Media - Casparcg Wiki

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From CasparCG Wiki 1 Video 1.1 Video Codecs 1.2 Sample Videos 2 Flash Templates 2.1 Requirements for Creating Flash Templates 2.2 Typical Workflow 2.3 Special Properties of Flash Templates 2.4 Interlacing via the Flash Producer  2.5 Best Practices for Flash Templates 2.6 Improving Performance of Flash Templates 2.7 Generate FT File 2.8 3D in Flash 2.9 FLV 2.9.1 FLV FLV Pixel Aspect Aspe ct Ratio 2.9.2 Recommended FLV Render Settings 2.9.3 FLV Limitations 2.10 TemplateGenerator  2.10.1 What the TemplateGenerator Does 2.10.2 TemplateGenerator Installation 2.10.3 TemplateGenerator Installation on Mixed-language Systems 2.10.3.1 The Process 2.10.3.1.1 The Panel 2.10.3.1.1.1 Generate FT File 2.10.3.1.1.2 Author  2.10.3.1.1.3 Template info 2.10.3.1.1.4 =Optimization= 2.10.3.1.1.5 Text Anti-aliasing 2.10.3.1.1.6 Limitations 2.10.3.1.1.7 To do 2.10.3.1.1.8 Notes 2.11 SWF 2.12 Tutorial: Loading Dynamic Images in a Flash Template 2.13 Creating Advanced Flash Templates 2.13.1 The Document Class 2.13.2 Public Methods 2.13.3 CasparTemplate()= 2.13.3.1 Play():void  2.13.3.2 Stop():void  2.13.3.3 Next():void  2.13.3.4 SetData(xmlData:XML):void  2.13.3.5 GotoLabel(label:String):void  2.13.3.6 ExecuteMethod(methodName:String):void  2.13.3.7 GetDescription():String 2.13.3.8 initialize(context:ITemplateContext):void  2.13.3.9 postInitialize():void  2.13.3.10 registerComponent(instance:ICasparComponent):void  2.13.3.11 dispose():void  2.13.3.12 preDispose():void  2.13.4 public properties 2.13.4.1 movieClip:MovieClip 2.13.4.2 originalWidth:Number  2.13.4.3 originalHeight:Number  2.13.4.4 originalFrameRate:Number  2.13.4.5 stopOnFirstFrame:Boolean 2.13.4.6 communicationManager:ICommunicationManager  2.13.4.7 description:XML 2.13.4.8 version:String 2.13.4.9 layer:int 2.13.5 Custom Parameters 2.13.6 Creating A Custom Caspar Component 2.13.7 Communication Manager  2.13.8 Best Practices 2.13.9 Generate FT File 2.14 Creating Templates without using Flash Professional 3 Images 4 Audio 4.1 Sampling Rate 4.2 Audio Producers 4.3 Audio Consumers 4.4 Audio Channels 4.4.1 Audio Channel Layouts 4.4.2 Rearranging and up/down mixing 4.4.3 Audio Mix Configs 4.5 Audio Output 4.6 Audio Limitations 5 Frame Rate and Resolution 5.1 Real-time Scaling via the Flash Producer  5.2 Flash Content Output to SDI or HDMI 5.2.1 Flash Content Output to Screen 5.2.2 Video Content Output to SDI, HDMI or Screen 6 Interlacing 6.1 Interlaced Content 6.2 De-interlacing 7 Interlacing 7.1 Interlaced Content 7.2 De-interlacing 8 Chroma Subsampling 9 Pixel-aspect Ratio 10 Bit Depth 10.1 Producer Bit Depths 10.2 Consumer Bit Depths 11 Color Levels 12 Color Space 12.1 Embedded Color Profiles 13 Color Depth 13.1 Rendering Bit Depth Limitations 13.1.1 Producer Bit Depths 14 File Names 15 Channels 15.1 Fill Channels 15.2 Key / Alpha Channel Pre-rendered video and audio is normally played via the FFmpeg Producer directly from the file system. An alternative is to embed audio and/or video in an FT file and play with the Flash Producer. The FFmpeg Producer can play all the codecs that FFmpeg (http://ffmpeg.org/) supports. The CasparCG Download page (http://casparcg.com/download/) has links to several packages with sample video files. Dynamic media is played by the CasparCG Server’s Flash Producer, so everything that the Adobe FlashPlayer  (http://adobe.com/products/flashplayer/) can handle can be played. This includes Flash animations SWF and Flash video FLV as well as audio, all via the FT file (which is just a SWF that has gone through TemplateGenerator.) Since you have full control over everything in Flash, you can dynamically change texts and control individual animations, and all ActionScript execution works (unlike when you import SWF:s into other tools such as Adobe After Effects (http://adobe.com/products/aftereffects/) .) Many existing SWF:s are built on the assumption that they will be stored on a web server and embedded in a web  page. If the SWF requires any sort of interaction such as mouse clicks, it won’t be very suited for CasparCG  playback. However, all features of the Flash Player (such as ActionScripted downloading of RSS feeds, for example) is fully functional when played by CasparCG. An FT file is just a Flash file that has gone through automated checks and been renamed. To prepare a Flash SWF file for playback by the CasparCG Server, it normally goes through an automated process in the TemplateGenerator extension inside Adobe's Flash Professional (http://adobe.com/products/flash/) authoring application. To create a Flash template for CasparCG you will need the Flash Professional (http://adobe.com/products/flash) authoring environment (CS4 and above recommended) and the TemplateGenerator panel. Create your design in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe After Effects or some similar software. Import the .psd into Flash Select the text fields you wish to expose to CasparCG and give them instance names (make sure not to begin with the letter "x" since this will make CasparCG ignore this particular instance.) Create your animations Press the generate button in the TemplateGenerator panel (make sure that you have entered your name in the  panel.) If everything is correct, the .ft file will bee generated and you are ready to test it in CasparCG Server. You can create labels in your main time line that can be accessed from CasparCG with the I nvoke command. If you create a label named "outro", CasparCG will automatically go to and play this label when a St op command is received. This is used to create outro animations. The #TemplateGenerator will look for any st op( )  command placed  after the outro label. If found, the generator will inject a r emoveTempl at e( )  call on the same keyframe which will remove the template from the TemplateHost. If there is no St op( )  command after the outro label, the removeTemplate() call will be injected in the last frame of the layer that contains the outro label. This is important to know, so that you make sure that this layer has its last keyframe on the frame you want the template to be removed. By changing the frame rate in the #Flash Document Properties inside Adobe's Flash Professional (http://adobe.com /products/flash/) to the rate, the Flash Producer and a consumer will output interlaced dynamic output. Please see the tables in the #Frame Rates section for examples and guidelines. Try to avoid several instances with the same instance name since it can be hard to keep track of the project. If  you create a timeline animation for a text field; convert the instance to a movie clip before you create the keyframes. If you need to use ActionScript in your template (other then basic st op( )  commands and alike), you should  follow the guide lines in #Creating Advanced Flash Templates. Flash Player may be a CPU bottleneck when playing high resolution channels. You might notice a major drop in  performance between 720p5000 and 1080i5000 channels. One common solution is to let Flash Player run at a lower  resolution and then upscale the final render from Flash in Caspar GPU Mixer. To do this, just override the TemplateHost section of your config file. Here you can specify what TemplateHost to load for each resolution. Below is an example of forcing 720p5000 Flash content to be rendered at any 1080i5000 channel. The GPU upscaling is automatically maintained.     1080i 5000 cg20. f t h. 720p5000   1280 720   You can actually override several template hosts this way within the same config. Below is a complete section for  overriding every 1080-format to corresponding 720-TemplateHost.     1080i 5000 cg20. f t h. 720p5000   1280 720       1080i 5994 cg20. f t h. 720p5994   1280 720       1080i 6000 cg20. f t h. 720p6000   1280 720     1080p2398 cg20. f t h. 720p2398   1280 720     1080p2400 cg20. f t h. 720p2400   1280 720     1080p2500 cg20. f t h. 720p2500   1280 720     1080p2997 cg20. f t h. 720p2997   1280 720     1080p3000 cg20. f t h. 720p3000   1280 720     1080p5000 cg20. f t h. 720p5000   1280 720     1080p6000 cg20. f t h. 720p6000   1280 720       1080i 6000 cg20. f t h. 720p6000   1280 720   To create the .ft file file, you use the #TemplateGenerator. Using Adobe Flash Player 10 (http://adobe.com/products/flashplayer/) and later, you can use Flash's built-in cameras and 2.5D abilities in your Flash templates. There are also 3rd party Flash 3D engines such as Papervision3D (http://papervision3d.org/) that can be used. You can use FLV (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flv/) videos in Flash Templates and by using the alpha channel in the FLV you can have transparent pre-rendered video controlled by Flash. FLV Pixel Aspect Ratio Flash content played by CasparCG_Server#Flash Producer is scaled on-the-fly at render time (matched to the consumer when the Flash Producer is instanced,) so an FT Flash template can have either a square pixel aspect ratio or a non-square pixel aspect ratio used in common broadcast resolutions for SD output. If you are outputting to SDI via the Bluefish Consumer, you can choose to set up your FT's #Flash Document Properties to match:  the final output resolution (for SD normally a non-square pixel aspect ratio)  the square pixel aspect ratio equivalent and have the Flash Producer scale it. This choice of Flash's #Flash Document Properties resolution should be made before choosing how to render the FLV video clips that will be played in the FT. We recommend working with a square pixel aspect ratio size and (if  necessary) have that be squished to SD broadcast resolution on playback to SDI. If you experience performance issues with Flash content, note that the on-the-fly scaling comes at a performance  penalty. To avoid scaling at render time you can resize the Flash content (by scaling the document resolution and then scaling and re-saving all imported bitmaps, FLVs, vector graphics and such in a program outside Flash, and  reimporting it. While it is convenient to work with content, there is currently a special case caused by a bug in [Flash Player (http://adobe.com/products/flashplayer/) ]. It has a rounding calculation error that causes on-the-fly scaled output that is animated horizontally to "jump" at certain intervals, making movements such as ticker texts to appear less smooth. Recommendation for PAR: Video non-square Flash square (with exception) Recommended FLV Render Settings To increase the performance you should use lower compression in the FLV since decompression is harder than reading a larger file from disk. FLV Limitations Audio embedded in an FLV can currently only be encoded with 44.1 kHz sampling rate, meaning that it will not match the standard broadcast sampling rate of 48 kHz. For short sound effects, this shouldn't cause any real problems,  but beware when using longer FLV videos with sound. An alternative solution would be the import the 48 kHz audio file into , and sync it to the silent FLV video on the timeline. What the TemplateGenerator Does The TemplateGenerator executes a script brew1_8.jsf (http://github.com/CasparCG/Tools/blob/master  /as3/TemplateGenerator/trunk/build/jsfl/brew2_0.jsfl) that injects code into the current Flash project to make it compatible with CasparCG Server. The project is then compiled and the SWF is renamed to .ft which is a confirmation that the file is prepared to be played by CasparCG Server. It will scan the main timeline and the timeline of any MovieClip items in the library and insert the following code at the end of each frame where it finds an element of type 'text' which is dynamic and has an instance name that doesn't  begin with 'x'. The code will register the component as a CasparTextField which is a CasparComponent. From line 735 of brew1_8.jsf (http://github.com/CasparCG/Tools/blob/master/as3/TemplateGenerator/trunk/build  /jsfl/brew2_0.jsfl) t hi sFr ame. act i onScr i pt += "\ n( r oot as CasparTempl ate) . r egi st erComponent ( new CasparText Fi el d(" + al l El ement s[ el ement Nr  Note that he CasparTextField (http://sourceforge.net/p/casparcg/code/3801/tree/framework/as3/TemplateHost/trunk  /src/se/svt/caspar/template/components/CasparTextField.as) class will clear any text that is already set in the textfield  when it is constructed. This means if you want to add an instance name to a text field so that you can manage it with ActionScript but don't want to be able to update it from CasparCG Server with UPDATE, you should always add the x at the beginning of the instance name, so that this code is not injected. TemplateGenerator Installation The TemplateGenerator is distributed as an Adobe Flash extension (.mxp). You will need the Adobe Extension Manager (http://www.adobe.com/exchange/em_download/) to be able to install the extension. To install the TemplateGenerator just double click on the TemplateGenerator.mxp file and it should open the Extension Manager  automatically. When you have installed the package it should show up as "TemplateGenerator" in the Extension Manager. You will need to restart flash (if it is open) before you can start to generate flash templates. The TemplateGenerator panel can be found at Window -> Other Panels. The extension will also automatically install the class library that is needed to generate flash templates. The first time a flash template is generated the TemplateGenerator will automatically add the class path to this class library. If you are creating advanced flash templates and uses an external code editor you might need to set this class path manually. The library is installed at . The $(LocalData) can be found at: Windows: Macintosh: Finally, the extension will install some project templates with some of the common formats used in broadcast. You can use these when you create a template from scratch by choosing TemplateGenerator Installation on Mixed-language Systems If you installed either the OS or Flash Professional in a non-US language, the TemplateGenerator may install properly  but you won't be able to see it in Flash Professional. Please see this forum thread for a solution (http://www.casparcg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=297&p=813#p810) . The Process All modifications to the Flash project file is reverted when the generation is finished. This is what happens to a Flash  project during the process: All dynamic text fields in the project (any timeline) are exposed (converted to Caspar TextFi el d) so that they can be accessed from CasparCG. The font is automatically embedded. If there is a dynamic text field that has no instance name the script will throw an error. If the instance name begins with the letter "x" the field will not  be exposed to CasparCG and it will be treated as a normal text field. All CasparCG Flash components are exposed so that they can be accessed from CasparCG. The document class is set to se. svt . caspar . t empl at e. Caspar Templ at e  unless you have entered your own. In that case; be sure to use the Caspar Templ at e as the super class. Have a look at #Creating Advanced Flash Templates for more info. A description of the template will be generated from the content in the document and the info in the panel. Depending on your choices in the panel, certain objects will be optimized for CasparCG. (read more about this further down). The Panel There are some settings in the panel you should know about: Generate FT File When you press this button the process will begin with the settings provided in the panel. Author Here you enter your name (required) and your e-mail (optional) for easy backtracking. This information will be stored in the template description. Template info Here you can enter information, e.g. a short description of the template, that will be stored in the template description. This is optional. =Optimization= These are automatic optimization of different objects that uses the best settings for rendering on CasparCG. Optimize images If this option is checked (default) all images in the project will have their compression set to "lossless" and the property "allow smoothing" will be set to true. Optimize text fields If this option is checked (default) all text fields will be rendered on even pixels. Optimize embedded videos If this option is checked (default) all embedded videos will have the properties smoothing set to true and deblocking set to 4. Text Anti-aliasing The global thickness and sharpness for all the text fields in the document. Limitations If some unexpected error occurs when the script is executed there may be a possibility that the execution is halted before the project is reverted (since there is no try catch in jsfl). If you have a project where the generation does not work, check in the timeline(s) for injected code that may interfere with the process. Avoid working with scenes in flash since this is untested. To do Create a cache file for the template info. Notes This extension used to be called the Brewer, CasparTools and FT Generator in previous versions. The CasparCG Server's Flash Producer supports and plays all types of SWF files, since it uses Adobe's FlashPlayer  (http://adobe.com/products/flashplayer/) for rendering. That includes all types of ActionScript methods and  commands. Many existing SWF's are built on the assumption that they will be stored on a web server and embedded in a web  page. If the SWF requires any sort of interaction such as mouse clicks, it won’t be very suited for CasparCG  playback. However, all features of the Flash Player (such as #ActionScripted downloading of RSS feeds, for  example) is fully functional when played by CasparCG. To prepare a SWF file for playback by the CasparCG Server, it normally goes through an automated process in the TemplateGenerator extension inside Adobe's Flash Professional (http://adobe.com/products/flash/) authoring application, generating an FT file (which is just an file that has gone through TemplateGenerator and been renamed.) Getting a Flash template to load and dynamically display bitmaps from disk is very useful for lots of applications. Here's a quick explanation on how to display different flags in a volleyball scoreboard. Download the source files used for this tutorial (http://casparcg.com/wp-content/uploads/tutorials /Tutorial_Loading_Dynamic_Images_in_Flash_Templates.zip) . Open the file in Flash Professional, and you can see that the dynamic text fields are just normal dynamic text with an instance name. The flags are UILoader components: Open the (Ctrl+F7) and create two UILoaders and place and size them correctly. Remember to give them individual and unique instance names. In the example project they are called Image1 and Image2, respectively. Then create a new ActionScript file and let it extend and let the animation point to the class like this: Please refer to Creating Advanced Flash Templates for further details about extending . In the ActionScript file (place it in the folder as the .fla file) you have to have at least the following code (the text is available in the source files (http://casparcg.com/wp-content/uploads/tutorials /Tutorial_Loading_Dynamic_Images_in_Flash_Templates.zip) .) Important in the above code is line 20 and 24 respectively, where the green texts are the variable names of the images. Use these variable names to send the image filenames to the template. In line 22 and 26 respectively, the UILoader components get their source property set to the name of the file. All the other dynamic text fields get their  data to the call on line 29. Finally, you have to send the template variables formatted as a correct URL. The file path D: \ Beach_Vol l ey\ Worl d_Fl ags_2013\ Worl d_Fl ags_BI G_40px\ Swi t zerl and. png ...should be entered as: f i l e: / / / D: / Beach_Vol l ey/ Worl d_Fl ags_2013/ Worl d_Fl ags_BI G_40px/ Swi t zerl and. png To create an advanced Flash template for CasparCG you will need the Flash Professional (http://www.adobe.com /products/flash/) authoring environment (CS4 and above recommended) and the TemplateGenerator panel. For more information on how Flash templates are hosted inside CasparCG Server, please see the TemplateHost section. The Document Class The document class must extend the se. svt . caspar . t empl at e. Caspar Templ at e  class (or another class that extends it). The Caspar Templ at e class contains methods and properties used by CasparCG and you can override some of the default implementation. Public Methods CasparTemplate()= Creates a new CasparCG template. Play():void This method will be called from the TemplateHost when a PLAY command is sent from CasparCG. By default it will try to play the main time line in the Flash file (if there is no stop()  on the first frame). The template will not be visible until the Pl ay command is sent from CasparCG. To override this method do the following:   overr i de publ i c f uncti on Pl ay( ) : voi d { / / Your code here } Stop():void This method will be called from the TemplateHost when a St op command is sent from CasparCG. By default it will look in the main time line if there is a label named "outro". If not it will call the r emoveTempl at e method that marks the template for removal. If it finds an outro label it will goto and play that label and when the outro is ready the r emoveTempl at e will be called. When you override this method it is very important that you either call super . St op( )  or r emoveTempl at e( )  when you are finished. To override this method do the following: over r i de publ i c functi on St op( ) : voi d { / / Your code here   / / THEN   super . St op( ) ;   / / OR r emoveTempl at e( ) ; } over r i de publ i c functi on St op( ) : voi d {   myOutr oFunct i on( ) ; } pr i vat e f unct i on myOut r oFunct i on( ) : voi d {     try { / / Do some codebased ani mat i on… myAni mat i onEngi ne. doMyOut r oAni mat i on( ) ; myAni mat i onEngi ne. onCompl et e( myCompl et eFunct i on) ; } cat ch( e: Er r or) { myCompl et eFunct i on( ) ; } } pr i vat e f unct i on myCompl eteFunct i on( ) : voi d {   super . St op( ) ;   / / OR r emoveTempl at e( ) ; } Next():void This method will be called from the TemplateHost when a Next  command is sent from CasparCG. It is used to step forward in the template. By default this method will make the template continue from the current frame. The command will be ignored if the current frame label is "outro", then St op( )  must be called. To override this method  do the following: over r i de publ i c f uncti on Next( ) : voi d { / / Your code her e } SetData(xmlData:XML):void This method will be called from the TemplateHost when a Set Dat a command is sent from CasparCG. Set Dat a is used to set data to the components or parameters that are exposed in the FT file. The data is buffered by the Component Dat aBuf f er  which makes it possible to set data to a component that is not yet instantiated. When the component later is instantiated it calls r egi st er Component  (this is automatically done for all CasparCG components on the stage) which then checks if there are any buffered data for the component and it that case it sends the data to it. The XML format that is sent from CasparCG looks like this: "instance 1" is a regular Caspar Text Fi el d and it takes one parameter called "text" and sets the value in the attribute "value" to the text parameter in the CasparTextField. "instance2" demonstrates a possible CasparCG component that takes an image path and and an alpha value. "customParameter1" is a custom parameter defined in the document class and it will receive the value "true". Some of the reasons to override Set Dat a: You want to do stuff before data is set to the components You want to know when a specific component is populated with data You have code based custom parameters (read more about this in "Custom paramers") Here are some examples of overriding Set Dat a: / / Thi s over r i de checks i f i nst ance1 i s get t i ng dat a publ i c overr i de f unct i on Set Data( xml Data: XML) : voi d { / / l oop t r ough t he xml f or each ( var el ement : XML i n xml Data. chi l dr en( ) ) { / / check i f t he component Data at r r i but e "i d" i s "i nst ance1" i f ( el ement . @i d == "i nst ance1") { / / i f f ound and not a empt y st r i ng… i f ( el ement . dat a. @val ue ! = "" ) { / / . . . cal l a f uncti on "setCur r ent St at e" t hat accept s t wo par amet er s: t he cur r ent st at e and t he t ext r ecei v setCur r ent St at e( "Text r ecei ved", el ement . dat a. @val ue) ;   break; } } } / / pass on t he xml Data t o t he def aul t i mpl ement ati on whi ch wi l l send i t t o the Component DataBuf f er. super . Set Dat a( xml Dat a) ; } / / Thi s over r i de check f or data t o t he cust om par ameter "cust omPar ameter 1" publ i c overr i de f unct i on Set Data( xml Data: XML) : voi d { / / l oop t r ough t he xml f or each ( var el ement : XML i n xml Data. chi l dr en( ) ) { / / check i f t he component Data atr r i but e " i d" i s " cust omPar ameter 1" i f ( el ement . @i d == " cust omPar amet er 1") { / / i f f ound, c hec k i f t r ue or f al s e i f ( el ement . dat a. @val ue == "t r ue") { / / cal l a f unct i on "myFunct i on" and pass "t r ue".   myFunct i on( t r ue) ; } el se i f ( el ement . dat a. @val ue == "f al se") { / / cal l a f unct i on "myFunct i on" and pass "f al se".   myFunct i on( f al se) ; }   break; } } / / pass on t he xml Data t o t he def aul t i mpl ement ati on whi ch wi l l send i t t o the Component DataBuf f er. super . Set Dat a( xml Dat a) ; } GotoLabel(label:String):void [final] This method will be called from the TemplateHost when a I nvoke command is sent from CasparCG. It will first try this method, if it generates an error the TemplateHost will try Execut eMet hod instead. Got oLabel  takes one  parameter, a label, and it will try to go to and play that label on the main timeline. If there is no label with that name it will throw an error. ExecuteMethod(methodName:String):void [final] This method will be called from the TemplateHost when a I nvoke command is sent from CasparCG and the Got oLabel  command generated an error. It will try to execute a method on the template with the name specified in "methodName". If there is no method with that name it will throw an error. To expose a method that can be executed  via I nvoke/ Execut eMet hod you simply create a public function in the document class. The method does not take any  parameters. If you need to receive specific parameters you should use "Custom Parameters" that is described further  down. GetDescription():String [final] This method can be called by CasparCG and returns an XML description of the template. The description is automatically generated by the TemplateGenerator. initialize(context:ITemplateContext):void [final] This method is called when a template is instantiated and provides the template with an instance of the Communi cat i onManager  and what layer the template is loaded on to. postInitialize():void This method is called by initialize right after initialization is complete. Override this method to be able to access the Communi cat i onManager  and/or the layer. over r i de publ i c f unc t i on pos t I ni t i al i z e( ) : voi d { { communi cat i onManager. shar edData. addSubscr i ber ( t hi s, "t est Data" ) ) ; } registerComponent(instance:ICasparComponent):void [final] This method is called by a component when initialized. It will tell the Component Dat aBuf f er  that the instance is ready to receive data. dispose():void [final] This method is called by the TemplateHost before the template is removed. It will dispose all the loaded  components. preDispose():void This method is called by dispose just before the components are disposed. Override this method to be able to clean up everything you need before the template is removed. over r i de publ i c f uncti on pr eDi spose( ) : voi d { r emoveAl l MyLi st eners( ) ; st opAl l Ti mer s( ) ;   di sposeAl l MyObj ect s( ) ;   makeFi nal Not i f i cat i ons( ) ; } public properties movieClip:MovieClip [final][read-only] A reference to the template as a Movi eCl i p. Used by the TemplateHost. originalWidth:Number [final] The original width of the template. This is set by TemplateGenerator and should normally This property is used by the TemplateHost. be set manually. originalHeight:Number [final] The original height of the template. This is set by TemplateGenerator and should normally This property is used by the TemplateHost. be set manually. originalFrameRate:Number [final] The original frame rate of the template. This is set by TemplateGenerator and should normally manually. This property is used by the TemplateHost. be set stopOnFirstFrame:Boolean [final] A property that is true if there is a st op( )  on the first frame on the main timeline. This is set by TemplateGenerator and should normally be set manually. This property is used by the TemplateHost. communicationManager:ICommunicationManager [final][read-only] This is a reference to the communication manager and it is accessible in the post I ni t i al i ze method. description:XML [final] This is a reference to the description XML that describes the template. This is set by TemplateGenerator and  should normally be set manually. This property is used by the TemplateHost. version:String [final][read-only] The version of the template. This is set by TemplateGenerator and should normally manually. This property is used by the TemplateHost. be set layer:int [final][read-only] The layer that the template is playing on. This is set by the TemplateHost and it is accessible in the pos t I ni t i al i ze method. Custom Parameters If you need to use custom parameters you can expose them by adding the following constant in your document class: pri vate const cust omPar amet er Descr i pt i on: XML = ; You will have to use the exact syntax described above for the TemplateGenerator to recognize it. The parameters will  be included in the template description and can then be externally accessed. The parameter types should be set to either boolean, number, string or xml. pri vate const cust omPar amet er Descr i pt i on: XML = ; . . . overr i de publ i c f unct i on Set Data( xml Data: XML) : voi d { f or each ( var el ement : XML i n xml Data. chi l dr en( ) ) { i f ( el ement . @i d == "r esul t Dat a") { popul ateResul t Tabl e(el ement . data) ; } } super . Set Dat a( xml Dat a) ; } Creating A Custom Caspar Component You can pass custom XML to your template. But it's suggested sticking to the form of componentData and then  putting your custom xml inside the tags because then in the flash template you can still use the default setData implementation and still have the option to make custom caspar component's, which would then receive your custom xml. Instead of putting everything on the stage put it in a movieclip instead which would then implement ICasparComponent (or you could do everything from actionscript). Here is the interface you need to implement: [1] (http://sourceforge.net/p/casparcg/code/3801/tree/framework  /as3/TemplateHost/trunk/src/se/svt/caspar/template/components/ICasparComponent.as) Simply put the content inside a class which extends Sprite or MovieClip and implements ICasparComponent. Then it needs to implement a SetData function which will receive the custom xml inside the componentData tag which has an id matching the component id, a destroy function which cancels any timers etc so that everything can be garbage collected, and a "get name()" function which should return the string which should be the id that you use to send data to it in the tag. Then in the document class you just need to do something like: var component : I Caspar Component = new Component Cl ass Name( ) ; addChi l d( component ) ; r egi st er Component ( component ) ; The registerComponent function is part of the CasparTemplate class and is what enables the relevant template data to  be sent to the relevant caspar component. The advantages of doing it this way are that the ComponentDataBuffer will still be used, and that it is easier to add  more components to the same template later on if you wanted, or transfer components between different projects. The component data buffer holds back any xml that it has received with an id that hasn't been registered with registerComponent() and then sends it after registerComponent() has been called. So it means if a component isn't loaded until after a few frames and data has already been sent to it, its SetData function will receive it immediately after registerComponent() has been called and it won't get lost. Communication Manager More information soon... Best Practices Before you deliver a .ft file you should omit all you traces. If you have custom parameters you should define them as described above. Remove any instances that are not used. Generate FT File To create the .ft file you use the TemplateGenerator. One of the great things with CasparCG is that it is free, with the exception that you are forced to use Adobe Flash Professional to create your templates, until now! Well, actually, this have always been possible to do but has not been very clear. WHAT YOU'LL NEED 1. You will need Flash Develop (http://www.flashdevelop.org/) since this example is created in this wonderful free editor. The project is compiled with the Flex compiler which is installed together with the program. Just press Ctrl + Enter as usual. 2. Basic coding skills in AS3. The code is pretty well commented but you will need to know some of the basics. WHAT YOU'LL GET 1. A pretty ugly template that you can play with. 2. Hopefully a better understanding of how to create templates without using the CasparCG TemplateGenerator. 3. An example on how to use the inbuilt component flow to create custom components so you don't need to override SetData and doing all the xml-parsing in the document class. SOME NOTES As you might notice the output file is suffixed with .ft. This is not the act of magic as with the CasparCG TemplateGenerator, it is merely a setting in the properties for the project. I have just changed the "SWF" to "ft". I hope this will make CasparCG even more accessible than before! Of course you can use any editor/IDE with this method, it's just that I prefer Flash Develop. Download example file for Flash Develop (http://sourceforge.net/projects/casparcg/files/Flash_Templates /TemplateWithoutFlashPro.zip/download) CasparCG Server 2.0 can play out all the RGB and RGBA image formats that the FreeImage (http://freeimage.sourceforge.net/features.html) component can play. Make sure that you convert CMYK images to RGB before trying to play them with CasparCG Server. With CasparCG Server's Image Scroll you can automatically animate bitmaps with horizontal or vertical scrolling. CasparCG Server 2.0.3 and earlier works with 32-bit, 2-channel stereo sound. Embedded SDI audio via BlackMagic Design's cards is 32-bit, 2-channel stereo sound. Embedded SDI audio via Bluefish cards is 16-bit, 2-channel stereo sound. System audio (via the computer's sound card) is 16-bit, 2-channel stereo sound. The preferred sampling rate of audio is 48 kHz which conforms with broadcast standards, however other sampling rates, such as 44.1 kHz (CD Audio) also work. Audio inputs that are not 48 kHz, 32-bit stereo are automatically transcoded in real-time. The FFmpeg producer and the DeckLink producer can both handle audio. The FFmpeg producer tries to determine the channel layout of the source file, but sometimes cannot do so correctly. Therefore the possibility to specify the channel layout of a file exists. It can be done like this: PLAY 1- 0 sur r ound_f i l e CHANNEL_L AYOUT SMPTE ...or by using a custom on-the-fly generated channel layout: PLAY 1- 0 sur r ound_f i l e CHANNEL_LAYOUT " 5. 1: Ls Rs L R C LFE" The DeckLink producer by default assumes "stereo" as the channel layout, but can be told to use another layout: PLAY 1- 0 DECKLI NK DEVI CE 2 FORMAT 720p5000 CHANNEL_ LAYOUT SMPTE ...or a custom layout with the same syntax as expected by the FFmpeg producer: PLAY 1- 0 DECKLI NK DEVI CE 2 FORMAT 720p5000 CHANNEL_ LAYOUT " 5. 1: Ls Rs L R C LFE" All consumers receive audio data in the channel layout used by the audio mixer, but can convert it to another layout. Here is how the relevant (those consuming audio in any way) consumers handles incoming audio: system-audio Always converts to stereo decklink Defaults to stereo but can be told to use another via the element in or the CHANNEL_LAYOUT parameter. Note that the actual output on the SDI cable will always be 2 channels, 8 channels or 16 channels. So for example a 5.1 channel layout will cause 8 channels to be sent but with the two last channels silent. In the case of mono, channel 1 will be duplicated to channel 2. bluefish Defaults to stereo but can be told to use another via the element in casparcg.config or the CHANNEL_LAYOUT parameter. ffmpeg Always uses the same audio layout as the audio mixer. Note that the default audio codec for a given container type might not support the encoding of more than 2 channels, in which case the FFmpeg consumer  will fail to initialize. A custom -acodec must be given in those cases which supports the number of channels used by the video channel. 2-channel stereo is supported in CasparCG Server 2.0.3 and earlier. Mono and up to 16 channel audio input and output is supported from CasparCG Server version 2.0.4. Audio Channel Layouts The audio pipeline works with a concept called channel layouts. It is a mapping between a numbered audio channel and the corresponding speaker it is supposed to be directed to. The following are the predefined layouts in CasparCG Server 2.0.4 and later: ============================================================ Name Type Layout ------------ ------------- ---------------- ---------------- mono 1. 0 C st er eo 2. 0 L R dt s 5. 1 C L R Ls Rs LFE dol bye 5. 1+st er eomi x L R C LFE Ls Rs Lmi x Rmi x dol bydi gi t al 5. 1 L C R Ls Rs LFE smpt e 5. 1 L R C LFE Ls Rs passthru 16ch ( wi l l j ust pass ever ythi ng as i s) ============================================================ The channel layout type like for example "5.1" is a string selected by convention to describe what set of channels to expect in the layout. This means that for example dts and smpte are directly translatable, just by rearranging the order  of the channels. The channel layout concept is used in the following areas: The frames produced by a producer has a channel layout. The audio mixer mixes in a specific channel layout. The mixer automatically converts incoming audio to the correct channel layout if necessary before mixing. A consumer might convert the frames delivered from the audio mixer to any other channel layout before outputting the audio. A channel layout can be redefined or added by adding an element in casparcg.config in the configuration/audio /channel-layouts element. The element name is used as the layout name: 4. 0 4 L R Ls Rs         Rearranging and up/down mixing If a file played by the FFmpeg producer has the channel layout "dolbydigital" and the audio_mixer channel layout is "smpte", the audio mixer will recognise that no upmixing or downmixing is required to adapt the incoming data on the FFmpeg layer (both "dolbydigital" and "smpte" share the same layout type "5.1"), so it just rearranges the channel order:  0  1  2  3  4  5 => => => => => => 0 2 1 4 5 3 (L) ( C) ( R) (Ls) ( Rs) ( LFE) If on the other hand the layouts are of different types, a so called mix config will be used in order to determine how to convert the audio channels. Audio Mix Configs A mix config specifies how to convert audio of a channel layout type (for example "5.1") to another layout type (for  example "2.0"). The default mix config for "5.1 => 2.0" looks like this (configurable in casparcg.config):       5. 1   2. 0   aver age   L L 1. 0 R R 1. 0 C L 0. 707 C R 0. 707 Ls L 0. 707 Rs R 0. 707   The mix-element determines what strategy should be used when multiple source channels are mixed into a single destination channel. Two strategies are available: add -- Adds the samples together (can cause clipping). average -- Uses the average of all source samples (can cause too low volume).[/list] Each mapping defines the source channel and the destination channel as well as the "influence" the source channel should have on the destination channel. Lowering the "influence" can be useful to help avoiding clipping when the "add" strategy is used. With the DeckLink Consumer you can decide if you want audio output via HDMI, SDI or the audio jacks of the card(s). With the Screen Consumer, audio is played via the regular audio output of the machine. With the Bluefish Consumer, audio is either played via the regular audio output of the machine, or embedded in the SDI stream. Audio embedded in an FLV can currently only be encoded with 44.1 kHz sampling rate, meaning that it will not match the standard broadcast sampling rate of 48 kHz. For short sound effects, this shouldn't cause any real problems,  but beware when using longer FLV videos with sound. An alternative solution would be the import the 48 kHz audio file into as a separate audio file, and sync it to the silent video on the same timeline. The biggest drawback of using audio inside a Flash template is that it can only be played through the system audio output, which means it will not be embedded in SDI/HDMI output, and it will not be in perfect sync. If you need a Flash template to play audio and/or video, we recommend you use the CasparCG AS3 Server Connection library (available from the Download page) to have the Flash template send the appropriate AMCP commands to load and   play audio (and/or video) through the FFmpeg producer. The frame rate and resolution used for a channel is primarily set in the CasparCG Server configuration, but it must also match the content your are playing. The frame rate and resolution of content is changed: In the Bluefish Feature App if you are using the Bluefish Consumer for SDI output. In the DeckLink control panel if you are using the DeckLink Consumer for SDI output. In the pre-rendered video file if played by the FFmpeg Producer. In the Flash Professional's Document Properties if you are making an FT for playback via the Flash Producer. The maximum frame rate that a CasparCG system is capable of depends on many factors such as resolution, frame rate, bit rate, codec and which producers and consumers you use, plus the performance of your hardware. Flash templates are automatically scaled to the resolution determined by the consumer used. That means you can work in square-pixel documents in Flash and they are scaled properly to fit the consumer. This also means that as long as you are only using vector graphics and text, you can reuse SD templates in HD outputs. If you don't have 1 to 1 ratio between your video resolution and the template resolution, Flash will scale it, which costs a lot of performance. Instead you can use the Mixer Module to scale it for you on the GPU. Add the following lines to your config. Don't forget to replace FORMAT and RESOLUTION:     1080i 5000 cg20. f t h.   FORMAT   RESOLUTION   RESOLUTION   FORMAT  = One of the CasparCG Server's supported resolution and frame rates. RESOLUTION = Your template's resolution. For Flash content played by the Flash Producer and output to an SDI or HDMI consumer that is capable of interlaced  output: Expected Playback Frame Rate and Mode: Set the Flash Document Properties Frame Rate: Render FLVs as: 23.976p 23.976 fps 23.976  progressive fps 24p (film / movie /cinema for progressive playback) 24 fps 24 progressive fps 25p (progressive PAL SD and HD ) 29.976p (progressive NTSC SD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called , 50p (progressive PAL SD , HD and , 50i (interlaced PAL SD ) 50 progressive fps 50 fps 50 progressive fps 59.94 fps 59.94 progressive fps and  59.94 fps 59.94 progressive fps ) and ) , HD , 29.976  progressive fps 50 fps , HD , 25 progressive fps ) and 59.94i (interlaced NTSC SD HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called 29.976 fps and 59.94p (progressive NTSC SD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called 25 fps and ) Flash Content Output to Screen For Flash content played by the Flash Producer and output to an non-interlaced consumer such as the Screen Consumer: Expected Playback Frame Rate and Mode: Set the Flash Document Properties Frame Rate: Render FLVs as: 23.976p 23.976 fps 23.976  progressive fps 24p (film / movie /cinema for progressive playback) 24 fps 24 progressive fps 25p (progressive PAL SD ) 25 fps 25 progressive fps 29.976 fps 29.976  progressive fps , HD 29.976p (progressive NTSC SD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called , 50p (progressive PAL SD , HD and , , ) and 59.94p (progressive NTSC SD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called and HD ) , HD and 50 fps 50 progressive fps 59.94 fps 59.94 progressive fps ) Video Content Output to SDI, HDMI or Screen For video content played by the FFmpeg Producer and output to an SDI or HDMI consumer that is capable of  interlaced output: Expected Playback Frame Rate and Mode: Render Video as: Render Video with Field Dominance: 23.976p 23.976 fps Progressive 24p (film / movie /cinema for   progressive playback) 24 fps Progressive and  25 fps Progressive 25p (progressive PAL SD HD ) 29.976p (progressive NTSC SD 29.976 fps , HD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called and Progressive , ) 50p (progressive PAL SD and ) 50i (interlaced PAL SD ) , 50 fps Progressive and  25 fps Interlaced upper/odd' .') 59.94p (progressive NTSC SD , HD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called and Progressive 29.976 fps Interlaced upper/odd (unless rendering to a DV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV) codec, in which case you should render lower/even.) , ) 59.94i (interlaced NTSC SD , HD and HD ) (sometimes mistakenly called and 59.94 fps , ) You can have interlaced output of both dynamic Flash content and pre-rendered videos and images to SDI, HD-SDI or HDMI via several available consumers. CasparCG Server 2.0 supports yadif (http://avisynth.org.ru/yadif/yadif.html) de-interlacing for the FFmpeg producer  and the DeckLink producer. Yadif de-interlacing . De-interlacing is automatically enabled when playing clips with incompatible encoding, e.g. 1080i50 -> 1080p50, 720p50 -> 1080i50. It is possible to manually activate de-interlacing for clips by providing the extra arguments to the LOAD and PLAY commands with a FILTER YADIF=1:-1  command, for example: LOADBG 1- 1 MYCLI P FI LTER YADI F=1: - 1 You can have interlaced output of both dynamic Flash content and pre-rendered videos and images to SDI, HD-SDI or HDMI via several available consumers. CasparCG Server 2.0 supports yadif (http://avisynth.org.ru/yadif/yadif.html) de-interlacing for the FFmpeg producer  and the DeckLink producer. Yadif de-interlacing . De-interlacing is automatically enabled when playing clips with incompatible encoding, e.g. 1080i50 -> 1080p50, 720p50 -> 1080i50. It is possible to manually activate de-interlacing for clips by providing the extra arguments to the LOAD and PLAY commands with a FILTER YADIF=1:-1  command, for example: LOADBG 1- 1 MYCLI P FI LTER YADI F=1: - 1 All rendering in all producers is done at 8-bit color depth in RGB color levels and with 4:4:4 chroma sampling. Content with lower will of course be played "as-is." Read more about Chroma Subsampling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling) at Wikipedia. Read more about pixel aspect ratio at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio) . Each producer and consumer has its own bit depth limitation. If you try to play/render content with a higher bit depth (for example 10-bit DPX, 16-bit TIFF or 32-bit EXR) you will not get predictable or even working results. Currently we recommend you use 8 bpc (24-bit plus optional 8-bit alpha channel) content for best performance and  stable operation. The Flash Producer is currently limited to 8 bits per RGB channel plus an 8 bit alpha/key, since this is a limitation in Adobe’s FlashPlayer. The FFmpeg Producer is limited to 8 bits per RGB channel plus an 8 bit alpha/key , since this is a current limitation of the FFmpeg (http://FFmpeg.org/) library. The Image Producer is limited to 8 bits per RGB channel plus an 8 bit alpha/key . The Color Producer is limited to 8 bits per RGB channel . The Bluefish Consumer currently supports 8 bits per channel rendering for RGB/fill, plus an 8 bit alpha/key, even though the Bluefish cards support 10 bit output. The Screen Consumer currently supports 8 bits per channel rendering for RGB/fill and no key/alpha channel. All rendering in all producers is done at 8-bit RGB levels, meaning is black and is white. This makes it easier to work with and preview content on a computer monitor, and facilitates using the same content for both broadcast and web consumption. To comply with broadcast standards such as CCIR 601 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCIR_601) and Rec. 709 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._709) the 0-255 RGB levels rendered by the producers is automatically converted  to the correct broadcast format (for example a range of 16-235) by the consumer based on the setting in the CasparCG_Server#Card_Configuration. All content must be in RGB color space. Content in CMYK color space is not supported in any current producers. Conversion from the internal RGB colorspace to output color space is handled by each consumer. For broadcast colorspace YCbCr, Rec 601, Rec 709 and other broadcast colorspaces is handled by the supported video output cards. Currently, no producers read or use any embedded color space profiles. Each producer and consumer has an individual bit depth limitation. If you try to play/render content with a higher bit depth (for example 10-bit DPX, 16-bit TIFF or 32-bit EXR) you will not get predictable or even working results. Producer Bit Depths The Flash Producer is currently limited to 8 bits per RGB channel plus an 8 bit alpha/key, since this is a limitation in Adobe’s FlashPlayer. The FFmpeg Producer is limited to 8 bits per RGB channel plus an 8 bit alpha/key , since this is a current limitation of the FFmpeg (http://FFmpeg.org/) library. TheCasparCG_Server#Image_Producer is limited to 8 bits per RGB channel plus an 8 bit alpha/key . The Color Producer is limited to 8 bits per RGB channel . You are advised to keep file names used with all the producers short, using only standard Latin characters and  numerals. Even though most support Unicode characters, there are some limitations in the FFmpeg Producer that causes media not to be found if it contains less common characters and even spaces. Recommended: May cause problems: The Fill channels is another name for the color channels that make up the image that you actually see when playing a video or image. CasparCG Server outputs the standard three color channels Red, Green and Blue of content at 8 bits  per channel. CasparCG Server 2.0 assumes that all content has pre-multiplied alpha. Version 2.0.4 added support for straight alpha  blending in the compositing stage. CasparCG Server automatically generates a key signal on the the key output of your DeckLink or Bluefish card. If  your video files have an embedded alpha channel, that will be used. Everything that cover the stage background in your Flash template graphics (even FLV video or PNG sequences) will become your key signal. When you play both video (one layer) and several Flash layers at once, CasparCG Server handles the compositing and outputs the combined fill and key signals separately. Content played by the Flash Producer is always pre-multiplied against black (no matter what the color is set to.) When composited on top or between other content (either Flash content in FTs or pre-rendered videos  played by the FFmpeg Producer, Flash's Stage will become transparent and reveal underlying layers. The alpha channel in videos played by the FFmpeg Producer should be premultiplied so you can play content from any other   producer on top and have everything correctly composited. The alpha channel in videos played by the FFmpeg Producer should be premultiplied so you can play content from any other producer on top and have everything correctly composited. Retrieved from "http://casparcg.com/wiki/Content_/_Media" This page was last modified on 7 January 2014, at 18:48. Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2.