CatDV provides detailed information about virtually any kind of media file that you import into a catalog, including stills, audio files, and other formats, not just movies.
All the metadata (ie. information about the file, as opposed to the media content of the file itself) that CatDV reads from a file is extracted at the time of import and stored in the CatDV catalog. It is displayed in special properties against each clip, and is cached in the catalog so is available even if the media file is offline.
This information can be very useful when searching for clips, when grouping similar clips together, or when diagnosing problems with particular files. A wide variety of metadata fields are available, though which are shown depends on the type of file.
General metadata
The following properties are potentially applicable to any type of media file:
| Video | A summary of the format of the visual track, including the codec, frame size and frame rate. (If there are several video tracks the overall frame size of the movie is shown.) |
| Audio | A summary of the format of the audio track, including codec and sample rate. |
| Importer | Details of which QuickTime importer is used to read the file, ie. whether it’s a QuickTime .MOV file or another format that needs to be imported into QuickTime. |
| Format | A concise summary of the format, based on the Importer, Video and Audio fields. |
| QT Tracks | A list of all the tracks in the file, as reported by QuickTime. The 4 character type and subtype codes are shown, eg. “vide/jpeg” is a JPEG video track, while “soun/musi” is a MIDI music track. The size in pixels (Width x Height), the number of samples, and the duration of the track is shown. If a track has a name or is disabled this is indicated also. |
| Metadata | Any QuickTime user data or Windows Media metadata, such as movie title or copyright annotations, that might be stored in the file is shown here in concatenated form. This field also shows metadata such as JPEG comments, ID3 tags from MP3 files such as artist and track, and Exif tags. (See below). |
| Underlying Type | The clip type icon indicates whether a clip is a DV clip, a still, an audio clip, an interactive file (eg. Flash or QuickTime VR), or other movie. |
| Aspect Ratio | The aspect ratio of the visual frame. In the case of DV the intended display size (4:3 or 16:9) is shown, taking into account the non-square pixel size, even though this won’t match the ratio of the frame size. |
| Frame rate | The frame rate of the visual track, if known, or an indication if this file is a still. |
| Frame size | The normal display size of the movie in pixels, after any transformation matrix has been applied. (By contrast, the unscaled size of each track is shown in QT Tracks.) |
| Audio Rate | The audio sample rate (this is extracted from the Audio column and made available separately so it can be used for grouping). |
| Import Notes | If anything unusual about the file is detected, such as audio and video tracks that differ in length or don’t seem to relate correctly to the number of media samples, or if there are problems with the timecode, then a warning message may be displayed here. |
| Duration | The duration of the media file. The timecode format used depends on the file. |
| In (and Out) | If the file has a timecode track then the in and out points use this timecode information, otherwise each media file is assumed to start at 0:00:00 |
| Media path | The last known location on disk of the source media file. |
| Media date | The modification time of the source media file (typically the time the file was captured or digitized, as opposed to the original record date.) |
| Media size | The physical size of the source media file in kilobytes or MB. (This is the size of the media file as a whole, not the size for a particular scene.) |
| Data rate | The average data rate of the media. You can choose which units are used for displaying data rates in Preferences. |
DV metadata
The following fields have special meaning for DV clips:
| Aux T/C | Additional user-settable or time of day timecode supported by some cameras. (Professional Edition only) |
| DV T/C | The timecode value at the start of each clip as stored in the DV data itself (this may be different from the QuickTime timecode track). |
| Exposure | Camera exposure details recorded in the DV data at the time of recording by some camera models. |
| Format | A summary of the format, such as whether PAL or NTSC, widescreen or normal, and locked or unlocked audio. In the case of DV this field is based on the DV data itself, not on what QuickTime reports. For example, if a captured movie file has been conformed by rendering a new audio track then the Format field might report that the original recording was at 32kHz even though the Audio field reports that the movie has a 48kHz audio track. |
| Record Date | The original date and time of recording, stored in the DV data (assuming the clock on the camera was set correctly at the time of recroding). |
Exif metadata
The following fields have special meaning for JPEG and TIFF files with Exif metadata:
| Exposure | A summary of the Exif exposure details (if present). The EV (exposure value) number combines the aperture and exposure times and gives an approximate indication of the overall light intensity in the scene, assuming the shot was exposed correctly and the camera has equivalent sensitivity to ISO100 film. (Typically EV0 would correspond to almost complete darkness, while EV18 might be a pure white object in very bright sunshine.) |
| Metadata | This lists all the Exif tags commonly recorded by a digital camera, such as camera make and model, exposure time, whether flash was used, etc. combined into one field |
| GPS Coordinates | If the image contains geotag information it is extracted and indicated by a blue globe icon on the Summary tab of clip details. Clicking on the icon will display the location in Google Maps. |
| Record Date | If the Exif data has a DateTimeOriginal or CreationDate tag then this value is extracted and stored in the Rec Date field. |
Metadata columns
Depending on the files you import, all kinds of other metadata may be read and are stored in generic metadata columns. The possible field names are not predefined and new metadata columns may be added as required. They can include:
- Title, Album, Artist, AlbumArtist, Genre, Track and Year for MP3 and iTunes audio files.
- Name, Copyright, Producer, Software and similar annotations for QuickTime movies
- Make, Model, ExposureTime, ExposureProgram, FocalLength etc. for Exif images
- Title, Copyright, Information, Language for WMV or WMA files
- Manufacturer, Software, Camera Serial No., UMID (unique media id) for MXF files
- Additional user-defined metadata read from an XML sidecar files at the time of import
The “Metadata (media)” field shows all the QuickTime user data (and other textual annotations that’s read from a file) together in concatenated form in one field. As well as displaying the metadata fields in concatenated form, you can expand each metadata field as a separate column by checking the Enable metadata columns box in Preferences. You can then choose whether particular columns are shown or not, and also whether they are used for grouping. (This only affects how the columns are displayed, not how they’re stored, so these options are safe to change at any time.)
Metadata Field Name Table
The table below details the various metadata field available to you in CatDV
| Code | Name | Description | Type |
| ABIT | Audio Bits | Audio bit depth | PICKLIST |
| ACHN | Audio Channels | Number of audio tracks or channels | PICKLIST |
| AF | Audio | Audio format | PICKLIST |
| AF1 | Audio Summary | Audio format | PICKLIST |
| AR | Audio Rate | Audio sample rate | PICKLIST |
| ARCHS | Archive Summary | Has the media been archived to tape | PICKLIST |
| ARCHT | Archive Tape | Which tape has the media been archived to | PICKLIST |
| ARCHV | Archive Details | Has the media been archived to tape | TEXT |
| ASP | Aspect Ratio | Video playback aspect ratio | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| AX | Aux T/C | User-settable time of day timecode (DV only) | OTHER |
| BIG | Big Notes | Additional comments (not limited to 64K on server) | TEXT |
| BN | Bin | Bin or folder name | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| CAT | Catalog | Name of catalog containing clip | PICKLIST |
| CATID | Catalog ID | Unique database id of the catalog on server | OTHER |
| CGRP | Catalog Group | Which group owns the catalog | PICKLIST |
| CNT | Catalog Notes | Catalog comments | TEXT |
| CREF | Clip ID | Optional, user-defined clip id or reference (eg. FCP uuid) | TEXT |
| CUSR | Catalog Owner | Which user owns the catalog | PICKLIST |
| D1 | Duration | Length of clip | TIMECODE |
| D2 | Duration 2 | Duration of selection within clip | TIMECODE |
| DR | Data Rate | Average movie data rate (kbyte/sec) | OTHER |
| DT | DV T/C | DV timecode value | TIMECODE |
| DT0 | Date | Source date (record date or timestamp of source file) – date only | PICKLIST |
| DT1 | Date | Source date (record date or timestamp of source file) – date & time | DATE |
| DT2 | Month | Source date (record date or timestamp of source file) – month & year only | PICKLIST |
| EE | null | End of clip or selection, depending on export preference | OTHER |
| EM1 | Out (incl) | End of clip or selection using inclusive timecode numbering, ie. minus one | OTHER |
| EVD | Event Notes | Event description | TEXT |
| EVH | Event History | Event modification history | TEXT |
| EVM | Metadata (Event) | Concatenated list of event metadata fields | TEXT |
| EVN | Event Name | Event name | PICKLIST |
| EVT | Event Time | Start time of event | DATE |
| EXT | File Extension | Source media file name extension | PICKLIST |
| FF | Format | Summary of media format | PICKLIST |
| FLD | Media Folder | Source media file location (full path of parent folder) | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| FR | Frame Rate | Video frame rate | PICKLIST |
| FS | Frame Size | Video frame size | PICKLIST |
| GD | Good | Status (good/no good/maybe) | PICKLIST |
| HID | Hide | Is the clip normally hidden from view | BOOLEAN |
| HIS | Status History | Clip status history | TEXT |
| I1 | In | Timecode value at start of clip | TIMECODE |
| I2 | In 2 | Start of selection within clip | TIMECODE |
| ID1 | Import Date | Date clip was imported into catalog | PICKLIST |
| ID2 | Import Date | Date & time clip was imported into catalog | DATE |
| IO | In & Out | Clip In & Out points | OTHER |
| IO2 | Selection | Clip selection (In2 & Out2) | OTHER |
| IS1 | Import Source | Input source file the clip came from | PICKLIST |
| ISD | Metadata (File) | Concatenated list of file metadata fields | TEXT |
| LBL | Smart Label | Automatically calculated label for this clip | PICKLIST |
| LL | null | Length of clip or selection, depending on export preference | OTHER |
| MD1 | Modified | Date clip created or last modified by user | DATE |
| MD2 | Media Date | Source media file modification date | DATE |
| MF | Media Path | Source media file, as a complete path | TEXT |
| MF2 | Folder name | Media file parent folder, as a short name | PICKLIST |
| MI | Importer | Movie importer | PICKLIST |
| MK | Mark | Is the clip marked | BOOLEAN |
| MKHID | Mark | Combined marked & hidden checkboxes) | COMPOUND |
| MPX | Megapixels | Video frame size in megapixels | PICKLIST |
| MS | Media Size | Source media file size | OTHER |
| MTI | Media Start | Start timecode of the source media file | TIMECODE |
| MTO | Media Duration | Duration of the source media file | TIMECODE |
| NL | Name or Length | Name (for stills) or length (for movies) | TEXT |
| NM1 | Name | Clip name | TEXT |
| NM2 | Name (Long) | Long clip name, including tape or bin prefix | TEXT |
| NQT | Name or Tape | Name (for stills) or tape & timecode (for movies) | TEXT |
| NT | NOTES | Description or comments on the clip | TEXT |
| NT2 | Import Notes | Notes or warnings from importing the clip | TEXT |
| O1 | Out | Timecode value at end of clip | TIMECODE |
| O2 | Out 2 | End of selection within clip | TIMECODE |
| OR | Orientation | Image rotation | PICKLIST |
| OWNER | Clip Owner | Which user created the clip | PICKLIST |
| P1 | Poster | Default thumbnail for clip | THUMBNAIL |
| P2 | Poster Frame | Timecode value of poster frame | TIMECODE |
| P3 | Poster (Small) | Tiny version of poster icon | THUMBNAIL |
| P4 | Online | Icon indicating media is online | ICON |
| P5 | Online | Is the media (or a proxy) for the clip available online | PICKLIST |
| PF | Proxy File | Name of proxy movie file, if any | TEXT |
| QT | QT Tracks | Identifier code, frame size, sample count, and duration for each movie track | TEXT |
| RD1 | Record Date | Date & time of creation or shooting (eg. from DV or Exif data) | DATE |
| RD2 | GMT Date | Source date/original record date (corrected for GMT) | DATE |
| RD3 | Location Date | Source date/record date (corrected for shot location) | DATE |
| REEL | Barcode | Reel number or barcode number of the physical tape | TEXT |
| RID | Remote ID | Unique database id of this clip on the server | OTHER |
| RTG | Rating | Star rating (1=no good, 5=excellent) | PICKLIST |
| RTGTYP | Rating | Combined rating, type icon & geotag information) | COMPOUND |
| RZ | Randomizer | Used when shuffling clips in random order | OTHER |
| SD1 | Source Date | Modification date of input source file (date only) | OTHER |
| SD2 | Source Date | Modification date & time of input source file) | DATE |
| SIG | Media Signature | Unique signature of the clip’s media, based on tape, timecode, and/or file | TEXT |
| SL | Size or Length | Image size (for stills) or length (for movies) | OTHER |
| SM | Source Media | Source media file name | PICKLIST |
| SQ | Seq. Number | Sequence number of clip within EDL or project it was imported from | TEXT |
| SS | null | Start of clip or selection, depending on export preference | OTHER |
| ST | Status Code | S: selection made, G:good, ?: maybe, N: no good, blank: not reviewed | TEXT |
| STS | Status | Clip status | PICKLIST |
| TCEVT | Event Markers | List of timecode markers within the clip | TEXT |
| TCH | Total Characters | Total length of comment text, user fields and metadata | OTHER |
| TF | Time Base | Timecode format | PICKLIST |
| TM | Tape or Media | Tape or media file name (used as key to look up thumbnails and proxies) | TEXT |
| TP | Tape | Tape or reel name | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPASP | Aspect/Definition | Tape aspect ratio and definition | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPCOPY | Tape Copyright | Copyright of the tape | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPCREAT | Tape Created | When the tape record was created | DATE |
| TPD | Tape Description | Description of the whole tape’s contents | TEXT |
| TPDUR | Tape Duration | Tape duration | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPEVDT | Event Date | Event date of the tape | DATE |
| TPEVLOC | Event Location | Event location of the tape | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPFMT | Tape Format | Format of the physical tape | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPFMT2 | Tape Format | Physical tape format | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPHIST | Tape History | Who edited the tape record | TEXT |
| TPLANG | Tape Language | Language the tape is in | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPLOC | Tape Location | Shelf location of the physical tape | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPMODF | Tape Modified | When the tape record was last modified | DATE |
| TPN | Tape Notes | Notes about the physical tape | TEXT |
| TPP | Physical Tape | Same as Tape field unless tape has timecode breaks, in which case latter defines | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPPRGNM | Tape Programme | Programme name, series and number | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPPRGNO | Programme Number | Programme name, series and number | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPROJ | Tape Project | Project or department the physical tape relates to | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPSERIES | Programme Series | Programme name, series and number | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPSTAT | Tape Status | Tape status (eg. master or not) | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPSUBJ | Tape Subject | Tape subject | EXTENSIBLE PICKLIST |
| TPSUBTL | Tape Sub-title | Tape sub-title | TEXT |
| TPTITLE | Tape Title | Tape title | TEXT |
| TPVIDG | Tape Videographer | Videographer or shooter who originally recorded the tape | TEXT |
| TSZ | Thumbnail Size | Size of poster thumbnail | TEXT |
| TTI | Time To Import | Time taken to analyse file | OTHER |
| TX | Transition | Details of transition for clips imported from an EDL | TEXT |
| TY1 | Underlying Type | Old clip type (including DV start/end of scene indication) | PICKLIST |
| TY2 | Type | New clip type icon (including master/subclip & offline indication) | ICON |
| TY3 | Type | Old clip type icon (including DV start/end of scene indication) | ICON |
| TY4 | Type | New clip type (including master/subclip & offline indication) | PICKLIST |
| TYPGPS | Type | Combined clip type icon & geotag information) | COMPOUND |
| TZC | Clock Adjustment | Timezone that the camera clock was set to | PICKLIST |
| TZL | Location Timezone | Timezone of the shot location | PICKLIST |
| UD | Metadata (Media) | Concatenated list of QuickTime annotations and other media metadata fields | TEXT |
| UD2 | Metadata (User) | Concatenated list of all user-defined fields | TEXT |
| US | Used | How many sequences a source clip occurs in | PICKLIST |
| VF | Video | Video format | PICKLIST |
| XP | Exposure | DV or Exif camera exposure details | TEXT |