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FCP –> CatDV, XML files
Hello!
My office is in the process of setting up CatDV Server and we have run into some trouble bringing XML files into CatDV from FCP. We have a lot of metadata in FCP that we want to be able to search for within CatDV, so perfecting this transfer is really critical for us.
I have exported XML files of several FCP projects, but when I import those XML files into CatDV, the aspect ratio is off. The aspect ratio should be 16:9, but instead it’s a distorted 4:3. These files don’t appear to be connected to the original file. I have updated the media location and the file path is correct, but when I try to play the original clip I get an error “Failed to set volume (-32766).” Instead of thumbnails, the video files have a grey box where the thumbnail should be. I can change the thumbnail, but the aspect ratio is distorted on the thumbnail as well.
I have tried this on every computer in our office and they all do the same thing.
For what it’s worth, when I export an XML file of the same project from CatDV and import that XML file into FCP (completing the circle FCP –> CatDV –> FCP), the aspect ratio is correct.
I’m assuming that I must be missing a preference or setting somewhere. Has anyone else run into this problem?
Thanks!
Erica -
10 Replies
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Are there too many to just use the built in integration? As in, reading the FCP projects from the tree in catdv?
If so, then I’ll bet this is something simple. There’s a holiday in the UK today so Rolf may not be watching the forums, but could you try one project brought in through the tree?
See if that receives the XML correctly.
Also, know that FCP regularly sets the anamorphic flag incorrectly, so it may be the XML itself coming from FCP that’s problematic. I’ve seen issues where FCP mis-reads the flag so CatDV seems to be wrong but it’s actually FCP that’s jerking the aspect ratio around by setting the flag twice, in effect.
As a test, play the QT files with QT player, CatDV (drag them in raw) and import into FCP. That way you can see how they are displayed in each case and figure out which app’s messing with the aspect ratio.
The good news is that your integrator should be able to easily edit the XML, if FCP is reporting it incorrectly.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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There aren’t too many to bring them in through the built in integration — in theory. I’ve had trouble accessing FCP projects through the tree.
On my computer, only one random FCP project appears in my tree. When I try to bring that FCP project into CatDV through the tree it gets distorted like the rest of my XML files. When I try to manually open another FCP project in the tree, it will not load in CatDV. It goes through the process of loading; it says it’s processing thumbnails, etc. But when it finishing loading, it says “Read only view on 0 clips from project (java.lang.RuntimeException: Negative source clip).”
One of my co-workers has had more success than I when loading FCP projects into CatDV from the tree, but he can’t figure any rhyme or reason as to why some projects will load and others won’t.
For these reasons, we haven’t been relying to heavily on the tree to connect FCP to CatDV.
I had considered that it might be a problem with the XML file that FCP is exporting and not a CatDV problem. I did test with the original QT files – QT player, CatDV, and FCP all imported the original QT files without any problem with the aspect ratio. The problem seems to be only in the XML file, not the original QT.
Bryson, when you say, “The good news is that your integrator should be able to easily edit the XML, if FCP is reporting it incorrectly,” I don’t know exactly what you mean.
Thanks for your help!
Erica -
Editing XML is not too tough, that’s all I meant. If you bought your software from a dealer, they should have an engineer who could help you edit those XML files to match.
I’m curious to see what the Squarebox dudes have to say about this. But I will say that FCP projects with any non standard characters in the clip, sequence or bin names will cause all sorts of drama. Make sure no one is using /’s in their names!
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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Also,
Just noticed a note in a release note for the upcoming version that there are some fixes to media file handling when loading an FCP XML file.
This may relate to what you’re seeing.
Stay tuned…
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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Erica, Bryson mentioned the danger of non-standard filenames, but I’ve also see long filenames cause problems. Keep ’em under 32 characters if you can!
– Allan White, Video Producer, Luis Palau Assoc.
Quad 3Ghz Mac Pro, 10GB RAM, X1900 GPU, XSAN, CatDV Server
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Alan I pretty sure this is being addressed in the future release of Worker Node!
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Awesome! Sometimes it’s the file servers’ fault, also, though mostly I blame FCP’s ancient codebase (the remnants of Carbon development, not fully modern) for even caring about filename length.
Here’s hoping for FCP 8 this year…
– Allan White, Video Producer, Luis Palau Assoc.
Quad 3Ghz Mac Pro, 10GB RAM, X1900 GPU, XSAN, CatDV Server
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Hi there,
We are experiencing the same problem Erica had in her original post on April 5, 2010. Was there ever a solution? We import into CatDV and the aspect ratio is 4:3 when it should be 16:9. If we check the Anamorphic box in FCP than it imports into CatDV correctly but then going back to FCP the aspect ratio is off.
Any ideas?
We’re running version 8.1.11 on a Mac OS X 10.6.6
Cheers,
Whitney -
Apologies for missing this thread earlier. I can’t immediately reproduce this issue, so I suspect it depends on the type of media you’re dealing with. If you have an example that fails could you mail the following to support@squarebox.co.uk so we can investigate please: a screenshot of the clip in FCP, a screenshot after importing it into CatDV, and a copy of the XML file from Final Cut? Thanks.
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The thing that has worked for me is changing the aspect ratio in the (other) tab in CATdv. I haven’t sent anything back to FCP yet, but that gives me the correct display in CATDV.
Brian Pilgrim
brianpilgrim@mac.com
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