SwingPractis Premium/Pro FAQ

A: Basic, Premium, and Pro refer to SwingPractis™ feature sets. These features are enabled for different types of users using an Internet-based authentication system. The Basic feature set is free. The Premium feature set is part of the IGOLPING PlayersClub subscription. The Pro feature set is free for qualifying teaching professionals and golf content providers.

SwingPractis™ Version	Cost	Who can get it
Basic	Free	Everyone
Premium	Included with Subscription	IGOLPING PlayersClub Subscribers
Pro	Free	Qualified teaching pros and content creators

This table outlines what features are available in the different versions of SwingPractis™:

Feature	SwingPractis™ Basic	SwingPractis™ Premium	SwingPractis™ Pro
View swing from two angles	•	•	•
Compare Target or Front view of two swings	•	•	•
Draw lines, circles, angles, arrows, etc.	•	•	•
Print frame of swing	•	•	•
Zoom and pan	•	•	•
Variable speed playback	•	•	•
Record from DV Cam		•	•
Automatic hit detection (in Record mode)		•	•
Import from AVI, MPG, etc		•	•
Import from DV tape		•	•
Import from DV camera (live)		•	•
Upload image to forum		Coming Soon	Coming Soon
Upload swing to forum		Coming Soon	Coming Soon
Email swing from within the application		Coming Soon	Coming Soon
Strobe club for swing path		Coming Soon	Coming Soon
View paid lesson content	•	•	•
View paid swing content	•	•	•
Create Lesson Content			•

A: SwingPractis™ Pro is part of our ProFinder™ service, which is currently under development. When this service becomes available, you will be able to apply for Pro status in the Inpractis.com membership sign-up page (or the Edit Personal Information page, if you already have a membership).

A: SwingPractis™ Premium is part of the IGOLPING PlayersClub™ subscription. [http://www.inpractis.com/membership.php Click Here] for more information about the PlayersClub program.

A: At this time there is no indication of Basic, Premium, or Pro from within the program, since the differences are not the result of getting a different program, but having new features enabled. The most obvious difference between Basic and the other two modes is that you will have a Record tab next to the Playback tab.

A: You may not have given your Inpractis.com login information to SwingPractis™. Doing this allows SwingPractis™ to verify your Inpractis.com account and enable the features on your copy of the software. In SwingPractis™, go to the Tools menu item and select Change Login Information. You should enter your Username and Password that you use on the Inpractis.com web site. When you change the logon or change modes (from Playback to Compare for example) the software will contact the website to get license information. If you are not connected to the Internet, the software will not be able to activate your features.

A: No, but you have to be connected to the Internet when you enable Premium or Pro features in the software. Once it is enabled, it will work without being connected to the Internet. Each time you start SwingPractis™ while connected to the Internet, SwingPractis™ will check the status of its licenses, and check for software updates. If your subscription has terminated and you connect to the Internet your features will be terminated. There is a timeout, so you should connect your computer to the Internet at least once a month. By the way, do not change your login information within the software while not connected to the Internet. It will cause the system to disable all features and you will not be able to get them back until you connect again.

A: Record is used to record swings from a DV Camera using the sound of impact to trigger the capture. SwingPractis™ doesn’t care whether the feed from the camera is live or from video playback; it will listen for the ball hit and capture the swing. Since current support is for only one DV Camera input, you will only capture one view of the swing in this mode. With Video Import, you can create a SwingPractis™ swing from a file or from a DV Camera. You should use Video Import instead of Record in the following situations:

1. If your camera is connected by USB. (We do not yet support sound capture with USB, so we cannot automatically trigger on ball impact in Record Mode. You must use Firewire (1394) in Record Mode)
2. If you want to create a single swing with both a target line and front view of the swing.
3. If you have no sound or a noisy environment where the ball impact cannot be reliably detected.
4. If you want to import a swing from a file.

A: Make sure that the camera is on and in Camera mode or in Playback or VCR mode and is playing or displaying video. You should be able to see video on the camera’s LCD screen. If you do, then you may need to click on the Record tab to get the software to see the camera. If you are still having trouble contact Technical Support.

A: No, SwingPractis™ can do everything to get the swing off of the DV Camera. You can use either the Video Import function or Record Mode. Video Import controls the camera. If you put the camera in Playback mode, you should see playback controls under the video image in the Video Import window. These controls can be used to control the DV Camera. There are the standard fast forward, rewind, play, stop, etc buttons that are on the camera. All you should have to do with the camera is turn it on and put it into playback mode. After that, you can control it with the SwingPractis™ software.

A: From any of the SwingPractis™ modes (except Record), you can go to the Tools menu item and select Video Import.

A: Most swings are captured on 30 frame interlaced video cameras. Depending on how they created the .avi that you are importing, they may have "reversed" the order of the frames. All you need to know is that if you import a swing from a source and you find that it is jumpy or bouncing up and down a little bit, you may find that by selecting Reverse or Normal eliminates the jumpiness.

A: Probably faster than you can get ready to hit the next ball. Processing will occur in the background, so you will find that it is ready within one or two seconds for the next hit.

A: If you have recorded a swing, the system will start processing it in the background. During this period, we slow down preview mode to fewer frames per second so that we can process faster. As soon as it is done processing, the preview will speed up. This will not affect its ability to capture the next swing. Preview is only there for you to see what the camera sees. When you record the swing it will get every frame.

A: Almost. The IGOLPING DSR has true 60 frames per second 512x480 video capture. With a DV Camera you are capturing 30 frames per second interlace. To get the equivalent of 60 frames per second, we use each of the interlaced frames (an effective resolution of 512x240) with an advanced motion detection and interpolating algorithm.

A: Most newer DV Cameras have a "Sport" mode that puts the camera into a faster shutter speed. To get the best stop-action on the image, you want a DV Camera with at least 1/1000 second shutter speed. This camera mode may only work well in well-lit environments.

A: At this time, lesson content can only be created by Pros. We are looking at providing an additional feature to allow Premium users to be able to voice annotate their swing, but not create full lessons with chapters.

A: Although we have not yet implemented a direct upload from within SwingPractis™, you can post swings manually using the Inpractis.com website if you are a PlayersClub subscriber or registered Pro. Simply log onto Inpractis.com with your username and password, and go to your Swing Locker (under the My Account tab). From here, you can upload swings and images to your locker using a web form. Once uploaded, these will be available in the Forum post composer in a pull-down menu. We plan to expand the Swing Locker concept soon, with upload and download access from within SwingPractis and, eventually, the DSR Kiosks as well. This will be great for moving your swings between locations without using a USB Flash drive.

A: The only difference between Premium and Pro is content creation. At this time we are not offering that to anyone except pros. The main reason is that it adds complexity to the application and that increases the technical support issues. We have prided ourselves in keeping the system simple so that people can use SwingPractis™ simply. Many, if not most of the features are designed such that if you never want to use them you don’t even see them (For example, drawing lines and circles). By adding recording capability we added a very complex feature and that is enough for now. Our rule is that we want it simple; if an added feature is not, then it better be very important. Other companies add features to outdo each other rather than provide useful features for their customer. Each feature we add must carry the value to warrant any increase in difficulty it creates.

A: Yes, you will always get the current updated version of the software. What you won’t get are the enhanced features like DV Cam input and soon-to-be-released specialty features like club path tracking.

A: It is included with a subscription to the IGOLPING PlayersClub™, which also includes many premium features on our website. [http://www.inpractis.com/membership-benefits.php Click here] for more information on the PlayersClub™ benefits. The most important reason to get it is if you do not have access to an IGOLPING DSR. It is necessary to allow you to capture your swing.

A: That folder is created by the Video Import function to store the video clips that you captured off of the DV Camera. You will recall that in Video Import mode that you capture a clip which is listed in the table. It is from this clip that you import the swing. These files are AVI and can get quite large. If you have captured your swing from the clip and do not need it anymore, go ahead and delete it. It is a good idea to "Delete All" whenever you are done extracting the swings from your video clips.

A: Even though you can import from a DV Camera or a file, you are really always importing from a file. When you import from the DV Camera, you are just creating an AVI file of your swing so that you can import from it. Therefore, the only difference between importing from DV and directly from file is that when importing from DV you are first creating a swing AVI clip that is listed in the box to the right of the screen while importing from file allows you to go find the pre-existing file somewhere on your hard drive. The files that are created from the DV Camera that are listed in the box are actually contained on your hard disk in the folder "My Documents\My Golf Swings\Live Video Captures". You should delete the swing AVI clips if you are done with them, because they can get rather large.

A: The concept of the Video Import function is that you first select a view (Front or Target) that you want to populate. Once you select a view, you can then select a source. This is where you pick File, Cam (DV Camera) or None (let's say this swing will only have a target line, then you should put None for the Front view). Next you need to identify the Impact position of the swing. We use this to synchronize all swings to the impact position. We usually try to pick the first frame after the ball is struck. With Video Import, you can setup both the Front and Target view before you import. If you do this, you will have both front and target in the same swing. Obviously, you can combine any two swings; they don't have to be captured at the same time. We have played around with having different players in each view for the fun of it.

A: Unlike the IGOLPING DSR or the Record Mode of SwingPractis, the Video Import function cannot tell where impact is unless you tell it. All of the IGOLPING programs use the impact position to synchronize swings. If you don't set the correct impact position, you will get unmatched swings when you do compares with models and swings captured elsewhere.

A: You could, but you would see problems when you go to compare to model swings. IGOLPING has a standard that the front view is in the left screen and target line view is in the right. If you switch those comparing will not work to match up the same view.

A: This is a feature of compare. If we know the handedness of a swing, we know whether to mirror the view of a swing to which it is being compared.