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Point to proxy CatDV didn’t create
Is there a way to point to a directory of proxies that exist for master clips in a catalog that CatDV didn’t create?
-Jason
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16 Replies
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I’m assuming you mean proxy for media in a catalog. If so, the proxy can be from anywhere as long as they are named correctly and in the right directory in the proxy path.
/Volumes/media_drive/folder/file.mov = hires
/Volumes/proxy_drive/folder/file.mov = proxy
For instance.
That’s how the big boys do proxy for hundreds of thousands of clips. Worker is awesome but it’s not meant for 200 hours a day of transcoding. 😉
Is that what you mean?
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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[bryson jones] “I’m assuming you mean proxy for media in a catalog.”
Yes….I have full res clips that I ran through and created proxy with TC burn in.
[bryson jones] “named correctly and in the right directory in the proxy path”
This is what I’m asking
1) what is “named correctly” They have the same prefix, with an addendum “_TC_Proxy”
2) Right directory? Matching directory strugure?
3) Proxy path – I can’t find anywhere to define a “proxy path” Do they have to live on mirrored volume directories? Can it live in a subfolder? The catalog I’m building is on a single machine while I try to get a handle on how to implement this software on a larger scale. -
The way CatDV locates proxy media is by specifying a root directory for the original media and a corresponding root directory for the proxy files. You do this in CatDV’s preferences. CatDV then takes the relative path of the original media file relative to the original media root directory and tacks that on to the preview root directory, then looks to see if there’s a suitable proxy file there.
This means proxy files don’t have to be in the same location as the original files but can be in a separate parallel file hierarchy, just as long as the filename and relative path structure is the same. The filename can either match precisely, or you can replace the filename extension with .mov or .mp4.
For example, you might have
Original file: /Volumes/Media/Project/File1.mpg
Proxy file: /Volumes/CatDV/Proxies/Project/File1.mp4
Proxy path mapping: /Volumes/Media => /Volumes/CatDV/ProxiesDoes that all make sense?
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Yes, this does make sense…I need to dig a bit deeper into those settings, but as I have my files:
video_4839_TC_Proxy.mov
and
video_4839.mov
These won’t link up as being a high res and proxy version, correct? They HAVE to have the same name, right?
-Jason
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Names must match.
This makes you able to edit proxy in FCP and relink immediately.
Any proxy creation script must preserve the name and be able to place the files in place in the proxy structure.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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Yes, names and relative paths must match (though filename extension needn’t, as discussed previously, plus as well as .mov and .mp4 you can have .jpg proxies for other non-movie types of file).
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Bryson, in a Stand alone setup would you keep your hires and proxies on separate drives? I just started with CatDV 9.4 last night and tried to make proxies. I took quite a while. I have not worked with proxies before so maybe this is normal, but it really slowed down the work flow
Proxies Default setting
Original 1080/60i ProRes EDCAM EX 35mb -
There are many different ways of working, depending on what you want to achieve. It may make sense to keep proxies local if you have your full res media on a removable drive. That way you can preview the clips using the proxies to decide if you need to get the drive down from the shelf, but it’s certainly not required to have them on different drives.
If it takes a long time to build proxies that could be because of the format you’re using. H.264 is very CPU intensive. Offline RT (Photo JPEG compression with uncompress audio) is much faster and gives good quality but at the cost of bigger file sizes. For high end workflows. look at setting up the CatDV Worker Node to automatically transcode media in the background, or use a hardware based solution from someone like Telestream.
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So do I have this correct:
For each new project folder I create, I have to map it with the corresponding Proxy Path.
Your example:
Original file: /Volumes/Media/Project/File1.mpg
Proxy file: /Volumes/CatDV/Proxies/Project/File1.mp4
Proxy path mapping: /Volumes/Media => /Volumes/CatDV/ProxiesDoes that mean, if I have 1000 different projects, in separate project folders, that I need to map each of them individually in CatDV? That can’t be right, is there a workaround for that?
~ Nate
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Hey there, Kev, I wanted to respond to this. (I missed your post originally, sorry.)
As you’ve probably seen, proxy creation is a Quicktime process so yes, it can take a while.
Standalone CatDV is amazing, for the price. But know that you are a lone gunman so to speak. There’s no way to access extra horsepower to speed things up, as in a server install where you can have multiple machines making your proxy and processing files.
If you have to be standalone then you basically have to treat it as an overnight process and let your machine run.
In our larger systems we have multiple machines, clustered, creating the proxy, controlled by the Worker Node. My personal fastest site is 32 cores on fibre storage that can transcode 1 hour of ProRes to h.264 in 6 minutes. I didn’t build that cluster, it was there before me and I just got to hitch CatDV to it, but it’s impressive to see it run.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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