Your answer depends on what you plan to do:

One video - Click No to close the previous video while opening the new video, resulting in one multimedia window.

Multiple videos - Click Yes to keep the previous video open as well, resulting in as many multimedia windows as you open video. To analyze multiple videos, you need to make sure all those videos are synchronized. Please read Synchronize multiple multimedia files for details.

Tip: To switch back for 'Multiple video' view to a 'single' video, un-check the option Watch several videos simultaneously in the Control panel (or close all.

It is important to understand that the whole video technology was made for the mass market where people simply want to watch movies from digital media files, without navigating within those media files.

a) To be able to navigate within a media file (frame-by-frame control, playing at different speeds) this media file has to be stored in a format which allows doing so.

b) Maybe your video is already stored in such a format (e.g. *.Xvid, *.DivX, *.mov), then it is very likely that you do not have the proper codec installed on your computer to play back your video files.

c) If you do have the correct codecs installed, please check the CPU and memory usage of your system during playback of the video, using the Windows taskmanager. The moment this usage goes up to 100% fluent video playback is no longer possible!

As stated before, a newly acquired INTERACT can be run right out of the box!

How well it will handle your videos, depends on your local Windows configuration though!

Check the general multimedia support and the required Codecs on each computer you want to use for logging multimedia based events with INTERACT.

Keep in mind that this Windows technology was never developed for frame accurate video controll. This is why it sometimes seems to be very difficult to get a working setup. By now there are just too many ways of creating digitized video material. This document is meant to help you understand the complexity of the whole video playback issue. It also contains tips and methods for the currently best solutions known to us.

Even in a working setup, the situation migth change overnight due to any automated update from Windows or any of its components.

Windows multimedia components

We presume that you have a functional default installation of the Windows Media Player and the windows DirectX player, because INTERACT relies on that.

If you use QuickTime videos (*.mov) or MPEG4 videos, you will need to install the Apple QuickTime player.
This means that you should be able to play your video in either the WMP or the Apple Quick Time Player, before INTERACT will be able to handle your video.

How well INTERACT accepts and controls your video(s) depends on the codecs installed on your computer. For nearly every video a compression routine was used to save disk space. In order to play back such videos correctly, you need to have installed the proper codec package, that is able to properly 'resolve' the compression algorithms used during compression AND provides correct time information.

Not all codecs capable of playing your video, are good enough to accurately control your video!

INTERACT needs frame accurate time information from the Windows Media Player. Although a lot of codecs do play a certain video type, so you can watch it, the inaccurate time information provided by them is does not allow you to log and play back Events properly.

If you play a video in INTERACT you need to check if the time code runs correctly in the Control panel: The last two digits are Frames NOT seconds!

MPEG2/DVD

MPEG2 is in fact a rather old-fashioned compression routine that is still widely spread. With the latest WMP versions it proves to be very difficult to sync multiple mpeg2 videos! In this case we strongly recommend switching to something like Xvid compressed avi files, that offer the same quality at about 20% of the file size AND they can be controlled in sync much better.

If you (need to) stick with your mpeg2 files, you need to ensure that your computer runs the appropriate, high quality support for MPEG2 videos. This means that you need to install an appropriate codec pack. Some newer MPEG2 files need the commercial but often more accurate MPEG2 filter for WMP, which can be found on www.elecard.com.

Frame accurate positioning and synchronizing

Should switching from play to frame by frame movements still result in unexpected jumps (because the video first returns to the last key frame before) or synchronizing multiple mpeg2 videos is still not working, you will need to make some registry adjustments to make things work. We will need to activate the so called 'indexing' option to get frame-accurate positioning:

• Please close all video applications first.
• Start the 'regedit' utility and open the following branch: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elecard\Elecard MPEG Demultiplexer\
• In this branch please delete all folders except the 'Default' folder.
• Double click on the 'Indexing mode' key within this 'Default' folder
• Set the parameter value to '3'.
• Confirm your changes by clicking OK and close the editor.
• Start INTERACT again and check if the problem is solved.

DVD video files

A video DVD contains various folders and files, the actual video data is stored in *.VOB files, which are in fact MPEG2 videos within a special container. INTERACT does not support the DVD typical index files, it handles each *.VOB file as a separate video file.

Details about codecs in general can be found in the topic "Popular video codecs and file types".

Playing a video is not as straightforward as it seem. Most players and converters are based on filters and stuff in your system.

The terms "code" and "decode" are used to address the compression and de-compression of data (compress -> code) and play back -> decode = co-dec). If you have installed an appropriate decoder on your computer, INTERACT will be able to play a range of multimedia files such as MPEG 1/2/4, AVI, MOV, DivX, XviD, X264 and so on.

Most videos are digitized with one of the compression routines just mentioned. In order to play back such a compressed file, your system needs a translation module that is able to 'read' the 'compression language' used for compression. This translation module is called CoDec.

What happens in short is this: it starts with splitting the audio from the video stream, because the audio stream needs other logarithms for play back as the video stream. If the 'splitter' does a poor job, the codec can't improve the results.

If the Codec is merely designed for proper play back (which would be sufficient for watching regular movies), but does not pay too much attention to accurate time information, you are in trouble! (While watching "Spiderman", you do not really care if the time information is off by 20 minutes or so, as long as the plot is clearly visible, while coding videos this time information is crucial, though.)

That is why INTERACT needs frame accurate time information from the Windows Media Player. A lot of codecs do play the video, so you can watch it, but the time information is not accurate enough to log Events properly.

Unfortunately, there is no default codec pack that we can advise, because every vendor of various multimedia applications and hard disc/flash disc recorders keep inventing new compression algorithms.

Tip: A good site to learn all about video related issues and problems would be www.videohelp.com.

Whenever you use a new computer for working with INTERACT, you will need to make sure that the correct codec for your videos is installed!

In general, most problems concerning opening or controlling your video are caused by faulty or missing multimedia components on your system.

So, if you know what codec was used on a working system, you will better install the same thing on any new computer you want to use. If you don't know what you got or what was used, you will need to identify the codec used for compression as well as the one needed for playback as described in "Identify Codecs".

If any of the problems listed below occur, your computer internally uses the wrong decoder for play back. Typical codec related problems are:

• The video cannot be opened at all, without an error message about an unknown file type.
• The time code in the Control panel is wrong.

TAKE CARE: the last two digits of the time code should be FRAMES not seconds!

• Near the end of the video, the video continuous, whereas the time code stops early.
• The video is jerking during playback.
• General time code problems and frame by frame control difficulties is most often also caused by an incorrect codec.
• The ongoing time code in the control panel does not run smoothly.
• The video cannot be controlled properly using the frame by frame and fast search controls.
• The video cannot be played in slow motion (general problem with WMV files).
• You hear a sound, but do not see the picture (or the other way around).
• The video picture is blurred or distorted.

Test functionality in INTERACT

As soon as you have opened your video in INTERACT, you should perform the following tests in order to ensure that all works properly:

• Click the 'open file' button to open the multimedia file which you want to use for analysis.
• Press the Play button in the Control panel.

The video starts and you should see an ongoing time code in the Control panel.

Make sure the last two digits are FRAMES not seconds!

• Click any of the other control buttons to see if you can control your video properly.
• Drag the progress slider to the right and check the time information while playing the last part of the video.

If the functionality test still fails, please follow the instructions in "Identify codecs".

Note: Because every vendor of multimedia recording equipment keeps inventing new compression routines, we can only advice to make some tests with various formats and the ability to control them properly (frame by frame, slow motion, fast search), before you start recording and analyzing.

• Please do read the topic "Digitize video material" to prevent running into any known problems.

Tip: A good site to learn all about video related issues and problems would be www.videohelp.com.

If a functional system stops working

Sometimes a simple automated Windows update can mess up the behavior of a video file in INTERACT.

Also installing some video related application (especially DVD player or burning programs) can overwrite the codec settings currently working fine with INTERACT.

Therefore, if INTERACT suddenly starts to react differently while playing your videos, Windows probably started to use a (inferior) Codec instead of the previously installed and preferred codec.

This kind of problems can usually be solved by re-installing your preferred codec*.

If re-installation of your codec does not solve the problem, the 'new' codec has probably judged himself as very important, which results in the fact that you will now need to juggle around with the codec priority manually (specialists only!).

*) With Windows 7 all is new, please read "Change default codecs under Windows 7" for details.

Should you not know what the original working codec was, please follow the instruction in "Identify codec" and if possible compare the results with a system where everything still works fine.

This chapter contains known issues and solutions for situations in which INTERACT does not behave as expected.

Email Support

In case you can not solve your problem with the help of those solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Please document your problem in a detailed way. Providing us with the exact Version and name of the application (See Help - Info... in the menu if need be) and name of the owner of the license if possible.

If your request has something to do with the file content (like analysis questions), please send the data files and if need be the codedefinitions as well.

Screenshots

Additionally, make screenshots of any error messages or to document your problem. This usually makes it a lot easier to identify the source of the problem.

The default Windows funktion for creating those screenshots works like this:
Press the keys [AltGr] and [Print] on your keyboard simultaneously.

• Windows will now store a picture of the current window in its clipboard.
• Choose Edit - Paste from your email menu (or press [Ctrl] -[v]) to insert the picture into your email.

Online

If you have an internet access, we would be able to look at the problem directly on your PC!

So if your problem can not be described or solved per email, we should make an appointment for an online session, in which we can take a look at your system and discuss your problem live. Simply contact us and we will be happy to explain to you how the online session works.

Most time code related errors are due to inaccurate codecs installed on your computer. This is NOT really an INTERACT issue, but INTERACT does need a high quality codec in order to work properly.

Inaccurate codecs will play your video as well as so called high quality codecs, but the big difference lays is the time information provided by the codec which is passed through by the Windows Media Player to INTERACT.

Please read "Multimedia support" for further details.

Wrong time code

If the ongoing time code in the control panel shows the last two digits as Seconds instead of Frames, or is not shown at all. you do have a Codec problem. In case of an MPEG2 or VOB file, installing the 'Codec Pack all in 1' as described in the section "Multimedia support".

Even if the video seems to be running fine within the regular Windows media player, based on a standard Windows XP mpeg2 decoder, the detailed time code information is not interpreted correctly.

We have rather good experiences with the following codecs:

• ffdshow, with the option MPEG 2 support activated.
• Elecard codec - Commercial but provides the best time information.

Time code stops before the video does

If at the end of the video your time code stops way before your video comes to a hold, you definitely do have a codec issue. In case of MPEG2/VOB files the commercial Codec from Elecard will probably solve the issue, but the problem can occur with other formats as well.

Jerky time code

If the time code seems to be correct as such, but runs very irregular, it could also be a Codec issue as described above. Most often however it is a 'simple' performance issue:

• Access times on a DVD/CDROM are never constant.
• Videos run from a network drive are influenced by the local network load.

Is the video stored on your hard disk or a local external disk (that is not too full of course), the PC itself is often the bottleneck. Whether this is the case can be checked quite easily:

• Open the Windows Taskmanager (Right click in an empty spot of the Windows task bar)
• Switch to the Performance tab.
• Keep an eye on the CPU and Memory usage and while playing and controlling your video in INTERACT. Should either of them rise to 100% you have found the source of your trouble.

If no other applications are running and no virus scanner or virtual machine is blocking your recourses, you will need a more powerful PC and/or more memory. In case of very large video files, cutting your videos into smaller pieces might help if you are short on memory. Also using another codec for compression might get you out of trouble, because the new high compression codecs that offer amazing quality at rather small file sizes, might save disk space, but they sure need a lot more CPU power during decompression!

If your video is shown in a strange way (too high, too wide etc.) or you only here the sound of your video, without the visual recordings, probably the correct high quality encoder for the video format used is missing.

Depending on the video format used, you need to proceed as follows:

• In case of an mpeg 2 video - (Re-)install a proper Codec like included in the 'Codec Pack All in 1' which contains a high quality mpeg 2 decoder or ffdshow or the official Elecard codec, like described under "Multimedia support#2. Unfortunately, mpeg videos created by different sources might need different Codecs for proper play back with correct time information, so you will need do do some tests to find out what works best for you.
• In case of a QuickTime movie -Download and install the official QuickTime Player from the Apple homepage.

If you do have trouble with any other multimedia file format, do not hesitate to contact us.

If no ongoing time code is visible when a video is played, one of the following possibilities causes the problem:

1. You have not installed a correct Codec pack for your video type.
2. The installed Codec pack does not provide INTERACT with correct time information.