User manual

Table Of Contents
672
Video
Preparing a video project in Cubase
Ö The Decklink cards by Blackmagic Design are automatically recognized by Cubase.
Video will be sent directly to its output.
FireWire DV Output
You have the option to use FireWire ports on the computer to output DV video
streams to external converters such as various camcorders and standalone FireWire
to DV conversion units. These units can be connected to a television or projector for
large format viewing. The FireWire protocol is capable of transporting data at high
speed and is the most common standard for communicating with video-related
peripheral equipment.
Preparing a video project in Cubase
The following sections describe the basic operations necessary for preparing a
Cubase project involving video. It is advisable to save your video files on a separate
hard drive from your audio files. This can help prevent data streaming problems when
using high-resolution video with many audio tracks.
Importing video files
Importing a video file into your project is very straight forward once you know that you
have a compatible video file.
Video files are imported in the same manner as audio files:
By using the File menu (Import–Video File).
In the Import Video dialog, you can activate the “Extract Audio From Video” option.
This imports any embedded audio streams to a newly created audio track
positioned below the video track. The new track and the clip will get the name of
the video file. The new audio event will start at the same time as the video event, so
that they are in sync with each other.
Ö If you try to import a non-supported video file with the Import Video option, the Import
Video dialog displays the text “Invalid or not supported file!”.
By importing to the Pool first and then dragging to the Project window, see “The
Pool” on page 376.
By using drag and drop from the MediaBay, the Pool, the Windows Explorer, or the
Mac OS Finder.
Ö When importing video files via the Pool or by using drag and drop, Cubase can
automatically extract the audio from a video file. Whether this happens, depends on
the “Extract Audio on Import Video File” setting in the Preferences dialog (Video
page). For further information about extracting audio from a video file, see
“Extracting
audio from a video file” on page 678.
Ö When importing video, Cubase automatically creates a thumbnail cache file. The
generated file is stored in the same folder as the video file and gets the name of the
file with the suffix “.vcache”.
!
On Windows systems, it is important that you connect your device to the FireWire
port before launching Cubase. Otherwise it may not be detected properly by Cubase.
!
In Cubase, you may work with multiple video files of differing frame rates and formats
on the same video track. Assuming you have the proper codecs installed, all video
files can be played back in one project, but note that proper synchronization of audio
and video events is ensured only if the frame rate of the video file matches the project
frame rate.