Timeline Zoom

[kwc]

Hello,

I'm a new VideoReDo/QuickEdit user (currently testing; considering purchase) and so far I'm very impressed with this product.

One thing I believe would add a lot to its functionality is a timeline zoom feature.

THE PROBLEM:
I'm transferring 6-hour EP VHS recordings of 1-hour long TV episodes into MPEG-2 with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2, then cutting out the commercials. However, once I mark the beginning and end of a segment to remove, with 6 hours displayed on a single timeline I can barely identify the starting and stopping points of those removed segments. In fact, a 2-minute commercial is narrower than the width of the timeline marker. To further complicate matters, the main timeline slider is so "coarse" on a 6-hour video that it is easy to accidentally skip over a short commercial when dragging the slider across it.

WORKAROUNDS:
There are several work-arounds -- one is to save the file into shorter sections, then edit those individually. The second option is to configure the fine-tuning slider for a broader range... but that eliminates its value as a fine-tuner. The third is to rely more on the keyboard or scroll wheel.

SUGGESTED PROGRAM CHANGE:
IMHO, the timeline scrollbar is extremely valuable, and functionality should extend to this type of situation without having to use the above methods. To do this, add "zoom timeline" with a movable slider box above the current one. Place -/+ zoom buttons immediately above (or beside) it with the percentage (or time width) shown. If you've ever worked with Photoshop's "navigator" window, where when you are zoomed in on an image you can drag a box all around the image to quickly go where you want to be, this would be very similar -- except in one dimension instead of two.

Not sure if this accurately communicates my suggestion; if a picture would help, I'd be happy to draw a modification of the current screen.

Thanks for your willingness to entertain recommendations for improving the program.

Regards,
Kevin
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[DanR]

Hi Kevin,

Interesting idea about the zoom'd timeline. In fact the earliest versions of VideoReDo, long before it was ever released had that feature. You could set markers on the upper timeline and the lower slider than travelled just over that range. Turns out it didn't work so well in practice, but that was an implementation issue on our part.

I have been thinking about this exact problem for a somewhat different reason, but the net result is the same. There are times when you want to restrict editing to a smaller block. Its on the list, no date yet. We are getting very fixed in our feature list for the next couple of months so it will probably be early '05 before we can implement it.

BTW, I like the Photshop Navigator concept. Hadn't considered that UI type of approach, but it could have real merit. Thanks for the idea. :)

PS. You might want to consider maximizing the VideoReDo window as that expands the slider.

[Anonymous]

Has this feature been implemented?

[Anole]

I don't think this feature is a show-stopper.

In the time since the first posting to this thread, the new AdDetective has been implemented to find commercials.

I occasionally edit very long files on the order of three or four hours.
What I do is use the mouse to click on the "forward 30 second" or the "forward 2 minute" button.
(or you can set them to whatever distance you like.)
Works for me. (100% of the time)

I've tried sliding along looking for commercials, and even on 1 hour shows, I feel uncomfortable.
...that is to say, I feel that I might have overlooked one.
So, I never use that as my main editing mode.

I do get experience dragging the video back and forth if I see an unusually large distance between commercials I've marked.
I go looking for something I've misssed.
So far, I've never found that clicking forward in small increments has missed them.
Nor, is this way at all slow (unless you get distracted and start watching the video ;) )

[Anonymous]

Here in Australia the commercial stations have ad breaks that are generally three to five minutes long. The way I edit is to slide along until I see an ad then use the slider to get as close as possible to the cut point and then use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in in one second increments and then the arrow keys to fin the frame I want. If I have recorded a couple of consecutive shows for a file length of say three or four hours then it can sometimes be hard to find an ad and once found it takes much longer to home in on the frame I want. Being able to zoom in to just the show I am editing before going looking for the ads would make life much easier.

Our TV stations vary the way that they go to and from ad breaks, sometimes they fade in to the ads so that there is no clear marker frame to look for and they also vary the number of black frames when they are present as well as putting black frames between ads. I briefly tinkered with the ad detection and found that it threw up so many false positives that quickly came to the conclusion that it would require so much adjustment for each show that it would be quicker and easier for me to do it manually.

[Jughead]

i'd like to see a zoom feature for the timeline as well. i like the way "view selection" in the free audio editor Goldwave implements this. you could add a button between the "cut" & "trim" ones or even a dropdown menu item with a checkmark next to it (to signify if it is on or off at the time) called "view selection" or something.

just set the start & finish markers to the beginning & end of the section you want to zoom in on, hit the zoom button instead of "cut" or "trim" and the selected area would fill the entire timeline bar for more detailed view. it would appear almost as though you trimmed the unselected area, but hit the button again to disable zoom (perhaps the button text would change to "view all" when you're zoomed in) and you can once again work with the entire file. sounds easy, but then again, i'm not a programmer :)