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Using Review for Telestream Unified Platform, you can inspect all the important elements and attributes of your media files.

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Topics

  • Video Playback
  • Audio Playback
  • Metadata and Properties
  • Scopes
  • Media Links
  • Clip Lists
  • Diagnostics
To find a media file to inspect in Review, do the following:
  1. In Telestream Unified Platform, click the Review button. See Review Button.
  2. Click the Browser button.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Click Browse and double-click a store, or click Recent Files, or click Presigned URL.
    • In the Find Store field, enter the name of the file desired, and press Enter. Review displays search results. See Find Store Field.
Note: The search capabilities for S3 buckets within Review have the same limitations as AWS:
  • You can search only for files in the bucket you’re currently viewing.
  • Searches are case-sensitive.
  • Searches must include the prefix of any filename.
For example, if you want to find a file titled Nightly_News_8pm, you must begin your search with Nigh… and not News, or 8pm.
  1. Select a folder or file.
  2. Click Open. Review opens the folder or file. When opening a media file, Review displays the file in the Media Player view.
You can use the control panel in the Media Player view to play and navigate through the file.

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Review Controls

You can control most of the features in Review through the Telestream Unified Platform user interface. For a basic understanding of the Review user interface, including windows, controls, and menus, see Windows, Controls, and Menus.

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Video Playback

For information about how to play video in Review, see Media Player Controls.

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Resizing the Panels

To resize the panels in the user interface, do one of the following:
  • To resize the upper and lower panels, drag the bar between the panels up or down.
  • To resize the left and right panels, drag the bar between the panels left or right.

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Changing the Playback Speed

To change the playback speed of the file displayed in the Media Player, do one of the following:
  • Click the Fast Forward or Rewind button. To increase speed, click the button again.
  • Click the gear button, select Playback Speed, and select the desired speed. See Media Player settings.
To return to normal speed, press “k,” or manually adjust the speed. Pressing the pause button or the space bar doesn’t revert the playback speed to normal.

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Looping the Playback

For instructions about looping the playback of a clip, see Loop Playback.

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Playing Video Fullscreen

For instructions about playing video fullscreen, see Fullscreen.

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Viewing Captions and Subtitles

To display subtitles or captions, do the following:
  1. Make sure the selected video file has one or more subtitle or caption sidecar files associated with it.
  2. Click the Select Subtitles button. Review displays a menu of associated subtitle and caption sources.
  3. Choose the caption source desired. Review superimposes the selected subtitles or captions over the video in the Media Player.
See Select Subtitles.

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Viewing the Timecode Overlay

Keyboard shortcut: t. To display the timecode over the video in the Media Player, click the Overlay Timecode button in the Media Player controls. See Overlay Timecode.

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Viewing the Action Safe and Title Safe Areas

The Action Safe area is the central area of the video where actions are not cut off at the edges, due to screen masking or overscan. The Title Safe area is the central area of the video where you can place a title without losing parts of the title at the edges, due to screen masking or overscan. You can view the Title Safe area, the Action Safe area, or both, as borders superimposed over the video in the media file selected. To view the Action Safe and Title Safe areas, do the following:
  1. To open the Media Player Display menu, click the Media Player Display Controls gear button.
  2. Select Overlays, and check the box for each type of safe area desired.
  3. To close the Media Player Display Controls menu, click outside the menu.
See Safe Area.

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Viewing Markers

For information about viewing various types of markers in the Timeline, see Timeline settings.

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Jumping to the Beginning or End of a Clip

To jump to the first or last frame of a clip in the Media Player, do either of the following:
  • Click the Jump to Beginning button. Keyboard shortcut: Home.
  • Click the Jump to End button. Keyboard shortcut: End.
See Media Player Controls.

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Rewind or Fast Forward

To rewind or fast forward a clip in the Media Player, do either of the following:
  • Click the Rewind button. Keyboard shortcut: left arrow.
  • Click the Fast Forward button. Keyboard shortcut: right arrow.
See Media Player Controls.

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Jumping Back or Forward One Frame

To jump to the previous or next frame of a clip in the Media Player, do either of the following:
  • Click the Jump Back One Frame button. Keyboard shortcut: left arrow.
  • Click the Jump Forward One Frame button. Keyboard shortcut: right arrow.
See Media Player Controls.

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Defining a Sub-clip with In and Out Points

To define a sub-clip in the Media Player, do the following:
  1. Scrub the playhead to the desired in point, and click the Mark In Point button. Keyboard shortcut: i. Review marks the in point with a yellow marker in the Media Player timeline.
  2. Scrub the playhead to the desired out point, and click the Mark Out Point button. Keyboard shortcut: o. Review marks the clip with a gray overlay in the Media Player timeline.
  3. To create the clip, click the Create Clip button. Review marks the clip in the Timeline, and adds the clip to the Clips List.
See Media Player Controls.

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Selecting Timecode Type

To select the type of timecode Review displays in the Timeline, open the Timecode Menu, and select the type of timecode desired. See Timecode Menu.

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Jumping to a Timecode Location

To make the playhead jump to a specific timecode location in the Timeline, do the following:
  1. In the Timecode Display of the Timeline, do one of the following:
    • Click the Timecode Display, enter the timecode to jump to, and press Enter.
    • Double-click the Timecode Display, enter a value in specific digits of the timecode, and press Enter.
    • Copy the timecode for the desired location from a source. Paste the timecode into the Timecode Display, and press Enter.
See Timecode Display.

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Zooming In or Out in the Timeline

By default, the Timeline displays 10 seconds of the clip selected. For instructions about zooming in or out of the Timeline, see Zoom In/Zoom Out Slider.

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Displaying Title-Safe and Action-Safe Areas

For instructions about displaying title-safe and action-safe areas, see Safe Area.

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Audio Playback

You can view audio track information in the Audio Panel. This panel displays the average and peak dB, dB range, and dialNorm values for each track. By default, each track is configured to a channel. You can configure multiple tracks to the same channel.

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Muting or Unmuting Media Player Audio Playback

To mute or unmute a clip in the Media Player, click the Mute/Unmute button.

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Muting or Soloing an Audio Channel

To mute a channel in the Audio panel, or to play it solo, do the following:
  1. Open a clip in the Media Player.
  2. Click the Audio Track and Channel Configuration button. Review opens the Audio panel.
  3. For the desired channel, do one of the following:
    • To mute or unmute the channel, click the Mute/Unmute button for the channel.
    • To play the channel solo while muting all other channels, click the Solo button for the channel.

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Adding an Audio Track to a Video Clip

You can add up to 32 audio tracks to a clip, and enable Dolby 5.1 surround sound, whether or not the clip already has audio tracks. To add an audio track to a video clip, do the following:
  1. Open a video clip.
  2. Click the Audio Track and Channel Configuration button. Review opens the Audio panel.
  3. On the Audio panel, click the Add Audio Track (+) button.
  4. Select the desired audio track. Review adds the audio track to the open video clip.

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Creating an Audio Channel Template

You can create templates that include your custom mappings for audio channels. To create an audio-channel template, do the following:
  1. Click the Audio Track and Channel Configuration button. See Audio Track and Channel Configuration Button.
  2. Browse to Properties > Show Bottom Properties. Review opens the Bottom Properties window.
  3. In the Bottom Properties window, expand the Media pane.
  4. Using the channel drop-down controls, map the audio input channels to the output channels as desired.
  5. Click the Channel Template button, and select Save as Template. Review opens a dialog box. See Channel Template Button.
  6. Enter a name for the template into the Template Name field, and click Create. Review saves the channel template in your user profile.

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Metadata and Properties

You can view metadata and other properties of an open video file, through Review data tabs.

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Viewing Frame Metadata

The frame metadata windows give the user access to technical metadata about each frame. This can include various data such as Timecode, Closed Caption, and SCTE markers. To view the frame metadata for a media file, do the following:
  1. Open a media file.
  2. Click the Frame Metadata Display button.

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Scopes

When you open a scope, Review automatically starts an additional session for the transmission of data between the server and the scope. Review uses additional bandwidth when opening scopes. This can impact overall performance. See Scope Visualizations Button.

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Viewing the Luma Scope, Vector Scope, or RGB Parade

To inspect a clip via lumascope, vectorscope, or RGB parade, do the following:
  1. Open a media file in the Media Player. See Scopes.
  2. Click the Scopes tab. See Scope Visualizations Button.
  3. Click the button for the desired scope. Review displays the selected scope for the frame of video under the playhead in the Media Player.
Note: If you move the playhead to a frame that Review has not yet buffered, it might take Review a few seconds to display the luma waveform for the frame. You can see which frames are buffered by looking at the progress bar below the scope.

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Media Links

You can create and copy links to clips and images.

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Copying a Clip Link

To copy a link to a video clip that others can use, do the following:
  1. Open a media file. See Video Playback.
  2. (Optional) In the Timeline, scrub the playhead to the frame desired for the clip in point. Click the Mark In button or press “i.” Review places yellow markers at the in point in the Media Player time bar and in the Timeline.
  3. (Optional) In the Timeline, scrub the playhead to the frame desired for the clip out point. Click the Mark Out button or press “o.” Review places yellow markers at the out point in the Media Player time bar and in the Timeline.
  4. Click the Generate Clip Link button. Review copies the sub-clip between the in and out points to the clipboard.
  5. You can send the link to the sub-clip by pasting the clip link from the clipboard into an email, or you can view the sub-clip by pasting the clip link into a browser address field.
Note: When you open a clip link Review displays the timecodes for the sub-clip in and out points above the Media Player window.
  1. (Optional) To have the clip play automatically when opened in a browser, append &autoplay to the end of the clip URL.
Note: In Google Chrome, Review clips play automatically only when they are muted.
See Clip Link.

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Clip Lists

In the course of a broadcast, you may want to extract an edit from a live video feed or closed file. For example, you may want to extract a highlight from a live sports event. You can use Review to extract the edit desired into a sub-clip, and you can save a set of such sub-clips into a Clip List. You can create sub-clips from live and growing MXF files, or from closed files in any format. Further, you can send a Clip List to Vantage, Post Producer, Flip 64, Multiscreen, or IPTV, as a CML (Composition Markup Language) file, for further processing. Review saves a Clip List as a Composition Markup Language (CML) file. Vantage workflows, for example, can stitch, conform, or transcode media files defined in CML files. For information about using clip lists and Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) in Vantage see Vantage Documentation. See TIFO.
Note: A clip list may contain no more than 150 clips. You can’t create clip lists from closed files with sidecar files.

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Creating a Clip List in the Clips Tab

Note: A clip list may contain no more than 150 clips. You can’t create clip lists from closed files with sidecar files.
To extract edits and add them to a Clip List, do the following:
  1. Make sure you have configured a location alias for the open or growing clip from which you want to extract sub-clips. See Adding Your Network Locations With Location Aliases.
  2. Open a live and growing MXF clip, or a closed clip, in the Media Player. See Video Playback. Review displays the red Live Source Indicator in the Media Player Window Controls under the video in the Media Player.
  3. Click the Clips tab. See Clips Tab.
  4. Move the playhead in the Media Player to the first frame of the edit you want to extract, and click the Mark In button (keyboard shortcut: I). See Mark In Button.
  5. Move the playhead in the Media Player to the last frame of the edit you want to extract, and click the Mark Out button (keyboard shortcut: O). See the Mark Out Button.
  6. In the Clips tab, click the Log Clip button (keyboard shortcut: P). Review adds the sub-clip between the In and Out points to the Clip List. The Clips tab displays the Filename, Path, In Point, and Out Point of the extracted sub-clip.
  7. Repeat this procedure to add more sub-clips to the Clip List, either from the same file, or from different files.
  8. (Optional) If desired, export the clip list. See Exporting a Clip List as a CML File.
  9. (Optional) To change the destination of the Clip List CML file from the default location, enter the desired path and filename in the Output Name field of the Clip List control panel.
Review saves the Clip List as a CML file consumable by Vantage, Post Producer, Flip 64, Multiscreen, or IPTV. For information about ingesting CML files into Vantage, see the Vantage User Guide.

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Importing a Clip List into Review

To import a Clip List JSON file, do the following:
  1. Click the Media Clips Management button. See Media Clip Management Button.
  2. Click the Clips Menu button. See Clips Menu Button.
  3. Click Import Clip List from JSON.
  4. Browse to the desired Clip List JSON file, select it, and click Open.

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Deleting All Clips from a Clip List

To delete all clips from a Clip List, do the following:
  1. Click the Media Clips Management button. See Media Clip Management Button.
  2. Click the Clips Menu button. See Clips Menu Button.
  3. Click the Clear All Clips button.

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Exporting a Clip List as a CML File

Note: Composition Markup Language (CML) is an XML-based media descriptor language designed by Telestream. Vantage uses CML files for conforming media, stitching multiple separate media files and more.
To export the clip list as a CML file, do the following:
  1. In the Clips tab, click the Destination button. Review opens the destination drop-down menu.
  2. Select Write CML to File.
  3. Click the Enter Path (Gear) button. Review opens the Write CML to File dialog.
  4. Enter the desired path into the Output directory field, and click Save. Specify the location and file name for the CML file. Do not use any of the following characters in the file name: *, \, |, ", <, >, ?, or /. If you try to assign a name that already has been used, Review automatically adds a version number to the file name. This prevents overwriting the file that already has that name.
Review saves the CML file containing the clip list to the location specified.