Working with Scopes
In Vector a scope is a tile you place, resize and grow on the layout.
The Kinds
Section titled “The Kinds”The Type row of the Scope Properties pane lists 29 kinds: Waveform, RGB Waveform, RGB Parade, YRGB Parade, YCbCr Parade, Vectorscope, HML Balance, Luma Histogram, RGB Histogram, Hue Histogram, Saturation Histogram, Channel Plot, CIE Plot, Saturation vs Luma, Min / Max, Luma and RGB TimeTrace, Preview, Neutral, False Color, Gamut Scope, Skintone, 3D Color Cube, Error Log, Flicker Heatmap, Text Display, Audio Meters, Surround Meters, Goniometer and Timecode.
The families have their own pages: Waveforms and Parades, Vectorscope and Histograms, CIE and Plots.
What Every Scope Shares
Section titled “What Every Scope Shares”A tile is cleared to Background, and every grid comes from one description in Grid color. Scale numbers are in the same place on every kind.
A bound tile shows HML Balance | 3, and a tile with no source shows HML Balance | No Source.
The Every pixel box is on every video kind. On measures one sample per pixel, exact and slower above 1080p. Off follows Vector’s processing default, a 1080p cap out of the box, set in the Input window.
With no compatible graphics adapter, a picture scope shows No compatible GPU found in place of the trace.
Size and position belong to the layout. Working with Layouts describes that page.
The Scope Properties Pane
Section titled “The Scope Properties Pane”Open the pane from the View menu or a right-click on a tile. A click away or Escape closes it.
A slot picker shows Slot {number} — {name}, then the kind’s rows and the Type and Color rows.
Color lists only the colorings that tell a kind apart, and does not appear when that list is empty. A saved layout that stores Off shows as Mono.
Glow, Grid and Legal range are on at stock, and Crosshair, Min/Max levels and Every pixel are off.
The inks are Grid color [185, 200, 230], Background [6, 7, 10] and Luma trace [175, 255, 190], which Mono uses for every lane.
Grid strength runs 0.0 to 2.0 from the neutral 1.0, Text size 0.25 to 4.0 from 1.0, and Gain multiplies the trace over 0.2 to 8.0 on a logarithmic rail.
The Dial
Section titled “The Dial”A Stream Deck dial turns a numeric value, clockwise increasing it. A press puts a property back to its stock value, or toggles a view.
| Property | Range and step | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Global brightness | 0.0 to 4.0, step 0.05 | how bright every trace on the scope is |
| Scope Zoom Reset | 0.25 to 8.0, step 0.25 | the scope magnifier |
| Waveform zoom | 0.5 to 20.0, step 0.5 | the waveform magnifier |
| Snapshot blend | 0 to 100 %, step 5 | the snapshot blend |
A dial sets the value the pane edits, and the layout saves it. With no tile selected, it sets the scope the pane is editing.
Global brightness starts at 1.5.
Zoom, Pan and Gestures
Section titled “Zoom, Pan and Gestures”Four kinds take a pointer gesture: 3D Color Cube, Vectorscope, HML Balance and CIE Plot.
- The vector plots. The wheel magnifies about the tile between 0.5 and 8.0, and a double-click or a middle-click returns to 1.0.
- The CIE plot. The wheel magnifies the diagram, its curves, its grid, its gamut triangle and its trace together, between 0.5 and 8.0, and a double-click or a middle-click returns to 1.0.
- The color cube. A drag rotates 0.5° per pixel about Y and X, Shift with a drag pans and clamps at ±1.0, the wheel zooms between 0.1 and 8.0, and a double-click resets all three.
- Everything else. Set these from the pane, where a waveform’s Zoom and Pan rows do the work.
A left click selects the scope for the pane, a right click selects it and opens the pane, and a double-click grows the tile, with the hint Escape or click to exit.
The Two Things Called a Snapshot
Section titled “The Two Things Called a Snapshot”Save scope screenshot in the View menu saves the tile the screen last showed as vector-scope-<kind>-<width>x<height>.png, and the whole window beside it as vector-window-<width>x<height>.png. A Grab snapshot of a source saves vector-source-<slot>-<width>x<height>.png instead. All three go to the Screenshots directory named in Preferences, the Pictures folder at stock.
Snapshot blend cross-dissolves the live picture against a stored reference frame in memory. The action names are Grab snapshot, Grab snapshots for all inputs, Toggle automatic snapshots, Load last snapshot, Blend last snapshot and Toggle use snapshot. Vector saves one still per slot, and the next grab overwrites it. The stored blend starts at 0.0, live only, while the dial’s default is 50 %.
A Grab window snapshot key is refused with a window screenshot has to be asked for by the web API, and only on a painted frame.