[Rolf Howarth]

If you’re using the worker to import files into CatDV then then you should be able to get that to control 3rd party transcoding software, depending on how configurable that software is. Some software lets you submit jobs via the command line, some via watch folders, and some using Apple Events, all of which you can trigger from the Worker by writing a suitable script.

Broadly speaking, there are 3 steps involved:

1. Decide on your file organisation and overall workflow and set up your CatDV media paths, eg. original media on one volume, proxies on another, and thinking about what “root” you want to use (as discussed elsewhere at length). Work with a small test file and create a proxy manually using CatDV Pro so you know where the proxy file will be, how it’s named, and check that everything that needs to picks it up ok (eg. the Web Client, other CatDV Pro clients, clients on another platform, etc.)

2. Once you understand what CatDV expects, see what you need to do to get your 3rd party transcoding tool to generate files in the same place (including the appropriate relative file path etc., with either .mov or .mp4 or .jpg extension). This may involve passing in the input and output filenames and a conversion preset from the command line or something more complex, eg. putting a file in a drop folder, moving the converted file out afterwards, etc.

3. Once you understand what you need to tell your transcoding tool to do, configure the Worker Node to automate the process. In the simplest case you can directly invoke the tool via a CLI (command line interface), using Worker variables such as $p, $P, $Q etc. to construct the path(s) you need. In more complex situations you might need to write a shell script, passing your file name arguments to that and having it do a sequence of steps or issuing AppleScript actions using the “osascript” command etc.

You might need a systems integrator to help you with this but if you break it down into separate steps like this and do some experiments to find the answers at each stage it shouldn’t be too difficult.

[Rolf Howarth]

Are you using the Worker or CatDV Pro? And you’re creating a .mov rather than an .mp4?

If you’re using CatDV, make sure you don’t check the “Add QuickTime timecode track” option under Extra Tracks as doing sometimes seems to undo the fast start’ness of the movie.

[Rolf Howarth]

If the values already exist in your catalog, so they appear under the Automatic Grouping secion of the tree or in the Grouping panel (activated via the toolbar) then you can drag clips onto that value to apply the value to those clips.

The other thing you may be thinking of is setting up one clip (using Edit > New Empty Clip) as a kind of template. Fill in the metadata fields you want on that, then copy the clip and use the Paste Metadata command as an easy way to set several fields on lots of clips at the same time.

[Rolf Howarth]

Create a user defined field with name “Format:Broadcast:Internet:Smartphones” and type “Multi checkbox”. You can then customise your details panel view and add that field. They will just appear as normal check boxes, you shouldn’t need to double click anything.

[Rolf Howarth]

Select all the clips and do Media > Update Media Location. It will ask you to locate the first file, then all the others should be updated at the same time. You can then check the Media Path field to see where it’s pointing to.

[Rolf Howarth]

This was covered recently in the thread titled “User Columns”.

[Rolf Howarth]

In CatDV preferences under Proxies & Thumbnails, uncheck the option to link media based on tape name. Most likely you have that option set and have a bunch of files all of which have the same tape (eg. “001”) and same timecode (eg. “0:00:00:00”) so CatDV thinks they’re equivalent and will display the same thumbnail for all of them.

[Rolf Howarth]

Yes, we also didn’t read any metadata from those files. We use a combination of tools such as QuickTime and our own parsers to read metadata from a very wide variety of files. If QuickTime doesn’t provide all the metadata we want we sometimes need to write our own code to read that metadata.

The Tools > Reanalyse Media command is designed precisely to address this situation, where you’ve already added your own log notes to an asset but the technical metadata is incorrect and you want to refresh that data without losing your log notes (perhaps a later version of CatDV handles those files better, or you’ve now installed an additional codec, etc.)

[Rolf Howarth]

Most “modern” files probably don’t strictly require data in the resource fork, but you should always do some tests if you’re not sure.

For example, I’m aware of text editors that will store the text of your document in the normal data part of the file, but will store things like the window layout and cursor position from when you last edited it in the resource fork. It’s nice that it remembers and puts you back where you last were when you come back to reopen the document, but not a great deal is lost if you don’t have that information. Other apps might use the resource fork for more critical data however.

[Rolf Howarth]

I’d suggest you give it a go if you’re not sure by sending an email to sales@squarebox.com requesting a temporary eval license. If you send a subclip over we do create a proper subclip in FCPX as far as I know, but I must admit I’m not sure how FCPX reacts if they overlap.