How-To in Fast Video Cataloger

This is the section to visit when searching for information on performing specific tasks. We have gathered the most common tasks performed with the software on the following pages. If this section does not answer your questions, visit our [online FAQ.]{.underline}

How to add Video Files

You add videos from the Add Videos Window. If the Window is hidden, you must unhide it by clicking View / Add Videos. The easiest way is to use the default Layout called Add Videos, including the Add videos Window.

Note: If you add videos already in your catalog, they will not get double entries.

Selecting video files

Videos can be dragged and dropped in the top box in the Add Videos window (where it says \"Path\"). You may also use the \"Folder\" or \"File\" button to add every video in a folder or a single video file. Sometimes it is easier to add too many videos and then right-click to remove the ones you don\'t want to keep in your video catalog.

Set thumb generation interval (optional)

When you add a video to the video catalog, the program scans to extract frames, which become the thumbnails that demarcate the evenly-spaced scenes throughout the video\'s length. You decide how these thumbnails get generated in Preferences(CTRL+P). In this tab, you can override the values previously specified in Preferences for the particular batch you are now adding.

Fill out shared properties

You can designate some common properties assigned to each new video when you add them to your video catalog. Shared properties are perfect when you know that they all share some set of specific details. You can subsequently add or modify details later. The more you enrich your video catalog with more information, the easier it is to work with it.

Keywords -- can be assigned to your videos. New keywords are entered directly into the box provided or selected from the list of those you have already entered and used.

Genre -- Here, you can categorize a video according to a specific genre. You can pick various standard genre designations, such as Animation, Drama, Action, Comedy, etc. You can also edit the list of genres. In general, it is better to work with Keywords, as you can be more specific.

Rating -- You can rate your videos on a scale of 1 -- 5, each vividly assigned as a corresponding number of gold stars in the Video Catalog window.

Link -- Here, you enter a link address for your video if, for example, you have published it online or wish to reference a website with additional information.

Video Cast - You can add several actors to your videos. Just drag actors from the Actors window into this box.

Index Video(s)

Click the Start button to index your selected videos and get them added to your video catalog.

Once a batch is indexing, you can add a new batch of videos. Changes to shared properties will not affect videos once they are in the indexing queue.

Failed files

Indexing videos can sometimes fail because the video file is corrupt or of an unsupported format. This video will appear in a failed videos list at the bottom of the Add Videos window.

Right-click any video file that failed to index and select \"export list\". This function saves paths to failed videos to a text file. Some professional scenarios can use this feature, but it is probably not crucial for everyday use. The tooltip over a failed video prints more info about why the video failed.

You can also retry the indexing of failed videos. Indexing can timeout if your computer is overloading and it takes too long to index a video file or if another program is interfering. If you change index settings, like enabling/disabling external DirectShow filters, these changes will be applied when you select Retry.

Note: Please note that Fast video cataloger is a 64-bit program. If you want to use external directshow filters, it is always the 64-bit versions of the filters that are used.

How to automatically add Video Files added to a folder

Fast Video Cataloger can auto-index videos added to a folder you have pre-identified. In Preferences, in the Auto Index tab, you can select the folder within which videos will be auto-indexed. You can see if the function is active in the Add Videos window and what folder is being watched.

As soon as a non-zero sized video file is added to the auto index folder, it will also be added to the Video Indexer queue. Potentially, the indexing will start immediately. The auto-added File will get whatever shared properties, and index settings are active within the Add Videos window.

Depending on how the video file gets written into the auto index folder, it may fail if the video is only partially copied before the program starts to index. For example, this might be a problem if you use an FTP connection to download files directly to a watched folder. Most modern download managers/browsers use a temporary file until they have downloaded the whole File, making this a non-issue. Some programs use a temporary download folder and copy the entire file into a \"finished downloading\" folder when the downloading has been completed. Use the \"finished folder\" as the auto-index folder and not the temporary download folder.

How to use the Search window

When searching for a group of videos or scenes, and if you wish to address a portion of your video catalog, you want to use the Search Window. It is a good idea to create a specialized search layout that fits your workflows and get back to that whenever you need it. The Window can be reshaped and moved just like any other window. The title of the search window displays the number of videos returned by the search.

Match any

Match any allows you to search on any keywords, description, extended properties simultaneously. The result will be the videos that match all keywords but for any of the fields. I.e., each keyword needs to match the video on some of the fields. If your search includes space, you can quote a keyword. For example, to search for any video with \"summer\" in the keywords or the description stored on the f:\ drive, you would enter \"summer f:\\" as a search string.

Match any is displayed at the top of the search windows, and a \"Match any\" search cannot be combined with other searches. You can also bring up the match any search with the \"ctrl + i\" shortcut. Match any is displayed at the top bar, even if the search window is hidden. You can use your arrow keys to navigate through your search history. If you enter the start of a keyword, you may press TAB to complete the keyword.

Filter Videos on Content [Content]

Filter on a word or words in the Title, Description, Link, or File Path

Text in more than one field equals a broader filter.

Using the Genre and Rating filtering options narrows the filter.

Using multiple filters, such as Content AND Video Keywords, helps make the filter narrower, so you can be more precise. Too narrow, of course, and you may not get anything!

Filter on Keywords [Video Keywords]

This filter allows you to filter on multiple keywords. You can select multiple keywords by holding down the CTRL key.

When the radio button Any is on you, make the filter wider, and with the All Keywords, you make it narrower.

Filter on Exclude Keywords [Video Keywords]

This filter allows you to set multiple keywords that should not be assigned to the videos you want in your search result. You can select multiple keywords by holding down the CTRL key.

Filter on Actors [Cast]

Drag actors from the Actors window into the open space for filtering videos involving specific actors. When you include more than one Actor, you make the filter wider.

Transcript

Filter videos on transcripts containing the search word. Note that transcript search matches the whole word and not just part of a word.

Filter on Archive [Archive]

This filter lets you filter to show videos archived to a specific archive media. This filter works on videos you have archived using the archiving functionality. For example, it becomes helpful in browsing only the videos you have archived to a specific USB drive.

Filter on Extended Properties [Extended Properties]

This filter lets you filter to show videos based on your custom-created properties and imported metadata properties like XMP data.

By default, the search will look for the substring you enter. If you click the checkbox next to each extended property search field, you will switch that property to a range search. Range search also makes it possible to search for a specific property value by setting the two ranges to the exact same string.

When the radio button Any is on, you make the filter wider. With the All on, you make it narrower.

Note: Metadata extracted from video files, like XMP data, is listed as extended properties.

Filter on specific scenes [Scene Search]

When you have your videos and want to find specific scenes in these, you need to check the Scene search. When selecting a keyword, the scenes in only the videos you have your filter on will show in the Scene Search Results window.

When the radio button Any is on, you make the filter wider. With the All Keywords one, you make it narrower.

Extended properties search for scenes with extended properties.

The Note field allows you to search for any scene that has a note that contains the search term. You enter scene notes in the video detail window.

If all other filters are empty, you work with the whole video catalog and look for scenes in all videos.

Saving Filter

If you know you want to do a specific filtering, you can often save that filter and pick it from the Saved Filters drop-down menu to save time. The Saved filters menu is folded at the top of the Search window

The procedure of saving a filter is straightforward and resembles how you save a file in Windows. The save button will overwrite the current filter and Save as it prompts you for a new filter name.

Filters are saved in the catalog file.

How to manage information about your videos

You can add three categories of information to a selected video from the Video Details window. Remember that all the details you add can be used for filtering later when you work with the video catalog.

• Video Scene thumbnails -- These visually represent the video and are perfect for a quick overview of a video.

• Details -- This is text information or metadata about the video, such as Description, Title, and Genre.

• Cast -- Actors who feature in the video.

Video Scene thumbnails

All videos are technically a series of video frames (images) passing by fast. Fast Video Cataloger creates visual overviews of videos by capturing images spaced evenly in time. In the Video Scenes window, you can view these images as a row of thumbnails. Each of these images represents a scene in your video. You add new scene thumbnails by clicking the capture button in the video player.

Clicking a scene thumbnail will start playing from that scene in the Video Player. Right mouse button, click on a scene thumbnail shows a menu for using the image as either the preview thumbnail for the whole video or as a cast thumbnail for an actor. You can remove thumbnails you don\'t want in the Video Scene window via the right-click menu.

Details

The Video Details window contains general information about your currently selected video. Most of this information is available during a search and filter operation using the Search Window Content tab.

The text fields are all editable - just click and type. Don\'t worry about saving: it is handled automatically. You can also copy and paste text from the clipboard into these fields.

Title -- The filename of the video as it occurs in its media source is automatically inserted here. However, this can be edited in the usual way directly in the Title field box. Any change that you make here automatically changes the video\'s filename within its storage location, which becomes evident when you move to another item in the Video Catalog window.

Description -- This box is for entering longer texts. Maybe you have some text written about the video that will fit in here. A particular property of this Description field is that you can drop a .txt file directly onto it, and the content of that text file will appear as the video\'s description. Note: this drag-\'n\'-drop operation will replace any text already in the box.

Genre -- The Genre option allows you to change the genre of the video. You can rename genres for your whole video catalog by right-clicking on a genre. In most cases, we recommend using keywords instead of the genre.

Ratings -- The Rating option allows you to change the rating of the video. Right-click if you want to reset the rating.

Extended Properties -- Extended properties are searchable user-defined extra properties. Click the Edit button to add your own extended properties.

The filter field allow you to filter out any property name that don't contain the filter text.

The hide empty checkbox hides all extended properties that has no current assigned value.

Extended Thumbnail Properties -- Extended thumbnail properties are searchable user-defined extra properties tied to thumbnails. Click the Edit button to add your own extended thumbnail properties.

The note field allows you to enter free text note for a specific thumbnail. You can search for notes in the search window in the scene search section.

Tip: If you do not use extended properties, you can close the expanders. The open/close state of the expanders are stored with the Layout.

Cast

The cast area is the space where you build up the video\'s Cast. To assign an actor to the Cast, simply drag that Actor's portrait from the Actors window to this Cast window. You can remove actors from a video\'s Cast using the button at the bottom.

The best way of creating and adding actors to a video at the same time is by right-clicking a video scene thumbnail in the Video Scenes window and selecting the \"Use image for New Actor portrait\" option.

How to Create Actors and Associate them to Videos

Creating new actors is straightforward and can be done in two ways.

The most common way to create an actor is to find an appropriate scene thumbnail to use as an actor portrait, right-click and then choose \"Use image for New Actor portrait\". This will also help you associate your actor as a cast member with the video.

You may create actors and associate them later if that suits your workflow better. You can easily add multiple actors to a video by dragging actors from the Actors window to the Cast window.

An actor portrait can be added from a file by dropping or pasting from the clipboard. Drag-'n\'-drop also works from standard web browsers: drag an image from the browser window onto the Actor window. With the Paste Image option, you can copy any photo from anywhere and use it here. This is especially useful when working with cleaning up portraits in a paint program as you are building your video catalog. If you use Photoshop, copy from Photoshop, and paste it into the program without needing to save as a temporary file.

Actors may also have companion images. Companion images have been added either File by File or by folder.

When you select a folder as a companion image source, that folder gets scanned every time the companion images are displayed. If you add many folders to an actor, this can negatively affect how responsive the program becomes. The upside of using folders is that you can drop more files in the folder later, and your video catalog will automatically pick them up.

An actor\'s companion images are displayed in the Companion Images window for all of a video\'s actors. In Preferences, you can select if a video should or should not use actor companion images. There is even an option to use actor companion images only if the video itself doesn\'t have companion images.

How to Play and Edit Your Videos

The integrated player makes playing instantaneous and will not focus away from your work by switching to another program. You can play either from the start of a video by double-clicking on it in the Video Catalog window or from a video position by clicking on a scene in the Video Scenes window.

You can change the player screen size by grabbing and dragging the outer gray border or clicking the full-screen button. Clicking and holding on the scrub bar button will display how far into the video playback has reached and allow you to scrub backward and forwards through the length of the video.

Use the forward and rewind buttons to seek. If you hold shift before clicking forward/rewind, you will seek faster. If you hold the ctrl button before clicking forward/rewind, you will seek slower.

The camera button will add the current video frame as a scene thumbnail to your video catalog.

If you right-click the camera button, you can select to save a captured frame as a .jpeg image file or as the image that represents the video.

You can also add or adjust clips in the current playlist from the right-click menu.

Tip: Pause the video and then use slow play - CTRL + Press forward/rewind - to seek where you want to add a scene thumbnail to represent that part of the video clip best.

The sound icon slider allows you to change the playback volume for the video.

The integrated video player supports auto scene select by default. The auto scene select function automatically selects scenes in the Video Scenes window as the video is playing. This is useful for setting scene keywords while playing a video. Auto scene select is disabled if you right-click a scene thumbnail or manually select a scene thumbnail.

Suppose you wish to use your favorite player or edit the video. In that case, you can quickly open your external player/editor by right-clicking on the video in the Video Catalog window and selecting the File pop-out menu, which contains the Play and Edit options.

You can also reach your external player/editor via the Actions window (all actions are on the currently selected video in the Video Catalog window).

If you hold down the ALT key when clicking a thumbnail, the video will be played in the external mpv video player. For more info see the video player preferences.

How to keyword your videos

You set keywords for videos and individual scenes in a video from the Keywording Window.

Keywords are applied to all [selected]{.underline} videos in the Video Catalog window.

When the Tag scenes(s) in the video is checked, the current or currently selected scenes will be tagged with the keyword.

Suppose the required keyword does not already exist in your set of previously used keywords (appearing under \"Suggestions:\"). You can type it into the box provided and press [Enter] to add it. In doing so, not only will the new keyword be added to the selected video(s) or scene(s), it will also instantly appear -- alphabetically sorted -- in your collection of existing keywords for the whole video catalog. It is possible to add more than one keyword at a time only by separating each keyword with a comma \",\".

Assigning keywords to individual scenes is a powerful tool and worth the time. This lets you quickly find specific content across different videos for your entire collection. If you work with special effects, for example, and have used the keyword \"explosions\", you can immediately draw out all explosion scenes in your collection and use them as required.

All individual scenes that have been keyworded will have their time label highlighted in the Video Scenes window. When you hover your mouse pointer over the highlight, a tooltip displays the keywords assigned to that scene.

You can select more than one scene and set shared keywords for all those selected scenes.

You can assign shortcuts to specific keywords from the metadata tab in Preferences.

Tip:* When you play a video, the program automatically shows which scene is playing in the Video Scenes window. When you reach a scene you wish to tag, pause playback at that location and add your preferred keywords from the Keywording Window. Make sure you check the Tag scenes in video* checkbox.

How to manage your keywords

You manage your keywords from the Keyword manager.

Open the keyword manager dialog from the Manage button in the keywording window.

In the keyword manager dialog, you can see the uses of keywords and assign extra properties to them, like a description or a color. You can also remove keywords from the catalog. When you remove a keyword, it will also be removed from all videos/Scenes, and actors.

At the top of the dialog, you have a filter. Enter text here to filter the list to only show keywords that include your written filter text.

When you have changed any property for a keyword, you commit the change by clicking Update. If you close the dialog without clicking Update, the keyword will not change.

Keywords can have colors. Assign a color to a keyword by selecting the color from the color picker and clicking Update. Colors can make it easier to find commonly used keywords. Set whether to sort keywords by name or group by color in the Preferences.

You can set up keywords in a hierarchy. You can assign a parent keyword to a keyword from the keyword manager. Select a keyword from the Parent dropdown menu and click Update to update the keyword. Each parent is considered a more generic keyword.

When assigning keywords in a hierarchy, you only need to assign the most specific one. You can still find the video when searching for the parent keywords.

Video and scene keywords can be added to groups. Groups are used in the list view to filter the keywords in a catalog. To assign a keyword to a group, write a group name in the keyword groups text field and press Enter to add the keyword to the list of groups for the keyword. Click Update to update the groups for the keyword.

Groups are only beneficial if you have a lot of keywords in your catalog. A keyword can be in more than one group. Note, only video and scene keywords can be grouped.

When possible, prefer to setup your keywords in a hierarchy and use groups for filtering when you have an extensive list of keywords. When keywording and searching, you can list keywords in either a list or a hierarchy. Groups will only filter your keywords when viewing a list.

To delete or rename a group right click the group name in the dropdown.

How to work with XMP data

XMP and Fast Video Cataloger

The Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is an ISO standard, initially created by Adobe Systems Inc., for the creation, processing, and interchange of standardized and custom metadata.

With XMP support in Fast Video Cataloger, you can import XMP video data into your catalog and quickly search your entire video library for XMP data together with custom metadata added in Fast Video Cataloger.

Enable use of XMP data

To enable the import of XMP data from videos, go to Preferences and select the "Video Indexer" tab.

Find the "Video files (XMP)" option and check the checkbox.

Adding video with XMP data

Now it\'s time to index our video. Go to the Add Video window, add the video, and start indexing. At the end of the indexing process, the program will extract XMP data from videos that have it.

When your video has finished indexing and is in your catalog, select it to view the XMP data.

Any keywords in the XMP data are also added as keywords in Fast Video Cataloger, you can find them on the keywording page.

You find the rest of the XMP data in the video details window.

The video Description and title are set directly from XMP data when available, but the majority of XMP data is listed as extended video properties.

Find the "extended video properties" list and open it. You will find the XMP data ordered by XMP namespace. Click on a namespace to view its data.

If you click "edit" in the video details window, you can view all extended property types in your catalog for all videos, including all XMP data. From this window, you can quickly delete XMP data that you do not want in your catalog.

Editing the XMP data here will only change the catalog, not the XMP data stored in the video files. So, if you need the data back, you can always reimport the video.

Searching videos

Searching videos for XMP content is easy. If you use the interactive search, it automatically considers XMP data. Just add more search terms to narrow down the search. Open the interactive search field by holding Ctrl and pressing the i key.

If you open the search window, you find XMP search at the bottom of the list under the label "Extended properties". Find the XMP data you want to search for and select a value from the dropdown. The dropdown will list all values used for videos in the catalog.

If you want to search for properties between two values, click the checkbox to the right of the dropdown and select properties from both dropdowns.

Right-click to reset the values.

You can combine extended property searches with other metadata searches that are not XMP. Typical use involves adding keywords directly to the Fast Video Cataloger and combining keyword searches with XMP data searches.

How to create a new Catalog

Click Catalog/New... in the menu bar to create a catalog.

Press \"Pick Catalog File\" to choose a location on your storage media where you want the catalog database file to reside.

Create and name a New Folder if necessary, and ensure that that folder is open in the Save As file managing dialog box.

The default name for the database file is \"videodatabase.vcat \". You can change the filename, BUT NOT the extension: .vcat .

Save the database file into your chosen folder (which may be, for example, at D:/FVC_catalogs/fvclog.vcat).

Note: We suggest creating a new folder to store all your catalogs in the same spot for easy access and future reference.

Tip (optional): Your video catalog does not have to be in the same location as your videos. Select a fast storage device for your video catalog and a slower/cheaper one for your videos.

Quick note: Moving the catalog file after it has been created and populated is possible. However, before moving the catalog file, ensure you do not have files in your indexing queue for that video catalog.

• Close the program

• Move the File

• Start the program and select \"open\" to find the File

Moving the catalog file is helpful if you want to archive/backup the catalog file to an external device or share your catalogs with other users.

The video catalog includes all information about your videos but not the actual video files themselves.

If you choose to add a password for your video catalog, please remember it. If you lose your password, you lose the work you have done with your video catalog.

When you need extra high security, you may also use the password for encryption.

Special Note: If you now forget the password, your masked video files are lost (cannot be played), and there is no way to recover them. Make sure you have sufficient backups. Only change the password if you are sure of what you are doing.

If you are store videos in subfolders below the catalog file and add them to the catalog from there, the path in the catalog will be stored using a special folder. With a setup with the catalog in the root and all videos in folders below, it is possible to move the whole folder with catalog and videos and paths will still be valid.

Tip: Backup your video catalog from time to time.

How to archive videos

Why archive videos?

Fast Video Cataloger has a function to archive videos, providing an easy way to put videos files you do not often access onto a secondary storage medium.

Archiving videos with Fast Video Cataloger saves you space on your primary disks while allowing you to browse and search these videos. You will get a perfect overview of where you have packed away your videos, making it easy to find them when needed.

How to prepare secondary storage on an archive medium

An archive location is a folder where you store away video files. A typical archive medium could be a secondary hard drive, a USB stick or USB external drive, or anywhere you can store large video files. To create and manage your archives, click on Catalog in the menu, Archive, and choose Archive Media Manager. You will now see the Archive Media Manager dialog box:

Click \"Create\" to create a new location or access an existing location to use:

In the Create Archive Media sub-dialog box, browse to the root of your chosen medium, navigate the folder tree (if such exists) to a previously created folder, or click the \"Make New Folder\" button to create and name home for your Archive. Optionally, you can also write a description of your Archive; or you can do this later.

How to archive videos to an archive medium

To Archive, specific video files, use the Archive Video wizard. Click on Catalog in the menu and then Archive, and start the wizard by clicking Archive Videos. The wizard will assume you want to archive all videos visible in your current Video Catalog filtered list.

Note: Before opening the Archive Video tool, it\'s a good idea to filter your catalog only to include the videos you want to archive.

When video files are archived, their path in the Video Catalog gets updated to the archive medium\'s location. You will also be able to use the filter to browse videos in a specific archive.

How to share your video catalog

Your video catalog can always be shared and opened on other computers with a program to read and interpret the .vcat files. There are also options for sharing your catalog outside of Fast Video Cataloger. Also, look at [How to Share a catalog using the Server]{.underline}

Export Video as Contact sheet

You may export the Video Scenes thumbnails for a video. Click on Catalog in the menu and then Export, and in the pop-out, click contact sheet... The wizard takes you through exporting the currently selected video as a single contact sheet image.

You may alter the background, image size, shadows, title, and much more via the left-hand menu inside the wizard. The small right-hand menu allows you to adjust the contact image\'s size and placement within the window work tableau.

And, of course, there is the standard Reset button if your creation gets out of hand.

Export Video List as CSV

To get a raw text file listing of selected videos, you can export it as a Comma Separated Value (CSV) File. Click on Catalog in the menu and then Export, and in the pop-out, click Video CSV file. The filtered video list gets saved to your chosen location as a separate .csv file that you can import into Excel or other software.

Export Actor list as CSV

When you have added many actors to a catalog, you may want to use this data in other applications. To export a CSV file of your actors with included information, click on Catalog in the menu and then Export, and in the pop-out, click Actor CSV file.

How to Protect a video catalog

You can set a password to a video catalog from the Catalog menu. The program will ask for the password when a password-protected catalog is opened or imported.

You can change the password at any time. If you set the password to an empty string, the catalog will no longer ask for a password when opening it and will not be password-protected.

Note: Protecting a catalog with a password will only protect the catalog -- it will not mask its videos.

How to make a backup of a catalog

Regular backups are an extra measure that you should take to avoid losing too much work if something goes wrong when working or with your computer.

You can Backup your video catalog (only the one you are working on). Click Catalog and choose Backup to bring up a dialog about the procedure. Backup starts once you click Yes. Backup is simple and goes fast.

Your backup file gets saved in the same folder as your catalog file with the file extension .bak. We recommend moving it to another device once you have completed the backup process.

Note: The backup procedure will overwrite an existing previous backup. The \'No\' option allows you to back out of backing-up if you decide to retain the earlier backup, either to be renamed and conserved or restore it in case of a suspected mess-up in your current cataloging work.

How to Mask videos

How are videos masked?

Fast Video Cataloger has a powerful mask function to hide videos. Masked videos are encrypted and renamed, so only you can view them from the catalog where you masked them. Masked videos will look like random binary files outside of Fast Video Cataloger.

Masking uses AES 256-bit encryption, which is considered pretty strong. We don\'t claim the masking process is impossible to break, but unless you are an expert, it should provide more than adequate protection. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about AES encryption :

\"The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael (its original name), is a specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001\"[.]{.mark}

[NOTE: We have no way to help you unmask any masked videos. If you mask videos, it is essential that you keep a backup of the catalog and that you remember the mask password if you changed it. Only you have the password needed to unmask videos you have masked.]{.mark}

How to mask and unmask a single video file

You can mask a video by right-clicking the video in the Video Catalog window and selecting the File/Mask file. A progress bar will show progress. When the masking process is complete, the program will try to delete the unmasked File. The source file\'s deletion may fail if the video is open in another program or the Video Player window.

To unmask a video, right-click the masked video and select the File/UnMask file from the context menu.

When a video is masked, it gets a new random filename with the .bin extension. The program also creates a .vdh file that only contains the public encryption key for the video file. The public key is also saved inside the video catalog. The ".vdh" File is only needed if you want to add the encrypted video to another catalog.

How to play masked videos and keep your videos safe

The integrated Video Player in Fast Video Cataloger supports decrypting masked videos on the fly. The whole video is never decrypted so even as you are playing a video, there is never a decrypted version of the video in memory simultaneously. Also, the decryption process isn\'t written to any disk. All in all, for you as the user, it should be pretty transparent whether or not the video is masked. However, since masked files need to be decrypted on the fly, they will require more CPU power.

[NOTE: Masked videos will NOT play in external video players.]{.mark}

How to mask videos when they are added to a catalog

The Video Indexer tab in Preferences has an option to mask files as they are added to your catalog. There is also an option to delete the source file after it has been encrypted. If indexing fails, you will still have unmasked videos on your disk.

How to add already masked videos

The masking feature in Fast Video Cataloger is compatible with the masking in the latest versions of Video DownloadHelper ( downloadhelper.net ). You will never have unprotected videos touch your disk if you download masked videos. To add an already masked video to a catalog, you need to add the File with the .vdh extension that contains the video metadata and the public encryption key.

How to change the private key

Fast Video Cataloger has a default private encryption key that gets used unless it is changed. When you create a new catalog, you can change this key. Changing the key increases security as someone would need to know your unique private key combined with the public key to access your files. However, if you forget your personalized private key (mask password), you cannot recover any masked videos. You must ensure both programs use the same key if you use Fast Video Cataloger and the DownloadHelper add-in. The private key can only be set when you create a new catalog.

[We recommend that you do not change the password unless you know what you are doing and really need the extra security.]{.mark}

Hints and Tips for your everyday work

• Use the Video Details and Keywording windows to enrich your videos\' specificity in a structured manner. This investment will repay as your catalog fills up, and you must find specific content. It will significantly enhance the power of the filter function to extract material accurately and efficiently.

• Look at the video indexing settings and decide if you want to extract XMP and other meta-data from the video.

• Change the Video Catalog preview thumbnail and the Video Scenes thumbnails to represent videos as accurately as possible.

• Use Keywords actively to make specific content more accessible to find and compare.

• Filters are inherently wild-carded; for example, writing \"a\" in the Title field brings out everything containing an \"a\" somewhere in the title.

• Using secondary storage media, use the same drive letter to store your catalog files. In cases of a forgotten or misplaced File, try searching for it first on your Windows search bar.

• The program will start with the last catalog loaded; however, you can access other catalogs through the Catalog/Open dialogue menu. It shows the recent catalog listing and an open catalog button.

• Fine-tune the preferences by initially using only a small number of videos to test your settings before piling in your whole collection.

• Sometimes, the first few seconds of a video are blank or uninteresting. If this is a common problem in your collection, you have ways to deal with it. In the Preferences/Video Player tab, you can set the \'Video Start offset:\' to the number of seconds necessary to skip these initial frames at playback (the default is 4). Also, in the Preferences/Auto Indexer tab, enter the position where you want to capture the preview thumbnail in the\' Capture video-frame after: \' field.

• Create many different layouts based on what you currently do with the program.

• Bins can help in setting up workflows.

• Learn to use shortcuts.

• There are many windows in Fast Video Cataloger; if possible, a second monitor would help.

• The real power of the program comes when you start using the C# scripting interface to automate tasks. Looks at the samples and try altering them to get started.

• Re-index a video will use the current index settings in preferences to extract new thumbnails. Keywords you have assigned to the video will be kept.

• CTTRL+I open a small search input to let you search without opening the search window. Useful for most searches, each new search term narrows down the selection.

How to change the Preferences for the software

The Preferences window holds the program settings. You can find it in Catalog/Preferences... on the Main Menu Bar or use the shortcut [Ctrl]+P.

General tab -- lets you identify an External video player and an External editor and make several other choices.

Interface tab -- lets you control user interface aspects.

Layouts tab -- lets you supply names for your layouts. The names are displayed in the Layout menu.

Auto Index tab -- Allows you to enable Autoindexing from a folder tree you can identify in this tab.

Video Indexer tab -- Configure the variables associated with the display of screenshots and thumbnails and several other related features.

Special Folders -- Assign symbolic names to folders.

Video Player tab -- Video Start offset and the best video player to use.

File Organizer tab -- Settings for the File Organizer window, a more convenient version of Windows Explorer with similar appearance and functionality.

Actors tab -- Settings for the display and organization of actors in the Actors and Cast windows.

Companion Images tab -- Settings for companion images, including covers.

Video Wall tab -- Settings for the Video Wall window.

Attract Windows tab -- Settings for the three attract windows.

Actions tab -- Create and manage custom actions

Metadata tab -- Configure how the program should write external metadata.

Auto Keywording tab -- Configure automatic keyword assignment from the video path.

Web tab -- Configure the integrated Chrome browser.

At the bottom of the Preferences dialog you can find a row of buttons.

The Help button will open the help page for the selected preference page on our web site.

Reset will reset ALL settings to the program defaults.

Import will import an xml file with previously saved preferences settings.

Export will export an xml file with preferences settings. Use this option if you want to move settings between programs.

General tab

This tab lets you choose the external media player or video editor for your catalog videos.

External video player - The default external video player is Windows Media Player, but this can be changed to any desired player, for example, VLC, QuickTime, RealTime, DivX, etc. Usually, you will use the internal video player ( this is not affected by this setting ) and whose settings come under the Preferences/Video Player tab.

External video editor - You can associate an external video editor for use on videos in your catalog. You can edit your videos on an external video editor and still play them from within Fast Video Cataloger.

Force video extension -- The extension entered here will be assumed to be a video file. I.e., the program will try to index files with that extension and do everything else that it does to known extensions like avi, mp4, etc.

Force photo extension -- The extension entered here will be assumed to be a photo file. I.e., the program will treat files with this extension just the same it does to jpg files.

Autoload catalog -- On program startup, automatically re-load the catalog that was loaded last time.

Send usage statistics -- Send anonymous statistics to help us improve the program.

Show Startpage -- Show the start page when starting the program.

Save last search -- Save the current search when the program closes.

Clip Start Timecode -- When exporting a playlist as XML this is the start time of the clips. Some video editing programs use this.

CSV Separator -- What character should be used as separator when exporting as CSV.

Default timebase -- Used when exporting xml playlists, frames per second.

Interface tab

This tab lets you choose settings for the general user interface.

Show catalog scrollbar -- If checked, the Video Catalog window will get a horizontal scrollbar in detailed mode.

Autoselect video -- When the cursor is moved over the thumbnail in the video catalog window, it will automatically select that video. When this option is enabled, you can temporarily disable the selection by holding the shift key.

Zoom on mouse over -- When checked, the thumbnails will be scaled when the mouse pointer hovers over them.

Tag scene -- Should the tag scene checkbox be default checked.

Sort tags on color -- When checked keywords are first sorted on color then name. If this is not checked color do not affect keyword sort order.

Software UI -- Use software rendering for the UI. This flag will take effect the next time you start the program. Software rendering will be slower than the default that is using the GPU hardware. [Only use this setting if you experience rendering issues with the UI, like flickering or UI elements not being updated]{.underline}. If that is the case, then test this checkbox. If it works fine with this checked, then we recommend that you update/change your graphics drivers. This option is unrelated to the video player.

Run action on video double-click -- Assign a user-created action to be run when double-clicking a video. The video is played in the integrated video player if no action is assigned.

Scrub timeline on mouseover -- When moving the mouse over the thumbnail ni the video catalog window, the program will map the horizontal movement over the thumbnail to a time in the video and show the closest captured thumbnail. Double-click to play the video from that time. Press shift to not update the thumbnail.

Group scene search result -- Group the result from a scene search in the scene search window on the scene video.

Scale to fit -- Should the program try to scale the thumbnails, so no vertical scrolling is needed? When this option is checked and a video is selected, the program will try to scale the thumbnails as large as possible but simultaneously try to scale them so that all thumbnails fit on the screen without scrolling. This is done given the constraint set for scaling.

Min scale -- Minimum scaling allowed when running "Scale to fit". If this is set to 25%, the program will never scale the thumbnails to be smaller then 25% of their original scale.

Max scale -- Maximum scaling to use when running "Scale to fit" if this is set to 100%, the program will never scale thumbnails to be larger than their native resolution.

Show keyword list -- Show a list view of all keywords in the keywording window.

Show keyword tree -- Show a tree view of all keywords in the keywording window.

Layouts tab

Here, you can enter names for all the layouts. The names will be displayed in the Layout menu. Use the names to indicate why you created each Layout.

Use Layout 1-8 to let you set the name of the layouts as you want. The shortcut key is the default key, but you can change it. The first four layouts have different default windows open, but you can arrange all layouts as you want by selecting a layout, arranging windows, and then clicking save from the layout window.

Show Video Scene Window will show the video scene window, if hidden, when you select a video.

Video Play auto layout tells the program to switch to the selected Layout whenever a video is played.

Video select auto layout lets you set an automatically selected layout whenever a video is selected.

Actor Select auto layout lets you set an automatically selected layout whenever an actor is selected.

Auto Save Layout at shutdown -- Autosave layout to the current Layout when the program closes.

Video Indexer tab

The indexer tab is a unique feature of Fast Video Cataloger.

Skip video smaller than -- When scanning videos for indexing, ignore video files smaller than this number of bytes, even if they look like a video.

Skip video in folders containing -- When adding folders to be indexed any folder that contain this string will be ignored. For example; With ".prv" here no videos would be indexed from a folder called "movies.prv"

Skip video with name containing -- When adding videos to be indexed any video name that contains this string will be ignored. For example; With "-trailer" here a video named "move-trailer.mp4" would be skipped.

Capture video-frame after - Default is 30 seconds. This feature allows you to choose how far into each video the system will go before selecting the first frame to represent the whole video in the Video Catalog window.

Then capture every - This is the time interval after the first frame has been captured, at which each subsequent frame will be captured and used to demarcate and populated the Video Scenes window.

But capture at least -- Sets the minimum number of frames that will be captured. If the above \"Capture video-frame after\" and \"Then capture every\" value would lead to a fewer number of video frames than you wish, then extra frames at equal intervals will be interpolated to meet the number specified here. By default, entering 1 in this box will neutralize any effect.

Resize screenshots - The default is 160 pixels, which is a comfortable size, but please use what you feel gives the best experience. Higher resolution will result in larger catalog files.

Extract metadata from -- Once a video has been indexed, the program can extract some automatic metadata.

If the \".nfo files\" option is checked, the program will check for a .nfo file next to the video file and extract metadata from that File.

If the \"video files (MediaInfo)\" option is checked, the program will check for various metadata inside the video file and add that metadata as extended video properties.

If the \"video files (ShellInfo)\" option is checked, the program will check for various metadata stored inside the video file and add that metadata as extended video properties. This option uses Windows, and this is the info you would typically see if you pick properties on a video file in windows explorer.

If the \"video files (XMP)\" option is checked, the program will check for various XMP metadata stored inside the video file and add that metadata as extended video properties. XMP is often used by video software, for example, from, Adobe, and can include information about the edit and the shot. This can be really useful if you want to do custom integrations with other software.

If the \"video path\" option is checked, the program will use the path to the video file to try to assign keywords automatically. You can control how the program tries to extract keywords from the Auto Keywording tab in preferences. When you add videos from the "Add videos" window, a column shows what keywords will be added to a file.

Based on MetaData -- Rotate, if checked, will automatically rotate thumbnails if the metadata says the video is rotated. This flag requires the extracted metadata from the video file checkbox to be set. Some mobile cameras set the flag, and the video file is not rotated; instead, they rely on the mobile to rotate the screen. To play the video with the correct rotation, you also need a video player that can rotate the video in real-time. If you select the madvr player in the program, it will play it rotated correctly.

Title always from filename -- When checked, the title will always be the filename. When not checked, the title will be the metadata title if it was extracted.

Add transcript from srt file -- When indexing, check if there is an srt file next to the video file, i.e., a file with the same name as the video but with the srt extension instead of the video extension. If an SRT file was found, it will be added as transcript for the video.

After adding video -- Refresh search, if checked, will automatically refresh the last search whenever a new video is added to the catalog.

Burst Capture - is an option that allows you to expand the number of thumbnails representing a particular scene, thus affording greater detail of its contents. The Burst Capture option becomes available in the pop-out menu when you right-click a scene in the Video Scenes window.

Burst capture time step -- Defines the time step between each frame in a burst.

Burst capture length -- Determines how many frames the burst extends.

Mask files -- When this option is checked, videos are automatically masked when they are added to the catalog. Please note that you can only play masked videos in the program and need the catalog to play or unmask the videos. If you use this feature, make backups of your catalog.

Delete Source files -- When a video file has been masked and added to the catalog, the unmasked source file will be deleted if this box is checked.

Debug output folder -- Specify here a local path to where the program can write debug files. Only write anything here if you are asked to by support. If you enter a path, you will get unnecessary log files, and the program will run slower.

Use Windows filters -- When this option is checked, the program will use the DirectShow filters installed with Microsoft Windows with their merit values when trying to capture videos. Fast Video Cataloger will use its built-in filters to capture video frames if this is not checked. Leaving this unchecked is the safest way to index and will manage most video formats. However, if you have installed codecs not handled by the built-in filters, you might need to check this box.

NOTE: If an Indexing fails, you can change this option and retry.

Auto Index tab

The Auto Index tab allows you to control settings for automatically indexing videos added to a specified folder tree.

Enable AutoIndex from folder -- Enable/Disable the auto index feature

Auto index folder -- The root folder that is watched for added videos

Index subfolders -- Do we want subfolders below the root folder to be included in the watch?

Auto start indexing -- When the auto index feature has added a video file, start the video indexing.

Video Player tab

The Video Player tab controls settings for the integrated Video Player. You invoke the Video Player when you double-click a video in the Video Catalog window or play from a scene in the Video Scenes panel.

NOTE: If you can\'t find the player, ensure that \'Video Player\' is active by looking in the View menu.

Use MPV player instead of Internal player window -- Check this to use the external MPV video player instead of a build in player in the video window. When using MPV you can start and seek in the video using the thumbnails but some features are not available like the support of encrypted videos. MPV is also not part of the layout so the window position is not saved, if using MPV its probably best to have it full screen on its own screen. MPV supports a lot of features and can be heavily customized.

Use MPV player when holding down the ALT key -- With this open the program will check if the ALT key is pressed when starting a video. If ALT is down the mpv video player will be used for that video.

Video Start Offset - this is where the movie starts in seconds from the video\'s real beginning. Typically, this is a few seconds into the movie.

Some videos stall if played from the start because they have a bad first couple of frames. Video Start Offset is set to 4 seconds by default.

Video player to use -- This is an advanced setting that you should not have to touch unless you have problems playing a video in Fast Video Cataloger. The integrated Video Player can use three different Windows APIs to play videos, which the drop-down-list allows you to choose combinations from.

Best - Will try the integrated safe codecs first, then it will do a smart connect with other different video renderers. This has the highest chance of playing the video, but it can cause the program to crash if codecs are badly configured on the computer.

Smart connect VMR9 -- Use DirectShow\'s smart connect to play the video; i.e. it will try to search all codecs installed on your computer in their merit order to try to play the video and then render using Microsoft's Video Mixing Renderer 9 technology.

Smart connect VMR7 -- Use DirectShow\'s smart connect to play the video; i.e. it will try to search all codecs installed on your computer in their merit order to try to play the video and then render using Microsoft's Video Mixing Renderer 7 technology.

Smart connect EVR -- Use DirectShow\'s smart connect to play the video; i.e. it will try to search all codecs installed on your computer in their merit order to try to play the video and then render using Microsoft's Enhanced Video Renderer.

Direct -- Will only play the video with integrated codecs. This is the safest option but might not work for videos requiring some exotic codecs.

Direct + MadVR -- Will only play the video with integrated codecs but using the MadVR video renderer. This requires MadVR to be installed.

Direct, NoSound -- Will only play the video with integrated codecs and will not connect the sound stream. This is the safest option and usually the fastest playback.

Stretch video -- When ticked, the video will stretch to fill the whole Video Player screen, in conformity with its aspect ratio. If this is not checked, the video will only be played at its actual size.

Restart from Thumbplay -- This is a compatibility option for some video codecs. Try this option if you have an issue with playing videos from thumbnails. Keep unchecked otherwise.

Resume on Thumbplay -- If the video is paused and you select a thumbnail, the video will play from that thumbnail.

Hide on change video -- Whenever a new video is selected, the video player window is hidden to give more space for other windows.

For each video in this folder -- When you play a video in this folder, remap the path to the path supplied in "Also try playing from here" (below).

Also try playing from here -- Remap videos from "For each video in this folder" (above) to the folder specified by the path entered here.

Autohide buttons -- Hide Video Player control buttons when the mouse cursor has been still for a few seconds.

Fast custom playback speed -- This option is a custom playback speed factor (1.0 being normal, 2 -- double speed, 0.5 half speed). This option will be a menu option in the video player speed dropdown.

Slow custom playback speed -- This option is a custom playback speed factor (1.0 being normal, 2 -- double speed, 0.5 half speed). This speed will be a menu option in the video player speed dropdown.

Default playlist clip time -- When adding a clip to a video playlist, this is the clip\'s length from where it is added.

Video Wall

The Video Wall allows you to browse videos effectively. In the Video Wall window, each video\'s captured frame is cycled concurrently, generating a kaleidoscope of images that dynamically depict the content of the videos displayed.

Frame display time - is the number of milliseconds (1000 ms = 1 s) to show each frame before switching. The time entered here must also include the time required to make the transition. If you want this as quickly as possible, just put a 0 here.

Mode -- This drop-down offers a choice among three sequences by which the frames are switched. Trial and error will help you identify the sequence that works best for your purpose.

File organizer

The File Organizer allows you to manage the videos on your computer while keeping your catalog up-to-date. You can move a video file that is part of your catalog by dragging it from the Video Catalog window to a folder in the File Organizer window. NOTE: To achieve this, you may need to "Float" one of these windows.

Move autotag -- When a video has been moved, this keyword is automatically attached to the video entry. This is useful when organizing your files, say from an incoming folder to where you store your catalog videos, such as in an auto index folder tree.

Hide videos with autotag -- When this option is checked, auto-tagged videos will be hidden from the Video Catalog window. This is useful if you are sorting videos into different folders and want to distinguish sorted from unsorted files. As you organize your videos into folders, they will be hidden in the Video Catalog window, so you only see the videos left still to be organized.

Move companion files -- When a video is moved, its companion files are also moved. Extra companion files can be selected with the 'Move companion filter' setting (described below). Video companion images are always moved automatically with their parent video file.

Move companion filter -- This is where you identify the extra files or file types you wish to move with parent video files.

Create folder -- With this option ticked, the system will auto-create folders for relocated video files (if they have associated companion files). When a video is dropped from the Video Catalog window onto the File Organizer window, a new folder will be created with the same name as the video file being moved. This feature is helpful if you move companion files with the videos and want all files connected to a video in the same folder.

NOTE: If the video has no companion images, a folder will not be created whether or not this option is checked.

File thumbnail size -- In the File Organizer window, you have the usual set of file display options, which includes the 'Thumbnails' display option. This component in the File Organizer Preferences tab allows you to preselect the size of these thumbnails when you choose to display files in this format.

Autosync to videofolder -- When you select a video in your Video Catalog pane, the File Organizer pane will show the folder containing the selected video file. Depending on your system and catalog, this can impact the program's performance, especially if you select videos on idle disks that need to initialize. Autosync will only happen when the file organizer window is open.

Allow right-click on file -- Uncheck this option if Fast Video Cataloger freezes or crashes when right-clicking a file. When this option is ticked, you will invoke the context menu when right-clicking a file in the File Organizer. Opening the file context menu will load all registered shell extensions for the file type. Loading harmful extensions might cause the Fast Video Cataloger to crash or take a long time. These crashes can be hard to diagnose, so simply preventing them from loading might be an easy workaround.

NOTE: If you install a codec pack, please pick the 64-bit version; otherwise, it will not be used.

Ask before file delete -- Show an "Are you sure" dialog before deleting a file.

Autoplay video no in catalog -- Play videos in the video player, even if they are not in the catalog.

Filter catalog on folder - When a folder is selected the program will automatically search the catalog and only show videos stored in that subfolder.

Filter Files -- Show folders --When filtering files in the file organizer, show subfolders.

Filter Files -- Show Video Files -- When filtering files in the file organizer, show video files.

Filter Files -- Show Image Files --When filtering files in the file organizer, show image files.

Actors

All actors in your catalog are listed in the Actors window and can be associated with videos by drag-\'n\'-drop to the Cast window.

Resize portrait images to be -- This option determines the size of the actor portrait images saved in the catalog. The portrait image is the only actor image that is saved in the catalog. We recommended setting this option when you start creating your catalog and not changing it after you have started to add actors.

NOTE: The size of the actor portrait can significantly impact your catalog's file size if you have many actors.

Actor window portrait size -- This size option determines the scale of the portrait images in the Actor window. The resulting size will be in proportion to the pixels allocated to the portraits, scaled according to whether this option is set to Small (1:2), Medium (1:1), or Large (2:1).

Cast window portrait size - This size option determines the scale of the portrait images in the Cast window. The resulting size will be in proportion to the pixels allocated to the portraits, scaled according to whether this option is set to Small (1:2), Medium (1:1), or Large (2:1).

Filter on double-click -- The current search is filtered on the actor when checked. When not checked, a double click will bring up the actor dialog.

Companion images

In the tab Companion Images, you control how companion images are presented, added, and referenced from inside your catalog. As with videos, the actual image is not included in the catalog, only the image\'s path.

Add companion images -- When a folder contains images alongside the videos, these images are added as companion images for all the videos found in that folder.

From folder named same as video -- For each video, look in folders with the same name and add any images in that folder as companion images for that video.

Search xx subfolders for images -- When searching for companion images, also search in subfolders. Xx is the maximum number of subfolders we will try to traverse.

Only add covers as images -- Only add image files if they match one of the cover names; if one is added, treat it as a cover image.

Cover name -- Custom filename, without extension, to treat as a front cover.

Image slideshow -- Play companion images as a slideshow in the companion image window.

Image slideshow time -- Specifies how many seconds each image in the slideshow should be displayed.

Image slideshow random -- Randomize the slideshow image order.

Include Actor images -- Decide if Actor images should be included in the list of Companion images for each video.\ If this open is set to Yes, then the whole Actor image set for each selected video will be included in their slideshows. You can also opt to use Actor images for videos that do not have Companion images explicitly designated.

NOTE: This option can hurt performance if a video has many actors and companion images since a new list is created each time you change the selection.

Companion thumbnails -- Set the sizer of the thumbnail used for companion images in the companion image browser.

Use MPV player instead of companion preview window -- Instead of loading a companion image in the companion preview window, load the image in an instance of the external MPV player. Note that MPV is external and not part of the layout system. Companion images can be loaded from the companion image browser but you can also load them from the file organizer, and you can set the file organizer to show thumbnails.

Use MPV Player when holding down the ALT key -- When a companion image is about to load, check if the ALT key is down and if so instead load the companion image in the MPV viewer.

New MPV Player for each new image -- Do not reuse the MPV instance, launch a new instance for each image.

Special folders

On the Special folders tab you can set up to 5 local special folders.

Special folders are labels you can assign to a root path. Using special folders, you can later move any videos below that root path to another location, update the special folder path, and all the paths in the catalog will work. For example, if you have all your videos below a folder like d:\videos\presentations\ and create a special folder for this path called presentations. When you add a video from this folder, the catalog will store the path as [presentations]\... in the catalog. It will be resolved to a full path whenever the path is accessed. If you later move all the videos to another place like e:\archived_presentations\ and update the presentation\'s special folder, the catalog will work. Nothing in the catalog will be updated when you assign the special folders. The special folders are only used when you add files to the catalog and access folders.

Special folders are local to your computer and cannot be used when sharing a catalog.

There are several built-in special folders. These are listed at the bottom of the dialog and cannot be edited.

[LOCAL] is the folder where the catalog is stored. Any video added below the local path will automatically use the [LOCAL] special folder. This makes it possible to move the whole folder structure to another place and still have paths work.

Dropbox and Onedrive are detected and added as special folders. This way, it is possible to change the location of the Dropbox folder and still have paths that are valid in Fast Video cataloger.

[\ ]{.mark}

Attract Windows

In the Attract Windows tab, you can modify the behavior of the Attract displays. The attract screens are a tool to discover content in your catalog. The attract windows are not affected by the current search filter.

Cover display time -- Defines the number of seconds each cover is displayed in the Attract Cover window.

Include Companion images -- Should the Attract Covers window also display Companion images?

Video Wall display time -- Defines the number of seconds each set of videos is displayed in the Attract Video Wall window before they are faded out, and a new set of videos is displayed.

Actor display time - Defines the number of seconds each actor is displayed in the Attract Actor window.

Actor offset - Adjust where in the window actors should be displayed.

Visble portrait images - How many portraits should be visible in the attract actor Window?

Portrait size ratio - What is the ratio between the large and the small portraits in the attract actor Window?

Portrait animation time -- Set the number of milliseconds (1000ms = 1s); each portrait will be displayed before moving to the next.

Show actor names - Should the attract actor window display the name of the Actors?

Actor font size - How large should the font be that is used for printing actor names in the attract actor window?

Actions

The action tab now only contains preferences for actions. Editing of actions are done from the front screen (File/catalog).

Show common action -- Show the common actions in the Action window.

MetaData

In the Metadata tab, you can modify how metadata is written to be accessible outside the program.

Set Keyword shortcut #1-#5 -- You can assign up to five shortcut keys for keywords. When you press one of these, it will assign the listed keywords to the selected videos. You can assign the keybindings from the shortcut dialog. In this dialog, you enter a comma-separated list of the keywords you want to be set when you press the shortcut.

Write .nfo files -- When checked, Fast video cataloger will create an XML file with the .nfo extension named the same as the video file. The metadata will contain keywords, ratings, and descriptions and be updated whenever changes in the software. You must re-add the video to update your catalog if they are changed outside of the software. If there is already a .nfo file, it will be updated with these new files. Nfo files are in the Kodi nfo file format.

Write .nfo actor thumbnails -- When a .nfo file is written, that .nfo will include all actors in the cast with a link to a thumbnail. Thumbnails are saved in a folder named ".actors".

Write metadata in video files -- When checked, Fast video cataloger tries to write metadata to the metadata section of the video file. The metadata written is rating, keywords, and description. You can check metadata in the windows properties on the Details tab. When these properties have been written they can be searched from the Windows Explorer.

Notes: When these options are checked, the extra data will be updated whenever a video file is updated. This can have some performance impact.

Also, note that writing metadata to a video file will change its checksum since it is touched, and the actual video file needs to be accessible and writable.

When writing descriptions as Windows comments only the first 100+ characters are written. This is a limit in how long video file comments can be on Windows.

Auto Keywording

In the Auto Keywording tab, you can modify how the program should try to assign keywords to a video based on the path to the video file.

Add keywords from video path -- When checked, this function is enabled.

Allow creation of new keywords -- When checked, new keywords can be assigned to videos and added to the catalog based on the video path. When not checked, only keywords that are already present in the catalog can be assigned.

Take keywords from inside brackets -- With this option set keywords are only extracted from the part of the path inside brackets. i.e. for a path like c:\videos\test videos[home].mp4 the program would only consider Home as a keyword, not the rest of the path.

Allow integer tags -- When checked, a keyword can be a number like 1,2,3 or 2021. When this is not checked any tag that is just a number will be ignored.

Trim numbers from start of tags -- When checked, numbers at the start of a tag will be stripped. For example a tag 2021Holliday will turn into Holliday.

Trim numbers from end of tags -- When checked, numbers at the end of a tag will be stripped. For example a tag Holliday2021 will turn into Holliday.

Keywords need to be at least -- Ignore any detected keywords shorter than this number of characters.

Words in the list below will be ignored -- This is a list of words that will be ignored when they are detected in the path. Click the Add button to add new keywords to this list and Delete to remove words.

Testing -- At the bottom of the dialog, you can provide a path and click test to see what keywords would be detected from the path.

Web

In the Web tab, you can modify settings for the integrated web browser.

Use External Browser -- If checked, your system browser will prefer your external system browser over the integrated browser.

Concurrent downloads -- The number of concurrent downloads you can have active. If more than these files are selected for download, they will be queued instead and started once there is a free download slot.

Auto-Rename if file exists -- If a file exists in the folder you download to, the program will try to find a unique name automatically instead of showing a "save as" dialog.

Skip if file exists -- If a file exists in the folder you are downloading to, the file will be skipped instead of showing a "save as" dialog.

How to Create Actions

Actions are a way to extend and automate in Fast Video Cataloger.

There are several different types of actions. Once created, Actions are listed in the Action window and accessed from the Action Window once created.

You can assign shortcuts to your actions from the Shortcuts dialog.

You can create custom actions in the Actions tab that will appear in the Actions window.

Click New to create a new action.

Click Next to start the Wizard

There are Four different types of actions you can create.

• You can run an external program in a cmd prompt.

• You can run an external program.

• Launch an url in a web browser.

• Run a c# script.

Pick the action type you want to create and then next.

Enter the path or url you want to execute as your action. If you are running a program the path should be to an executable, if you an url it should be a complete path and if it is a c# script it needs to be the path to the script.

When you have entered the path click Next.

Next, you can provide arguments for the program.

The arguments can be any text you provide, but they can also be variables that will be replaced depending on what is selected in Fast video cataloger when the action is executed.

For example, if you enter the path to an external video player, you might want the path to the selected video as an argument. The available arguments are listed as a button, click the button to add them as arguments.

Use the options under the Arguments tab to introduce independent arguments to the program or the web page.

If your action is to execute an external program, the arguments will be passed as command-line arguments to the program.

If your action opens a web page, then your argument will be added to the URL after an implicit ? Character.

The buttons underneath can be used to add variable arguments based on your current selections in the program.

Video file -- This is replaced with the full path to the first selected video file. This is most useful when running external programs.

Video title -- This is replaced with the title of the first selected video.

Video title trimmed -- Uses heuristics to crop the end of titles from extra information like resolution, time.

Video link -- This is replaced with the link of the first selected video.

Video folder -- This is replaced with the path to the folder where the video is.

Pick file -- This will open a file browser to let you browse for a file path.

Thumb time -- The time of the first currently selected thumbnail.

TIP:* Thumb time* is useful when using an external video player.

Actor First Name -- Is replaced with the first name of the selected actor in the Actors window.

Actor Last Name -- Is replaced with the second name of the selected actor in the Actors window.

Selected Image -- This is replaced with the currently selected companion image.

When you have entered your arguments, click Next.

The last step is to design the button listed in the action window. The text you enter as a Label will be the text that is displayed on the button in the Action window.

Enter a ToolTip to describe what the action will do. The text is displayed when you hover over the button in the Action window.

Enabled lets you pick a few options for when the button should be enabled or disabled.

The button setting allows you to control the style of the action button.

At the bottom of the dialog is a preview of your action button.

Click Finish to create the action and add the button to the action window.

Actions are stored with your preferences and are not dependent on the current catalog.

For running programs, the recommendation is to run through the shell first. And later change to "Run program directly" when you know everything works.

Special Actions

On the Action page, you can set three special actions. You set the actions by selecting one of your actions from the drop-down menu. To clear an action, right-click and select the \"Clear\" menu option.

Startup action, is an action that runs at the end of application startup when the catalog has loaded and all windows have initialized. There is also a command-line argument to set a startup action.

Shutdown action, is an action that is run at the start of shutdown before any of the windows have started to shut down. The shutdown will not commence until the shutdown action is complete.

Pipe action, is an action that is triggered externally from a pipe call. When an external program sends a text string to the Fast video cataloger, that text string will be passed as the argument string to the script of the action you have selected.

With Fast Video Cataloger, we have included fvc.exe, a simple command-line program that sends text to the pipe action. fvc.exe is in the root of the installation folder.

Use it from the cmd line, fvc.exe [Text string to send to the action]

When no pipe action is set, the text will be sent and printed in the console window for testing purposes.

If you encounter an error stating "Access to the path is denied," then the Fast Video Cataloger has higher privileges than the caller. This can happen when the Fast Video Cataloger is run from the installer.

How to use the Repair tool

The repair tool is found in the Catalog/Info pop-out. It allows you to do many different repair operations. Each repair tool can be accessed through its own tab.

Repair video file paths

The Repair videos... tool helps you fix video paths that are broken. Click {Start...} under the Repair videos... tab to commence scanning for broken paths. Each video path in your catalog will be checked to see if it is broken. Note that paths that point to disconnected devices will be reported as broken.

All broken video paths will be presented in a checkbox list. Select the videos you want to fix.

To remove videos with broken paths from your catalog, select them and then click the {Remove Selected Videos} button.

You can also supply an alternative search path for the video and click repair.

The program will search for each filename in the folder you supplied, including in subfolders.

The repair videos tool is helpful if you have moved your video files from one folder to another outside of the program. They have been moved without using the built-in File Organizer window.

If a file is archived, it is reported by the tool, but there is a note telling you it is archived and not checked by default.

Repair images

The Repair images tool works in the same way as the Repair videos... tool but, instead of checking each video, it checks every companion image in your catalog.

The Repair images tool is helpful if you have moved your image files from one folder to another outside the program. They have been moved without using the built-in File Organizer window. If you run the Repair videos... tool and have a catalog containing companion images, you most likely also want to run the Repair images tool the same way.

Optimize catalog

Always backup your catalog before Optimizing it.

This task adapts old catalogs, created with early versions, to the newest form of catalogs. This may take a few hours, depending on the catalog size, so it is essential to ensure you have enough battery to avoid breaking the process.

If your computer is restarted during this process, your catalog will break.

This task will only have effect once per catalog, so running it twice and more on the same catalog is pointless.

Scan for images

Scan for images allows you to scan all videos in your catalog for companion images using Preferences settings.

Click {Start...} to begin scanning for companion images. Any companion images found will be presented in a checkbox list. Select the images you want to add and click {Add Selected Images} to add the images as video companion images.

How to find duplicate videos

On the info screen, select Clean to start the "Find duplicate videos tool".

The Check Duplicate videos... tool searches your catalog to find videos with the same content but stored at different locations with different filenames. The program creates a 256-bit checksum to compare the content of video files of the same length. This makes it extremely unlikely (practically impossible) that the program will say that videos are the same if they are different. But scanning can be lengthy as the whole video file needs to be read (i.e., this can take hours for huge collections). The program first checks if the length of two videos is the same, if the file size is the same, it calculates a checksum to verify exact content. The checksum is stored in the catalog to speed up subsequent checks.

If, for example, you need to close down before the task is finished, the tool will continue from where it left off when you start up again. If you add more videos, the program will only check the added videos.

Once the program has completed its scan, any duplicate videos found will be presented in a list. Click on each entry to select which file versions you want to keep. When you click Repair, the program will merge the entries in the catalog --- i.e., you will get the union of all keywords, all actors, and all companion images. Video properties (rating, date added, etc.) will be taken from the entry that belongs to the video file you keep.

When the catalog entries have been merged, the program will delete the duplicate video files.

How to Import Catalogs into Fast Video Cataloger

Fast Video Cataloger supports importing an entire catalog or only the keywords or the actors from a catalog. The import commands are found in the Catalog menu under import.

Import Keywords

The Keywords option imports all keywords from a selected catalog into the current catalog.

Import Actors

The Actors option will import all actors from another catalog into the currently active catalog. Once you have navigated, in the pop-up explorer window, to the catalog from which you wish to import actors, you will be presented with a list of actors to select from. If an actor has been imported before, it will be skipped. All actors can be imported regardless of whether they are used for a video or not.

Import Actors folders

The Actor folders option allows you to import actors into your catalog based on a specific folder structure on your computer.

Starting at a root folder, every subfolder in this root folder should have Actor information.

Name of subfolder = Actor name

The first image in subfolder = Actor portrait

If a folder does not contain an image, it will be skipped. The wizard will help you get through the choices.

Import All

The All option allows you to import all videos from a selected catalog into the current one. Metadata linked to each video will also be imported, including companion images, keywords, and actors. If a video is already in the catalog, it will be skipped.

How to host video from a web server

Hosting videos from a web server can be a practical solution if you need to share a catalog without distributing your video files. A video catalog is usually relatively small (on the order of a few gigabytes) and easy to distribute, while video files can easily take up terabytes of space. If a user has the catalog local, it can be searched and browsed quickly. When the user has found the video and wants to play that, only the relevant part of the video is served over a standard web server.

Webserver

To set up this workflow, you will need to have a web server installed. Windows come preinstalled with IIS ([https://www.iis.net/]{.underline}), but it will need to be enabled. Enable it through the "Turn Windows features on and off".

Another great free web server is the Apache webserver ( [https://httpd.apache.org/]{.underline} ).

In general, we have to refer to the software developer on how to install and configure their web server. There is more than plenty of information about it available online.

www-root

Once you have your web server setup and configured, you need to find the root from where files are served. If you are using IIS, this will generally be "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\" and on Apache, it will be something like "C:\wamp\apache2\htdocs\" (using the highly recommended Bitnami wamp distribution, [https://bitnami.com/stack/wamp/installer]{.underline} ). All videos you want to access over the webserver need to be below this root folder.

Not all video formats can be read from an Http server, especially old formats that can be problematic. We recommend that the file you put on the webserver is in mp4 format.

That was the preparation. Hopefully, you should have a working web server and videos in the www root of the webserver.

Configure Fast video cataloger

The next step is to go to Fast video cataloger. On the Share screen, click on the "Use hosted videos" button.

In the dialog, first, enter the www root of your web server.

In the second field, enter the URL of the server, as seen when you access it through a web server. If you are running a local server, this would be [http://localhost/]{.underline} or [http://127.0.0.1/]{.underline}. You have now configured Fast video cataloger to recognize your web server.

Adding videos

Next, you add the videos from your www-root to your catalog. Do this the same way as usual from the add videos window. When you click on one of your added videos, you will notice that the path to the video will be something like [WebServer]\video_indexer.mp4

If you now play this video, the path will be converted to your www root and played. This is very similar to how special folder work.

To load the video over the web server, you will need to go into the "Use hosted videos" dialog again and check the "Enable loading over HTTP" checkbox.

If you play the video after that, it will be loaded through requests to the webserver. This specific setting is saved in the catalog so if you share your catalog with someone else, the [WebServer]\video_indexer.mp4 will resolve to the same URL for them as well.

Note: Fast video cataloger works most efficiently when you have your videos and images locally. Only host through a web server if you don't have direct access to the files.

How to extend Fast video cataloger with plugins

Fast Video cataloger has support for plugins. To install plugins, go to the plugins page.

1. Click the Download button to open your web browser and go to the plug-in download page at https://videocataloger.com/plugins.

2. Download your plugin as a zip file.

3. Click the Add button.

4. Select your downloaded plugin file. This will add the plugin to the software.

5. The plugin will add actions in the action window.

How to automate Fast video cataloger with scripts

In FVC 5, we added script support to Fast video cataloger. With scripts, you have full access to the backing video catalog and some access to the user interface. There is separate documentation for the scripting interface.

Scripts are entered in the upper part of the console window.

The Load button allows you to load a script from the file. We highly recommend writing scripts in an external dedicated text editor and load them into the program. In the script folder, there are many provided sample scripts. If you hold the shift button when you click the Load button, the file will be reloaded. This is useful when editing in an external editor like Visual studio.

The Run button runs the currently loaded script.

The lower section of the console window is where the script provides output. Output can either be error messages or text written from the script.

NOTE: Full documentation on scripting is available in the scripting documentation (Click the help button in the scripting window to open it). A number of sample scripts are included with the installation.

How to Share a catalog using the Server

The fast video cataloger server makes it possible for more than one user to access a video catalog simultaneously. The server is included when you install the software.

The server controls all the access to the vcat file i.e., all metadata about the catalog. The actual video and image files are accessed using a Windows share or using a standard web server. If you are all on a local network, the Windows share is preferred. It is faster and will support older video formats. If you need to connect over the public internet, you will need to host your video files through a web server. We recommend Apache server or iis. When hosting over a web server, older video formats will not work, and the video files need to be visible to the webserver (i.e., they need to be in the www root).

For access, you also need to allow the server through the Windows firewall and make sure the connection is not blocked by other security software.

Go to the Share menu

"Share catalog" will help you step by step with everything needed to share the catalog using a web server or a Windows share.

"Start server" will startup the server if it has been configured before using the "Share Catalog" wizard.

"Stop server" will stop a running server. If you want to load a local vcat file, you first need to stop the server if it is being hosted.

"Admin server" is for advanced users only and will open a tool to edit the server configuration file and troubleshoot issues.

Sharing using windows share

First, open the video catalog you want to share. Then go to the share menu and click "Share catalog" to start the wizard.

Select the first radio button to share the catalog over a Windows share. You can change the name of the share if you want to. The \$ behind the share name hides it from anyone browsing the computer, but it is still accessible if you know the name of the share.

Windows shares should be enabled by default if you are on a private network. For this guide, we assume that windows shares are enabled.

Click Next to proceed.

In this step, the wizard checks all files in your catalog to ensure they have a common root folder. This is the path that is going to be connected to the windows share. If you have a catalog that has files on different devices, it is impossible to access it using a single share, and the wizard will let you know. Click next to start the server and create the share.

You will be prompted with a popup asking to give permissions to start the server.

The server runs as a Windows service to start with windows, and it will run even if you do not run the Fast video cataloger program. This is needed to ensure other users can access your shared catalog even if you are not working with it.

If everything goes well, you will see a screen like this:

The wizard also locally connected you to the server, so when you browse it now, you go through the server. To connect to this server from another machine. In Fast video cataloger on the other computer, open the connect screen and simply enter the name of the machine and IP, in this example: ati2011:8000 (you can also use the IP of the computer running the server).

Troubleshooting

If you can search and browse videos but not play them, ensure your machine has access to the other machine in the local network. Use windows file explorer and click on the other machine. Depending on your setup, you might need to login to the other computer.

Sharing using a web server

First, you need a web server installed on the computer running Fast video cataloger. We recommend apache ([https://httpd.apache.org/]{.underline}) or iis ([https://www.iis.net/]{.underline}) that is installed with windows. Assuming you have installed the webserver and it is working.

All video and image files you want to host thought the webserver needs to be below the root ( www-root). They do not need to be in the server\'s root, but they need to be somewhere below the root folder. There is more than enough information online on how to set up and manage a web server. Make sure to test it by going to [http://127.0.0.1]{.underline} if you want others to access it. Also, make sure to test the server from the computer\'s public IP and make sure it is not blocked by firewalls or other security software.

Metadata and the video catalog will not be hosted through the webserver. The Fast video cataloger server handles that, so the video catalog files do not need to be in the webserver folder.

First, open the video catalog you want to share with its videos below the www root path. Then go to the share menu and click "Share catalog" to start the wizard.

At the top of the wizard, you can see the found root of all videos in this catalog (In this example; d:\wamp\apache2\htdocs\gamedev_videos\). This should be somewhere below your www-root folder.

Select the second radio button to share the catalog over a web server.

Hopefully, the wizard has found your computer\'s public IP and filled this in. If you want to test on localhost, replace the IP with 127.0.0.1. If you have a real domain name for your server, change the IP to the domain name.

The www-root should also hopefully be filled out. It should be the www root of your web server.

Click Next to proceed.

In this step, the wizard checks all files in your catalog to ensure they have a common root folder. It also checks if the files are of formats that are supported over HTTP and give a warning if there are potential problems.

Click next to start the Fast Video Cataloger server.

You will be prompted with a popup asking to give permission to start the server.

The server runs as a Windows service to start when you start windows, and it will run even if you do not run the Fast video cataloger program. This is needed to ensure other users can access your shared catalog even if you are not working with it. And it ensures that your server gets up and running again quickly if the computer reboots.

If everything goes well, you will see a screen like this:

The wizard also locally connected you to the server, so when you browse in Fast video cataloger, it will go through the server.

Here is how you connect to this server from another machine.

Fast video cataloger on the other computer, open the connect screen and enter the machine\'s name and port. In this example: ati2011:8000 (you can also use the IP/URL of the computer running the server).

Suppose you check the checkbox on this page and click next. A sample web site is generated on your web page. This same web page uses the fast video cataloger rest API to access the database from a standard web browser. The browser page will also be opened.

The web page is pretty simple, and we only use jquery and no other frameworks. The purpose is to serve as a template for using the API to integrate into your web site or other web software. The rest API and web page are still beta and are subject to change in future releases.

Adding videos to a server

When connected to the server and add a video, that video needs to be uploaded to the server first. While the file is being uploaded, it will be saved in the upload folder. Once it has completed uploading, it will be copied to a folder named as the id of the video. Companion images will also be uploaded and copied to the video folder.

Tip: If you are adding videos locally, ensure they are below the server\'s shared root so you can skip the upload step.

Switching between a server and local files

Using the same video catalog file directly and using the server is possible. You can switch between running through the server and using the file directly. It is NOT possible to have the server open and then load the vcat file in the program.

When you are running through the server, it will slow down functions, especially video playback.

When the program is connected to a server, some functions are not available. These are connected to file operations and maintenance of the video catalog, like the clean and repair functions.

Troubleshooting server issues

If a .vcat file fails to open, ensure the server does not host it. Stop the server from the share page.

Suppose you cannot connect to the server from another computer. Try to ping the computer. Are you on the same network? Are they allowed to communicate? Is there some security or firewall that blocks access?

If you can connect from another computer but files, do not play over Windows share. Is file sharing enabled? Is network discovery enabled?

If you can connect from another computer but files, do not play over the HTTP server. Are files in supported formats? Old video formats will not work over HTTP? Can you connect to the webserver from a web browser? Can you access the video directly if you enter the URL in a web browser?

[Preparing videos files for HTTP server]{.mark}

[If you want to stream videos over a normal HTTP server, we recommend using mp4 files in h264 format. Conversion of video files that can be streamed can be done with the free, open-source ffmpeg software with the following command line]{.mark}

[From another video format:]{.mark}

[ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -c:v libx264 -crf 22 -c:a aac -movflags faststart output_video.mp4]{.mark}

if the file is already in mp4:

ffmpeg -i input_video.mp4 -c copy -movflags faststart output_video.mp4

The -movflags faststart parameter tells ffmpeg to reorder the MP4 video atoms so that moov is at the start (this will reduce the bandwidth needed to stream the file). We are also instructing ffmpeg to copy the video and audio data instead of re-encoding them, so nothing gets altered

How to connect to a server

You connect to a running Fast video cataloger server from the connect page. A server is started, stopped, and managed from the Share page.

On the connect page you enter the url to the computer that is running the server and the port to connect to (:8000 is the default).

In a local Windows network, the URL can be the name of the computer you want to connect to.

Use the Ping button to check if your computer is able to connect to the remove computer. If the ping fails then the problem is that your computer can not reach the other computer and you should troubleshoot your network connection and firewall settings.

Click the connect button to connect to the server. If you manage to connect to the server, the connect screen will close. If the connection fails you will see an error message.

All video metadata is server from the Fast video cataloger server. The video files can be played over a web server or a Window share in a local network. If your server machine is set up to require login credentials to access the share, you can provide them by checking the credentials checkbox and entering the user and password you want to connect to the share. Note that is it possible to connect to the Fast video cataloger server while failing the credentials. The credentials are only used for playing videos and viewing companion images.

How to use keyboard shortcuts

These default keyboard shortcuts make your work faster. Try it out.

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Key What this key does

CTRL + I Display a generic search bar

CTRL + N Create a new catalog

CTRL + O Open an existing catalog

CTRL + SHIFT + O Open the connect to server dialog

CTRL + P Show Preferences window

CTRL + Q Create a new actor

CTRL + E Edit selected actor

CTRL + W Add actor

HELP Display the help

F1 -- F8 Switch to Layout 1 -- 8

CTRL + F Display the Filter options

CTRL + K Shows the keywording window

CTRL +F5 Refresh all windows

ALT + Delete key Stops playing the video

ALT + Space key Pause/Play OR Play video from the start if the video is not playing

CTRL + S Add current video frame as video scene thumbnail

ALT + Enter Toggle full-screen mode

Esc End full-screen mode

Hold Ctrl Before pressing the Forward or Backward video player buttons to slow forward/rewind.

Hold Shift Before pressing the Forward or Backward video player buttons to fast forward/rewind.

Ctrl + Right Shift Increase playback speed for videos supporting it.

Ctrl + Left Shift Decrease playback speed for videos supporting it.

Delete When a thumbnail is selected, pressing Delete will remove that video scene thumbnail from the catalog.

ALT + L Select the next video in the catalog window

ALT + O Select the previous video in the catalog window

ALT + K Skip forward in video

ALT + SHIFT + K Skip forward x 2 in video

ALT + J Skip backward in the video

ALT + SHIFT + J Skip backward x 2 in video

ALT + Numpad 1-5 Assign keywords to the selected videos

CTRL + B Show Bin picker

Sift + Alt + R Refresh the search

CTRL+T Move to new web browser tab.

CTRL + SHIFT + T Move to new web browser tab.

I Update start of current clip in playlist

O Update end of current clip in playlist.

ALT + S When scrubbing over the thumbnails in the video catalog window, set the current thumbnail as the thumbnail for the video.

ALT + SHIFT + S Save Layout

ALT + Q Open keyword manager dialog.

---

You can change these shortcuts from the shortcut window and assign shortcuts to some actions that do not have defaults. You can also assign shortcuts to your custom actions.

How to use cmd line arguments

Fast video cataloger can be started with command line arguments. If an instance of fast video cataloger is running and you start a new instance with arguments, these arguments will be passed to the running instance.

Catalog

You can give a .vcat file as argument to load a video catalog.

Write Protected catalog

If you name the catalog .vcatp it will be opened as a write protected catalog that can not be written to.

Argument format

Arguments to Fast video cataloger starts with -.

If a value needs to be passed to the argument you write it together with the argument separated with a :.

Arguments

-video:[id] Select the video with the provided id.

-search:[term] Search the catalog with the provided search term.

-playlist:[name] Select a playlist matching the name.

-playplaylist:[name] Play a playlist with a given name

-play:[id] Play a video with the given id. The video needs to be in the active filter.

-fullscreen Toggle fullscreen mode

-ignoresettings Skip loading setting files.

-ignorelayout Skip loading layouts at startup\ -safemode Skip loading plugins at startup\ -run:action_name Run a named action on startup

If you provide a filepath with the .cs extension, the program will load and try to run it as a script.

The arguments passed to Fast Video Cataloger are printed in the script console window.

Examples

Play video with id 2 in fullscreen

\"C:\Program Files\FastVideoCataloger\VideoCataloger.exe\" -play:2 -fullscreen

Search the catalog for videos from 2021

\"C:\Program Files\FastVideoCataloger\VideoCataloger.exe\" -search:2021

How to manage keywords

You can view how your keywords are used and update them from the keyword manager window. Open the keyword manager from the button on the Keywording dialog or the Info screen.

The keyword manager lists all keywords in the catalog.

Click the Import and Export button to import or export all keywords as text.

In the filter field, you can enter any text to match keywords to narrow down the list.

Below the filter text, you have checkboxes to filter by types of keywords. For example, you can filter to show only keywords used on actors.

Keywords are listed with their Parent keywords, the number of child keywords, and the frequency with which the keyword has been used in videos, scenes, and actors.

You can edit the keyword name, link, description, parent, and color if you select a keyword. To change the keyword, click the update button.

You can add a video keyword to a group by entering a group name in the keyword group field and pressing Enter. Actor keywords cannot currently be in groups. A keyword can be in more than one group. When you have keywords in groups, you can filter the keyword lists in the keywording and search windows.

Any changes to a keyword must be confirmed by clicking \'Update\'. If you change the keyword selection without clicking \'Update\', the keyword will remain unchanged.

You can also remove keywords with the "Remove from videos", "Remove from scenes", and "Remove from Actors" buttons.