos. The video wall is the fastest way to scan through your videos. It behaves like the Attract Videos window but displays a selection of videos.

The videos displayed in the Video Wall are the ones you have in your current filter, i.e., the ones you see in the Video Catalog window (Ctrl+F to open the filter dialog).

The Video Wall is optimized for performance and uses several hardware threads. It will only animate the visible videos if the Window itself is visible.

Since the Video Wall is not playing the actual video files but instead the stored video frames from the video catalog, you should be able to play many videos simultaneously. You can also see Video Wall entries for video files that are not accessible.

However, if you have performance issues, you can improve performance by reducing the Window\'s size or increasing the Video Wall delay in Preferences.

If you are using a laptop on the battery, you might want to hide the Video Wall window (perhaps set up a laptop battery-saving layout). It does put a constant load on the system preventing it from ever saving power.

To switch between the different sizes of video frames, right-click on a video and select Small, Medium, Large, or Very Large in the View submenu.

The current view mode is saved with the layout.

You can select a video by right-clicking the icon and choosing \"Select\" from the context menu.

Double-click a video to play it in the Video Player window.

Bins

Bins are virtual folders that give you convenient access to your favorites or a list of videos relevant to a given project.

Videos in a Bin are not affected when you change search filters.

If you click on a video in a bin, the same video will be selected in the video catalog window, provided the video is not filtered out from a search.

Move videos to a bin using drag and drop from the video catalog window.

SmartBins are bins that are populated automatically by a search query.

Before creating a SmartBin you perform a search to find videos you want in the smartbin. When you create the SmartBin, it will remember the current search criteria. Whenever you add new videos to the catalog or change properties like a keyword, FVC will check to see if they match the criteria for the SmartBin and place them accordingly.

The video bin window shows videos that are in the currently selected bin.

You select the current bin from the drop-down list at the top of the Bin window.

Click the button to the right of the drop-down to create and manage Bins.

Actors

The Actors window lists all actors in your video catalog. The filter function enables the easy finding of actors in extensive collections. You may create new actors and edit current actors. If you have a set of actors you wish to import from another catalog, click the Import button and follow the instructions.

File Organizer

The File Organizer window contains an integrated Windows File Explorer that you may use for any file operation you would otherwise use Windows Explorer. It would help if you used the integrated File Organizer because it is aware of your current video catalog.

  • When you drag a video from the Video Catalog window to a folder in the File Organizer window, your video catalog gets updated with the new file location.

  • When you delete a video file or companion image from within the File Organizer Window, it is also automatically removed from your video catalog.

You can apply auto-tagging to videos as they are moved into folders to help you organize your files.

You can also select to have the videos hidden as they get auto-tagged.

When you use the automatic hiding of videos, it enables a workflow where you can manually file sort your video catalog by dragging videos one by one until there are no more visible video files in the list.

There is an option to; "always sync the file organizer", to show the folder of the video file you have selected. This option is especially useful if you have images in the video folder you want to use for companion images.

Between the folder view (left panel) and File view (right panel), a small splitter bar can be dragged left or right to change the folder\'s relative size and file views.

The files in the organizer can also be displayed as a list view, icon view, or thumb view. Change this setting by right-clicking outside any file in the file view and using the View pop-out from the context pop-up.

If you select a video in the file organizer that exist in your catalog it will be selected.

If you select a video that is not in the organizer, you will get an Add Video at the top of the window to start adding the video to your catalog. The video will also load and play in the video player.

If you select an image that is a companion in your catalog the image will be loaded in the preview window.

If you select and image that is Not a companion you get an Add Companion button to add the image as a companion to the currently selected video. The image will be loaded in the preview window.

Preview window

The preview window shows the currently selected companion image from the companion image browser window. You can zoom the image with the mouse wheel and pan around it, moving the mouse when you hold the left mouse button.

Playlist window

The playlist window shows the video playlists in your video catalog.

A video playlist is a list of segments from videos in your video catalog. You can play these playlists like a single video file, even though they are separate and might be of different sizes and codecs.

Playlists are stored inside the catalog file.

Note: Playing a Playlist requires a seek to the start of each segment. Therefore not all video formats are supported in playlists. The video format needs to support seeking. Seeking is supported for all modern file-formats, including mp4, but it might be problematic for older formats. Specifically, some versions of WMV files have a problem when using some of the video renderers. For wmv, we highly recommend the MadVR codec (needs to be downloaded and installed separately and can then be selected from the preferences.)

Create a new playlist by clicking the \"New\" button, typing a name for the playlist, and then clicking \"Create\".

Click \"Delete\" to remove the currently selected playlist.

Click \"Export\" to export your playlist as a CSV, XML, EDL, or MPV-EDL file for use in other software. Playlist files saved from Fast Video Cataloger can include the full path to the video file or just the filename. You can also select to copy all video files in a playlist to a new folder.

Playlist entries

Add a whole video as a clip to the current playlist by right-clicking the video and selecting \"Add to playlist\".

Add a clip to your playlist by right-clicking a video thumbnail and selecting \"Add to playlist\". The clip gets added from the time of the selected thumbnail to the next one. Hold down shift when you click \"Add to playlist\" to set the clip\'s duration to what you specify in preferences.

You can also add clips or adjust time by right-clicking the camera icon in the video player. When you use the camera icon menus, new frames will be added automatically to the video overview (Hold shift to prevent this). You can also assign shortcuts to update a clip\'s start and end times.

When you add clips to the playlist, they are inserted after the selected playlist entry or at the end if no item is selected. You can re-order clips in a playlist with drag and drop.

Playing

You use the buttons at the bottom of the playlist window to play the playlist. The replay of the video playlist happens in the video player. Note that if you stop the playlist in the video player window and then play it again from the video player, it will not continue the playlist; it will simply play the current video.

If you double-click a playlist entry, you start playing from that playlist entry.

Exporting

To export a playlist, click the Export button at the bottom of the window. Select the export format from the dropdown in the save dialog. You can export playlists as;

  • EDL, Edit Decision List (CMX 3600). It can be used to import timelines into many video editor programs. Note that we include the full path to the video and do not require a short filename as the spec requires. Most modern software, like OpenShot, can handle full paths.

  • XML, Final Cut Pro 7 XML version 5. It can be used to import timelines into many video editor programs like for example, DaVinci Resolve. Note that there is no validation during export to ensure the video format is supported. For example, import a wmv file into DaVinci, and you can get a "file not found" error as the format is not supported.

  • CSV, Comma separated list as a plain text file to be imported into tools like excel.

Attract Windows

The attract windows rotate content from your video catalog to help you discover videos, photos, and actors from your active video catalog.

Attract Covers

The Attract Covers window shows random covers and/or companion images from your video catalog. Right-click on the image to select the video that belongs to the image.

Right-click to:

  • Select video

Attract Actors

The Attract Actors window loops a selection of random actors from your video catalog. Right-click to go to:

  • Filter videos on Actor.

  • Edit Actor.

Attract Video Wall

The Attract Video Wall window shows a random selection of videos as a video wall. After a few seconds, animated videos will change. Right-click a video to:

  • Play (play the video)

  • Select (select the video without playing)

  • View (change the size of the wall thumbnails)

As long as the mouse pointer is inside the window, it will not switch to show new videos.

Center Window Area

The central window area is where you see the Video Scenes window displaying scenes represented as screenshots from the currently selected video. The windows displayed in the Center Window Area depend by default on your selections within the Left Window Area.

Video Scenes window

The Video Scenes window shows scene thumbnails (also known as screenshots) from the video you have selected in the Video Catalog window.

Left Click on a scene thumbnail to play the video from that time.

Right Click on a scene thumbnail to bring up a context menu with the following menu items:

  • Use selected as video thumbnail -- Click to let this image represent the whole video in the Video Catalog window.

  • Keywording -- Click to show the Window to edit keyword tags for this specific scene.

  • Use selected for new Actor portrait -- Bring up the Add Actor dialog with this scene thumbnail as the actor portrait.

  • Remove frame(s) -- Remove this scene from the list.

  • Play from selected -- Play the video from this scene forward.

  • Copy -- Copy this scene thumbnail to the clipboard so you can paste it into other programs.

  • Save As -- Save this scene thumbnail as a file.

  • Burst Capture -- Burst capture starts at this scene using the burst capture index settings from Preferences.

  • Add to playlist -- Add a clip from here to the currently selected playlist.

  • Add to bin -- Add a clip from here to the currently selected bin.

Scene Search Results

This Window is very similar to the Video Scenes window, except that it shows the scenes that match the active search in the Scene keyword search inside the Search window. This Window can contain video scenes from different videos, and you can still play each of them from the time of that scene.

Right Click on a scene thumbnail to bring up a context menu with the following menu items:

  • Go to video -- Invokes the Video Scenes window (alongside the Scene Search Results window) for the whole video as it exists in the video catalog and its context menu options.

  • Add to playlist -- Add the scene to the currently selected playlist.

  • Use image for new Actor portrait -- Bring up the Add Actor dialog with thumbnail as the actor portrait.

  • Play from here -- Play the video from this scene forward.

  • Copy -- Copy this scene thumbnail to the clipboard so you can paste it into other programs.

  • Clear Keywords -- This option will clear all keywords from this scene.

Web

The Web window is an integrated Chromium web browser. You can use it as a normal web browser with some features that makes it extra convenient when you are working with your video catalog. You can also access it from the C# scripting API.

Enter a URL in the address field to open the web page.

In the upper corner, you find a context menu that provides you with options to:

  • Open a new browser tab.

  • Open the current page in your system web browser.

  • Set the current page as the start page inside of Fast Video Cataloger.

  • Adjust the Zoom of the page.

  • Open the web page in full-screen mode (Exit with F11).

If you right-click a video URL, you can download the video file, index it, and add it to the catalog.

If you right-click an image URL, you can download the image and use it as an actor portrait or as the image for a video.

When you have the actor dialog, you can right-click to copy-paste text straight into the actor\'s name or bio.

NOTE: We are using the Chromium embedded browser, i.e. the same browser engine used in Edge and Chrome. However, Google restricts all embedded browsers from logging into a Google account.

Transcription

The transcript window displays a video\'s transcript if it is in the catalog. You can add transcripts as .srt files from the transcript window or as part of the video indexing process.

If a video has no transcript imported, the transcript window will show an Add button where you can browse to an SRT file to add for the video.

A tooltip shows the thumbnail closest to the time of the text line.

When a video is playing and the transcript window is visible, it will highlight the word closest to the current time in the video as it plays.

The video player will jump to that time when you click on a word in the transcript window.

At the top of the transcript window is a search field where you can search this specific text.

If you right-click on a subtitle in the transcript, you can add a frame capture at the time of that word.

You can also add the time of the specific subtitle to a playlist.

To remove a transcript from a video, right-click in the window but not on any word and select "Remove transcript.".

Right Window Area

In the Right Window Area, you find windows dependent on the currently selected video or videos in the Video Catalog window. This area is to the far right side of the program, pressed on the side to take up as little space as possible.

Video Details

The Video Details window displays metadata or information about the video in text format. The Detail window is where you can edit and add more details about the different videos. Add extra meta-data here that you can use in searches later.

The title is initially the video filename. Right next to the title there is a dropdown to assign a color to the video.

As determined in Preferences, the Go button will open either an external web browser or a browser within Fast Video Cataloger.

Extended video Properties get extracted from the video file\'s metadata, like compression, video dimension, aspect ratio, etc. You can also add your properties via the Edit button.

The Extended thumbnail properties show custom properties for the currently selected thumbnails. You can add your properties, like a note, for a specific thumbnail.

You can search for and access extended properties from the C# API.

Actions

From the Actions window, you can perform various actions on the selected video.

  • Play -- Play the video in an external program (set the external player you prefer in File/Preferences/General).

  • Edit -- Edit the video in an external program (set the editor you prefer in File/Preferences/General).

  • Open Folder -- Open a Windows Explorer window to the folder or the video file.

  • Remove -- Remove the video from the video catalog, but do not delete the file.

  • Rename -- Rename the video file and update the video catalog.

You can also define your custom actions from the front menu. Actions are programmed to perform external processes like running a script or visiting a web page. Therefore, the Actions window has two button lists:

Common Actions are built-in to Fast Video Cataloger, and Custom Actions are Actions you create.

Below the custom actions section, you will find sections with Actions from installed plugins.

Keywording

In the Keywording Window, you assign keywords to the entire video and multiple scenes within the video.

Cast

The Cast is a visual listing of the actors relevant to this video. In the Cast window, you can view and edit actors in the video. To add an actor to the cast, drag the actor from the actors\' window.

Bottom Window Area

The Bottom Window Area initially contains the Video Player window and the Companion Images window. These can be floated or relocated as preferred, and other windows, such as the Actors window, can work well here.

Video player

In the Video Player, you play videos from the start-time of a scene. It incorporates the camera button to capture thumbnails for the timeline view. You can still easily use your favorite player (once it has been identified in Preferences or by a custom action) alongside Fast Video Cataloger. You may enlarge the player by grabbing and dragging the gray border outwards, upwards, or both or clicking the Maximize button. Clicking and holding the scrub bar button will display the time value in the video.

When you click the camera button, a new thumbnail is added to the Video Scenes window at the appropriate time. Right-clicking the camera button will allow you to save a jpeg screenshot to a chosen folder location.

Companion Images

The Companion Images window shows all the images, including the cover images, associated with the current video as a slideshow.

The companion image window has two parts, the upper part contains cover images, and the lower part shows a slideshow of all companion images. You can adjust how much of the Window is used for covers and slideshow by dragging the window\'s border.

You will get a list of all companion images when you hover the mouse over the bottom part of the Window,

Companion images can be added when a video is added to the video catalog, depending on your settings in Preferences. You can also drag files to the Window and add them directly. When you add actors with companion images to a video\'s Cast, these companion images are also added.

The companion image window is a compact window to view companion images. You can also use the \"companion image browser.\" That Window is more suitable for managing your companion images.

Companion Image browser

This Window presents all companion images in a thumbnail grid. Click on an image to view it in the companion image preview window.

When a video has no companion images, you can quickly scan the video folder for companion images, given the preferences\' current settings.

When a video has companion images, they are shown as thumbnails, and you can easily manage them through the right-click menu.

Script Console Window

The script console window allows you to run and develop Fast video cataloger scripts. You write scripts in C# and will need some necessary programming skills to create new and advanced scripts. However, writing a short and straightforward script or changing the samples we have provided is not hard. Scripting can take your productivity to the next level and save time.

The top area of the scripting window shows the currently loaded script.

The bottom area of the Window shows the output from the script.

You find the \"Load\" button to load a new script and the \"Run\" button to execute the currently loaded script in the middle.

The Fast video cataloger script API is documented separately from this documentation and includes links to samples to get you started. We also have a Microsoft Visual Studio solution if you are using visual studio as a text editor. Editing your scripts from that solution will allow you to compile the script outside of Fast video cataloger and give you IntelliSense help with the script API.

Tip: Hold Shift when clicking Load to reload the last loaded file into the script window. This is useful when using an external text editor like Visual Studio.

Help window

The Help menu has several options for getting help and suggesting resources.

News

Show the latest news banner.

View Help

Open this document

Tutorial

Start the introduction tutorial.

Support

Open our support web page

Home

Open or web page

Order

Open the product order page. When you buy the license it is valid for the latest version at the time of purchase, make sure to save a copy of the installer if you need to install the same version later.

Activate

Open the dialog to activate a license on your computer. Each license is valid for a single computer, but you can move your license between computers. Details are available on the support web page.

Update

If you have a maintenance subscription, this button checks if a new version is available for download. Your license will work for the latest software version as long as you have maintenance. If you do not have maintenance, the software will continue to work, but only for the version you have a license for.

About

Show the about box with the version number for the program.

We also show some basic statistics on the loaded catalog, like how many videos it contains, how long the total playtime would be to watch all videos, and how large all video files are in total.

Arranging windows

Move a window to a new position in your Layout by moving your mouse pointer to the Window\'s header and pressing and holding down the left mouse button as you drag the Window. You will now see the docking user interface. Move the pointer to the region where you wish to dock the Window. You can also rearrange a window with the Float and Dock options in the docking menu (see below).

Showing and Hiding windows

You can hide any window by clicking the x in the upper right corner of the Window.

To toggle the visibility of any window, use the View menu and click the button for the windows to show/hide.

Note that the hidden Window will [reappear]{.underline} in its [default]{.underline} position, not necessarily to where you had last moved it.

The docking menu (window position)

You bring up the docking menu by clicking the small triangle ( Window Position) next to the Hide () button in each Window.

Resetting layouts

At any time, you can reset the active Layout to the default layout by selecting Layout and pressing the Reset button. Reset will restore your currently active Layout to the program\'s default layout.

Loading and saving user layouts

There are eight user layouts. You select a user layout form the Layout menu or by using the F1-F8 keys. When you close the program, your Layout gets saved automatically.

Save your Layout by clicking the Save button. This action saves the Layout you have into the layout position currently selected.

You can reset a layout to its default state by clicking the Reset button. Note that the first four named layouts have a different default layout (with the windows you need for the Layout\'s default name).

You can assign names to your layouts in Preferences.

Tip: The best way to learn how to move and arrange windows in the flexible GUI is to play around with dragging windows.

Tip: Hold down CTRL and press TAB to get a list of all the active windows in your current Layout. Click on a name in the list to open that Window.

Tip: If you have more than one monitor, you are lucky. Use them all to get an even better overview using the flexible Layout.

Tip: Layouts are saved between program runs.