POSM Video Options

The Video options in POSM are separated into two groups: Live Video and Whole Run Video. Live Video is what the user sees on screen when recording observations, taking pictures and clips. Whole Run Video is what runs in the back ground, recording everything that the user sees while recoding a session. This document will cover the options for both of these groups.

Live Video

To configure Live Video settings, go to POSM preferences and then click on Setup Video and
Image Options.

Figure 1: Setup Software Video

The Setup Software Video form is separated into four tabs: Settings, IP Camera, Image Options and Multi Encoder.
The settings tab covers most of the common used settings for live video in POSM. To start on the upper left side of the form.

Enable Video

Enable Video will enable or disable video completely in POSM. Disabling the video will turn off any Live video or Captured Digital video while in a session.

Enable Software Clips

Enable Software Clips when checked will check Take Clip in the inspection window when adding observation. The clips are the mini movies that are recorded whenever an observation is taken. If the user would prefer to tell the software when the take a clip, or does not wish to
use clips, this box should remain unchecked. Even if the box is unchecked, a clip may be taken while in a session by checking the Take Clip box above the add observation button. The clip length may be set by changing the time in the Clip Length box. This time is in seconds.

Enable Take Pictures

Enable take pictures when checked will check the Take Pictures checkbox in the inspection window when adding an observation. This will take a picture after the text for the observation is put on the screen. When this box is unchecked the user may still take a picture by manually checking the Take Picture box in the session before adding an observation.

Enable Audio Recording

The Enable Audio Recording check box enables or disables audio recording for clips.

Enable Long Clip

Enable Long Clip checks the Long Clip box while adding observations. A long clip is different than a Software Clip in that it adds a Pause / Stop button when selected and the timer counts up rather than down. Long Clips may be as long as the user wants to record the observations and may be paused at any time during the observation recording. Selecting a long clip also
unselects a short clip as you can only have one clip recorded at time. The background whole run recording will continue to record as normal during any clip. The user may also have multiple pictures, short and long clips attached to any observation by right clicking on the observation while in an inspection and choosing Add Picture, Add Picture / Clip, or Edit Picture and Clips.

Record Start Session

The Record Start Session checkbox will add a SI- Start Inspection observation at the beginning of the inspection and record the intro pages as a clip. This option is not recommended for Nassco inspections as SI – Start Inspection is not compatible with NASSCO code set.

Viewing Source and Vid Type

The Viewing Source options allow the user to switch between Live Video from a camera source, or Captured Digital Video from previously recorded video. Live Video may use either a Video Type of USB (POSM USB 2253 Encoder) or IP Camera input. For IP Camera input please see the section on IP Camera. When using USB option a Sensoray 2253 Video encoder must be installed onto the computer. If the adapter is found it will show under the live video: Found Channel A. If there is no USB adapter available it will say not found. Captured Digital video is

useful in the office to review previously recorded inspections. In this mode the operator may add or edit observations from the recorded video. Only pictures may be captured from the recorded video, not clips. In digital capture mode the user may also add videos from other sources such as manhole cameras and push cameras for coding in the office.

Refresh Preview

Refresh Preview will force a refresh of the live video on screen.

Device Dialog

The Device Dialog button will open the Windows device information for the 2253 encoder.

Enable Player Audio

The Enable Player Audio check box enables or disables audio playback in digital capture mode and the POSM video edit screen.

Enable DeInterlacing

The Enable Deinterlacing checkbox enables deinterlacing on the live viewing screen in POSM. NTSC and PAL video are interlaced video formats. This was a system during the early days of TV to save bandwidth by showing every other line of video to give smooth motion. Computer screens are Non-Interlaced which means you see every pixel and line that moves on them. When an interlaced video is displayed on a non-interlaced monitor you will notice black lines running across the screen during movement. Deinterlacing techniques attempt to blend these frames into a progressive output so the lines do not show up on the non-interlaced monitor. While this will give a better output picture for viewing, it does use more CPU time. On older systems this can cause lag in the live video display.

Clip Encoder

The clip encoder options allow the user to choose to record clips in WMV or other formats with the Multi-Encoder. Please see the Multi-Encoder section for information on what formats and options are available with the Multi-Encoder.

Audio Input Needles

Audio input is needed to record audio into the Sensoray 2253 encoder. The cables must be Stereo 1/8” cables and plugged into the Audio Line Input of the Sensoray. The microphone input is not used. If a microphone is required, it must be plugged into the computer’s microphone input and passed though the computers audio card. Typically the computer audio out is fed into the Sensoray audio line in. The line out of the Sensoray is plugged into a set of speakers. In order to test that the audio input is working, play music or any noise though the computer (Windows Media Player typically has a few default songs in it). The needles for both the left and right input should move if audio is picked up by the Sensoray. Also make sure that the computer’s audio output is set to 100% to pick up the most audio possible. Turn down the audio on the speakers, not the computer, if it is too loud.

Video Encoder Options

• View Size: This sets the resolution of the video seen in the live video while recording observations. On NTSC systems this is normally set to 640x480. On PAL systems this is set to 720x576.

• Aspect Ratio: This set the aspect ratio of the video on screen. Box output will box the video to ensure the aspect ratio seen on screen is correct. Stretch will stretch the video to cover the entire video window in the POSM inspection screen. When stretching POSM to full screen, the box setting may place black bars on the left and right of the video. This will ensure the proper aspect ratio is kept for the video. Using Stretch can cause a round pipe to look oval.

• Input Source: Changes the input source. When using the POSM USB Encoder this is always Composite.

• Video System: This chooses the type of video system that your camera uses. Most systems in the USA use NTSC. If the system is PAL, choose PAL.

• Encoding standard: This chooses the subtype of the video encoded through the USB from the Sensoray. By default POSM uses default option for encoding standard. If a USB bus issue causes problems, MJPG will reduce the USB bandwidth.

• Video Renderer: This option allows the user to choose which renderer POSM will use to display the video. VMR9 allows for graphic overlays such as measuring and text on screen. If the laser crack measure and software text overlay is not in use, Overlay is a better option as it will bypass the memory of the computer and go straight to the video card. By default we leave this option on Auto.

Enable Whole Run Video Recording

The Enable Whole Run Video Recording checkbox will turn whole run recording on and off in a session. The Open button next to Enable Whole Run Video Recording will open the Whole Run background recorder to manage its options.

IP Camera Setup

POSM is compatible with many IP cameras on the market. An IP camera may be used instead of the USB 2253 analog camera. Once the IP Camera option is selected, whole run video is disabled as this is only used for the 2253. With IP cameras whole run video may be recorded, but with no clips. Only images may be captured when IP whole run video is selected. Otherwise, if clips are desired, whole run recording must be disabled. POSM may also place text on top of the IP recorded video to display distance, location, date and observation data
on screen.

Figure 2: IP Camera Setup

On the IP Camera tab the user may setup the connection string and login information for the camera. POSM supports both HTTP and RTSP camera inputs. Setting a connection timeout ensures POSM does not lockup if the camera is not on when a session is resumed or started. The compression setting sets the compression level that the IP stream is viewed and recorded.
Checking the Enable IP Whole Run Recording box will allow POSM to record the IP stream as a whole run encoding when you press start session.

Image Options Setup

Figure 3: POSM Image Options

The Image Options tab allows the user to setup some of the image options available in POSM.

Snap Shot

The Snap Shot option lets the user choose if Print Snap shots will open with IE (Internet Explorer) or MS Paint. Note that both the path to IE and MS Paint must be set in the POSM Options section of the preferences in order for a snap shot to open once it is taken.

Image Compression

The Image compression options let the user choose if they wish to use uncompressed BMP images or compressed JPG images. JPEG images are much smaller than BMP images, and use very good compression to ensure the images look as close to the original captured image as possible.

Image Rotation

The Image Rotation option will rotate the image onscreen. 0 is the default setting which shows the video as it is captured. 90 and 180 will rotate the video right and left. 270 will rotate the video upside down.

Multi Encoder Setup

The Multi Encoder setup tab allows the user to choose which compression options will be used for the clips if the multi encoder is selected rather than WMV. These options affect the Short and Long clips only. The Multi Type option lets the user choose MPEG4, MPEG2, or MPEG1 clips. If MPEG4 is used the user can choose to use an MP4 or AVI container to save the MPEG4 video into. The Multi Bit Rate drop down allows the use to choose the bit-rate in which the clips will be encoded in.
Optional input allows the user to input any command that the FFmpeg encoder will accept. The most common is deinterlacing a 640x480 video so that there is no interlacing lines. To enable deinterlacing of the video encoding enter: -vf yadif into the Optional input field.

Whole Run Video Encoder

The POSM Whole Run video encoder is a separate application that runs from POSM to record all video in a session. POSM controls when the encoder starts, pauses and stops. All whole run settings must be performed before an inspection starts and can be opened by clicking open in Preferences/Software Video and Image Options, or while in the inspection window.

Options

Figure 4: POSM Whole Run Recorder Options Tab

The Options tab allows the user to control the main recording options for POSM. To view the video that the 2nd channel or B channel is seeing press the Start Preview button on the bottom left. Stop Preview will stop the preview of video. Device dialog will open the dialog for the B channel of the sensoray encoder.
The very top box of the screen displays the current command from POSM. Below will be the video that the B channel is receiving. The status box will display the current status of the encoder, stopped, recording, or paused. Frame will display the current frame count. Time will display the current recoding time.

The size drop down allows the user to select the video size that is recorded. For NTSC video standard sizes are 640x480 for full screen video or 320x240 for half size video. 640x480 video looks better but requires a higher bitrate to keep from pixelating. 320x240 is smaller and can run at much lower bit rates, but is half the size of the original video and does not play at full screen well without pixelating.
For PAL video the standard sizes used are 720x576 for full size video and 352x288 for half size video.
The Analog standard allows the user to choose if the camera input is NTSC or PAL.
If AVI Software Encoding is used the Video and Audio Compressor drop downs are used to select a video and audio codec. The Settings box will allow the user to open the dialog box of the encoder to set bitrate options. These drop downs are only used if AVI software encoding is used, otherwise they may be ignored.
The USB encoder used with POSM, the Sensoray 2253, supports both hardware and software encoding options. Hardware encoding means that all the video processing takes place in the encoder itself requiring no CPU time of the computer. The encoder supports MPEG4, MJPG and H264 hardware encoding. When using these options the bitrate options are selected under the bitrate tab.
POSM also has the option to software transcode video on the fly with Software Encoding. The software encoding options allow for AVI, WMV and Multi-Encoder.
AVI encoding will record the video into an AVI format using the compressor selected from the
Video and Audio compressor drop down.
WMV Encoding will record the video into a WMV9 Windows Media Format. This is the most common format used in POSM as it works with all Windows computers without having to install a codec on end users’ computers. The bitrate options for WMV may be set under the
bitrates tab.
The Multi-Encoder allows the user to record video into MPEG4, MPEG2 or MPEG1. These options may be set under the bitrates tab.

Adjust Tab

Figure 5: POSM Whole Run Recording Adjust Tab

The adjust tab allows the user to adjust the Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation and Sharpness of the video. Any changes made here in the whole run recording setup will also affect the live video. To set the values back to factory defaults press the Default button.

Bitrates Tab

Figure 6: Whole Run Recording Bitrates Tab

The bitrates tab allows the user to adjust the bitrates (the number of bits per second that are being record) as well as other options for the encoders used in POSM. The higher the bitrate the better the video looks and the smoother motion appears. Higher the bitrates also create larger files.
To adjust settings for the Multi-Encoder use the Multi-Type to choose what type of video it will record. This can be MPEG4, MPEG2, or MPEG1. When using MPEG4 the container may be set to an MP4 or AVI container. The bitrate for Multi Type and WMV video may be adjusted with the WMV/Mult Bit Rate drop down.
Optional input allows the user to input any command that the FFmpeg encoder will accept. The most common is deinterlacing a 640x480 video so that there is no interlacing lines. To enable deinterlacing of the video encoding enter: -vf yadif into the Optional input field.

When using WMV encoding the user may choose a bit rate from the WMV/Mult Bit Rate drop down. If using a full size video option such as 640x480 the user may wish to deinterlace the video. This will produce a video without interlacing lines, but will take more CPU time
to encode.
For the hardware encoder settings (H264 and MP4 selected in the Options Tab) the user may adjust the video bit rate slider, MJPEG Quality and Audio bitrate.
If any bitrate settings are changes the user should restart POSM to ensure the settings are stored and loaded.