Dennis Kutchera
Forum Replies Created
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Dave,
I am not a daily user of AJA, I/O HD, but we have them in Finland. I do reserve the right to be wrong on this, but none of the AJA products do a frame rate conversion. And without sitting in front of an HDW-1800, I cannot be sure, but I don’t think it will do what you want. Your time code issues are related to trying to feed 24 frame TC into a VTR set to record 29.97. I don’t think it can add pulldown on input, only output. I would make a 24p master. The HDW-1800 will add pulldown on playback, but there is an optional board that needs to be there. Typical Sony.
Don’t try to use a 29.97 timeline either. Final Cut does an abysmal job of frame rate conversion from my experience. I am not sure you selected the right tools from your well equipped arsenal for this project.
Best,
Dennis (laying in bed recovering from surgery) -
Well, I am involved with both CatDV and Final Cut Server. But I am only using the standalone version of CAT DV. In my opinion they are two different products. CATDV is very well defined for media asset management with excellent database capabilities. But one weakness in (standalone) CATVDV is that it is too easy to delete something. I hate that. I have done that. If you don’t catch it and hit undo, it is gone – not the media, just the clip info and metadata.
I don’t think Apple is clear on what Final Cut Server is. First, Final Cut Server is a weak asset manager compared to CATDV, but a powerful workflow manager. It is a pig to set up and customize. I was stricken with the task, but the more I dig into it, the more I like, Mind you, I do not have CATDV server to compare to, so this is maybe a little lob-sided. Nothing I can do about that unless I get my hands on CATDV Server.
But with Final Cut Server, you can manage projects that will contain assets. It will work like a library system – I check out a project and work on it. Then I might add new assets. When I check it back it, FCS will upload the new assets. Someone else can check the project out and continue to work on it with media remaining on the server or copied to a local drive. There is none of this Final Cut Pro can’t find media bull. And media is never duplicated. If you use the same asset if 10 projects, it is smart enough to not copy it.
Inside Final Cut Server, the stored FInal Cut Pro project contains the media or alias to the media. It is very slick at maintaining organization. You can also script it to send emails when certain objectives are achieved and automate it to run files through Compressor and send them on to another destination.
You do not need any special software to view assets and annotate them A small java app runs Mac or PC; even over VPN. Proxies are automatically created. In fact, FCS works really well over VPN. I am managing a server in Finland from Canada.
Final Cut Server also manages levels of permission really well so things don’t get deleted accidentally. I think that is pretty dang important. Maybe the server version of CATV will do this; I don’t know.
There is a lot in Final Cut Server, but as I said, it is a tool for workflow management more than comprehensive asset management. In an ideal world, I would log in CatDV and store in FInal Cut Server. My pet project right now is to find that bridge. I think it is doable with FCS 1.5.
Dennis
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Well, I am involved with both CatDV and Final Cut Server. But I am only using the standalone version of CAT DV. In my opinion they are two different products. CATDV is very well defined for media asset management with excellent database capabilities. But one weakness in (standalone) CATVDV is that it is too easy to delete something. I hate that. I have done that. If you don’t catch it and hit undo, it is gone – not the media, just the clip info and metadata.
I don’t think Apple is clear on what Final Cut Server is. First, Final Cut Server is a weak asset manager compared to CATDV, but a powerful workflow manager. It is a pig to set up and customize. I was stricken with the task, but the more I dig into it, the more I like, Mind you, I do not have CATDV server to compare to, so this is maybe a little lob-sided. Nothing I can do about that unless I get my hands on CATDV Server.
But with Final Cut Server, you can manage projects that will contain assets. It will work like a library system – I check out a project and work on it. Then I might add new assets. When I check it back it, FCS will upload the new assets. Someone else can check the project out and continue to work on it with media remaining on the server or copied to a local drive. There is none of this Final Cut Pro can’t find media bull. And media is never duplicated. If you use the same asset if 10 projects, it is smart enough to not copy it.
Inside Final Cut Server, the stored FInal Cut Pro project contains the media or alias to the media. It is very slick at maintaining organization. You can also script it to send emails when certain objectives are achieved and automate it to run files through Compressor and send them on to another destination.
You do not need any special software to view assets and annotate them A small java app runs Mac or PC; even over VPN. Proxies are automatically created. In fact, FCS works really well over VPN. I am managing a server in Finland from Canada.
Final Cut Server also manages levels of permission really well so things don’t get deleted accidentally. I think that is pretty dang important. Maybe the server version of CATV will do this; I don’t know.
There is a lot in Final Cut Server, but as I said, it is a tool for workflow management more than comprehensive asset management. In an ideal world, I would log in CatDV and store in FInal Cut Server. My pet project right now is to find that bridge. I think it is doable with FCS 1.5.
Dennis
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I am not suggesting that it won’t run with any other apps open, but definitely not with Flow. I have numerous apps open and it works fine. But you may have something open that bothers it. It is fine with FInal Cut Pro running; in fact that is recommended because you can drop clips into FInal Cut via CatDV and retain your markers and metadata. It is the missing link for FInal Cut Pro; its just unfortunate that it won’t play with Flow, which I find incredibly useful.
Try running it with nothing else open, then open your apps one at a time until you find the offender. However, there may be other reasons for the crash. It could be an issue with quicktime for example. But we need to hear from someone at CatDV in this thread. I am sure we will by tomorrow. Hang in there and don’t give it up yet. This program is far more useful than Bento would be. You are likely just scratching the surface of what is in fact a very deep program with a lot of uses. I have used other similar products and was left underwhelmed. CatDV is amazing.
Dennis
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Your scenario sounds familiar. Do you have another application running? I find that running Gridiron Flow will cause CatDV to crash after a while. If I turn Flow off, CatDV is very stable.
I would try repairing permissions too. I found that when I installed it for the first time, it crashed even more with or without Flow. Java permissions were bad and repairing them helped.
Dennis
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I have been using the export function, but when I bring the new clip back in, pretty much all metadata is gone. Will consolidated media automatically appear as a new clip with metadata intact? And will it leave the original media alone? That is my fear that holds me back from experimenting, because I do not have tape to recover from if the software deletes the original media when consolidating.
Dennis
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I made this work! Change the user column to multi. Hit OK to exit preference, then go back in to preference to pick lists. Select the user column you modified. Now you can add key words that CatDV will remember. Turn on “Extensible” and “Remember Values”. Save the preferences. Now you can either select your key words from the pulldown and build a list there or just start to type a keyword and it will autofill the rest of the word or show you multiples that begin the same as what you started to type. If you want another key word, then type a semi-colon and the next word and so on! it will even begin to remember new words that are not in your pick list. Careful about typos!
This software is far more powerful than we realize. It is very customizable and that means a bit of a learning curve to understand just what you can achieve with CatDV.
I continue to get a dry mouth as my lower jaw hangs in awe.
Dennis
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And scrolling works again! Where do we find release notes as to what new features are added or fixed? I honestly don’t see any difference from rev to rev.
Dennis
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This raises more questions. What is “multi”? If I make the change as you suggest and add values, then I can only have one keyword in my keyword user column from what I can see. I would like to be able to type multiple keywords and have the software autocomplete each one so typos can be avoided. Possible?
Dennis
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I have to agree with this. I have accidentally hit delete twice. Fortunately you can undo. And you are not deleting media, only clip info. If you use the “delete media files” command, it does ask you to confirm. I think it would be nice to have the same double warning for when you are deleting clip info.
FWIW, the same thing goes for Final Cut Pro. I despise the way I can delete something in a bin and >>POOF!<< it is gone. Apple needs to take a lesson from Avid where there is a second dialog that pops up asking if you want to delete media only (split into audio and video tracks) or the clip info or both. Hey, not a bad idea for CatDV as well. In spite of any of these short-comings, CatDV has completely transformed the way I work with Final Cut Pro. I have not tried it with Avid yet, but I will at some point. Dennis