CatDV 9 includes the following changes:
- Support for importing and exporting .fcpxml files to exchange clips and cuts-only sequences with FCP X
- Support for roles and permissions (requires Enterprise Server 6.6),
- Other improvements to the User Admin panel, including new a permission to control whether the user is allowed to create new clips and the ability to save and edit production group settings directly from the group details panel
- Support for Xuggle (based on FFmpeg) as an alternative media library, providing playback of additional formats such as AVCHD. (You can download Xuggle here.)
- Ability to customise the names of built-in fields and whether they are locked or mandatory, with a new Built-In Fields button on the User Columns preference panel (this replaces the ability to customise the field labels in a details panel view)
- Support for many additional user-defined field types, including hierarchy, multi-hieararchy, linked fields, number, date, time and checkbox
- Support for reading Adobe XMP and IPTC metadata when importing files
- Major preferences tidy up, with several new sections and many options moved to a more logical section, better greying out of disabled options, and the ability to highlight any settings which differ from their default value
- New commands in the Tools menu to Export Preferences and Import Preferences to simplify setting up machines, backing up preference settings, and switching between different environments.
- Support for grouping clips into events
- Use star ratings instead of the old good/no good/maybe classification. (The old ratings are still available for backward compatibility: ‘No good’ maps to one star, ‘Maybe?’ to two stars and ‘Good’ to four stars, out of a maximum of five.)
- New commands in the Tools menu to import and export preference settings to an XML file
- Support for SRT subtitle files (ability to import directly, using Import As SRT command, or create event markers on an existing clip using Apply Log File)
- Internationalistion support
- Significant enhancements to Cache-A archiving option, including use of the Cache-A API to restore files, check the device status and query the catalog to report which tape a file is on
- Ability to burn in a watermark image (from a transparent PNG or GIF file) when creating proxies or exporting movies
- Building proxies now preserves the original movie aspect ratio
- Support JPEG previews for still images and other file types (a file with extension .jpg in the preview directory can be used as a proxy, including for files that CatDV couldn’t otherwise display)
- Improvements to the Update Media Location command (making it easier to update multiple clips in one go)
- Improvements to the Paste Metadata command
- New “contains keyword” query operator that won’t return spurious substring matches when querying a multi field
- By default the Reset View button clears any filters or grouping that’s in effect. Shift-click the button to reset the view layout to its default.
- Support reading P2 geotag information
- Support for P2 spanned clips (a single metaclip that contains all the P2 clips is created, and can be sent to Final Cut as a sequence)
- Support for XDCAM EX and HD metaclips (treating all the files that make up a clip as one file), including the ability to play XDCAM proxies with hi-res audio (may require a 3rd party codec such as Calibrated)
- FCP 7 XML improvements, including sending marker colours, updating bins, and importing filter parameters as metadata
- Ability to bulk delete catalogs on the server from the Browse Database window
- Improved keyboard shortcuts for movie playback control using the numeric keypad
- Renamed the media path fields to make them more consistent
- The plugin API now supports multiple plugins (any jar file in java.ext.dirs can be used, eg. C:Program FilesJavajre6libext, C:WindowsSunJavalibext, /Library/Java/Extensions, ~/Library/Java/Extensions)
- Ability to import an entire folder as a metaclip (from the file system tree)
- Use Shift-M to reposition start or end of an event marker
- CatDV’s preview movies are now referred to as proxy movies to bring them into line with common usage
- Many other minor fixes and improvements
Please note that some of these features are only available in the professional or networked editions or with a bolt-on option.