Controlling DrasticPreview

This area contains legacy material from previous Drastic Technologies websites. It is provided for reference only, and contains information, products and links that may no longer exist and which are no longer supported by Drastic.

DrasticPreview and DrasticPreview Pro can be called by external applications with command line parameters.  If there is already an instance of the application running, the parameters will be transferred to the running instance, and the called one will exit.  This is especially useful where the workflow requires the system to display particular aspects of a clip in an automated fashion.

Command Line Parameters

DrasticPreview[Pro].exe -t <timecode> -c <framestart> -f -o [-h]

-t 01:00:00:00 - Seek point in time code, based on the time code track in the file

-c 1800 - Seek point in frames, based on the absolute position in the file

-f - Start in full screen mode

-o - Disable time code overlay in full screen mode

-h - Disable hardware (AJA/BlueFish444/Blackmagic) output.  DrasticPreview Pro only.

For selected time code source, display page (metadata, time code, etc), audio meter type and other settings, they will be remembered between runs from the last selection.  To modify these setting programmatically, the registry (Windows) or prefs (macOS) must be changed.  The basic settings are:

Windows (registry)

DrasticPreviewPro:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Drastic\DrasticPreviewPro

DrasticPreview:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Drastic\ClarionDT

macOS (~\Library\Preferences\)

DrasticPreviewPro:  com.drastic.DrasticPreviewPro.plist

DrasticPreview:  com.drastic.ClarionDT.plist

Linux (~\.config\)

DrasticPreview Pro:  DrasticPreviewPro.xml

DrasticPreview:  ClarionDT.xml

Settings:

actionsafe - what overlays, if any, are shown on the video

filter - the default file filter

filtercc - the default closed caption file filter

fullscreen - set for full screen mode

loadpath - last path a file was loaded from

loadpathcc - last path a closed caption file was loaded from

metertype - which audio meter type is displayed

scopemode - what video scope is displayed, if any

sdoutersafe - show the sd action safe

sdsafe - show the sd title safe

show_mini - show the mini transport controls, instead of the full set

show_tips - enable tip display while idle

titlesafe - show hd title safe

viewmode - information panel to display

Keyboard/Clipboard Commands

DrasticPreview and DrasticPreview Pro have a full set of keyboard commands available.  Key press events can be sent to control playback like:

c = play
v = pause
b = reverse play
z = fast reverse
x = fast forward

A full set of keyboard commands is available here:

http://www.drastic.tv/images/software/drastickeyboard.pdf

DrasticPreview also supports using the system clipboard.  A cut/copy on the application (via keyboard or programmatically) will pull the current time code in a ##:##:##:## format.  Pasting a time code into the application will cause it to seek to that absolute (0 based) point in the file.  If the pasted buffer contains a file URL, then that file will be loaded into that application.

Mouse Control

DrasticPreview Pro also includes extended mouse controls.  These include:

• <MouseWheel> - zoom in and out
• <CTRL><MouseWheel> - volume up and down (0..200%)
• <CTRL><LeftClick> - volume to 100% (unity)
• <CTRL><SHIFT><MouseWheel> - change background luminance
• <LeftClick>Drag - pan and scan the video image in the app
• <ALT><LeftClick> - view magnifying window
  • <LeftClick> - bring up colour selector with colour under cursor
  • <RightClick> - exit magnify mode
• <DoubleLeftClick> - enter and exit full screen mode
• <T> - enable or disable time code display in full screen