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FLV Video Player

Animated GIF Maker

Text-To-Speech Reader

Playing Video Frames

The Video Frame Player accesses a folder containing a collection of captured video frames which are named 0001.ext to 9999.ext where ext is either BMP or GIF or JPG. Video frames that were not captured by the Frame Recorder must be imported and renamed to the 0001.ext file naming convention.

Here is a method for turning your DVD Player into a frame splitter application.

Frames are loaded individually from the HD and are not intended to be displayed at an accurate frame rate. A frame delay can be used to slow down the displayed frames, however, loading the frames creates its own delay which varies with the size of the files. The Frame Player was intended as a tool for accessing individual frames to enhance and stabilize the images. The edited frames can then be recombined into an animated GIF file or imported into a video editor such as MS Movie Maker to create a video.

To load the Frame Player, click on the Camera icon and select Play Frames.

Which opens the following setup form.

The Input Folder is where your frames are located. The Crop File is a data file that contains the crop region for each frame. This information is used to crop and stabilize the frames. The Min Frame and Max Frame fields indicate the frame range in the input folder for the Input File Type, which is either BMP, GIF or JPG. These values can be redefined by the user if they are within the frame range. The Frame Delay is applied if the frames are loaded and displayed faster than the delay time. The display rate depends solely on the dimensions of the image files and large files display slower. Click on the Apply button to commit the settings and close the form.

The Frame Player appears displaying the first frame.

• Play/Stop  plays (or stops) the frames at the current position

• |<  displays the first frame in the sequence

• <<  displays the previous frame in the sequence

• >>  displays the next frame in the sequence

• >|  displays the last frame in the sequence

• Loop  continuously loop through the sequence

• Slider  displays the current frame's relative position in the sequence and allows you to jump to a new frame position

• Status bar  displays the Input Folder

Click on the Camera icon to access the Play Frame options

• Setup  access the Play Frame options or load a new input folder

• Convert Files  opens the Convert Frames form to modify the frames

• Create Anim GIF  create GIF from the frame sequence

• Edit  load the current frame into the Frame Editor

• Add  add an image file into the the frame sequence at the current position

• Del   delete frames from the sequence

• Show/Hide Fence  displays/hides the crop fence and the crop toolbar

• Shift  shift the frame origin up/down/left/right 1 pixel

• Swap  swap the positions of 2 frames in the sequence

• Restore  restores the current frame before any changes

• Close  close the Play Frames option

Using The Crop Fence

The crop fence can be reshaped by dragging any of the four corners to a new position. There is a red square in the center of the fence that can be dragged to reposition the crop fence while maintaining its shape. Reshape and reposition the fence to isolate the desired crop region. When the crop fence is visible the crop data is automatically saved when navigating to another frame. The fence dimensions for each frame will be the dimensions of the image after cropping. It is usually a good idea to keep the frame size consistent. Move the fence by dragging the red square in the center of the fence region. Use the corners for resizing the fence for the first frame only.

• Save  Saves the crop data for all frames to the crop.dat file, otherwise the crop data is retained in main memory

• Clear  Clears the crop data for the current frame or the entire collection

• Copy  The Copy button is split in half. The left button copies the fence from the previous frame, the right button copies the fence from the next frame in the sequence, which keeps the crop fence dimensions consistent

• Expand  Stretches the area inside the fence into the current frame size

• Crop  Use the crop data for the current folder to create cropped frames

• Shift  Move the crop fence left/right/up/down 1 pixel

The crop menu palette may be repositioned by dragging the blue section at the top of the palette.

The Crop option opens the Convert Frames form with the Crop Frames option checked. Select the various filter options if additional processing is required.

If the crop fence has not been defined for a frame, then the last initialized crop fence is assumed. For example, if you set the first crop frame only, then the rest of the frames will be cropped the same as frame 1. This is useful when making the final cropping of a stabilized sequence to clean up the edges caused by shifting the images into stability.

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  Steps to Stabilizing  Video Frames

1.  Click the Camera icon and select "Show Fence"

2. Resize/reposition the fence to isolate a section of the frame

3. Advance to the next frame and repeat this procedure, making sure to match reference points between frames either to track a moving object or stabilize the background

4. Use the crop menu palette to modify the crop regions

5. Toggle between frames to ensure the crop regions are synchronized

6. Once the crop data has been defined for all frames, click on the Camera icon and select "Crop Frames"

7. The Convert Frames form appears with the "Crop Frames" option checked

8. (Optional) Check the "Keep frames the same size" if you want to force the aspect ratio to be constant for all frames  (stretches frames to fit)

9. Select the various conversion options if additional processing is required

10. Click the Convert button and the cropped frames will be written to the output folder

11. Load the new frames into the Frame Player and make any final stabilizations to each frame (if required)

12. Select the "Create Animated GIF" option to create a stabilized version of the original video