Synchronized Audio/Video Playback

With Tacview Standard, replay up to 8 audio/video files at the same time as the main playback, using whatever file formats that are supported by your installation of Windows. Open the windows where the files will play by clicking Analysis → Media 1 to Media 8.

Synchronized A/V - Media 1-8

Customize the window layout as desired.

Click on the file folder icon in the window and browse to locate and open your audio/video file.

Synchronized A/V - Open File

The windows containing the audio/video files can be docked or floating, opaque or transparent. Right click on their title bars to change the options. Drag them around to place them or dock them wherever you want them.

Synchronized A/V - Window Options

Manually Sync

Use the playback control bars of the 3D view timeline and the additional audio/video windows to synch up everything to the right spot. Then, hit play and just use the 3D view timeline to control the playback of everything.

Synchronized A/V - Sync Manually

Synchronized A/V - Sync Manually

Automatically Sync

Tacview will automatically synchronize the media file with the telemetry if the correct metadata is available. The presence of date-time metadata depends on each device. Tacview uses this metadata and not, say, the Windows "date created" or "date modified". Here are two examples of what is and what is not metadata:

Syncronized A/V - Metadata Example

Syncronized A/V - NOT Metadata Example

Sync by Timestamp

Alternatively, add the timestamp to the file name of your media file in the format YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ — so that October 24th 2019 at 09h15 UTC would be 20191024T091500Z. Then the media file will start playing exactly at 9:15 a.m. in your telemetry. A timestamp found in the filename will be used in priority over any metadata.

Load media files automatically

Use the Auto Load Media add-on to automatically load media files corresponding to the primary and (optionally) secondary selected objects.

Activate the add-on by selecting it from the Options → Enable/Disable Add-Ons menu, then access it directly from the Options menu and indicate whether you want it to work for Primary Object Only or Both Selected Objects.

Syncronized A/V - Enable Add-on

Syncronized A/V - Use Add-on

To use it, store your media files in the same folder as your ACMI files.

The following naming convention is recommended:

<<callsign>> <<video-id-for-order>> <<date-time>>.mpg

For example:

MAVERICK 1 20210730T180000Z.mpg MAVERICK 2 20210730T183000Z.mpg BANDIT 1 20210730T183000Z.mpg BANDIT 2 20210730T190000Z.mpg BANDIT 3 20210730T181500Z.mpg BANDIT 4 20210730T200000Z.mpg

The following file extensions are supported: .avi, .mkv, .mov, .mp3, .mp4, .m4a, .mpg, .ogg, .wav, .wma, .wmv.

Up to 8 media files, in 8 separate windows, can be displayed per selected object (for a grand total of up to 8 windows).

Load the ACMI file into Tacview and the media windows will automatically open and populate the relevant media files.

Troubleshooting

If Tacview won't play your audio/video file, this may mean that your installation of Windows does not support that file type. Try to replay it in Windows Media Player to see if it is really an issue with Tacview. If it plays in the Windows Media Player but not in Tacview, contact us at [e-mail] to get more help.

To increase the variety of audio/video files that can be replayed by your computer, download a Codec pack. The K-Lite Basic Codec Pack may be all you need.

Remember that many media files are actually just containers that can have any other file types inside them. So be sure to check inside your media file to find out what's really in there, and download the appropriate Codecs to support those file types.

MP3 Variable Bit Rate Files

Windows is not able to synchronize an mp3 variable bit rate file to Tacview properly. Don't use this file type; use mp3 constant bit rate instead.