FrameServing is a technique used to transfer audio/video data directly from one application's timeline to another in source form. It removes the need for a full fledged render, temporary files and hours of wait times.

DebugMode FrameServer is available an export plug-in for popular video production & editing software such as Magix Vegas Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro. Using this plug-in, you can:

  • stream video & audio from a running instance of Adobe Premiere Pro (or Magix Vegas Pro) to another instance
  • render your output via video encoders that aren't natively supported in your production software
  • send your rendered output to another machine via the networked frameserving option
  • export the video from your timeline as an image sequence (TIFF, PNG, BMP, JPEG), and more...

Download

For 64-bit editions of Adobe Premiere Pro & Magix Vegas Pro -> Download the latest version (v5.0, 64-bit)
The FrameServer Google Group is a good place to discuss tips and tricks.
For older 32-bit editions of Premiere, Vegas, EditStudio, MediaStudioPro and Wax, you can download the unmaintained Frameserver 2.14

Usage instructions
Magix Vegas Pro
  1. Choose menu "File > Render As" to open the default render dialog (make sure your project uses 8/16 bit audio, they are the supported formats).
  2. Enter a valid filename for the output file. This file is called the "signpost"< file.
  3. Choose "DebugMode FrameServer" as the output type.
  4. Click "Save" to start FrameServing.
Adobe Premiere Pro/Premiere Elements
  1. From timeline, choose menu "File > Export > Movie" and choose "DebugMode FrameServer" in the list of output formats.
  2. Enter a valid filename for the output file. This file is called the "signpost" file.
  3. Click "Save" to start FrameServing.

You can now open the signpost filename you entered above in your target application and frameserving will take place. To stop frameserving, click the "Stop Serving" button in the FrameServer dialog and return to your NLE.

Network frameserving (used rarely)

FrameServer can serve audio and video across the network (upto 8 clients). Network frameserving is useful in situations where you want to distribute the encoding of video to a group of client machines. All the client machines receive the same signpost AVI file from the server, and each of them must be configured to encode a different range of the video.

Steps
  1. Install the frameserver in all the PCs involved.
  2. Open your NLE and render the project using the FrameServer. In the Frameserver options dialog, check the Enable Network Frameserving option. You can use the default port value for the network connection, or if you have problems change it to something else.
  3. Click the Next button and the frameserving starts.
  4. On the client machine run the FrameServer Network Client application from the FrameServer start menu folder. Give the IP address and port of the server machine.
  5. Also give the path to which the signpost file must be saved. When doing network frameserving DO NOT COPY THE SIGNPOST AVI file to the client machines. The signpost AVI will be automatically copied over the network by the client and saved to the given path.
  6. Click the OK button in the client and the signpost AVI file will be created in the client machine. Now you can use the signpost AVI in the client. When finished, close both the FrameServer client and server applications.
Tips on network frameserving
  1. You may not see good performance on a usual 100Mbps network. Network frameserving of DV resolution video needs more bandwidth than 100Mbps so try to get hold of a Gigabit network.
  2. Do the network frameserving on an internal private network and not in a public network.
  3. Close all network monitoring tools and all firewall software to reduce overhead.
  4. Each client machine gets the same signpost AVI from the server, so remember to choose a separate range in each client machine to work on.