Embedded Files
The RMVideo Movie target plays a movie extracted from a video file that is physically stored on the RMVideo host machine, while the Image target displays a static image from a JPEG, PNG, BMP, or PSD file. All such video and image source files are organized within the "media store": a set of up to 50 folders in $RMVIDEO_HOME/media, where $RMVIDEO_HOME is the installation directory for RMVideo. Each folder in the store can hold up to 50 media files. (The limits on number of folders and number of files per folder have to do with restrictions on the Maestro-RMVideo communications protocol; but 2500 files altogether should be plenty!) Files can be added to or removed from the store via direct interaction with the RMVideo workstation, but this is often a hassle in our experiment rigs because the workstation is tucked away in a corner without convenient keyboard/mouse access. Alternatively (and preferably!), use this tab page to view the store's content, remove a particular media file or an entire folder, and download new files directly to RMVideo. Because some of the operations offered here are time-consuming, the tab page is available only in Idle mode, and only if Maestro is currently connected to an RMVideo host.
The current contents of the media store are shown in two list boxes. All folders are listed on the left-hand side, while all media files within the currently selected folder are shown on the right. Each media file entry in the right-hand list includes some information about the video or image, in brackets after the file name. Press the Delete Folder button to delete the current selection from the folder list, and Delete File to remove the currently selected media file. Do so with care; the delete operations are not "undoable"! They also may take a little while to complete, so an hourglass cursor appears and input to the application window is disabled until confirmation is received from RMVideo. The folder and file lists are updated accordingly. If you remove the last movie in a folder, that folder is likewise removed.
To download a file from Maestro to the meda store, use the Source field to specify the local pathname of the media file to be downloaded. Click on the small button on the right-hand side of the field to browse the file system for a file. Specify the destination folder and file names in the Folder and File fields, respectively. Both names must be non-empty, 30 characters or less in length, and contain only alphanumeric characters, the period ('.'), or the underscore ('_'). If the destination folder exists, the file name cannot duplicate that of another file already present in that folder. If the folder does not exist, a new folder will be created in the media store. To start the download, press the DOWNLOAD button. Depending on the size of the file, media file downloads can take a significant amount of time to execute (in testing, a 4.5MB video was transferred in less than 10 seconds). An hourglass cursor appears and input to the application window is disabled until the download operation is finished, at which point a message dialog pops up to indicate whether or not the download was successful. On failure, check the Message Log for any error messages. On success, the media folder and file lists on the tab page are updated to reflect the new content.
Keep in mind that the "media store" is located on the RMVideo workstation. When Maestro first connects to RMVideo at startup, it queries RMVideo for the current contents of the store, caches that information, and updates the local copy as changes are made. No media store directory content is maintained in the Maestro experiment document.
Always run RMVideo from its installation directory
Always run RMVideo from its installation directory
When it launches, RMVideo assumes that the "current working directory" is the directory containing its media store. Thus, it expects to find a folder named media in that directory. If you put some media files in that folder, then later restart with a different working directory, then RMVideo will NOT be able to find those media files.
For this reason, be sure to always set the current working directory to RMVideo's installation directory (the directory that contains the rmvideo executable) and launch RMVideo from that directory. For example, if RMVideo is installed in /usr/local/rmvideo (so that folder should include the convenient script launchRMVideo), then always launch the program with the sequence of commands:
cd /usr/local/rmvideo
/usr/local/rmvideo/launchRMVideo
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