Q. How do I capture paused video screens?
If a blank (black or purple) screen results when capturing still video frames via MediaPlayer (or QuickTime, RealPlayer, ...) interface,
temporarily set Hardware Acceleration to None to send all images to your screen device. After capturing desired
screens, restore your Hardware Acceleration setting to Full.
Q. Can I thumbnail all images on my drive unattended?
Once all images are thumbnailed, you can use the Slide Album to find all duplicates,
visually; the Slide Album can sort all the images by similarity and position duplicate
candidates adjacent each other (even if they are resized, modified or recompressed); from
Slide Album simply select Query|Duplicates|byImage. Serious image collectors
should organize your images by folder (see related
Tips & Tricks section); by doing such,
you can update only all thumbnails of certain parent folders (and all its nested
sub-folders) as often as you wish.
Q. How can you tell which image is an original or a duplicate?
A higher JPEG Quality index, identifies the original about 95% of the time.
To view the actual image difference,
A blank "gray" image indicates no visual difference; in which case, you might want
to keep the smaller file to save disk space. Otherwise, dark and light pixels
will indicate where the subtle changes are.
If you have a lot of duplicate images, you can use the
Slide Album
to sort images by CRC to find multiple duplicates; the Slide Album can also
visually match and sort images by thumbnail using correlation, hue,
lighting or raw pixel differences to find and arrange images by similarity
(see related Tips & Tricks section).
Q. Can I access networked drives and folders?
With Windows 9x, you may need to refresh your "Network Neighborhood" and/or open the various
system folders in "Entire Network" until available computers are made visible. With Windows
Me/2000/XP, only computers that appear in "Network Neighborhood" or "My Network Places" or
"Computers Near Me" folder are included; use "Add Network Place" to add it to mentioned folders.
Q. Can I play a series of "DIVX" or MPEG clips as a playlist?
As the sort order is alphanumeric, the number of digits affects the sequencing.
For example, if you have the following clips, it will be sequenced as follows:
duet_1.avi
Rename the clips to ensure proper sequencing as follows ...
duet_01.avi
Q. Can I sequence an MP3 or WMA audio playlist as a "jukebox"?
Important: AVL Jukebox option must be enabled to run audio "jukebox slideshows".
This disables concurrent audio playback and ensures each audio "slide" completes playback.
Q. Can I distribute AVL slideshows via DVD/CD?
Q. How can I run all graphics and video full screen in an AVL slideshow?
Q. How can I convert ART files and unsupported formats?
To import any unsupported graphics formats, use originating application to view it then
copy it to the Windows clipboard; from Viewer, select Edit|Paste|Image
(or press Ctrl-V).
Q. I get a 'program corrupt' error or program terminates. Why?
If you suspect a bad disk defrag, then reinstall from program archive or
redownload if the archive is corrupted -- it can be tested with ZIP utilities.
AiPICT and AiPICX are different products - requiring different registration keys.
Registration keys for AiPICT and AiPICX are not interchangeable.
Please ensure you enter the appropriate registration key with matching product.
Our registration keys are self-modifying instructions executed at runtime; a simple
checksum verifies proper entry. Only authentic codes provided by Applied Insights
will execute correctly. Contact us immediately if you need help entering your registration key.
Q. What is the difference between AiPICT and AiPICX?
Q. Can I play slideshows with MP3 or WMA audio playing in background?
If Jukebox option is enabled, you can sequence multiple audio files (e.g., MP3, WMA) to
completely play each selection. You can create or edit AVL files with the built-in Side Album.
Q. I get a prompt to update my CoDecs. Why?
Q. I can't play protected WMV or WMA files. Why?
By default Windows XP SP2 installs MediaPlayer 9.x (or later) with all the required CoDecs; with
Windows 9x/Me/NT4/2000, you will need to update your MediaPlayer codecs with its Upgrade function.
You can download and install the latest MediaPlayer update directly from
MicroSoft.
Q. Can I write my thumbnail catalog to DVD/CD?
Q. Can I upload my entire DVD/CD image catalog to my Web site?
Q. What is the best way to catalog existing image collections from DVD/CD?
Q. How do I delete all Web page thumbnails from my hard disk?
Q. How do I delete all HTML catalogs from my hard disk?
Q. My vidcaps from DVD frames look squished or elongated. What do I do?
Note: "Letterboxed" images have black borders on the top and bottom of the frame; the image
is encoded and corrected for a target display. Letterboxed widescreen images are typically
corrected for a TV display. Letterboxed anamorphic images are typically corrected
for widescreen displays. If letterboxed images appear "flat" try a different viewing mode.
In very rare cases, raw DVD frames (not letterboxed) may require an anamorphic (Cinema)
aspect ratio.
Q. Images are elongated or squished on my display. What can I do?
SXGA (1280x1024) displays have a 5:4 aspect ratio where images acquired or designed for 4:3 displays
will look distorted. Most analog monitors let you adjust its width and height to display square pixels
for each display mode; digital (LCD) monitors have locked aspect ratios. On 5:4 displays, you can
temporarily resample images to view it correctly with square pixels by using a 0.938:1 aspect ratio
to simulate a 1200x1024 "viewport" or 1.067:1 aspect ratio to simulate a 1365x1024 "viewport"
(depending on your default monitor setup). Select View|Custom and click a preset option.
Some displays are optimized for DVD playback (with 16:9 or 15:9 aspect ratio) and do not have square
pixels - the smarter vendors maintain square pixels even on WSXGA, WSXGA+ and WUXGA displays.
Many widescreen 15:9 displays (1280x768) distort images that were originated with square pixels;
when viewing these images you can use the "0800" preset for a 0.800:1 aspect ratio to compensate for
the distortion by simulating a 1024x768 "viewport". To set a custom aspect ratio, create and save
a blank 500x500 image; view it and physically measure the width and height of the rectangle on the
screen with a ruler. Experiment with custom aspect ratios until the rectangle is perfectly "square".
Q. I want small images to appear centered on the screen. How do I do this?
Q. I can't use Zoom functions? Why are images always centered?
Q. Why do some thumbnails show an "!" icon?
Q. How do I make a simple web page?
In Filename box, enter MyTestPage, then click Save.
Q. How do I make advanced pages for AOL?
Select Tools|HTML Options|Set from menu and change the Subfolder option
to private. When you create your page, thumbnails will link to
private subfolder in your "Upload" folder.
Upload contents of private (on your machine) to the private subfolder
at AOL. Upload full images and HTML pages to the root (i.e., "MyPlace").
Q. My Web page thumbnails appear broken on my site. Why?
If you do not have a thumbs subfolder, you have to create it
on your site with an FTP application. You can specify the
Subfolder where your thumbnails should be uploaded.
If you do not know how to create a subfolder on your site, temporarily
leave the Subfolder option blank when you create your page. The
Subfolder option can be changed during your session by selecting
Tools|Page Options|Set from menu. Upload all thumbnails to the
root (i.e., same location with your HTML page and full images).
Q. My Web page thumbnails do not link with full images. Why?
A. By default, when you press PrtSc (Print Screen) the entire desktop will be captured (press Alt+PrtSc for active window).
After capturing screen, select Edit|Paste to paste captured screen for subsequent modification (e.g., cropping) before saving.
The PrtSc key is software assignable; this is the default Windows function and may be changed by other applications.
On Windows XP, click Troubleshoot tab.
On Windows 98, click Performance tab.
A. Yes; you can thumbnail the contents of your entire drive or removable media (e.g., DVD/CD)
in one step. Just navigate the built-in Explorer to your root drive (e.g., C:) then
select Files|Slideshow|Slide album. All eligible images are added to the Slide Album.
After all the data is imported, it will check for existing thumbnails and create new ones.
Thereafter, you can save the Slide Album as a catalog (AVC format) or even run a slideshow
(AVL format) with all images on your hard disk. Cached thumbnails are persistent and
are not thumbnailed again, until the image changes; as such, all images (even in folders
you have not visited) will already be thumbnailed.
A. Select Image|Info from menu, to show file size and CRC code; if you
have identical images with the same file size and CRC, they are exact
duplicates; irregardless of file date and name, you can safely delete one
of them. When file size and CRC differ, then the existence of a
JPEG comment
usually indicates it is the original. If you cannot tell the difference
from the file information, you can select Image|Analyze from menu,
to quantify theimage quality; the original image will have:
A. Yes. Enable built-in Explorer Network support option to access native Windows networking support;
this option enumerates all available computers as "drives". By default, this option is always
disabled due to numerous factors (e.g., authorization protocols) that can affect network
enumeration; you have to explicitly enable it when required. Enable this option if you have
numerous networked computers (e.g., over 20) in your "Network Neighborhood". SoHo users may
prefer to use Windows' legacy Mapped Network Drives function instead; it has speed advantages
due to efficient Windows caching of networked resources.
A. Yes. Bookmark a sequence of movie files then run it as an Instant Slideshow.
Each clip will automatically play when the previous clip stops.
Activate Viewer, then ...
duet_10.avi
duet_11.avi
duet_2.avi
duet_9.avi
duet_02.avi
duet_09.avi
duet_10.avi
duet_11.avi
A. Yes. WMA playback is supported (in addition to MP3). Bookmark slideshows (Instant Slideshows)
are linear -- each file plays until finished before the next file is played. You can save and
edit the bookmark file (AIP) with any text editor too. See previous topic for sequencing movie files.
A. Yes. We have recently created a small runtime package specifically designed to
run AVL slideshows from DVD/CD and other removable media. Click
here for details.
A. Each graphics and video slide in an AVL slideshow has a zoom property that
can be set to a desired magnification (per slide). If you select ALL slides and
modify the zoom property (e.g., 400%) all graphics and video files will
run full screen in the AVL runtime.
A. You can use AOL's browser to view and convert ART files. After opening (viewing) an ART file
with AOL's browser, click Save and set Save as type to JPEG or BMP (Bitmap);
both formats are universally decoded by most applications. With AOL's internal browser (WAOL),
a right-click on Web page graphics similarly presents a menu with Save Picture As menu
item; again, ART files are the default Save as type. Depending on version of WAOL, you
can set the Save as type to JPEG or BMP (bitmap).
A. Firstly, AiPICX and AiPICT are now Freeware! Starting with AiPICX v8.1 and
AiPICT v8.1, our end-user agreement allows free use without reminders
(i.e., no nag screens); both remain fully-functional - no crippled functions.
Registration is optional for personal, non-business use. For your protection,
AiPICT and AiPICX run integrity checks everytime it is activated. It will raise
a program corrupt exception if the executable has been modified by:
A. Both AiPICT (Ai Picture Utility) and AiPICX (Ai Picture Explorer) use identical
player, viewer, imaging code and HTML cataloging support
(see common features).
AiPICX (Ai Picture Explorer) includes support for FlashPix (FPX) format.
A. Yes. Concurrent WMA playback is supported (in addition to MP3, WAV, CD audio and MIDI)
in AVL slideshows; audio continues to play while graphics are showing -- audio terminates when
another audio or video file is played. Bookmark slideshows are linear -- each file plays or
shows until finished before the next file is shown or played.
See "audio jukebox".
A. CoDec = Compressor/Decompressor. These are VfW (Video for Windows) or DirectShow components
that facilitate playback (e.g., MediaPlayer interface) or encoding of new multimedia files. If
a file is encoded with a new codec (e.g., Divx 5.x, VP3, MPEG-4) you will not be able to
play that file unless the codec is installed on your system. Options:
A. If you installed the latest CoDecs and still cannot play certain WMV or WMA files, then
the issue is
Digital Rights Management (DRM).
If you download WMA (or WMV) files, and MediaPlayer (or its component) attempts to connect to the
Internet, then it is trying to acquire playback rights -- i.e., to limit the number of times you
can play the file (if at all, if payment is required). Protected WMA or WMV files that are
encoded for personal use will play only on the machine they were created on; if you encode
WMA (or WMV) files on your desktop and later discover they are 'unplayable' on your laptop
or office computer, DRM protection is the most likely explanation. Standard MP3 music files
and MPG (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 video) are not affected by DRM limits. To read more about issues
related to DRM see ...
A. Yes. You can transfer your catalogs and images to any removable media (even upload to your
Web site) -- the Web pages remain valid. DVD/CD image catalogs use "relative URLs"; you
can select Tools|HTML Make|Image catalog to catalog an entire drive or nested folders (unattended)
-- with optional Table of Contents and Home links.
A. Yes. Create an exact copy on your web site; create directories with the exact
case-sensitive names and structure (parent and child directories); upload all files -- full images,
thumbnails and web pages -- with the same case-sensitive names, into each of the directories.
Before creating your catalog, rename files and directories (folders) with problematic characters
(e.g., "#" and "%"). Click
here
to see a simple example with file comments.
A. For each DVD/CD, use Create|Image catalog function with Fixed image catalog option.
Use one parent folder (with a handy desktop shortcut) and create/use a sub-folder (named
to match DVD/CD) for each DVD/CD catalog -- a _home.htm file is created with a Table of Contents
and directory structure to review thumbnailed contents of your DVD/CDs without inserting them -- you
can insert appropriate media only when you want to view the full images. The Contact Sheet
option will avoid a lot of small thumbnail files - which eat disk space. The Frames directory
option is another feature that makes it very easy to browse through your image collections.
A. All thumbnails are saved to a thumbs sub-folder (or user-specified
folder name); use the Windows Find applet to delete them.
A. Except for pages which you specify, all catalog pages have a "_" prefix; use the Windows Find applet to delete them.
A. When video frames are captured/viewed on a computer, legacy displays expects square pixels;
you can use the following modes to automatically correct aspect ratios to optimize your view
of the complete image, irregardless of window size.
A.
Most monitors sport a 4:3 aspect ratio for TV compatibility and are preset with square pixels to ensure
WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") printer output. If you create a blank 500x500 image, its width
and height should be identical when physically measured with a ruler on the screen; this is true for
standard VGA (640x480), SVGA (800x600), XGA (1024x768) and UXGA (1600x1200) displays - as well as
1152x864 and 1280x960 display modes.
A. Select View|Upsampled fit and uncheck (disable) this option. The Upsampled fit option
is always enabled (by default) for the Fit To Window mode -- images are always enlarged to fit
the entire viewing window. If you do not want "small" images to be scaled "up", disable this
option during any viewing session for a plain centered view; "large" images that cannot fit
the viewing window will still be downscaled.
A. If you end a viewing session with Fit-to-Window enabled,
window position and size is restored from last session. Otherwise, an optimal,
centered window is created to minimize the need to scroll large images.
Press Ctrl-F or select View|Fit to Window to toggle option.
A. These are corrupted images or files that use a non-standard compression scheme
(e.g., rare, proprietary JPEG file). Incomplete or partial downloads are still decoded.
These files may still be viewable - double-click item or right click and select open
to try viewing it.
A. Go to desired folder with your images.
A. If you do not know how to create "MyPlace" subfolders, AOL has a private subfolder
ready for you -- where you can upload your thumbnails or image maps; everything else should
be uploaded to the root (i.e., what you first see at "My Place").
A. If you are not using the Simple Web page option then:
A. If you are not using the Simple Web page option then: