[Dave Hicks]

Thanks for your response and the advice about filling in Original Location – that does make sense.

CatDV is becoming an extremely useful tool in my workflow. I looked long and hard for a DAM that suited my needs before I ran across a mention of it in a forum post (can’t even remember where).

Regards,
Dave

[Dave Hicks]

Yes – it appears like CatDV is appending the drive letter of the original media onto the path specified in the preferences.

[Dave Hicks]

Kevin, thanks for your responses on this issue. I’ll try to clarify again…

“if Catdv has done its job correctly you should find that the Preview TAB “lights up” in the player window and you should have your proxy playing in this window.”

Yes, the proxy is playable after the Preview tab “lights up”.

“Without using the Preview Manager you should be able to verify that there is a file in the Catdv Preview folder, as it appears from what you say that the Path is being constructed, meaning your preferences are correct.”

Yes, there is a proxy in the preview folder. However, the problem is that my preferences specify a path like “\\Archive\Previews”, but the preview is then generated in “\\Archive\PreviewsE” (apparently created by CatDV by adding a character E to the preference path) and the Previews folder remains empty. I tried generating a preview from a different computer (with same preferences) and it placed the proxy in “\\Archive\PreviewsC”.
And, when Media->Manage Preview Movies is selected, only the original “\\Archive\Previews” path shows up, and it’s empty.

“I would also suggest you check the EXACT FILE NAME OPTION as this helps FCP relink easily.”

I can’t seem to find this option, however, I’m not using FCP.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Dave Hicks]

Well, I did have all three Lookup Previews checked, so I unchecked “Based on tape & timecode”. I then started over:
[1] cleared out all preview paths
[2] set “Path-based previews” to
Original location: {blank}
Preview path: \\UNRAID_NAS\Archive\CatDV\Previews
[3] set Original full-res media to {blank}
[4] deleted and re-ingested the catalog
[5] selected one clip and executed Media->Build Preview Movies

The preview movie was placed in \\UNRAID_NAS\Archive\CatDV\PreviewsE. The Preview Manager now shows only Path-Based Previews (..\CatDV\Previews), but does not show the PreviewsE folder containing the preview clip.

This is still the same confusing behavior. Perhaps there’s another preference not correctly set?

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Hicks]

Thanks for your response, Bryson. When I tried this test, the “Original Full-Res Media” was populated with: \\UNRAID_NAS\Archive(\\UNRAID_NAS\Archive); however, I’ve also tried it with that path blank.

I just tried clearing and re-entering the paths, as you mentioned, and the same behavior occurred. Interestingly, the previews do work fine for the clips I’ve tested, although, when the “PrevEE” folder is created it does not appear under the Media->Preview Manager window.

BTW, your CatDVExperts video was great – it convinced me that I was on the right track in buying CatDV Pro.

Thanks,
Dave