A way to play Source just from In point to Out point

Suggestion
1

To help in placing the In and Out points at the right frames, it would help if we could have a way to ask ShotCut to start playing from the Source, starting at the In point and stopping at the Out point.
This would save cutting and copying to the timeline and undoing and moving the In or Out points and cutting again, particularly when the In and Out points are close to each other.
For a shortcut key, I would suggest semi-colon (;), because it is next to L on US English keyboards. We could think of it as being like L, but restricted to the In – Out range. Another idea would be Q for Quick play between In and Out. Audacity has this linked to the ordinary play command (space) – If there is a selection, Play plays just the selection, otherwise it plays from the selection point until you stop it.
When I asked how to do this, @Steve_Ledger said that video editors don’t do this
https://forum.shotcut.org/t/play-source-just-from-in-to-out-points/2984/2
but I think this would give ShotCut an advantage.
When the Timeline is in focus, the same command could mean “Play the selected clip only”.
This suggestion would be easy to implement. The play function would need to be sent the starting and ending points, instead of playing from the current position.
Thanks for listening,
Jim

2

It might help to to better understand “nondestructive editing.” The following handbook applies to all video editors of this kind. Everything you need is already available.Instead of trying to make these editors work according to our conception of them we need to use them according to the way they all actually work.Just trying to be helpful!

https://kdenlive.org/video-editing-applications-handbook/

-=Ken=-

3

No Jim, you cannot assert this idea of simplicity to fit your narrative.
Unless you are a software developer you could not possibly know how much effort, time and debugging might be required when inserting new code [functions] into existing [and working routines] code.

4

Thanks for your comment, Steve.
I am a software developer, but not in this project.
I had been looking at the Road Map, and saw that there are many features in the plans.
I thought that my suggestion might be evaluated by those who plan the development and given a high or low priority. It did seem to me to be worth considering.
Are you one of the developers?

1 Like
5

Thanks, Ken, for that link.
Lots for me to digest there. Were you thinking particularly of the section
Advanced trimming tools?
If so, can you point me to any videos or other information on how to do that in ShotCut?

6

Good to know Jim, then perhaps as Shotcut is Open Source you can have a crack at adding those features?
â–ş Shotcut - Download

7

Hi Jim,
Yes, the advanced trimming tools is what I was thinking of. That article is the only one I can find that uses illustrations to get the concepts across to people. Unfortunately, it doesn’t first cover the basics and it does cover some advanced features Shotcut doesn’t have yet. I am not prepared to put together a video either. I am experienced in writing procedures though and perhaps I could take a stab at it.

  1. Start a new project and load one video clip.
  2. Using I and O keys select a section of video in the center of the clip with perhaps 10 percent of the length of the clip.
  3. Open the Playlist and add the selection to it.
  4. Click to select the entry in the Playlist
  5. In the Timeline click the Plus icon to add the clip to the Timeline
  6. Make sure the Timeline is zoomed to view the newly added clip so it only fills about 1/4 of the Timeline
  7. Click and drag the clip on the Timeline to the center of the Timeline
  8. Now, if you hover your cursor over the start or end of the clip on the Timeline you will see a colored highlight and a horizontal double-headed arrow. You can click and drag to lengthen the clip in either direction. You will find that “hidden” on either end - is the entire length of your original clip.
    If you make a second portion of the original clip and add it the same way to the Timeline you will find “hidden” is once again the entire original clip. The In and Out points are only pointers recorded for the original clip.
    Someone really needs to make a set of illustrations for this concept. Otherwise, it seems people will expect a video editor to do things it was never designed to do!

So, how did I do?

-=Ken=-

8

You did well, thanks, Ken.
I noticed the double-headed arrow when I knew what to look for and what it meant.

9

Well, this is embarrassing :blush:
What I was asking for is already there (at least in one video).
To play the Source from the In point to the Out point:

  1. Get the Source active.
  2. Use Alt-Left or Alt-Right enough times to get the play point onto the In point.
  3. Tap L or space to start playing.
  4. When the play point gets to the Out point, playing stops.
  5. If you want to continue, tap L or space again.

I find this helpful particularly in finding the ideal point in the audio to stop. (It’s easier to see which video frame to stop on).

So, I’m sorry I wasted your time with this question, and as a programming Suggestion it can now be ignored.
But it seems this feature needs to be documented in the help files. Is there a helpfile team I could contact, or perhaps help on?