Transport/Playback Section

The Transport/Playback Section offers the following functionality:

Time Code Controls - The current time code location is displayed, and the user may click on the time code and enter a time code location by the keyboard, and press enter to cue up that location.

File Name Display - The current file name is displayed.

Mode Display - The current playback mode is displayed (Normal, Palindrome or Loop playback modes are supported).

Speed Display - The current playback is displayed, 100% being normal playback speed. A negative percentage is indicated for reverse playback.

Video Standard Display  - The video standard of the current clip is displayed.

Time Code Source Control - The selected time code source is displayed, and the user may select between available time code sources by clicking on this control and selecting from the popup menu.

EBU Control - The selected EBU mode is displayed and the user may select between available EBU modes by clicking on this control and selecting from the popup menu.

Audio Meters - Audio meters are displayed for up to 16 channels of audio.

Picture - Select Picture to view the normal video output.

Vector - Select Vector to see the output through the Vectorscope.

Wave - Select Wave to view the output through the YCbCr Wave Form Monitor.

Wave RGB - Select Wave RGB to view the output through the RGB Wave Form Monitor.

Histogram - Select Histogram to view the output through the Histogram.

Data - Select Data to view the hex or decimal value associated with each pixel in the image.

Position Bar and Slider - Click on any point on the slider to instantly cue that relative point in the file, or 'grab' the pointer and drag it to quickly scrub through to find a particular scene

• Fast Reverse - Play the file in reverse at the fastest possible speed
• 5 Seconds Back - Cue the frame 5 seconds before the current location (or the beginning if less than 5 seconds from the first frame)
• 1 Frame Back - Cue the frame immediately before the current frame, useful for finding a specific location
• Reverse Play - Play at -100%, or normal speed in reverse
• Pause - Stop playback and display the frame at the current location
• Stop - Stop playback and cue the first frame
• Play - Play at 100%, or normal speed
• 1 Frame Forward - Cue the frame immediately after the current frame, useful for finding a specific location
• 5 Seconds Forward - Cue the frame 5 seconds after the current location (or the end if less than 5 seconds from the last frame)
• Fast Forward - Play the file (forward) at the fastest possible speed

Track Info Data

The Track Info data window may be selected by pressing the Track Info button on the GUI - this section displays:

• Duration - both in current time code type (HH:MM:SS:FF) and as a total number of frames
• FPS - frames per second to two decimal places
• Width - in pixels
• Height - in lines (for both fields if interlaced)
• Bit Depth - per pixel or per component
• FourCC - video codec information
• Bit Rate - overall rate of the file in bits
• Video Channels - video channels bit array
• Audio Codec - audio fourcc descriptor
• Audio Channels - audio channels bit array
• Audio Frequency - samples per second
• Audio Bits/Sample - how many bits in an audio sample

Time Code Data

The Time Code data window may be selected by pressing the Time Code button on the GUI - this section displays:

• TC (time code) - Absolute position
• LTC Frame - Longitudinal (SMPTE) time code
• LTC Ub - Longitudinal (SMPTE) user bits
• VITC Frame - Vertical interval time code
• VITC Ub - Vertical interval user bits
• DATA 0 - user data or size (4 bytes)
• DATA 1 - user data or pointer (4 bytes or greater) Basic Elements

Time code type is specified by the last separator:

• : (colon) = Non drop frame
• ; (semicolon) = Drop frame
• - (dash) = 24 FPS (FILM)
• . (period) = 25 FPS (PAL)

Metadata

The Metadata window may be selected by pressing the Metadata button on the GUI - this section displays over a hundred metadata elements with information addressing the many facets of each media file's existence, and in some cases the attributes of a selected track, or stream. For a complete list of metadata fields, see the Drastic Metadata page.

Play List

The Play List window may be selected by pressing the Play List button on the GUI - this section allows the user to set up a list of clips to be played in sequence. The Play List is not as full featured as the timeline in DrasticDDR and MediaNXS, but it will play through a simple list of clips.

Visual Comparison Modes

DrasticPreview Pro can compare two files (two 3d stereo eyes, or an original and compressed file) using an XML .DT3D file to specify them.  Once loaded, visual comparisons can be made including:

• Left eye only (first source)
• Right eye only (second source)
• Anaglyph Red-Blue
• Anaglyph Red-Cyan
• Anaglyph Amber-Blue
• Anaglyph Green-Magenta
• Interlaced eyes
• Checkerboard 3D
• Onion skin
• Difference with threshold multiplier (0..64)
• Over under
• Side by side
• Seamless split used Split Vert/Horiz and Split Vertical, Split Horizontal
• Mirror
• A-B with threshold and black/white invert
• Dissolve with mix
• Boxes sized by mix
• Wipe (used the Wipe drop down) with mix

Channels may be inverted, flipped vertically and horizontally and swapped as needed.  Most wipes may also be inverted. More information can be found here.

Zoom and Pan

Video playback in the application fully supports zooming and panning the video in still or playback.  Using the scroll wheel of the mouse the image can be zoomed out to cover a small part of the screen, or zoom in to closely check individual pixels.  Left clicking and dragging will move the image to view different parts while zoomed in.  Clicking the right mouse button will fill the application with video, and clicking the middle button will set the image to pixel for pixel (where every image pixel is exactly one screen pixel).  Zoom is available in windowed or full screen mode.

Time Code Display

A dedicated time code field not only displays the current time code location but allows the user to enter a known time code location within a selected clip, and press Enter to cue that frame. In Full Screen mode, an optional time code display may be overlaid in Full Screen Mode. The user may select between available time code sources by clicking on the time code source field.

Closed Captioning

DrasticPreview Pro supports CEA-608, CEA-708, OP-47/RDD-08 Closed Captions. The closed caption information will be displayed over the video frame when enabled.  Supported sources include SMPTE 436, MCC, AAF, SCC, STL, EBU, embedded and many other formats subtitle formats like XML/VTT/TXT/CAP/ITT. See the caption section below for more details.

Please note:  The CC feature is only available when running under a temporary or permanent license.  Please contact Drastic if you want to test this feature.

Audio Channel Selection

DrasticPreview Pro fully supports up to 16 channels using AJA, BlueFish444, Blackmagic or ASIO hardware.  16 channel metering using CALM act loudness r.128 meters are standard.  If only two channels are being monitored, DrasticPreview Pro also allows any channel pair to be selected and playing on the first audio pair for monitoring.

Vectorscope

 The Vectorscope displays a traditional Cb by Cr X-Y display with overlaid reference graticule.  Color accurate graticules automatically switch between SD and HD color spaces.  The markers include color points (for standard bar checks) at 75% and 100% saturation.  All the standard points are boxed;  red, magenta, blue, cyan, green and yellow.  A skin tone/flesh line is provided to allow for easy hue adjustment as well as standard diagonals.

The exclusive Drastic Luma Stick (patent pending) displays luminance distribution and strength in a space saving and intuitive graphic format.

Wave Form Monitor YCbCr

 The YCbCr Waveform Monitor displays the levels of the Y, Cb and Cr from the left of the picture to the right of the picture with all the lines summed into one graph.  The Y, or luma/luminance, graph provides accurate white and black level information, as well as the range in between.  The Cb and Cr display the +/- 512 levels of chroma of both types.  This provides a visual representation of the chroma range of the signal.

Wave Form Monitor RGB

 The RGB Waveform Monitor shows each of the red, green and blue signals as independent graphs, displaying the RGB, or chrominance/color values associated with the signal.

Histogram

 The Histogram view shows the distribution of red, green and blue within the signal as a series of discrete bars that make a continuous graph for each color.  This display provides an overview of the tonal range of each color in the picture.  Each bar is the count of the number of pixels for one of the 1024 possible colors.  These totals are then auto ranged to fit within the graticule and represent the relationship between the levels of each color and between each other.

Data View

The data view presents any area of the image as YCbCr 8, YCbCr 10, RGB 10 or RGBA 8 pixel values, depending on the native color space of the file.