[In 11.10.0] Cue markers for video file

[willmodelisme]

Hello.
I need to trigger actions very precisely and Cue marker make life easier.
But for video file it is not possible to use Cue marker.
For now I take out the audio of the video in a separate audio Cue played simultaneously with the video and it is OK but a bit tedious.

Is it possible to have Cue marker when using video file ?

Have a nice day.

[Mike Daniell]

I'll consider this. Cue markers are currently only supported for audio files played using the BASS audio library (which is the default library used by SCS). I've also had a request to support cue markers for audio files played using SoundMan-Server.

The significant difference between these three libraries (BASS or SoundMan-Server for audio files, and TVideoGrabber for video files) is that BASS supports callbacks based on position in the file. So when you set a cue marker at a particular point in the file, SCS calls a function in BASS to raise the callback when that byte position is reached - so it is extremely accurate. If SCS has to rely on it's own tracking of the position, such as for a video file, then the processing of the Cue Marker would not as precisely match the required position.

[willmodelisme]

Tks for the reply .

[PhilVale]

So thought about this for a while and came up with a bit of a hack for a possible solution.

If at the same time as the video starts you have a dummy Audio file starts too (theres some stuff about syncronising files too but not sure if that's appliucble). The volumen on this dummy file can be turned own or the audio file may even be silent. Or you could use the audio file from the video. Then put the Cue Markers in the audio file. Would that work? May not be super acurate but might be good enough.

Or is that sort of what you do? Stripping out the audio from the file should be super easy with almost any video editor or some audio editors or something like Handbreak.

Phil.

[djvomght]

Why do You not use MTC?

[LONGJOIN]

Using Cue markers can make the editing process more like multi-track.

[Mike Daniell]

Why do You not use MTC?

This has some merit. I've just run a test here with a cue containing a video sub-cue and an MTC sub-cue and they both start together. I then had a separate Control Send cue (although it could be any cue type) with the Activation set to MIDI Time Code, and set the MTC at 20:00. This Control Send cue was activated as specified, which was 20 seconds into the video. The MTC sub-cue was assigned to a dummy MIDI device, so it was not necessary to having a receiving device for MTC. My Control Send cue sent a MIDI message that I monitored using MIDI-OX.

I'll look into the possibility of implementing an internal equivalent of this processing, but having 'Cue Markers' as the user interface.

[Mike Daniell]

After further thought, MTC is currently sent by SCS under the control of a high priority ('time critical') thread. So I'm now considering using that same approach to create a Cue Marker high priority thread.

[willmodelisme]

Why do You not use MTC?

The actions I need to trigger are http request to light up little autonomous RGB props on stage via a wifi network.
Not sure I can link MTC to trigger http request.
I'll try anyway.
Thanks.

[Mike Daniell]

I'm planning to include cue markers for video files in the next release of SCS.

[Buyaicia]

Hi Mike,
Very good idea!!!

Thanks,
Lluís

[willmodelisme]