[John Heagy]

[Dougal Matthews] “for sidecar files to work correctly CatDV expects to import the files at the same time so you need to have “

The common way of dealing with files arriving at different times into a watch folder is a setting that watches for two matching file named files before an action is triggered. This is a feature I would welcome.

John

[John Heagy]

I like discussing what John wants 😉

So no, fcpxmls do not point to render files so that won’t do unless the option of including them was added so it did link to current render files.

Some sort of aaf variant might do, but the glacial progress of aaf.xml says that isn’t likely.

There is the mxf reference format OP1b, but I don’t know if that supports other wrappers besides .mxf

I understand Apple wants to kill QT ref due to security concerns. Apparently Apple is concerned that the referenced files could point to a suspect file and be opened. What I don’t understand is how files listed in a fcpmxl, or really any project file from any other app, would not have the same issue?

John

[John Heagy]

[Bret Williams] “I used reference files that apps like AE or DVDSP were often trying to search for render files that were gone.”

True enough.. FCP ref.mov are not good long term. We use them in conjuction with our Episode engine to offload flattening or encoding, after which they are deleted. Besides saving the editor time it allows quick re-dos.

[Bret Williams] “Now we don’t have to spend the time transcoding to ProRes, so there’s the time saving on the front end.”

True again… but we find saving time on the back end far more valuable. It takes time for all the media to accumulate, time we use to encode to ProRes and tag with embedded metadata. As a project proceeds, workflow pipelines start sprouting invoking other apps, and the final timeline gets more complex as the deadline nears. It’s all this later work we strive to lubricate so there are fewer issues and renders as deadline pressure and project complexity increases.

John

[John Heagy]

[Bret Williams] “Well, not if it wasn’t rendered you couldn’t. And the audio always had to be recompressed. It didn’t reference audio. A 1hr video would had taken a little bit just for the audio alone.”

Correct… In our case all media is converted to ProRes so no rendering except transitions, titles, etc. Yes it does flatten the audio, no re-compression though. Even with nothing rendered a ref movie takes less than 5min to create typically. There’s no way around render time. One pays that price whether ref or self contained.

Apple wants to kill ref.mov because of security concerns. Basically the treat of a ref mov pointing to suspect files. Not sure how a FCP xml or any project file from any media app which points to source files is any safer.

John

[John Heagy]

[Michael Sanders] “I want to know how the big tasks – the ones where you want big iron, like exporting a 30 min show or compressing to H264 take”

This is why I’m lamenting the loss of QT reference movie export. In FCP7 I can export a 1hr ref.mov in less than 1 min and let Episode start encoding. With FCPX one has to wait for a self contained .mov to finish.

John

[John Heagy]

Thanks for sharing your experiences Bryson!

We will definitely connect to a separate MS SQL machine running on a Cisco UCS. No matter which way we go CatDV server will not be running on the same machine as the database. The same goes for Worker which is on an Xsan attached machine. If we go Mac for CatDV server, it would run on an all solid state Mini server, if Windows or Linux it will run on a separate VM on the same UCS. Given the Mac mini is just running CatDV server I assume it will be more than fine, unless Java on Windows or Linux is that much better.

This will be a fresh install no, db migration needed. We will begin development of a Front Porch/CatDV archive interface. Front Porch is a Windows based system. The plan right now is to not use Worker at all for this and do it solely via db queries of both the CatDV db and the Front Porch db.

Thanks
John

[John Heagy]

I should add that the database will be MS SQL and Worker is running on a Mac with Xsan storage, though we are investigating NAS (NFS) alternatives.

Thanks
John

[John Heagy]

[Ben Edwards] “So I have read that x.264 (1080p) of 5Mbps is considered very good quality, and prores 422 would be around 35Mbps. So I am wondering if we went to something like 10Mbps if I would be creating files that were indistinguishable when viewed on a 2k projector/Small cinema.”

ProRes 422 is not 35Mb it’s 140Mb, ProRes Proxy is 36Mb but that looks pretty bad.

The best way to get good results with low data rates in any Long GOP codec is with 2 pass encoding. The difference is amazing. Broadcast h264 encoders run around 20Mb for 1080. You could get similar results at 10Mb with 2 pass.

John

[John Heagy]

HI Lou,

I want to take an OP1a file and rewrap to OP – atom, with the resulting atom files being recognized by Avid as a single clip.

Thanks
John

[John Heagy]

Thanks for the quick response Ian but these are not XDCam files from a Sony camera but XDCam.mxf files created with Episode Engine, so no folders specific to Sony XDCam discs.