[Rolf Howarth]

Print as an HTML Formatted view, that will wrap a long Notes field onto as many lines as it takes.

[Rolf Howarth]

The way CatDV locates proxy media is by specifying a root directory for the original media and a corresponding root directory for the proxy files. You do this in CatDV’s preferences. CatDV then takes the relative path of the original media file relative to the original media root directory and tacks that on to the preview root directory, then looks to see if there’s a suitable proxy file there.

This means proxy files don’t have to be in the same location as the original files but can be in a separate parallel file hierarchy, just as long as the filename and relative path structure is the same. The filename can either match precisely, or you can replace the filename extension with .mov or .mp4.

For example, you might have

Original file: /Volumes/Media/Project/File1.mpg
Proxy file: /Volumes/CatDV/Proxies/Project/File1.mp4
Proxy path mapping: /Volumes/Media => /Volumes/CatDV/Proxies

Does that all make sense?

[Rolf Howarth]

What do you mean, create additional thumbnails on specified frames? You do that by setting a new poster. That creates a new thumbnail, the last one that you set is the default ‘poster’ thumbnail. (You can also step through all the available thumbnails for a clip on the Thumbnails tab and delete any that you no longer need, or change the poster thumbnail, from there.)

[Rolf Howarth]

There’s no problem installing the freely available “community” edition MySQL download on Lion. We’re currently investigating an issue where the server installer doesn’t seem to correctly install the CatDV Control Panel in the Applications folder under Lion but we hope to have a fix for that shortly.

-Rolf

[Rolf Howarth]

The CatDV approach has always been to store metadata in a separate catalog, not in the media itself. There are pros and cons to either approach. It’s obviously convenient to have metadata in the file but there are many disadvantages also:
– there are many different types of media file container not all of which support metadata
– a file might sit on shared storage and two people accessing it want to describe it in different ways
– a file might be on a read only mediun
– a file might be offline
For all these reasons CatDV doesn’t attempt to store metadata in the file. Instead, you can export metadata in various ways and send a separate XML or batch file with your media.

[Rolf Howarth]

You’re right, although XDCAM EX creates .mp4 files, the codec used isn’t one that QuickTime can play. For full support within CatDV (transcoding, full frame rate playback, etc.) you therefore need the Calibrated MP4EX component. If you install Xuggle however you can preview the EX footage, though playback is a little jerky.

To read metadata from XDCAM EX clips and wrap them up as a “metaclip” you need the CatDV MXF option (despite the name “MXF Option”, it works with XDCAM EX volumes which use MP4, as well as XDCAM SAM and FAM which do use MXF, plus P2 and Avid MXF files of course).

[Rolf Howarth]

Actually, with CatDV 9 and Xuggle installed you can play .mts files natively in CatDV without having to downconvert them. Xuggle playback stutters a bit but the quality should be good enough to preview and log a clip, and you can drag files straight from CatDV into your Premiere Project window without having to use the Media Browser.

Doing it that way you can send over complete files (no subclips) and won’t get any log notes or other metadata going with it. To send over subclips, metadata and sequences export an FCP XML file from CatDV and import that into Premiere.

[Rolf Howarth]

Hi Keith,

Apologies… we’ve been incredibly busy the last few weeks, plus we had some email issues recently.

The price of a server upgrade from v8 to v9 is based on 35% of the total system cost, but I’ve found your email now so I’ll make sure we send you a reply in the morning with all the details.

-Rolf

[Rolf Howarth]

That’s what I’m saying: don’t use Export CatDV XML Index(es), use Export As CatDV XML File instead. That way, the file path you want will be accessible in the MEDIAPATH field.

[Rolf Howarth]

I give up. You can’t include escaped entities either. MEDIAPATH tag.