Videonics FIREWRITER REMOTE Installation and operating instructions

ManualAddendum

ManualAddendum
FireWriter Manual Addendum • MANL-0871-01 ©2001 Focus Enhancements
The Videonics logo and Videonics FireWriter logo are registered trademarks of Focus Enhance-
ments, Inc. Other products and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies and are hereby acknowledged. Television screens are simulated. Subject
to change without notice. FireWriter is not to be used for the unauthorized copying of copyrighted
material.
Focus Enhancements Inc. • 1370 Dell Avenue • Campbell, CA 95008 USA • 408-866-8300
www.focusinfo.com

12. SHIFT and CAPS LOCK. Hold SHIFT to type capital letters. CAPS LOCK capitalizes all
typing until pressed again. Note that some fonts have only capital letters. SHIFT is also used to
modify the function of other keys.
13. CMD (COMMAND). Modifies function of other keys.
14. Z (CLOCK). ACCENT + Z displays clock as text on a page.
15. ACCENT. Hold ACCENT while typing a letter key to type the special symbols (•,©,¢,etc.)
printed in blue. Use with power key to activate DEMO. Use with accent marks followed by a
letter to type accented international characters such as é, ü, å, etc.
16. POSN (POSITION). Press and release POSN, followed by up or down arrow keys, to position
text at the top, bottom, or center of the page. Press and release POSN, then left or right arrow,
to position text at right, left, or center page.
17. X (DATE). ACCENT + X displays date as text on a page.
18. SPACE BAR. Adds space to text. Pauses the page that is playing.
19. PAGE INDEX. Displays an index in which each page occupies one line, making it easy to look
through all pages and projects.
20. NEW PAGE. Starts a new page of text.
21. PLAY. After you create titles using the Editing Screen, press PLAY key to play the titles for
display or recording. CMD (Command) + PLAY always plays from first page in project. If no
text is marked, PLAY displays the current page. If text is marked, PLAY loops through marked
pages. Once playing begins: Press PLAY again to go to next page; use SHIFT and PLAY to
play backwards; press arrow keys to manually step forward or backwards. NEW LINE/OK
ends play and returns to Editing Screen.
22. ARROW KEYS. Use the four individual arrow keys to move the cursor on screen; to change
highlights in a menu; and, when playing text, to go forward and backward.
23. PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN. Used to re-position cursor a page at a time. PAGE UP places
cursor at the first line of the page, PAGE DOWN places cursor at the last line in the page.
24. NEW LINE/OK. Ends a line of text and starts a new one. Also accepts settings of menus,
returns to Editing Screen from Page Index and Play Screens.
25. LEFT and RIGHT BRACKET. Use the left and right bracket to change sub-menus. MARK
START, MARK END, and TAB will do the same.
CONTROLS
1. POWER. Power key turns on the FireWriter unit.
DEMO. Demonstrates features. Press ACCENT + DEMO for English version; SHIFT + DEMO
for International version. You can also copy the demo into the editing area, to modify it or
study how its effects were accomplished.
2. MENU KEYS. Menus change color, font, style, etc., of lines or pages that contain marked text
or cursor. Use either MARK START, MARK END, TAB, or the bracket keys, ( [ ) and ( ] ), to
change sub-menus; arrow keys to highlight the desired choice; and NEW LINE/OK or PLAY
to implement changes. Press UNDO to cancel the menu and leave titles unchanged.
3. POSITION LIGHT. Used in conjunction with the POSN key (16). Indicates that page or line
positioning may be done (see POSN key).
4. CUT, COPY and PASTE. To cut, copy or paste text, mark the text using MARK START and
MARK END, move cursor to desired location, then press CUT, COPY or PASTE.
5. CAPS LOCK LIGHT. When the CAPS LOCK light is on, typing a letter key (A-Z) causes the
SHIFTed version to appear. Other keys (numbers, symbols, etc.) are unaffected. Press the CAPS
LOCK key to turn the CAPS LOCK light on and off.
6. MARK LIGHT. Indicates that the mark function has been enabled (i.e., MARK START or
MARK END has been pushed).
7. UNDO. If you accidentally delete something, press UNDO immediately.
8. DELETE. Erases marked text, if any. Otherwise, erases the character before the cursor.
9. MARK START and MARK END (10). Mark text to modify, delete, copy, or move it. Position
cursor before first character and press MARK START. Position after last character and press
MARK END. Notice cursor becomes wider to remind you something is marked. Use UNDO to
remove marks. SHIFT, used with a mark key, marks start or end of the page; COMMAND plus
a mark key marks start or end of all text in current project.
11. TAB. “Smart tab” positions cursor to match the tab stops located above the status line. Also
used to move between submenus.

Errata
Chapter 2 QuickStart
Page 5 (Power On/Off)
The green LED located on the unit’s front panel will light
when the unit is on, and flash when connected to a network
via Ethernet.
Page 8 (Editing Text)
To insert text, use the arrow keys to move the cursor to any
desired location and type. The characteristics (or attributes)
of the new characters will be the same as those of the last
characted typed.
To copy the characteristics of any character, position the
cursor before the character and press MARK START, then
move the cursor after the character and press MARK END.
Type COMMAND + A to copy the characteristics of that
character.
To replace text, mark and delete the existing text, then type
new text. Should you want the new text to have characteris-
tics other than what is current, use COMMAND + A to copy
the characteristics of any characters on the screen.
Page 12 (Playing the pages)
A convenient way to become a FireWriter expert is to load
the demo into the Editing Screen for study. To do this, press
CMD (Command) + SHIFT + COPY at the same time, or
CMD (Command) + ACCENT + COPY for the international
demo and the unit will create a project that contains the
demo text.
Page 13 (Playing the pages)
Mark large blocks of text so you can cut, copy, or paste them
without typing.
REAR PANEL
A. S-video VIDEO IN. Connect a S-video 4 pin mini-DIN cable from source.
B. Composite VIDEO IN. Connect a RCA type cable from source.
C. DV VIDEO IN. Connect a 4 pin DV ( IEEE-1394) cable from source.
D. AUDIO IN . Audio connections are provided for convenience; the audio signals pass straight
through without modification.
E. S-video VIDEO OUT. Connect a S-video 4 pin mini-DIN to VTR.
F. Composite VIDEO OUT. Connect a RCA type cable to VTR.
G. DV VIDEO OUT. Connect a 4 pin DV (IEEE 1394) to VTR.
H. AUDIO OUT. Audio output connections.
I. PREVIEW OUT. Optional. When used in live title setup, permits you to modify titles and
typing is not seen on main output. Important: Leave unconnected when not in use.
J. SERIAL. 9-pin D-type connector for optional serial control.
K. CONTROL (GPI). Allows remote trigger of titles using switch or controller with GPI (“Gen-
eral Purpose Interface”) output. Warning: Always turn power off before connecting or discon-
necting GPI jack.
L. POWER. Connect FireWriter power supply. Important: Do not use power supplies designed
for any other equipment.
M. ETHERNET. Connect to the Internet, LAN, or to a client computer.
Note:
Upside-down legends make it easy to make connections without turning unit around.

Chapter 12 How characteristics Affect Text
Page 53 (Choosing Characteristics)
Characters typed from the cursor’s location will always have
the current characteristics. If the cursor hasn’t been moved
(or characteristics deliberately changed), new characters will
match the characters to the cursors left. If the cursor has
been moved, new characters will match the characters that
were typed last.
CMD + A will copy the characteristics of any marked text,
specifically the character to the right of MARK START,
making thes the current attributes..
Chapter 14 Colors
Page 56 (Header)
Letters, backgrounds, and borders can be independently
colored. The colors can be combined with shadows for some
stunning effects. Each character can use different colors for
letters.
Chapter 17 Effects, Scrolls, and Crawls
Page 65 (Scroll and Crawl Notes)
DELETE: If a page has more than 110-115 lines, it may be too
long for a vertical scroll. If the memory warning symbol
appears when you attempt to play the scrolled page, break
the page into two pages or remove some lines.
Chapter 18 Clock and Date Functions
Page 66 (Setting the Clock and Date Formats)
Press CMD + SHIFT + Clock/Date Menu for the Clock/Date
menu.
The clock can be set for either a 12 hour format or a 24 hour
format. The clock also has 4 different separator formats to
choose from. Use the left and right arrow keys to move the
cursor to the desired hour, minute, seconds positions and
the separator and 12/24 hour format. The up and down
arrow keys change the particular setting.
Chapter 5 Using the Demo
Page 28 (Using the demo as a guided Tour)
If the Database Full message appears, when you attempt to
copy the demo, the memory is full.
Chapter 6 Typing Titles
Page 31 (Typing Titles)
If the database full message appears when you type, you
will be unable to add more text unless you erase other text.
Chapter 8 Projects
Page 40 (About Projects)
There are a total of thirty projects available. Each project can
have as many characters and pages as needed, up to the
maximum of fifty thousand total characters.
Page 41 (Creating a Project)
DELETE THIS SECTION
Page 41 (Removing a Project or Erasing its Contents)
Projects cannot be removed. To erase the contents of a
project, press CMD + SHIFT + DELETE.
Chapter 9 Changing Titles
Page 43 (Undo)
You can even cut, copy, and paste a section of text without
retyping.
Chapter 11 How to use Menus
Page 51 (Using a menu is simple)
The Font menu contains a total of 26 font choices, while the
font style menu has nine shadow choices.

A. OFF/ON - This turns this schedule on or off.
B. Project Number
C. Time of Day.- This time is based on the FireWriter clock
setting. (See previous section on setting the Clock and Date).
D. Calendar setting - Like the Time of Day. this setting is
based on FireWriters Date setting.
E. Days of the Week - Where 1 = Monday, 2 = Tuesday, all
the way up to 7 =Sunday.
You can determine which day of the week you want the
project to run on. For example, a project could run on Mon-
day, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
Page 68 (Displaying the Real Time Clock and Date)
Press ACCENT+Z to display the current time on a page and
ACCENT+X to display the current date on a page.
Chapter 23 Computer Connections
Page 83 (Ethernet)
To work on a standard Ethernet network, each FireWriter
requires a unique IP address.
Appendix A Advanced Techniques, Shortcuts, and CMD
(Command) Keys
Page 90 (Capacity)
FireWriter can hold over 50,000 characters
DELETE: Each line can hold up to 1000 characters. It’s un-
likely you would ever try to type that many but if you do,
the memory-full symbol appears to remind you to start a
new line.
DELETE: Scrolls can contain up to 110-115 lines per page,
depending on how many characters there are on each line. If
a scroll is too long, the memory warning will appear when
you attempt to play the page.
The bottom sub-menu contains the DATE menu. As with
other menus use the TAB, MARK START/END, or left/right
brackets to move between sub-menus. The DATE menu has
three adjustable settings: DATE, SEPARATOR, and DATE
FORMAT. Use the left/right arrow keys to select the set-
tings. Use the up/down arrows to change these settings. The
DATE FORMAT setting allows you to switch between DM
(Date & Month) or MD (Month & Date). The SEPARATOR is
identical to the clock separator.
Page 66 (setting the Clock and Date)
To set the current time or date, highlight and type in the new
time, using leading zeros for numbers 1-9.
Page 66 (Displaying a Project at a Pre-Determined Date
and Time)
You can automatically trigger up to 5 different projects to
play at pre-determined dates and times without the use of
an external GPI using the Schedule menu.
Schedule menu
The SCHEDULE MENU button is located to the right of the
EFFECTS OUT menu. This menu has five sub-menus each
setup to perform the same function. The SCHEDULE menu
allows the user to perform any of the following functions:
1. Schedule a single project to play at a specific time on the
current day.
2. Schedule a single project to play at a specific day and time.
3. Schedule a single project to play at a specific time on all
days of theweek.
4. Schedule a single project to play at a specific time on
selected days of the week.
5. Turn a specific schedule on or off.
6. Setup a schedule to play five separate projects along with
numbers 1 through 5 from above.
To move between schedules use the up/down arrow keys.
To move between a specific schedules setup parameters use
the left/right arrow keys.
A single schedule is divided into several sections.

Notes
Page 91 (Erasing Memory and Resetting Unit)
DELETE: The trash can symbol appears to warn you every-
thing is about to be erased. Press NEW LINE/OK to conform
you really want to erase everything.
ADD: Remove the power plug, and while pressing the
Delete key, plug it back in. After a few seconds a message
will appear on the edit screen asking you if you would like
to do a factory reset. Doing a factory reset erases all data,
including Projects, Bugs, Backgrounds, so be sure you have
backed up these files to your computer prior to resetting.
After reset, the default factory graphic images will be re-
loaded.
Page 93 (Diagnostic Mode)
DELETE: CMD + SHIFT + D enters diagnostic mode.
Diagnostic mode will be disabled in future versions of soft-
ware, since its use can cause file corruption.