Locking Sound to Picture? What's your method?

Get ready guys - VideoSlave is almost ready.

I can't remember if I've mentioned it already, but I've got a programmer in Germany who is coding a standalone video player app for Mac that will slave QT movies to MTC.

It will play all modern video formats and framerates, have a playlist so you can have multiple reels of a movie all cued up at once, and will cost $100.

Save those old CPUs too, as we are hoping it will have PowerPC support so you can use that old G4/G5 as a standalone video slave - if Xcode allows.

I'm getting an early build next week to start testing - fingers crossed!

wow...sold!

bonus points for the name reminding me of Videodrome by Cronenberg.

Any news on this?

The latest on VideoSlave is that it's up and running - with lots of bugs that are being squashed as we speak. Currently it requires Intel and 10.6, and it remains to be seen if doing backwards compatibility builds from Xcode will break more stuff. First we have got to get it as clean as possible before attempting the backwards compatibility builds. It has a simple window with a transport at the top and a playlist below - video is displayed in a second window which can be full-screen on a second monitor, without scrollbars or other junk cluttering it up. The current test machine is an Intel Mac Mini with HDMI out - the HDMI works as a secondary monitor. Firewire video output can only work with DVSTREAM format files at SD resolution - just like in the old days of DVDs and Canopus boxes.

Lots more stuff to test before it hits the streets, but so far IT WORKS.

Stay tuned..... I'll make a big announcement on here when it's ready!

Hi Charlie,

Any chance VideoSlave will overlay streamers and punches?

ctpeck @ Wed Dec 21 said:

Hi Charlie,

Any chance VideoSlave will overlay streamers and punches?

Click to expand...

Not at the moment. For now it just gives you what you'd get by having the video in the timeline of Logic or ProTools, without the hassle. It's sort of like a VEP for video - offloading the disk and cpu load to a secondary computer, and allowing you to set up the video once and switch between multiple cues on your main rig without setting up video for each cue.

Latest update is that it's up and running on my 2011 Mac Mini under Lion, and we're just fiddling about with file format compatibility and so forth....

VideoSlave - the affordable non-linear VTR for Mac

Hey there guys,

I am the programmer Charlie mentioned in his previous posts and I am very proud to finally announce that VideoSlave is almost ready to be sold!!
( Screenshot is attached to the post )

It took way longer than we expected as a lot of problems arose when it came to super-tight and millisecond accurate sync of the QuickTime movie to incoming timecode.

But now all that's left is the authorization engine and some bug-fixing.

I also have a request for you guys :

I would need some testers for the software.
Your task would be to use VideoSlave in your normal working environment and test for errors and bugs intensively. In case you find something, you should file a bug report ( I will provide a PDF as template ). In return, you would get a free license of the software worth 250 USD.

In case anyone is interested, please send an email to [email protected]

Thanks very much in advance!!
Stay tuned!!

Best,

Flo / Non-Lethal Applications

PS : As Charlie mentioned, the software now does all the basic stuff needed. If anyone has a feature request that would be useful, hit me up at the above mentioned email address.

Well, I've finally started using VideoSlave as my everyday solution for video playback, and it's GREAT. MIDI Machine Control is working fine, so when you drag clips or reposition the play cursor in Logic the slaved video locates just as it would if the video was in Logic on the main machine. Lockup time is very quick (half a second-ish) and it just works. Sits there all day waiting for sync, and I can switch between the cues for various reels (and different SMPTE hours) in Logic and VideoSlave just does its thing.

No more importing video into each cue in Logic! No more cpu/disc stress on the main machine! It's awesome. I'm running VideoSlave on an i7 Mac Mini and it's very happy.

If you've ever wished you could avoid having video clips embedded in your main DAW, this is the solution for you. HIGHLY recommended!

Sounds good to me! Any luck trying it with Cubendo or PT sending MMC?

Where to I purchase?

charlieclouser @ Wed Aug 29 said:

Well, I've finally started using VideoSlave as my everyday solution for video playback, and it's GREAT. MIDI Machine Control is working fine, so when you drag clips or reposition the play cursor in Logic the slaved video locates just as it would if the video was in Logic on the main machine. Lockup time is very quick (half a second-ish) and it just works. Sits there all day waiting for sync, and I can switch between the cues for various reels (and different SMPTE hours) in Logic and VideoSlave just does its thing.

No more importing video into each cue in Logic! No more cpu/disc stress on the main machine! It's awesome. I'm running VideoSlave on an i7 Mac Mini and it's very happy.

If you've ever wished you could avoid having video clips embedded in your main DAW, this is the solution for you. HIGHLY recommended!

Click to expand...

do you have a link?

the page i found in google the program is only windows.

The homepage will go officially online once the first version of Video Slave is released.

But you can download a demo from preview.non-lethal-applications.com/products

I hope to get some more feedback from my beta testers to remove some minor bugs and would like to release it by the end of next week.

Stay tuned!!

givemenoughrope @ Wed Aug 29 said:

Sounds good to me! Any luck trying it with Cubendo or PT sending MMC?

Click to expand...

I don't have Cubendo - and in my rig, PT is only a layback recorder and so my TC chain goes PT>Logic>VideoSlave. When I'm not actually printing a mix, Logic is on internal clock and VideoSlave locks to it. When I do print mixes, PT becomes the master, and still VideoSlave is hanging off of Logic.

There may be differences in how various DAWs deal with MMC - whether they send it as regions/cursor is dragged or wait until mouse-up to send a new position and locate command, etc., so if there's a problem it's the DAW's fault...

In Logic, MMC must be enabled separately from sending MTC on the sync page, but in terms of standard MTC operation with no MMC for cursor-scrubbing, I'm confident that all of the DAWs will drive VideoSlave just fine - but as I mentioned there may be vagaries in terms of MMC operation. Note that MMC is an optional extra functionality that is NOT needed for smooth operation of VideoSlave (MTC is all that's really needed) but having MMC allows for cursor-scrubbing of slaved video, which is a nice bonus.

I also don't have a Cubase / Nuendo, but I can assure that Video Slave works fine with Logic and Pro Tools' MMC output. I would personally be surprised if it wouldn't work with Cubendo.

can video slave hold apple pro res 1080p? how about 720P?



im asking cause we have VVTR hooked up to a projector so clients can see pix in a re recording stage while mixing/plaback. and vvtr is funky.

Thanks for the info, Charlie and Flo.

I've only ever used MTC from Cubase (DAW) to Logic 8 (Video) and it worked well. No scrubbing but whatever...

FYI: VSlave is Mac only. :(

But Flo is nice enough...

The Demo seems to work ok with DP 7.24, Nuendo 5.5, Logic and PT10.2. I just can't get the cursor scrubbing to work in Logic 9.1.7 or Nuendo 5.5.4 with MMC enabled. Maybe this a limitation of the Demo?

Chris

@gsilbers : Sure, VS plays everything QT can play. If you have an AVID DNx video for example, which QT can't playback natively, just install the AVID codec pack and VS will also be able to playback DNx.
VVTR is doing it's job quite well, but do you honestly think an application that hasn't been changed for 10 years is funky? I would rather say it's pretty chunky

@Chris Peck :

I just tried MMC scrubbing with PT 10.2 and Logic 9.1.6 and it worked without any issues. It definitely isn't a demo limitation.
Maybe you can see if the next update ( coming either today or tomorrow ) fixes this issue for you.

Best,

Flo

non-lethalapplications @ Thu Aug 30 said:

@Chris Peck :

I just tried MMC scrubbing with PT 10.2 and Logic 9.1.6 and it worked without any issues. It definitely isn't a demo limitation.
Maybe you can see if the next update ( coming either today or tomorrow ) fixes this issue for you.

Best,

Flo

Click to expand...

Thanks Flo, I'll keep trying with the current version and look for the update in the next couple of days.

Chris

All you testers : please hit the "Check for Updates..." menu item. Just released v0.99

All bug reports are appreciated!!

Thanks for your help.