Bryson Jones
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It’s all about where your previews are, how they are set to be created, (tape vs. path based) and how that share appears to the other systems.
The most common first time mistake is sharing a proxy shared folder from the server and importing files from the server. It’s a little weird to grasp and this may not be your issue, but it’s worth explaining.
The file lives at /Volumes/Drive/Shared_Folder/Folder/file.mov on the server and is cataloged in CatDV as such, right?
On an outside machine with the proxy shared folder mounted the path is:
/Volumes/Shared_Folder/Folder/file.mov so it does not map the same and you won’t see a preview until you save a path mapping into the preferences.
CatDV includes tools to map equivalent paths and the Enterprise Server can save them. So you can correct for things like this. But there are different implications depending on how your storage is set up, and who has what path to what, etc…
That’s one of the things in this package that makes it a little hard to document and train. We can’t actually tell folks the path on here since it’s specific to the storage environment but that’s the concept.
Now, I may have explained something that’s of no use to you but hopefully people will use it. And totally let us know if that’s not it. 😉
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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The path based previews are the magic. You can set root, as Rolf said, to be whatever you like. and whether you know it or not, your Mac is adding /Volumes/Drive_Name/ to whatever you have when you view it in the command line so what we see as:
/drive-1/
is actually /Volumes/drive-1/.
This way, CatDV is making a instantly re-linkable copy of your media files. Putting it on a firewire drive is as easy as pie if you set your root correctly, (sometimes you may go one level above your main root if you want all non-shared drives to appear as the same to proxy) or if you partition and name your firewire drives (a favorite of mine) FCP just relinks because the proxies are all in place and the names are correct.
Be careful as you map paths, sometimes “fixing” something to look right to humans isn’t what a machine wants.
You are indeed digging into CatDV deeper than most casual users want to. Good luck out there and know that all the path tools are in the CatDV system to make this flow easily.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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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
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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
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The filtering in the Worker Node will ignore files or pick them up, but I believe you’re talking about files that appear as one thing, but in fact, are a collection or package of files. If that’s the case, read on, if not, apologies.
It’s a mixed bag. There are some kinds of files you can just import without parsing. (check the prefs to turn things on and off) I had to do that just today with a client who wanted to import an OMF but not all the files that made it up. (yes, CatDV will find them all)
Other than that, there are just some types of things that don’t import well. The “file as a package” thing that Apple does can be problematic. Filtering and hiding helps but I’ve not really ever liked that either.
Start with turning off the parsing under “Advanced Media Handling” in the prefs and see if that cleans up your imports. Because CatDV can see the files in the file, so to speak, that can work against it but if it’s a specific file type, maybe it’s something we could get Rolf to look at. XDCAM and P2 were once the same way and now they import nicely as metaclips.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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Sadly, it is sort of a “read the manual” deal. It’s hard to do a tutorial because there are so many flavors of MySQL and Oracle and the Server app is in constant development so anything published would be out of date shortly after it hit the web.
When I started with this package, I was completely baffled by the whole thing. 4 years and many late nights later, I feel a little better… a little.
To address part of the question, if you have an OSX server, the version of MySQL that’s installed is perfect for CatDVServer. You’re done, just turn it on.
If you have to download and install MySQL, the options are daunting. I’m using mysql-5.5.11-osx10.6-x86_64 on my newest mac, but if you are on a 32bit OS or on 10.5, you will need a different installer. (shoot for the .dmg versions unless you are a super geek) If you’re on Windows, it’s all different, but most of the v5 variants seem to work. (at least since 5.1.x)
There is one critical note in the server docs. I’ll quote it here:
“1.3 Skills Required
To install the MySQL or Oracle database and the CatDV Server on a machine you will require system administrator privileges and a working knowledge of administration procedures for your chosen operating system.
Remember that setting up any server (eg. a mail server, web server, file server, etc.) is typically a more specialised activity than installing a desktop application. It may require additional skills (such as familiarity with editing XML files or use of the command line) to those needed for day-to-day tasks.
In particular, some exposure to using the command line would be helpful as you may need to use this in certain situations (primarily for troubleshooting). Under Mac OS X you need the Terminal application (in Application > Utilities) and under Windows the MS-DOS Prompt, available via the Start button.
The CatDV Server is cross-platform software, originally developed for Unix-type platforms, so the installation process may appear slightly unfamiliar to you if you are
primarily used to desktop applications under Mac OS X or Windows.”Back to your issue –
You sort of have to know the machine and the config to choose MySQL versions etc. Could you give us some info on the OS version and computer it’s running on?
This is clearly not a point and click package but if you’ve done server-type stuff before you should be able to sort it. If not, maybe hit your reseller up to help you get it fired up?
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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Hey man, good to see you online. 😉
I definitely think you have something weird going on there.
Have you tried this on another machine, and if so, I think we need to check this with one of the new versions to see if we can duplicate the issue.
Let Matt pass it on to the Brits and keep us posted!
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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Weird and simple question (forgive me if it’s obvious, but often things aren’t in asset management) but it may have not been clear from the docs. Are you using the tree and right-clicking to “import as image sequence?”
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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Let me shout this publicly from a very high place so that all may hear. (why do I sound British? I’ve been hanging out with them for days now and I’m delirious.)
RAID is not a replacement for a backup. Why? Because when that volume corrupts, the data will be unreadable, but that RAID will be solid and happy. RAID is hardware, not the filesystem.
That’s why we have disk utility, disk warrior and other things like that. The drive is fine, physically, but the data is corrupted. Raid won’t help you there.
Please make copies, manually as Rolf suggested, using a backup program, or find someone to help you set up an automated system.
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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Man, here’s something I wrote up from a while back. I’m working on a script to do all this, let us know if you need some help.
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/278/875
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
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