[Rolf Howarth]

Do you have a lot of media search path entries? If so, what you may be seeing is that Windows network file access can be very slow if CatDV has to search a lot of locations before it locates the proxy file. In CatDV 10.0.6 (due out imminently) we’ve changed it so it no longer searches all the intermediate locations when location a proxy.

Currently to find the proxy for /A/B/C/D/E/F.mov it will search /CatDVProxies/A/B/C/D/E/F.mov, /CatDVProxies/B/C/D/E/F.mov, /CatDVProxies/C/D/E/F.mov, /CatDVProxies/D/E/F.mov, /CatDVProxies/E/F.mov, and /CatDVProxies/F.mov. If you have several entries like * => /CatDVProxies1, * => /CatDVProxies2 etc. then you can very quickly be searching lots of possible locations, which can add up and introduce a noticeable delay.

[Rolf Howarth]

This feature has been added in Server 6.8.0.

[Rolf Howarth]

Ok, this should be fixed in CatDV 10.0.6 (and the next worker, when that’s released). The problem is that CatDV XML batch files aren’t (or weren’t) intended to be directly used as sidecar files. In a recent update we blocked their use to prevent accidental processing of the wrong kind of file so it’s a coincidence it worked before. We’ve changed it now so they work properly though.

[Rolf Howarth]

Try deleting (or moving) the old contents of the catdv2 folder after copying catdv2.war into the webapps folder. Also, be aware that there’s a new 6.8b3 version available at https://www.squarebox.co.uk/download/CatDVServer6.8b3.dmg and https://www.squarebox.co.uk/download/CatDVServer6.8b3.exe

-Rolf

[Rolf Howarth]

Either you have two disks with the same name mounted or some program (possibly an older version of CatDV, though in general we try very hard not to do so) has create a FOLDER called /Volumes/Library, in which case when you try to mount the disk called Library it finds that /Volumes/Library is unavaialble and so it has to use /Volumes/Library-1. If /Volumes/Library is a folder then delete it (or better still, move it) and reboot. Make sure it doesn’t contain any data you need before deleting it!

[Rolf Howarth]

Try searching the various Tomcat log files that should be produced to see if they contain any relevant messages or exceptions.

[Rolf Howarth]

H.264 isn’t a great codec for editing (it’s optimised for small file sizes not for ease of editing), but then nor is AVCHD .m2t (as that’s basically just H.264, in an MPEG wrapper). There are three main approaches you can use when working with AVCHD:

a) Use ClipWrap to rewrap the video as a QuickTime .mov and edit with that. No loss in quality, but it’s no longer an .m2t file. Perhaps archive the .m2t file somewhere just in case.

b) Keep the .m2t file and edit with that in Premiere, but create an h264/mp4 or similar proxy for logging in CatDV, playback on the web, etc. (Or use Xuggle to play the .m2t file within CatDV, but be aware that playback is quite jerky and only suitable as a low quality preview).

c) Transcode all your media to a common mezzanine format such as ProRes and use that, perhaps archiving the original .m2t files. This is particularly useful if you work with a variety of different cameras and want to work with a common format.

[Rolf Howarth]

Look at the Media Path field (on the Summary or Other tabs, or elsewhere if you’ve configured your details panel layout). That’s the path the file was originally imported from and is what CatDV uses to locate the media, subject to path mapping. If you moved a folder or renamed a volume or import on Mac and play on Windows or vice versa you tell CatDV in Media Search Path preferences what the old and new locations are so it will find the files automatically. If you double click a missing file it will prompt you to locate it and will set up a temporary path mapping but it won’t remember this beyond the current session unless you save the path mapping or use the Update Media Location command and save the catalog to save the new path in the Media Path field.

[Rolf Howarth]

That’s probably a question for the Adobe forum. If you import an FCP7 XML file with fields like Master Comment 1, Comment B etc. set how can you display those in Premiere? I don’t know the answer to that offhand I’m afraid.

[Rolf Howarth]

There’s a bunch of material on our updated site at https://www.squarebox.com/catdv-tutorials/ but please drop us an email if there’s anything you’d like to see which isn’t covered currently.