# Before you start acquisition

Screen saver and power options

Turn off the screen saver and make sure that the power save options of your computer are turned off.

Video cameras and video files

Make sure that the video cameras are connected to your PC's encoder board (for analog cameras) or USB/Ethernet ports (for digital cameras). See Camera Installation

Use the correct settings

Make sure that the Arena Settings, Trial Control Settings and Detection Settings you want to apply are selected in the Acquisition Settings window.

Enter the independent variables for the next trial

In the Analysis Results and Scoring pane, click the Independent Variables tab and enter or select the values of the independent variables in the row highlighted in green. You can enter independent variables values at any time in the Trial List. See Independent Variables tab

When co-acquiring external (physiological) data

If you want to acquire external data during the trial (only live, not from video files), make sure that the external data recording device is switched on and connected to the EthoVision XT computer. In EthoVision XT, in the Experiment Settings under Video Source select Enable DAQ co-acquisition. See also External Data.

note You must have the External Data Module in order to use this functionality.

Auto-start data analysis

If you want to start analysis immediately after finishing the trial (or series of trials, in the Acquisition Settings window select Auto-start data analysis.

To speed up analysis

▪Hide the Analysis Results and Scoring pane. To do this, click the Show/Hide button and then deselect Analysis Results and Scoring.

▪For tracking offline: Select DDS in the Playback Control window. This way EthoVision XT plays the video faster than 1x if subject detection requires little processor time.