Bryson Jones
Forum Replies Created
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You have to deliver the path for each file to CatDV. I believe this is done in “media filename”. You might test that.
(I’ll need to check with one of our tech’s to confirm, it’s been a couple of years since they made me do it.)
So, this takes us to the automation part. If you have the path to the file in each record, then you just do that in excel. If that path is not part of your metadata, you need to automate the linking of the images either by a file name lookup (if they are unique) or by some other mechanism. This requires a Worker Node and often some custom scripting work (for instance if you don’t have a unique name to look up you may have to go by file path or any number of other methods to link things up.)
We often send all the images through a workflow that moves them, links them up and then puts them back in a new or the original file structure. Seems like a weird path but often in the Worker Node, or any automation, the path to the end is not a straight line.
In the end, for 2,000 records you may have to just manually relink them but if this is an on-going issue, your CatDV Dealer can set you up with a workflow to do this repeatedly.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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We’ve always done it that way, (once we sorted the template we just let it roll.) Obviously the order is easy to swap in Excel.
One tip, it’s ok to put “sacrificial” data in fields as placeholders and delete it later. (CatDV makes that easy.)
People always ask us why our data import pricing is set up like it is. (We charge one price for the first 5,000 assets and then less for additional blocks of 5,000.) The answer is this:
The first one is really hard, the next 4,999 go much quicker.
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/ \Speaking of that, remember to break your assets up into manageable catalog sizes (see the 300 threads on this topic on this forum.) A 20,000 record set needs to be broken down for import. We use 2500 assets as a grouping for our online/linked media imports. Offline media imports can be far larger.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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They took down the old .co.uk site. They had an article there on doing this.
We still use this method for some smaller database dumps. Works like a charm. Here’s the list of columns from that article. Not all are necessary but these are what can be imported.
IN OUT IN 2 OUT 2 NAME BIN TYPE NOTES TAPE MEDIA FILENAME VIDEO AUDIO GOOD QT TRACKS METADATA RECORD DATE IMPORTER MARK USER 1 USER 2 USER 3 USER 4 etc…
Rolf or Lee you might wanna pull the old FAQ/Support page and post the excel import format in the new support site. It was faq145.html. (Ok, I have surpassed my usual geekiness with that bit of trivia.) Maybe post us a link here?
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Couple of thoughts.
1 – You can do the “Conversion” step without any conversion. “Copy file after conversion” still works without a conversion.
2 – The field isn’t selectable most likely because in the preferences, you have to allow more than 3 fields, (the default.)
See image below:
NOTE: In order to change the number of USER fields in the prefs, you must remove your Field Set from the text box to the left.
3 – Copying a file is a slow way to start a transcode unless the file storage isn’t mountable to the Episode system. Sending the job through the command line or XML API is probably better, if you can.
If you’re just doing a few files, this isn’t an issue (make sure you clean up your dupe’d files after!) But if you’re doing a lot of media, this may become a pinch point in your workflow.
Hope this sorts you.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Short answer: I think that the video team should pick the video solution.
Truthfully, this is a little too big of a decision to address on a forum IMHO. You’re talking about a 6 figure project that impacts your entire company. I’d feel way out of line to offer advice based on a one line question.
Find the best Avid and CatDV reseller you can and discuss with them. They will lead you to a solution.
Just my .02.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Thanks Rolf!
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Ah, our old friend split and stitch.
You football guys, always looking for the fastest way to the end zone. 😉
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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It may be a prefs thing, if you note the thread, John and I both have that setting enabled and I can do the import in 9.0.6.
It’s been reported to Squarebox and they are checking it. For now, John you can probably use 9.0.6.
Dougal, did you upgrade from 9.0.6 or install fresh at v10? That may be it.
Also, John, you can send a transcode job to Episode without a ref movie, using the CLI. (That also lets you select the destination and use variables.)
One note, there’s a small syntax problem between Worker and Episode that must be corrected with some outside scripting. I’m sure a sharp tech can get this rolling on their own or dealers can offer this as a service/scripting item if people don’t wanna deal with it.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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John,
2 thoughts.
1 – In 10.0.5 I’m not getting a sidecar to work either. Might wanna report that to Squarebox. (Note that we mostly do this in the Worker instead of the app.)
2 – I’m fairly sure you don’t want to rename a file via XML sidecar. NAME will be imported from the XML but the path will be the same meaning file.mov imported with a name like file-2.mov from the xml will still be named file.mov in the filesytem but will show file-2.mov in CatDV.
You’d might want to pass it to the db as a user field and then have the Worker Node rename the asset and update the path. (It’ll go offline if the name changes in place.)
TAPE should import from the XML once we sort the bug or setting (whichever this turns out to be.)
Hope this helps.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Joao,
Apologies for the delay in contact. The web form from CatDV Experts was not forwarding properly. That has been corrected.
For folks looking to contact me or any of the NSA team, please reach out to sales first. The geeks are often harder to wrangle.
CatDV Server 6.8 looks to be one of the best and most feature rich versions in my history with the product. I expect great things from Squarebox, and all their partners, based on the new API.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
