Choosing Video Preview Options

Options Menu

From the Options menu, choose Video and choose a command from the submenu to adjust display settings for the Video Preview window and Video Strip.

To display the Video Preview window, choose Video Preview from the View menu. The Video Strip is displayed above the time ruler when you open an AVI file.

Right-click the Video Preview window or Video Strip and choose an option from the shortcut menu. 

Option

Function

Copy Current Frame

Choose this command to copy the frame displayed in the Video Preview window to the clipboard.

White Background

Select an option to change the background color of the Video Preview window and Video Strip.

Black Background

Default Background

Animate Video Strip

Select this option to animate the Video Strip during playback. This feature is frame accurate, meaning that when you move the cursor, the correct frame corresponding to the cursor position will be displayed instead of the static overview frame.

When off, the video strip always shows the frame that corresponds to the left edge of each image in the video strip.

If you experience slow or stuttering video preview, turn off animated video to reduce the load on your central processing unit (CPU).

Number Frames

Select this option to display frame numbers in the bottom left-hand corner of the frames in the Video Strip.

Stretch to Window

Select this option to resize each frame to fit exactly into the Video Preview window. This mode is generally the slowest because resizing a frame by nonintegral fractions requires many calculations.

Integral Stretch

Select this option to resize each frame to fit the Video Preview window; frames are stretched only by integral amounts. This is usually the fastest mode.

Preserve Aspect

Select this option to resize each frame to fit the Video Preview window while maintaining the original aspect ratio (horizontal vs. vertical size) of the video.

External Monitor

Select this option to send video preview to an external video monitor. Your video card must support this feature in order to use it. If you're not using an external monitor, select the Disable scan for external monitor support check box on the Video tab in the Preferences dialog.

Passive Update

Select this option to reduce the overhead needed to update the Video Display window. The Video Display is updated when the processor is idle.

Selecting this option can prevent gapping during playback on slower computers.