Create Previews

Generate an H.264 preview of a video.

$The Tools page with Create Previews open: Options set to read D:\Show\Staged and write to D:\Show\Asset Resources at 960 × 540, with Scan subfolders, Preserve folder structure and Skip existing on, and History showing a finished run with 8 created · 1 skipped$

Method

Create Previews scans the Source folder for video files and writes an .mp4 preview of each one to the Output folder. Each one is scaled to fit inside the chosen Resolution, with black filling any space left over, so the original aspect ratio is maintained.

When Volare sets up a show folder, Source folder and Output folder default to the show’s Staged and Asset Resources folders.

Encoding

Every preview is encoded the same way:

Video: H.264 at 1500 kbps, in 8-bit 4:2:0 color.
Audio: AAC at 128 kbps.

Output layout

With Preserve folder structure on, each preview is written to a folder named after its file, under the same subfolders it has in the source:

Asset Resources\Song_01\Intro_v02\preview.mp4

With it off, every preview is written directly to the Output folder, named after its file:

Asset Resources\Intro_v02_preview.mp4

Parameters

Parameter	Details
Source folder	The folder of videos to generate previews from.
Output folder	The folder the previews are written to.
Resolution	The size of every preview: 1920 × 1080, 1280 × 720 or 960 × 540.
Scan subfolders	Include every folder inside the Source folder.
Preserve folder structure	Give each file its own folder in the output, mirroring the source’s subfolders. See Output layout.
Skip existing	Skip a file when its preview is already in the Output folder.