Feature Preview: Video Chain Enhancements

In the announcement for the October 2010 Edition, I mentioned a few of the features that will be included with this update to SongShow Plus. One feature that I did not mention, however, is the enhancement to the Video Chain feature.

The Video Chain mechanism was introduced in 2005 as part of an early-look release of SongShow Plus version 7. This features lets you chain two or more videos together and treat them as a single video file. This is all accomplished without any re-rendering of video files. More information can be found with the announcement of the Video Chain feature.

Since the release of version 7, the Video Chain feature has remained untouched. That is, until now. Here is a list of enhancements to this feature:

Video Chains as Motion Backgrounds

That's right, you can now use the Video Chain feature to create your own long-play video backgrounds. Any video chain can be used as a motion background, but there is a special setting you can select that will make the chain work especially for this purpose. It is the new option in the Video Chain builder window called Loop video clips for motion background. When you select this option, you are given two other settings. One lets you set the Time-span for each clip, and the other lets you set the Transition time from one clip to the next. With these settings, you can be sure that every clip will loop for the same amount of time regardless of their actual lengths. The transition time lets you place a gradual cross fade from one clip to the next. Ideal for motion backgrounds.

Blank Space Between Clips

If you are using a video chain to simply play a serios of video clips, you can now specify a blank space of time between each clip. Previously, each clip would start immediately after the previous clip ends. Now you can specify the amount of time to wait between each clip.

Video Chains within Video Chains

If you really want to get tricky, you can now also include video chains within video chains. I'll just let you ponder that one for awhile.

Enhanced Builder

The Video Chain window also inherits some of the new features being provided in the October 2010 Edition for searching and importing files -- but more on that later.

Video Chains in Slide Shows

Unlike previous editions, you can now also include video chains in slide shows. This means that all of the video formats supported by SongShow Plus can be placed in slide shows and be used as backgrounds or video objects.

If you haven't looked at the Video Chain feature lately, the new enhancements to it may make it worth your while to take another look.

(BE246)

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