Playing digital video direct-to-Stage

Director can play digital video using a feature called direct-to-Stage. Direct-to-stage lets video drivers installed on the computer completely control the video playback.

Note: The direct-to-Stage feature cannot be used with DVD or RealMedia digital video because DVD is always direct-to-stage and RealMedia is always non-direct-to-stage.

Direct-to-stage often provides the best performance from a digital video, but it has two disadvantages:

• The digital video always appears in front of all other sprites on the Stage, no matter which channel contains the sprite.
• Ink effects do not work, so it is difficult to conceal the video's bounding rectangle with Background Transparent ink.

When direct-to-Stage is off, Director layers a digital video on the Stage exactly the same as other sprites, and Background Transparent ink works normally. (Matte ink does not work for digital video sprites.)

To set direct-to-Stage options:

1. Select a digital video cast member or sprite.
2. Click the QuickTime or Windows Media tab in the Property inspector.
3. Select or deselect direct-to-Stage (DTS).
4. If the cast member or sprite is a QuickTime video, select one of the following Playback options:

   Sync to Soundtrack makes the digital video skip frames (if necessary) to keep up with its soundtrack. The digital video might also take less time to play.

   Play Every Frame makes every frame of the digital video appear but does not play the soundtrack because the video cannot play the soundtrack asynchronously while the video portion plays frame by frame. Depending on the data rate of the digital video, the sprite might play more smoothly with this option selected, but this is not a certainty. In addition, playing every frame might cause the digital video to take more time to play.

5. If the sprite or cast member is a QuickTime video, select Controls to display a controller bar below the movie to let the user to start, stop, and step through the movie.