Adjusting Timing

Precise timing is central to show quality — a single frame of misalignment between projectors or a late audio cue can break the audience's immersion. WATCHOUT provides high-precision internal timing and exposes direct-manipulation tools that let you position, trim, and tempo-shift cues with frame-accurate control. This article explains how the timing properties work and how to use snapping, looping, and fades to build tight, repeatable shows.

How WATCHOUT Represents Time

WATCHOUT uses high-precision internal timing for all calculations, and stores time values as milliseconds in the show file. The timeline UI displays time in HH:MM:SS.mmm format (hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds).

Because internal calculations use higher precision than the saved millisecond values, loop points and speed-scaled offsets remain accurate across long playback runs without accumulating drift.

Moving Cues

Dragging a cue's body repositions it along the timeline, changing its start time without affecting duration or In Time.

1. Select one or more cues.
2. Click and drag the cue body left or right.
3. Release at the desired position. Snapping guides appear when the cue aligns with nearby targets (see Snapping).

To move a cue to an exact time, select it and type the desired start value in the Properties panel.

Trimming Duration

Drag the left or right edge of a cue to change its duration. How the edges behave depends on which side you drag:

• Right edge (fade-out side): changes duration directly. The cue's start time and In Time remain fixed.
• Left edge (fade-in side): changes start, duration, and In Time together so the visible playback region shifts without moving the cue's right boundary.

Trim and Reset Commands

For precise operations, use the timeline context menu or keyboard shortcuts:

Command	Effect
Trim Start	Moves the cue start to the current playhead position, adjusting In Time and duration accordingly
Trim End	Moves the cue end to the current playhead position, adjusting duration
Reset Duration	Restores the cue to its original asset duration (or show default for images)
Reset In-Time	Sets In Time back to 0, so playback begins at the start of the asset

These commands are especially useful after rehearsal changes when multiple cues need to be normalized quickly.

In-Time (Media Start Offset)

In Time defines where inside the source asset playback begins. A cue with an In Time of 5 seconds skips the first five seconds of the media file and starts playing from that point.

Common uses:

• Trimming a countdown leader from the head of a video.
• Creating multiple cues from different sections of the same long-form asset.
• Adjusting after a director requests "start from the third verse."

To change In Time directly, select the cue and edit the In-Time field in the Properties panel, or drag the cue's left edge on the timeline.

Playback Speed

The Playback Speed property is a multiplier applied to media playback rate.

Speed value	Effect
1.0	Normal speed
0.5	Half speed (slow motion)
2.0	Double speed (fast forward)
-1.0	Reverse playback at normal speed

Speed interacts with duration through the Auto-Adjust Duration setting (see below). When auto-adjust is set to Proportional, changing speed automatically scales the cue duration so the same portion of the asset plays.

Auto-Adjust Duration

The Auto-Adjust Duration setting controls whether the cue duration updates automatically when related values change.

Mode	Behavior	When to use
None	Duration stays fixed regardless of asset or speed changes	Manual timing control; duration is entirely your responsibility
Asset	Duration matches the asset's intrinsic duration	Keep a video cue exactly as long as its source file
Proportional	Duration scales proportionally when playback speed changes	Maintain full asset coverage when adjusting speed (e.g., halving speed doubles duration)

The default mode is None. Set the mode per cue in the Properties panel.

How Playback Position Is Calculated

Understanding how WATCHOUT determines the current playback frame helps when debugging timing mismatches or building complex loop structures.

For a standard cue, the media playback position at any point during playback is determined by:

1. Taking the current timeline position.
2. Subtracting the cue's start time to get how far into the cue you are.
3. Adding the In Time to skip into the asset.

For example, if the timeline is at 15 seconds, the cue starts at 10 seconds, and In Time is 3 seconds, then WATCHOUT plays from the 8-second mark in the source media (15 - 10 + 3 = 8).

For looping cues, the playback position wraps around: once it reaches the loop end point, it resets to the loop start point and repeats. WATCHOUT performs this wrap with high precision to avoid drift over long loops.

For free-running cues, the playback position is based on wall-clock time rather than the timeline position. This means the media continues advancing even when the timeline is paused. See Understanding the Timeline for more on free-running mode.

Snapping

Snapping aligns cue edges and positions to meaningful reference points, preventing small timing gaps that are invisible in the editor but audible or visible during playback.

How Snapping Works

The timeline uses a 6-pixel threshold — when a dragged point comes within 6 pixels of a snap target (at the current zoom level), the cue locks to that target. Snap targets include:

• Cue edges — start and end edges of other cues on the same layer or adjacent layers
• Playhead — the current play cursor position
• Grid lines — time grid divisions visible in the timeline ruler
• Markers — positions of marker cues on the timeline

Disabling Snapping

• Hold Shift while dragging to temporarily bypass snapping.
• Disable snapping globally via the Edit Snapping setting in preferences.

Looping

Cues can loop a portion of their source media using loop points.

When the playback position reaches the Loop End point, it wraps back to Loop Start. WATCHOUT uses high-precision arithmetic for this wrap, ensuring seamless looping without cumulative drift, even for loops running across extended show durations.

Free-Running Mode

In free-running mode, a cue's playback offset is derived from the system clock rather than the timeline position. This means the media keeps advancing even when the timeline is stopped or scrubbed.

Free-running is useful for always-on background content such as live clocks, ambient video loops, or generative feeds that should not reset when an operator pauses the show.

The playback position is derived from the system clock:

playback position = current clock time - free-running start time

For more detail, see Understanding the Timeline.

Fades and Cross-Fades

Fades control how a cue's opacity, volume, or generic value ramps at its start and end.

Fade Structure

Each cue has optional fade in and fade out properties. A fade consists of:

When auto-fade is enabled, newly placed cues automatically receive fade-in and fade-out with the show default durations and curve. Adjust these defaults in Show Settings to match your project's style.