Bryson Jones
Forum Replies Created
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Kudos! The field locking is amazing –
bryson
bryson “at” hidefcowboy.com
hidefcowboy.com
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CatDV will do what you want, I’ve actually just done, basically, the same exact setup for an action sports archive of 4,000 feature films which are being turned into a library. Also, Fox Digital is doing the same basic thing for their short format web movies.
The main thing is getting the fields and layouts setup correctly in the beginning. CatDV is amazingly flexible, but as is often mentioned here, it’s not a plug and play off the shelf solution, unless you want to invest the time learning to program/install it. The data you are asking for is easily collected and managed but that might not be immediately clear from the downloaded demo, as most users have highly customized the interface. (Sony, for instance, had over 8 panels of metadata fields when I last saw their setup) So don’t be frustrated or confused if the program seems limited out of the box. There are so many features that it’s nearly impossible to find them all without some help.
As far as your archive format, that’s your business, but you might consider some higher res formats for the items coming from film as then you’d be able to sell them in HD in the coming years. Any good integrator can offer suggestions but I know that Pro Res has been a standard for several of the recent archives that I and others have done, starting with NASCAR, set up by the guys from SquareBox (makers of catdv). Older “Big-Iron” houses have traditionally favored MPEG-2 and MXF formats although that is changing.
Regarding FCX, I’ll let Kevin or Rolf answer that one. I’ve never used CatDV with FCX but I do know that the XML should translate fine, even if the “tree” won’t allow you to drag and drop. (the Magic Door, as Mr. Duggan calls it) However, you do get access to higher quality codecs with the Pro version which is a long term consideration.
In the end, the expense of a full copy of FCP will be negligible when compared to the cost of storage and conversion of your library (time!!), as well as server hardware and a license of CatDV server so that you can search your entire library of clips.
This sounds like a pretty large undertaking but you are on the path and compared to other custom built solutions, CatDV can do most of the hard stuff out of the box. Find a good dealer and have them give you a demo and see what you think.
bryson
hidefcowboy.com
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Also, one important thought about “logging” in CatDV. I completely understand that a full logging of all media is unrealistic, but we’ve found that because you can bulk tag all of the media in a catalog, (which by the way can be thousands of items, if you choose) you can add a ton of useful metadata in a few seconds. (for instance a drive number, LTO Archive ID or project name) so that you can quickly go way beyond the basic P2 metadata fields with minimal hassle or time.
Unlike Final Cut Server, where you have to tag clips individually (ouch) you can add a tag to all clips by selecting all and typing or using a pull-down menu.
Secondly, being able to view and pre tag MXF in CatDV, without converting it to Avid or FCP media, is pretty amazing for a workflow like you’re talking about. If it doesn’t need to be used, it can go straight to LTO without passing through an edit station and you’ll still know what you have for later use.
bryson
hidefcowboy.com
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Mark, we here in LA are blessed to have a ton of loggers who are pretty well versed in CatDV’s Verbatim Logger. If you ever need folks, I’d be happy to refer a few if you need folks on your next show.
I’ve done a few seasons of reality on CatDV and know loggers and lead loggers who are familiar with the interface so there’s less training. Though as you see, there’s a good bit of customization in every setup.
We have traditionally not used event markers on the shows I’ve done, preferring to just use the HTML Summary for word search, but I’d like to try it on the next we do. Keep us posted.
bryson
hidefcowboy.com
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Duggan is the XDCAM king. 😉
I’d also like to remind you that when you backup/archive your cards to LTO or hard drive or whatever, take a few minutes to tag the clips with the name of the media or volume you put them on, to make restores much easier.
bryson
hidefcowboy.com
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Hi guys,
I’m an integrator in Los Angeles who’s put CatDV to use in several shops, including somewhere around 7-8 reality shows (Celeb Rehab, Millionaire Matchmaker, Destination Truth, etc..) in addition to running a few video archives and even a Sundance winning documentary on the system. I love it and think it’s clearly the best asset manager on the market.
I’ll be trolling along with the Squarebox guys and try to provide some info on this, amazing, but deep, product, where I can.
Nice to meet you all,
bryson
hidefcowboy.com
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Hey there, this is Bryson Jones, you caught me on the US vacation, (Thanksgiving) but I wanted to offer some ideas of what we’ve done in the past on some of our integrations.
One of the better things about CatDV is that it’s pretty light as far as what hardware you need to run the server on.
Also since catalogs are normally created by a user/editor who’s likely connected to the main storage/SAN, you don’t even have to have the server connected to the SAN. (although in most facilities we do).
What I’m saying, in a long winded way, is that a Mac Mini is a perfectly passable server for CatDV’s MySQL backend and will handle proxy serving for 10 users easily, depending on your proxy format, of course.
I have 5 users on a reality TV show for the SciFi Channel running off of an iMac as their server with a firewire drive as the proxy storage. I’ll probably take this to 10 users before I even think of upgrading the machine.
That said, we tend to allocate a Mac Pro or G5 as the server just because we tend to use it connected to the main storage so that CatDV Worker can perform file moves and transcodes and it’s often the backup server as well in mid-sized shops. The heavier your transcoding and proxy creation needs, the stronger the hardware needs to be.
So there you go… a long way to say… your choice. 😉 The flexibility and adaptability of CatDV will make changes easier than a lot of systems, if you need to make them later so it’s hard to go wrong.
One final note, as always, find a good integrator.
bryson
hidefcowboy.com