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Can you flip a recording horizontally automatically for Learning Glass
Shaun Searle
Tyro
in Equipment
We have purchased a Learning Glass (https://www.learning.glass/) which we want to use with Panopto. Is there any way I can flip recordings horizontally to ensure writing is legible to the viewer?
In an ideal world, we would like to create a Learning Glass folder in which any video placed in the folder, would be flipped automatically before being shared on a wider basis.
We essentially are trying to avoid that step of having to throw a recording into an alternative video editor and then re-upload to Panopto.
Any discussion around this would be most welcome,
Shaun
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We looked at that same installation too. Our main concern was the actual "operation" of this unit. There is no "plug & go" operation, it requires some manual steps. There is one model that comes with "everything" (hardware and software, the most expensive one) but I am not sure it automatically flips the video! Alternatively, we are using the OneButtonStudio+ with the Wacom tablet to annotate the presentation during the video recorder. It fulfills the same goal. It is really a preference issue, some people want to write on the board, some on the tablet.
There isn't anything that I am aware of in the Panopto UI, but if you aren't using Panopto to record you could set up a workflow using FFMPEG (or something similar) to reencode the video prior to it going up to Panopto. You could even try to work in the Panopto Drop Folder app (https://github.com/Panopto/WatchFolderService) to try to automate from PC to Panopto.
I'd say for situations like this, having something available in the Panopto desktop recorder would be great. I am thinking of a "flip video" button next to the primary video preview or something like that.
I would be nice to have it in Panopto, either in the recorder or in the editor. Right now we are using this software together with their capture card: http://www.magewell.com/usb-capture-utility-v3
@Mads Larsen and does the Magewell software reverse the image?
It's one of my colleagues who uses it, so I do not know how good it is, however, he has not complained, so assume it works fine. I can try to ask him if you are interested.
I found this on their website
You can use OBS ( Open Broadcaster Studio ) to flip the video horizontally. First feed the video into OBS and use the Virtual Webcam as input for the Panopto recorder. In the OBS top menu, choose Edit -> Transform -> Flip Horizontally. Using OBS as middleware also gives provides you with filtering and cropping possibilities.
In our situation, we use the Lightboard with a block camera that can flip the video for you. For instance the PTZOptics Zcam 12X can do that. You can connect the camera via an SDI to USB capture device from Epiphan or Magewell, or use the NDI feature via your network.
Thanks everyone.
I'm aware of OBS but I was hoping Panopto might be able to apply it as a rule to a particular folder to avoid the need to go through a third party entity. We also have a quite strict Uni tech team that hate allowing admin rights to install software, particularly those free to use.
I'm very much in a making do with what we have with regards the camera, in an ideal world having a camera that did this at source would also be brilliant but unfortunately that won't be happening yet.
We are actively trying to keep the process as simple as a standard Panopto Capture recording for the content creator, we just would like to avoid that manual edit/flip afterwards (even though it is easy). We want the room to be used independently rather than supported.
Well, flipping the image would be the least of our problems with the Lightboard. Keeping the glass clean is such a struggle.. It would indeed be nice if you could apply custom ffmpeg parameters for the transcoding rules per folder. A simple "-vf hflip" would do the job.
With our Learning Glass setup, I needed to set the camera to a custom exposure setting. With the automatic exposure setting of a USB camera the image became too bright and noisy.
To circumvent the IT admins, you could run OBS standalone without admin rights on the recording PC but for a standalone recording setup that would be too much of a hassle I suppose. Perhaps you could make a Panopto feature request for custom transcoding options?
Feature request to add an option to mirror the video in Panopto Capture: https://community.panopto.com/discussion/1841/panopto-capture-add-option-to-mirror-video/p1?new=1
Also, just a note on OBS Virtual Camera...I would stay away from that when using recording clients that are sensitive to drops like Panopto. The OBS product can produce some messy data streams and Panopto has (rather used to) kill the recording because of it.
A few years ago we lost a good bit of content as a result of this in one of our studio spaces. There are some folks that still use it here, but my recommendation is to only use it for non-critical situations.
Here is the official Panopto doc on it: https://support.panopto.com/s/article/Officially-Endorsed-Panopto-Equipment#hTargetInstance6
We use OBS with our LightBoard Studio (similar to the Learning Glass) but it is a home grown build, so not going into the Panopto software. Magewell, as mentioned above is a good option, as would be the Epiphan Pearls
for local capture as well as a push to Panopto - we use the Pearls as it allows us a local Mp4 copy for editing and you can flip the sources and/or crop as needed