[Rolf Howarth]

It’s still there, but it’s an obsolete feature not recommended for most users as it only works with tape-based previews. To activate it you need to enter feature code OBS in advanced functionality preferences and also enable tape-based previews and uncheck the “prefer path” option. It’s not a button but a command in the File menu.

[Rolf Howarth]

That’s not an error, as Matt says it just means you don’t have the tape library hardware installed.

The Cache-A Status Tool was really only added for diagnostic purposes during development. You shouldn’t have any need to access it in normal use but it was left in in case it’s ever useful for troubleshooting.

Back to your original question, if it ever reports that the vtape directory is offline simply press Configure and then Choose to reselect the folder. It may be necessary to remount the volume, in which case bringing up the file chooser should do that for you.

[Rolf Howarth]

If you use star ratings in CatDV 9 they’d be lost if you exchange catalogs with someone using CatDV 8 so if you edit the ratings it will change the ‘good’ status, and vice versa, using the following equivalences:

Unrated = 0 stars
No good = 1 star
Maybe? = 2 stars
Good = 4 stars

This means that if you switch between versions you won’t get the nuances of 3 or 5 star ratings but at least you won’t lose your ratings altogether.

[Rolf Howarth]

We don’t yet, but this is something we are working on.

[Rolf Howarth]

Currently we don’t charge separately for server updates, as the server is there to support the client and new server “features” don’t make sense unless you have the corresponding client version to take advantage of them. Even though it’s primarily the client license code that enforces the version number, when you purchase an upgrade you’re actually purchasing an upgrade of the entire system, not just of the client application.

[Rolf Howarth]

Rest assured that we are very much on top of this, we have been talking to Apple over the past few months and will respond in any way necessary to ensure a continued high level of integration between CatDV and FCP once the hooks for this become generally available.

FCPX 10.0 is very much a 1.0 release of a brand new product, to the extent you can almost view it as a public beta (though of course Apple will never refer to it as such). It’s not surprising therefore that a lot of higher end features such as AAF and XML support are missing in the initial release.

It’s perhaps unfortunate that Apple didn’t continue to make FCP7 available in the meantime, as that would have eliminated a lot of the anxiety and uncertainty that everyone with a large investment in FCP is feeling at the moment, but I’m sure Apple are actively following all the blogs and are well aware of what features users are crying out for.

I’m confident that in the coming weeks and months we will see announcements from them that address any perceived shortcomings. When they do, we are firmly committed to updating CatDV accordingly, but in the meantime of course FCP7 and CatDV continue to provide a compelling integrated solution. Just because FCPX was released doesn’t mean FCP7 will suddenly stop working!

-Rolf

[Rolf Howarth]

We have had various discussions with Apple but this is very much a 1.0 release of FCPX, which doesn’t yet have all the hooks required for 3rd party integration. They will come, however, and when they do we’re committed to providing tight integration between CatDV and FCPX.

[Rolf Howarth]

I don’t recognise those symptoms or that error. Where is that message displayed? Does the file import and play ok in CatDV and Final Cut? We’d need more information such as screenshots, copies of the CatDV Error Log (from home > Library > Logs) and XML file, in order to investigate, which you can send to support@squarebox.com.

[Rolf Howarth]

If you contact us at sales@squarebox.com we’ll put you in touch with a local reseller in Brazil.

[Rolf Howarth]

If you drag a movie into the main window it will create a clip record with a thumbnail and a movie you can play in the Movie tab in the clip details area at the top of the window. That’s presupposing the file is in a format that QuickTime knows how to play and you have the relevant codec. In some cases CatDV might be able to catalog a file and extract basic information from it but not be able to play it. What sort of video file is it?