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Re-rendering proxies
I need to re-render a lot of proxies. They’re not working quite right when I export a sequence or clip to FCP. The frame size and aspect ratios were both off and I stupidly forgot to select 48 k, so lots of timeline rendering for no good purpose. So now I have a new flavor for my proxies which seem much better. But whenI try to rerun the proxy generation nothing happens. CatDV sees the existing proxy and just flashes past it. Ok, so I delete the existing proxy, so the same thing happens. Hmmm. I don’t see a way to force the re-rendering process.
I ran into another problem with the proxies: CatDV is running on a different machine. The proxies were generated and first stored on that machine. Later they were transferred to a NAS on the network. That path was added to the CatDV preferences and everything seemed just fine. A sequence exported to FCP opens up with most of the proxies in place. But a few show up with the media missing. Those proxies are there with all the others, but for some reason the data showed up in FCP but not the actual media. What I ended up doing was finding the offending shots in a FCP timeline. I went back to CatDV and ID’d the same shots in the CatDV sequence. I went back to the original tape in the database. I force CatDV to reread the proxy files. The name of the media files changed to the proxy names. I called up the clip as this new media file and used it to replace the clip in the timeline that was derived from the original media file from the original HDCam tape. I re-exported the sequence to FCP and all was right with my little world. Any idea what’s goofy with the workflow?
Thanks guys,Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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26 Replies
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The relink seems like something to report, however, I do have some ideas for dealing with moving the proxy.
If you have a machine where the media path is /Volumes/Media01 and another machine where the path is /Volumes/Media02, you don’t have to put the path in the proxy area as long as your proxy drives/folders are named the same.
I try to put my proxy root in a generically named folder such as “catdv-proxy”. That way if you drop both sets of proxy in the /Volumes folder, /Media01 and /Media02, they will both relink without mapping a path.
That way, you can make proxy on any machine and easily share or sync it around the other machines without introducing path mapping to the setup.
But remember, when you are dragging media over, FCP expects to find it where CatDV told it it was, so this is why shared storage is good. Everything stays where it was and you aren’t mapping paths from machine to machine.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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Thanks Bryson,
I’ve been thinking along the same lines. I’m going to have to render right to the shared storage. It’s where the proxies live anyway. For various reasons I’ve been rendering them to the local drive and then then moving them, mostly so I don’t have to tax the network. We’re only one small part of it. But it’s not worth it for all the work I have to do in cleanup.Any idea how to force a rerender of the proxies?
Like your demo videos by the way. I’ve been using CatDV for quite a while but you opened my eyes to some new possibilities.
RobbNon-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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To avoid repeatedly checking whether the same files exists CatDV “caches” the presence or absence of a particular proxy file. If you manually move or delete any preview files behind CatDV’s back it’s safest to quit and relaunch the application. If you enable Advanced Menus via Preferences you can also use the Manage Preview Movies command to locate and delete specific preview files.
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It was apparent that it was caching. I tried deleting the preview and restarting but it didn’t work. I’ll try the manager.
I’m having all sorts of odd problems exporting a sequence (of previews) to FCP: some clips not showing up, and some showing up in odd sizes and aspect ratios. I’m trying to sort that out. I’m thinking that I may have to add the previews as path based rather than tape based, even though everything (right now) is tape based. I’m assuming that path based will also help with those assets that are completely different than video footage like PDF files and other project elements.Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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If you use tape-based previews be aware that you could have several different preview files that cover one clip, for example one preview generated for the whole tape and another just for one subclip. Also, CatDV will automagically assemble fragments from separate files as required when it wants to play a clip. For example, if you have a preview file for 0:00:00:00 to 0:01:00:00 from a given tape, and another for 0:01:00:00 to 0:02:00:00, and you play a 30-second clip that’s from 0:00:40:00 to 0:01:10:00 it will create an in-memory reference movie on the fly that refers to parts of both files. Because there is no file on disk for that clip you can’t send that as a proxy to Final Cut without exporting it first.
For reasons such as these and more you should avoid directly using CatDV’s tape-based previews outside of CatDV. They have obscure filenames precisely to discourage such use. Instead, you should probably use path-based previews, as they tend to behave in a much more obvious way.
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Hmmm, Interesting. I’m really getting into the subtleties of CatDV. Almost all our footage is HDCAM brought in as ProRes. It’s long form documentary and we’re using CatDV as a long term reference and preliminary editing solution. So I create low rez proxies with timecode window burn right out of CatDV. This has been a bit of a process, learning best methods as we go. I manage to blow up one project by reloading the final selects at high rez. Needless to say I changed our workflow.
Now I try to bring in an entire tape as a whole. Otherwise I bring in large sections of a tape that remain independent from other sections—a single interview versus the cover footage for example. However, I still have some mixed clips where there may be some overlaps between different clips. That may be where I’m causing myself a problem. However, I was able to do at least a temporary fix to get the missing shots into FCP in my export of the sequence. I went in and imported the preview files into the catalog. The tape name and timecode was preserved. I then found the offending clip in the sequence and replaced it from the newly imported preview. The file name changed, of course, but the clip showed up in FCP where before it was missing (media offline). So for now I have the audio and video, reel name and timecode in my FCP timeline, which is what I need until I reload at full rez for finishing.
My other issue is choosing a physical size for the previews that will work with my FCP timelines, which are 1920×1080. For some reason some of the previews fill the frame with the correct aspect ratio. Others come out in 4:3, while others are tiny and in the center of the frame. I’ve learned not to expand them to fill the frame—when I do and reload the full resolution copies I had to spend enormous time resetting the clips to the correct frame size and aspect ratio. It’s a little bit of a mystery. I experiment and my results have been very inconsistent. I’m thinking of simply using prores proxy as my preview format, but that will eat up a lot more storage than the low rez photo jpeg format I’m currently using.Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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Speaking for myself, path based previews are the only way to go. I know Kevin Duggan agrees as I got that info from him. 😉
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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I third that sentiment!
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I got the path-based previews going. Instead of the numerical-coded names they’re coming out with the same file name as the original.
I’m a little concerned about the paths, though. The normal location for the previews has been a raid on one of the other machines on the network. That path was /Volumes/Video01/CATDV Previews and I selected that for the path for the path-based previews. But CatDV has appended into that location the path describing the location of the original media file, so what I get now is: /Volumes/Video01/CATDV Previews/Volumes/Raid Set/Final Cut Pro Documents/Capture Scratch/FFS interviews/original_clip_name.mov
ouch
should it have created that long path inside the path I specified?
How’s this going to work when I copy the previews onto a portable firewire drive for use with the laptop?Note that the original media files are currently living on a different FCP system. I’m running CatDV in one room, addressing the ProRes files living on a raid attached to this other machine and creating previews that are stored on a third machine. I plan on deleting the original media and relying on the previews. Later we’ll reload at full res the elements used in the final cut of the project. Been doing that all along. The switch to path-based is the only change.
Comments?
ThanksNon-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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What path would you have liked it to use? You can certainly get CatDV to use shorter paths by configuring your media search paths appropriately, in particular by fillling in the Original Location.
If all your media is in the Capture Scratch folder then you could set up a preview path mapping that says
/Volumes/Raid Set/Final Cut Pro Documents/Capture Scratch => /Volumes/Video01/CATDV Previews
If you do that, your preview would end up being called/Volumes/Video01/CATDV Previews/FFS interviews/original_clip_name.mov
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