Bryson Jones
Forum Replies Created
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I don’t really have much to add here. (we haven’t done this much since we wrote a whole app to do this “our way”.) I will say that I know you can download files from the web client but remember that separate from “CatDV world” you really don’t want to do an http transfer for files larger than a couple of gigabytes as the protocol itself isn’t that stable.
That’s why ftp and other protocols exist, they are made to transfer larger files. Downloading proxy and images is probably fine via http. But something like a 200GB file might not be suitable for an http download.
Does anyone have anything to add on this topic?
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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In the preferences for creating proxy you can choose the Quicktime or FFMPEG engine when you create your settings.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Try using FFMPEG in CatDV to create the MTS proxy. It should work fine.
The RED files can be scripted as you mentioned. It’s not too hard but not something for the average video editor or post supe to handle, most likely. The example on the web site is hard to follow, I agree.
A solid CatDV integrator can set up a REDline script for Worker Node easily. (We have done tons.)
They can also sell it to you as a professional service from Squarebox or NSA and one of us will set it up for you. If you don’t have a reseller relationship, contact JB&A in the US or Squarebox in the UK.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Alex, you are welcome.
This is a fairly complex workflow. I’ll make you a deal, I’ll write this post and if you don’t understand the terms in here, please contact a CatDV reseller or Squarebox to set this up for you. In good news, if you understand this post, then you are probably going to be able to work it out. I’d just hate for you to waste your time on this like I’m about to do. 😉
I am assuming that you understand the system admin side of having an ftp site open with your hires files on it. Also, I’m assuming that those files are in place on the ftp. If not and you need to move those files, if you can follow this basic overview of things then moving them and creating the paths using variables will be easy. Again, if not, abandon the project and just get some help, unless your job is CatDV Worker Node programming. (If it is, please contact us, we are hiring.)
My reference to a “simple mailto shell script” was probably misunderstood. Let me clear that this action, the way we did it, requires basic but solid, shell scripting skills. If you are not familiar with writing and deploying shell scripts then this would be difficult to accomplish. (This is on Linux or OS X, I guess the Windows version would be batch or powershell scripts? Programming is not my department.) We have since moved on and have a python app that sends email for us now.
The original way we did this, back in the old days was to write a shell script that the Worker Node would execute. (Using the “execute command” fields in Worker Node.) We would pass the user field value containing the email address ${U23} for example (if the email address was in field USER23 in CatDV) to the script as an argument and the script would send the email, not the Worker Node itself.
The newer version of the Worker Node allows you to use a variable in the email address field so you could put the email address in by entering ${U23} or whatever field value you wanted into that field in “Post Processing.”
However, as there often is, there is another wrinkle. I’m not sure how you want to write the link. There are ways but I can’t explain here. Basically if you’re using FTP and have a fixed path, you can use variables to create the path i.e. something like ftp://myserver.com/$Q/$q/$f. Note that this is very insecure to host the files on an FTP share permanently so I would recommend moving the files upon request.
But, if you’re entering the link into a user field, then you could do this, this way.
For the sake of this example, I’ll say USER23 is the email address and USER24 is the link.
In the Post Processing Pane of Worker Node put this in.
To: field enter ${U23}
Subject: Anything you want to send…
Body: Hi, this is Alex’s CatDV rig. The file you want can be downloaded at – ${U24}
If USER field 23 contains – email@user-field-23.com
And USER field 24 contains – ftp://server-alex.com/path/to/file.mov
That will look like this when expanded:
Subject: Anything you want to send…
Body: Hi, this is Alex’s CatDV rig. The file you want can be downloaded at – ftp://server-alex.com/path/to/file.mov
That’s all I got. I have no idea why I typed this much lol. I hope it helps.
If anyone wants this sort of workflow set up, it’s what we and Squarebox do for a living all day long. Now you know why my beard is so grey.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Alex, this is coming in a newer version of CatDV. Contact Squarebox for more info on that. I believe they can even set it up for you as a professional service.
You can add an email address to a metadata field and have the Worker Node pull that with a simple mailto shell script. We have done that for notifications in CatDV for file automations and FTP etc and keep that little script around for just these types of operations. The Worker Node itself used to not be able to pull a user field as a variable. (I’m not sure if it can in the new versions, I’ll ask my staff or perhaps SBS can pitch in on that part.) You could also test that too. (I forget how easy it is to test in CatDV sometimes, another awesome thing about it.)
A few notes for you on security, since we built this workflow a few years ago and have seen almost all of the things that can happen with it. Use strong passwords, lock down your routers and other ports on your server, set up https, if you can and perhaps check out the article on the Squarebox (SBS) web site about setting up a separate Apache server instead of using the internal Tomcat one.
These are all suggestions that you likely have covered but I include them on the forum as general info for more video-centric shops that may not do as much web admin.
Also, I’d be remiss (and crazy) to not mention that this is a key feature of Akomi, NSA’s flagship product. We store the user’s email in the account info and that makes it easier. You can share an asset or playlist without a login (for less secure items), or protected by password, a set number of days (expire in 2 days) or a set number of plays (expire after 3 plays). As much or little security as you like.
Keep us posted as to your progress, it’s great to see people enabling cool workflows in CatDV.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Hello there,
CatDV manages the relationship between high res and proxy versions of assets internally. You do not have to ingest the proxy separately as that would create new clips (at proxy resolution) and you would not want to have to manage 2 copies of clips manually.
If you have an installer or trainer to reach out to, I’d ask them about this. Otherwise read up on path mappings as John said.
The basics are this:
If you have a ProRes file at the following path –
/Volumes/FAST-DRIVE-01/folder/file.mov
Then you could set CatDV to make and look for its proxy files in –
/Volumes/SLOW-NAS-SHARE-01/DRIVE-01/folder/file.mov (or something like that.)
CatDV looks to the equivalent path that you set (/Volumes/FAST-DRIVE-01 = /Volumes/SLOW-NAS-SHARE-01/DRIVE-01) and if it sees a mov or mp4 file with the same name as the original (file.mov = file.mp4) it will assume that that is the proxy of the high res file in the equivalent path.
If you tell CatDV to “make a proxy” it will put it in the equivalent path.
The user would then mount the “slow NAS” and when they opened a catdv catalog they’d see the proxy instead of the high res in the player window.
If a user had both the FAST-DRIVE and the SLOW-NAS-SHARE mounted, they’d see both versions linked to the same metadata in the player window.
In this way, you can grant users access to the proxy and not the high res or have the high res on a fast fibre SAN and the proxy on the slower 1Gig ethernet NAS, for instance.
Hope this helps. It’s one of the cooler things about CatDV but rather hard to explain. Easier to show, hence if you have a reseller, have them set it up for you and you’ll get it right away.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Hey guys, sorry, been a bit busy.
The specific Bridge added metadata often goes into a field called “Metadata (Media)” that’s visible in the “Other” tab. It’s often all in there separated with line breaks.
We’ve done metadata migration services to script extracting that and writing it to specific USER fields, if needed but CatDV on its own doesn’t always process each value to a field.
Could you take a look and see if that’s where the data is?
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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If you were working on a server then you need to save or edit the settings in order to keep the changes you have made.
When you closed the preferences, did it ask you to “Save Locally” or “Publish To Server? If you saved locally, then they should be kept in your local plist file.
This exposes you to having them overwritten when you connect to a server, if it asks you “would you like to load settings x” or whatever.
Just in case you are having a UI issue, make sure you have the “Advanced” option selected in the workspace pull down in the upper right hand corner.
CatDV’s settings and the way they are stored and managed take some getting used to (like any enterprise DAM.)
If you’re working with a reseller or other trainer, make sure they take you through how these work. It’s very powerful and flexible and with great power… comes great responsibility.
Hope this helps and I hope you’ve not lost some work there.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Too many to name but the main one is that you can work, logging, ingesting or tagging in the same catalog with someone else at the same time.
You can also search across all catalogs. Catalogs are great, except they are really just “folders” all over again. Searching on metadata across large data sets are when DAM’s become powerful.
If you only need to browse, just stay with your standalone. You might not even need a DAM at all.
(Heresy!!!!)
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com
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Excellent, hope this cleared things up. You can do so much with CatDV Pro, right out of the box.
bryson
bryson “at” northshoreautomation.com
northshoreautomation.com