Graphics

0- Recently I upgraded our xpression primes from 3.10 1748 to 3.20 1767. When you want to use the virtual output as preview in the sequence, xpression shows old values in scenes containing excel datalinq texts. I upgraded to 3.20 1775 but the problem is the same, so I downgraded to 3.10 1748.

1- In any version, datalinked textures never refresh in preview output, until the take item is sent to the output board. If a texture is referenced by datalinq (excel in this case), if the name of the tga changes in excel, xpression is going to show the old tga in virtual preview, until it is sent to the board. So you cant check if what you are sending to air is correct or not.

2- In sequence mode, looking a preview of a take item, if you make a change of the values of that item and you want to check again using preview, you have to go to another item and go back to the first one to see the change. Too many steps to check a correction. It would be helpfull to have a command to force the refresh of the preview.

3- It would be helpfull if the black background color of the previews could be changed by the user. Sometimes I need to use only black text. So I cant see any preview.

4- It would be very helpfull if looking a scene, the operator can see if a text or image is set by datalinq, widget or static, perhaps applying a symbol or color. Too many times an operator uses a project designed by someone else and thinks that he has applied a change.... but the change takes no effect because it was not a static text...it was a datalinqued text.... wrong data goes to air.

5- It would be very, very helpfull if there is a shortcut to set the preview. (Edit/hardware setup/preview & monitor/...)

6- I would like to ask why you can use datalinq with text and images but cant use it with videos.

7- Using "Edit/Object align": I think there is missed Center align.

8- Sending scenes to sequencer, xpression always use the lower empty numbers to name the new take item. A lot of times is helpfull to use the next of the highest one for not to renumber later. This is important: each time I make a new item, I have to find the ID number Xpression assigns to it. If it is a choice to tell Xpression to use the next one from the greatest ID number, I can work without check the number.

9- I cant find any documentation for scripting inside help section. Could it be posted in the website for download?

Thanks for the forum. It will be helpfull. Greetings,

Carlos

Thanks for the input Carlos. We're constantly evolving the software, so your input is appreciated.

We hope to have some scripting examples on the site as downloads shortly. If you need something specific, email Glen Maxheleau gmaxheleau@rossvideo.com and he can try to dig something up for you.

Thanks,

Brian

#XPression

It would be very helpful if I could assign Take ID number by xml or external sources.

This is helpful when synchronizing with News Item list generated by 3rd party news editor systems.

#XPression

10- When I have to type the final credits roll, and want to paste text into a roll group scene, xpression do not allow to scroll down in the scene. So I have to move ALL the layers (y position) to see and select the text that was below. It is a very slow task....

Could you put a vertical scroll bar so we can do that in the way other applications do?

11- In a line of text, if you mix 2 different fonts, it shows nice in Layout Mode, but when you send to sequence and see it on air... there is only one font.

Thanks.

Carlos (while preparing a New Year TV Show...)

#XPression

Point 11, I already ask this to Ross support, the answer was : [QUOTE]You cannot have two different fonts on a published field. You would have to create two separate objects. Once a text object is published it will always default to a single font style when the data is edited.

#XPression

I had to do a large vertical final credit roll, with 2 fonts: one for the main text and one for each section subtitle. So, each time I applied a change or one name was added to the main text, i had to scroll down to acomodate the subtitles... it was a headache, working that way but its the only one I found to do that.

#XPression

I know what you say, I have the same pb...

I think that Ross should be inspired by the functioning of Inca (about scene, template, etc...), wich is more practical for this kind of thing.

For your problem, what I would make I, that would be a sub-scene for every subtitle... and scroll down in each for the main text.

#XPression

Let me take a stab at answering these based on posting.

[QUOTE]Razvan Comache said 1 week, 1 day ago:

It would be very helpful if I could assign Take ID number by xml or external sources.

This is helpful when synchronizing with News Item list generated by 3rd party news editor systems.



Take ID's displayed in with the scene are reference numbers used by Serial (triple I), when referencing and populating pages for playout, and MOS ID's are assigned dynamically, so they are driven by external sources. If you mean to call up a page by the switcher (which is triple I protocol), then you simply enter the page number used in the rundown. Locally the scene id's are user driven. What external device would you most likely use?

[QUOTE]carlos saravia said 4 days, 22 hours ago:

10- When I have to type the final credits roll, and want to paste text into a roll group scene, xpression do not allow to scroll down in the scene. So I have to move ALL the layers (y position) to see and select the text that was below. It is a very slow task….

Could you put a vertical scroll bar so we can do that in the way other applications do?

11- In a line of text, if you mix 2 different fonts, it shows nice in Layout Mode, but when you send to sequence and see it on air… there is only one font.

Thanks.

Typically for a roll, you would have several pages with only a certain amount of text in a page (Director, Name), then the pages would exist within a group in a sequence. If you wanted the fonts to be different, then you would simply have two font fields. That sequence would then be set to a roll, with appropriate attributes set for page spacing, run time, etc. This lets you not only modify the text without scrolling inside of a page, but also to re-order pages, and delete or add pages. The crawl/roll system is quite nice because you don't have to be locked inside of a single page and scroll around looking for a single line to edit.

As for the text attributes, tech support is correct. Due to the way the text box is seen as an object, there is no way to automatically have two different font styles. It's also very beneficial to dedicate the font styles to the text objects should you want to change an attribute one time for the entire project to reflect that change.

XPression has been on some pretty demanding live broadcasts (Academy Awards, Grammy's etc) that do massive rolls based on TRT and also individual slate times for the Producer, Director, etc.

By using the pages in a sequence group, you have a great deal of power and flexibility of control of a roll or crawl. It's also very cool because you don't have to even use groups if you don't want. You could build a roll or a crawl in layout, and run it from the design phase!

Does that help? Let me know if I'm missing out on something that you are doing differently or if I'm misunderstanding.

#XPression

If you want to have two different fonts in a text object, then unpublish the text object using the "template links" tab and then you can correctly put it on-air from the sequencer and the font styles will remain as they were in layout mode.

#XPression

I work with this software, xpression and I have a problem. I have built a sequence from a title + material (background shape) and sometimes when take this online, the material or background sequence not appears below the title. Can someone help me with this problem? Thank you & sorry for my bad english.

#XPression

You might want to make sure that the Text object is slightly in front of the Background Object (Quad I assume?) on the Z-Axis.

#XPression

It is..and is working most off the time...but sometimes inexplicable, just text appear...not text+ bg

#XPression

Danila,

What are the coordinates for the background object XYZ position/rotation? Also what object/material is being used for the background? Is it a loop of some kind that might resolve with a transparency or black. Depending on the position of the loop that might account for it sometimes being visible and sometimes not.

#XPression

I would suggest you export your package and send it to tech support along with a description of the issue and your software version your on.

#XPression

Text + BG..but bg sometimes does not appear .Look here http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/813/printcf.jpg/

#XPression

Danila,

I don't see any background object there just the text. If you place a quad behind your text and then apply the material that might work a bit better. Your object tree should show some type of BG object which will hold your material, then your text object should be there also.

#XPression

Thanks for the support. I will ask the help of tech support. Thank you and good day everyone.

#XPression

Who can help'me to solve an Exception class: EListError ?

#XPression

Danila, each Exception is usually caused by a bug in XPression. Report it to tech support along with a description (as accurate as possible so they can recreate the problem) on how/when you got the Exception so they can look into it.

#XPression

I´m still having the old problem of point 6:

[I]"In any version, datalinked textures never refresh in preview output, until the take item is sent to the output board. If a texture is referenced by datalinq (excel in this case), if the name of the tga changes in excel, xpression is going to show the old tga in virtual preview, until it is sent to the board. So you cant check if what you are sending to air is correct or not."[/I]

I use datalinked textures, but I CANT CHECK if they are right or not, before sending the item to air, because datalinked textures APPEAR WRONG IN PREVIEW (last texture, not the new). Yesterday, it seems the datalink server failed, and when I sent the take item to air, it was WRONG because the datalink server and because I couldnt check it before.

I have said this by mail to technical support and here in the forum, 3 months ago.

It is very important for me.

Please, do something.

#XPression

Does anybody know a way to see if a text is set to datalink or static or widget, without selecting it and seeing in the Data Source menu? I always have a lot of text and the operator perhaps thinks the text is a static text, so he types and send as a new item to air...but datalinks overwrites what he had done... and datalinked value goes to air.

I have said before that it would be helpfull if datalinked texts have a different color in the object manager, or something...

The other thing is to know if somebody knows a way to check datalinked textures... I still have that problem.

#XPression

Text objects are published by default. This default can be disabled in the Project Properties.

So you just have to not publish Text Objects which are datalinked.

#XPression

What I mean, Vincent, is that if an operator is working inside a scene, in F3 mode, typing and sending this changes to sequencer, there are a lot of possibilities that he dont see that texts are datalinked. That happens in my work in xpression. You can tell me that the operator can check each text in the data source menu, that is already known, but it demands more time. What Im asking is if exist a visual way to know at a glance which texts are static, which are datalinked and which are widgets, because when you see a scene, at a glance, all texts are the same to the operator.

#XPression

I agree Carlos. There should be an indication if a text object is linked to data and then an option to break that link should be given in the properties window in the sequencer.

The Xpression team is always reviewing new features and I think this one would be very useful to implement. Stay tuned!

#XPression

Thanks, JB.

Other thing may you consider, is to put a button, near the "Fast recall", to turn ON or OFF the Preview output. I think it is easy to implement and will be useful when you have only one monitor.

Could you see the problem with datalinked textures in the preview, that I posted earlier?

Regards,

Carlos

#XPression