The Video Player tab controls settings for the integrated Video Player. The Video Player is invoked 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.
Video Start Offset – this is where the movie starts in seconds from the real beginning of the video. Typically, this is a few seconds into the movie.
Some videos stall if they are played from the very 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 issues playing 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 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, if codecs are badly configured on the computer, it can cause the program to crash.
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 the 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 click a thumbnail the video will play from that thumbnail.
For each video in this folder – When you play a video that is 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 – Set a custom playback speed factor (1.0 being normal, 2 – double speed, 0.5 half speed) that will be a menu option in the video player speed drop-down menu.
Slow custom playback speed – Set a custom playback speed factor (1.0 being normal, 2 – double speed, 0.5 half speed) that will be a menu option in the video player speed drop-down menu.
Default playlist clip time – When adding a clip to a video playlist, this is the length of the clip from where it is added.
Preferences for the video player in fast video cataloger
Tips
The safest option to play a video is the Direct, NoSound, it is also the fastest to seek, a good option to try on broken videos or when just looking for footage.
The highest quality is the direct+MadVR option but it does require a decent 3d card and it is slower to seek. This option is especially good for older low-res videos.
Recommendations
There are lots of options for the video player but you seldom need to care about more than the video player dropdown. Normally the direct option is best. If you just browsing for clips and don’t care about sound select the no sound option. If you want to the highest quality when watching clips go for the MadVR renderer.