Knowledge Base

Episode Selection

Four Ways to Select Episodes

To select events or video fragments, select episodes in one of the following ways:

• Method 1 – Select Events Manually. Create an empty Episode Selection and then select events manually by dragging and dropping them from the Event Log to the Episode Selection.
• Method 2 – Select the Entire Event Log.
• Method 3 – Select All Events from a Data Profile in an Episode Selection.
• Method 4 – Select Events in the Visualization.

Notes:

• If the observation contains video files, these open when you select events or episodes.
• Audio files associated with an observation are not visualized.
• If you do not see the videos, choose View Settings > Videos > Video Window.
• If this does not solve the problem, it may be that The Observer XT does not find the videos. To solve this:
  1. Click the observation name in the Project Explorer.
  2. Select the video file and click Open.
  3. Re-open the Episode Selection (click the Episode Selection in the Project Explorer).
• Events within one episode must be from the same observation.

Method 1 – Select Events Manually

To select events manually in the Event Log, follow these steps:

1. Choose Analyze > Episode Selection > New. The Event Log pane appears with the empty Episode Selection at the bottom.
2. The Event Log pane has two lists from which you can select an observation and an event log within an observation. Select the correct observation and event log.
3. Select events by dragging and dropping them from the Event Log to the Episode Selection.

Method 2 – Select the Entire Event Log

To select all events from an event log, in the Project Explorer right-click the Event Log file you want to create an Episode Selection from, and select Create Episode Selection.

You must right-click an event log, not an observation. To find an event log, first open the Observations folder in the Project Explorer, then the Observation containing the event log, and finally the Event Files folder.

The Episode Selection contains all events in the event log, grouped in an episode. The light blue line is the title of the episode, and is named after the event log.

Method 3 – Select All Events from a Data Profile in an Episode Selection

To select events with a Data Profile, follow these steps:

1. Click the Data Profile you want to use in the Project Explorer. For more information on data profiles, see Select Data for Analysis.
2. Choose Analyze > Episode Selection > New From Current Data Profile.

Notes:

• The events that took place during the Roll-on and Roll-off Time are also included in the Episode Selection.
• Data from different observations are placed in separate episodes (indicated by light-blue title rows). Data from different intervals (see Select Intervals) are also placed in separate episodes. If the same event is included in two or more intervals, the event is repeated in each episode.

Method 4 – Select Events in the Visualization

To select episodes in the videos or Time-Event plots. Each episode selected with this method represents one video segment from one observation. Episodes defined with this method cannot overlap.

1. In the visualization (Analyze > Visualize Data), scroll the video to the start of the episode. Then click the Start Episode button on the toolbar.
2. Move the slider, or click and drag the Event plot. The selected area is shown in orange in the Event plot.
3. When you have made your selection, click the Stop Episode button on the toolbar.
4. Optionally select more areas of interest. When done, click the Create Episode Selection button on the toolbar.

The Episode Selection window now contains the events or event fragments in the selected time intervals.

Partial Events

A key difference between this method and the three other methods is that with this method you do not necessarily select entire events. You can also select episodes that start or stop halfway through an event. With the other three methods it is only possible to select entire events.

Selecting Episodes Outside Data Selection Criteria

If you created a data profile, the data that fall outside the selection criteria are displayed in gray in the visualization. If you select episodes that fall (partly) within the area in gray and create an Episode Selection, the video of the entire interval is selected. However, the events that do not meet the selection criteria are not included in the Episode Selection.

Removing Episodes in the Visualization

To remove the latest selected episode, click the Remove Episode button on the toolbar. To remove all selected episodes, click the Remove All Episodes button on the toolbar. All selected episodes are removed when you exit the Visualization.

Subtitles

To change the default subtitles for the episode. By default, each event is shown as a subtitle. You must have created an Episode Selection before proceeding.

1. Choose Analyze > Episode Selection > Settings, or click the Settings button on the toolbar.
2. Select what to display as subtitles on the Subtitles tab:
   • Behavior Name – The content of the Behavior column.
   • Behavior Name and Comment – The content of both the Behavior and Comment columns.
   • Comment – The text in the Comment column for each event.
   • None – To not display subtitles.
   • Include Time – To display the time of the event or transition. Either select Absolute Time, or Relative Time, which is the time from the start of the event log. To change the time format, do so in the Project Settings (see Time Formats).
3. Click Apply to All to apply the changes to all events in the Episode Selection. If you do not click Apply to All, the changes will only apply to events you later add to the Episode Selection.

Subtitle Duration

To change the subtitle duration. Subtitles are by default shown for 5 seconds, or less if the event is shorter, with a 3-second Roll-on time and 2-second Roll-off time.

1. Choose Analyze > Episode Selection > Settings, or click the Settings button on the toolbar.
2. Open the Duration tab.
3. Set the duration in the Subtitles field. The default value is 5.0 seconds. Note that the duration of a subtitle cannot exceed the duration of the event plus Roll-off time. See Roll-on and Roll-off Time.
   • Example 1 – A state event has a duration of 5 seconds and a Roll-off time of 2 seconds. The subtitle will be shown for a maximum of 7 seconds.
   • Example 2 – A state event has a duration of 20 seconds. If you set the subtitle duration to 10 seconds, it will be shown for 10 seconds, independent of the Roll-off time.
   • Example 3 – A point event has a Roll-off time of 2 seconds. The subtitle will be shown for 2 seconds. Increase the Roll-off time to increase the subtitle duration.
4. Click Apply to All to apply the changes to all events in the Episode Selection. If you do not click Apply to All, the changes will only apply to events you later add to the Episode Selection.

Transitions

Transitions separate episodes. Transitions are shown as a blue row in the Episode Selection. There is also a transition at the start of the Episode Selection. You must have created an Episode Selection before proceeding.

1. Click the first event line in the Episode Selection that you want to have in the episode.
2. Click the Insert Transition button on the toolbar. A light-blue transition row is added immediately before the selected event.

Transition Duration

To change the default transition duration of 4 seconds, follow these steps:

1. Click the Settings button on the toolbar, or choose Analyze > Episode Selection > Settings.
2. Open the Duration tab.
3. Change the time in the Transitions field.
4. Optionally, change the Roll-on and Roll-off Time.
5. Click Apply to All to apply the changes to all events in the Episode Selection. If you do not click Apply to All, the changes will only apply to events you later add to the Episode Selection.

Roll-on and Roll-off Time

Roll-on and Roll-off times add some time before and after the events in an Episode Selection. You must have created an Episode Selection before proceeding.

Procedure for a Single Event

You can set the times for each event individually in the Roll-on and Roll-off columns in the Episode Selection.

Procedure for All Events

1. Click the Settings button on the toolbar, or choose Analyze > Episode Selection > Settings.
2. Click the Duration tab.
3. Change the time in the Roll-on or Roll-off field.
4. Click Apply to All to apply the changes to all events in the Episode Selection. If you do not click Apply to All, the changes will only apply to events you later add to the Episode Selection.

Episode Selection Options

Select the Video

If the observation is associated with a video file, this video is shown in the Videos window of the Episode Selection view. If the observation contains multiple video files, the ones that are associated with the selected episodes are all shown in the Videos window.

Play the Episodes

1. Make sure that with View Settings on the Component toolbar, the option Videos > Video Window is selected. Also select Playback Control and, if applicable, External Data.
2. Right-click the line of the event where you want to start, and select Play. Segments of video and external data are played, synchronized with the events highlighted in the Episode Selection.
3. Optionally, jump to the next or previous event in the Episode Selection with the step forward and backward buttons. For information about other Playback Control buttons, see The Playback Control Window.

Play a Point Event

By definition, events scored with Instantaneous Sampling have no duration. By default, each event has a Roll-on Time of 3.0 seconds and a Roll-off Time of 2.0 seconds. This means that three seconds of video are played before the event and two seconds after it. When you want to play a point event, make sure that its Roll-on Time or Roll-off Time is greater than zero (if both are zero, they are shown in red). See Roll-on and Roll-off Time.

Save an Episode Selection

The Episode Selection is saved as soon as it is created. It is named Episode Selection N, where N is an incremental number. Episode Selections are shown in the Episode Selections folder in the Project Explorer.

To rename an Episode Selection, right-click it and select Rename. To delete an Episode Selection, right-click the Episode Selections folder and select Delete, then select the episode selection and click OK.

When you save your project, each Episode Selection is saved to a file with the extension *.esr, within your project's Episode Selections folder.

Export the Episode Selection

You can export Episode Selections to text files. If your observation includes external data, these are exported together with the Episode Selection in separate files.

To export the currently active Episode Selection, click the Export Selected Data button on the toolbar.

To export all Episode Selections, choose Analyze > Episode Selection > Export. Enter a file base name, choose where to save the file, the file type, and list separator, then click Export. Episode Selections are saved as <base name> - Episode Selection 1.txt, <base name> - Episode Selection 2.txt, and so on. Associated physiological data are saved as <base name> - Episode Selection 1 - physiological data 001.txt, and so on.

If you have set Roll-on and Roll-off Times, the external data samples within these intervals are also exported.

Edit the Episode Selection

The Episode Selection Columns