Welcome to FMV

FMV Essentials

FMV System Requirements
Installation guide
FMV and Different types of movies
Navigating FMV
Where to go for Help and Information
Quick Start

Making a Collection

Making a New Collection
Opening an Existing Collection
Adding and Removing Media
Changing Section Display Name
Customizing your Media Settings
Viewing Media Properties and Adding Notes
Saving Collections
Previewing Movies
Changing the Play Order
Playing Clips in the Collection

Thumbnailing
Creating Wallpaper
Creating Screensavers
Capture Video
Extracting Bitmap(s) from movies
Extracting Bitmap(s) from QuickTime movies
Effects Generator for QuickTime Movies
Bitmaps to Movie Convertor
AVI and WAV TimeLine Editor
Mpeg Joiner
Setting preferences
Displaying System Information
Troubleshooting
FAQ
Technical Notes
Licensing Agreement and Disclaimer
Credits

FMV is a new PC based movie and audio player that allows the user to view movies in the way they want. FMV will allow the user to change Zoom, Speed, Audio and even select sections of movies to watch without editing the source video.

The player has been designed with the ideology that a 'Movie Viewer' should do just that, let YOU view the movie, just the way YOU want to.

FMV was also created to allow users to transfer video content to the web in either true reduced size video format or extract bitmaps to produce Gif89a's.

FMV uses both the Apple QuickTime V4.0 player and also the latest version of Microsoft's Media Player. FMV will therefore play all media formats that both Microsoft and Apple support including the new MP3 audio format. With FMV, only ONE player is ever required. FMV functions as both a video and audio jukebox but also allows you to categorize your entire video and audio collection and add notes to each track or clip. Music can be sampled, speeded up or slowed down. To FMV, it is no different from video.

Both still and moving images can be given hundreds of different transitions, wipes, fades, implodes, etc to make movie viewing a captivating experience.

The list of media formats that FMV supports is quite extensive and this list will grow as both Microsoft and Apple add additional support for new moving and still formats.

We have also added functionality that allows the user to play and create movies with more control than ever before.

FMV allows movies to be viewed at any size thus delivering the optimum playback rate for any PC. Movies on some laptops with a 2Mb graphics card may play fine at the size of a matchbox but on my home PC they play and look great at full screen. FMV allows you to tune and tailor movie performance to the best any PC is capable of. Your movies will always look good, even if you view them on your laptop.

Two years ago we travelled through Borneo and, as most tourists do, shot hours of video on a camcorder. When we got back, we transferred the video footage to CD-ROM so we would never loose it and promised we would edit it properly when we got the time.

Well, we never got the time but we still watched the uncut raw footage many times over the year, skipping past the bad bits, replaying the great parts but it was always difficult to find the right sections and play them at the right size and speed etc. For example, we have a wonderful shot of an orang-utan swinging through the Sumatran rain forest. This shot looks great zoomed to 200% and slowed to 0.25 speed. But the trouble with the current players on the market is that none of them would let me do this let alone remember the way I liked to watch each clip.

For example - position 18 minutes and 55 seconds into the movie (past the car park footage), zoom the clip to 200% and loop it at 0.25 normal speed without us touching the raw source video (I will edit the raw footage soon, honest). We also wanted the player to remember these settings so I would never have to set this shot up again. We wanted to do this for lots of different clips, save them in a collection called 'Borneo clips' and then show them all together as a video slideshow. Simple editing without editing.

That's what FMV started out as but, as we progressed we thought 'wouldn't it be nice to put small clips of our video on our web site'. We couldn't put the full clips on the site as they are just too big so we looked at reducing the size of the clips or converting them into GIF89a's. FMV will allow you to extract clips at the frame rate and size you want and then either reconvert these clips back into small movies that can be played on the internet or used to produce the clips into Gif89a animations or just plain windows bitmaps (bmps).

That's basically the reasons why we started FMV. Along the way we have added lots of features which we found useful in creating our own home movies and also some features that are just plain good fun.

Anyway, we hope you enjoy using FMV and that your friends too will be grateful that they no longer have to watch that great 30 minute clip of your feet trekking through the footpaths of Nepal.

Enjoy 

 Who should use FMV

· Watches video clips or plays Audio including MP3
· Wants to put Home movies on a web page
· Wants to create a video presentation
· Wants to catalog Video and Audio Collections
· Wants to play and organize MP3 Collections
· Wants one viewer for all Video, Audio and Still media.
· Wants to create effects for both Video and Stills
· Studies and takes notes on video based work
· Wants to select sections of video to watch instead of having to watch all the boring parts.
· Hates setting clips up every time they want to watch one
· Has a good graphics card and wants to watch movies full screen instead of matchbox size
· Wants to create a video slideshow

Here is a brief summary of what FMV can do:-

1. Optimizes playback rates for any multimedia file on any PC.
2. The best multimedia viewer on the market (Zoom, sections, looping, speed, audio controls).
3. Creates Screensavers \ Slideshow of any movie collection.
4. Creates Windows Wallpaper from any movie frame.
5. Slide show of movie collections (with applied zoom, speed etc)
6. Play Show with Remote control (Loop, mag+, mag-, pause, repeat) etc, etc.
7. Thumbnailer (will produce thumbnail of movies, not just the MS logo).
8. Supports MOV, QT, FLI, FLC, AVI, MPEG, JPEG, ASF, MP3, WAV, RM, TIFF etc, etc, etc
9. Will automatically download Codec from the Internet if the PC does not have the codec.
10. Allows you to add notes to each movie in a collection
11. Changeable User Interface
12. Network Friendly

1. Can extract or record AVI \ BMPS at different frame rates.
2. Disk full and time remaining indicator whilst recording.

1. Can apply over 400 effects to stills or movies
2. Saves the movie with effects and extract BMPS
3. BMPS can be rejoined back into an AVI or used to produce GIF89a's
4. Can add a new audio track

FMV is NOT designed to replace professional video editing systems.

During the course of developing FMV, we discovered an amazing fact - video performance can often be improved by increasing the size of the playback area! The reason for this is that most video cards have an optimum playback size. On some movies, zooming to 300%, for example, will result in dropped frames and poor display quality. Increasing the zoom to 320% however produces great picture quality and no frames being dropped. This is because, in this example, the card switched into a different mode at 320%.

Full Motion Video was created with the intent that users would be allowed to watch and listen to media files in the way that they want to. Most people are now tired of opening movie clips and adjusting the size, position, audio etc every time they want to watch a movie. FMV allows you to adjust these properties once and then save the settings. Additionally, once the user has set the movie up to play the way they wish, the user will never have to do this again. With FMV, only one player is ever required. FMV functions as both a video and audio jukebox.

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• Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT.
• Intel or compatible processor or any MPC2-compliant PC (minimum 66-MHz 486 or later processor)
• MS Media Player V6.02 or higher - V6.4.05 recommended
• QuickTime V4.0 is required for the special effects
• 4MB graphics card or better for true video thumbnailing. OpenGL support is preferred

• A Pentium processor is recommended for, Sorenson Video, DV or Music.
• DirectX version 6.0 or later
• MMX is recommended
• MPEG-2 playback card or graphics card is recommended
• Installation of the latest Codecs (IV5SETUP.EXE) from Intel

In order to use FMV, the setup program must be run first (SETUP.EXE) so that FMV's program files are copied to your hard disk. The files required to run FMV are compressed to reduce download time and storage space. Running the setup program will decompress and write these files on your computer's hard drive.

Under Windows 95, 98 or Windows NT 4.0, follow these steps :

1. If Windows 95 / 98 / Windows NT 4.0 isn't running, start it now.
2. Ensure no screensavers are running.
3. If installing from a ZIP file, use WINZIP to extract all files in the ZIP file to an empty, temporary directory such as C:\TEMP.
4. Open Windows Explorer and locate the files you have unzipped
5. Highlight the SETUP.EXE and double click it
6. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

• Select the Start button from the Task Bar and select Programs, Full Motion Video, and then FMV.

• click the x
• click right mouse button and select Exit from the drop down menu.
• Click File and select Exit

Note If you made any changes, you will be given the option to save your changes.

Windows media player cannot play all formats of video. For example, it cannot play the latest QuickTime MOVS but can play all previous versions of QuickTime movies. The QuickTime player on the other hand cannot play MPG format movies. To make matters worse, old movie files never die and both players provide some support for most previous formats of video. For example, occasionally FMV will display a very old QuickTime (QT) movie at double its normal speed or perhaps with a strange size. This may be due to either the way the movie was encoded or perhaps something to do with the way the media player handles early QuickTime Movs? Either way, occasionally FMV may display movies in a way you might not expect. If this does occur, simply adjust the settings of the movie to compensate.

However, most media types supported by Microsoft's Media Player can be added to collections.

FMV has been designed without standard window menus across the top of all the screens. The decision was made to avoid clutter in the work area allowing you to view more of what is important - the movies.

Instead, we have simplified procedures so that clicking on buttons is virtually all you need to do.

A menu bar has been included in the main screen to get you started. This can alternatively be viewed by clicking the right mouse button.

On starting FMV, the main screen (see picture below) will be displayed after the splash screen.

Note The splash screen can be switched off in the registered version of FMV.

From here you can access options by clicking options on the menu bar or clicking the right mouse button.

To go back to the main screen from any screen, click the DONE button.

The following standard window buttons have been included on the main screen:

The close button is also featured on other screens.

The menu can be displayed by two methods

1. Clicking options on the menu bar
2. Clicking the right mouse button to display the file menu.

Click on any option to select it. Detailed descriptions of these options are described in respective sections.

After adding movies to the collection, movie properties are displayed on the bottom right of the screen.

Clicking on any property that becomes highlighted when you place the mouse over it will take you to the screen where you can change the settings. This facility is available for all items above except 'Resolution'.

In the settings screen, you can hide toolbars and dialog boxes to enable you to view the movie without any clutter.

To hide/redisplay the tools toolbar:

• Right mouse click on the main toolbar or anywhere on the screen to hide the toolbar
• Left mouse click again to redisplay the toolbar

To hide/redisplay the each tools dialog box:

• Right mouse click in the box to hide it
• Click the button on the tools toolbar to redisplay it

To hide/redisplay the toolbar and all dialog boxes:

• Press CTRL and right click on the black in the tools toolbar to hide the toolbar and dialog boxes
• Left mouse click will redisplay the tools toolbar

The tools toolbar can be dragged to other positions on the screen apart from on top of the movie that is playing.

The control toolbar is used to pause, play and position to specific points in movies.

Control Toolbar

  Go back 5 frames
  Go back 1 frame
  Pause
  Play
  Go forward 1 frames
  Go forward 5 frames

Shortcut Keys

You can select the main features by using methods by using the methods detailed above or by shortcut keys.

Additional Control Keys for use on the main screen and when playing collections.
(All keys may be upper OR lower case)

Displays information on items when the cursor is placed over them.

To access the help file:

1. On the menu, click Help.
2. Click FMV Help.

For more help, email slipstream@dial.pipex.com. Please ensure you have read the troubleshooting and FAQ sections of this guide and on our WEB page http://www.slipstream.dial.pipex.com before emailing us .

For more information and updates, go to http://www.slipstream.dial.pipex.com

Now select the media you wish to add to the collection.

Show Remote Control Unit?

A 'Remote Control Unit' has also been provided for additional functionality to the initial screen. To activate, press CTRL-L or from the menu, click Preferences, then click Show Remote Control Unit. Refer to the Making A Collection section for details on how to use the Remote Control Unit.
Note: The Remote Control Unit can be used to operate the player when minimized on the task bar (e.g. to move to the next audio track).

Collections or Groups?

Think of collections as groups that you can add media to or remove media from. Collections can contain a range of audio and video formats but not the new QuickTime MOV format videos. Use collections for organizing or grouping media.

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A collection is the basis for storing your media and their settings in FMV. It can consist of original media or customized media clips. (Refer to the setting section for more information on customizing media). FMV does not alter original movies instead it loads the specified movies each time and applies your custom settings.

When you first run FMV, it will start with a default collection called 'FMV Collection'.

Any media saved to the FMV collection will automatically load on startup.

On the menu, click File, click New Collection.

The collection will be named 'New Collection' until you save and name it. This will then be displayed on the title bar.

1. On the menu, click File, click Open Existing Collection.
2. In the Look in box, click the drive or folder that contains the collection.
3. In the folder list, double-click folders until you open the folder that contains the collection you want.
4. Click the file name of the collection you want to open.
5. Click Open

Note In the Files of type box, the type is set to INI Files(*.ini). This should not be altered as FMV can only load these file types.

As you add media, you are creating a collection - perhaps you may want to make a collection of movies to go on a WEB site or a collection of holiday videos, etc

1. On the menu, click File, click Add Media to Collection.
2. In the Look in box, click the drive or folder that contains the collection.
3. In the folder list, double-click folders until you open the folder that contains the collection you want.
4. Click the file name of the collection you want to open.
5. Click Open

1. Click on the media file you wish to remove
2. On the menu, click File, click Remove Media from Collection.

This option allows you to change the displayed name of media clips. If, for example, you have a 30 minute training video which has four sections, add the clip four times, then use the setting screen to mark each section. Now alias each section e.g. Introduction, Step 1, Step 2, etc. FMV will only use one copy of the movie but will allow you to split it as many times as you like. This option is only available in the full version of FMV.

Playing Clips from the Main Screen

Although the power of viewing media as you want to (i.e. zoom, playback speed, etc ) lies in the 'Media Settings' screen, we have provided limited options to use on the initial screen with the 'Control Toolbar'. To activate the Control Toolbar, press CTRL-C or from the menu, click Preferences, then click Show Media Detail. Refer to the Navigating FMV section for details on how to use the Control Toolbar.

We have also provided additional functionality with the 'Remote Control Unit'. To activate the Remote Control Unit, press CTRL-L or from the menu, click Preferences, then click Show Remote Control Unit. Refer to the Making A Collection section for details on how to use the Remote Control Unit.
Note: The Remote Control Unit can be used to operate the player when minimized on the task bar (e.g. to move to the next audio track).

Adjusting the Volume from the Main Screen

Although audio properties are set in the 'Media Settings' screen, we have provided a Volume Control panel to allow you to adjust the audio on a real-time basis. Note, these settings will not be saved. However, audio options selected in the settings screen will be saved.

To customize your media files:

1. In the playlist, click on the clip you want to customize.
2. On the menu, click Media, click Media settings.
3. The settings screen will be displayed with the Tools toolbar in the top left corner. Note This is a floating toolbar and can be dragged to any position on the screen apart from on top of the clip playing.

Clicking on the buttons displays the associated dialog box enabling you to change the settings.

• Right mouse click on the black space on the main toolbar to hide the toolbar.
• Left mouse click to redisplay the main toolbar

Refer to Toolbar section of Navigating FMV for more details of hiding and redisplaying toolbars and dialog boxes.

Allows you to change the visual size of the selected movie. The zoom dialog box consists of:

• The title bar. Displays the current zoom level.
• Fullscreen button. Click to view the movie full screen
• Stats button. Click to display the movie statistics pop-up window.
• Slider bar. Use the slider bar to change the visual size.
• % Buttons. Click on these buttons to change the visual size of the movie to one of the following predefined sizes:-
• 25% and 50 % - Play at quarter and half original size respectively
• 100% - Play at original size
• 125%, 200%, 400% ,800% and 1K - Play at one and a quarter times, double, four, eight or ten times larger than the original size.
• Pan buttons. Use the arrow keys to pan around zoomed movies.

Note: If you get a black screen reduce the zoom level.

1. Click on the Stats button in the zoom dialog box.
2. While keeping the Stats window open, change the zoom size until the value of Frames skipped in the Stats window is 0.
3. Click Close the Stats window.

Video statistics:

Network statistics:

• the protocol, error correction method, bandwidth used
• packets received, recovered and lost
• the quality of the network.

More detailed help is available by clicking and then clicking on the item.

Allows you to change the playback speed and positioning of the selected movie or audio clip. The playspeed dialog box consists of the following adjustable components:

1. Playspeed section: To change the playspeed of the movie, use the slider bar to select a user-defined speed or choose from one of the following predefined speeds:-
   • 0.5x - Play at half original speed
   • 1x - Play at original speed
   • 2x and 5x - Play at double or five times faster than the original speed.
2. Time: Displays the elapsed time the movie has been running.
3. Control toolbar: Use to position to a specific part of the movie. Refer to the Toolbar section of Navigating FMV for details.
4. Positioning slider bar: Use the slider bar to move to a specific part in the movie.

Allows you to change the volume and balance for the selected movie or audio clip.

To change the volume

Use the slider bar to select a user-defined level or choose from one of the following predefined volume levels:-

• 100 % - Play at original volume
• 50% - Play at half the original volume
• 0% - Play with no volume.

To adjust the balance

Use the slider bar to select a balance between the left and right speaker or use the following built-in balance controls:-

R Click to use the right speaker only.

<> Click to balance the sound equally between the left and right speakers.

L Click to use the left speaker only.

To mute the sound

To mute the sound, check the Mute button box.

Displays the looping dialog box that provides the tools to mark and play sections - or entire media clips - once or continuously.

To play the complete movie/audio clip once or play it continuously

Check one of the following in the looping dialog box:

• Click Play complete clip once (this is the default value) OR
• Check Loop entire clip forever.

To mark and play a section once or play it continuously

1. Click the Play section once or Loop section forever.

   This will expand the looping dialog box to allow you to mark a section.

2. Position to the start of your selection.

   

   The control buttons allows you to accurately position to a specific part of the clip. To adjust your position you can either use the slider bar or the control toolbar. Refer to the Toolbar section of Navigating FMV for more details.

3. Click the START button to mark the beginning of a section.

   The Section Start Pos will display the starting position of the marked section. The number represents the number of seconds elapsed from the beginning of the clip.

4. Position to the end of your section.
5. Click the STOP button to mark the end of the section. This is defaulted to the end of the clip. Clicking the STOP button overwrites the default value with the new one.

Click Re-Set Looping markers to clear the current setting enabling you to make a new selection.

Note (t) displays the elapsed time of the clip playing.

Text

Floating text banners are not available in this version.

Done

Click the Done button to go to go to the main screen.

• On the menu, click Media, then click Media Properties \ Notes

Details displayed about the clip include:

• Media settings
• Looping information
• File history
• File attributes
• Text details for the banner (Not available in this version)

To add notes and change text color and font

1. Click in the text box to add notes
2. Type in your notes. Notes are limited to 120 characters in the trial version.
3. Click TEXT-COLOR-FONT to change the font style, size, color and other font attributes.

To edit text

To mute the sound

To go back to the main screen

1. On the menu, click File, then click Save Current Collection As.
2. In the Save In box, click the drive and folder where you want to save the collection.
3. In the folder list, double-click folders until you open the folder where you want to save the collection.
4. In the file name box, enter the file name.
5. The file type is set to .ini as FMV only reads collection files with .ini extensions.
6. Click Save.

1. Go to the main screen
2. Click on the clip you want to preview
3. On the menu, click Media, then click Preview Media.
4. Click either Preview Media - Full Screen or Preview Media - With Changes (If Any).
5. To exit preview mode and return to the main screen, move the mouse or right click.

1. Go to the main screen
2. Click on the clip you want to promote or demote in the playlist
3. On the menu, click Media, then click Media Play Order.
4. Select Advance Media In List to promote a clip or Move Media Down Playlist to demote a clip in the playlist.

Plays all the clips in a collection consecutively. There are two methods of playing a collection:

1. Play clips one after the other with the facility to advance forward to the next clip on the playlist by right clicking.
2. Play clips one after the other with the facility to abort playing the collection by moving the mouse.

To play clips in the collection:

1. Go to the main screen
2. On the menu, click File, then click Play This Collection.
3. Click either

• Play Collection - Mouse Click Advance. This option allows you to mouse click to advance to the next clip

• Play Collection - Mouse Move Aborts. Select this option to be able to abort playing the collection by moving the mouse.Both options play the clips sequentially. 

To control the presentation, right click to display the remote control. The table below describes the buttons on the 'Remote Control Unit' and their uses.

Control Type	Press	To
Play		Pause
		Play
Speed	0.5x, 2x, 0.25x	Play at half,  double and quarter speed
Frame		Go back 5 frames
		Go back 1 frame
		Go forward 1 frames
		Go forward 5 frames
Volume	+, -	Display the Volume Control Panel for increasing and decreasing the volume.
Zoom	Mag +, Mag -	Display the setting screen where you can increase/decrease the magnification.
Position	Start, Middle, End	Position to the Start, Middle or End of a clip
Media	Prev, Next	Go to Previous/Next clip
Collection		Play the collection
	Done	Close the Remote Control Unit.

To operate the remote control:

• Click on the buttons to operate
• After clicking any of the positioning buttons, press the play button to continue playing the clip

• The Max button will only maximize to the zoom size selected in the settings screen.
• The Start and End buttons may display black frames. This is due to the movie fading in and out.
• Only the Play, Frame, Media control buttons and the Start button works with CD tracks.

Situations where you may want to use the remote control:

• To pause the show while speaking to the audience
• Go to a previous clip if the audience has a questions on it

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The Thumbnailer enables you to browse through your directories viewing images of your graphical files.

1. On the menu, click Tools, then select Thumbnails.
2. In the Current Drive box, click the drive you want to thumbnail.
3. In the Directories on Current Drive list, double-click folders until you open the folder you want to thumbnail.
4. Click Catalog. This will thumbnail the files in the selected directory and display the following information:

• Total number of files in directory.
• Number of movies thumbnailed
• Number of Bmps/Jpgs
• Total number of files thumbnailed

1. Click Abort to stop cataloging the directory. This button is only displayed while FMV is cataloging.

   Note N/C (Not Cataloged) will be displayed if no files could be thumbnailed.

2. Click Done to return to main screen.

1. Position cursor over a thumbnail
2. Left mouse click to display the Add to Current Collection dialog box.
3. Click Yes to add the add the clip or No to return to the Thumbnailer screen.

1. Position cursor over a thumbnail
2. Right mouse click to display the Thumbnail Properties.
3. Click OK and the Add to Current Collection dialog box will be displayed.
4. Click Yes to add the clip or No to return to the Thumbnailer screen.

In the currently selected directory, click in the search criteria box and enter the file.

Click in Position to select to select the number of seconds into the clip the thumbnail should be taken. Use this feature to position past 'fade-ins' in movies which give a black image.

Note In slower computers and laptops, it may be necessary to add a delay to enable thumbnailing. Check the Pos Delay(s) box to add a delay.

[CONTENTS]

1. Go to main screen
2. On the menu, click Create.
3. Click Create Windows Wallpaper from Current Movie
4. Click OK on the dialog box informing that you that you may size the window to obtain the best quality backdrop. If you are getting black wallpaper resize the window.

Use the control buttons or position slider to select a frame of the movie to be made into wallpaper. Refer to the Toolbar section of Navigating FMV for more details on using the control buttons.

5. Click Create Wallpaper
6. Click Clear wallpaper if you do not want to keep the new wallpaper. This will display your default wallpaper.
7. Click Done to return to the main screen.

Note The wallpaper is saved in the file out.bmp in your FMV directory.

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FMV can create video screensavers. To create a video screensaver, simply create a collection of one or more clips and adjust the zoom and playback speed for each clip in the settings screen. Now create the screensaver. The screensaver will be created and called the current collection name. i.e. If your current collection is called 'A Day at the Races', the created screensaver will also be called 'A Day at the Races'. You may create as many screensavers as you like. You may review the screensavers properties from Control panel but you may not save changes to the screensaver from Control Panel.

1. Go to main screen
2. On the menu, click Create.
3. Click Create ScreenSaver of this Collection
4. A dialog box will be displayed. Click Yes to close FMV and automatically start the Screen Saver option in Windows control panel. From here you can select your newly created screensaver

Click No to go back to the main FMV screen. The screensaver can be selected from Windows Control Panel, Display Properties, Screensaver.

To exit a screensaver, do one of the following:

1. Right mouse click to display the Remote Control, then click Quit Show or
2. Move the mouse in a circular motion.

Additional functionality added in FMV v1.6

Instead of exiting the screensaver in the above manner, you can make it so that you can only exit the screensaver by one of the of the following options (this will allow you to set up unattended displays in shops, etc):

• Option 1: Only pressing the Esc key will exit or
• Option 2: Pressing the Esc key or Right mouse click to display the Remote Control, then click Quit Show.

To implement these options, however, you will have to edit the ini file of the screensaver ( i.e. if you've made a screensaver of your holiday collection, there will be a file called holiday.ini in your system directory). Change the value of RunMode from      RunAs = SCREENSAVER    to:

1. Option 1:  RunAs   = SCREENSAVER_NOMOUSEMOVE_OR_RC
2. Option 2:  RunAs    = SCREENSAVER_NOMOUSEMOVE

Note

• The screensaver will be named xxx.scr (where xxx is the name of your collection) and saved in your Windows system directory. If you are not sure where this is, run System Information from FMV's Help menu.
• The remote control cannot be used from windows control panel while in preview mode.
• The screensaver will be created with the movies in the current collection with the changes applied in the settings screen.

[CONTENTS]

Provides the facility to capture video and frames from your video capture device.

1. On the menu, click Tools
2. Then click Capture Video This will open the Video Capture window specific to your capture device i.e. Webcam / DVD.

[CONTENTS]

1. Go to the main screen
2. Click on the clip you want to extract a bitmap from
3. On the menu, click Tools, then click Extract Bitmap(s) from movie
4. Click OK on the dialog box informing you may resize the window to reduce or increase the size of the extracted bitmaps. If you are getting black bitmaps resize the screen.
5. Use the control buttons or slider to select a frame. Time displays the elapsed time the movie has been playing.
6. Click Extract Bmp to extract the bitmap.
7. You will asked if you want to make a sequence of bitmaps? Click No
8. In the Save In box, click on the drive and directory you want to save the bitmap in.
9. In the File Name box, type in the file name for the bitmap.
10. Click Done to return to the main menu.

1. Go to the main screen
2. Click on the movie you want to extract bitmaps from
3. On the menu, click Tools, click Extract Bitmap(s) from movie
4. Click Extract Bmp to extract bitmaps.
5. You will asked if you want to make a sequence of bitmaps? Click Yes
6. Enter a starting number to append to the filename. FMV will format this number to 4 places e.g. entering 1 as the starting number and test.bmp as the filename will produce Test0001.bmp Test0002.bmp & Test0003.bmp if extracting three bitmaps from a movie. This number should not be "0" or greater than 32000.
7. Enter the number of bitmaps you want to extract.
8. In the Save In box, click on the drive and directory you want to save the bitmaps in.
9. In the File Name box, type in the file name for the bitmaps.
10. Click Done to return to the main menu

Note Bitmaps will be extracted at certain intervals throughout entire movie unless a section has been marked.

1. Go to the main screen
2. On the menu, click Media, click Media Settings.
3. Click the Loop/Edit button
4. Mark the section of the movie you want to extract the bitmaps from
5. Click Done to return to the main screen.
6. Follow instructions 1 to 10 in 'To Make a sequence of Bitmaps Extracted from Entire Movie' above.

Note Bitmaps will be extracted at certain intervals throughout the marked section.

[CONTENTS]

FOR SINGLE BITMAP EXTRACTIONS

1. On the menu, click Tools, click Extract Bmps from QuickTime movies
2. Select directory and file name to extract bitmaps from
3. Click Open
4. If you want to adjust the size of the captured bitmaps, adjust the size of the movie and then click OK. To change the size of the movie, click on the bottom right hand corner and drag until you reach the required size.
5. You will asked if you want to make a sequence of bitmaps? Click No
6. Click the movie on the taskbar
7. Click OK to movie position dialog box
8. Use the play, pause, advance and rewind buttons to position it to the frame you want to capture.
9. Click FMV MovGrabber on the toolbar
10. Click OK
11. In the Save In box, click on the drive and directory you want to save the bitmap in.
12. In the File Name box, type in the file name for the bitmap.
13. Click Save
14. Click OK to return to the main menu.
15. Click the movie on the taskbar
16. Close the window

FOR A SEQUENCE OF BITMAPS

1. On the menu, click Tools, click Extract Bmps from QuickTime movies
2. Select directory and file name to extract bitmaps from
3. Click Open
4. If you want to adjust the size of the captured bitmaps, adjust the size of the movie and then click OK. To change the size of the movie, click on the bottom right hand corner and drag until you reach the required size.
5. You will asked if you want to make a sequence of bitmaps? Click Yes
6. Enter number of seconds to record
7. The starting number to append to the filename. FMV will format this number to 4 places e.g. entering 1 as the starting number and test.bmp as the filename will produce Test0001.bmp Test0002.bmp & Test0003.bmp if extracting three bitmaps from a movie. This number should not be "0" or greater than 32000.
8. Enter number of bitmaps to extract
9. In the Save In box, click on the drive and directory you want to save the bitmaps in.
10. In the File Name box, type in the file name for the bitmaps.
11. Click Save
12. Position the movie to the frame you want it to start recording from e.g. after a fade in
13. Click start recording.
14. Wait for the countdown to finish and then press play in the viewer when it says Click Play Now.
15. Click OK
16. To abort, click STOP RECORDING

[CONTENTS]

The effects generator provides real-time effects and transitions (such as wipes and dissolves) between images. The images can be QuickTime movies, gifs, jpegs, avi's or bmps.

The video effects can be used to control the visual translation between two movie sources or to change the appearance of a single image.

Effects available for changing the appearance of a single image are:

• Filter effects that change the appearance of a video image; examples are tinting, embossing, and blurring.
• Generator effects that run independently of the video, overlaying it with another moving image such as flames or rippling water.

Effects available to control the visual translation between two movie sources

• Transition effects that operate between one video sequence and another; they include wipes, irises, dissolves, explode and so forth.

Because visual effects are calculated and executed at runtime, they are compact to download. Each effect simply manipulates the current image according to its preset algorithim. This flexibility means you can achieve many results that would be hopelessly cumbersome using other methods.

1. On the main menu, click Tools, click Effects for QuickTime Movies
2. Click OK
3. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Test.
4. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Referenced Movie
5. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Test, then click Make Effect Movie.
6. Select the first movie
7. Click convert
8. Select the second movie
9. Click convert
10. Click the required effect and adjust the settings
11. Click OK
12. Select the directory and filename and click Save As. Save as a .MOV file.

1. On the main menu, click Tools, click Effects for QuickTime Movies
2. Click OK
3. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Test.
4. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Referenced Movie
5. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Test, then click Make Effect Movie.
6. Select movie to use with the filter effect
7. Click convert
8. Click cancel
9. Click the required effect and adjust the settings
10. Click OK
11. Select the directory and filename and click Save As. Save as a .MOV file.

1. On the main menu, click Tools, click Effects for QuickTime Movies
2. Click OK
3. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Test.
4. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click Stand Alone Movie
5. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click, Test then click Make Effect Movie.
6. Click cancel
7. Click the required effect and adjust the settings
8. Click OK
9. Select the directory and filename and click Save As. Save as a .MOV file.

Note: Refer to the Transitional Effects above for details on how to merge the generator effect with another movie.

1. On the Make EffectMovie menu, click File
2. Click open
3. Click on the play button to view the movie.

[CONTENTS]

1. On the menu, click Tools, click Bitmaps to Movie Converter
2. Enter the directory holding the bitmaps.Click .. to change directory
3. Enter the first few letters of the bitmaps filenames e.g. if you have 3 bitmaps called Star0001, Star0002 and Star003 then you would enter Star
4. Check BMP or TGA box
5. If you want to add a WAV file to the Avi, click .. to select the file. Note, the wav file must be in the same directory as the bitmaps and of roughly the same duration.
6. Enter the avi filename the output will be saved to. Click .. to change directory
7. Enter the frame rate: Number of frames per second that the output avi should have.
8. Enter the key rate: Frequency of key frames in the output avi (0 = no key frames).
9. Click create
10. Select compressor from the drop-down menu on the Video Compression dialog box.
11. Click OK to create AVI.
12. Click Close to return to the main screen.

Note It is probably best to select a compressor (such as CINEPAK) as this will reduce your file size.

[CONTENTS] 

AVI and WAV TimeLine Editor

1. On the menu, click Tools, click AVI and WAV TimeLine Editor
2. Click OK in the information dialog box. This information will only display the first few times you run FMV.
3. Maximise the Window.
4. Click File, then Open
5. Click File, then Exit to return to the main screen.

To merge movie and sound files (i.e. AVI and WAV files)

1. Click File, then Open and select your AVI file.
2. Click File, then Merge and select your WAV file.
3. Edit the file if required (see below)
4. Click File, then Save to save merged file.

To edit movie or sound files (i.e. AVI and WAV files)

• To select sections:
  Click on the first frame, hold the SHIFT key down and then click on the last frame. A blue frame will appear around the selected frames.
• To delete the selection:
  On the menu, click EDIT, then click DELETE
• To copy/cut and paste the selection:
  On the menu, click EDIT, then CUT or COPY, then click on the position you want to paste it to and click PASTE

General Information on Non-Window Menu Options

• Save Options on the File Menu gives you compression options.
• Merge on the File Menu allows you to add another file for merging (see above).
• Name on the Edit Menu allows you to change the name
• Info on the Edit Menu gives you streaming information.
• Play sub-menu allow you to preview your edited/merged file.
• Zoom sub-menu allows you to zoom in/out up to a factor of 4.

Note It is probably best to select a compressor (such as CINEPAK) as this will reduce your file size.

[CONTENTS] 

The MPEG joiner provides a means of concatenating two or more MPEG files into one MPEG file.

1. On the menu, click Tools.
2. Click Mpeg Joiner
3. Select the Drive and Directory where your MPEG files are located.
4. Use SHIFT or CTRL plus the up and down arrow keys to select the files you want to join.

Note The MPEG files MUST all be of the same size, shape and format If FMV fails to copy, go to DOS and run fmvcopy.bat 

In this version of FMV we have implemented a 'simple' MPEG joiner. We use the word 'simple' as it is only really a DOS binary copy with concatenate. FMV creates a DOS batch file and then just runs it. This works fine as long as the joined movies are of the same size and format. We are currently writing a much lower level joiner that will be a great improvement on what we have now.

Why have you included it then ?
Due to popular demand. Up until now, we have just e-mailed people telling them how to do this type of join. You can of course still bitmap extract the mpegs and then re-join with the bmp to movie function. That's the way we do it. One of our customers even told us he had re-assembled 72GB of frames this way and he was delighted with the result. We have found that on some(one) NT Laptop, FMV does not seem to run the batch file it creates. If this happens, try to join the files in the normal way with the MPEG joiner, then open an MS-DOS session and go to the folder you installed FMV into. In there you will find a file called FMVCopy.bat. Just run this and your MPEGS will be joined.

We've found the joiner works on most MPEGS but not ALL. FMV V2.0 will however solve this problem.

[CONTENTS]

1. On the menu, click Preferences
2. Click on one of the following preferences:

Show Movie Detail

This switches between displaying the Control Toolbar and displaying Movie Details. The default is to display Movie Details.

• Click Show Movie Detail to switch this option off and show the Control Toolbar.
• Click Show Movie Detail again to switch the movie details back on.

Use Windows Media Player 1st on MOVs. - (Will try to get codecs)

Disable this option to stop windows media player trying to contact Active-X.Com to download missing CODECs.

Change Display Color

• Click on palette to select color or
• To define a custom color, click the basic color closest to it and then click Define Custom Colors, click Add to custom colors to save new colors.

  This changes the colors of the output text.

Loop Movie Previews

This toggle switches looping on and off on the main window.

Disable Splash Screen on Startup (Reg'd Ver Only)

This allows you to disable the splash screen displayed when starting up FMV.

Stop Screen Animations (Better Performance)

This turns off the animation on the side bar of the main screen. This will improve the performance of the application.

• Click Stop Screen Animations to switch the animations off
• Click Stop Screen Animations again to switch animations back on

Mute Audio

• Click Mute Audio to switch the sound off
• Click Mute Audio again to switch the sound back on

Turn Tooltips On/Off (Better Performance)

• Click Turn Tooltips Off (Better Performance) to improve the performance of the application.
• Click Turn Tooltips On (Slower)

Display Movie Details or Control Toolbar

• Click Display Movie Details to hide the Movie Details and display the Control Toolbar.
• Click Display Movie Details again to redisplay the Movie Details.

Show Remote Control Unit

• Click Show Remote Control Unit to display the Remote Control.
• Click Quit Show on the Remote Control Unit hide it. Refer to the Making A Collection section for details on how to use the Remote Control Unit.

Volume Control

• Click Volume Control to display the Volume Control panel.
• Click   to close the Volume Control panel.

Note Preferences are saved with each collection.

[CONTENTS]

1. Go to main screen
2. On the menu, click Help, click System Information.
3. A dialog box will be displayed asking if you want detailed drive information.

• Click Yes if you want detailed drive information. It will tell you the drive type, total disk space, free disk space, volume label and serial number for each drive. Note Selecting this option may take a long time on some laptops and networked PC.
• Click No will give you the number of Removable, Fixed drives, CD-ROM drives, RAM drives and Network drives your system has.

4. Click Done to return to the main screen.

[CONTENTS]

1. Creating Wallpaper

   If FMV creates black wallpaper , you may need to free up some resources. You can do this by closing other applications you have running. Please also check you have the latest video card driver from you card manufacturer.

2. Using the Remote Control Unit
   • the MAX button will only maximize to the zoom size previously selected in the settings screen.
   • The Start and End buttons may show a black image. This is a result of movies being faded in or out.
     
3. Performance Issues

   To improve performance, select stop screen animations and turn tooltips off from preferences

4. Thumbnailing

   If thumbnails aren't being produced, decrease your screen resolution.

5. Unsupported graphics formats include

   * 16 Color compressed TIFF graphics -- will display as white.

   * Certain greyscale BMP graphics are not supported.

17. The Thumbnailer or Bitmap extractors won't work ?

1. On some 2Mb & 4Mb low specification graphics cards, FMV will not thumbnail or extract bitmaps. We have always (so far) found though that changing various combinations of  refresh rate, color depth and resolution will remedy the problem. On laptops, the problem is usually cured by using an interlaced refresh rate. We are however aware that this is not ideal and will release a version of FMV specifically for these cards. Please refer to our website for details or e-mail us with the details of your system. Please also check that you have the latest driver from your graphics card manufacturer. If your graphics card supports OpenGL, try enabling this.

17. I zoom a video to about 800% and my system seems to freeze ?

1. Your system is just not capable of what you are asking it to do. Do you have MMX ?  Don't zoom the video so much or buy a better graphics card. Your PC should really be MPC Compliant to show video.

17. My system becomes very slow and juddery when I'm using FMV ?

1. Your system is probably not quite powerful enough to play video well or does not have an MMX processor.You can however try setting the screen animations to OFF and turning the tooltips OFF. Apart from that, upgrade your system.

17. It' s a pain moving movies up and down in a collection

1. Use the accelerator keys (Ctrl + I to advance in the list and Ctrl + D to move it down)

17. Whenever I try to play a QuickTime movie, nothing seems to happen?

1. You have not installed QuickTime V4.0. Go to the Apple web site and download and install QuickTime from :- http://www.apple.com/quicktime/install. You need the FULL install of QuickTime.

17. As soon as FMV starts, I get runtime errorxxx xxx. .

1. The Microsoft Media player is not installed on your system. FMV ships with this file on the CD and placed it in the directory you installed FMV into. Go to that directory and run the file MPIE4FUL.EXE. This will install the player. If you have not purchased FMV, and have downloaded it, download the latest 'Media Player' from Microsoft's website.http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia. (The Demo \ downloaded version of FMV does NOT include this file)

17. If I catalog my temporary internet files directory, FMV hangs.

1. A fairly rare type of GIF seems to be doing it, we're working on it.

17. Sometimes when I create effects with QuickTime movies, the end result plays too fast / slow / not at all.

1. The clips or graphics you are using are just too big or the clips were not of roughly the same length. Try to use clips / stills of equal size. You can also record bmps by manually moving the play bar to play the movie or gif.

17. Can I stop media player trying to dial the Internet for Codecs.

1. You can a bit. Uncheck the Preferences - . Use Media Player 1^st on MOVs. menu item. This will dampen it's need to dial the net a bit but unfortunately not stop it. We've told it not to do this in the code but for some reason it just ignores us. We're working on it.

17. Will FMV work on a network ?

1. Yes but unless you've got bandwidth to spare, we don't recommend it. We're only thinking of your co-workers but if you have no co-workers....

17. The effects module is hard to use.

1. Yes we're sorry about that but the effects module is part of Apple's programmers kit for QuickTime V4.0. We included it in FMV as a) it's free, b) it's an outstanding product and c) we thought it is just plain good fun to use.

17. Is there any more help on the BMP to AVI converter ?

1. The BMPtoAVI converter is freeware. Open the file pjbmp2avi.htm and contact the author.

17. Some of my movie thumbnails are just plain black

1. Many movies fade in from black. Change the value in the 'pos to take movie thumb from' in the thumbnailer to a larger value.

17. Sometimes after previewing an FMV screensaver the movie continues to play in the top left corner of the screen.

1. Do not worry about this, the movie should stop playing and disappear after about 20 seconds.

17. Why are the Download sizes of FMV so Different?

1. Because we ship components with FMV that some users may already have and some users do not. For example, the Apple QuickTime effects require an 8Mb download. On the Full FMV download, we include the entire QuickTime subsystem which adds about 9Mb to our Set-up program. But if you already have the FULL QuickTime system installed, don't download the FULL version.

17. When I extract bitmaps or create windows wallpaper, all that appears in the bitmaps is 'black pictures', what's going on.

1. Here goes. Not all graphics cards are created equal and even some that technically seem like powercards are not. We have tested FMV on everything from 1Mb to 32Mb graphics cards and found that the size of the picture\resolution\refresh rate are all key factors in this. On laptop computers with 1Mb cards, we found that setting the refresh rate to interlaced usually fixed the problem. On some 16Mb cards, we had to initially size the picture to about a matchbox size but after that any size was OK. On several cards this feature seems to 'stick' but once it's unstuck, it generally works fine. This happens less under NT. We realize that this is not perfect and are looking for a better solution. If you have an OpenGL driver for your graphics card, use that.

17. When I create Windows wallpaper from a movie all that appears is a black backdrop, what's going on.

1. Here goes. Not all graphics cards are created equal and even some that technically seem like powercards are not. We have tested FMV on everything from 1Mb to 32Mb graphics cards and found that the size of the picture \ resolution \ refresh rate and 'system Font Size' are all key factors in this. On laptop computers with 1Mb cards, we found that setting the refresh rate to interlaced usually fixed the problem. On some 16Mb cards, we had to initially size the picture to about a matchbox size but after that any size was OK. On several cards this feature seems to 'stick' but once it's unstuck, it generally works fine. This happens less under NT. We realize that this is not perfect and are looking for a better solution. If you have an OpenGL driver for your graphics card, use that. 3dfx Voodoo cards are particularly prone to this. If you have a 3dfx card, please make sure you have the latest set of video drivers.

17. I try to create a Quicktime effect but nothing happens ?

1. Either QuickTime is not installed or Quicktime is installed but it's an old version. V4.0 is very different to previous releases of QuickTime. Download and install QuickTime from Apple. Take the FULL download option.

17. How can I display bmps, pcx's etc ?

1. Catalog the folder with the thumbnailer and then either click the thumbnail or click the file name in the 'file list' box.

17. Which Codec should I use?

1. Each codec is different and geared towards a specific purpose. Some codecs are designed to work on maintaining quality, some codecs are designed to optimize 'Action' clips. The easy answer is try them and see. As a general hint, try the Cinepac codec first.

17. How can I play FLI, FLC etc?

1. Try to add them to the collection, FMV will tell you that Media Player cannot understand the format but will also ask you if you wish to view the file with the FMV MOVViewer. Answer 'yes' to this question and the movie will be played

17. Sometimes when playing a collection, FMV gets the ZOOM level wrong.

1. Go to the settings screen with each movie and set its zoom level. Now replay the collection.

17. I have added a movie with a resolution of xxx by xxx but FMV is reporting a different resolution.

1. FMV reports the resolution in pixels and not the resolution the movie was recorded at.

[CONTENTS]

[CONTENTS]

FMV and the FMV logo are Copyright 1999 SlipStream Systems Limited

Full Motion Video Copyright 1999 SlipStream Systems Limited

SlipStream, the SlipStream Systems logo and FMV are trademarks of SlipStream Systems Limited, registered in the U.K. and other countries. FMV and FMV Player are trademarks of SlipStream Systems Limited.

E-mail: Slipstream@dial.pipex.com

(or visit our homepage at http://www.slipstream.dial.pipex.com

NOTICE: VIDEOS INCLUDED AS PART OF THE FMV PRODUCT CANNOT BE USED SEPARATELY FROM THE FMV SOFTWARE. ANY USE OF THE VIDEOS OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS A VIOLATION OF END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Updated Oct 31, 1999 

Credits

Credits :- Thanks to all the following people without whose unpaid help FMV would not have been possible.

 

Programming \ Interface Design \ Rendering	Dave H
BmptoAvi Code	Paul Roberts
PM and Documentation	Kathrina Skinner

And many other people who put up with our mindless whittering while creating FMV. Thanks.

[CONTENTS]