[Bryson Jones]

I was able to copy out of the HTML Summary, any piece I wanted.

Do you have that turned on? If not, it’s under the “Customise Detail Panel” in the preferences. It’ll show you a full summary of all the info, including the “notes” and you can cut and paste directly out of it.

Also Clip Summary should allow this as well.

Hope that gets you there.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

You could easily do it with a naming convention. It’d take a bit of doing, you’d basically have conditions that would run scripts based on the name and then remove the code from the name to take it back to the original “sony” name. (if desired). Then you could define paths based on those names, but that’s a lot of scripting.

There’s a simpler way –

One question though, will you be organizing the clips into a folder structure in the “watch folder” or just dumping them in? Since the Sony software is so manual anyway, couldn’t you just put it into “ProjectNumber/ReelNumber/Clip” in whatever drive you were exporting/rewrapping to? If you had that, then by setting the watch folder as root, you could have a worker script that picked up the path and recreated it inside your final storage. You just drop the whole group of folders into the watch.

Not sure if that helps, but I can’t see as why you’d ever just drop clips into a watch folder randomly anyway unless you have a really unmanageable crew.

I say, save the trouble of putting the info into the metadata and drop the footage into the correct path structure as you rewrap, but I may be missing the point.

Can you speak to how you are using the Sony software? Are you exporting to the final storage or some sort of interim drive, and also, why would your crew not export into a folder structure as they are doing the exports?

If they are creating a folder structure on an interim drive, (such as a firewire drive), then the Worker can just easily mirror that structure as it moves the clips to the final location.

Check out the Worker’s “read me” file to get the variables to do that and read the section on defining a new root for the script.

If I’m missing the point, shoot me a little more info please.

Also, if there’s a way to look into the metadata and act on that earlier, I’d love to hear about it from the home office but I’m not aware of that other than what’s in the conditions panel.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

Gautam,

I hear this from time to time, but I’ve never had anyone actually show or explain how editshare manages assets?

I’ve worked with EditShare as a SAN, but do they have a true asset management package?

If so, could you give us a rundown? I’ve not seen it in the field and I’d love to know more.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

Agreed, on the server thing, I’ve done a 20 TB P2 production and it gets big.

As to the storage, it’s irrelevant to CatDV but it would obviously make your life easier if it’s faster and more reliable. I don’t think anyone would offer up 10 firewire drives as a solid storage solution.

There are hundreds of solutions, but if it’s to be ethernet/server connected, there are great SAS RAID card/JBOD systems out now that would work for you or if you need fibre channel, there are even more solutions for that. In a confusing bit of magic, the CatDV Server doesn’t need to see the storage or media, since the Client app makes the catalogs and it and the Worker can both do the transcoding. (Server is just the database part of the system.) This will become more clear as you install. However, most folks run the Worker on their server, at least in smaller shops and so it does seem that the server machine transcodes. Even though it’s not the “Server” app.

Whether or not to do the transcodes in Worker is a speed thing. You can have more than one Worker, or you can hand it off to Compressor (not my fav choice) or Episode, or anything really. If the file shows up in the right path with the right name, CatDV will consider it “the proxy”. If you’ve got more time than money, the Worker, along with your client machines, can easily crank out a few hundred hours of proxy a week.

Generally, the Squarebox crew offers up PhotoJPEG, if you need frame accurate proxy, but I’ve seen folks use h.264, mpeg4. It should be a mix of size, quality and frame accuracy chosen to match your storage and post workflow. Your dealer/installer can help you decide that one.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

There are cases where you can do something like that:

If you own 2 copies of catdv, yes, you can create a catalog on one mac and save it to a shared folder.

Then, if the second mac can get access to that shared folder, (and if the media is shared) you can open that catalog and log, tag, sort and view clips just like the first machine did.

However, one note on searching. In the standalone version of catdv, you can only search in the catalog that you are viewing. In order to search across all catalogs you’d need the server.

So, for instance, if I had a catalog with 500 clips in it, I could search for clips within those 500. But if I had another catalog that had related clips in the shared folder, I would not see those clips in my search without the Server version.

We do this a lot for shops who want to start cataloging footage for the future, but note that it’s not very useful for managing an archive since you can’t search across those catalogs.

Hope that clears it up.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

Rolf,

So, if you did this in the SQL CLI, would you just search the clips and then redefine the catalog that they are listed in? Or is it an export of the data and re-import into CatDV?

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

It’s weird, I’m not hearing from the guys on the board who’re doing this. I will say that most shops are so different that there’s very little cross pollination between setups.

Of course, systems tend to have basic building blocks that translate. Such as catalog creation, tagging, logging etc. But the way and order that you do them in will tend to be very specific to your company.

Can I ask where you bought your software and if they provided training? That’s really where I’d start, they should be able to come out, spend a few hours and get you started on your way. We tend to do that with our clients and then do a few followups and then it seems to go to more “project” oriented things after that. Usually after you’re up and running, you can handle most small changes yourself, but without that first bit of hand holding, it can be rough to get started.

Good luck, and keep us posted as things come together.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

Maybe try a filtered view of the recycle bin from the Tree? That way you could limit the results and get it to open a view.

Double clicking from the “browse database” will just lock you up but the Tree might get you there.

Also, you can give the app some more ram in the prefs to help a bit as well.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

Hi Leonid,

That’s a pretty large order there. But I’m sure the guys and gals here on the forum can pitch in on how they use their systems.

My initial thoughts are perhaps to write out the steps of your workflow as they stand so you can get an idea of where to use CatDV.

You ask about whether people use CatDV of FCP first. That depends on how your shop works. One instance that I saw in your post was where you mentioned that you had downloaded footage coming in. In a shop I did this year, we automated a watch folder so that all of their ftp uploads are brought into catalogs for the editors to browse. They added codes to their filenames of the incoming files so that each type of footage was sorted into it’s own catalog. The editors then looked at the catalogs when they came in in the morning and started their edits from that footage.

Now, after saying that… your editors may already be managing their media well and they may want to ingest straight into FCP first and then catalog only what they choose. Both of these options are equally valid. That’s why the Squarebox crew are so adamant about people working with their dealer or integrator to help with their workflows. It can be so specific to the post house or production.

I’d love to hear from the folks on this board as to whether they go to CatDV or FCP first. So maybe folks could speak to that while they offer their workflows.

bryson

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[Bryson Jones]

That depends…

I’ve used CatDV in tons of Avid houses but mostly we’ve stayed away from the “integration” of the two mostly due to the purple triangle’s insistence on being so proprietary. There are some interactions between the two apps but it sounds like you’re mostly interested in managing your P2.

If you need to catalog and archive your P2 footage, CatDV is amazing. You can add the Calibrated plugins and natively view MXF media before you drop it into the Avid. You can integrate with the Cache-A archiving appliance (and a few other systems) to track where your footage is archived, and keep a low res proxy of your footage so that you can see it and even start to edit with it before you restore.

Check in with Matt Stamos on here and I’m betting he can get you set up with a dealer that can give you more info on the ways the system works.

Also, any guys on here using CatDV with P2 stuff? Chime in.

bryson

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