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Videonics Firewriter Instruction Manual

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Summary of Contents for Videonics Firewriter

  • Page 1 Instruction Manual...
  • Page 2 Inc. Other products and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged. Television screens are simulated. Subject to change without notice. FireWriter is not to be used for the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material.
  • Page 3 CONTROLS POWER. Power key turns on the FireWriter unit. DEMO. Demonstrates features. Press ACCENT + DEMO for English version; SHIFT + DEMO for International version. You can also copy the demo into the editing area, to modify it or study how its effects were accomplished.

  • Page 4: Table Of Contents

    Purpose Interface”) output. Warning: Always turn power off before connecting or discon- necting GPI jack. POWER. Connect FireWriter power supply. Important: Do not use power supplies designed for any other equipment. ETHERNET. Connect to the Internet, LAN, or to a client computer.
  • Page 5 Contents Repeating Triggers ... 67 Chapter 13 • Internal Timed Trigger Notes ... 67 Fonts, Sizes, and Styles ... 54 Displaying the Real Time Clock Font and Size ... 54 and Date ... 68 Hints on Using Fonts and Sizes ... 54 Real Time Clock and Date Notes ...

  • Page 6: Chapter 1 • Introduction

    Congratulations on your purchase of the Videonics FireWriter character generator, by Focus Enhancements. FireWriter is a character generator that meets the demand of the video producer. FireWriter not only has the traditional analog video (composite and Y/C), input and output but also includes IEEE-1394 DV input and output for full com- patibility with digital sources and recording equipment.

  • Page 7: What Is A Character Generator

    • Have a project start playing automatically at a specified date and time. Typical Applications FireWriter can be used in live or taped settings. You can add titles as you copy or edit tapes. The original tape remains untouched – titles are added to the edited copy. FireWriter...

  • Page 8: Chapter 2 • Quickstart

    PREVIEW monitor (Chapter 22). Turn the television and VCR on. Connect a camcorder, VCR or other source (A) to FireWriter’s video and audio IN jacks if you plan to super- VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER impose titles over video. Turn on the video source and start the tape rolling.
  • Page 9 (described in Chapter 8) it belongs. The next symbols tell which effect will be used to introduce the page; VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER how it will be displayed; and which effect will be used to end its display.
  • Page 10 PAGE 8 VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER PAGE 9 Moving the Cursor If you want to add text somewhere other than where the cursor is, use the arrow keys to move the cursor. Press PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN to move a page at a time or you can hold SHIFT as you press the UP or DOWN arrow keys.
  • Page 11 PAGE 10 VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER More Changes Use menus to: • color, as well as background color and pattern. • change their type, and color. • • • • selected color. Press NEW LINE/OK or PLAY to choose the color you have high- lighted.
  • Page 12 • Press the BACKGROUND PATTERN menu key. • Use MARK START to highlight the top sub-menu. VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Use the DOWN arrow key to highlight the VIDEO symbol. Press NEW LINE/OK. • VCR or camcorder).
  • Page 13 To play just some of the pages, play manually, or use other specialized play options. Learning More A convenient way to become a FireWriter expert is to load the demo into the Editing Screen for study. To do this, press CMD (Command) + ACCENT + COPY at the same time...

  • Page 14: Chapter 3 • Connections

    DV (IEEE-1394) jacks for the input and output. DV cables deliver the best performance, particularly if your sources and record decks are DV-capable. The internally processing of Firewriter is digital, so by using the DV format, the signal can remain digital. Video source (optional). Any standard video source OUTPUT monitor.

  • Page 15: In And Out Markings

    BNC. If you plan to use equipment with BNC jacks, you will also need RCA-BNC adapters. • Audio. The audio jacks on FireWriter are simple pass- through connectors, provided to make connections between two video devices convenient. AUDIO IN is routed directly to AUDIO OUT, unmodified by the unit.

  • Page 16: Connecting Outputs And Monitors

    PAGE 20 Connecting Outputs and Monitors Connect the OUTPUT monitor to FireWriter’s video OUT jack. Connect FireWriter’s DV OUT to the DV VIDEO IN of the Record VCR. Then connect to a television or monitor Recording the Output Connect FireWriter’s video OUT to the VIDEO IN of the Record VCR.
  • Page 17 • Connect the video source’s VIDEO OUT jack to the video IN jack on FireWriter. Connect the source’s AUDIO OUT jacks to FireWriter’s AUDIO IN jacks. Input Connection Examples Avoid mixing input and output types — if DV or S-video jacks are not available on both the input and output, use composite for both.

  • Page 18: Videonics Equipment Arrangements

    Chapter 4 • Connecting Editing Equipment FireWriter is compatible with a wide range of editing equipment, such as edit controllers, video processors, and video mixers. It can be connected in a variety of ways, depending on what you plan to do and what equipment you have.

  • Page 19: Multiple Source Editing

    (A) and FireWriter (B) to the recorder. In the second setup, the camcorder is connected through FireWriter (B) and a mixer (A) to the recorder. In the third setup (page 25) a digital mixer (B) and FireWriter (C) are connected directly to a monitor simulating a message board setup.

  • Page 20: Chapter 5 • Using The Demo

    + SHIFT + DEMO key combination will stop it. Using the Demo as a Guided Tour The demo makes extensive use of FireWriter’s features and includes several clever tricks for making interesting titles. You can study the demo in detail by copying it into the Editing Screen.

  • Page 21: Using The Demo To Create Titles

    VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Chapter 6 • Typing Titles Creating titles is simple using FireWriter’s full keyboard to type upper and lower case, plus special and accented characters. The Editing Screen and Cursor The Editing Screen is used whenever you are typing or edit- ing text.

  • Page 22: Shortcuts For Moving The Cursor

    You can type up to 1000 characters per line. (It’s unlikely you would ever try to type that many but if you do, the memory-full symbol appears to remind you to start a VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER new line.) •...

  • Page 23: Typing Special And Accented Characters

    “ ” * Note: FireWriter offers “curly” quotes in addition to “straight” quotes. Curly quotes look like this: “ ” ‘ ’ , as opposed to straight quotes which look like this: " ' . It also has the “em-dash” (—), a dash that is longer than a hyphen (-). Note that the straight quotes in some fonts are actually slightly curled due to the style used by that font’s...

  • Page 24: Chapter 7 • Pages

    ACCENT + 9 letter ACCENT + i ACCENT + SHIFT + i VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Chapter 7 • Pages Titles are displayed as pages and pages can be managed in separate projects. This chapter describes ways to manage text as pages and projects.

  • Page 25: Page Symbols

    With the ability to create hundreds of pages comes a prob- lem: How do you find a particular page efficiently? FireWriter includes a Page Index that lists all pages in a condensed form and makes it easy to move the cursor to the desired page.

  • Page 26: Inserting A Page

    PAGE 40 VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER PAGE 41 To delete a set of page symbols (merging the two pages), don’t mark any text. Position the cursor just before the first character after the page symbols and press DELETE. The page symbols will be deleted and the pages will merge. The page characteristics (background color, effects, etc.) of the...

  • Page 27: Chapter 8 • Projects

    About Projects FireWriter can hold the titles for many different titling tasks at once. Projects provide a convenient way to keep each job’s titles separate. A project is simply a collection of pages. Each project is independent —...

  • Page 28: Moving Between Projects

    • Press COPY or MOVE and the marked pages will be duplicated or moved to a new location. VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Chapter 9 • Changing Titles You can easily make changes to the text on the screen. You can delete or insert new text, reposition it, and more.

  • Page 29: Marking Whole Lines And Pages

    Deleting Marked Text Press DELETE immediately after marking text and the marked text will disappear. To prevent accidental erasure, VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER the cursor must be located just after one of the marks. If you accidentally press DELETE, press UNDO immediately and the text will be restored.

  • Page 30: Memory

    If you copy part of the line, but no NEW LINE charac- ters, the letters will take the characteristics of their new home. In this case, the text would be blue. VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER • previous line, then the NEW LINE character will be included and the characteristics of the line will be copied as well.

  • Page 31: Chapter 10 • Positioning Text

    Positioning Vertically Up, Down, Center You can also automatically position the text vertically, mak- ing it appear at the top, middle, or bottom of a screen. VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Additional Positioning Hints You can fine-tune the horizontal positioning by adding spaces to the front of each line, or using tabs (see the section, “Tabs,”...

  • Page 32: Chapter 11 • How To Use Menus

    Concept The keys in the top row are called menu keys because when you press one, you see a menu on the screen. Like a menu in a restaurant, FireWriter menus are simple lists of what’s available. Sub-menus Menus may contain “sub-menus” which show additional choices or alternate ways of making a choice.

  • Page 33: How Characteristics Affect Text

    Examples: Text has been marked, so the font and color change is applied to all marked text. The line that contains the cursor is unchanged. VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Choosing Characteristics Before or After Typing the Text There are three ways to create text with the characteristics you desire: •...

  • Page 34: Chapter 13 • Fonts, Sizes, And Styles

    PAGE 56 Chapter 13 • Fonts, Sizes, and Styles FireWriter offers a wide variety of ways to add flair to your titles. You can independently change font, size, and style, for hundreds of combinations. Font and Size The first menu key brings up the FONT &...

  • Page 35: Chapter 14 • Colors

    The colors can be combined with shadows or outlines for some stunning effects. Each character can use different colors for letters and outlines. FIREWRITER Color Menus The color menu applies to Letter, Border, Outline, and Back- ground menus with each color menu showing the same colors and working the same way.

  • Page 36: Chapter 15 • Background Patterns

    PAGE 60 Chapter 15 • Background Patterns FireWriter has four different types of backgrounds, video, solid color, gradient patterns, and full page, picture (JPEG) back- grounds. From the Background Pattern menu you can also overlay graphic"bugs". Pattern Menus The solid color pattern displays a solid color, using whatever color you picked in the background color menu.

  • Page 37: Chapter 16 • Borders

    Box plus lines. Add a blank line above and below the box. Set the blank lines to the smallest Font & Size. Add a VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER border line below the blank text line above the box. Add a border line above the one below the box.

  • Page 38: Effects, Scrolls, And Crawls

    Effect In, the moving boundary reveals the new page of titles in its wake. If it’s an Effect Out, the wipe removes the titles. FireWriter includes 18 wipes. Any of them can be used as an Effect In or an Effect Out.

  • Page 39: Infinite Duration

    To set a duration to 10.5 seconds, for instance, you would type 1, then 0, then 5. If you enter 60 or more as the number of seconds, FireWriter will convert it to minutes — 72 seconds would be changed to 1:12.0, for example.

  • Page 40: Chapter 18 • Clock And Date Features

    PAGE 68 Chapter 18 • Clock and Date Features With FireWriter's versatile clock and date features, you can dis- play a “real-time” clock and/or date and you can trigger projects automatically, at a predetermined time and date. You can also drop today’s time or date into your project with just a keystroke.

  • Page 41: Displaying The Real Time Clock And Date

    Real-Time Clock and Date Notes • The clock and date, when selected from the EFFECTS IN menu, will always display the current time and date. VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER • and/or date either before clock/date are set or after, by moving from clock/date position back to the first two sym- bols in the sub-menu.

  • Page 42: Chapter 19 • Superimposing Titles

    They can also be used for subtitles or just as a way to play credits with an interesting background. FireWriter allows you to superimpose titles. Effects, such as scrolling, can be used to bring titles in and out over the source video.

  • Page 43: Making Titles Come And Go

    VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Chapter 20 • Playing Pages You can play pages many ways. Like a VCR, FireWriter allows you to play pages of titles in forward or reverse, at various speeds. After you have created and edited your titles using the Editing Screen, you are ready to play them.

  • Page 44: Playing All Pages

    Manual Play (Slide Projector Mode) You can make FireWriter act as a slide projector, playing a new page with each key press. For example, if you are using titles to make a live presentation, you would probably want each page to remain on the screen as you discuss it, moving on to the next page when you are ready.

  • Page 45: Continuous Play (Video Billboard)

    You can play all the screens in sequence, again and again, like a slide projector with a circular tray and an automatic timer. This makes FireWriter into an automatic “video billboard,” useful for point-of-purchase display, cable televi- sion stations, hotel lobbies, bars, or any other application that requires a running program of video titles.

  • Page 46: Gpi Trigger

    The tape is also a good safety net —although it is unlikely FireWriter will lose titles, it is wise to have a backup plan, just in case. Set up your titles, page by page, remembering to...
  • Page 47 Your new remote trigger plugs into the “GPI (CONTROL)” jack on the back of FireWriter. IMPORTANT! Any time you plug or unplug the GPI trigger, make sure FireWriter is turned OFF. Plugging or unplugging with the unit turned on can cause the loss of your work.

  • Page 48: Chapter 22 • Preview

    VIDEONICS FIREWRITER Chapter 23 • Computer Connec- tions You can network your FireWriter to a PC via either a serial (RS- 232) or Ethernet (10Base-T) connector. Pages, projects, back- grounds, bugs, fonts, and operating software can be copied to or from the unit.

  • Page 49: Ethernet

    4. An optional FTP password allows you to control file read and write security. It is suggested that you enter one once you have vefified communication. 5. FireWriter is now networked, and it should be visible as a FTP device. Connecting to a PC with a direct serial port 1.

  • Page 50: Updating System Software

    For example, you can download new oper- ating software from our support site to a networked PC. This same PC can be used to access your FireWriter to install the "Software" file. Older copies of the operating software, as well as a library of backgrounds, bugs, pages, and projects can be kept on your PC .

  • Page 51: Fonts

    VIDEONICS FIREWRITER VIDEONICS FIREWRITER PAGE 91 Chapter 24 • Fonts A variety of fonts are included with FireWriter. These include those most popular for video. Stan- dard (both serif and san-serif), style, script, and symbol fonts are included for variety. Each font is uniquely numbered, rather than named.

  • Page 52: Advanced Techniques, Shortcuts

    Appendix A • Advanced Techniques, Shortcuts, and CMD (Command) Keys Here are some hints and techniques that will become useful as you become experienced with FireWriter. When “+” appears between the names of two buttons, press both keys at the same time. Capacity •...

  • Page 53: Projects

    Safe Title Area CMD + SHIFT +POSN will display a safe title area. This can be moved with the arrow keys in order to align FireWriter's output relative to the video raster. Generally, this should be centered so that characters and graphics will not appear off screen.

  • Page 54: Appendix B • Graphic Files

    Appendix B • Included Graphic Files An assortment of graphic files and gradient patterns are provided with FireWriter. You can use these files royalty- free. The files reside in the on-board flash memory and will not be lost when power has been properly removed.

  • Page 55: Appendix C • Glossary

    Device that allows user to modify video, improve apparent sharpness, or reduce unwanted artifacts. See VIDEO PROCESSOR. FADE In FireWriter, a fade is a transition effect in which the titles fade away to leave the background or vice-versa. FONT The form and shape of a set of characters.
  • Page 56 The European color TV broadcasting standard featuring 625 lines per frame and 50 frames per second. See NTSC and SECAM. PATTERN In FireWriter, an array of dots, lines, or colors that create a pattern that can be used for backgrounds, letters, outlines, and borders. PIXEL PATTERN Pattern comprised of small dots and/or lines.
  • Page 57 A device, such as the Digital Video Mixer, used to combine video signals from two or more sources. Inputs are synchronized, then mixed along with various special effects patterns and shapes. VIDEO PATTERN When VIDEO is chosen for a FireWriter pattern, the incoming video signal is used instead of the FireWriter’s own colors or patterns. VIDEO PROCESSOR Device used to modify aspects of the video signal such as color, contrast, brightness, noise, sharpness.