Importing and playing back videos

Here are step-by-step procedures for inserting and playing back videos:

To load a video file into a project

1.	Choose File > Import > Video, or choose Insert from the Video view’s pop-up menu.

The Import Video dialog box appears. In the Files of type field, select the kind of video file you’re looking for.

Tip: You can also drag a video file from the Browser and drop it on the Video Thumbnails pane.

2.	Select a file.

3.	Select the Show File Info check box to display information about the file in the File Info section of the dialog box.

4.	Select the Import Audio Stream check box if you want to load the file’s audio data.

5.	Select the Import As Mono Tracks check box if you want to import the file’s audio data as one or more mono tracks.

6.	Click Open.

Sonar loads the video file and displays it in the Video view. If you choose to import audio data, Sonar inserts a new track above the currently selected track, and puts the audio data in a clip or clips on the new track.

Note 1: When you save a project that contains video, Sonar saves the project’s video file by reference only; the actual video data remains in the original file. Video data is not saved in bundle files, so it must be backed up on its own.

Note 2: After you load a video file into a project, you can play it back either in the Video view, or on an external DV device through a FireWire port. See Video playback on a FireWire DV device for more information.

To play a video file in the Video view

1.	Open the Video view by choosing Views > Video.

2.	Press the SPACEBAR to play or stop video playback.

3.	To change the display size of the video, right-click in the Video view and choose Stretch Options > [desired size] from the pop-up menu.

Note: When you play a video file that has high temporal compression, such as movies optimized for web delivery, playback may not be smooth unless you disable video thumbnails, (see Using the Video Thumbnails pane for more information).

To delete the video from the project

1.	Open the Video view by choosing Views > Video.

2.	Right-click in the Video view and choose Delete.

Sonar removes the video from the project. Note that imported audio data is not deleted.

To enable or disable video playback

1.	Open the Video view by choosing Views > Video.

2.	Right-click in the Video view and choose Animate.

If your computer is not fast enough to play back video efficiently, you can get better performance by temporarily disabling video animation during playback.

To set the Time display format

Click the time display to cycle between MBT, SMPTE, Frames and None

Or

Right-click in the Video view and choose an option from the Time Display Format menu:

To do this	Do this
Select a time format	Choose MBT, SMPTE, Frames or None
Change font	Choose Font and select new font characteristics
Turn off the time display	Choose None

To adjust the SMPTE time

1.	Move the Now time to the place where you want SMPTE time to be either 00:00:00:00, or a number you can enter.

2.	Use the Project > Set Timecode At Now command to open the Set Timecode At Now Time dialog box.

3.	If you want to set SMPTE time to 00:00:00:00 (the dialog’s default value) at the current Now time, click OK to close the dialog box. If you want to set SMPTE time to some other value at the current Now time, type that value into the SMPTE/MTC Time field, and click OK to close the dialog box.

To choose a frame rate

Do one of the following:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Clock and choose the frame rate you want from the six choices, then click OK.

In the Control Bar’s Sync module, click the Timecode Format list and select the desired format.

For more information, see SMPTE/MIDI time code synchronization).

To set the Video display format

Right-click in the Video view and choose an option from the Stretch Options menu:
Sonar adjusts the video display according to the selected option. The stretch option is used to recalculate the video display size whenever you resize the Video view.

To do this	Do this
Display the video in its original size	Choose Original Size
Stretch the video to fill the Video view	Choose Stretch to Window
Stretch the video as much as possible while preserving the original aspect ratio	Choose Preserve Aspect Ratio
Make the video display as large as possible, but only enlarge by integral multiples	Choose Integral Stretch
Display the video in full screen mode	Choose Full Screen

To set the Start and Trim times

1.	Right-click in the Video view and choose Video Properties.

2.	Set options as described in the table:

Option	What it means
Start Time	The time in your Sonar project at which you want the video file to start playing.
Trim-in Time	The time in the video file at which you want video playback to start.
Trim-out Time	The time in the video file at which you want video playback to stop.

Sonar synchronizes the video to the project according to the specified Start and Trim times.

Note: The project’s video file is saved in the project by reference only, the actual video data remains in the original file. Video data is not saved in bundle files, so it must be backed up on its own.

You can also edit the video clip directly in the Video Thumbnail pane:

To move the video clip, drag the clip header.

To adjust the Trim-in Time, drag the left edge of the video clip.

To adjust the Trim-out Time, drag the right edge of the video clip.

 

See also:

Exporting video

Optimizing video performance