Managing Items
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Multiselect
It is easy to select more than one item at once. Hold the Shift key down while clicking the last item you wish to select. This will select all items in between the first and the last clicked item. To select all playlist items, use the Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut assigned by default or choose the "Select all" command from the "Edit" main menu.
Copy and Paste
The copy and paste commands are available from the "Edit" main menu:
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Cut – cuts the currently selected item(s). This command is available from the "Edit" main menu. The default keyboard shortcut for this action is Shift+Delete. To cut the selected item(s), you can also use the Ctrl+X keyboard shortcut.
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Copy – copies the currently selected item(s). This command is available from the right-click menu. The default keyboard shortcut for this action is Ctrl+C.
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Paste – inserts an exact duplicate of the previously copied item. This is very useful if you want to copy an item(s) from one position in the playlist to another. This command is available from the "Edit" main menu as shown above. The default keyboard shortcut for this action is Ctrl+V.
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Paste below – inserts the copied data below the selected playlist item.
You can also copy items by dragging and dropping them inside the list. Select an item and hold the Ctrl key down during the action.
To copy the content of a read-only field for the playlist item, use the "Copy current field" command from its context menu.
Moving Items in Playlist
To move an item to another playlist position, simply drag and drop it.
Note
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Only one item at a time can be moved. |
Replacing Items in Playlist
To replace an existing Cinegy Air playlist item with another one, drag a new item from the integrated browser or File Explorer over the item that you wish to replace and drop it while holding the Ctrl key down.
The following dialog appears asking you to define the parameters of replacement:
Select the "Keep secondary events" option to preserve the defined secondary events of the item after its content replacement. You can define to keep the secondary events only if they fit into the new item duration by selecting the corresponding option.
To keep the duration value of the item whose content is being replaced, select the "Keep original duration" option.
You can also define to keep the In and Out points of the original item if they fit into the new media duration. For example, there is a clip with a 02:00:00:00 start timecode and its duration is 90 minutes. This clip has In point set at 02:30:00:00 and Out point at 03:00:00:00. This means that the playlist item duration is 30 minutes. If the new clip timecode is within the 02:00:00:00 - 03:30:00:00 range, the In and Out points will be preserved after media replacement. Otherwise, the In point will be set equal to the new clip start timecode; the playlist item duration is preserved and equals 30 minutes.
If there is more than one instance of an initial item in the playlist, you can replace all of them by checking the "Replace all instances of this item" option. The number in brackets indicates how many instances of the same item are present in the current playlist.
Refreshing Items
When an item is dragged and dropped on top of another playlist item with the Alt key down, only the media content of the item is replaced with the In/Out points, and metadata and secondary events are preserved. This will be automatically applied to all instances of the item having the same Traffic ID value as defined for the playlist item on which the new material is being dragged and dropped. If the Traffic ID value is not defined, the new material is applied to all the instances of the initial item in the playlist. The confirmation dialog appears if more than one item will be refreshed during this operation.
Note
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If any of the instances refers to the timecode which is unavailable in the new item, the whole operation will be canceled. |
Updating Items
When an item is added to the playlist, its modification date is internally saved. If the file-based item or a node from Cinegy Archive is modified after being inserted into the playlist, this playlist item will be displayed in blue in the playlist table and it can be updated. Use the commands described below to update playlist item(s).
Note
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If only the item metadata is updated, such playlist items will not be highlighted blue in the playlist. |
The *.MCRitem added to the playlist from the defined shared folder (e.g. Inventory) can be overwritten according to the latest changes applied via the Cinegy Desktop application. The modifications in file-based items and Cinegy Archive nodes are also monitored. Once the item is modified and saved into the same location, it can be automatically refreshed in Cinegy Air by using the "Update selected" command. To perform this action, select the item you wish to update and choose the "Update selected" command from the "File" main menu:
Select the "Update all" command from the "File" main menu to update the content of all modified items in the playlist.
If the item duration has changed, the following dialog will be open:
Here define whether the playlist item duration should be updated by selecting "Yes" or "No" correspondingly. Select "Yes to all" to update the duration of all instances of the same item present in the playlist.
Once the updating has been completed, the report window will be displayed:
Removing an Item
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You can remove an item from the playlist by pressing the "Remove" button or by selecting the "Delete" command from the "Edit" main menu. The default keyboard shortcut for this operation is Delete. |
Changing a Comment
To make changes to a notes, simply double-click the "Comment" field in your playlist and change the text. Hit Esc to cancel the operation.
Renaming Items
You can change the item name by double-clicking the selected item name field and entering a new name. It is also possible to rename the selected item in the item name field on the selected item editor panel by using the F2 keyboard shortcut. You can cancel the operation by hitting Esc.
Aspect Ratio
The "Orig Asp" column displays the original aspect ratio of an item. To set the source aspect ratio for files inserted into the playlist, select the required value from the "Orig Asp" pull-down list.
To change the target aspect ratio, choose the required format from the "Targ Asp" pull-down list. If the "Stretch" value is selected, the target video stream is stretched to fill the entire frame.
Note
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Changing the target aspect ratio affects only the broadcast video stream and does not modify the appearance of the original item. |
Playout Conversion
Depending on the playlist item aspect ratio and considering the playout server aspect parameters, the appearance of the broadcast item on the playout screen can differ. The following tables display all possible combinations in detail:
Original Aspect Ratio | Target Aspect Ratio | Description | 16:9 Channel Aspect Ratio |
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4:3 |
4:3 |
The 4:3 video is placed in the center of the 16:9 screen. Vertical black bars (pillars) are added on each side of the frame. |
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14:9 |
The 4:3 video is placed in the center of the screen. The top and bottom of the original frame are cropped to 14:9, and black bars are added on each side. |
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16:9 |
The top and bottom of the original frame are cropped to 16:9 aspect ratio. |
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Stretch |
The original frame is stretched horizontally to fill the entire frame resulting in distortion of the image. |
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Original Aspect Ratio | Target Aspect Ratio | Description | 4:3 Channel Aspect Ratio |
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16:9 |
4:3 |
The widescreen video is cropped on the left and on the right. Only the main part of the image is shown. |
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14:9 |
The widescreen video is placed in the center of the screen. The sides of the image are cropped to 14:9 and narrow black bars are added to the top and bottom. |
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16:9 |
The black bars are added above and below the image preserving the entire 16:9 video. |
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Stretch |
The original frame is stretched vertically to fill the entire frame resulting in distortion of the image. |
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Custom Metadata
Cinegy Desktop allows adding custom metadata to video materials that are stored in the Cinegy Archive database.
Important
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Refer to the Descriptors, Presets article within the Cinegy Archive Manual for details on how to create metadata fields. |
The custom metadata descriptors can have text or Boolean values.
Video material along with defined custom metadata can be exported as MCRitem and then used in a Cinegy Air playlist. Custom metadata values can also be used in CG templates with corresponding macros for sending to playout.
Important
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Refer to the Macros article in the Cinegy Title Manual for a detailed description of work with macros. |
Having inserted an MCRitem into the playlist, select the "Custom Metadata…" command from the "Item" main menu:
Alternatively, use the "Custom metadata" command from the selected item context menu.
The "Custom metadata" dialog will appear listing all available descriptors and their values for the currently selected item. Check the corresponding descriptor, it will be displayed in the playlist table in the new column:
To show all available custom metadata, use the "Display all custom metadata" command from the "View" main menu:
It will analyze all playlist items and create a column for each available custom metadata descriptor with their values displayed.
The custom metadata values can be changed directly in the playlist table.
Note
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To enable custom metadata editing, make sure the "Metadata editing" option is enabled in the Cinegy Air Configurator. |
Editing Items Duration
If there is a need to manually correct In and Out timecodes, simply double-click the "In" or "Out" table column you wish to change and enter a new timecode. You should keep in mind that the new duration value cannot be higher than the original or less than 0.5 seconds.
The following error messages appear if the In or Out points are not set correctly:
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