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Worker node, conversions, and server
Helping a client with their CatDV Professional Edition (10.0.5):
Hopefully I’m missing something obvious that’s somewhat straightforward to implement. They have CatDV Server set up, with Worker Node on ingest Mac and CatDV Pro on 3 other networked Macs (each used as editing workstations). Here’s their goal for preferred workflow:
-1 They place raw footage (transferred from camera cards or drives) in Encode Folder on Mac used for ingesting.
-2 Worker Node is watching Encode Folder and converts videos to ProRes (retaining metadata from camera, etc)
-3 The new converted ProRes file is published to the server, copied to Server volume, and appears in Inbox catalog on CatDV Server
-4 The metadata from the original video file is retained for each converted file
-5 The CatDV media path now refers to the converted file, not the original
-6 The original video files get moved to a Processed folder
-7 The editors use their local CatDV Pro to select footage from CatDV Server, then copy selections to their local storage.Here are my problems. Steps 1 and 2 are working, using Watch Actions and the Conversion tab with Worker Node, EXCEPT for metadata passing along to the converted file. Step 3 is working (except for metadata). And the biggie: Step 5 is not working — convincing CatDV to change its media path to refer to the new converted file, NOT the original video. (Step 6 is optional – nice to automate it, but can be done manually.)
Their reasoning is: when they locate footage they want to use, they want to use it now, without converting it. In other words, converting to ProRes on ingest to CatDV instead of what seems to be default behavior of ingesting originals and then converting as needed.
I would appreciate any suggestions and tips on implementing this (or even alternate workflows).
Thanks!
-Philip. -
1 Reply
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This is quite a bit of automation. Seems like it’s all do-able but remember that when you export (note the word) you are making a new asset and so it will not, by default, receive the metadata from the original file.
If the raw assets are single files (like an mov file) you should be able to easily link the clip to the new file.
If they are MXF assets (metaclips, such as XDCAM) you will have a bit more trouble as I’m not aware of a way to link a metaclip record to a single piece of media. (I’m not saying it can’t be done.)
One way to do it is to export the asset along with an XML and move the original files to the “processed” folder with an action. Then you could pick up the exported ProRes as a new asset and import the metadata from the XML. (You’ll have to test, I think you’ll need to script some minor XML edits in order to get an importable sidecar XML file, but again, test.)
That should get you near what you want.
By the way, keep in mind that if/when the client moves to Premiere or FCPX and starts editing raw assets, this workflow might change drastically. I’d catalog those raw assets as well, just for the future. (you can hide the catalogs in a “raw” production group that users don’t see.
Hope this gets you started.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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