[ Table of Contents ]

# Kino Preferences

Preferences is the set of program options that you can customise to control Kino's behaviour and defaults. The preferences are currently saved to ~/.gnome2/kino if you want to manually edit or remove the file to reset to "factory" defaults.

- Defaults
- Capture
- IEEE 1394
- Display
- Audio
- Jog/Shuttle
- Other

## Defaults

The defaults contain the settings for DV encoding used by the FX mode when creating new DV from external sources.

Normalisation
  Select the desired video signal format: NTSC or PAL.
Audio
  Choose the audio sampling frequency. We recommend 48khz.
Aspect Ratio
  Typical video is 4:3. Movies and new digital television standards use 16:9 (widescreen).

## Capture

Base File Name
  Enter the path where you want to store captured video followed by a file name stem. Do not add the extension. Kino generates a sequence number and optionally a timestamp that it appends to the stem file name. It also generates the file extension, currently .avi or .dv.
File Type
  Currently, Kino only supports Raw DV and DV AVI file formats. You can choose between standard DV1 or DV2 formats. DV2 is more compatible with other applications because it creates a separate interleaved audio stream. However, if you are only capturing for Kino use or for another program that supports DV1, then choose it because DV natively interleaves audio with the video and the audio stream in DV2 is wasteful. MPlayer and Avifile only playback DV2 AVI. Current versions of Windows DirectShow do support DV1, but Windows application support for DV1 is inconsistent.
  The OpenDML option only applies to DV2. OpenDML allows for very large files (greater than 1GB). DV1 is natively OpenDML.
  If configured during the build and compilation, Quicktime DV files are also supported.
Auto Split Files
  Generate a new file whenever Kino detects a new scene while capturing video.
Put Timestamp In File Name
  If enabled, during capture, Kino appends a date and time to the base file name specified above.
Write Every n Frame
  This is time-lapse record function. If entered, Kino skips n frames between capturing a single frame and adding it to the AVI.
Frames per File
  Set the maximum number of frames a single AVI/DV is to contain. Kino will automatically split capture into multiple files if the number of frames in this setting is exceed. Set to zero to not use frame count as a criteria for file splitting.
Max File Size
  Set the maximum number of megabytes a single AVI/DV is to contain. Kino will automatically split capture into multiple files if the maximum size in this setting is exceeded. Kino supports very large file sizes exceeding 2GB. Set to zero to not use file size as a criteria for file splitting. If both this and Frames per File are set to zero and Auto Split disabled, you can capture very large files limited only by the usual 64 bit and physical constraints.

## IEEE 1394

DV Capture/Driver
  Kino uses raw1394 or dv1394 drivers for capturing DV from IEEE 1394. Choose a driver and enter the device file name. The default is the raw1394 driver with the /dev/raw1394 file.
DV Capture/raw1394 Interface
  This provides support for multiple IEEE 1394 host adapters, NOT the individual plugs on a single adapter. Nothing needs to be done to address a plug on a single adapater, as 1394 automatically takes care of this. This is a zero-based number.
DV Capture/Frame Buffers
  The maximum number of complete frames that can be buffered by the IEEE 1394 capture thread.
VCR (AV/C) Control/Device
  Kino detects all cameras on the bus that support the AV/C command set. Select one from the list. It attempts to read the name of the device from its Configuration ROM, but not all devices implement it. If the name is not readable, then the numeric node is used. Most users only have one AV/C device connected anyway. You do not need a camera supporting AV/C to capture video! It is only used to control the tape transport mechansim.
AV/C Control/Poll Interval
  Kino uses AV/C to poll the device for timecode and transport status information. This value determines the delay between each polling cycle. Some devices do not like an intensive amount of polling, so you can reduce it and slow it down by increasing the poll interval. On the other hand, some devices do not at all mind the lowest value of 10ms.
DV Export/dv1394 device
  Kino uses dv1394 to export DV over IEEE 1394. Choose your driver and set the device file name. See Linux 1394 for information on dv1394 device files.
DV Export/Frame Buffers
  The number of DMA buffers used by the video1394 device. Set this to a higher value if you experience buffer underruns.
DV Export/Timing
  These two timing entry fields let you tweak the parameters of the DV export algorithm to achieve successful results. A value of 0 for either field selects its built-in default, which has been deemed compatible for most users based upon current feedback. However, if you need to adjust them, then it helps to know the built-in values to use as a starting point for experimentation:

  Setting | PAL | NTSC
  --- | --- | ---
  Increment | 1 | 2436
  Threshold | 16 | 38400

DV Export/SYT Offset
  video1394 must generate a timestamp in DV transmission stream that must be a fairly precise offset of the bus' master cycle timer. This can vary on systems due to latency or device compatibility. Values between 18000 and 20000 seem to work for most users.
DV Export/Pre-Roll
  The export pre-roll is an initial period of export when the first frame is repeated over and over. The idea is to allow time for the receiving device to synchronize to the incoming signal before sending the rest of the movie. Some devices take longer than others. You can adjust this for your device, or if you insert an initial frame containing color bars, for example, you can let it repeat for a certain duration too.

## Display

Display Method
  GDK: very compatible with X servers and the X Windows client/server architecture. Not very fast. Does not maintain frame aspect ratio.
  XVideo (Xv): requires XFree86 4.x and supporting hardware and X server. Run 'xvinfo' from the shell to get information about support on your system. Very fast and Kino maintains both frame and pixel-accurate aspect ratio. You can not take a screen capture of the video preview in this mode. XVideo is similar to Microsoft DirectDraw.
  Reduce Xv: Similar to XVideo above with the same advantages and disadvantages. This variation, however, uses half of the data bandwidth that is needed for compatibility on some X servers and hardware. The reduction in data bandwidth does invoke a scaling CPU overhead thereby affecting performance.
Deinterlace Preview
  Due to the nature of NTSC and PAL video, interlacing can result in interield motion. Setting this to either the lower or upper field options does a fast deinterlace by doubling the lines from one of the fields. The results in an effective 50% reduction in resolution, which is just fine and looks decent if you are just viewing at 50% size anyway. The linear blend option is a slower with fair results when viewing at greater than 50%; it tends to blur the image some.
Drop video frames as needed
  When enabled, Kino uses sophisticated algorithms and threads to sacrifice the video frame rate in order to provide better audio quality of play back and to provide an overall playback rate that is consistent and true with time. Basically, only disable this if you are interested in seeing if you machine is fast enough to decode DV in realtime. If you machine is not fast enough, then your will hear audio clicks and gaps.
Preview on External Monitor
  If you use the dv1394 driver for IEEE 1394/DV Export, then you can enabled this option to send the video out while scrubbing video in Edit and Trim mode.
Enable preview during capture
  To reduce the chance of dropped frames during video capture to disk, disable this option. If you have a fast enough system, you can turn this om and get a live preview of the video being captured.
DV decode quality
  You can adjust the quality of the DV decoder to reduce the processing overhead for increased playback performance. This does not affect the quality of DV exported over IEEE 1394 back into your camera.
DV decode quality/Clamp luma values
DV decode quality/Clamp chroma values
  ITU-R 601 specifies that the legal range for luma is 16-235 and for chroma is 16-240 regardless of NTSC, PAL, or setup issues. However, some users take advantage of the footroom or headroom below or above these ranges to encode additional information for things such as luma keying. The luma and chroma clamp options permit the range checking to be disabled to preserve the superblack and superwhite. These options also apply to the encoder used by the FX renderer.

## Audio

You can enable or disable audio and set the OSS device file to use for your machine. Kino only supports OSS at this time. If you are running a sound server in your desktop environment such as esd for GNOME, or aRts for KDE, then Kino cannot open the sound device unless your driver explicitly supports it. For example, the SoundBlaster Live series cards and driver support multiple opens.

Enable Audio Scrub
  Normally, audio only plays in the Edit and Trim modes when you choose playback, regardless of speed or direction. However, it does not play audio as you navigate using the keyboard or scrub bar (and the transport state is stopped or paused.) Enable this option to play audio as much as possible, if only for brief moments.

## Jog/Shuttle

Enable this if you have a Contour Shuttle Pro or Sony USB Jog/Shuttle controller. (See the README_jogshuttle file for more information on Kinos Jog/Shuttle support.)

USB Input Device
  The device that Kino will use for input events from the Jog/Shuttle. This will usually be on the form "/dev/input/event0". The actual device can vary depending on your other USB devices and the order you insert them into your PC. Changing the device will not take effect until you restart Kino.
Button Mappings
  Kino will let you assign actions to the buttons on your Jog/Shuttle. Simply press the button combination you wish to assign an action to, and select the action from the bottom list of actions. Alternatively you can select the buttons by using the lists. You can assign actions to single buttons or combinations of two buttons. In the latter case then please note that if you have assigned an action to a single press on button 1 and also to a combination of 1 followed by 2, Kino will perform both actions if you press 1 followed by 2. You can clear an action by selecting the "<none>" action

## Other

Disable Key Repeat
  If you find that your keystrokes are buffering and you inadvertently have to wait for Kino to process all of them, then you might enable this option. If enabled, Kino only operates on the oldest event in the queue and discards all pending events. On the other hand, enabling this option may require you to use the keys more slowly in order for Kino to receive the ones you do intend it to process.
Save SMIL projects with relative file paths
  File references normally use an absolute path name. However, relative file names are also possible with this option, Relative file names are relative to the SMIL file's directory. This is especially useful if you keep all related files of a project together in a directory because you more easily move the project directory or backup and restore to another machine.
Two pass image encoding
  This results in higher quality rendered output in FX, but it is twice as slow.
Expand Storyboard by default
  Make Storyboard to expand all scenes to expose children whenever it must redraw.
Use Insert by default in Trim
  Overwrite is normally the default Mode in Trim. Set this to make Trim use Insert mode by default.
Default Project Directory
  Set the default directory used by the File/Open and File/Save dialog. This default is used until a new directory is chosen during the current Kino session. Then, on the next session, Kino reverts back to your default project directory.

[ Table of Contents ]