Review

A review is a saved session. Instead of re-opening each file and rebuilding a comparison by hand, you can save the whole setup to a .djvr file and reopen it later in one step. A review stores:

• The open files, including any separate audio, the active layer, and each file's speed, current frame, and in/out range.
• The active tab (the A file) and the comparison setup: mode, B files, wipe, overlay, and the relative/absolute time mode.
• The viewport state: framing, pan, and zoom.
• Color and display state: OCIO, LUT, display, background, foreground, aspect ratio, and HUD.
• The interface: the open tool panels.
• The feedback: markers and drawings.

Opening a review replaces the current session. File paths are stored relative to the .djvr when possible, so a review stays valid when moved together with its media; any files that cannot be found are reported in the Messages tool.

A review written by a newer DJV than the one you are running is refused, with the reason given in the Messages tool, rather than opened in part. Anything else in a review that this version does not understand is left alone: it is kept as it stands when you save, so passing a session between different versions of DJV does not quietly strip it. The document itself is described in Review file format.

The window title shows the open review's name, with a trailing * while it has unsaved changes. Close Review closes the review and returns DJV to its empty startup state; if there are unsaved changes it prompts to save first, as does quitting the application.

While a saved review has unsaved changes, DJV keeps a periodic autosave backup. If the application does not exit cleanly, the next launch offers to recover those changes.

Building a review: make "A" the primary source

A review can hold any number of files, but the "A" file is always the master. Set it to the source the review is about — the shot being reviewed — and use the "B" files for what you compare it against.

This is not a stylistic preference: "A" drives playback and timing. The player is built from "A", so its duration, frame rate and audio govern the session; the timeline shows "A"; comparison times are resolved relative to it; and Fit to A scales the other sources to match it. A review whose "A" is a reference still plays, but every timing decision then follows the wrong source.

How many "B" files you may add depends on the comparison mode:

Selecting a second "B" in a single-buffer mode replaces the first, and switching from Tile to any other mode keeps only one "B". This is by design, and it is why reviews are saved with the mode: reopening a tiled review with four sources restores all of them, while the single-buffer modes restore one. In every mode "A" is restored exactly as it was saved.

The recommended way to build a review:

1. Open the primary source first, so it becomes "A".
2. Open the sources to compare against, and mark them as "B".
3. Choose the comparison mode — Tile if you need more than two sources.
4. Save the review.

Locations: Review menu

Shortcuts:

• Open review: Ctrl+Alt+O
• Save review: Ctrl+Alt+S

Reviews can also be opened from the command line:

djv session.djvr

Personal preferences — keyboard shortcuts, style, cache size, and the audio device — are deliberately not stored in a review, so opening one received from someone else does not reconfigure your installation.

Markers

Feedback is written as markers: one list in the Review tool, each anchored to a frame or a span of frames, with a color, and text if it wants words. The add button makes a marker on the current frame and opens its text for writing in place; the in/out button makes one for the timeline in/out points. A marker needs no text — a bare marker is a flag. Clicking a marker goes to its frames, a span narrowing the timeline to itself on the way; clicking the marker already showing edits its text. The arrow keys browse the list the same way, and Delete removes the current marker.

The markers draw on the timeline in their colors: a span as a band along the top of the ruler, a single frame as a tick.

Import and export

Markers are standard OpenTimelineIO markers. Review/Import opens a .otio timeline as a review: it becomes the review's first file, and its markers — wherever they sit, on the stack, the tracks, or the clips — are copied into the feedback. Review/Export writes the review's markers into a .otio: a copy of the reviewed timeline when there is one, and a timeline with one clip referencing the media otherwise, with the markers at the timeline level and the text in each marker's comment. The file being imported is never modified.

Markers and drawings record who made them, taken from your account name on the machine, so a session that has been passed around stays readable.