[David Jahns]

I have installed the Server Version on a Mac OS 10.6 (Not Server) via MySQL and it wasn’t too terribly complicated (if you don’t mind reading the manuals and winging it a little, because the manual can be out of date).

But once you get to the HTML Publisher – yikes, that part is a challenge. (I’m not terribly versed in Server & Web technology, so that’s part of the problem, I’m sure.)

So, I’m having a hell of a time with the Web Client, but the CDV Server and up to 5 client apps have been fantastic. (We’re still in trial mode, and trying to decide whether to commit the $$ for an Enterprise Installation & proper integrator, etc…)

Holler back if you’re trying to do this on Mac only machines, I’ll share what I’ve learned, but don’t have any experience or knowledge of the Linux / Windows / Oracle versions.

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

OK – i re-created exactly the problem. Imported one sequence, build thumbnails, save, quite, restart.

Here’s the Error Log:

(Just tried the attachment button above – Not sure what happened to it) – here’s a cut/paste version, or I could email it to matthew if that would be better.

4/21/11 12:20:02 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] Load CatDV library
4/21/11 12:20:02 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] Attempting to load main class squarebox.catdv.ProLauncher
4/21/11 12:20:02 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] args=0
4/21/11 12:20:02 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] tzOffset = -28800
4/21/11 12:20:02 PM java[281] *** __NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x10010eda0 of class NSConcreteMapTableValueEnumerator autoreleased with no pool in place – just leaking
4/21/11 12:20:02 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] Starting up CatDV…
4/21/11 12:20:07 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] Thu Apr 21 12:20:07 joint-gamecap.wk.com CatDV[21428] : kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID -1
4/21/11 12:20:07 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] Thu Apr 21 12:20:07 joint-gamecap.wk.com CatDV[21428] : kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
4/21/11 12:20:07 PM [0x0-0xb63b63].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21428] Thu Apr 21 12:20:07 joint-gamecap.wk.com CatDV[21428] : kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowDepth
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Load CatDV library
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Attempting to load main class squarebox.catdv.ProLauncher
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] args=0
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] tzOffset = -28800
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM java[281] *** __NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x10012d6d0 of class NSConcreteMapTableValueEnumerator autoreleased with no pool in place – just leaking
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Starting up CatDV…
4/21/11 12:21:56 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Toolkit squarebox.toolkit.common.MacIntelToolkit@1ed1b0b
4/21/11 12:22:06 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Thu Apr 21 12:22:06 joint-gamecap.wk.com CatDV[21463] : kCGErrorIllegalArgument: _CGSFindSharedWindow: WID -1
4/21/11 12:22:06 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Thu Apr 21 12:22:06 joint-gamecap.wk.com CatDV[21463] : kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
4/21/11 12:22:06 PM [0x0-0xb65b65].uk.co.squarebox.CatDVPro[21463] Thu Apr 21 12:22:06 joint-gamecap.wk.com CatDV[21463] : kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowDepth

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

Bryson – I’ve verified the same behavior on another machine, (both Macs), and it sounds like Matt has as well.

Matt – it doesn’t crash the system, so how do I find the CatDV log? (I’ve only seen that come up after a crash.)

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

Hi Bryson! I met you at NAB. I’m the guy in the Portland Ad Agency/Post house- still trying to do thorough testing and selling the idea to my team.

I was not doing that (right click import) – but I just did a few clips that way and it yields the same results. (I have the prefs set to detect image sequences in .tif format).

It imports slowly (2-3 frames per second), and a catalog of only 6 clips (but 1000 frames) is 4MB, probably because it’s thumbnailing each frame.

Matthew – tried your suggestion – not thumbnailing on import, but creating them later. That would work for me, I think. However, when I choose “build thumbnails”, it only seems to create poster frames, the filmstrip view still only shows QT icons. And then, most strangely, when I save and reopen the catalog, it says it is corrupted – 6 thumbnails missing, and then the Poster Frames have been lost, too. They revert back to quicktime icons.

Thanks for your help, guys!

Dave

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

Did a test on 6 clips – roughly 1000 frames.

Manually created qt ref moves – catalogued those clips. Super fast, and super small file sizes for the catalog (70k), with just a few thumbnails per clip. Nice! Format says (QT Movie (TIFF Uncompressed).

Tried Matthew’s suggestion of not creating thumbnails – this certainly sped up the cataloging process (and only a 120k file size), but it’s not terribly useful to have a catalog without thumbnails. The whole point is that I want to take the media offline, but still be able to see which shots are which for retrieval if necessary. And we certainly can’t expect an admin to be changing those prefs back and forth all the time for each folder import.

When I have the prefs set to Create QT Ref, and create the thumbnails – it still appears to be creating thumbs for every frame and still recognizing it as an Image Sequence, not a REF movie. A catalog of those same 6 clips is 4MB, so obviously, it’s creating and storing thumbs for every frame.

So, what – if anything – does CatDV do with those QT refs it created?

It would be awesome if it created the QT Ref movie and then catalogued that instead of the TIFFs, but that’s not what it appears to be doing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated…

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

No good news to report.

I’m still testing out this system, so I want to try it out as it would be used by an assistant editor in our shop. I don’t want to turn off thumbnail generation, as I don’t expect a real-world workflow to be, “If you have image sequences to catalog, contact the Administrator so that he can turn off thumbnail generation during that import, then let him know when you are through, so he can change it back.”

Creating the QT Ref movies sounded like a great idea, and if it would create the ref move and then import that instead of the TIFF frames, that would probably be great – but it doesn’t seem to create the QT Refs consistently. I have no idea what’s going on, but some folders will have a #ref.mov file added to it, but others won’t (most of them did not, it my test).

The catalog file size was still up to 150MB with only 97 clips – so it’s most likely still looking at each individual frame, not the REF movie.

Also – even when working locally, the app crashes all the time when dealing with Image Seqs. Importing savings, sorting, whatever – beachballs, or unexeptedly quitting happens WAY too often.

My next step is to manually create a few QT Refs, and tell CatDV to import those, but NOT the actual image sequences and see what happens and compare the catalog file sizes. Any other ideas to try?

Any CatDV users regularly work with Image Sequences?

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

Sorry – I should have been more clear.

Of course, they’re not rewriting the Browser code in Cocoa 64, and keeping it exactly the same as it was in the OS 9 version.

What I meant is that it’s all code written for a modern 64 bit app – not an OS 9 app from 12 years ago. Whether or not they borrow that code and core architecture from iMovie as a starting point is irrelevant.

What matters (to me, at least) is what “Pro” features they add to it. iMovie COULD export XML files, if they chose to add the functionality to the program. Obviously, that would be silly for iMovie – but any app named Pro should be able to do so – in my opinion.

And honestly, iMovie 11 may have been taken from the FCP X development, which has been in the works for years. Why do you think FCP 7 felt more like 6.5? Because they were really focusing on this FCP-X, and did a bare minimum to release an “new version”, because we demand a new version every couple of years.

Maybe iMovie is really FCP Lite!

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

I would bet money that most of the consumer features will be there if you want them , but also able to be turned off if you don’t want them. More convenient for quick edits, but then turn them off for precision work.

This actually follows the pattern of other ProApps – GarageBand features find their way into Logic, and iPhoto features find their way up to Aperture. And yet Aperture and Logic are both easier to use, and just as powerful as they were – they were not dumbed down at all to incorporate new features.

So – should we expect the same with FCP? Not sure…

The biggest difference is that FCP was a ground up rewrite, and my hunch is that the version shipping in June will not have some things pros are used to in FCP 7, simply because they are focusing on the flashy stuff, not the nitty-gritty stuff like EDL & XML output, gang syncing 2 sequences, etc.

(Will a compound clip export a proper EDL? Nested sequences never did!)

But as we ask for them, they will be added back in over time as they all get re-written. So, essentially, we’re back to FCP ver 1 – great tool for one-stop shopping, where you ingest, edit, and finish all right in the same system, but not so great for collaborative and off/online workflows.

With professional feedback/demands, eventually FCP X2 will get a little better, and the new architecture will allow for things we never even had before, like DPX support, RGB finishing, etc… That’s my hope at least!

Yes, it will certainly be interesting times…

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

My impressions are that Terrence has been right, much to my dismay. It seems Apple is making a very user friendly tool for “in the box” work – in one system and back out in final format – all from one editor/colorist/sound designer… And there is certainly a huge potential for that.

And all of the new timeline tools they showed tonight looked great – but if that comes at the expense of NOT being friendly in a pro environment, where different people perform different tasks – handing off audio to a soudn mixer, EDL/XML export, etc… – then this new product will not work for many people.

maybe they will have to go back to Avid, and maybe the price points will make that business model impossible to maintain.

FOP X might get laughed off as a toy, just like the first one did – and it certainly revolutionized the lower & middle tiers of the industry, but it wasn’t until they added pro features that it was used by features and broadcast environments. Maybe those environments are dead in the long term, and maybe Apple really is going “where the puck will be” – but if all of that interaction support is not there, we’ll be right back where we were with FCP 1 – great tool for hobbyists, and ‘finish in the box’ pros, but not for the higher end workflows.

Anyone want to bet if there will be any Oscar nominated films cut with FCP X this year or next?

Why not take 30 seconds to open the red clip and show the access to the raw color data? Why not drop a bone or two to the high end crowd to show you’re not abandoning them? And no mention at all of any other parts of the suite? Not even a “more to come later” tease…?

Overall, I’m very disappointed in the entire event – why take over the whole night for a 45 minute tease? Why not just do that in the 2nd half of the show?

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR

[David Jahns]

Just tried to Media Manage an Alexa v3 project – same issues.

I’m transferring the ProRes 4×4 QT files with 2 sec handles to a finish facility – wound up having to manually set ins & outs and export shot by shot.

Next time, I’ll try Batch Export of all used clips and relinking to those, then try the Media Manager again.

David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR