[Bryson Jones]

Let me run down a few of the things that the worker can do. (it’s hard to demo sometimes, for me, because the workflows are involved to set up and pretty specific, so I tend to show simple watchfolder and server queries but we’ll have some stuff at NAB)

I call The Worker a scripting engine that can read from and write to the CatDV Server. It can watch the Server for changes to metadata and then perform actions based on that. Also it can do things based on watchfolders in the OS, as well as move and copy files at the OS level. All of this can be fired by a change in the metadata such as setting a flag or changing a value in a field.

Here’s some things that we do with it:

Worker can, create proxies based on a watch folder and then publish the clips into catalogs, filtering by any number of variables, like file type, etc… perfect for auto ingest of footage or ftp drop situations where you catalog everything that comes into a facility automatically. (a large music company uses this to receive video clips from around the world and have an “inbox” ready when they come in in the am)

That same “sort” allows people to dump media into a large “dumpster” folder and have CatDV sort it by type and auto catalog it, so instead of “where did you put that?” and “did you catalog that?” you can be assured that the clips are all in CatDV and that the Worker has tucked the media into the correct folder on your SAN or server.

You can export quicktime files of movies from a pull down item. As in, pull down a tab that says “send to bob” and worker will export a QT in your chosen format and then drop or FTP it to “Bob”. (idiot proof, automated delivery)

Export the metadata of a clip as XML so that another system or company can accept it. With XSLT, you can reformat it on the way out into their preferred data format. (I do this for a company delivering files to web hosts. It makes sure that they have the correct credits and licensing data for each file) so the “send to brightcove” pulldown exports a copy of the file in the format they need, and then uploads it and the corresponding XML file onto their server.

Move clips from catalog to catalog based on a pulldown status field, so that you can use a catalog as an “inbox” for work coming in. For instance, “for approval” might move a clip to a producer’s inbox catalog and sends them an email that they have a new clip to approve. Then, when they’ve watched it, they mark it approved or rejected and then the worker moves it to the next place down the line, and sends you an email detailing what just happened.

It’s basically a lot of the stuff that Final Cut Server was supposed to do when it came out. (You all have that running now, right?) In Apple’s defense, none of this stuff is “plug and play” but if you put in the time, or have the right team, you can move a few mountains… of media.

There are thousands more ways to use it. Kevin Duggan has done miracles with it. But basically, if you have the Worker, you can all just go home and the place will run itself… 😉 Now, if it could only heat up a Hot Pocket…

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

Anders,

Do you have the CatDV Worker?

Worker has some pretty heavy file rename features. Coincidentally I was just working on some workflows for a client, so I was digging around in there this am.

If you had your files in a “bin” or tape folder structure, meaning one folder per load named as a virtual tape name, the worker can pick up the enclosing folder name and automatically increment them, while adding any other text you like using a string of text or variables. It can then move them or republish them to catalogs with the new names. “Rename” can be as simple as pulldown item in your server layout.

The Worker is a truly powerful, and mis-understood, piece of the CatDV family. It’s the engine that “gets things done”, once you dig in.

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

Hey there,

Sorry for the lag. I’d never done this but I did a little testing and yes, at least some of the xmp stuff is picked up and mapped.

It’s always a matter of which fields, but my quick test on a psd file showed that at least description and headline come over. More testing might reveal more.

You’ll see that a ton of the raw image data comes in, all of the QT stuff and then it looks like quite a few fields from the XMP stuff.

Depending on how flexible bridge is, (never used it, myself) and how many images, I’ll bet you could get a good bunch of your data over.

What size library are you looking to convert?

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

I sent them in for you yesterday, you should be getting something soon.

Email and name will get you all set up.

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

I’ll offer this, as a long-timer.

If you are scanning your FCP projects, as a way of importing them, I’ll say that any project problems can cause you trouble. Just like a bad sequence can in FCP.

I had a client that could not get CatDV to work, until we actually brought in clean media, as in, just try dragging in a few clips, (or a few hundred) from the finder. We found that his assistant editors had never heard of this thing called “unix” and had used all sorts of incompatible characters in their filenames and sequence names. (remember, a / in unix means go to the next directory level)

People tend to scrape out the muddy bottoms of their hard drives and throw it into CatDV to clean it up. (not saying you’re doing this) but most times I’ve found that this is the problem.

Second idea, have you read the bits on here about java and 10.6.x? Snow Leopard is a pretty buggy little deal right now, so make sure you’ve set your java prefs to prefer 32 bit. (look in your utilities folder)

I maintain that CatDV is a powerful program, as such, I try to manage expectations that you’re gonna open it and go to work. Although it’s offered in standalone for the mass market, remember that it’s as powerful as FCP or any other pro app, yet costs a fraction of the price. That difference is made up in a little setup time. Also, it’s sensitive to how media is laid out, as well as corrupt clips and sequences, just like an edit app.

Try dropping some simple jpegs or .mov’s in and working with them a bit, if those work cleanly, then start looking at your video media. If they don’t work cleanly, check your java versions.

All that said, I personally know hundreds of seats of CatDV working in the field managing Petabytes of media, successfully. (yes, note I said hundreds, not hundreds of thousands, this is a Ferrari, not a VW.) This app does things that nothing on earth does so a little setup will pay huge dividends.

Finally, email me or squarebox directly and we’ll get you a fully working timed demo of CatDV. I say this too often, (I know, I know) but a good installer will save you heartache and headache. Ask the crew from Squarebox and they’ll say the same.

(they’ve been at a tradeshow so response times have been a bit slow this past week.)

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

Michael,

You have a pretty good idea, as far as getting organized. Kevin Duggan is at a trade show in London so he may not be checking in on this, but hopefully, he’ll weigh in. Also, Mark R, on here is a big XDCAM dude.

If I were doing this, I’d make sure to catalog the original media so you can easily go back to it, if needed, but you’ll follow your regular XDCAM>FCP workflow, whichever way you choose and have a set of catalogs for the FCP files.

I also find that most of my clients don’t use the mp4 proxy from the camera as the audio is really bad. You can make a proxy inside catdv, once you’ve taken it through the transfer.

CatDV will help you in a couple of ways –

1. if you get the mxf enabled version, you can view your xdcam footage before you transcode or convert it in any way.

2. you can quickly go back and organize and or tag/log the existing footage before it ever gets to FCP.

3. you can use catv to move your media to it’s final storage place and even save a catalog with the locations of your second copy (should it not be apparent where it’s going in all the swapping of drives, as in when you have to split things up.

4. you can make and manage an offline proxy version of the clips so you can have whatever proxy you want, with good audio.

5. Going forward, you can have a field for “archive status” and use CatDV to make backup copies of things and then mark them as backed up, so you can track what you’re doing.

I’m more of a Panasonic guy so maybe some of the XDCAM pro’s on here can give you more insight into the workflow, but there are some ideas.

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

One note on Snow Leopard Server. When it boots, by default, it’s in 64bit mode. (at least ONE Apple Product is) 😉 Anyway, that’s caused us all kinds of problems with third party software so it’s recommended, for now, to drop it into 32bit for a while.

Here’s the Apple kbase article on making the 32 bit boot “stick”.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3773

This may not be the problem you are having but it’s something we’ve seen.

Also, I don’t know if it’s been covered here but in the “Java Preferences” app, which is in your Utilities Folder, you should drag the plugin and applications versions so that “32bit” is the preferred one to use.

(Thanks to Loring at Studio Network Solutions for the link to the kbase and Rolf and Kevin for the Java settings)

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

Kev,

I’ve read a bit on the Maxx system and it’s basically a bada&& file server on hopped up ethernet switches. (and a neat idea at that)

There should be no issue with CatDV. As has been said, CatDV doesn’t really care where the media lives other than as with anything, to play it, you need the bandwidth to match the resolution. (no uncompressed HD off of USB drives) 😉 You can have multiple ethernet networks, fibre, USB, SCSI and firewire storage connected to a system and CatDV only worries about the file path, there is no network conflict as long as CatDV can see it’s own server to read the database and can mount the volume where the asset, or a proxy, is stored. Even if the asset isn’t “online” you can still read and manipulate all the metadata. (for instance if you catalog files on a firewire drive and then put it on the shelf, CatDV will still let you search for those files and will simply report them as offline while showing you the metadata and thumbnail.) The database/metadata is a tiny bit of data, only text, so there’s also no real network impact since you aren’t constantly pinging the server. You load a catalog or query and that’s it.

For the record, and it’s my opinion only, but if you are want to leverage the power of CatDV and make it simple to administer and use, the Enterprise Server is the only system to use. Workgroup is a severely limited product that is meant for small, basic shops. (again, unofficial opinion) Enterprise is a completely different product. If only for managing your layouts and user permissions. The new Enterprise Server is amazing to use. Workgroup should not be considered for most facilities due to the extra admin needed. The money you save will be eaten up in admin/support help. (more about that later) Enterprise scales as large as you need.

The good news, the Maxx system, while well designed and I hear implemented, is, in practice, very simple.

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

Hi there,

The exports are easily done and you can export selected records as text. (make sure you have them selected)

As far as the PC server, one of the great things about CatDV is that it doesn’t care where the files live, as long as your mac can access them. Mac server, PC server, NAS, SAN, whatever you have, if it mounts on your mac, you can store and catalog the files there.

If you have more trouble with the export, feel free to buzz me via email and I can give you a quick screenshare demo of the exports, if you like. (any dealer you are working with should be able to arrange this as well.)

hope this helps,

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com

[Bryson Jones]

If you made it so you had to do some weird unlock, everyone would gripe about having to do that. 😉

The server can protect data, (even fields now) but in no other desktop app, can you really control deletion. (mail, word, excel, even the mac finder)

When you are “deleting” in catdv, you are only deleting a reference to a clip. So no media would be harmed. Even though losing metadata sucks.

To protect shared data for “searchers” I manage the permissions on my catalog folder so that they can only read. That way only people who can edit can delete. It’s the cheap way to get a bit of safety. No matter what they delete, they can’t save.

The other thing is that I always immediately backup my catalog as soon as I add clips, that way I have a path back and protection from silly users (including myself).

There was more to this post, but I hit “delete”. Can someone fix firefox so it doesn’t do that? 😉

bryson

bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com

hidefcowboy.com