CatDV Client and URL Proxies

[John Vaudin]

You can use HTTP proxies in the CatDV desktop client. You need to add a proxy mapping rule on the client of the form:

/path/to/media -> https://my_server/url_media_lives_at

CatDV treats these rules just like normal path rules.

So – if I have a media file with path:

/media/hi-res/foo.mov

that has a proxy at

/media/proxies/foo.mp4

and I publish the /media/proxies path to the url ‘webproxy’ so that the proxy file is available at:

https://my_server/webproxy/foo.mp4

then I need a rule like

/media/hi-res -> https://my_server/webproxy

Note I’m mapping from the hi-res to the proxy, the proxy just happens to live on HTTP.

[Scott Goddard]

I will test once I have some cloud storage up, thanks for the heads up.

Scott Goddard

Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com

[Scott Goddard]

So I have attempted this with some amazon S3 hosting with permissions granted and files set to public but have not been able to get the client to see these url proxies.

Has anyone had any experience Amazon s3 and CatDV url proxies?

There is an option in the main catDV properties file to map a URL path for proxies. Is this something that others have used? What is the purpose of these properties path maps compared to the client level path maps?

Scott Goddard

Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com

[Matthew Stamos]

Make sure you enable the feature by setting codes in the ‘Other’ section of the Server Config tab in the control panel:

Example
web.proxyPath = C:CatDVProxies
web.proxyUrl = /proxies

[Scott Goddard]

Hi Matthew, working on Linux so doing it all through the properties file. I will try the wizard on another setup and use what it gives me and enter it in the properties file. At present it works but only on some machines and very intermittent. Wireshark confirms Catdv/Java making the request to the server but the proxies do not always show in CatDV. This was testing with direct file to file mapping.

Will try your suggestion.

Scott Goddard

Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com

[John Vaudin]

The settings Matt mentions probably aren’t relevant in this context. They are to get CatDV Server to serve the proxy files over HTTP. If I understand you correctly you are serving them directly from S3 – is that right?

Can you tell me (for one clip that has a proxy in S3):

1. Media path of clip (as displayed in the Summary tab in the client)
2. Complete URL the proxy file for that clip on S3
3. The mapping rule that maps from one to the other

Given that we should be able to sort it out.

[Matthew Stamos]

John thanks for correcting me as I was a bit hasty in my response. The settings I referred to is for CatDV to serve the proxies via http to the “Pro Client”. Scott as John illustrates this can be done by mapping the media path metadata to the corresponding http url in the path mapping preferences of the client. Keep us updated on how it goes as this is a very desirable workflow. We have customers doing this with their own internal and external web servers but not with S3 that I am aware of?

[Scott Goddard]

Hi, still trying to get to the bottom of this and will report back with more conclusions. Do you know if CatDV keeps a cache of the URL proxies that it downloads/streams?

Scott Goddard

Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com

[John Vaudin]

No – the HTTP proxies are streamed directly from the server. They are not stored locally.

[Scott Goddard]

Thanks for the clarification. At present we are dealing with very small proxies 10-20MB testing multiple hosting services, amazon, cloud front and just a regular go daddy location. All the proxies are h264 Mp4 with ‘fast start’ enabled in compressor. In a browser they open and we see the video bar load the video.

In your current functionality do you see this in the proxy tab? ie when you click on a clip the proxy is visible and you see the video loading or does it just show the video section that it has available at that point? Curious as to how it will deal with larger video files (hour long proxies etc).

In all these cases wireshark confirms that CatDV sends a request for the video and returns an http ok. One curious issue is that even when the proxies are working from the URL the window ‘manage proxy movies’ under the ‘media’ tool bar always displays the ‘directories not found’ error.

Seems very hit and miss from each workstation and all are using the same server based preferences.

Will keep testing..

Scott Goddard

Neo Verite Limited
https://neoverite.com