Search Function Example

As an example, say that you want to search for the premier of the Agents of Shield television show. Begin by clicking Search, and in the Time Range menu, choose Defined Period. Observer defaults to presenting you the period from one week ago to your current date and time.

Figure: Default Defined Period Search Duration

Alter the search duration if you need to by clicking on the calendar icons in the From: and To: fields.

Figure: Setting the Search Duration Period

Enter your search term, in this case, Shield, and select your channels. For this example, we are searching All channels with a five minute CC Duration. Click Search to see your results.

Figure: Search Results

Observer returns all the instances of your search term within your chosen parameters, beginning with the most recent occurrence and listing them in order from newest to oldest. The duration of the clip will be dependent on the time span you defined above. The default is 5 minutes.

If your search returns more than one page of results, use the Page box at the bottom of the screen to page through your returns.

If you are using IE and the Observer Media Player, the Export column provides you with two functions. A/V exporting is not available in clientless mode.

• Export allows you to save the clip to your device or remote storage.

  

  Figure: Export Icon

  Clicking the Export icon opens the Export to… window.

  

  Figure: Export to… Window

  Observer will open the Export clip—Webpage Dialog box.

  

  Figure: Export Clip Webpage Dialog Box

  This dialog box gives you several options for your export. From the Streams drop-down menu, you can choose which audio languages to include, if more than one audio language is present.

  

  Figure: Streams Drop-Down Menu

  The Streams drop-down menu also gives you access to the Default Video dropdown menu, which allows you to choose the resolution at which you export your clip.

  

  Figure: Default Video Drop-Down Menu

  Note: Windows Media Player and other common media players may not be able to play content with multiple audio tracks included.

  The Advanced Options drop down menu opens nine options for what you include in your export.

  

  Figure: Advanced Options Drop-Down Menu

• Close Captions: Closed Captions allows you to burn in the On Screen Display (OSD) language you want to export, if there is more than one option available.

  

  Figure: Closed Caption Options

• Timestamp allows you to burn into the video the original logged date and time into the final video play out. Simply specify the format for the timestamp used in the export. The default is Month/Day/Year/Hour/Minute/Second/Frame. Change the order of the variables if you wish the time stamp to display in another order.

  Timestamp also allows you to specify where you want the timestamp to appear in your export – at the top or at the bottom.

  

  Figure: Timestamp Options

• Banner allows you to choose a GIF or BMP file and incorporate it into your export as a banner. To do so, click on the File icon to the right of the field.

  

  Figure: Banner

  Observer will open the Select a banner file window. Navigate to the image you wish to use, and click Open.

  

  Figure: Select a banner file Window

  Observer populates the Banner field with the file you have chosen.

  

  Figure: Populate Banner Field

  Choose whether you want the image displayed at the Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, or Bottom Right of your export. You may also choose your Transparency, the percentage of Width of the export you want the banner to occupy, and the percentage of Height of the export you want the banner to occupy.

  

  Figure: Banner Options

• Resolution gives you the option of choosing the Output Resolution, in pixels, of your export. The output cannot have a higher resolution than the original file. Make your choice from the Output Resolution drop-down menu.

  

  Figure: Resolution Options

• Target Bitrate allows you to specify the bitrate you want your exported clip to run at. The output cannot have a higher bitrate than the original file. Make your choice from the Target Bitrate drop-down menu.

  

  Figure: Target Bitrate

• You may also choose whether to export your clip with Maximum time accuracy,

• Or to burn in Audio Loudness Measurements, Digital Program Insertion (DPI) data and/or AC3 metadata information.

  

  Figure: Additional Options

  Once you have selected the appropriate output parameters, click on the <Export> button. The Observer will start exporting the content and display a progress bar of the exporting process. Just in case you forgot where you stored the file, the Observer provides a hyperlink to the file location below the progress bar.

  

• The Export CC icon allows you to export the Closed Caption text of your clip.

  

  Figure: Export CC Icon

  When you click on the Export CC icon, Observer opens a query window at the bottom of your screen, asking whether you want to open or save your Closed Caption text.

  

  Figure: Closed Caption Query Window

  Choose Open to open the CC text in a Notepad window.

  The Save button has a drop-down menu with three options: Save, Save As and Save and Open.

  

  Figure: Save Button Drop-Down Menu

  • Save downloads the CC text into your Downloads folder with a file name of cctext.

  • Save as opens your Downloads folder window and gives you the chance to rename the file.

  • Save and open saves the file in your Downloads folder with a file name of cctext, and opens the CC text in your default text editor.

When you find the occurrence of your search term you are searching for and double-click on it, Observer opens up a Webpage Dialog window to display the clip.

Figure: Webpage Dialog Window

The Dialog window gives you several tools for utilizing the results of your search:

• The list of time stamps in the right-hand column gives you the exact times the text was spoken in the video. All texts are hyperlinks – by clicking on any text the video will navigate to the exact moment in the video when the text was spoken.

  The video overlays the CC/TT in the stream.

• The Player Bar allows you to rewind the clip at 2x, 1x, ½x, and to step backward frame by frame; to pause, to step forward your clip frame by frame, and to run the clip forward at ½x, 1x, and 2x.

• The Volume buttons allow you to change the volume of or to mute the audio of your results.

• The Full Screen button allows you to view your results in full screen mode; Esc returns you to your Webpage Dialog window.

• The Closed Caption panel on the right allows you to navigate to any CC panel in your search results by clicking on the panel of your choice.