ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Video page > Converting ANY-maze format videos to a standard format

Converting ANY-maze format videos to a standard format

Introduction

When videos of tests are recorded within ANY-maze, the system uses its own proprietary video format. This is because standard formats are computationally intensive to record, and if ANY-maze used them it would rapidly run out of processor resources when tracking and recording in multiple apparatus.

Although ANY-maze itself can play the videos it records, it is the only system which can, meaning that you can't include these videos in presentations or play them using any other software, such as Windows Media Player. However, it is possible to convert an ANY-maze format video to a standard format which can then be used in other programs.

Converting a video file

To convert an ANY-maze format video file to a standard format (or a number of files that all reside in the same folder on the computer), you should switch to the Video page and select the Convert videos to standard format button in the ribbon bar.

This page will allow you to select individual files (using the Add file(s)... button) or all files in a folder (using the Add all files in a folder... button). These will be added to a list, and when you select the Start conversion button, these files will be converted. This conversion will happen in the background, and you can carry on using ANY-maze while this conversion takes place.

You can choose where you want the converted files to be saved, as well as the quality of the conversion - better quality will take longer and result in larger file sizes. You usually won't need to change these settings from the default, which is 'Medium quality'.

The conversion process will occur in the background, allowing you to use ANY-maze while it's happening, and the progress will be indicated in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on the status bar panel will show the current progress in more detail, and allow you to cancel the conversion if you want. Any errors that occur in the process will show in the status bar and a small window will pop up from this panel, showing any files that have not been converted.

Converting a video by recording it

Another way of converting an ANY-maze format video to a standard format is simply to record it to the standard format as you play it. To do this, you should follow these steps:

 1.Switch to the Video page. 
 2.Click the Record a standard format video button in the ribbon bar - do this before playing the video you want to convert. 
 3.A message will be displayed; read it and click OK. At this point ANY-maze will know you want to record the video as a movie, and it will be waiting for you to play the video. 
 4.Use the Browse for a video file... option in the Video files section of the left-hand side bar to open the ANY-maze format video that you want to convert. 
 5.When ANY-maze displays the first frame of this video, it will remember that you want to convert the file to an MP4 or WMV movie and will pause playback. It will open a window where you can enter the name of file you want the movie to be saved to. 
 6.When you click Save on this window, the video will start to play, and it will simultaneously be recorded in an MP4 or WMV format to the file you specified. While recording, a flashing red dot will be shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the video display. 
 7.When the video reaches the end, ANY-maze will automatically end the recording. If you want to end it before this, just click the Record a standard format video button in the ribbon bar again.  

Converting a section of a video

The above instructions can be used to convert an entire video (or multiple video files), but you may wish to just convert a short section of an ANY-maze video, perhaps to show a typical behaviour that you want to mention in a presentation.

Here's how to do this:

 1.Switch to the Video page. 
 2.Use the Browse for a video file... option in the left-hand side bar to open the ANY-maze format video that you want to convert. 
 3.Use the search bar, underneath the video image, to navigate to the start of the section you want to record. 
 4.Click the Record a standard format video button in the ribbon bar - playback will automatically be paused, and a window will open where you can enter the name of the file you want the movie to be saved in. 
 5.When you click Save on this window, playback will restart and the video recording will begin. While recording, a flashing red dot will be shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the video display. 
 6.When the video reaches the end of the section you want to record, click the Record a standard format video button in the ribbon bar again - or wait until the video reaches the end, at which point recording will stop automatically.  

See also:

 •Errors while converting videos 

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ANY-maze help topic T0936