Vbrowse Usage

Video File Browser (aka "vbrowse") is a utility for browsing the video file system. Improper use of vbrowse can cause loss of media, hence it is not recommended except for advanced users familiar with its purpose and proper usage. This application note is intended to provide some background for those users who may need to browse the video file system.

Movies vs. Media Files

Vbrowse is a tool for browsing the video file system. It is important to recognize that the video file system is not the same as the movie database-these two are often confused, leading to a misunderstanding of vbrowse. So first, let's look at a couple definitions.

A movie is a collection of media files, together with some additional information (e.g., the in and out points to be used in playing back the movie). Under Profile software version 1.4, the movie definitions are stored on the Windows NT file system. It's worth noting that 1.4 software has no standalone browser for the movie database (though Vdrpanel lets you rename and delete movies).

A media file is the stored representation of a media stream for a particular type of resource (video, audio, or timecode) in a particular format (e.g. for video, 525 line or 625 line) . Media files are stored on the video file system. Note that the video file system can also contain non-media files. Even more importantly, note that a media file by itself cannot be played or recorded using Vdrpanel, because it's not a movie.

Note that media files may bear names similar to the movie names in the database, but there is no necessary or reliable connection. An example will make this clearer: if you bring up Vdrpanel with its default settings and click on the record button, it will create a movie called "#1" (assuming this name is not already taken). Creating "#1" involves two sets of activities:

on the video file system, seven media files are created. These may be named as follows, but note that these names can change based on the previous history of media file names on the Profile and based on the version of software installed.

#1-001.V0 (for the video media)
   #1-001.A0 (for the 1^st audio channel's media)
   #1-001.A1 (for the 2nd audio channel's media)
   #1-001.A2 (for the 3rd audio channel's media)
   #1-001.A3 (for the 4th audio channel's media)
   #1-001.T0 (for the 1^st timecode recorder's media)
   #1-001.T1 (for the 2nd timecode recorder's media)

in the movie database, an entry is created for the movie name "#1" with references to all of the above media files

So far, so good-you might think "well, the media file names are not exactly the same as the movie names, but at least you can tell what movies you have". Wrong. To continue the above example, stop recording and rename the movie from "#1" to "My Movie". Now check on the media files using vbrowse to look in the \PDR\default directory-the media file names haven't changed! You now have no way of knowing what movies you have by looking at media file names. Now you can get even trickier: do another open-ended record with Vdrpanel; once again a movie will be created "#1"; but check on the media files in vbrowse and you'll see that the system has assigned new unique media filenames. Matters can get even trickier if you start editing movies, for example with the Profile Toolbox.

The moral here is: Don't assume you know what media files correspond to what movies based on vbrowse. Vbrowse is NOT a movie browser!

What You See With Vbrowse

Now that we understand the vbrowse is not a tool for browsing movies, let's look at what we can see in vbrowse. Vbrowse provides a basic shell with some DOS and Unix-style commands for navigating the file system. By default, vbrowse starts in the "media" directory of the first dataset on the Profile; thus you will typically see a prompt like:

INT:/media>

This is the file system's default directory for media files (again, this is not the movie database's default directory).

Under 1.3 Profile software, the media directory is where Vdrpanel put the media files for movies it created. If you execute a dir or ls command here, you may or may not see any media files. If this Profile previously had 1.3 software on it, you may see media files for clips created by the old Vdrpanel. If not, you probably won't see any media files here.

Under 1.4 Profile software, by default the movie database will locate media files in the PDR directory. Recall that 1.4 has introduced the concept of groups as a means of managing large number of clips. Thus, if Joe and Mary are frequent users of a Profile and they don't want to get their movies confused, they may create groups named "Joe" and "Mary" in addition to the built-in "default" group. By default, the media files for a movie in a particular movie group will be located in a subdirectory of the same name under PDR. (But remember that renaming, deleting and editing movies can all affect where the media files for a movie reside and what their names are.)

Let's pursue the example above on Joe and Mary's Profile. Consider the following vbrowse session:

INT:/media> dir
INT:/media> cd /PDR
INT:/PDR> dir
    drw-rw-rw- 0 07/23/1996 18:10:50 default
    drw-rw-rw- 0 07/24/1996 11:47:01 Joe
    drw-rw-rw- 0 07/24/1996 11:47:32 Mary
INT:/PDR> cd Mary
INT:/PDR/Mary> ls
    -rw-rw-rw- 213120 07/24/1996 11:47:38 test-001.A0
    -rw-rw-rw- 213120 07/24/1996 11:47:38 test-001.A1
    -rw-rw-rw- 213120 07/24/1996 11:47:37 test-001.A2
    -rw-rw-rw- 213120 07/24/1996 11:47:36 test-001.A3
    -rw-rw-rw- 12318656 07/24/1996 11:47:38 test-001.V0
    -rw-rw-rw- 4176 07/24/1996 11:47:38 test-001.T0
    -rw-rw-rw- 4176 07/24/1996 11:47:38 test-001.T1

In the session above, we first find that there are no media files in the media directory-that's fine, probably indicating that any 1.3-era movies have been deleted from the movie database. Next we move to the PDR directory and find 3 subdirectories there; probably indicating that are three groups of the same name in the movie database (but note that renaming groups, etc. can affect this). Next we move to the PDR/Mary subdirectory to browse the media files there. We find seven media files whose names differ only in extension, probably indicating that they were created together as a single movie. (Of course, we wouldn't dream of presuming that the move is named "test" or that it even reside in Mary's group in the movie database-all this may have changed due to renames, edits, etc.)

Conclusion

Vbrowse is a handy utility for browsing the video file system, even though it does not help with browsing the movie database. To get started with vbrowse, consider how you're controlling your Profile:

If you're only using Vdrpanel and not using the group feature of the movie database (e.g. Louth, Odetics, and BVW emulation users):
- All the media files will be found in the PDR/default directory (except for the media files for movies originally created under 1.3, which will be found in the media directory).
If you're only using Vdrpanel and you are using the group features:
- As above but media files may also be found in other subdirectories of the PDR directory.
If you're using Profile Protocol and/or other 3^rd party applications running directly on the Profile:
- Media files may be placed anywhere on the video file system at the application's discretion. Contact your application vendor for details.