Playback Window

Any media can be played back directly within Nara on your web browser - it doesn't need to be transcoded as Nara will do that in real-time as the media files are read directly from your storage. This means that what you see the master media rather than a transcoded proxy copy.

To play back a single media file simply double-click its thumbnail in the browser (or the small thumbnail if you are in the list view) - this will open the Nara playback window. You can also select the thumbnail first by single-clicking on it and then press the space bar.

The image will be scaled so that it fits within the window and playback controls are located at the bottom.

From left to right these controls have the following functions:

• Play all frames (frames will not be dropped to maintain real-time playback)

• Scene Head (jump to first frame)

• Previous Cut (only applicable when multiple clips are selected for playback)

• Play Backwards (click again to stop playback)

• Play Forwards (click again to stop playback)

• Next Cut (only applicable when multiple clips are selected for playback)

• Scene Tail (Jump to end)

• Playback Mode (Bounce, Loop, Once, Freeplay - default is Loop)

• Playback Speed

Playback can be controlled using the J, K and L keys on the keyboard for play backwards, stop and play forwards respectively. Pressing J or L repeatedly will double the speed.

Note that you can also use the space bar to start and stop playback. To step single frames forward or backwards use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.

At the bottom of the window is a green bar - this indicates that the clip has been cached.

Caching happens automatically in Nara and ensures that formats which have a large resolution or which are located on slower storage will always play back smoothly. You may notice that the first time you open a new clip this green bar is still 'growing' across the screen as the clip is loaded into the cache. This bar may also be purple rather than green - this indictes that caching is not required to play back the current media file.

As the media plays back a small blue cursor runs along the bottom of the window. You can drag this using the cursor or click to its left or right to move to any frame in the clip.

To return to the browser click on the Back button at the bottom left corner of the playback window:

Playing Back Multiple Clips

As well as playing just a single media file, Nara can also play back a selection of clips as a single sequence. Simply select multiple thumbnails (or rows in the list view) and then double-click on one of them or press the space bar.

The clips will be loaded into the playback window end-to-end creating a basic 'timeline'. At the very bottom of the window you will see that there is an additional bar with alternating shades of grey indicating the different clips.

The Previous/Next Cut buttons mentioned above allow you to jump between the clips.

Playback Functions

The row of buttons at the bottom right-hand corner of the playback screen is used to access additional functions during playback:

These buttons have the following functions (from left to right):

• Create Playlist (this button will not appear if you do not have a project selected)

• Client Notes (allows you to add notes and flags to a clip or frame)

• Audio Monitoring (volume control and output channel mixer)

• Full Screen Mode (expands the player to fill the entire monitor screen)

• Playback Options (timecode and other overlays, colour space journey)