Getting started

Introduction

CatDV is a cross-platform media cataloging and video logging tool. The CatDV product family has several members, all sharing the same basic user interface but with different features:

• CatDV Professional Edition
• CatDV Professional Edition with Workgroup Server
• CatDV Enterprise Edition with Enterprise Server
• CatDV Pegasus Client

This reference guide describes all these versions. When there are differences these are indicated in the text.

Cataloging

CatDV will import and catalog media files and movies in most popular formats, including:

• still images (JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, PSD, DNG, RAW, DPX, CR2, etc.)
• audio formats (MP3, AIFF, AU, AAC, WAV, M4A, etc.)
• video formats (QuickTime MOV, MP4, WMV, AVI, MPEG, DV, MXF, etc.)

Media files are indexed with thumbnails, not just for the whole file but for each scene. Unlike many other cataloging applications, CatDV is aware of timecode and knows about scenes within a movie file, so as well as media files it will also import:

• video editing capture logs and projects (Final Cut Pro, Premiere, etc.)
• other interchange formats (edit decision lists, tab-separated text, XML, XMP/IPTC, etc.)

With the Professional Edition you can also import arbitrary files of any type into the catalog, not just media files but also related supporting files such as spreadsheets, Word documents or project files.

Although mostly obsolete now, CatDV also has tape-workflow capabilities; it helps you to keep track of which video clips are where on a tape (and which projects they are used in) by maintaining a catalog of clips. CatDV lets you organise digital camera images and MP3s as well as digital video, providing a common interface to locate and manage all your digital media.

Metadata

To make it easy to organise your media, each clip is annotated with metadata (ie. data about your media) that can be used for searching and sorting the catalog. This includes both technical metadata (such as file path, audio sample rate, video format, date and time of recording, or camera exposure details) which are extracted automatically from the media file, and annotations and log notes explicitly entered by the user (such as clip name, description, project, or clip status). Once extracted, this metadata is cached in a CatDV catalog file (or a central database if using the workgroup server), and therefore provides a permanent and instantly accessible record even if the original file is offline (eg. on removable media).

Logging and scene detection

To simplify logging the contents of a tape and creating a first rough draft of an edited program, CatDV supports automatic scene detection of captured footage, or allows users to create their own subclips. You can review each clip and enter a name and keywords describing the scene, rate it using a five-star system, and enter "in" and "out" points to select portions of interest within the clip. Use the Verbatim Logger to type in spoken dialog (perhaps to create subtitles) or other comments while a clip is playing.

Proxy files

Full-resolution video files are very large and it is often impractical to keep them all online at the same time. Even if the original files are online on your edit machine(s), they may be inaccessible to other machines on the network. CatDV will create low-resolution proxy movies (also known as "previews") to show the contents of clips when the original media files are off-line. You can do most of your work with the proxy files, then relink to the media based on file path when necessary.

Video editing

Although CatDV is not intended as a full editing application, you can create a simple composition or sequence by trimming and concatenating together clips of interest. All editing is non-destructive as CatDV deals with references to your media files.

Movie export

You can export clips or sequences as self-contained movies, or you can convert a movie using a different codec, for example to create a web movie, perhaps adding subtitles or a burnt-in timecode at the same time. You can batch convert multiple movies in one operation.

Tools

Several unique utility functions are provided, such as a convenient timecode calculator, or adding a burnt-in security camera-style date and time display. CatDV will analyse most media files and display detailed technical information about the file, including the format of individual tracks, frame durations, sample counts, and an analysis of dropped frames, helping you to diagnose capture and playback problems. You can also print catalogs, display them as HTML, and more.

Networked operation

Using the optional CatDV Server, backed by a powerful relational database engine, you can store clip details in a central shared database, accessible via the local area network, thereby allowing different members of a team to work together.

Installation and registration

System requirements

CatDV is available for both Macintosh and Windows. It includes Java and other software such as FFmpeg that it needs within the application itself, so there is no need to download other software separately.

Consult the release notes in the Read Me file for further details.

Updates

The latest version of CatDV is always available at http://www.squarebox.com/support/download/. You should check this site regularly for updates and bug fixes or subscribe to the CatDV announcements mailing list.

Normally minor bug fix updates are issued free of charge while a small upgrade fee is charged for major feature upgrades.

Purchasing CatDV

CatDV Pro works as a 30-day limited-functionality demo until you purchase a license, which you can do online. You will then be sent a registration code to unlock the full application. Enter the name and registration code in the Registration tab of Preferences. (The easiest way to do this is by copying both lines of your registration details and pressing the special Paste button.)

If required we can provide temporary license codes to give you full access to CatDV's features for your evaluation. For sales and registration enquiries please contact sales@squarebox.com; for technical support please contact support@squarebox.com. You can also use the web shortcuts in the CatDV Help menu.

Quick start guide

This page provides a quick overview of the main features of CatDV. Each feature is described in more detail by following the links. Use the "<" back button at the top of this window to return to this page.

Screen layout

• The main window in CatDV shows all the clips in a catalog or database of clips. Each clip represents either a complete media file or a scene within a movie file, and usually has a thumbnail image, as well as Name, Format, In and Out timecode values, and various other fields (also referred to as "attributes" or "properties").
• The toolbar at the top of the main window provides commands to import media into the catalog and to view and organise the clips in the catalog in different ways.
• The tree navigator lets you group clips in your catalog into virtual folders, and also provides shortcuts to key locations in your file system. The clip details panel is used to display and edit the selected clip. (To allow you to manage your screen space both the tree navigator and details panel can be turned on and off using the View menu.)
• Other windows may be displayed as required, for example to edit a sequence, play back a movie, or customise application settings.

Importing clips

• The quickest way to get started with CatDV is to use the Import Directory command (from the File menu) to import all the images and movies from a directory and build up a thumbnail catalog. You can also drag and drop files into the CatDV window. The files are analysed as they are imported and, in the case of movie files, a separate clip record for each scene within the movie may be created.
• CatDV can create and manage low-resolution proxy movies to represent each clip in your catalog. Specify the location and quality settings for proxies (formerly referred to as "previews") in Preferences, then use Build Proxy Movies to create preview versions of all your video clips. CatDV proxies are small enough to be kept permanently and are therefore available to show you the contents of your entire library even when the original media files are unavailble (perhaps they're on a removable USB or FireWire drive, you're working on your laptop away from your server, or you had to delete them to make space for the next project).
• CatDV has a large number of Preference settings that govern all aspects of its behaviour, such as the format for proxy files, search paths to locate media files, what clip properties to display, the behaviour when you double click a clip, and much more. Take the time to look through all the different preference panels to get a feel for what features are available.

Viewing clips

• You can view the catalog and organise your clips in many different ways, using commands in the View menu or toolbar buttons. For example, you can view clips as a spreadsheet-like list or as a grid of thumbnails only. You can also choose which particular columns (or clip properties) are shown by selecting a different view definition from the drop down.
• If you have many clips in your catalog you can navigate your clips by using the tree to automatically group related clips according to tape, subject, bin, etc. You can also sort or filter them as required.
• Type text into the quick search field to filter the window and only show those clips whose name or comments include the text you enter. (You can also create more complex queries by using the Find command.)
• The clip details panel provides full details of a clip and is used for logging your clips: you can enter a name or description, select a thumbnail frame, mark it as good or not, and enter other log notes. Under the movie tab you can play the clip and mark a selection within it, from which you can then create subclips.
• The Play Media command will play selected clip(s) in a separate window. You can play a slide show of still images or play movies full screen.
• Use the Media Information dialog to analyse a media file and display technical information about the format, such as a report of dropped frames or the codec used.
• You can re-earrange the order of clips by dragging and dropping them within the main window, or assemble a rough cut program by creating a sequence from them.

Outputting clips

Use CatDV's searching and filtering tools to find the clips you want to use. It doesn't matter whether you have only just captured and logged them or are searching a library of old stock footage. Once you have selected the clips you want or created a rough sequence, you can output them in various ways:

• Export the clips as a movie, converting them using any QuickTime-compatible codec, including MPEG-4, H.264, DV, etc., and optionally add timecode or text tracks, such as burnt-in date/time display or subtitles
• Export them as an EDL or batch list (or Final Cut XML format) to import into your video editing application.
• Print the clips out (as a thumbnail "storyboard" or "contact sheet")
• Export a standalone HTML index with thumbnails and a link to the media files. (You could use this to publish a storyboard of an edited program or to distribute a catalog of stock footage to clients, for example.)

Unlike some database applications such as iTunes, which save their data automatically in a hidden internal database location, CatDV uses an explicit 'document' metaphor for its catalogs. Once you have logged your clips you need to remember to save the catalog document to your computer's hard disk (or to the CatDV Server). On the other hand, you have the flexibility to organise these documents how you want (for example, you might create one catalog for each project you are working on, or you could email a catalog to a colleague).

Clips and catalogs

Managing catalogs

CatDV stores details about your clips (including any notes or keywords you enter and the clips' thumbnails) in a catalog:

• Use the New Catalog command to create an empty catalog window.
• Use the Open Catalog or Open Recent commands to open an existing catalog.
• Use Save As Catalog to choose a file location and save your catalog to disk.
• Use the Always create backup checkbox in Preferences to automatically make a backup copy of the catalog file when saving.
• Use Catalog Details (in the Edit menu) to enter a short description of the catalog.

Catalogs are normally saved in a file with extension .cdv. You can open more than one catalog at the same time and copy and paste clips between them. Catalogs are portable between Macintosh and Windows.

The trial version of CatDV will not normally let you save catalogs (or export or print data).

With the optional CatDV Server, CatDV users can store clips in a central shared database rather than in files on the local file system. Even then, however, CatDV still uses the concept of catalogs as a way to group related clips.

Regardless of whether you are using the single-user or the networked version of CatDV, to keep catalogs a manageable size it's a good idea to have a separate catalog for each project, rather than storing all your clips in one huge catalog. See managing multiple catalogs for hints on how to manage a large clip library.

Clips

All data within a CatDV catalog is held in the form of clips. There are different types of clip, such as still images, movie files, scenes within a movie, lines of an EDL or batch list, and so on.

Each clip has the following main properties (often referred to as fields when shown in a dialog, or as columns when the clips are shown in a table).

Some of these properties are editable while others are filled in automatically at the time of import. Depending on the type of the clip, some of these properties may not be relevant and are left blank.

Built-in clip properties

Additional properties that provide full details of the media file format that a clip was imported from are listed separately.

Making sense of property names

Some of these properties might appear more than once with similar names, for example where long and short forms of the same data are available. Or you might see two fields with the same name and quite different contents, or the same content in different fields!

There are several possible reasons for this apparent confusion. The important thing to remember is that the property name is just a label used to annotate the property on the screen. The label doesn't necessarily have to be unique:

• You can give user-defined fields any name you choose. These names could clash with a pre-defined property. It is also possible to rename the pre-defined properties in Preferences.
• When defining details panel layouts it is possible to customise the name of any field, including built-in properties.
• Certain metadata properties like Name or Date (read from iTunes metadata for example) might clash with a pre-defined property.
• If you import a media file then the Import Source, Source Media and Name fields will all show the same thing, ie. the media filename. On the other hand, if you import an EDL or Final Cut XML file these fields may all be different: Name is the name of a particular shot or scene, Source Media is the media filename for that clip, and Import Source is the name of the EDL or XML file you imported the data from.
• Some special fields like "Name or Tape" show different data for different types of clips and are designed to make most efficient use of available space in icon grid views, for example showing the file name for stills and the tape name and timecode for movie clips stored on a tape.

Use tool tip text (hover the mouse pointer over a field name) to display a short explanation of the field if you are unsure which property you are viewing. (You can also set the Show attribute IDs option in Preferences to automatically display a unique field identifier after each property.)

When choosing properties from a drop down (for example, when customising view layouts or performing a complex query) colour coding is used to indicate the type of field: green for built-in fields, red for user-defined fields, and blue for metadata fields. Also, a small icon indicates whether the field is a grouping field, a multi-grouping field, a plain text field, or a date or timecode field, and also whether it is editable or read-only.

Importing clips and movies

You can import clip data into a catalog from many different types of file.

The Automatic native importer will allow CatDV to import the majority of media file types, including still images, sound clips, and movies. For visual media a poster thumbnail is created, typically the first frame of the movie. If you select the Scene analysis Preferences options the movie is scanned as it is imported and separate secondary clips are created automatically for each scene within the movie. Importing files with the default automatic setting should work well in most cases but for troubleshooting you can manually import files with a specific importer, including:

• AVI/WAV files
• MPEG files (including program and transport streams)
• MP4 and QuickTime MOV files
• MXF files
• Windows Media Files, including WMV, ASF, and WMA files
• TIFF, JPEG and RAW image files

CatDV also has dedicated importers for certain batch and project files that contain a list of clips, such as CatDV XML Files. These batch importers include:

• CMX3600 edit decision lists
• CatDV XML v1 and v2 files
• Final Cut 7 XML, including imports from Adobe Premiere
• Final Cut X XML

CatDV also allows users to import Tab-Separated Text - clips defined in a tab-separated text file, one per line, which can be used if you have manually logged a tape using pencil and paper or a spreadsheet.

Various professional and additional formats, including MXF and RED media files and Avid AVB and AAF files, are only available in the Professional Edition or in the CatDV Pegasus Client.

Several options in Preferences control how movies are imported, for example which importers are used, how errors and inconsistencies are handled, and whether automatic scene detection is used to create a separate clip for each scene.

Use Import Directory to import all the recognised media files in an entire directory. If the appropriate Preferences option is set it will recursively scan the contents of any subdirectories. You can also drag and drop files or folders from the Macintosh Finder or Windows Explorer directly into a CatDV window to import them. If you use the tree navigator you can navigate to a folder in your file system then right click on the node and choose Import Into Catalog.

Use Scan For New Files to re-scan all the directories previously included in a catalog and import any new files that have been added since last time.

Using a specific importer

Sometimes several importers are able to import the same file and might give different results, for example you could use CatDV's own built in MPEG parser or try to open the file as a QuickTime movie.

In most cases CatDV will determine the file type automatically when you import a folder of files, but you can also use the Import As submenu to use a specific importer if required. If the file is already in the catalog you can use Re-Import As to import the file again using a different importer. In the Advanced media handling Preferences page you can enable or disable particular importers.

Exporting clips and movies

You can export clips from a CatDV catalog in various formats for use in other applications. Some of these commands export the media itself, while others export references to the media including metadata.

Select the clips you want to export from the main window and use one of the Export As commands:

• Export As Movie(s) - see below
• Export As Stills - see below
• Export as Tab-Separated Text - export all the columns from the current view as a plain text file, suitable for importing into a word processor or spreadsheet.
• Export as HTML - see below.
• Export as CMX 3600 EDL - export a CMX-format edit decision list. (This command works on sequences, not ordinary clips, so you might need to create a sequence from your selected clips first).
• Various additional formats are available in the Professional Edition.

Use the Export Clips Based On Selection checkbox in Preferences to select whether the whole clip (as defined by its "in" and "out" timecode values) or a selected portion within each clip (as defined by "in2" and "out2") is exported. (If a clip has no selection the whole clip is always used.)

Note that the trial version of CatDV will not normally let you export or print clip definitions.

Exporting Movies

You can export movies from CatDV in several formats, either from the original media (if currently online) or from CatDV's proxy versions if you have created them.

• Under 'Movie Format' choose which exporter to use and choose a preset, then use the Settings button to customise the codec and export settings. For most situations you should use the Advanced Exporter. (Note that with the move to 64-bit the old QuickTime Native exporter, which included support for creating QuickTime reference movies and use of third party QuickTime plugin codecs, is no longer available).
• Under 'Options' you can choose whether all the selected clips are combined into a single movie or exported as separate files. Check the Exact clip names option to use the clip Name as it is for the filename without appending an extension such as .mov (this simplifies attaching the media in Final Cut Pro). Checking the Use proxy if original unavailable option allows CatDV to export from the proxy file if it can't use the original file, and gives you the option to force CatDV to use the proxy file even if the original is available. You can export the whole of each clip or a selection within it.
• Use Re-import resulting file as a new asset when working with mezzanine clips (converting different files to a consistent standard format)
• After pressing the Settings button, under 'Export As' choose the basic container format such as MP4, QuickTime MOV, or MXF that you want to use. You can then choose the video and audio codecs, resolution, frame rate and quality settings.
• Under the Visible Overlay section you can add burnt-in timecodes or a burnt in message such as a copyright notice. You can also burn in a watermark image such as a station logo by specifying a transpartent GIF or PNG image to overlay. The image you provide is scaled to fill the frame so would normally be mostly transparent with a logo in one corner.
• The Advanced Exporter automatically splits the transcode up into segments and then concatenates them as required, which means it can transcode complex sequences, including a mix of formats. It can prepend a title slate to the exported movie, and can also burn in varying text from event markers (for example subtitles).
• The FFMpeg Exporter has a Passthrough option to write out a subclip or subclip as a new file without re-encoding the media.
• If you are on Macintosh the Advanced Exporter can create official Apple ProRes movies, including ProRes 4444 XQ.

Exporting stills

With the Export As Stills command you can create JPEG still images from the poster frame (or other specified frames) of each movie clip. In the case of still image clips you can export a scaled version of the image.

Normally the poster frame of each clip is exported but in the Professional edition you can choose additional frames to export, such as all thumbnail frames, all event markers, or all markers of a particular category. Use the "HTML Thumbnails" option to export high resolution versions of the thumbnails used when exporting an HTML page, named consistently with the way that the Export As HTML command does it. To simplify emailing images, by default the exported images are scaled down to smaller size, and a whole set of images can be combined into a single convenient ZIP archive.

When exporting a single image you can choose the filename yourself but when exporting multiple images you just specify the directory in which to place the images and the files will be named automatically.

HTML Export

You can export selected clips and their poster thumbnails as a simple HTML catalog. A single index page containing all the selected clips is output, to a file location that you specify.

You can choose which columns to list on an index page and whether to include a separate detail page for each clip or not. You can also add a custom footer to each page.

(The Export As Still command, described above, provides another way to create an HTML index of selected clips and images when you choose the ZIP archive option.)

Note that pages exported from within CatDV form a static snapshot of the catalog at the time of the export. With the CatDV Server and optional CatDV Web Client component you can make similar information available as a dynamic view of the current contents of the central database. The Web Client web interface also provides dynamic searching capabilities.

Basic operation

Views

CatDV's main application window displays a list of clips. These can be displayed in one of three main ways:

• List view - a spreadsheet-like table, one row per clip, with a choice of which columns are displayed.
• Film strip view - where each movie clip is shown on one line as a sequence of thumbnails.
• Grid view - a two-dimensional grid of clips, each shown with its poster thumbnail.

Click on the List, Film Strip or Grid toolbar buttons to select the next view of that type. You can have different views of each basic type (eg. with different columns shown, or different thumbnail sizes), and select a particular named view from the drop down list - see Customising views for more details.

Main window

When using the main window you can:

• Apply filtering or grouping to limit the display to particular clips of interest.
• Have more than one window open on the same catalog with the New view command. Changes you make in one window will be reflected in the other but you can change the layout of each as required.
• Select one or more clips with the mouse then right click (control-click on the Macintosh) to display a popup menu of operations applicable to the selected clip(s).
• Display details of the selected clip and play media for the clip either in the details panel at the top of the main window or in a separate window
• You can open the media file by launching it in its default application.
• Press Reset View to restore the window to its default state and show all the clips in the current catalog, with no filtering or grouping applied and the tree navigator and details panel showing.

To display a given clip in a separate window use the appropriate toolbar button or menu command, or double click on the clip. (You can configure the double click action in Preferences, or hold down the control key while you double click for an alternate action.)

See also: Tree navigator, Quick start guide, Summary mode

List views

In a list view you can change the order or width of the columns by dragging the column headers. Press Cmd/Ctrl-\ (or use the Adjust column widths command) to automatically set the column widths. These changes are temporary unless you save the view definition.

You can edit values directly in a list view by checking the Allow cell editing option in Preferences.

Sorting clips

Clips have both a 'natural' order within the catalog (usually the order they were imported in) and a 'display' order within the current window.

• Click on a column header (when in a list view) or use the Order By menu to change the order that clips are displayed in.
• Use Random shuffle to randomize the display order (eg. for a slide show).
• Use Reverse to reverse the display order of clips.
• Use Make clip order permanent to rearrange clips in the catalog according to their current display order.
• Drag and drop selected clips within the window to manually rearrange their order in the catalog.

Clip details panel

Use the clip details panel at the tope of the main window to view a selected clip. This includes playing the movie, viewing all the properties of the clip, and entering your own log notes.

You can show or hide the clip details panel by toggling the clip details toolbar button or using the View menu. You can also choose whether to split the panel and move the fields list to the right of the window by selecting Detached Details.

In earlier versions of CatDV the functionality of the details panel was provided in a separate window by the old details dialog. This is still available, if you enable the old-style details dialog in Preferences, though in most cases the new clip details panel has greatly improved functionality.

Viewing media

There are three panels that show the different media representations available for a clip: thumbnail images, the original movie, or a low-resolution proxy movie.

• Under the Thumbnails tab you can select a different poster for the clip from among the available thumbnails or delete unwanted thumbnails.
• Under the Movie tab you can play the media for the movie (if it's available online), mark In and Out points (or jump to previously set In and Out points), and create a new poster thumbnail from the current frame.
• The Proxy tab is similar to the Movie tab but plays the proxy movie (previously referred to as a "preview" movie) rather than original media.
• If the clip represents an audio clip or still image the name of the tab changes accordingly.
• Use the Avoid pre-loading movie in media panel option in Preferences if you don't want to automatically open the movie file as soon as you edit a clip's details (for example, if opening the movie takes a long time).
• If the movie or proxy tab has keyboard focus the tab label is shown with a darker background and you can use the keyboard to control movie playback, mark in and out points, and more. Click on the tab if necessary to give it focus.

Movie controller

When you play a movie (using either the clip details panel or the standalone media dialog) the following controls are available:

• Use the space bar or click on the 'play' icon to play (or pause) a movie.
• The current playhead (time position within the movie) is show by a red line. Click on the timeline to jump to another point in the movie.
• The timecode of the current frame is shown in red. The duration of the clip or selection is also shown (in blue) but only if there's enough room. Click on the timecode field to jump to a particular timecode value.
• Slide the in and out point markers to make a selection within the movie, or press the 'I' and 'O' keyboard shortcuts. Many other keyboard shortcuts are available also (hover the mouse over the controller buttons to display tool tip text to see which functions are available, or see the description of the media dialog).
• You can play movies using codecs provided either by QuickTime or other media framework. A letter such as 'Q' shows which playback component is being used. Clicking on this button opens the Media Playback tab in Preferences where you can choose whether to use QuickTime or JMF and other options that affect how movies are opened.
• When you play a QuickTime movie that has multiple audio tracks an audio icon appears. Click on this to choose which audio tracks to enable. Shift-click on a track to "solo" that track (disable all tracks apart from that one). If you make any changes from the default the icon changes to red to indicate a special setting is in effect.
• If a clip contains timecode event markers these are indicated in the movie controller timeline. Use the keyboard Up and Down arrows to jump to the next event in the timeline.

Viewing and editing clip details

The Summary, Log Notes and Technical tabs display the various properties of the clip selected in the main window.

• Some fields may be read-only while others can be edited by clicking on them.
• If the value of the field is too big to fit comfortably on the display try double clicking on the field label to display the value in a separate window.
• Select multiple clips and edit a value to apply the change to many clips at a time. The name field changes to say how many clips are selected. (Another way of applying a change to multiple clips in one go is with the Bulk Edit command.)
• The Other tab provides an alphabetical listing of all available clip properties.
• In the Professional Edition you can customise the layout of the details panel.

Logging menu

Use commands in the Logging menu to navigate within the clip details window, move to other clips, and perform logging.

• Move up or down through the list of clips in the main window using Cmd/Ctrl-Up/Down.
• After marking In and Out points create a New Subclip from the selection.
• Split the current clip in two at the current play head position with Split Clip.
• Review the transition between the previous clip and this one (ie. play the last few seconds of one and the first few seconds of this clip). This allows you to check whether they should be two separate clips or one.
• If you want to combine them into one you can merge this clip into the previous one.
• Use Toggle Subclip Limits to expand a subclip so you can view the entire source media file. The old subclip limits are stored as a selection in In2/Out2, so you can turn the clip back to a subclip again.
• Use the Find Master/Subclip command to search for other clips in the catalog which refer to the same media, ie. to move between a master clip and its subclips.

Markers

In the Professional Edition you can create timecode markers to flag particular events of interest within a clip without having to create subclips for each event. Timecode event markers can also have a range and be assigned to particular categories, for example "highlights" or "bad language".

Defining marker categories

Under the Field Definitions section of Preferences, press the Marker Categories button to define your own event marker categories. Click '+' to define a new category or '-' to remove the selected category.

Marker categories have a name, a type, and can be assigned a colour which is used when displaying the marker in the Movie Controller. The following types are available:

Event marker

a single timecode value within the clip is flagged

Range marker

the marker has a start timecode and a duration and can be used to flag portions of a clip, eg. for "bad language".

Chapter marker

chapter markers are a special type of range marker and divide the clip into sections. When you insert a chapter marker the duration is automatically set to take it up to the next chapter mark.

Creating and using timecode markers

You create and edit event markers using the movie controller:

• Use the 'flag' button (under the Movie or Proxy tab) to create an event marker for the current timecode value. (You can also use the 'm' keyboard shortcut if the player has keyboard focus.)
• If you have defined marker categories in Preferences you can choose the category from the drop down list. You can also create basic single event markers without needing to define any categories.
• For event and chapter markers the current playhead timecode is used. For range marker you need to make a selection in the clip using the 'i' and 'o' keys first.
• Once you have created some markers a drop down underneath the movie controller lists all the markers for a clip. You can jump to that point in the movie by selecting it from the drop down.
• You can edit an existing marker by holding down Shift when you press the 'm' key, or by double clicking a row in the Event Markers table. When editing a marker you can change the name or category, and you can also move the marker by dragging the playhead in the movie controller. (If you have already moved the playhead to where you want to move the marker to, hold down the Shift key while selecting a marker from the drop down: instead of moving the playhead it will update the marker instead.)
• To delete a marker, click the Delete button in the edit marker dialog. You can delete multiple markers in one go by selecting them in the Event Markers table (under the Summary tab) and using the Clear Event Marker(s) command in the Logging menu.

Markers panel

Using the new Markers tab in the Details panel (enabled by checking the relevant tick box in Preference > Customise Details Panel) you can use the toolbar controls and click on the "hamburger" menu (with three horizontal bars) to:

• customise which columns are shown for each marker
• show custom marker columns (as defined using the CatDV Enterprise server web interface)
• filter markers to only show markers of a particular category, or matching selected keywords
• switch between fixed row heights or automatically flowing, multiline rows
• highlight which markers searched for text appears in.

Other features

• As well as the drop down in the movie controller, you can use the Event Markers table as a convenient way to see all the markers in one go, complete with their thumbnails and descriptions. (The Event Markers table is normally under the Summary tab unless you have customised the layout of the details panel.)
• Click on the play button in the Event Markers table to play the movie from the start of the marker
• You can convert to and fro between subclips and event markers using the Logging > Convert To Subclips or Edit > Merge commands respectively.
• You can import and export event markers from QuickTime movie chapter markers, and from Final Cut Pro projects via FCP XML.
• When you export a movie you can add burnt-in text from event markers as a simple way of creating subtitles.
• Using Export As Stills you can export each event marker as a still image
• You can also create event markers using the Verbatim Logger and using automatic scene detection.
• You can copy and paste event markers from one clip to another (if they have the same timecode, for example multi-camera shoots with time of day timecode) by right-clicking on the header bar of the Event Markers table to display popup menu commands to copy and paste the markers. You can also use the Paste Metadata command.

Tree navigator

The tree navigator is shown on the left of the main window and provides a convenient way to organise the clips in a catalog, to browse files on the file system, and access other functions such as the contents of the CatDV server.

You can show or hide the tree navigator using the toolbar button or menu command.

Catalog node

The Catalog node represents all the clips in the current catalog.

• If you are tempoarily viewing something else in the main window (for example, a catalog on the server), click on the catalog node to go back to the current catalog.
• Click on All clips to reset any filters and view all the clips in the catalog.
• Drag files or clips from another view onto the Catalog node to import them into the catalog.
• The Sequences node provides a convenient way to access any sequences in your catalog.
• Drag clips onto the Sequence node to create a new sequence.
• If the catalog contains metaclips or image sequences these are shown in the tree. Clicking on the metaclip allows you to see the constituent files inside it.
• If the catalog includes events these are show in the tree.

Smart folders

The Filters node provides some convenient ways of filtering the current view so you only see the clips you are interested in. If you create named filters these appear as Smart Folders. Clicking on a smart folder automatically applies that filter.

Automatic filters

Using Automatic Filters you can quickly organise the clips according to any clip property, for example grouping by date, by file format, by tape, or by bin. You can think of grouping as providing dynamic "virtual folders":

• Drill down to find the clip property by which you want to arrange your clips. Expand this node (for example, Date or Bin or Media Path) to list individual grouping values, then click on the value to show the corresponding clips.
• For editable properties you can drag clips onto another node to change the value.
• You can combine the tree navigator with the grouping panel for two levels of grouping, for example by media path and then by format.
• Select multiple grouping values in the tree (by holding down the Cmd or Ctrl/Shift modifier when you click on nodes) to combine the filters.

Server node

If you use the CatDV Server use the Server node to quickly browse clips on the server without opening up a remote catalog in a new window.

• You can browse the entire database by catalog.
• Catalogs can be organised into folders. Right click on the tree node to add a new folder.
• Quickly perform a custom query by defining named queries under the Smart Folders.
• Right click on a node and click Open For Editing to edit a catalog.

If you use the Enterprise Server additional features are available:

• Use the tree navigator to load preference settings according to which project or production you are working on
• Create and view shared group documents which are stored on the server (the "production blog").
• Create Shared smart folders where the queries are stored on the server so they're available to everyone in the production group
• Create named Clip Lists containing an explicit list of clips of interest. Drag clips onto the clip list node to add them to the list.
• Use Browse All Clips to show thoe most recent clips on the server. Use the Quick Search box in the tool bar to narrow the search until you see the clips you want.

File system node

The file system mode provides access to your file system from within CatDV without having to switch to the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer.

You can browse directory contents using CatDV's media analysis features without having to import them into a catalog. You can also perform common media file management operations straight from the tree navigator, for example drag and drop to move or import files.

• Drives and network volumes, as well as your home directory and desktop are shown.
• Create additional shortcuts to your favourite locations by dragging a directory onto the main File System node.
• Double click a node to analyse the media files in the folder and display the whole folder as thumbnails or a filmstrip.
• Click on a file to play it in the clip details panel (unless you have the Avoid pre-loading movie Preference option set)
• Directories which have already been analysed (and whose contents are therefore cached for quick access) are shown in bold.
• Right click on a directory to show options such as delete or rename directory, to import it into the catalog using a specific importer, to search for a file by name, and more.

Under Mac OS X, click on a directory in the tree and type your search terms into the quick search box to perform a Spotlight search within that folder, for example to find all files of a particular type wherever they are on your hard disk. You can view thumbnails for the search results, sort them in various ways, and import selected results into your catalog.

Final Cut X libraries

The Final Cut node lists your recently used Final Cut Pro libraries and events. You can drag and drop clips and sequences from CatDV to Final Cut Pro X by dragging onto one of these nodes. This will save a temporary FCP XML file and tell Final Cut Pro to import the file.

Note that if you drag a clip straight to the Final Cut application window, whether from CatDV or the Finder, it is sent over as a file reference to the complete media file. Using XML and the Final Cut tree node is much more powerful however, as you can send subclips, log notes and sequences from CatDV to Final Cut and all the metadata is preserved.

Temporary views

When you use the tree navigator to view the contents of the file system, a catalog on the server, or the contents of a Final Cut project you are temporarily replacing the window's view on the current catalog with temporary clips. It is important to note that these temporary clips are not part of the current catalog and won't be saved when you save the catalog.

Because changes to a temporary view aren't saved in the catalog the clip details panel won't let you edit or add log notes to a temporary clip. Additionally, the background colour of the clips changes to a shade of red to remind you when you are in a temporary view.

It is easy to add temporary clips to the current catalog however. Simply drag and drop them onto the catalog node (or right click and select Import To Catalog). Once you do this they become normal clips that you can edit and save with the rest of the catalog.

Scratch Pad

The clip Scratch Pad is a holding area where you can drag clips of interest to save them temporarily, for example to build up a result set of clips from multiple catalogs or queries. Drag clips to the Scratch Pad node to save them, or drag them into a normal catalog window (or onto the Catalogs node) to add them to a normal catalog. Clips are stored in memory in the Scratch Pad as long as the CatDV application is open, even if you have closed the catalalog they came from.

If you prefer, you can use View > Scratch Pad to access the scratch pad via a new tab in the clip details panel rather than the tree navigator.

Customising views

Use the Customise Views command to create your own view definitions, containing just those columns (or clip properties) that you are interested in:

• Select an existing view to edit, or define a new view. (Views that you have customised are shown in italics.)
• When editing a view first select the basic type (film strip, list, grid, or icon only) then select the thumbnail size for the view and add the columns you want to show.
• Add as many columns as you like (though some views only have room to show a limited number of columns - if you ask for too many those columns that don't fit are greyed out).
• Rearrange their order by dragging and dropping columns in the right hand list or using the move up and down buttons.
• If the same column name appears more than once (see making sense of property names), click on the name and use the description to distinguish them (eg. long and short versions of a file name).
• Press 'Apply' to preview a view definition (without overwriting the previous saved definition).
• Press 'Ok' to save the view definitions so they are available in other windows and when you next launch the application.
• You may need to enable metadata columns via preferences if you don't see the values you want as separate fields.

Adjust column widths

Use the Adjust Column Widths command to automatically adjust the width of columns in a list view according to the data being displayed in them. You can also adjust column widths manually by dragging on the column divider line in the header row.

You can also rearrange the order of columns graphically by dragging the column header. However, you need to use the Customise Views command to add or remove columns.

If you make changes to the column widths then bring up the Customise Views dialog you are asked whether to import the current column widths into the view definition. You can then save the view definition including the column widths. Alternatively, use the Save Column Widths command. (If you do not save the column widths in this way then they will only apply as long as the current window is open.)

Customise details panel

In the Professional Edition you can customise which fields are shown in the clip details panel using the Customise Details Panel command. You can:

• Create additional tab panels, either copies of existing ones or entirely new.
• Choose which fields are included on each panel.
• Choose whether long fields span both columns and whether fields are hidden if they are blank.
• If you want a large, multi-line field to expand and fill the available space (eg. for the Notes or Event Markers field) add it as the last field on that tab.
• Turn the predefined "HTML Summary" and "Other" tabs on or off.
• Create your own HTML-basd tabs by defing a tab with the fields you want in it and checking the HTML option.

You can define different panels and choose which ones are visible at any time by checking or unchecking the visible flag. For example, different panels may make sense depending on which kind of asset you are working on.

Workspace configurations

Using workspaces you can quickly switch between different window layouts for different workflow tasks. The following workspaces are predefined:

• Ingest - allows you to import files to analyse and catalog them
• Log - designed for tagging clips with log notes, creating event markers, and using the Verbatim Logger
• Browse - browse and search existing catalogs using automatic grouping and filtering
• Create - select clips of interest and assemble them into a simple cuts-only sequence or shot list, then export them to various NLEs.
• Advanced - provide access to the "classic" toolbar familiar from earlier versions of CatDV

Workspaces can be customised as required. When configuring a workspace you can control:

• Which view definition is shown by default
• Whether the tree navigator is shown by default, and which sections and nodes of the tree are shown
• Which buttons, and other controls such as the quick filter field or drop down list of views, are shown in the toolbar
• The appearance of the tree (using sections or split panes or a single flat tree) and toolbar (whether labels are shown, and whether the workspaces are shown as buttons or in a drop down)
• Whether the clip details panel is shown (either with the media panel above the main window, or detached from the media panel and placed to the right of the window)
• Which details panel tabs are shown
• Which of the available workspaces are shown as shortcuts in the toolbar (note that they all appear in the View > Workspace menu)
• It is also possible to override other regular preference settings such as which menu commands appear, whether deleting and editing of clips is allowed, and so on

You can edit the predefined workspaces or create new ones by using the View > Workspace > Edit command, but note that configuring workspaces is a specialised task that will normally be done by a systems integrator or workflow consultant when installing a system. Workspaces are defined using a simple text-based configuration script. In the workset editor press the 'Help' button to get a brief summary of the syntax, or press 'Defaults' to revert to the built-in predefined workspaces. If you don't want to use workspaces at all, simply delete all the workspace definitions and press OK. You can also choose the 'None' workspace if you don't want to override anything and just use normal settings from your preferences.

When you load a workspace all the settings specified in that workspace configuration are applied, to change the view and tree layout for example. Other settings which aren't specified by the workspace configuration continue to have their normal value as specified in the preferences dialog.

If you change one of these settings (for example, you decide you want to see the clip details panel even though the workspace you are using turns it off by default) then the value you have changed is remembered for the duration of the current session only. As soon as you quit and relaunch the application, or if you use the View > Workspace > Reload Rules command, then the workspace will revert to its default settings. This allows you to quickly change your view layout without messing up your stored workspace configurations.

To permanently change the configuration you need to explicitly use the workspace editor and then save your preferences. (It is also possible to configure a workspace with the LockSettings option, preventing any temporary changes from being made.)

User-defined fields

In the Professional edition you can have an unlimited number of user-defined logging fields. In Preferences you can give each user-defined field a name and specify its type:

Field types

The following types of field are available for user-defined columns and media metadata fields:

Don't Show

User-defined field values are stored by their index number so once allocated it isn't possible to delete a field and "shift the others up" as that would change the index numbers. Instead, you can mark unwanted fields so they are skipped and not shown. You can also mark metadata fields not be shown.

Plain Text

A free format plain text field. You can indicate whether this is intended for a single line or multiline text, though you can override this when adding the field to a custom panel layout.

Multiline Text

As above but normally shown in a scrolling multi line text area.

Grouping (Picklist)

A drop down pick list of values. The values are defined on the Pick Lists section of Preferences. Normally only a predefined value from the list can be chosen, unless the field is marked as extensible. Grouping fields can be used to quickly filter clips in the main window using the tree navigator or grouping panel.

Multi Grouping

Similar to Grouping fields, except that the clip can be tagged with any number of values from a list, for example a list of keywords. When tagging a clip, start typing in the field to display the first matching keyword, then use the Up and Down arrows to view other matches. Press ';' to start a new keyword, or click on the '*' button to display a chooser dialog.

Augo-suggest

Very similar to a grouping field with a drop down list of predefined values but you can start typing and the system will filter the choices based on what you type

Multi Auto-suggest

Like a multi grouping field with filtering capability.

Hierarchy

This is like a drop down pick list but where the available values are organised in a tree to make it easier to organise a large number of options (for example: continent/country/state/city) or when working with a structured vocabulary. Values are defined in the Pick Lists section, using '/' to separate the components.

Multi Hierarchy

A combination of functionality from the Hiearchy and Multi Grouping fields.

Linked Hierarchy

This allows you to link two pick lists, so the values shown in one depend on the value picked in another. You can the field id or name of the field it depends on in the parameter field. For example, if you had a grouping field called "Team" containing values TeamA, TeamB etc. then you could create a linked hierarchy field called "Player, "Team" in the parameters area, and with pick list values such as TeamA/Player1, TeamA/Player2, TeamB/Player3.

Linked Multi Hierarchy

A linked hierarchy field where you can select multiple values.

Checkbox

A single true/false checkbox. You can add an optional label for the checkbox in the parameters field, for example you might have a field called "Widescreen" with a label of "Anamorphic".

Multi Checkbox

Provides multi-grouping where the list of values is very small and can be displayed as checkboxes. The values are defined within the parameters area, one per line.

Radio Button

Similar to a Grouping field but where the number of options is small and can be specified within the parameters area (as for Multi Checkbox fields).

Select Buttons

Similar to radio buttons but where the options are defined in the pick lists section and appear as plain push buttons. In the parameters area you can specify the colour of the buttons.

Multi-Select Buttons

Similar to multi checkboxes but where the options are defined in the pick lists section and appear as plain push buttons. Just like single select buttons you can specify the colour of the buttons.

Date

Accepts a date or a date-time value. The format of the dates is specified in the General tab of Preferences (hover the mouse over the field to see tool tip help that shows an example of the format that it is expecting). You can also type in a date in ISO format, eg. "2016-12-31 23:59:59".

Time

Accepts either a time of day or a timestamp value, eg. "12:30:05" or "0:05:00;00".

Number

Accepts any numeric input, eg. "100" or "-17.5"

Identifier

Accepts an upper case alphanumeric identifier up to 32 characters, for example a project code number. Period, hyphen and underscore characters are permitted but other spaces and punctuation are removed.

No Punctuation

Accepts up to 80 alphanumeric characters plus space, hyphen and underscore. This is designed for entering short names or phrases that could be used when building a filename so punctuation and other illegal characters that can cause problems in filenames like period, asterisk, quotes, parentheses etc. are all excluded.

Regex Validated

For full control over what data can be entered in a formatted text field you can specify a regular expression in the parameters area. For example, "[A-Z][0-9]{3}" would only accept an upper case letter followed by 3 digits, eg. "A123" or "C999" and reject other values.

HTML Text

This is a special field that is not editable by the user but is used for displaying HTML formatted text that might have been stored in that field by a server plugin or worker script.

Calculated Field

If you create a user defined field of type 'Variable Expression' then this will result in a special kind of field where you can't directly type in a value but where the value is calculated dynamically based on other clip fields. The value is calculated when the clip is first loaded, or whenever the clip is modified.

When configuring the field you can enter a CatDV Worker Node-style expression including regular expressions or use JavaScript. If the resulting value is of the form #rrggbb:xxx then it is interpreted as a hex color value. This provides another mechanism to achieve similar results to smart labels, and also to combine the results from a number of different fields into one. For example:

  ${MF}{s,^/Volumes/([^/]+)/.*,$1,s,^/.*,,}

  js:clip.rating>=3 ? "#00FF00:Pass" : "#FF0000:Fail"

  javascript:($('P5').startsWith("Online") ? "#00FF00:" : "#FF0000:") + $('P5')

  javascript:($('U5')=='Approved' ? "#00FF00:" : $('U5')=='Rejected' ? 
      "#FF0000:" : "#0080FF:") + $('U5')

  javascript:$('@Model') || $('@ModelName') || $('@CameraModel')
  
  js:media['Model'] || media['ModelName'] || Media['CameraModel']

JSON-Formatted

For certain advanced workflows (e.g. using the Worker Node, server plugins, and Pegasus client) some fields might store read-only JSON-formatted data. You can display these using an HTML template such as

	<table>
	  <tr><th>Code</th><th>Description</th></tr>
		<%for(item:list)%>
			<tr><td>${item.code}</td><td>${item.desc}</td></tr>
		<%endfor%>
	</table>

Object Link

If you use Pegasus Server you can have a special kind of field that links to a custom object. This feature is not currently supported in the desktop client.

Multi Object Links

As above but linking to multiple objects.

Please note that writing regular expressions and variable expressions, creating custom objects, and writing server plug ins to set HTML fields etc. are all very advanced topics designed for use by systems integrators or the Square Box Systems professional services team. A variable expression tester is available to help you test your calculated fields.

User and metadata fields

User-defined fields apply to clips and are commonly used to enter logging information, or to trigger Worker Node actions. They are commonly referred to by user field index, for example in worker scripts. If you use Server 7.1 there is a single "All Fields" field set that ensures user field indices are consistent across different production groups, but you can still control which user fields are visible in particular production groups by assigning them to a particular field group and setting visibility of that field group. Fields which are not visible in the current production group will be omitted or shown as "----". To set up field groups and field visibility (based on production group or user role) use the administration pages in the web interface. You can also remap the user field indices from within the web interface if necessary.

Media metadata fields apply to source media files and are normally created automatically when a file is imported to store technical metadata that is harvested from the file (for example, Exif metadata from still images, or XMP metadata from Adobe files). You can also create them manually if required, and can change the type and display label of existing metadata fields, just as you can with user-defined fields. You can also mark low level technical fields that you no interest in as "Don't show", so they hidden from display. An easy way to do this is to select the fields to hide and press the Delete key. You will be given the option whether to delete the field definition (but be aware that it might be added again automatically if it is encountered when importing a media file) or to mark is as being hidden.

Field definition sets

If you are using the CatDV Enterprise Server then you will be familiar with saving different preference settings to the server for each production group, so that all the users in that group automatically load the group settings when they log on and share the same field definitions, view and panel layouts, and other settings. If you want several different production groups (and the worker node) to share the same field definitions you can create a named field definition / config set and then choose which config set each production group should use. The field config set also stores other settings such as pick list values, marker categories, Final Cut 7 field mappings, and customised names for built-in fields.

If you use Server 7.1 (and leave the "Use Server 7 field definitions" option checked in Preferences) then field definitions are directly loaded from and saved to the server using the new server 7 metadata API. Field config sets are only used for other settings, and this is the recommended way of working. If you use Server 6 then fields definitions are loaded and saved via a named field definition set and you need to press the Edit button to explicitly edit this and ensure you have the latest version of the field set before making changes.

Pick lists

Fields of type grouping, multi-grouping, and hierarchy take values from restricted list of values. You can edit these via the Pick Lists button, or using the administration web interface.

Event details

Events provide a new mechanism for grouping related clips together. Often, there will be several clips that relate to the same occasion (for example, a particular interview or location, or an event such as a party). CatDV already provides a number of existing mechanisms for linking these clips, such as storing the media files in the same folder or assigning them a common bin name or user-defined grouping field value, but most of these mechanisms involve duplicating the description of the event in each field. With events the description is stored in the event itself. All the clips link to that event so the description is shared.

Assigning clips to events

You can create events and assign clips to them by selecting the clips to modify and using the Tools > Assign To Event command.

Several options are available. The simplest is to create a single new event, and assign all the selected clips to that event. You can also create and assign events automatically by looking at either the Bin name or Record Date fields of the clip (or both). Whenever the Bin changes, or the date of the clip differs by more than a specified interval from the previous clip (4 hours by default), a new event is created. You can also choose to assign clips to the closest existing event (if any) without creating new events.

Once events have been created they are stored in the catalog, whether or not any clips belong to that event. All the events in the catalog are listed in the tree navigator. As well as using the Assign To Events command you can drag clips on to an event in the tree to assign it to that event.

Editing events

Right click on an event in the tree to edit the event details. An event has a name, notes describing the event, and (in most cases) a date range which that event spans. You can also add custom metadata fields to the event by clicking the '+' button.

Using the tree you can merge two or more events into one. To do this, command- or shift-click the events in the tree to make a multiple selection, then right click and choose the Merge Selected Events command.

The Clean Unused Events will delete any events which don't currently have clips assigned to them. You can also manually Delete Events. (Deleting an event doesn't delete clips assigned to that event, it simply updates those clips so they are not tied to any event.)

CatDV "Field Logger" iPhone app

With the forthcoming CatDV Field Logger iPhone application (to be released shortly) you can already start logging events while on location in the field. Enter a description and keywords to describe the event, and automatically record the GPS coordinates of the event. Later, when you sync the app to your computer, an XML event log file is saved, which you can import using the Import Event Log command. This will automatically create events and link them to your clips (import the clips into CatDV separately, then link them based on the camera record date).

Using the CatDV logger app you can not only get a head start on logging events at the time the media is originally being shot but also geotag all your clips, just as if your camera had its own built-in GPS receiver.

Other features of events

• Right click on the Events root node in the tree to choose whether events are grouped by year and month or not.
• If you don't want to use events, uncheck the Show event commands option in Preferences.
• If any clip within an event has geotag information associated with it then that metadata is shared among all the clips in that event. Click on the blue globe icon (either on the clip details "Summary" tab or in the Event Editor) to view the event location in Google Maps.

Viewing media and media metadata

Proxies and thumbnails

A clip can have different types of media representation: small thumbnail images, the original movie or media file, and a low-resolution proxy movie. A clip in CatDV contains a reference to its media, not the media itself, so all these types of media can be shared by more than one clip. (This also applies when you create subclips. Subclips refer to parts of a media file, specified by a time offset from the start of the file, and don't involve creating new files or modifying your original files.)

Thumbnails

• Thumbnails are stored in the catalog along with the clips (so they remain available even when the media file is offline).
• Thumbnail images are created when you import a movie or still image into a catalog, typically for the first, last and middle frame of each movie or scene, though there is a Preference option to control how many thumbnails are created (or even to turn off automatic thumbnail generation altogether).
• You can select the size of thumbnails in Preferences. (Note that larger thumbnails increase the size of catalog files and the time to open them.)
• Thumbnails are automatically shared. All the thumbnails in a catalog with the same tape name and whose timecode lies between the "in" and "out" point of a clip are available for display with that clip.
• Use the Build Thumbnails command to rebuild the poster thumbnails of selected clips (after changing the thumbnail size for example). You can also create additional thumbnails, for example one every 10 seconds. Again, please note that creating extra thumbnails increases memory requirements, and the time to save and load the catalog.
• You can create an additional thumbnail manually, and set that as the poster for a clip, by going to the frame you want in the "movie" tab and pressing the Set Poster button.
• Conversely, you can delete an unwanted thumbnail using the Delete Thumbnail button. You can also switch to a thumbnail view and delete unwanted "thumbnail clips" there.

Original media

• The original movie or source media files can be played if they are online, i.e. accessible on the computer's hard drive or a mounted network volume. Clips can also be offline, if the file was moved or deleted or a removable volume is offline, or if the file has been archived and purged from local disk.
• Use the Attach Media command if you have recaptured the source media, or to attach a media file to a clip that didn't previously have one (eg. because the clip definition was imported from an EDL or batch list).
• Use Update Media Location if you have simply renamed or moved the source media files to a new location. Usually you only need to select the new location for the first file - other files in the same directory are reattached automatically if they still have the same name and file size.
• Adding the original and new location as equivalent media directories (see below) allows CatDV to locate similarly moved media files automatically without asking you.

Proxies

CatDV supports the use of low-resolutions proxy movies (also known as "preview movies") to use if the original media is offline. In a networked environment the online media might only be accessible to the edit suites while desktop computers might use the previews for logging and to decides whether clips are suitable for inclusion in a project.

• Use the Build Proxy Movies command to build a proxy movie of the selected clips.
• Proxy movies are stored on disk in a common proxy directory and are shared between catalogs. Once created they are available even when the original source movie is deleted.
• Specify the directory for proxies and choose their size and quality in CatDV's Preferences. You can also choose whether to burn in timecode or a watermark image into the proxy file.
• CatDV uses the media path to automatically look up the proxy (see below). The older tape-based proxy mechanism for legacy workflows is no longer supported.
• You can have more than one proxy directory. The first directory is where new proxies will be created but all the directories are searched in turn when looking for a proxy movie.
• To create proxy files automatically as part of a complex networked workflow consider using the separate CatDV Worker Node product.

Locating media

CatDV performs path-based lookup (of original media or low-res proxies) using the Media Path field.

• For most workflows, such as if you are cataloging existing files on disk, then CatDV will locate media based on a file path. A media file may move, however, or it may have different paths depending on which machine you access the media from (eg. M:\ProjectX\File1.mov and /Volumes/Media/ProjectX/File1.mov may be the same file). CatDV therefore uses a search path with file mapping rules to look for any files which it can't find in their original location.

  For example, if CatDV knows that M:\ is mapped to /Volumes/Media then CatDV on a Mac would be able to find the media file even if the catalog was saved on a Windows machine.

• You can edit path mappings in the Media Search Paths section of Preferences. You should normally enter both the original (what is stored i the catalog) and new location (where the files are now).
• If you omit the original location CatDV will search every combination of paths for the file. This will generally work but is less efficient and may find erroneous matches. For example, if the file was originally at "/Capture Scratch/Project X/Good Clips/Clip1.mov" and you add "/Volumes/Archive" to the search path then it will search all the following locations in turn:

  /Volumes/Archive/Capture Scratch/Project X/Good Clips/Clip1.mov
  /Volumes/Archive/Project X/Good Clips/Clip1.mov
  /Volumes/Archive/Good Clips/Clip1.mov
  /Volumes/Archive/Clip1.mov

• If you try to play a file (using the Play Media command) and it's offline (not at the location where the catalog says it is), CatDV will prompt you to locate it. If you successfully locate the file at a new location CatDV will offer to add the mapping from old to new location to media search path for you.
• As well as searching for the original full-resolution media files which may have moved, you can also enable path-based proxy movies. These use the same search path mechanism to map original location to proxy location but unlike with full-quality media the proxies don't need to have the same size and filename as the original file. For example, you might set "/Volumes/Proxies" as a path-based proxy location and have a proxy file "/Volumes/Proxies/Project X/Good Clips/Clip1.mp4".

See also: Source media management, Preferences

Legacy Tape-based lookup is no longer supported.

Media dialog

Often it's convenient to play the movie for a clip so it's scaled to fit within the clip details panel at the top of the main window, but you can also play media in a separate window. The media dialog is resizable and offers additional features, such as full screen playback or slide show operation:

• Use the Play Media (Windowed) menu command (or toolbar button) to play the selected clip in its own window. (You can also use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl-P, or define a double click action of Media Preview in Preferences and then double click a clip to play its media).
• Use the Pay Media (Full Screen), or full screen button in the controls below the media panel player, to play the selected clip full screen.
• Use the Run Slide Show command to present the selected clips as a slide show of individual clips (this is mainly intended for stills).

All these options use the media dialog to show the media, either in a window or full screen. Double click or press Escape to close the media dialog. See below for various other keyboard shortcuts you can use to control the media as it's playing. For a description of the movie controller that is used when playing movies see the clip details panel.

There are also a number of Preferences options that control how media is played, for example the slide show delay. The Present Movie and Run Slide Show commands are only available if you turn on advanced menus.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used to control the media presentation and mark the clip that is playing and also control movie playback in the clip details panel. (Some keys are only relevant to the separate Media Dialog window or in the embedded Clip Details panel, but most are common to both.)

JKL controls

The behaviour of the JKL jog-shuttle controls depends on the Preferences setting:

• In shuttle mode 'J' plays in reverse and 'L' plays forward. Successive presses will speed up playback to 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x, or 4x normal rate. Press 'K' to stop the movie, and hold down 'K' at the same time as pressing 'J' or 'L' to step one frame at a time. (Professional Edition only)
• Press 'H' to play back at half the normal rate (and again to play at a quarter of the normal rate). Press 'G' to play backwards in slow motion.
• In jog mode 'J' and 'K' step backwards by 0.5s or one frame respectively, while 'L' and ';' step forwards by the corresponding amount.
• Additionally, the numeric keypad can be used as follows:

  -, +	step back or forwards by one frame
  1, 3	step back or forwards by 0.25s
  4, 6	step back or forwards by 1s
  7, 9	step back or forwards by 5s
  2, 8	play backwards or forwards
  5	toggle playback
  /, *	setstart/end of a selection (in2/out2)

These keys apply in the media dialog, in the Movie and Proxy tab of the clip details dialog, and when playing movies full screen.

Menu keyboard shortcuts

This page summarises all the menu command shortcuts in one place. Press Cmd (Mac OS X) or Ctrl (Windows) together with one of the following keys:

Media playback options

There are many different formats of media file in existence and CatDV supports a number of different mechanisms for playing and working with these files. Which player is used depends on the file type and the options selected in Preferences. (A coloured letter in the movie controller indicates which player is being used, and you can click on this letter to jump to the appropriate section of preferences if you need to make any changes.)

Available players

Advanced player

With QuickTime becoming obsolete, CatDV has shifted its focus to the native Advanced player, which combines the functionality of all of the previously used individual codecs in one native player. First introduced in CatDV 11, the native helper process plays common media files, making use of a number of codec libraries, including FFmpeg, RED, and Tin Man libraries. Most formats can be played natively, including QuickTime movies, AVI, MPEG, AVCHD, R3D, XAVC, P2, and XDCAM files.

Image sequences (DPX, EXR and JPG)

Pegasus includes a special native image sequence player that supports image sequences in JPEG, TIFF and PNG formats, as well as DPX and EXR images.

FFmpeg & RED players

Originally introduced as extra codec libraries for the native player, both the open-source FFmpeg library and the RED decode library (the latter is only available in Pegasus and Enterprise) are included in the Advanced player for playback. You can manually choose a specific player if required for diagnostic purposes.

Other players

CatDV has built-in support for displaying common still image formats, including JPEG, PSD, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and many camera RAW files (including CR2, NEF, DNG, ORF, PEF, ARW, and MOS, though some only at low resolution). It also has a built-in player for certain types of OMFI files.

Even if no player is available to play or view a raw media file from within CatDV, you can still use CatDV to catalog and tag such files, and double click on the clip (or use the Cmd/Ctrl-L menu shortcut) to open the file in its default application. You can also use an external application to create a proxy for such files and configure CatDV to play the proxy instead.

Obsolete players

A number of old players are now obsolete and have been removed with the move to 64-bit only architecture:

• As of CatDV 13, both QuickTime for Java player (dark blue 'Q') and the QuickTime element of the native player have been obsoleted by Apple, necessitating the move to the self-contained Advanced player.
• The old 'protected player' (green 'P') has been superseded by the new native player, which provides similar protection against the possibility of corrupt files or third party codecs causing the CatDV application to crash.
• The old DirectShow player (magenta 'D') remains as a 32-bit legacy feature in earlier versions of CatDV, but has been removed with the move to 64-bit only in CatDV 13.
• The Java Media Framework player (red 'J') has also been removed.
• The old Xuggle player (yellow 'X') was superseded by the FFmpeg player.

Configuring the media player

In most cases the correct player is chosen automatically but sometimes more than one player can open a particular file and it may be desirable to override the default player. If you right-click on the media panel a popup menu letting you manually choose a specific player is shown.

You can also configure which player to use. On the Media Playback tab of Preferences you can specify a series of rules as to which player to use based on the file extension or other criteria. One or more rules can be specified, one per line, and the first one which matches the clip and successfully opens the file is used:

• The simplest rules consist of one or more filename extensions followed by the player to try, eg. "jpg png gif cr2 = JAVA"
• More complex rules have the form tag:value where tag is one of 'ext', 'type', 'audio', 'video', 'importer', 'os', 'path' to check the file extension, clip type, audio and video format, importer used, operating system (mac, win) and file path respectively, eg. "video:ProRes = QT" to match any clip that includes ProRes in the video format. You can also match on arbitrary clip fields including user defined fields, eg. "U12:true = FFMPEG".
• Conditions can be combined with '&' (AND), space (OR) and '!' (NOT), eg. "ext:mov&!video:ProRes ext:mxf&audio" to match .MOV files except ProRes files, and MXF files with audio.
• The following players are available: 'JIMG' (built-in still image viewer using Java Image I/O), 'QT' (native QuickTime player), 'RED' (native RED player), 'FFMPEG' (native FFmpeg player), 'IMSEQ' (image sequence player for DPX, EXR and JPG image sequences), 'IMSEQ_FF' (image sequence player using FFmpeg), 'JFX' (JavaFX player), 'AVF' (Mac AVFoundation player), and 'WMF' (Windows Media Foundation player). A number of additional legacy players are available if you use the 32-bit version of the application: 'QTJ' (old QuickTime for Java player), 'DSJ (old DirectShow player), 'XUGGLE' (old Xuggle player), and 'JMF' (old Java Media Framework player). You can provide a comma-separated list of one of more players to try if that rule matches.
• The special pattern '*' is a default rule that matches any clip for which a player hasn't yet been found, and the special player value 'NONE' means stop matching rules and don't try opening the clip with any other players.
• Normally the same player is used for playback and for building thumbnails/exporting still images. If necessary you can specify different rules in each case by adding mode:playback or mode:stills to the conditions, or by appending a suffix to the player name such as QT.playback or XUGGLE.stills.
• Normally the same player is used when opening original full quality files or proxies but you can specify different players by adding mode:original or mode:proxy.
• There is an additional image decoder with player name 'FFCMD' to indicate use the FFmpeg command line interface to extract stills. This may be useful if you have installed your own version of FFmpeg with additional decode codecs.

In normal use just leave the default box checked and the correct player will be chosen automatically.

FFmpeg transcoding

You can export movies using any FFmpeg export codec. CatDV includes a copy of the open source FFmpeg application, invoked through the command line interface, which it uses for transcoding.

FFmpeg is free, open source software. The source code for the version FFmpeg that CatDV uses is available on request or you can download the latest source code from www.ffmpeg.org and compile it yourself, for example to get access to additional codecs and filters or the latest bug fixes.

CatDV provides a graphical user interface to configure the FFmpeg export settings, together with a number of presets. In the export settings dialog you can choose the container format (such as .MOV or .MP4) then the video and audio codec to use, the video frame size, the target bit rate to use, and whether to change the frame rate or audio sample rate. Note that not all video and audio codecs are compatible with all container formats and if you choose an incompatible combination you will get an error when you perform the export. Note also that ffmpeg includes a large number of old and obscure codecs in its list of options and in most cases it is best simply to ignore codecs you are not familiar with.

You can add burnt in text or a watermark into the exported movie. As well as fixed text such as a copyright notice you can include CatDV variables such as ${NM1} for the clip name or tick the option for burnt in timecode. You can also burn in a watermark image by specifying the filename for a transparent PNG or GIF image. This image will be scaled to fill the frame so you would typically place a logo in one corner and leave the rest of the image transparent.

If you check the 'Advanced' option you will see additional export options, including the ability to set the quality level (FFmpeg -qscale option) and control which audio track is used. Note that you can specify either the quality or the target bit rate, not both, and also that some codecs don't use the -qscale setting (for example, the x264 codec is configured using -crf or -qp instead).

You can also directly specify ffmpeg command line options. Detailing these is well beyond the scope of this article and you should refer to online FFmpeg documentation. Certain words in the options list have special processing when building the ffmpeg command line:

• Use -vcodec or -acodec to override the selected video and audio codec.
• Use -vf to add another filter to the video filter chain CatDV creates.
• Use s/old/new/ to apply regular expression rewriting of the command line.
• Use fontfile=xxx, fontcolor=xxx, fontsize=xxx, textx=xxx, texty=xxx to override the appearance of burnt in text and timecode.

Press the 'Test' button to preview the ffmpeg command line that will be used.

Media file metadata

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:

Exif metadata

The following fields have special meaning for JPEG and TIFF files with Exif metadata:

DV metadata

The following fields have special meaning for legacy DV and DVCam/DVCPro clips:

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.)

Supported file formats

CatDV natively supports a wide range of common media file types using the FFmpeg media library and its own built-in support. CatDV will play back and export files in formats including:

• QuickTime .MOV files, with most common codecs
• AVI and WMV files
• MPEG-4 files, with various codecs (H.264, H.265/HEVC, MPEG-4 Video, 3GP, etc)
• MPEG transport streams
• Raw DV streams
• Still image formats (including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, JPEG 2000, and PSD)
• Audio formats (including MP3, WAV, AU, AIFF)

Camera RAW images

CatDV has built-in support for reading many common camera RAW still image formats, including 3FR, ARW, CR2, DCR, DNG, ERF, FFF, K25, KDC, MOS, NEF, ORF, PEF, RAW, RW2, RWL, SR2, SRF, MPO and RAF. In most cases the files contains a preview thumbnail that can be displayed and CatDV will extract camera metadata such as exposure and white balance information and other Exif data (including camera maker notes). Some formats can be viewed in CatDV but in most cases to view the full resolution version of the image or to make adjustments you will need to open the image in an external application such as Photoshop.

Native importers

CatDV includes its own importers to process MP4, MOV, MPEG, WMV, OMF, MXF, TIFF, and PDF files, amongst others. These importers are designed to allow you to catalog the catalogs and extract metadata from the files (including movie duration, audio and video format, timecode, title or copyright information, GPS coordinates and so on, depending on what the file format supports) whether or not the generic FFmpeg or QuickTime importers support that metadata.

Other file formats

CatDV understands several file formats that can contain clip information, such as batch logs, Final Cut Pro XML files and EDLs. When you import one of these recognised formats a clip is created for each entry in the file.

With CatDV Pegasus Client or the Professional Edition you have access to additional media formats including MXF, R3D, DPX, EXR etc., as well as the option to import arbitrary non-media files, such as text files, Word documents, spreadsheets, project files, and so on.

Import warnings

When importing movies several consistency checks are applied and a warning message may be displayed in the Import Notes column under various circumstances. The most common messages and their meanings are shown below. (These warnings are fairly technical in nature and can usually be ignored.)

Timecode jump

This indicates that the DV timecode in the captured movie is not strictly continuous, either because the original source tape has a timecode discontinuity, because frames were dropped during capture, or possibly because data corruption occurred or the movie was edited or rendered by computer. If the 'strictly base clips on captured DV media' import option is on each continuous segment is processed separately during import into CatDV.

Dropped frame(s) between ? and ?
Repeated frame(s) between ? and ?

These indicate shorter timecode errors of just a few frames. CatDV treats these differently and does not automatically create a new clip at each point.

Timecode differs (DV/QT=?)

There are two ways to determine the timecode for a particular DV frame: either based on the QuickTime 'timecode' track or on the digital data stored in the DV stream itself. Usually these will give the same result but if you have dropped frames or other anomalies occurred during capture the results may be different and CatDV displays a warning during import. If you have set the 'strict' import option then CatDV will always try to use the DV timecode and generate new clips whenever it detects a jump, otherwise it uses QuickTime's concept of the timecode (which may agree more with what other applications use) and displays the DV timecode for reference in the DV T/C field.

Incorrect length (? short of ?)

This means the length of the media in the movie does not match the overall length reported by QuickTime for the movie as a whole. This can occur if frames were dropped during capture but other frames are stretched out to maintain the overall movie length. Sometimes the movie is reported as being longer than it really is and the last frame appears as one long frozen still, stretching out to give the movie its overall length. In this case the length that QuickTime thinks the movie is is shown in the message but the clip in CatDV will be shorter and reflect the media that is actually present.

Audio sample rate mismatch

If a DV movie has a separate audio track this message indicates that the sample rate of the audio track doesn't agree with that originally recorded in the DV stream. This can happen if the audio was resampled during capture, or if you capture a clip where the audio sample rate changes mid way through, in which case QuickTime can sometimes get confused about the sample rate and create an unplayable audio track.

Unstable frame at start
Skipping unstable frame(s) at ?

When the camcorder starts recording a new scene the tape may not have stabilised fully and the DV data in the first frame or two may not have a valid timecode or date/timestamp. Where possible, the unstable data is ignored and the first valid date or timecode is used instead.

Video and Audio differ by ? seconds

This means the audio track is shorter than the video track by the amount shown. This may indicate dropped frames or some other capture problem, but it could also mean that the movie was edited or rendered, or that the camcorder doesn't precisely lock audio and video samples.

? fps invalid for PAL/NTSC DV

This indicates that the frame rate is not exactly 25 or 29.97/30 fps for PAL or NTSC respectively, perhaps because the movie was rendered by computer rather than captured with a camera, or because frames were dropped during capture.

Average ? doesn't match nominal ? fps

The average frame rate (total number of frames divided by movie duration) doesn't match the typical frame rate (this could mean the movie has some dropped frames).

Many of these messages only apply to the clip representing the movie as a whole, which is hidden by default. You should therefore show hidden clips if you are trying to diagnose capture or import problems. You can also use the Media Information dialog to display more details about a media file.

Controlling how movies are imported

Use the 'Strictly base clips on captured DV media' preferences option (which is on by default) to:

• produce a log that precisely matches the DV data, even if there are dropped frames or timecode discontinuities which might mean there are gaps in the captured media;
• ignore any QuickTime timecode track and read the timecode from the DV stream instead;
• ignore the movie length as reported by QuickTime and use the length of the media itself instead (bypassing an issue affecting some capture applications where the movie may be reported as being longer than it really is).

Turn off the 'strict' option:

• if you are unlikely to batch recapture the material from DV tape and it's more important to reflect the file in its currently captured state;
• for improved compatibility with other applications which are likely just to use the QuickTime information;
• if you don't want each timecode sequence to result in a separate clip.

If you get a warning about average and nominal fps not matching and the clip appears to have wrong timecode format try toggling the "Timecode format" advanced preference option. For DV files CatDV can determine the correct format easily but for other files it can base it on the average frame rate or the nominal frame rate (time scale / nominal frame duration).

You should not normally use the "Ignore DV timecode" option but if you do then CatDV will treat DV files as ordinary QuickTime files.

Advanced operation

Marking and selecting clips

Most commands such as exporting clips, playing media or editing clips require you to select the clips you want to work on first. You select clips in a catalog by clicking on them in the main window. Hold down the shift or command/control keys to select a range of clips. You can also use Cmd/Ctrl-A to select all the clips in the window, or use the Find command.

Copy and pasting clips

You can easily move selected clips between catalogs to help you better manage your catalogs:

• Use Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear and Duplicate from the Edit menu to delete, move or copy selected clips (together with their thumbnails) between catalogs.
• You can delete selected clips by pressing the Delete or Backspace key.
• You can also drag and drop clips from one window to another

Note that if you want to copy or paste or delete text within a text field you need to click and select within the text field then use Control-C/X/V (or Command-C/X/V on the Mac) from the keyboard, not from the menu.

Marking clips

Use the Mark check box to mark clips of interest or to save the state of a selection:

• Unlike selections within a window (which are temporary), marks are saved in the catalog.
• Use the Mark submenu to mark selected clips, toggle the mark for selected clips, and so on.
• Use the Select submenu to select marked clips, invert a selection, and so on.

You can also mark clips as "good" or "no good" (or as "maybe" if you are undecided) using the Good field:

• From the main window you can use commands in the Mark submenu to mark selected clips as good or not.
• When a clip is playing in the media dialog there are keyboard shortcuts you can use to mark it as good or not.
• Use Select reviewed to select just those clips that are "good" or have otherwise been "reviewed", i.e. a selection (in2/out2) has been made within the clip.

Hiding clips

Clips may be flagged as being hidden so they don't normally appear in a catalog window. These clips are still part of the catalog, however, and are saved and loaded normally.

Hidden clips can be made visible temporarily by using the Show Hidden menu command (under the View menu).

You can change whether selected clips are hidden or not by using the Hide Selected or Unhide Selected menu commands, or by checking or unchecking the "Hidden" checkbox in the clip details.

When you import a movie with automatic scene detection selected, a master clip representing the movie file as a whole is created, as well as separate clips for each scene detected within that movie. In most cases you are likely to be interested in the scenes on a tape, rather than the capture files, so the clips representing the movie file are initially marked as hidden. You can also manually hide master clips after creating subclips from them.

Searching and filtering

CatDV provides a large number of ways of searching and filtering clips.

Use the Quick Search field on the toolbar to filter the clips shown in the main window to those containing the keywords you type in. As you type more characters fewer clips are shown. (The Quick Search field works by searching the clip's name, notes, bin name, user columns, and metadata fields for each word you type in in turn.)

For more advanced searches you can use the Find command to search for clips based on one or more particular clip properties. You can either move to the next clip that matches the query or use it as a filter so that only those clips matching the filter condition are shown in a window.

A query or filter can have different types of conditions, all of which must be true for a clip to match:

• Clip name, notes, etc. containing certain text
• Date or timecode values before or after a particular value
• Picklist properties (such as bin or format) matching one or more items from a list
• Other conditions, such as testing whether a particular property is blank or not.

An enhanced query dialog is available in the Professional Edition.

When searching you can move forward to the next clip matching the conditions, or search for all clips in one go (all clips that match will be selected). You can also create a new view containing just the matching clips.

When a filter is in effect only the clips that match the filter are shown. Use the View > Filter command, or press the "All Clips" node in the tree navigator to turn off a filter.

Smart folders, Grouping and Hiding clips are other ways of excluding clips from being shown in a window and can be used in conjunction with the regular filtering mechanism. Use the Reset View command to turn off all the different filter mechanisms and restore a default view showing all your clips.

Finding more clips

The mechanisms above describe how to narrow down and find specific clips within the catalog or window you have open. To find extra clips which aren't already in the current catalog you can:

• Use the Browse Catalogs command
• If you use the CatDV Workgroup or Enterprise Server you can perform a query against the shared database
• Use the tree navigator to browse or search the file system (and the server)

Summary mode

Please note that this section describes a legacy feature that was originally intended for tape-based workflows and isn't very useful in most modern workflows.

In a normal view each row or thumbnail in the main window corresponds to precisely one clip in your catalog. In certain situations you might want a different view of your clips however. In a summary view the clips in your window are temporarily replaced by an alternative "consolidated" view.

There are several types of summary mode, which you can access via the View menu:

• Tape Summary View
• Source Media View
• Thumbnail View
• Event Markers View
• Event Markers and Clips View

Switching to a summary view is just temporary and doesn't alter your original clips. You can toggle between a normal and summary view by pressing Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-S.

Clip summaries

Sometimes a catalog may contain overlapping or duplicated clip definitions, for example if you import logs from completed projects as well as having imported the raw movie files, or if you capture a tape in several segments.

• Use the Tape Summary View to temporarily combine clip segments and filter out duplicates
• Summary view usually provides a concise, non-overlapping summary of the contents of a tape.
• You can copy summary clips and then paste them into a new catalog as normal clips.

How tape summary mode works

The changes made by summary mode only affect how clips are displayed and exported. The original clips in the catalog are not altered, so you can safely toggle in and out of summary view as required. Clip Summary mode displays a concise description of the scenes on a tape as follows:

• If a catalog has several clips with the same in and out value (eg. from different projects) these are merged into one
• If you captured several long clips, each of which contains several scenes, the long clips are hidden and only the scenes are listed
• If a single scene is split in two because it was captured as two files these sections are joined up.

Source Media and Thumbnail views

There are a number of other summary views that temporarily change how the clips are shown without changing the original clips stored in your catalog:

• Source Media View shows precisely one clip for each source media file.
• Each clip can have any number of thumbnails associated with it. Normally only one thumbnail, the poster thumbnail, is shown for each clip. In a Thumbnail View each thumbnail in the catalog is shown as a separate "clip".

Event markers view

• Event Markers View shows each timecode event marker as its own "clip". The marker name, category and description appear as the clip name, bin and notes respectively. If you perform a quick filter to find matching text you can use Event Markers View to highlight the results where that text occurs in the timeline.
• Event Markers and Clips View is similar to Event Markers View except it also includes the main clip together with the markers within it.

Grouping fields

In CatDV, some fields can contain free format text while others take values from a limited list of choices. Fields that take values from a picklist are referred to as grouping fields (or grouping properties) and provide a convenient way of grouping and organising the clips in a catalog.

Grouping mode

Use grouping mode to view all the clips in a catalog by tape, bin, event, or other grouping property. Select the property to group by from the drop down list at the left of the window, then select the particular item to view.

• Press the Grouping toolbar button to toggle grouping on and off (you can have one or two grouping columns, shown at the left of the window, or turn off grouping altogether).
• Select the property to group by (eg. 'Date') from the drop down list. A list of all the distinct dates recording dates contained in the catalog is then shown.
• Click on a value in that list. Only those clips from that date are shown.
• Grouping is also available using automatic filters in the tree navigator.

More advanced operations are possible:

• With two grouping columns you can quickly correlate two sets of grouping properties, for example find all the tapes which contain recordings at 32kHz, or see the range of dates covered by stills in a particular folder.
• To rename an entire existing tape or bin name, click on that item in the grouping list and type in a new name.
• As a convenient way of editing many clips in one go you can drag and drop selected clips onto another tape or bin name to change that value for all of them.

Creating grouping fields

As well as predefined grouping fields (Bin and Tape, and read-only fields such as Video and Audio format), you can create your own user-defined logging fields (using the User Columns tab in Preferences) and define them to be of type 'Grouping'. Similarly, you can select which metadata columns to group on in the Metadata Columns Preferences tab.

Once you have created a user-defined grouping field you can define picklist values for it under the Pick Lists Preferences tab. If a pick list is "extensible" that means the pick list provides suggestions for the user to choose a value from but the user can type in new value not in the list if necessary. If it's not extensible, only values from the drop down pick list can be chosen when editing a clip. An "auto-populate" list remembers new values that you enter for future use.

You can also set a user-defined column to be a Multi-grouping field. These are similar to grouping fields in that they takes values from a pick list of keywords, but you can apply more than one keyword to the same clip. If you then use grouping mode all the distinct keywords are shown, and the same clip might appear under more than one keyword.

Editing grouping fields

When editing grouping fields in the clip details panel you can click on the down arrow button to display a popup list of values to choose from. In the case of multi-grouping fields the popup shows two lists, one of available choices and one of all the keyword applies that have been selected. Double click an item to move it from list to another.

You can also edit both single and multi-grouping fields as if they are normal text fields. Start typing and the first matching value from the picklist is shown. Press the Up and Down arrows to select another item, press the backspace key to delete characters you have typed, or press the Enter key to show the popup. In the case of multi-grouping fields, press semicolon (;) once you have chosen one keyword and want to add another one.

Miscellaneous

Printing

You can print reports from a catalog consisting of all the clips in the current view:

• Use Print > Current View to print the current window, whether in list, film strip or grid view.
• Use Print > Single Page Index Sheet to print a single page "contact sheet" of a particular tape as a grid view. As many clips as will fit on one page are automatically chosen to be as representative as possible of the tape. (To select the tape to be printed use Group by tape and click on the tape you want.)
• Use Print > Selected Images to print out the selected images or posters at the maximum available resolution. (The image is taken from thumbnails, proxy movies, or original media, depending on what is available). Print as many images as possible on each sheet of paper, and automatically switch individual images between landscape and portrait to maximise the print area.
• Use Print > HTML Formatted to print the current window or selected clips as an HTML formatted page. This type of printout is particularly suited to printing long log notes as they will flow over multiple lines. In the print dialog you can choose which fields are printed and whether to include the poster thumbnail or not, and also whether new line characters in a text field are preserved in the printout.

You can also print complete details of an individual clip by bringing up the Clip Summary window and pressing the Print button in the toolbar.

To adjust the appearance of printouts you can:

• Choose a different type of view (list or grid).
• Select a percentage reduction in your print settings dialog and then print a large grid view for higher resolution.
• Use Page Setup to select a different page orientation or percentage reduction.
• Adjust the font and inter-cell spacing in Preferences.
• Enter a custom title in Preferences to be used as the main title or as a custom footer (eg. a copyright notice or contact details if you plan to give printouts to clients).
• Suppress the printing of icons (to indicate clip type) by an advanced Preferences option.

You can also export clips as HTML or text and print them from an external application such as your web browser or a word processor (for example, if you have large amount of text and want it all to flow on the page rather than be truncated to fit in a fixed row height).

Preferences

Use the Preferences dialog to enter your registration details and change user preferences. There are a large number of settings, arranged in different pages or tabs for convenience. You can use the Next and Previous buttons to cycle through them, or Highlight to show which settings have been modified and optionally restore them back to their recommended default values.

General tab

Whether to interpret timecode (when no frame rate is specified by the context) as PAL or NTSC; the format for displaying dates and times; whether to use the simplified or advanced menu; how to name subclips created by automatic scene detection or the New Subclip command; whether to force the user interface language to English when using a localised version of CatDV.

Proxies & Thumbnails tab

What size and quality settings to use when creating proxy movies (use one of the presets, or customise your own in the Professional Edition); whether to use tape- or path-based proxies; whether to display a proxy instead if the original movie is unavailable (or whether to always use the proxy); whether to generate thumbnails for imported media; what size thumbnails to create; whether to use the midpoint or start of clip as initial default poster; whether to create thumbnails on the first/last frame or inset by 5% (for shots that fade in from black).

Field Definitions tab

Edit (view, create, modify, or delete) user-defined fields, metadata fields; view or edit the values that appear in drop down pick lists; manage config sets; edit Event Marker categories; edit Final Cut Pro Field Mappings; edit Smart Labels; view, lock, or make mandatory the Built-In fields.

Customise Views tab

Create or modify view definitions.

Customise Workspaces tab

Create or modify workspaces. Customise Details Panel tab - Professional Edition

Customise fields shown in the clip details panel, along with creating panels.

User Interface tab

Whether to open last catalog when launching CatDV; explicitly specify the default view and grouping when a window is first opened or whether these should automatically be the same as the previous window; decide whether to always display tab name; choose whether to prompt which catalog to import files to; choose whether to show toolbar labels; define action when double-clicking a file; whether to use the advanced query dialog for searches within a catalog (Professional Edition).

Tree Navigator tab

Choose tree style; define how browsing and searching the Server tree works; personalise and toggle the Filters, Actions, and File System trees.

Advanced User Interface tab

Select the look and feel of the application; modify the default view; choose whether imports (and similar operations) can take place as a background activity; whether renaming a clip or changing its bin also renames or moves the media file; whether to keep the details dialog on top of the main window at all times; preferred units for displaying data rate; which import and export menu command should have a keyboard shortcut; automatic save interval; whether clicking on a directory in the tree navigator automatically analyses the files; whether to activate legacy 'Good/No Good/Maybe' rating system.

Import tab

Which importers to try when importing a media file; whether to recursively scan subdirectories when importing a directory; whether to do scene detection; which known media types to import; how to deal with complex clips; whether to import non-media files; whether to combine clips with the same tape name, in and out values into a single clip reference; whether to perform scene detection based on changes in time stamp or image contents (check both for automatic operation); whether to import clips based strictly on the DV timecode information embedded in the media (ie. whether to favour the DV or QuickTime timecode if they differ); whether to automatically combine start and end segments of a DV clip that spans more than one capture file, whether to create Image Sequences and if so what frame rate to use.

Media Playback tab

Whether to automatically select the appropriate media player, which media player to use; whether to start playing a movie automatically; whether to launch non-media in external applications; whether to automatically double the size of small movies or images; how fast should slide shows be shown; whether to automatically open still images and movies; what media panel controls to display; what speed to display slide shows at; whether to use jog or shuttle keyboard controls (Professional Edition only).

Advanced Media Handling tab

More advanced options that control how media files are opened and imported, including: whether to resolve QuickTime data references (necessary for some reference movies such as RED, but can result in a long delay when encountering broken reference movies); whether to play WMV files using QuickTime/Flip4Mac or an external application; whether to completely disregard timecode embedded in DV movies; how to decide the timecode format for imported formats; whether to replace the audio track when playing back XDCAM proxies.

Printing tab

What fonts and margins to use when printing (top, bottom, left and right); how much extra spacing to leave around cells; any custom title to be used.

Export tab

What to export text files as and how to encode them; what to have the Export menu shortcut do; whether to use the whole clip or a selection within the clip when exporting clips; whether to prefix the name of exported movie files with the tape or bin name (or create subdirectories based on these names); what duration to apply to still images when exported as a movie or added to a sequence; the custom footer to include on each page when exporting HTML.

File System tab

Whether to create a backup copy when saving catalogs; time between auto-recovery saves; whether to allow deleting or renaming media files from within CatDV; options to speed up performance on slow file systems (avoid pre-loading movies when selecting a clip until you click on the Movie tab, don't check whether files are online when opening a catalog).

Final Cut & Sequences tab

Options that relate to how clips and sequences are imported from and exported to NLEs including Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Avid Media Composer, for example whether to use the CatDV bin name or create a bin based on the current date and time.

Advanced Functionality tab

Miscellaneous options such as whether debug messages are written to the log file, whether the spell checker is enabled, and options affecting printing.

Server tab

Options relating to use with the CatDV Server, including whether to enable commands that publish data to the server; whether to automatically refresh clips from the server; whether to dynamically add to picklist values from clips stored on the server.

Registration tab

Enter the name and registration code you were sent to register CatDV, or clear an existing registration. It is easiest to copy both lines from your registration email and press the Paste button. You can also enter a bolt-on license for the Archiving or MXF Option here.

Tools

Various useful utility commands are provided in the Tools menu. (Some of these commands are only available in the Professional Edition, and only if you enable Advanced menus via Preferences.)

• Use Bulk Edit as a flexible tool to copy one field to another or automatically renumber clips. Select the destination field whose value you want to set, then either type in a fixed value to use or select another property to copy or move to the destination. To use automatic numbering type in a value like "Scene 009" and the next line will automatically be incremented to "Scene 010" etc.
• Use Search and Replace to correct errors in logging fields. With regular expressions you can apply complex transformations to the text. (Professional Edition only)
• Use Apply Timecode Offset to change the timecode of a clip. You can use this to adjust the timecode values of multiple clips by the same amount (for example to update subclips after re-ingesting a tape with different timecode).
• Use Timezone Adjustment to specify how the camera clock was set and what timezone was in effect at the shot location. These may be different (if you travel without changing the camera clock) and an adjustment is therefore necessary if you want to display the time correctly in GMT (GMT date) or in local time (Location date). It is also possible to apply a camera clock adjustment to allow shots taken by different cameras to be synchronized and accurately compared based on the record date. (Professional Edition only).
• Use the Timecode Calculator to add or subtract timecode values, convert between hours, minutes, seconds and frames, or divide one time into another. A "paper tape" printout of all your calculations is displayed.
• Use Find Similar to find duplicate clips.
• Use Apply Log File to create subclips from a movie clip based on an ALE or tab-separated log file or an SRT subtitle file. First import the media, then select the clip and apply a log file to it. Any events within the log file whose timecode lies within the clip you selected will result in subclips of that master clip (or timecode event markers in the case of an SRT file). (Professional Edition only).
• Use Detect Scenes to manually perform DV timestamp-based or analog (visual frame differencing) scene detection on selected clips after they have been imported into a catalog. New secondary clips are created for each scene within the first clip. The sensitivity of the the detection can be adjusted. (Professional Edition only).
• Use the Verbatim Logger to type in log notes and insert timecode markers while a clip is playing. (Professional Edition only).
• Use Assign To Event to automatically assign clips to events based on their record date (or manually create events, as required). Import Event Log can be used to import an XML event from the CatDV Field Logger iPhone app.
• Re-Analyse Media analyses a media file as if you had just imported it but will preserve any metadata you have previously added to the clip.
• Commands to create sequences and metaclips are described elsewhere.
• Utility commands that apply to media files are discussed in the next section.

Disk Space Tool

The Disk Space Tool will quickly scan a folder or volume and summarise the contents according to how much disk space each folder and file type uses.

Click on a folder to see what file types it (together with all its subfolders) contains. Normally a summary of just the largest files and folders is shown unless you check the 'More Detail' option, in which case all the files are shown. You can scan for duplicate files (based on the file name and size being the same, and the modification time if the 'More Detail' option is checked).

Each time you perform a scan a snapshot is automatically saved, so you can go back and open up earlier scans to compare with the latest one to see where files are being added. If desired you can export a snapshot as a standalone file and later re-import it.

Use the 'Compare...' button to compare the current folder with either another open window or a saved snapshot. Three windows are shown, one each showing the files that only only occur in one or the other of the two folders, plus another showing files common to both (if any). This provides a very quick way to compare two folders on disk, or one folder with a previously saved snapshot of the same folder to show why the size has increased.

The 'Find On Server' command will perform a server query to display all the clips whose media path corresponds to the file(s) and/or directorie(s) you have selected.

Using the View menu you can view the contents of a folder alphabetically rather than by descending size, and turn the extension or file list panels on or off.

Spell checker

A built-in cross-platform spell checker (licensed from i-net software) provides spell checking within the Verbatim Logger, and within the Notes field and other multi-line text fields in the clip details panel.

If a word is misspelled and underlined in red, right-click on it to view suggested corrections. You can also change the language by right-clicking on the text. To add words to your own dictionary click on the Spelling... button in the Verbatim Logger (Professional Edition only).

By default, only an English dictionary is included. You can add new languages by downloading the appropriate dictionary from SourceForge and editing the dictionaries.txt file in the program folder to add the new language code. For example, to support English and German change dictionaries.txt so it says "languages = en,de". On Windows the dictionaries.txt and dictionary file(s) go in the 'lib' subfdolder, on Mac OS X you need to right click on the application to show the package contents and place the dictionary in the Contents/Resources/Java subfolder.

Source media management

A clip in CatDV can represent either a complete media file on disk or a particular clip or scene within a movie or on a tape. This means that not all clips will refer to a media file, and sometimes you may have more than one subclip referring to different parts of the same media file. (It's also possible to have one metaclip that contains many files.)

You can switch to View>Summary Mode>Source Media View to temporarily consolidate your view and show precisely one clip for each source media file.

Locating media files

A source media file need not remain online on disk once it has been imported into a catalog (though obviously you won't be able to play the media file if it no longer exists or can't be found). CatDV stores the last known location of the media file. The following commands affect the media path:

• Update Media Location is used when you have renamed or moved an existing media file on disk and need to tell CatDV the new location so it can play the media. If you have moved an entire directory you normally only need to locate the first file. Any other clips which have been similarly affected are updated automatically.
• Attach Media, by contrast, is used to attach a clip to a completely new media file, after it's been re-digitised for example, or if the clip was never associated with a media file in the first place.

If a directory or volume has been renamed or moved then CatDV remembers this. It keeps a list of original and current locations (under the Media Search Paths tab in Preferences) which it can use in future to automatically locate a file that has moved. Knowing that two paths are equivalent is particular useful if you work in mixed environments, where S:\Media and /Volumes/Shared/Media for example might actually refer to same folder. This enables CatDV to automatically locate and play the media file even if the catalog stores the old location.

Managing media files

A number of commands in the Media menu can be used to manipulate the media file referred to by a clip:

• Delete Media Files will delete the media files for selected clips from disk and then also delete the corresponding clips from the catalog.
• With Move Media Files you can select a new directory and then move the selected media files there. You can also Copy Media Files, or use Rename Media File to rename a single file (and also rename the clip and associated proxy file).
• By default the clip Name corresponds to the media file name and the Bin to the parent folder containing the media file. If you edit the clip Name or Bin you will be asked if you want to apply the corresponding move to the source media file (assuming the Auto rename files option is set in Preferences).
• Reveal In Finder (or Show Parent Directory under Windows) will show the location of the media file. (Reveal Proxy File is similar but shows the location of the proxy movie, if one exists.)
• Launch In Default App will attempt to open the media file using whatever external application is associated with that file type. You can also drag a clip out of the CatDV main window onto an external application icon (exactly as if you were dragging a document icon in the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer).
• With the tree navigator showing you can drag a clip onto a directory in the file system to move the media file (hold down the Alt/Option key to copy the file instead). You can also create, delete or rename folders by right clicking on nodes in the File System tree.

Proxies and thumbnails

If a media file is not currently available CatDV normally falls back automatically to play a low-res proxy version of the file instead.

• Use Build Proxy Movies to build proxy movies for selected clips from the source movies using the current settings selected in Preferences.
• Use Manage Proxy Movies to see which proxy files are available, or to delete or rename the previews for a tape.
• Use Build Thumbnails to build new thumbnails for selected clips, eg. after changing the thumbnail size.

Manipulating QuickTime movies

While CatDV can catalog and play back many types of media file, including MPEG, AVI and MP4, some features are specific to QuickTime .MOV files.

• Add Timecode Track will add (or replace) a timecode track to the movie based on the tape name and In timecode value of the clip. This simplifies using these movies in other QuickTime-aware applications. (Use the Manage Proxy Movies command to add timecode to a proxy movie, and see the section on exporting movies for details on how to add a text track.)
• Adjust Frame Size allows you to adjust the playback size of one or more QuickTime movies. This can be useful if a movie plays at the wrong aspect ratio when imported into another application. Note that only the playback size is affected, it does not re-render the movie.

The commands above will directly modify the QuickTime movie itself to affect how they play in other applications (they don't re-render the media however, just change some movie settings).

You can also affect how media files are displayed within CatDV using the Rotate Left, Rotate Right and Toggle Widescreen commands, and by editing the Aspect ratio field for a clip. This information is stored in the CatDV catalog and doesn't alter the media file.

Media/file information dialog

Normally a media file is analysed at the time when you import it and metadata describing the file is added to your catalog. The Media/File Information command can be used to check the contents of a file directly, whether or not it's in your catalog (for example, you might choose a file using the tree navigator).

When you open the Media Information dialog the file is opened using either QuickTime or JMF, and technical information (including the audio and video codec and details of any dropped frames) for the file is shown. Even if it's not a media file that can be opened then basic information is still shown about the file, for example if it's a text file the contents are shown, or for binary files you get a hex display of the data.

Other commands

• Catalog Details shows who last modified the catalog and when. It also shows certain statistics about the current catalog, such as how much memory is being used by the application, mainly intended for diagnostic purposes.
• New Empty Clip will create a new empty clip for you to type in In and Out values manually, for example to use as a template when pasting metadata. (This command was previously called New Log Entry.)
• The Help menu has shortcuts to display the table of contents and index in the online help, to display the license agreement and release notes for the application, and to jump to the CatDV web site in your default web browser to check for application updates.
• System Information displays the current version of QuickTime, the location of the CatDV log file and preferences file, and other useful information

Paste metadata

You can copy log notes and user defined field values from one clip to another using the Paste Metadata command.

First select the source clip(s) and copy them to the clipboard, then select the destination clips and choose Paste Metadata. You are then given the option of which fields to copy and whether to overwrite those fields in the destination or merge the new data in with any existing contents.

You can copy from one source clip to many destination clips, and the same value will be applied to each, or select two lists of the same size to copy from the first clip to the first clip, from the second to the second, and so on.

Clip summary dialog

Press the Summary toolbar button (or use the Clip Summary menu command) to display a formatted, read-only view of the properties of a clip. Unlike the normal clip details window, which has fixed size fields, text in the clip summary window flows so it's all visible.

• The clip summary window is read-only. You can mark clips of interest, but you need to switch to the Clip Details window if you want to edit the clip.
• If you have performed a query or applied a quick filter the clip summary window highlights where matching keywords occur within the text.
• The clip is formatted using HTML. If desired, you can copy the HTML text to the clipboard via the Edit menu.
• Use the Print button to print the clip details.
• You can customise the fields that are shown by creating a custom details panel layout called "HTML Summary". You can also configure additional read-only, HTML-based views in the clip details panel if you wish.

Managing multiple catalogs

If you have a large number of clips you may find it convenient to create several separate catalog files, for example one per tape or per customer or per project. When you open a catalog all the clips from that catalog are loaded into memory so performance may degrade if you have excessively large catalogs, especially if you use large thumbnails.

Use the Browse Catalogs command to list all the catalog files in a directory, together with a summary of their contents:

• Press the Choose button to select the directory where your catalogs are saved.
• All the catalog files are listed, together with the total number of clips in each catalog.
• Other fields show the catalog descriptions, the tape names used in each catalog, and what range of dates they cover. Both the original date of recording (if known) and the last modification time of the imported files are shown (the latter might indicate when the media was captured or the project was worked on).
• Double click a line or use the Open Catalog button to open the desired catalog.

When a catalog is open you can use the Catalog Details command to enter a brief descriptive comment about the catalog. This description is listed in the Browse Catalogs window to help you determine the correct catalog to open.

Searching catalogs

You can search all the catalogs in a directory looking for particular keywords:

• Type in some keywords and press the Search button to show which catalogs contain particular logging keywords. The clip name, bin, notes and user defined fields of all the clips are searched, as well as the catalog description.
• The total number of clips in the catalog is shown, together with the number that match your chosen keywords.

With the optional CatDV Workgroup Server you can also publish catalogs into a relational database and perform much more sophisticated queries, at the granularity of individual clips rather than entire catalogs.

Memory management

If you have very large catalogs open you might occasionally run out of memory. There are several things you can do:

• Switch to a view with smaller thumbnails, or the 'Concise' view with no thumbnails shown at all. Displaying and caching thumbnails at different sizes is the main thing that uses up memory.
• Double click on the memory indicator in the bottom right of the status line in the main window (if enabled via Preferences). This will flush memory and display statistics on how much memory is being used.
• Edit your preferences to create fewer and/or smaller thumbnails.
• Split your catalog into smaller catalogs as detailed above.

Identifying clips

CatDV can deal with clip records that come from a variety of sources, for example importing a media file or batch log, and you might do things like export a clip to another application then re-import it. The question then arises of when are two clips the "same" or not? (See also: Summary mode)

A number of different fields in CatDV can be used to identify a clip:

Clip Ref

This is a general purpose clip reference field (sometimes referred to as Clip ID in the past). You can choose to have clip refs assigned automatically (it will get a random number calculated from the clip name and the time the clip was first imported) or assign them manually if you have an existing library system or want to refer to external catalog of assets. You don't have to use this field, you can leave it blank and you can have multiple clips with the same clip reference if that makes sense in your system.

File Hash

Whenever you import a file into CatDV a checksum is calculated based on the file contents. Although not guaranteed to be unique, it is unlikely that two files will have the same file hash unless they have the same contents. If a file has been renamed or moved, or there are two copies in different places, the file hash indicates they are really the same. (If you open an older catalog which doesn't include the file hash you can calculate it using the Tools > Re-Analyse Media command.)

Media Signature

This is always calculated automatically and is based on the media that the clip refers to. In the case of movies with a timecode track or clips that refer to a tape it will be based on the tape name and timecode, in the case of other media files it will be based on the file name and file length. In most cases, if you have two clips that refer to the same piece of media they will have the media signature, even if the clips themselves are named differently or the media file has been moved or is offline.

Clip ID

Finally, when a clip is saved to the CatDV server it is assigned a unique numeric id in the database (sometimes referred to as Remote ID). This is an internal identifier that never changes and is guaranteed to be unique.

Find Duplicate Clips

The Tools > Find Similar command will find duplicate clips which are similar to the selected clips based on a particular attribute. It will either search all the open catalogs in memory or compare the current catalog with the CatDV server. For example, you might compare on File Hash or Media Signature to see if anyone has already imported a particular media file.

Clip popup panel

To support visual browsing of a catalog with the maximum available space for thumbnails you can use a grid view and turn off the clip details panel. An easy way to do this is to select the predefined 'Query' workspace using View > Workspace > Query. You can then use the clip popup panel to view details of a clip:

• While showing a grid view you can hold down the Ctrl key (or Alt key on Windows) and move the mouse over the thumbnails and a popup panel will appear showing basic details about the clip that you are hovering over.
• As you move the mouse left and right within the thumbnail (while continuing to hold down the Ctrl or Alt key) you can scrub through the movie to quickly get a feel for that clip. Click the mouse button to select that clip (and set the clip's play head position to the frame that is being shown).
• Alternatively, rather than holding down the Ctrl or Alt key, you can enable an 'i' icon in the top right corner of the thumbnail (in User Interface preferences) and use that to bring up the popup panel. Click the icon again or move the mouse off the clip to hide the popup panel.
• If you click the icon to show the popup panel you can use the following keyboard shortcuts: space (toggle movie playback), JKL (jog-shuttle controls), 0 to 5 (set the star rating for the clip), F (enter full screen playback mode), Esc (close the popup panel).
• By default the following fields are shown: Name, Duration, Start/End timecode, File Size, Video and Audio format, star Rating, and Notes. You can customise these fields by creating a details panel view layout called "HTML Summary".

The clip popup panel is primarily intended for quick browsing. If you need further capabilities when the main details panel is turned off you can press Cmd/Ctrl-I to bring up the details panel in a separate window, or Cmd/Ctrl-P to bring up the windowed player (which can be dragged to a second monitor and displayed full screen).

Old clip details dialog

Note: in most cases you will use the newer clip details panel within the main window to view and edit clip details. If you prefer, however, you can enable the old-style details dialog in your Preferences and bring up a separate clip details window.

Select Clip Details to bring up a dialog where you can view and edit all the properties of a selected clip. This window also shows the thumbnails and media for a clip and can be used for logging clips.

You can bring up the clip details dialog from the main window in several ways: via the menu bar, via a toolbar button, via the context sensitive popup menu, or by double clicking a clip (or control double clicking, depending on how your Preferences are set up).

Viewing media

• There are three tabs that show all the media representations available for a clip: thumbnail images, the original movie and a low-resolution proxy movie (see Proxies and thumbnails).
• Press the Play Media button to show the movie (or still image) at full size.

Logging

• Review the clip and make a selection of the portion you want to keep by marking "in2" and "out2" points using the buttons in the "movie" tab.
• Review the selection by playing the selection, or playing the first or last few seconds of the selection.
• Select a clip status of "good" or "no good" to indicate whether you want to use the clip or not.
• Enter a name, notes, or user defined fields such as videographer or location, to describe the clip.
• Select a new poster frame by pressing the Set poster button in the "movie" tab.
• Select an existing tape or bin name from the combo boxes, or click in the box and type in a new name.
• If you select multiple clips and then bring up the clip details dialog you can edit all the selected clips in one go.

Splitting and merging clips

• Use the Split button (scissors icon) to cut a clip into two at the current point.
• Use the Review Transition button to play the last few frames of the previous clip followed immediately by the start of the current clip. This will show whether the two clips belong to separate scenes or not.
• If the two clips shouldn't be separate after all then use the Merge button to merge this clip into the previous one.

Viewing and editing clip details

• The "Detail" table shows all the properties for the clip, and may include a longer form of the columns shown in the main window (for example, time of day as well as date of last modification of a file).
• Double click any field label or row in the detail table to bring up a separate popup window showing the the value of the property (for example if it's too big to see on one line). For grouping fields a chooser listing all the valid values for that field is shown.
• If you rename or delete a primary clip you are asked if you want to rename or delete the associated media file on disk at the same time. (Rename a clip by typing into the "name" field. Delete a clip from the catalog by pressing the Delete button.)
• For DV clips and Exif still images the date and time of recording and camera exposure details are automatically extracted at the time of importing the movie and are displayed in the details dialog. (Availability of this feature depends on your camcorder and capture software).

Creating and navigating to other clips

• Using the toolbar buttons you can create a new secondary clip (consisting of just the selection), or create a duplicate of this one (a copy of the entire clip).
• Use the up and down toolbar buttons to step through the catalog and show details for other clips
• Press the Show related clips toolbar button to show other clips in the catalog related to this one, such as the parent clip (if this is a secondary clip), details of which projects or programs the clip is used in, any clips with overlapping timecode values, and so on. Double click on a related clip to navigate to its details.
• Use the back and forward buttons to move through the history of related and secondary clips

Keyboard shortcuts

• While the media panel is active you can use shortcuts like 'I' and 'O' to mark in and out points, 'P' to set the poster, and use JKL transport controls (Professional Edition only) to play the clip forwards or backwards at different speeds.
• Use Space to switch to the movie tab and start playing the movie. Use '1', '2' or '3' to select a particular tab.
• Use Control-Down or Control-Up to advance to the next or previous clip.
• Use Control-P to play the media.
• Use Control-J to toggle between the clip details dialog and the media dialog.

Professional Edition

Professional Edition Features

The Professional Edition has several features over and above the old Standard Edition:

Networked operation

The Professional Edition has an additional Server menu that contains commands to share catalogs with other users and search for clips across catalogs in a central clip database when used with the optional Workgroup or Enterprise Server.

Enhanced searching and filtering

The Professional Edition features a powerful, completely new query dialog, used for both searching within a catalog and when performing remote queries against the workgroup database. Queries can contain any number of terms, be combined with logical OR and AND operations, and include regular expressions. Queries can also be named and saved for future use. There is a new toolbar Filter drop down that can be used to apply a named clip filter to the window. The Professional Edition also features a powerful Search and Replace tool that allows textual replacements to be made across any logging field, including regular expression pattern matching.

Sequence editing

The Professional Edition has support for creating and editing simple sequences, allowing a producer to make a rough cut pre-edit of shots to use and then send an EDL over to the edit suite for finishing, for example.

Unlimited user defined fields

The Professional Edition allows you to create an unlimited number of user-defined fields, compared with the standard number of three. These can be used to record details such as videographer, producer, project, location, and so on. Each field can store up to 64K of text and is fully searchable.

Final Cut Pro integration

The Professional Edition lets you send clips and sequences to and from Final Cut projects complete with metadata and subclip information.

Improved importers and exporters

The Professional Edition supports several additional file formats, including Final Cut Pro, Avid, dpsVelocity, OMFI media files, and XML. MXF support is available as an extra option. You can create image sequences and metaclips, and catalog arbitrary file types such as Word documents or project files as well as media files.

Analog scene detection

The Professional Edition lets you perform automatic scene detection on clips subsequent to them being imported, via a separate Detect Scenes command, and also lets you tune the sensitivity for this operation. This is useful if too many false scene changes are detected, or if scene changes are missed with the default setting.

Timezone adjustments

To allow footage from different cameras, perhaps shot at different locations around the world, to be accurately correlated by date the Professional Edition has a Timezone Adjustment command allows the date to be adjusted based on timezone and camera clock differences.

JKL jog-shuttle keys

The Professional Edition supports the use of standard JKL keys to play media backwards or forwards at different speeds in both the clip details dialog, in the media dialog and when playing full screen.

Additional clip fields

To support these features and more, the Professional Edition supports several additional columns. These include Aux T/C (which displays the user-settable timecode field supported by some DV cameras), GMT Date, Location Date, Location Timezone, Clock Adjustment, Catalog and Catalog Notes.

Customisable proxy settings

In Preferences you can customise the size of proxies and the compression setting used in addition to using one of the presets.

Customisable clip details panel

You can customise which fields are shown in the clip details panel and define new tabs.

Other Professional Edition features

Use the Verbatim Logger to enter log notes while a movie is playing. Create Image sequences and metaclips to treat multiple files as a single clip.

Sequences

The Professional Edition has support for creating and editing sequences. A "sequence" is a special type of clip that contains a sequence of clips in order. It corresponds to a simple timeline or cuts-only edited program.

A sequence is created:

• when you import an EDL
• when you import a Final Cut Pro XML file, OMFI file, or Cinestream project containing sequence information
• when you select some clips and use the Create Sequence command
• when you drag clips onto the Sequences node in the tree navigator.

A number of Preferences options control the creation of sequences when importing a file, for example whether to include audio tracks separately and what duration stills should have when added to a sequence.

The sequence window is also used when you use View Tape As Sequence or use the Create Real-Time Sequence command, which places clips on a timeline according to the time of day and can simplify lining up multicamera shoots if the camera clocks were set correctly.

Editing sequences

Double click a sequence clip to open it in a special sequence window. When you edit a sequence the clip details panel changes to show Source and Record playback windows with a timeline below.

The Source window (on the left) shows the current selected clip:

• If you select a clip in the sequence you can trim its duration by adjusting the in and out points. The sequence will increase or decrease in length accordingly. The window is labelled Trim.
• If you select a new source clip from the catalog that you want to add to the sequence (perhaps as the result of searching for more material to add) the window label changes to Source. You can set In and Out points and then cut it to the sequence.

The Record window (on the right) is labelled Sequence and shows the entire sequence:

• You can scrub through the sequence and mark In and Out points to delete part of the sequence.
• Switch to the Details tab to change the name or add a comment to the whole sequence.
• Use the Clip List tab to list individual clips in the sequence, including their timecode and duration.

The timeline shows all the clips in the sequence as a continuous timeline, complete with thumbnails and clip name:

• Click on a clip in the timeline to select the entire clip. You can then trim or remove the clip from the sequence.
• Click just above the clip (where the timecode and tick markers are shown) to move the current play head (indicated by a vertical red line) to that point.
• Drag the ends of the dark grey selection indicator to adjust the selection within the sequence (In and Out points).
• Rearrange the order of clips by dragging and dropping them within the sequence.
• The toolbar buttons below the timeline let you close the sequence window, select large or small thumbnails in the timeline, and zoom in and out.

The following commands appear in the Sequences menu:

• Load Source Clip will display the clip you select in the timeline as a source clip, so you can change the In and Out points and use it again at another point in the sequence.
• Toggle Subclip Limits affects source clips and is available whether you are editing a sequence or not. It turns a subclip into a master clip that refers to the whole media file, and back again (the original subclip limits are saved as a selection using In2/Out2).
• Remove Subclip Limits is similar but applies when trimming clips in a sequence.
• Normally a sequence has a single track representing both video and audio locked together. With the Edit Tracks command you can add extra tracks or change the type of existing tracks for multi-track editing.
• The Sequence menu also has commands to zoom in and out of the timeline and to cycle through the tabs in the Source and Record windows.

An easy way to list the sequences in a catalog is using the Sequences node in the tree navigator.

Keyboard shortcuts

Many familiar keyboard shortcuts are available when editing sequences, including:

See the Sequence menu or hover the mouse over the buttons below the Source and Record windows for details of additional shortcuts (tool tips).

Some of these shortcuts apply to whichever one or other of the Source or Record windows has keyboard focus at the time. Click on the movie player or use Ctrl/Cmd-2 or Ctrl/Cmd-4 to switch between the two windows and observe which tab has a darker background.

Other functions that affect how the timeline is shown are available via the buttons below the timeline, including the size and number of thumbnails that are shown, and whether to use a static playhead when playing the sequence movie.

Printing sequences

There are two ways of printing the clips in a sequence, depening on whether you want to display the original source timecode or the timecode of the clip based on where it is placed within the sequence:

• If you want to print the source timecode, open the tree navigator, choose the sequence you want (under the Sequences node), then right click and select View In New Window. You can then configure the type of view (List, Filmstrip or Grid, and which fields you want displayed) and use Print > Current View.
• If you want to print the sequence timecode, again use the tree navigator but this time right click and choose View Clips before printing the current view.

Additional information

The In and Out point of a clip usage in a sequence refers to its timecode within the timeline. If you are interested in source timecode you can drag and drop (or copy and paste) a clip usage out from a sequence into a regular window and it will create a new secondary clip referring to the relevant source.

If you import a sequence from an EDL and the sequence doesn't play because it doesn't link its media files you can use Link To Sequence Source Clips in the Tools menu to automatically repair the sequence. This command will look for matching clips in the catalog (based on tape name, clip name and timecode) and link to those clips.

Once you have created a rough cut sequence in CatDV you can render it by exporting it as a movie. You can also export a sequence as an EDL or Final Cut Pro XML file for subsequent editing in your NLE editing application.

The original sequence editing dialog available in earlier versions of CatDV is still available if you right click on a sequence in the tree navigator and choose Edit In New Window.

Please note that the basic sequence editing provided in CatDV is not intended to replace a regular video editing application. CatDV provides cuts only editing, with no support for effects or transitions and only limited support for separate audio and video tracks, but in many cases this is all you need.

Verbatim Logger

With the Verbatim Logger you can type in text while a movie plays and link text to the current time in the movie by inserting event markers. You can use the Verbatim Logger in different ways:

• As a logging tool, to create subclips by inserting subclip markers at specified points
• To prepare a transcript of a movie
• As a quick way to create simple subtitles.

To use the Verbatim Logger, select a master clip in your catalog and then open the Verbatim Logger window. A movie player is shown to the left of the window, with a text area to the right. While the movie is playing you can type text in to the text area and use special keyboard shortcuts to play or pause the movie or insert the current timecode value into the text.

Movie control

As well as shortcuts to play and pause the movie you can also define keys to back up or advance the movie by a few seconds, to increase or decrease the playback speed, or to provide JKL controls. If you click on a marker in the text area the movie will jump to that point.

Inserting markers

You can define keyboard shortcuts or use the Subclip and Event buttons to insert a marker with the current timecode value into the text. When you close the Verbatim Logger window by pressing the Apply button, subclip markers will create a new subclip at that point, while event markers will create a timecode event marker. In each case the text following the marker relates to that timecode. You can also insert the timecode into the text itself.

Saving as text

Instead of creating subclips or timecode event markers you can save the text you type in as plain text in the clip's Notes field by pressing the Save Text button. The Copy Text is similar but will copy the entire text to the clip (for example, if you need to paste a transcript into a Word document).

Conversely, if you have already created a transcript with timeecode markers in it in this format using another application, you can paste it into the Verbatim Logger window using the Paste Special button.

When saving or pasting text in the Verbatim Logger, a special format is used for markers. Subclip markers appear as a line containing the timecode in square brackets, while event markers contain the timecode on a line on its own. The clip name can be set if you have a line beginning ":Name: ", followed by the name. You can set other fields in a similar way, for example :Bin:, :Notes:, :User1:

Keyboard macros

You can define up to ten keyboard shortcuts for common keywords (such as the name of a character) and map these to ten consecutive keys, such as the numeric keypad digits, F1 through F10, or a two key combination such as Ctrl-A followed by the digits 0 through 9. When you press the key (or key combination) the macro text is inserted into the text area.

If you precede the macro text with an asterisk '*' then an event marker is created at that point. For example, you could define F1 as "*Penalty" and F2 as "*Goal" and use these to quickly log events in a football match.

Defining shortcuts

You can configure the keyboard shortcuts to control the movie and insert timecode markers using the Settings button. In general you need to use special keys (for example function keys, the Tab key, or a modifier combination such as Ctrl-J/K/L) for these functions because the normal keys are used to type descriptive text into the text area.

When defining shortcut keystrokes (or key combinations) you need to enter the name of the key according to a special scheme. The following examples illustrate the names you can use:

"F1", "alt SPACE" (ie. Alt key and space bar), "NUMPAD0" (numeric keypad 0), "CAPS_LOCK", "TAB", "shift TAB", "ctrl A", "ctrl PERIOD" (ie. Control key and full stop), "alt COMMA", "ENTER", "BACK_SLASH", etc.

The following modifiers are supported: "shift", "alt", "ctrl" and "meta" (the Cmd key on Mac OS X, not available on Windows).

Time of day logging

If you open the Verbatim Logger without selecting a movie then a free running time of day timecode clock is shown, allowing you to type text and insert markers linked to the current time. You can also enter your own start timecode, or '0' to start a free-running clock from 0:00:00:00.

Image sequences and metaclips

Image sequences

The Professional Edition has automatic support for importing image sequences, where folders of consecutively numbered still images (such as might be produced by animation software) are treated as a single movie.

An image sequence is a special type of clip that has references to all the images within it. An image sequence is created automatically when you import a directory if all the files within it appear to be numbered consecutively starting from zero. You can also create an image sequence manually using the Import As Image Sequence command, available in the File menu or by right clicking on a folder in the file system tree.

Several settings in the advanced tab of Preferences relate to image sequences:

• The Image sequence file filter is a filename pattern that must occur in a directory for it to be automatically treated as an image sequence. (If you leave it blank the files must be numbered starting from 0 or 1. If you set it to '.jpg' any folder containing 4 or more consecutively numbered JPEGs will be accepted, and so on.) Set this option to 'disable' to turn off automatic image sequence detection altogether.
• The Image sequence frame rate is the default frame rate. You can edit it subsequently by editing the Frame Rate value of the image sequence metaclip.
• If you set the Create reference movies option then CatDV will attempt to create a QuickTime reference movie representing the entire image sequence whenever you import an image sequence into the catalog. The reference movie has the name of the sequence followed by '#Ref.mov' and is placed alongside the image files. Although CatDV can play the image sequence without needing this file, it is useful to have a reference movie if you want to use the image sequence in another application.

If image files are added (or removed from) the directory then the image sequence is updated automatically.

Metaclips

Image sequences are a special type of metaclip. If you need to group clips or files which should always be treated as one together, or if you simply want to reduce "clutter" in a catalog, then you can "collapse" or "stack" a number of clips into a single metaclip.

Do this by selecting the clips you want to combine and using the Convert To Metaclip command. The clips then appear as a single metaclip. You can view the individual clips within a metaclip by selecting it in the Metaclips folder in the tree navigator, and can remove a metaclip and detach all the clips so they reappear in the catalog again by right clicking on the metaclip in the tree. You can also rearrange the order of clips in a metaclip, move new clips to it, or detach individual clips by dragging and dropping clips and using the tree navigator.

Using the tree navigator (right click on the project node) you can import a Final Cut project as a metaclip containing the project file and all the clips and sequences within the project.

MXF Metaclips

If you have a Panasonic P2 volume structure or a folder of Avid MXF files the video and audio data for a clip are normally stored in separate files. When you import these files CatDV automatically matches up the associated video and audio files and creates a single "MXF metaclip" so that the audio and video can be played back in sync (this features requires the CatDV MXF Option, and assumes you have the appropriate codecs installed). You can also create metaclips for XDCAM clips.

As with metaclips you create yourself, you can view the individual files that go to make up the metaclip through the tree navigator.

In most cases you can treat MXF metaclips just like normal clips, for example you can edit them into a sequence, send them over to Final Cut as a merged clip, or copy them to copy all the files within them.

Workgroup Features

Requirements

To use the networked features of CatDV you need to purchase and install the separate CatDV Workgroup Server (or Enterprise Server) product. This is available for various server platforms and databases. You also need a Professional Edition license for each client that will be using the server. This page describes basic networking features common to the Workgroup and Enterprise editions of the CatDV Server, while the next page details the Enterprise Server.

Because most Internet firewalls block access to non-standard ports you normally need direct access to the server machine from each client machine via a local area network.

Initially the Server menu is configured in a safe mode to allow querying only. Commands which can write data to the server are disabled by default but you can enable these via Preferences if required.

Please read the Server Release Notes for details on how to set up the CatDV Server, including the Live HTML Publisher or Web Client if you have that, and for additional notes on how to work with the server.

Connecting to the server

Use the Log On To Server command in the Server menu and enter the hostname or IP address of the machine running the CatDV Server. When you press OK you will be connected to the server and the other Server menu commands will be enabled, or you may see a message that a connection failure occurred.

If you use the Enterprise Server you will also need to log on by typing in your CatDV user name and password. (You can connect without logging on but will only have limited access to the server.)

To check that you have established a connection with the server program view the Server Status under the Server Admin Panel to display some statistics about the operation of the server, such as how many catalogs and clips are contained in the remote database.

If you predominantly use CatDV connected to the server rather than standalone then you can configure it so the Server Shortcuts window is displayed on startup, providing convenient shortcuts for connecting to the server, performing queries and so on.

Publishing catalogs

If you have created catalogs and saved them locally on your hard disk you need to publish them to make them available to other users via the shared database. (Once they are stored in the shared database you no longer need the local catalog files, though you may choose to keep these files somewhere as a backup or in case you need access to them when the server is unavailable. Once published to the database you should make all your changes there, however, rather than in the local files, as the local files will not be kept in sync with the database.)

You publish a catalog by opening it and then using the Publish Catalog command. This will publish the catalog from the current window (even if you have just created it and it has never been saved to disk - if you don't require a local copy you can then close the window without saving changes).

You can also publish an entire directory full of catalog files directly from your local hard disk by using the Bulk Publish Catalogs command.

Opening a remote catalog

Use the Browse Database command to view a list of all the catalogs in the remote database, including a short summary of the contents of each catalog (note that the clip count is the raw count of all clips in that catalog, including metaclip contents etc.). You can open a catalog by double clicking its name in the list. From this window you can also bulk delete catalogs, export them to standalone .cdv catalog files, or search for all the catalogs containing a particular keyword (in either the catalog description or the clip details).

You can also view remote catalogs via the Server node in the tree navigator. When you click on a catalog name you initially get a quick read-only view of clips in that catalog. To open the catalog fully you should right click and choose Open for editing.

Querying the remote database

Use Perform Query to enter search criteria to search for matching clips across the entire remote database. A window is displayed containing the query results, combining all the clips that match, even if they come from different catalogs.

You can play the clips, export them as a movie or send them to your editing application, print them out, or make changes to the clips returned, perhaps adding new logging annotations and then publishing the changes back to the remote database. You can also save a copy of the query results to a new local catalog file if you want.

Managing catalogs

Although all the clips in the remote database are stored in the same place, for convenience they are still grouped into logical groupings called catalogs. You should normally create separate catalogs for each tape, or perhaps each shoot or each project, rather than trying to store all your clips in one large catalog. This will make it easier to manage your clips. For example, you can use the Delete Catalog command in Browse Catalogs to delete a catalog from the database. (You also minimise the risk of creating a catalog that is too large to open reliably if you only have limited memory available.)

You can move clips from one catalog to another by dragging and drop them using the tree navigator.

If you have a lot of catalogs you can arrange them into folders using the tree navigator. Right click on the server Catalogs node to create a new folder, then drag catalogs onto a folder to move them. (Organising remote catalogs into folders involves renaming them, with a forward slash character to separate folder names.)

Publishing changes

When you open a remote catalog or perform a query and are working with the query results you can edit the clips in your window exactly as if you were working on a normal local catalog file. However, rather than saving any changes to disk with Save Catalog, you normally want to update the clips in the remote database instead, for which you use the Publish Changes command.

You can add logging notes, change clip names, make selections, select new poster thumbnails, delete unwanted clips, split a clip into two or create new secondary clips, and all these changes will be saved when you publish the changes. You can also create brand new clips, eg. by importing a file or using New Log Entry, but only if you have opened a remote catalog, not if you are viewing query results, as in the latter case it is not defined which catalog the new clips belong to.

Keeping in synch with the server

Once you open a remote catalog you actually work on a local copy of the clips and thumbnails from that catalog in memory on your machine. If another user on your network edits these clips and publishes their changes to the database you can use Refresh Window to update your window with the latest version from the remote database. The time at which the contents of the window were last synchronised with the remote database is shown as part of the window title. If you have had a window open for a long time it's a good idea to refresh the window before starting to make any changes.

If you want to, you can set up automatic refreshes by entering a refresh period in the Advanced Functionality tab of Preferences. If somebody else has made changes to the catalog you are working on you will be prompted to load those changes. You can also enable tethering mode, where changes you make are automatically published to the server and changes from other people are automatically loaded if there is no conflict.

Resolving conflicts

If two users try to make changes to the same catalog or clips at the same time then only the first set of changes that are published will be saved to the remote database. The second person who attempts to publish changes will receive a warning message stating there were conflicting edits (eg. trying to add a comment to a clip which the previous user has just deleted). All the changes which can be saved without conflict are saved, and the main window is refreshed to show the current contents as per the remote database. Any clips which weren't able to be saved are displayed in a new unsaved changes window. The second user then needs to manually re-apply those changes in the main window, deciding whether and how to resolve any conflicts before trying to publish the changes again.

Re-publishing a catalog

If you publish a catalog with the same name and creation time as an existing catalog in the remote database (and your local catalog is newer than the one in the database) then you will overwrite that catalog in the database with the newer one. Normally you should always use Publish Changes, as this automatically merges your changes and attempts to resolve any conflicting edits.

If you saved a remote catalog locally for offline working, however, and now want to publish changes that you made you can do this by overwriting the catalog held on the server with the Publish Catalog command. If you do this any change history associated with the old catalog will be lost, and if another user has the same catalog open they will be unable to publish their changes.

Enterprise Features

The networked features of CatDV are provided in one of two editions of the CatDV Server. The features described below extend those of the regular Workgroup Server and are only available if you use the CatDV Enterprise Edition client with the CatDV Enterprise server.

Access control

The "Enterprise" version of CatDV supports access control. When using the Workgroup Server you do not need any special privileges to connect to the workgroup server and only the system user name (as used when logging on to the Mac OS X or Windows) is recorded in log files. With the Enterprise server, however, you can define your own CatDV users and groups and give them different permissions within the CatDV database.

First, an administrator will define different production groups (these might correspond to different projects or departments, for example "Drama", "Documentaries", and "Childrens"). The administrator can then create users and roles, and give them access to different groups as required.

See Roles and Permissions for more information.

Log In Details

Use the Log In Details dialog to connect to the server. If you use the Workgroup Edition you just use this dialog to configure the host name and port of the server, but if you use the Enterprise Edition you can also:

• log on to the server, by entering your CatDV user name and password
• change your CatDV password
• change your default production group (when catalogs are saved to the server this is the group they will belong to unless it's subsequently changed).

Storing settings on the server

If you work on several productions it is likely that you will be using different user-defined fields, pick list values, and view layouts for each production. An administrator can set up their Preferences for a particular production and then save these settings to the server by right clicking on the production name in the Server tree. When a user logs on to a production group they can load the settings relevant to that group so they have the right values for the group they are working on.

Field definition sets

Normally, user-defined field names and pick list values are stored with the production group settings. You can save a set of these field definitions separately from the other production group settings, however, as a named field definition set, and then apply the same field definitions to multiple production groups. This is useful if you have a standard, enterprise-wide set of custom fields you want to enforce but still want to use different production groups (to manage permissions as part of a complex workflow, for example).

To edit and manage field sets use the Field Definitions tab of Preferences.

A field definition set consists of user-defined field names, metadata field settings (ie.whether Exif and QuickTime metadata fields are used for grouping or not), and pick list values for all these fields, as well as predefined categories for timecode event markers and field mappings used when importing and exporting data to Final Cut Pro.

To save the current field settings as a new named field definition set, click on Manage and then Save As. To link those field settings to another production group, edit the preference settings for the other group (by right clicking on that group in the tree) then click Manage and Load the field set you want to use. From then on the two production groups will share the same field settings.

Normally, only an administrator can edit the settings for a production group. You can allow other users to add new pick list values however (as these may be needed on a day by day basis) by giving them the "Edit pick lists" permission.

Production blog

Using the tree navigator you can create shared group documents on the server.

Group documents relate to a particular production and can be used as a powerful communications tool in a variety of ways, for example as a shared "to do list", a repository of team information such as telephone lists, a discussion forum, or a production "blog". A group document consists of a series of entries which can be made by different people, and can contain web URLs and links to specific clips as well as text.

• To create a group document, right click on the production group and choose New group document, then enter a title and the initial message.
• Click on an existing group document in the tree to see the message in the clip details panel.
• Reply to an existing message or add a new message to the document using the buttons within the message. You can also add special links to clips or catalogs of interest by dragging them onto the document node, for example to tell other team members when a sequence is finished, or to tell them that a clip needs more work.
• Each entry in the document is tagged by date and the person making the change. You can view the document by date or as a threaded conversation, just like a discussion forum or web blog.

Clip lists and smart folders

The tree navigator provides other mechanisms to select and mark clips of interest:

• Clip Lists are folders of clips, similar to play lists. You can drag remote clips (from a catalog or query results) onto a clip list to add them to the list. When you do this you add a reference to the clip. A clip can be in more than one list, and deleting a clip from a clip list only deletes it from that list, it doesn't delete the clip from the server.
• Smart folders are named queries. When you click on a smart folder in the tree all the matching clips are shown as a temporary read-only view. Just as with catalogs, you need to right click and Open for editing to open the clips properly so you can edit them. You can have local smart folders (saved in local preferences on your machine) or shared smart folders which are stored on the server and accessible to everyone in the production group. If you have a large number of smart folders you can organise them into folders by using a '/' character in the name.
• Automatic grouping folders, or automatic smart folders, are an extension of grouping mode to the server and provide a convenient way to browse clips on the central database by keyword, format or other any other grouping field.

Server Admin Panel

The Server Admin Panel has four tabs:

• Server Status, displays version information and statistics about the server, including size of the database
• User Admin, allows you to create groups, roles and users and edit their access permissions
• Audit Log, displays a log of messages recording significant events on the server (including errors, when users log on and off, and of major changes to data held in the database)
• Connections, displays a list of currently connected clients.

In the audit log there may be two names shown in the "User" column. One is the Mac OS X or NT logon of the user who was running the CatDV application, the other is the CatDV user (if any) that they logged on to the server as at the time. Each object in the CatDV database (primarily users, groups, tapes and catalogs, but also individual clips and thumbnails) has a unique remote object id which is shown in the "Obj ID" column and can be used for searching the audit log for events relating to that object.

(In the Workgroup Edition client only the Server Status and Connections panels are available.)

Broadcasting Messages

From the connections tab you can send a short message (for example, telling users that the server is about to be shut down) to other CatDV users. If you select specific users from the list you can send them a private message. If you don't make a selection you can broadcast a message to all users. Note that users may not receive the message immediately, depending on the server poll frequency they have set in Preferences.

Tape Library Management

The Library Management window displays a list of all the tapes in the database. Each tape has information such as tape format, shelf location and a description which is stored against the tape record itself, not a particular clip or catalog record in the database.

While the Browse Database commmand lets you browse the contents of the database by catalog, with the Library Management window you can also browse the database by tape. Use the Find command to search for and list tapes, then use the Tape Details command to view or edit the tape information for a selected tape, such as its format or shelf location. Press View Clips to display all the clips belonging to that tape (or selected tapes). You can also print tape information from the library management screen (see the File and Edit menus for commands relating to tapes).

With the optional wireless barcode scanner you can simplify data entry, for example doing a stock take of which tapes are on which shelf:

• If your tapes all have a unique barcode you can scan the barcode on a tape and press the Send button to send the barcode to the computer and bring up the details for that tape.
• If you scan a special barcode and then the tape you can indicate that that tape has been checked out.
• Finally, if you first scan a shelf label and then the barcodes of all the tapes on that shelf, you can easily update the location information for all your tapes in one operation.

You don't need to enter the library management screen to view a tape's details. You can also do Edit > Tape Details (or press Cmd/Ctrl-T) from the main window to view the tape details for a particular clip.

Advanced Workflows

For help designing advanced automated workflows, including the CatDV Worker Node and the Live HTML Publisher or Web Client web interfaces, please refer to the release notes included with the CatDV Server and the Worker Node or consult with your systems integrator or solution provider.

Roles and permissions

When using the CatDV Enterprise Server access to clips and catalogs on the server is governed by users, groups, roles and permissions.

Each catalog on the server is owned by a particular user and group. Each user who logs on to the system has a specific role. The role governs what access they have, depending on what permissions the role has in the catalog's group. (A role can define different permissions in different groups.)

The following permissions are available:

• Read other users' catalogs (this lets you open all catalogs belonging to the group, not just those you own)
• Create new catalogs in this group
• Create new clips (whether you can import new clips or create new subclips within an existing catalog)
• Edit own catalogs (if you don't have this permission catalogs become locked once they have been published to the server)
• Edit other users' catalogs (this lets you edit any catalog belonging to the group)
• Delete own clips (allows you to delete clips you own from a catalog)
• Delete own catalogs
• Delete others (allows you to delete other users' clips and/or catalogs within this group, in addition to those belonging to you)
• Tape management (allows you to create and edit tape information)
• User administration (allows you to create new users and change their permissions within this group)
• System administration (allows you to create new groups and edit any permission, effectively the "super user")
• Edit pick lists (allows you to edit pick list values for that group)
• Edit locked fields (allows you to edit fields that have been marked as locked in the user-defined fields section of Preferences; normally such fields are read-only)

These permissions all apply to one particular group or "production". A role can have different permissions in different groups, giving you great flexibility in setting up access control if you need it. You can also give a role access to the special System Group; any permission you have in this group will apply to the entire database, regardless of which production group the catalog belongs to.

Differences from earlier versions

Roles are a new feature in CatDV 9. In earler versions of CatDV permissions and group membership were directly assigned to individual users, which meant that any permission changes had to be applied to each user in turn to keep them in sync. When you first switch to the new client and server, new roles are created automatically based on the existing permissions and given a name starting with '##'. You should review and consolidate these roles and give them more meaningful names as required.

If necessary, you can keep the old permissions scheme by unchecking the "User roles" option in the Server Control Panel.

Checking permissions

Use the Browse Database command to view the group and user that a catalog belongs to and whether you have permission to read, write or delete the catalog. The "Access" column summarises these permissions with the letters 'r', 'w' and 'd', while '-' indicates you don't have access. If you use the tree navigator catalogs are arranged in folders according to the production group they belong to.

Use the Show Info button to display the catalog information panel where you can change the user or group the catalog belongs to (if you have permission to edit the catalog).

If you still don't see the commands to publish catalogs or save changes, even though you think you should have permission to do so, there are several other things to check:

• Check that the "Allow write access to server" option is checked in the "Server" Preferences page
• Make sure you are not using a Browse Only client license.
• If the status line shows you are in a read-only view and the clips are shown with a distinctive red background this means you are quickly previewing the contents of a catalog on the server without having fully opened it. Right click on the catalog in the tree or use the Server menu and choose the Open For Editing command.

User Admin Panel

When editing users and permissions, first create the group(s) you are interested in by going to the User Admin panel and clicking the '+' button in the Production Groups section (you will need to log on as a systems administrator to do this).

Next, you can define a number of system-wide roles, for example Systems Adminstrator, Group Adminstrator, Librarian, Logger, Producer, and so on. Again, click on the '+' button to do this. For now, just enter a role name.

Once you have created groups and roles you can assign a role to particular groups by giving that role permissions in that group. Select the production group and role you wish to link together, then click on the '+' button in the Role Permissions section. Once you do this you can click on the permissions you want users with that role to have in that group. (Remember that if you give a role permissions in the System Group that's shorthand for giving the role that permission in all groups.)

Finally, once you have created your production groups and defined your roles, you can create users and assign them to particular roles.

When you select a production group, all the roles which are members of that group (ie. have access to the group) are shown with a tick mark in the Member column. Conversely, if you select a role then all the groups it is a member of are shown with ticks in the production group Member column. Once you select a group and a role, both of which tick check marks, then you can view and edit the permissions of that role in that group.

Customising functionality for roles

When a user logs on to the system, if they are a member of more than one production group they choose which group they want to work in. Selecting a group loads the preference settings for that group, including settings such as proxy locations, user-defined field names, pick list values, and customised view layouts. If you check the Advanced user interface checkbox for that role then users with that role will always see the advanced toolbar, advanced tree and advanced tree regardless of what the group settings are.

In addition to this group-based customisation, the specific role of the user can override certain default settings for the production group. For example, a details panel layout called "Advanced" could be defined that is turned off for most users in the group and is only enabled for adminstrators.

Click the pencil button to edit a role and enter override settings, such as the names of tabs that are always to be shown or hidden for that role.

Enhanced query dialog

With the enhanced query dialog (Professional Edition only) you can build up complex queries and save them for use later. Use the same query dialog when searching for clips in the catalog locally or querying the remote database (with the optional Workgroup Server).

• First, select the clip property to search on. This will display a list of operations based on the column type (text, timecode, date, or boolean).
• Then, select the comparison operation, enter any parameters (such as the text to search for) and options (such as case sensitive comparison).
• If you want to search on additional clip properties at the same time press Add term to add a new row. You can add as many terms as you want (though with more terms the query may take longer to execute).
• Normally all the terms must match for a clip to be found (ie. the terms are combined by a logical 'AND' operation). If you check the 'OR' box then one (or more) of the 'OR' terms must match, as well as all the 'AND' terms.
• Check the 'NOT' box to exclude clips matching that term.

Named queries

• Press the Create button, then enter a name and press Save to save a named query.
• Named queries are stored in the local preferences file and are available in later sessions. Select a previously saved named query from the drop down list to use it.
• Check the Show in toolbar option to turn the query into a named filter that can be used to filter the clips shown in the main window.

Remote searches

When querying the remote database (with optional Workgroup Server only) you have the following options:

• Return additional clips similar to the ones matched by the query.
• Return all the thumbnails associated with a clip or just the poster thumbnail.
• Press Find Clips to create a new query results window showing all the matching clips, regardless of which catalog they are in.
• Press Find Catalogs to display a list of matching catalogs within the database, including a count of how many clips in each catalog match the query.

Local searches

• When searching for clips locally within a catalog you can either move to the next matching clip or create a new window showing all the matches. See searching and filtering.
• When doing local searches within a catalog you can set a Preferences option to use the simpler, Standard Edition query dialog instead if you prefer.
• The Browse Catalogs command is provided to search across multiple catalogs locally on disk. Because the catalogs are not stored in a relational database, as they are with remote searches, the search capability provided is much less sophisticated however.

Simple query panel

You can toggle the query panel between advanced and simple mode by checking the Advanced box. In simple mode, the list of fields you can search on is predefined and you just need to type in the values to search for (or leave a field blank if you don't care what its value is). You can configure which fields are used for a simple search. If the simple search isn't flexible enough you can switch to an advanced search.

Regular expressions

In regular expressions many characters have special meaning to match particular groups of characters.

For example, '^' and '$' match the start and end of a line respectively, '.' matches any character, '[A-Za-z]' matches any upper case or lower case letter, '\s' or '[:space:]' means any white space character, '\d' or '[0-9]' or '[:digit:]' means any digit, '\S' means any visible (non-space) character, and '\b' matches a word boundary. '*' means the previous character can match any number of times (0 or more), '?' means it's optional (matches 0 or 1 times), and '+' means matches 1 or more times. To prevent one of these characters from having its special meaning precede it with a '\'. For example, 'h[ea]llo' or '(hello|hallo)' will match 'hello' or 'hallo', while '\(.*\)' will search for pairs of parentheses.

Using the Search and Replace tool you can search for a regular expression and use the results of that expression in the replacement. Any text that matches a sub-expression in the search term inside parentheses '(' and ')' can be inserted into the replacement text using '\1' for the first term and so on. For example, you could search for '^(\S+) (\S+)' and replace it with '\2 \1' to swap the first two words of each line, or search for '.*XXX.*' and replace it with nothing to delete all comments tagged with the text 'XXX'.

Smart Labels

Using smart labels you can simplify workflows by highlighting clips in different colours to indicate their status, for example green for approved, red for in progress. In your preferences you can define different labels and the background colour to use, and associate each label with a filter condition. These labels are dynamic and will change as soon as the clip is modified.

Filter conditions can be as simple or complicated as required. Often they will just match an existing pick list field, for example if clip Status is "Approved" then label the clip as "Approved", but they can also be linked to more complicated conditions, for example "if status is 'Logged' and archive status is blank then label the clip as 'Ready for archiving'".

Use the Edit Smart Labels command in the View menu to configure smart labels:

• Use + and - and the up and down arrows to create or delete a smart label
• Give each label a name (this is the value that is displayed when you customise your views and add the new Label column), a colour, and edit the filter condition for that label.
• Use the up and down arrows to change the order in which smart labels are evaluated. The first matching condition determines the label. If no conditions match, the DEFAULT label is used.
• Choose the appearance of labels, whether colour is displayed or not.

The quickest way to set up smart labels is using the "Auto" smart label wizard. This will create smart labels automatically based on any pick list or grouping field:

• Choose whether to create labels based on the pick list values explicitly stored in the field definition set (the 'Pick Lists' section of preferences), on the actual distinct values of a grouping field for all the clips in the current catalog, or a combination of the two (including values recently seen in other catalogs)
• Choose which field to base the labels on
• Choose a colour scheme to use

An alternative mechanism which provides similar capabilities to smart labels is to create a user-defined field with a calculated field (or variable expression). Using calculated fields you can display multiple smart labels at the same time.

Additional Importers and Exporters

The Professional Edition (and/or CatDV Pegasus Client) support a number of additional file formats to the standard importers and exporters.

Batch lists and other formats

It supports the following additional importers, you can Import As:

• Avid AVB Bin File (see Avid integration)
• Avid AAF File (deprecated, use AVB instead)
• Avid ALE Log File
• Final Cut Pro Batch List
• Final Cut Pro XML File
• Generic File
• Image Sequence
• MXF Media File
• OMFI Media File
• Panasonic P2 Clip
• PDF Document
• SRT Subtitle File
• XDCAM Clip

Importing MXF media files or P2 and XDCAM metaclips requires the CatDV MXF Option, though you may need additional software or codecs to play these files.

You can export clip lists in the following additional batch file formats. You can Export As:

• Avid AAF File (see Avid integration)
• Avid ALE Log File
• CatDV XML v1 and v2 (see below)
• dpsVelocity batch List (to export a DPS BRT file)
• Final Cut Pro batch List
• Final Cut Pro 7 XML File (for use with Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas)
• Final Cut Pro X XML File

Final Cut Pro 7

Although Final Cut Pro 7 XML files have been obsoleted by Apple themselves, this file format is still used as an interchange format by other tools such as Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or Sony Vegas. CatDV uses the user-defined fields in particular ways. By default, User 1 maps to Description, User 2 to Scene, User 3 to Shot/Take, User 4/5 to Comment A/B, User 6 to Label, User 7 to Label 2, User 8 to Capture, and User 9-12 map to Master Comment 1 to 4. You can customise these mappings in the Field Definitions tab of Preferences. For each Final Cut column choose which column in CatDV it maps to.

Final Cut Pro X

Apple's Final Cut Pro X application uses a completely different project format which is incompatible with FCP 7. Using FCPX XML it is possible to exchange clips and sequences between CatDV and FCP X, using the new .fcpxml file format which CatDV can read and write.

When exporting an FCP X XML file you can either export a list of clips (to create a new event in the FCP X Event Library) or export a single sequence (to create a new project in the FCP X Project Library, including any clips it depends on in a new event if necessary). You can't mix events and projects in the same .fcpxml file however. You can also go the other way and export an event or a project as an .fcpxml file from FCP X and import that into CatDV. As well as clips and sequences, metadata in the form of descriptions and timecode markers can be sent across.

CatDV XML Files (v1 and v2)

As well as Final Cut Pro XML files the Professional Edition supports its own CatDV-specific XML batch file format:

The Export as CatDV XML command exports details about the selected clips as an XML document. XML is useful as an interchange format if you need to import clip data (including metadata) into an external application such as a database.

Export as CatDV XML v.2 uses the newer CatDV XMLv2 file format, which supports all the latest CatDV metadata fields, including custom catalog and marker fields, full field identifiers, and more. It can even contain thumbnails, encoded in the XML as base64 data. Whenever possible you should use version 2 XML files rather than the older version 1 format.

The Export CatDV XML Index(es) command saves XML v1 file(s) containing any log notes or other information that you have entered for the selected clips. These file(s) are called index.xml and are stored in the directory with the media files. The purpose of these index files is to store any data that you enter, such as the description of a media file or orientation of a still, directly with the media files, in case the files are later moved or the catalog file is lost. When you import a media file any index.xml file in the same directory is checked and the information from it is automatically added to the clip as it is imported (for example, if you misplace the catalog file and import an archive created with the CatDV Archiving option).

The Import CatDV XML File command will import either CatDV XML v1 or v2 files. The format of CatDV XML Batch Files the same as the XML files that CatDV exports. See the CatDV Worker Node Release Notes for more details on using these files.

XML "sidecar" files

If you import a media file and there's an XML file with the same name alongside (eg. MyFile.mov and MyFile.xml or MyFile.mov.xml, sometimes referred to as a sidecar file) then CatDV will attempt to read additional metadata from the XML file and associate it with the movie. CatDV will create media metadata columns that match the names of tags or attributes in the XML file, providing a way to load data from other applications if they can export data as an XML file.

OMF and MXF Files

CatDV Pegasus Client, or CatDV Pro with the CatDV MXF Option, supports importing MXF media files as used by many professional cameras including Panasonic P2 cameras, Sony XDCAM, and others, and also by Avid Media Composer. If audio and video are stored in separate files an OpAtom MXF metaclip is created so they are automatically played in synch. It also adds support for importing Avid's legacy OMF media files.

Generic files

So you can manage all the files that make up a project you can actually catalog any type of file (such as Word documents, spreadsheets, project files) in CatDV, not just media files.

• To import non-media files you need to enable the Import all types of document option in Preferences.
• A generic CatDV clip record is created for each such file. You can add your own comments and log notes to this record, and thus catalog all the supporting files needed for a project in the same way as your media files.
• You can launch the file in its default application (as if you double clicked it in the Finder or Windows Explorer) with CatDV's Open With Default App command.
• To help you search for non-media files in your catalog you can choose whether to Try to extract text from binary files. Any characters that look like meaningful text that is found near the start of the file is automatically extracted and stored in the Notes field. (Even though the file itself will often be in an inscrutable binary format it is common for useful text such as author or title of the document to appear in a header near the top of the document.)
• When you import a directory only recognised media file types are imported unless you check the 'process all types of document' option in Preferences.

Pegasus Client Application

The CatDV Pegasus Client includes all the features of CatDV Pro and CatDV Enterprise Edition client, plus additional high-end features including:

• The CatDV MXF Option
• Support for Pegasus custom actions
• Support for importing and reading metadata from .R3D files (for both RED ONE and RED Epic cameras) and creating a RED Metaclip that ties together all the files for one RDC clip
• Native support for playing and transcoding RED clips
• Support for importing, playing, and transcoding ARRI RAW image sequences
• Discuss work that needs doing on a clip or project using social media style chat channels
• Native support for viewing DPX, EXR and DNG images
• Support for importing Avid AVB bin files
• Support for exporting AAF files for integration with Avid Media Composer
• The CatDV Archive and Archive Library option
• The ability to configure and then print out a clip using a custom label layout (available via the Print menu)
• Support for server-side plugins
• User-defined field types for auto-suggest fields, and HTML- and JSON-formatted content

CatDV Pegasus Client is the flagship application in the CatDV product family, and any new premium features that might be introduced in future will always be added to the Pegasus Client first.

To read more about integration with Avid please see the next page.

AVID integration

The following features are available to provide integration between the CatDV Pegasus Client and AVID Media Composer.

Most of these features require the Pegasus Client application, though some may also be available with CatDV Pro and the MXF Option.

Importing from Avid

To import data from AVID into CatDV:

• You can directly import the Avid MediaFiles folder into CatDV to catalog the files. Metaclips that combine the video and audio files into a single asset are created, and metadata such as the Avid project name and the original source file that Avid imported the file from are shown.
• The best way to import data from your Media Composer project into CatDV is to directly import an Avid AVB bin file into CatDV Pegasus Client. This works for both AMA-linked and imported files. For AMA-linked files CatDV will link to the original file. For files imported into Avid CatDV will automatically link to the imported file if it knows where the Avid MediaFiles folder is (if not, use the Resolve MXF UMIDs command), and you can optionally create an additional clip for the original file also.
• If you have the CatDV Worker Node you can set up an AVB folder scan action that will automatically import bin files whenever there is a change to the bin, and either add new clips or update existing clips in the server catalog you are synching to.
• If you just want to send over a few clips or sequences you can also export selected items from Media Composer to CatDV via AAF. If required, you can set up a Send To template to save the AAF file to a temporary location and then auto-launch CatDV.

Exporting to Avid

To export clips from CatDV to Avid, and have Media Composer link to and play the media, it's necessary for CatDV to know the clip UMID that Avid uses. There are three options for exporting clips (including subclips and simple sequences) with markers and metadata:

1. Import clips into Avid first

• In most cases you will import the clips into Avid first, then bring those master clips into CatDV (using one of the methods above) before logging in CatDV (by entering log notes, adding markers, creating subclips and rough cut sequences, etc.)
• You can then export clips from CatDV to Avid using AAF. Select the clips and/or sequences you want to export, press and hold the AAF icon in the CatDV toolbar, and drag the icon into your bin in Media Composer. (This will create a temporary AAF file which is passed into Media Composer).
• If Media Composer is running on a different machine, you can use the Export As Avid AAF file command to create an AAF file on the desktop or other location for you to send on to your editor.

2. Import MXF files directly into CatDV:

• In the case of P2, XDCAM and other MXF files, you can ingest the media directly into CatDV before exporting to Avid, and CatDV will read the UMID from the MXF file.
• You can then export from CatDV into Media Composer via AAF as above, and as long as the original media is also AMA-linked in your Avid project, it will either link automatically or you can use the Relink command.

3. Transcode to DNxHD using CatDV

• New in CatDV 14.1, you have the option to import raw camera media into CatDV first and then export it as DNxHD OpAtom MXF files to the Avid MediaFiles folder. Media Composer continuously indexes the Avid MediaFiles folder and will automatically detect these files, so when you export an AAF file that refers to these clips they will automatically link and play.
• To do this, select the clips to transcode in CatDV and do Export As Movie, choosing "Avid DNx MXF OpAtom" from the Export As drop down and choosing the required DNxHD profile under video settings. (Note that currently only DNxHD profiles are supported, not DNxHR). If desired you can check the Advanced box and include burnt in text such as timecode or a watermark.
• Export the files to the Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 folder (or pick another number if you prefer, either because you've reached the limit of 5000 files per folder or because you want to keep the files you generated separate from those transcoded by Media Composer).
• You can choose Re-import resulting file as a new asset and Copy metadata so you have a new metaclip in CatDV that refers to the Avid media and which you can export to Avid via AAF.
• A more convenient option in most cases is to check the OpAtom MXF proxies: Use AvidProxy fields (for AAF export) option in Preferences. This will annotate the original clip in CatDV with metadata that is needed to link the file in Avid, such as the UMIDs of the exported files. You can then continue logging with the original clip in CatDV, including creating subclips or adding it to a sequence, then when you export to Media Composer it will include the correct UMID so that Avid will link to the DNxHD proxy.
• After importing clips from CatDV via AAF you can do an offline edit in Media Composer using the DNxHD proxy files you generated in CatDV. To relink to the original hi-res files for an online edit you just need to AMA-link to the original camera card folder(s), which you can do in another bin or another project if desired, then use the Avid Relink... command. Choose "Tape Name or Source File Name" (instead of Source File ID) from the source name drop down. To maximise the likelihood of linking successfully uncheck the "relink only to media from the current project" option and choose "Any video format" and "Higest quality" under video parameters.

4. Directly drag files into Media Composer

• A fourth option is to directly drag a clip from CatDV into your Media Composer bin window.
• This drags the clip (or clips) as file references, exactly as if you dragged the media files from the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer
• In most cases this will cause Media Composer to import the file (and transcode it to DNx)
• Because you are just sending a file reference, if you use this method no metadata is transferred (ie. markers, subclips, sequences etc. will not go over, just the file)

Legacy features

Some older integration features are still available but don't necessarily transfer as much data as the recommended methods above, or might be aimed primarily at legacy tape-based workflows:

• You can import selected clips from an Avid bin by exporting them as an ALE file and then importing that into CatDV. Only those columns which are shown in your current view are exported so it's a good idea to create a special bin view in Avid that includes all the available columns for export. When you import an ALE file CatDV will automatically do a quick import of the corresponding media file and create thumbnails from it, if that file is available online. This is suitable for AMA-linked files, or if you want to play the original media file rather than the Avid MXF version. You can also enable the "Try to link to Avid media files" Import option, in which case CatDV will search the Avid MediaFiles folder for the appropriate file(s) and create an MXF metaclip.
• Using the Apply Log File command you can create subclips from an asset in CatDV based on logging you did in Media Composer. Export an ALE log file containing the subclips from Avid, then select the master clip that represents the entire file in CatDV and apply the log file to it.
• You can import markers from Avid by selecting and copying the markers you want from the Avid "Markers" window, then select the clip in CatDV and right click on the header of the Event Markers table and choose the Paste from AVID command. (You need to do this one clip at a time.)
• You can export clips and sequences from Avid as an AAF file and import that into a Pegasus Client window. This is usually less convenient than importing an AVB bin file because Avid creates a separate AAF file for each clip.
• You can export clips from CatDV as an Avid ALE Log File (you may need to check the "Merge events with known sources and automatically create subclips" option in Avid otherwise it won't link to the media), and export sequences as a CMX EDL File.
• You can copy event markers by right clicking on the header of the Event Markers table and choosing Copy to AVID then pasting that into the Avid "Markers" window (but be aware that some versions of Media Composer have a bug that can cause the application to crash when you try to paste markers!)
• If you are working with P2 files you can add comments and event markers in CatDV then use the Export P2 Metadata command to update the P2 XML file. When you import the P2 card into Avid it will read the latest P2 metadata.
• You can directly copy files from a CatDV window into an Avid bin, though this is equivalent to dragging in a file from the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer and will import it as a new file and doesn't carry over subclips, markers, or any other metadata.
• If you have the Calibrated Tin Man application you can use that to export DNx movies to the Avid MediaFiles folder.

Custom Actions

With the Pegasus Client you can define your own shortcuts that appear in the Actions section of the tree, in the toolbar, or in the Tools menu. Custom actions can be used at all stages of your workflow, for example to transcode clips to a particular preset movie format, to quickly log clips by setting metadata fields from a stored template, to upload files to a site such as Vimeo or YouTube, or to integrate with other third party tools or programs.

To perform a custom action on a clip (or list of clips) you can either drag the selected clips onto the relevant shortcut in the tree or apply the command to selected clips from the Tools menu or toolbar. You can also set up custom actions that don't require you to make a pre-existing clip selection.

Pegasus custom actions are able to:

• Transcode the clips to a particular format that you have configured, for example an H.264 web proxy with a burnt in watermark
• Execute an external command such as a shell script or command line ftp utility to upload the transcoded file to an external web site or service such as YouTube
• Automatically display a prompt asking the user for fields such as a description of the asset or an ftp password
• Set clip fields, for example updating the status to say a file has been archived, or to store the YouTube asset id on completion of an upload
• Save or publish changes to the current catalog
• Export the selected clip(s) as a still image, as XML, or using any of CatDV's other export formats
• Move, rename, copy or delete files
• Display a message and prompt for confirmation before continuing.
• Import files from a particular folder
• Change the clip selection

You can perform conditional actions, such as only perform a transcode if the proxy file doesn't exist, or check whether a file can be opened by QuickTime or FFmpeg before deciding which exporter to use.

Creating custom actions

Custom actions are only available in Pegasus Client. Use the Tools > Custom Actions > Edit command to manage your custom actions or define a new custom action by giving it a name and adding a sequence of processing steps as required.

Use the + button to add a new processing step and double click a step to configure it. Use drag and drop to change the order of the processing steps.

Most processing steps take parameters such as the destination file or folder for an export operation, or the text to burn in to an exported movie or to set a clip field to. As well as fixed text you can use variables such as $i to refer to the file being processed, $h to refer to your home directory, ${NM1} to refer to the name of the clip, and so on. Press the Help button for a summary of available variables and modifiers.

When specifying the destination for an export or file copy/move operation you can normally specify either the destination directory, in which case the file name in that directory will be taken from the clip name or the existing media file name, or you can explicitly name the destination file. If the destination you provide refers to an existing directory or ends in a directory separator character (forward slash on Mac OS, back slash on Windows) it is treated as a directory, otherwise it is taken to be the fully specified path and file name to use. Intervening directories are created automatically if required.

When developing custom actions you need to consider whether the action can apply to many clips in one go, or only one clip at a time. Some processing steps such as prompting for user input or publishing catalog changes back to the server are performed just once, regardless of how many clips it applies to. Others such as setting clip fields apply separately to each clip. Exporting a batch list or XML file will export a single file containing all the selected clips. When transcoding clips and exporting a movie, and when executing an external command via the command line, you have a choice however, and can either group the clips together into one operation or perform the step separately for each clip.

You can choose whether the action should appear in the tree and/or in the toolbar. When adding a custom action to the toolbar you can enter a shorter name for the action to fit in the more limited available space. You can also enter an optional longer description of what the action does that will appear in tool tip text for the action.

You should specify whether the custom action requires an existing selection of clips to apply to or not. Most actions will apply to the selected clips but you can also configure actions to import files from a watch folder or to automatically select clips in the current window that match some criteria, or which don't operate on clips at all (for example, if the action just executes an external command of some sort).

Custom actions can be exported to a .catdv file and then shared, allowing third parties and systems integrators to configure custom actions to address particular workflow requirements and then distribute the .catdv file. When you open one of these files in Pegasus Client you are prompted whether to install the custom action on this machine. If required, a .catdv custom action file can include additional resources (such as a shell script to run, still images to burn in as a watermark, and so on).

Relationship to the Worker Node

Pegasus custom actions bridge the capabilities offered by CatDV Pro and the CatDV Worker Node. All three provide access to the same core CatDV Media Processing Engine but are used in different ways:

• With CatDV Pro you can do everything but need to manually configure and perform each step of the process as required,
• With Pegasus custom actions you can pre-configure a complex sequence of steps and destinations and easily apply that to selected clips but the operation is interactive: for long-running transcodes the application is blocked while the operation completes,
• With the Worker Node you can fully automate the CatDV Engine for unattended background processing based on watch folders or conditional triggers, and can have multiple transcode processes running for increased throughput.

Just as in Worker Node scripts, custom actions can use complex variable expressions, including regular expressions and javascript expressions, to calculate the destination and name of an exported file from the clip being exported. The mechanism used is similar to that in Worker Node scripts, though the set of variables provided differs slightly. Being familiar with how the CatDV Worker Node operates (for example, the use of regular expressions, parsing the output of executing a command to update clip variables, how to pass parameters to a command line tool, etc.) will help when developing Pegasus custom actions.

Please note that creating good custom actions is an advanced topic. If you need help developing custom actions to meet a particular workflow requirement please consult your systems integrator or the Square Box Systems professional services team.

Additional license options

CatDV supports a number of specialised optional features which can be purchased for an additional charge. Normally the license to enable the extra features is included with the main registration code for the CatDV application but if you purchase an option separately you may be send a supplementary activation code which you can enter by pressing the "Additional license..." button in the Registration page of Preferences.

The following options are available:

Basic Archiving Option

For more details see page on archive integration.

MXF Option

With the CatDV MXF Option you enable CatDV's built-in MXF and XML parser to read metadata from common MXF-based file formats including Sony XDCAM and EX, Panasonic P2, and AVID, as well as support for other complex camera card clips that might consist of more than one file, known as "metaclips".

• In the case of AVID and P2 MXF Op-Atom clips it is normal for the audio and video information to be written to separate MXF files. When you import a P2 volume or an AVID folder CatDV will automatically match up the corresponding audio and video using the MXF UMID identifier and turn them into an MXF Metaclip so you can treat them as a single clip even though they are in separate files. Metadata entered on the camera such as subject, location, camera serial number and P2 memo markers are loaded into CatDV metadata fields (or the event markers table).
• Other formats (including Canon XF, Sony XAVC and XAVC-S, RED, and others) store the video and audio in a single media essence file (typically MXF or MP4), but each clip has other associated files like proxies, thumbnails, and real-time and non-realtime metadata (often in a BIM or XML file) that need to be kept with the clip for it to work properly in NLE applications. If you work with individual files it's possible for clips to get corrupted so they no longer play correctly, but with the MXF Option, CatDV will keep all these files together as a metaclip, and if you archive, copy, or move one of these complex clips CatDV will ensure that all the required files from one camera card are copied together.
• In the case of P2 media, you can log the clips in CatDV by editing the Name, Creator, PlaceName, ProgramName, SceneNo., TakeNo., Reporter, Purpose, and Object fields or by creating event markers and then export back to the P2 clip XML file using the Export P2 Metadata command. This data will transfer over to AVID, and a particular powerful feature is that you can perform bulk edits within CatDV to tag multiple clips in one operation.

Archive Integration

Archiving refers to moving media files from expensive, high speed online storage to cheaper but slower long-term storage such as tape (when they are no longer needed at the end of a project for example). This is not the same as backing up files (creating a redundant copy for short term recovery of data in case of hardware failure), though there is overlap between the two concepts.

CatDV does not directly provide a complete archive or backup solution by itself. Instead, it integrates with a number of 3rd party solutions. It can also support you if you want to develop your own custom strategy adapted to your particular requirements (for example, you could write a Worker Node script to copy files to a suitable archive location and then update a user-defined field).

Built-In Archive Option

With the legacy basic Archive Option CatDV Pro has built-in support for archiving to a Cache-A appliance (and to other archive devices that appear as a mounted drive). If you have a ProMax/Cache-A PrimeCache or ProCache archive appliance you can control the device directly from within CatDV.

The following commands will be enabled in the Tools menu if you have the Archive Option installed:

• Archive Media Files - copy selected files to the Cache-A vtape folder (from where they will automatically be written to LTO-4 tape by the Cache-A appliance) or to other archive drive. You can optionally include a copy of CatDV's metadata as an index.xml file with the archive so if you should lose the CatDV catalog you can restore your metadata by importing the folder from the vtape folder. After archiving a clip CatDV's Archive Status field is updated to record the tape that the file was archived to.
• Purge Media Files - once files have been copied to the Cache-A vtape folder and archived you can delete the original media files from disk. The CatDV catalog will continue to store log notes and other metadata describing the clip, and normally you would also create low-res proxies within CatDV which continue to be available, so you can still find clips and decide whether to use them even after purging the original full-resolution version.
• Restore Media Files - if a file has been archived and purged from local storage you can restore it back to its original location (or another location) from the Cache-A vtape folder. If the file isn't currently on the Cache-A vtape disk you will be prompted to load the relevant tape then CatDV will request the file(s) are restored (you can also do using the Cache-A web interface if required)
• Check Archive Status - query the Cache-A catalog (maintained in a database in the appliance itself) to see if the selected files have been archived and optionally update the Archive Status stored in CatDV

To use CatDV with a Cache-A archiving appliance you need to mount the Cache-A device as a volume and press the Configure button to choose the vtape folder (for example, /Volumes/archive62/vtape). If a tape is loaded its name will appear in the Current Tape field and the Archive button will be enabled. You should also enter the IP address or host name of the Cache-A device so that CatDV can communicate with the device using its built-in API (you may need to install newer firmware to support this feature - check with Cache-A for details).

The Archive Status field is available on the "Other" tab in the clip details panel, unless you customise your details panel layout and add it in a more prominent location.

If required you can extend the Archive Option to support ProMax/Cache-A library systems. The archive dialog will display a drop down list of tapes in the library and allow you to select a tape from the library mechanism and load it into the drive.

Other file-based archives

Although CatDV's Archiving Option includes features was designed specifically to work with Cache-A devices, you can also use these commands to archive to other devices, including file-based archive systems such as XenData or even removable USB or FireWire hard drives.

To use the Archiving Option with a device other than Cache-A, choose "Other" from the Archive System drop down in the archive settings dialog then select the appropriate folder or drive as the Archive Location. In this case, the name of the folder is taken to be the "tape" name (for example, if you choose /Volumes/FW12 then "FW12" is stored in the Archive Status). You can then use the Archive, Purge and Restore commands to copy files between your main disk and the archive volume. (Using this feature you can also test the archiving functionality without having a Cache-A device.)

Advanced archive integrations

A number of other 3rd party integrations are available, including interfaces to archiving products from Spectralogic BlackPearl, Amazon S3, Archiware, Atempo, XenData, Quantum, StorageDNA, Facilis, DAX, and others.

Many of these rely on the advanced scripting capabilities of the CatDV Worker Node to schedule archive and restore operations to run in the background.

See the CatDV storage and archiving partners page or contact sales@squarebox.com for more details.

Change History

What's New in CatDV 14.2

• Add support for querying clips by orientation.
• Improve user experienece, lazy load thumbnail(s) when open server catalog.
• Improved codec support, updated RED and BRAW libraries.

New features in 14.1

CatDV 14.1 features many incremental improvements, in particular with improved integration with Avid Media Composer (which requires Pegasus), including:

• Significant improvements to the AVB importer (Avid bin reading) and AAF exporter so that virtually any file that can be imported or AMA-linked in Media Composer can be imported into CatDV and shared with other users or marked up in the web interface. It can then be sent back to Avid, where it will play and link to the the original clip (and come over with markers, log notes, subclips, and cuts-only sequences intact).
• Ability to do first stage ingest of camera and other original footage into CatDV first and export this as a DNxHD proxy (in MXF OpAtom format) to the Avid MediaFiles folder, as well as as a CatDV web proxy if required. These proxies can optionally include burnt in timecode or watermark information. Users can log in CatDV, then send an AAF to Avid which will link to and play the DNxHD proxy. For finishing the Avid editor can then AMA-link to the original camera card folder and use the Media Composer Re-Link command to relink to the original hires.
• Add proper support for subclips of spanned metaclips and image sequences (the underlying source media will refer to the full master clip, while the subclip bounds are defined by the In and Out points).
• A new Restore To Original Catalog command in the Server menu to move clips that have been moved to the recycle bin, or to the "Deleted Clips" by a Worker quick folder scan action, back to the catalog they were in before (based on the details in the clip History field).
• A new Search... command in the Server tree right click context menu to do a quick search within the selected catalog, catalog folder, or production group.
• Improved codec support, including support for playing and transcoding CinemaDNG image sequences (DNG images with WAV audio), updated RED, BRAW and Avid libraries, and better GPU support.
• Add support for playing and transcoding ARRIRAW MXF files (requires Pegasus).
• Support for custom SAML/Okta login pages, and optionally allow self-signed https certificates when connecting to the server.
• A new Image sequence export target in the Export As Movie dialog.
• For movies with multiple video tracks the media panel popup menu lets you choose whether to play V1 or V2 etc.

New features in CatDV 14

CatDV 14 builds on CatDV 13 with significant technical changes under the hood to provide a cleaner, more modern codebase, plus a number of functional enhancements:

• The bundled version of Java has been updated from Java 1.8 to OpenJDK 14. This fixes a number of long standing UI glitches on the Mac (such as menus sometimes being greyed out until you switch to another app and back) and allows the app to be notarised to be compliant with the much stricter signing requirements under MacOS Catalina and later.
• Any last remaining 32-bit code (such as the AAFTool for processing AAF files) has been removed, as has other legacy code such as to handle special characters in XML files.
• The native player has been updated to use a new rendering pipeline and other improvements:
  • Use of OpenGL (instead of Direct3D9) on Windows, and Metal (instead of deprecated OpenGL 2.1) on Mac, allowing colour space conversion and other processing to be done on the GPU, and overlays such as subtitles to be rendered
  • A new container architecture for low level tracks, making it easier to add new codecs and formats to the player.
  • More efficient file handling when the same file is used in different tracks or more than once in a sequence, resulting in improved performance.
  • Ability to turn individual channels on and off when playing files with audio tracks containing more than two channels.
• The native player and transcoding library has been updated with additional codec support:
  • Add support for encoding to Apple ProRes (on Mac and Windows) using Apple SDK.
  • Add support for encoding to DNxHD and DNxHR using Avid SDK.
  • New support for decoding Canon RAW.
  These are in addition to the existing support for natively playing and transcoding most common camera formats including ProRes, DNx, Blackmagic RAW, ARRI, and RED.
• CatDV 14 adds experimental support for using the CatDV desktop application in the field as an ingest tool:
  • A new Preferences option (in the Import section) will prompt you to copy media files to local storage whenever you import files into CatDV (so you have a local copy of media from a removable storage card for example). At the same time, you are prompted to fill in basic metadata that is set on the clips, and you can choose whether to link to the copy or the original file path.
  • Additionally, the new Upload Media To Server command will copy media to a suitably configured server: import files from a camera card, set up a destination on the the server using media store mappings, then copy files to the server and place them in the correct server location via http/web upload without requiring file system access to the server. Files can also be uploaded automatically whenever clips are published to the server with a new Preferences option (in the Server section).
• Display a modernised thumbnail-only grid view optimised for video with widescreen thumbnails that fill the cell (by adding a blurred background if necessary). By contrast, the new "Photo Icons" view uses a square cell grid and is optimised for viewing still images and documents which might have a mix of portrait and landscape orientation.
• Add support for quickly scrubbing through a movie by moving the mouse over the thumbnail image (using either the new filmstrip proxy image, used by Web 3, or the thumbnails stored against the clip, indicated by a red or orange cursor respectively)
• Support for viewing and managing all the proxy and other files associated with an asset via the Media menu and the media panel popup menu. These include different types of proxies, filmstrip images, and different language tracks as used by the web interface and defined via media stores. Media stores are now cached in local preferences so they are available even if you are not connected to the server.
• The Media/File Information command lists all the available files and versions for a clip, and there are improvements to the information dialog itself (including a Reveal In Tree button, better player support, a new panel to extract any JPEG images, better metadata display, and a larger hex display panel).
• Add support for extended proxy file naming to cope with different files in the same directory that differ only in their filename extension. By default the proxy for a file called MyFile.mxf is now called MyFile.mxf.mp4 rather than MyFile.mp4.
• Add support for displaying subtitles or closed captions in a VTT or SRT file, either as a sidecar file (alongside the movie) or defined via media stores. You can customise the appearance of the subtitles including their size, whether to merge multiple captions showing at the same time, and whether to ignore any position information and always display them at the bottom of the screen.
• Display a checkerboard background when viewing still images or movies with transparency
• Add support for displaying marker annotations that were created with Server 10.
• Add support for displaying filenames containing emoji characters.
• Improvements to the Find Similar command to make it easier to find and delete duplicate clips (by choosing which clips to select, and letting you delete directly from the result set).
• The new media metadata FileHash field is calculated by sampling the file at various points throughout the file from the beginning to the end, providing an easy way to find duplicates or moved files, while being much faster to calculate than a full MD5 checksum.
• The Disk Space Tool command now lets you compare two snapshots or two directories so you can quickly see why a directory or volume has grown since it was last scanned, and there are new commands to find any corresponding clips on the server and to filter the file list by file name.
• Improvements to metaclips (containers or collections containing multiple files which can be combined and treated as a single clip) including:
  • A new clip type of Playlist which plays the clips within it one after the other.
  • A new clip type of Version Set which can store different versions of an asset and plays the last (most recent) clip within it.
  • A new clip type of Folder which can group together an arbitrary collection of other clips so they can be treated as one item.
  • Metaclips can now contain other metaclips, not just plain clips.
  • Markers on the underlying clips are displayed against the metaclip. For playlists you can choose whether to display relative timecode within the playlist or source timecode in the marker table.
  • You can view the different files within a metaclip by using the (right click) pop up menus on the media panel and in the main window.
  • User-created metaclips now have a virtual media path consisting of any common root directory of the files within it and the metaclip name (allowing them to have a single proxy movie that covers the entire metaclip, rather than having to assemble it from separate parts each time).
  These changes are in addition to existing support for camera card and MXF OpAtom metaclips.
• Add support for lightweight image sequences, represented by a single clip rather than one clip for each file, so they are much more efficient for large image sequences. This option is enabled by a new setting on the Import tab of Preferences.
• Improvements to lightweight Directory clips, an efficient way to represent all the files in a directory or Mac package as a single clip, including a new Import preference option to specify which file name extensions such as .app or .fcpbundle should be represented as a single directory clip (rather than separately listing and analysing all the files within it).
• Metadata extraction rules to extract parts of the filename into metadata fields can now be stored on the server in the settings table so they can be shared between different users and the Worker Node. Metadata rules allow specific subdirectories in the file path to map to fields like Customer, Project and so on, or to pull out separate components of the filename itself if you use a strict file naming scheme. Different rules can apply in different parts of the file system tree.
• The AAF importer now supports extracting embedded media (and saving it out as self-contained media files to the directory specified in Preferences).
• Support for two-factor authentication when logging on (set up by editing the user profile in the Server 10 web interface)
• Encourage the use of HTTP rather than RMI when connecting to the server as this is more reliable on certain networks, and encourage use of the web-based admin pages when creating users, groups, and roles as some new features are only available in the web interface.
• Some items in the Tools and Logging and Import As menus have been rearranged slightly (and more items are hidden if you choose simple menus in Preferences).

Some of these features may require a Pegasus Client or a CatDV MXF license.

New features in CatDV 13

CatDV 13 includes the following main changes:

• The native player (and the entire application) is now 64-bit only, for improved performance and handling of complex clips.
• Remaining dependencies on Apple's deprecated QuickTime technology have been removed.
• The NativeQT Exporter has been removed and is replaced by a new Advanced Exporter (see below), which has also been merged with the FFmpeg Exporter.
• The QuickTime player has been removed and is replaced by the new Advanced Player (see below).
• Support for receiving notifications from the server so that clips are highlighted instantly when they are edited by another user and display live progress information when they are being processed by a Worker Node task. To use this, add the Notification column to the required view(s). There is also a new Notifications tab on the Server Admin Panel to list the most recent notifications that were received.
• A new Clip Title panel above the media player shows the current clip name and an activity indicator ('eye' icon) when viewing clips on the server. The indicator is highlighted when the clip has been recently viewed or modified by another or a notification for the current clip arrives.
• If a user edits the values in a pick list these are propagated using notifications and become available to other users immediately.
• There is a new Markers tab in the Details panel that shows all the event markers for a clip and supports filtering, highlighting of matching text, customisable columns, multiline display of long marker text, and direct editing of markers in the table. This makes it suitable for displaying transcripts as an alternative to using the verbatim logger, for example.
• The version of Java has been updated (to fix printing and other issues on Mac), and certain UI issues in MacOS 10.14 Mojave have been fixed
• Support for displaying the contents of a metaclip as a tab on the details panel (you do this by defining a panel layout with the metaclip columns you want to show, then prefixing the name of the details panel tab with "Metaclip:")
• Support for importing and playing ARRI image sequences (as well as DNG, DPX, EXR, JPEG, TIFF, PNG etc.) (requires Pegasus Client)
• Support for importing and viewing HEIF/HEIC still images (the native image format used by recent iPhones)
• Other improvements to image sequences, including supporting arbitrary frame rates, subclipping, and a new Import option to allow non-consecutively numbered filenames.
• A new Resync Catalog with Server command supports offline workflows. If you take a catalog from the server and save it as a local CDV catalog file then you can work on that locally and subsequently relink it to the server catalog: all changes that can safely be reapplied to the server catalog are, and only conflicting edits (because the clip was edited by another user in the meantime) are left for you to review and reapply manually as required.
• Support for custom (user-defined) catalog fields (in views and panels, and when performing queries)
• Support for looking up proxy and hi-res files using media stores defined on the server, instead of path mappings. This means path mappings will automatically be in sync with those used by the web interface.
• Support for tape-based proxies (for legacy DV tape-based workflows) has been dropped
• There is a new user-defined field type for displaying preformatted JSON data as HTML
• Ability to read an SRT subtitle sidecar file to create markers when importing a movie
• New options on the Apply Timecode Offset command to adjust timecode of main clip or of markers separately (including adjusting markers of a particular category, or renaming a category)
• New Rename Media File command to simplify renaming a single clip (including all the related files in a metaclip)
• New filter on the All Fields panel to help you quickly find a field by name or value
• Internal changes to move away from the use of legacy user-defined field indices (panel and view definitions now use field identifiers rather than indices, and loading a .cdv catalog file will automatically define any missing user-defined fields that were saved with the catalog).
• The way timestamps such as Import Date and Media Date, or catalog last modified date, are saved to the server has been changed to make it consistent with the web interface. (A side effect of this is that some times saved incorrectly with old versions of the software may now display in the wrong timezone.)
• Wide list views will flow text to fill the available height of the row and can display large thumbnails, and the height of rows can be configured in preferences.
• Many other fixes and improvements. See the change log in the Release Notes for full details.

Advanced Player

The Advanced Player (previously referred to as the "sequence player") supports native playback of most media files, including complex sequences, spanned clips and Op-Atom MXF metaclips. CatDV 13 includes the following changes:

• It is possible to turn individual audio tracks on and off (by clicking on the audio icon), and play the movie at different rates with audio (using the JKL keys)
• If you have the legacy Tin Man application from Calibrated Software installed this is used for certain formats.
• The movie controller has new buttons to jump back or forward 10s (replacing the single frame step buttons, as that functionality is available using left and right arrow buttons)
• New commands in the media panel popup menu to control slow motion playback rate of 50 fps and higher movies. The preferred rate is stored in the 'PlaybackRate' field and automatically applied next time that clip is opened.
• It's possible to rotate movies on playback (eg. for mobile phone footage)
• CatDV 13 has improved support for image sequences, raw images, and http proxies.
• The player is 64-bit only for improved performance and handling of complex clips.

Advanced Exporter

The Advanced Exporter (previously referred to as the "segment-based exporter") makes use of FFmpeg and other technologies to provide creation of H.264 proxies and other formats.

• The Advanced Exporter automatically splits complex clips and sequences into smaller segments and then combines them so it can cope with mixed format sequences, inconsistent audio layouts, and more.
• A title slate (a fixed title prepended before the start of the movie) can be added if required, and event markers can be burnt in. Markers provide a way to add a burnt-in text overlay that varies over time (eg. from subtitles).
• It is possible to preserve the original audio channel layout, mix it down to stereo, or automatically convert different source layouts to the required output format (eg. 4 mono tracks to 2 stereo tracks).
• CatDV 13 includes a Fraunhofer FDK license to export high quality AAC audio.
• On the Mac you can generate Apple ProRes movies in all the supported variants, including ProRes 4444 HQ.
• On both Mac and Windows you can use the native platform support to create H.264 MP4 movies, and other formats such as HEVC, WMV etc. depending on the operating system. In most cases (on modern hardware) these will automatically use the GPU for hardware acceleration.
• The version of FFmpeg has been updated to include H.265/HEVC (although still not as widely supported as H.264, HEVC typically results in files that are at least 30% smaller for the same quality).
• The old FFmpeg Exporter has been merged into the Advanced Exporter but you can still use the old code path by checking the 'Direct transcode' option if required. The legacy exporter can be more efficient for simple transcodes as it goes direct from source file to the output in one go rather than splitting it up into segments, but it doesn't cope with complex clips or support features like markers and title slates.
• There are new checkboxes and drop downs to control options like fast start (place the MOV or MP4 movie header at the start of the file so a web proxy can start playing before it has fully downloaded) or the libx264/265 preset to use (to maximise file quality for a particular bit rate use the slowest setting you can tolerate) without having to fill in the advanced options field.
• There are new options to create a long thin film strip image (for use in the web interface) or an audio waveform movie (when exporting audio-only files to a movie).

Some of these features may require a Pegasus Client or a CatDV MXF license.

New features in CatDV 12.1

CatDV 12.1 includes a number of user interface and other improvements over 12.0:

• New three column view (showing the tree navigator or catalog list, then the clip list, then the clip details and player panel, in three columns from left to right, like the iOS apps and Premiere panel)
• Ability to turn off the tool bar buttons to make maximum use of the available screen real estate (using View > Show Tool Bar Buttons)
• Improved grid and film strip view layouts (by default use a darker background to distinguish cells and thus allow grid spacing to be reduced)
• Ability to show new Pegasus social media chat channels via the server tree. This allows you to have live discussions about a project with other users (using either the desktop or web interface) and include links to specific clips by dragging them in to the chat window.
• Pegasus includes a completely rewritten AAF exporter and new AVB bin import capability for improved Avid integration
• Improved player technology, including use of FFmpeg 3.4, NVidia GPU acceleration, and integration with optional third party Tin Man player from Calibrated.
• Improvements to the FFmpeg exporter (including 'smart stereo' option to automatically combine two mono tracks into a stereo track now working with a wider range of audio configurations, a new option to force an intermediate transcode, and adding support for transcoding a sequence containing stills)
• New segment-based FFmpeg exporter that allows sequences, metaclips, and markers to be transcoded and an optional title slate to be prepended.
• New option on the Export As Movie command to automatically reimport the resulting file and create a mezzanine clip
• Support for reading XAVC-S camera card structure, and for reading "fragmented" QuickTime movies.
• Improved R3D metadata extraction
• Support for reading IPTC metadata
• New calendar chooser widget for user-defined date fields
• New user-defined field type of select buttons for easy tagging of clips using coloured buttons on the details panel
• The preference dialog has a new search box to help you quickly find the desired preference option
• Improvements to javascript and variable expression syntax (allowing regular expression and array notation such to be combined, for example "$f[0]{s/.mp4$//}", and supporting REST-like syntax eg. "js:clip.name" or "js:media['FNumber']").
• Add support for private or shared clip lists
• New JavaScript API for use in Pegasus custom actions and UI scripts to integrate custom functionality
• Improved sequence editing, including continuous thumbnail display and the ability to lock specific tracks from being edited when editing multiple tracks by clicking on the checkbox alongside the track name.
• New option to use "widescreen" thumbnails if you mostly work with video and rarely use still images or other formats. This will avoid letterboxing in grid and film strip views and so make better use of the screen space.
• Add support for custom catalog fields (defined on the server through the web interface).

New features in CatDV 12.0

These changes are in addition to the changes made in CatDV 12:

• CatDV 12 is 64-bit only (32-bit legacy version is no longer available) for improved performance and memory handling
• CatDV no longer requires QuickTime to be installed and can instead use FFmpeg as the primary playback engine (though if QuickTime is available it will still be used, as it provides access to third party codecs such as those from Calibrated and Avid)
• More modern, simpler and flatter user interface
• A simplified toolbar, with buttons that control the view being moved to the bottom of the main window, and most preexisting toolbar buttons moving to a pull down menu. (The old toolbar appearance can be restored via user interface preferences if required.)
• A new graphical workspace editor to allow items in the toolbar and other common options to be easily customised (including tool tip text in the preferences dialog to identify the internal preference item id to allow other less commonly used settings to be overridden too if necessary)
• The ability to have collapsible subsections in the clip details panel by defining new panels for each section with a colon in the name (for example Technical, Technical:Video and Technical:Audio will add separate video and audio subsections to the Technical tab). You can also append '*' to the panel name if you don't want the section to be collapsible.
• Other improvements to the clip details panel, including the ability to turn the media panel on and off independently of clip details, automatically switching between one and two columns depending on horizontal space, and the ability to make particular fields read only.
• The media player now supports an audio level (VU meter) display, and displays an audio wave form when viewing audio only clips
• Hold down the Ctrl key (Mac) or Alt key (Windows) to scrub through movies (and audio wave forms) or to zoom in and pan around still images (hold down the Shift key to increase zoom from 3x to 16x)
• Hold down Ctrl or Alt to show the clip popup details as you move round a grid view. This replaces the old 'i' icon in the corner, though you can re-enable that in Preferences if you prefer.
• New simpler clip type icons showing the basic clip type (video, audio, still image, subclip, sequence, and 'other' non-media clips), plus a badge in the corner to indicate if this is a metaclip consisting of multiple underlying files. (The older clip type icons are still available and can be added if required by customising a view layout.)
• Greatly improved Final Cut Pro X integration, including: the tree now lists events under each library and you can drag clips straight to the required event (without creating a new timestamped event each time); you can drag and drop clips straight from CatDV to a Final Cut window and vice versa while preserving metadata; you can now import and export MXF metaclips (with video and audio in separate files) as a single clip; you can set up an FCPX Keywords field in Preferences and automatically map Final Cut keywords that span the whole clip to and from a CatDV field. Some of these features require Final Cut Pro 10.3 and fcpxml 1.6 (selected in the Final Cut & Sequences section of Preferences).
• Support for new Server 7 metadata schema, including ability to perform queries on arbitrary media metadata fields and to fully customise media metadata fields including changing their type and display label
• Editing user defined fields and pick lists is more consistent between Enterprise Server and standalone operation by always using the Field Definitions panel in Preferences
• The ability to define calculated fields and smart labels, plus new field types to perform arbitrary validation of entered text, including a new tool to preview and test variable expressions
• Updated view layouts to make them more consistent and less cluttered (by slightly increasing spacing, removing the legacy 'Tape' field, and including new 'File Extension/Type' and 'Format' fields to display key technical metadata).
• More consistent field naming ('Clip ID' becomes 'Clip Ref', 'QT Tracks' becomes 'Tracks', 'Format' becomes 'Format & Codec'), also 'Other fields' becomes 'All fields', 'Refine View' becomes 'Filters', 'Automatic Grouping' becomes 'Automatic Filters', and so on.
• New coloured indicators to show whether the original file and/or proxy version is available online, and a new "Movie File" field that shows the current file path if it's online taking into account any path mapping.
• Other user interface fixes and improvements, including more consistent use of background colours and focus indication, better mouse wheel scrolling, etc.
• Improvements to custom actions so that they don't require an existing clip selection but can import files from a watch folder or select clips according to filter criteria. Custom actions can now be configured to appear in the toolbar as well as the tree. (Pegasus only)
• Ability to configure a metadata extraction rules file to automatically populate metadata fields based on the file path when a strict filenaming convention is used. The format of these rules is documented in the Worker Node release notes. The rules are applied automatically when a file is imported and manually using the command in the Tools menu. (Pegasus only)
• A new Consolidate Media command that will export those portions of media that are used in a sequence or project as new self contained files and relinks the clips to the new files. Note that this feature is primarily designed to work with QuickTime files and with QuickTime installed. (Pegasus only)
• A new Create Audio Slideshow command that will take an audio only file with timecode event markers and a list of still images and combine them into a sequence, where the still images are automatically positioned and have their duration set to line up with the markers. (Pegasus only)
• Improvements to the sequence editor, including more consistent colouring and ordering of tracks, the ability to edit sequences even if the files are offline, the ability to easily edit the duration of still images in a sequence by dragging the out point just as you would when trimming a movie in the sequence, plus the ability to display timecode markers in the timeline.
• Improved support for transcoding sequences containing multiple video tracks using both QuickTime and FFmpeg exporters.
• New sequence player engine to enable editing sequences using the FFmpeg and RED playback engines (for example, if QuickTime is unavailable)
• Improved metadata extraction (eg. read iXML metadata from Broadcast WAV files, color space from JPEG files, chapter markers from MP4 files, etc.)
• Extract audio waveform thumbnails when importing audio only files
• Improvements to the Import and Export Preferences commands to allow specific preference sections to be exported (to back them up, or copy settings between systems)
• When building proxies from a still image the FFmpeg exporter will automatically create a .jpg file rather than a movie
• Moving media files will preserve relative folder structure, also move any corresponding proxy files
• Support for full screen windows on Mac OS X
• Improved support for two monitors, including new media playback option to automatically play movies full screen on second monitor when Cmd/Ctrl-P is used
• Support for version 3 of the CatDV Server Plugin API (to allow CatDV's functionality to be extended by 3rd party integrators, for example by providing archive integrations)

If you are upgrading from CatDV 10 or earlier, be sure to review the extensive changes made in CatDV 11, including new player and transcoding technology, user interface changes including the use of customisable workspaces, 64-bit operation, and much more.

New features in CatDV 11

CatDV is subject to continuous improvement. CatDV 11.1 featured many improvements over 11.0, including:

New features in CatDV 11.1

• Support for DPX and EXR image sequences (Pegasus only)
• Support transcoding from any player to any codec, eg. from raw RED or AVCHD files straight to QuickTime, by decoding the source movie to an intermediate image sequence. Support for playing back sequences containing such a mix of formats. (RED support is Pegasus only)
• Support for transcoding multi-channel audio
• Raw camera card volumes (such as P2, XDCAM, XAVC, Canon XF, and AVCHD) are not intended to be accessed directly. If you break the folder structure files might still play in CatDV but not work in your NLE editing software so when you import such a volume CatDV now creates a camera card manifest metaclip to describe all the other files and empty directories that make up a valid camera card. A new 'CameraCardID' metadata field links all the clips from one camera card volume and when you copy or archive a raw camera clip you are prompted to include all the files from that volume.
• Improved support for copying, moving, and deleting multiple files in one go, including preserving the relative folder hierarchy and making sure no empty directories are left behind
• New import option to create placeholder clips for empty directories
• The Windows installer is now bundled with its own embedded Java Runtime Environment
• Ability to export and load exporter presets (Pegasus only)
• Improvements to the Scan For New Files command
• New Audio Channels command in the Tools menu to adjust audio channel configuration (for exporting to Final Cut and Premiere)
• Add proper support for multiple audio channels when exporting clips to Final Cut Pro X
• Changes to support exporting FCP XML files to Sony Vegas, and to Premiere CC 2015
• New <Any built-in field> and <Any user field> search terms when querying CatDV Server 7
• The Bulk Edit command can now use variables and regular expressions
• Support for importing and exporting the new CatDV v2 XML file format (this feature is primarily designed with the needs of system integrators in mind, and is documented further in the CatDV Worker Node manual)
• Use of star ratings from 1 to 5 (or 0) instead of the old "good"/"no good" indicator
• Improved automatic scene detection (using visual image analysis)
• Improvements to the built in log file viewer
• Many other fixes and improvements.
• As of CatDV 11.1.6 it is possible to use CatDV on machines without QuickTime being installed, although some features may be missing.

These are in addition to the following significant changes that were previously introduced in CatDV 11.0:

New player technology

One of the main changes in CatDV 11 is that it no longer relies on QuickTime for Java (as Apple have discontinued this technology). Instead, CatDV uses a brand new native player technology that can work with a variety of playback engines. This has a number of consequences:

• CatDV will now run with 64-bit Java 7 for increased performance and memory handling when handling large data sets, and support for Macs with high resolution "retina" displays
• A brand new native player is used for playing media. This replaces and improves on the old protected player. The native player supports playback using different player engines: QuickTime 7 (indicated by a cyan 'Q'), FFMPEG/libavcodec (indicated by an 'F'), AVFoundation (Mac only, indicated by an 'A'), Windows Media Foundation (Windows only, indicated by a 'W'), and native RED .r3d playback (indicated by an 'R'). Note that RED playback requires a Pegasus Client license.
• Together these provide native playback without transcoding of almost all common media files, including QuickTime, MPEG2, H.264, AVCHD, DPX, XDCAM EX, XAVC, R3D, WMV, and many others.
• Additionally, a new JavaFX player (indicated by a 'J') is provided as an alternative player for playing MP4 files if the native player is unavailable.
• The built-in Java image player that can display still images has been extended so it now supports PSD, TIFF, PICT, BMP, ICNS (in addition to JPG, PNG and GIF and many digital camera RAW formats) without requiring QuickTime or the native player
• There is a new preferences setting to configure which of the available players is used for different types of file, based on filename extension or video codec (this is intended for diagnostic purposes only, as in normal use the most appropriate player will be chosen automatically)
• There is a new built-in parser for directly importing .MOV and .MP4 files (in addition to existing importers for MXF files, MPEG files, etc.), allowing most common media files to be imported without requiring QuickTime
• There is a new native QuickTime exporter with additional formatting options for burnt in timecode and text overlays and the ability to preview the overlay
• A new FFmpeg-based exporter is provided for exporting movies and building proxies from formats that QuickTime doesn't support

User interface and functional improvements

As well as new player technology, CatDV 11 includes a number of additional user interface and functional enhancements:

• Support for tabbed browsing: instead of overriding the contents of the main window with temporary clips (or opening new windows) the main window can now display different tabs, with new commands in the View menu to dock or undock tabs.
• The ability to define different workspaces (different toolbar buttons, view layouts, and other options) optimised for different workflows and to switch between them easily with buttons in the toolbar or via the View menu. (If you are missing your familiar toolbar and tree layout from CatDV 10, choose the 'Advanced' workspace and then configure it later as required.)
• A reorganised tree navigator to make it more intuitive and easier to use. The Server section has been split into two, one for browsing the entire contents of the server and the other for performing various kinds of search, and the Catalog and Filter sections have been combined to emphasise that they are used to refine the view on the current catalog or search results. At the same time the tree has been made more configurable and new action shortcuts have been added.
• In Pegasus you can define custom actions to automate elements of your workflow
• A new popup clip details panel when you hold down the Ctrl key on Mac, or Alt key on Windows, and hover the mouse over a clip in grid view, including the ability to scrub the movie without selecting it and clicking to jump to that point in the movie. You can also click on the info icon in the corner of the clip to bring up the popup panel.
• Support for Retina displays, providing clearer, sharper display of text and thumbnails on compatible Macintosh computers
• A new Event Markers summary mode that makes each marker appear as its own clip in the main window, making it easy to highlight search results for example
• Hold down the Ctrl key (Alt on Windows) while viewing a still image to zoom and pan around the image
• Simplification of the user interface by removing separate Thumbnail, Movie and Proxy tabs in the details panel. Instead, you can use the Media menu and right click on the thumbnail if you need to delete thumbnails or select a new poster thumbnail, or if you want to switch between proxy and original movie.
• Ability to define smart labels and display coloured labels based on any clip field
• New commands in the Mark submenu to save and load clip marks to any user-defined checkbox field, providing an easy way to mark clips of interest and manage different sets of marked clips
• Improvements to Export As Still command (options to control what to do if destination exists, to set timestamp, and to place files into subfolders, and whether to copy any movies or export still frames from them), allowing it to be used to organise photos for display on an iOS device for example. It is also possible to add burnt-in text when exporting stills, which can include clip fields such as ${NM1} for the name, and these settings are now remembered between launches.
• New auto-suggest combo and preformatted HTML user-defined field types
• Clips now remember their last play head position
• A new PlaybackRate metadata field and preference option to support slow motion playback of 120 fps movies (such as produced by the iPhone 5S). Also, the 'H' key can be used to play back movies at half or quarter their normal rate.
• Improvements to the Disk Space Tool, which now uses a three pane layout (hierarchically browse folders by the size of that folder and everything in it using the top left panel, view a flattened list of all the files in the selected folder in the bottom panel, and filter by file type using the top right panel if required)
• A new 'Disk Speed Test' command in the Tools menu for performing a simple disk read and write test
• Ability to import and view the contents of a ZIP file via the tree (controlled by options in 'Import' Preferences)
• Scene detection accuracy improvements, including ability to specify a minimum clip duration
• Support for exporting clips and sequences to Autodesk Smoke (using FCP X XML)
• Change toolbar icons so that a magnifying glass on its own indicates refining the view by filtering the current catalog, whereas a magnifying glass with a question mark means perform a query to bring back more clips from the server
• The tape library management feature for legacy tape-based workflows is now disabled by default unless you enable it via the Server tab of Preferences. Instead, the Cmd/Ctrl-T keyboard shortcut is used to toggle display of the tree navigator, and Cmd/Ctrl-D is used to toggle the clip details panel.
• Other legacy features that are disabled by default but can be re-enabled if required include the Manage Proxy Movies command and marking clips as good or not (replaced by star ratings).
• Label printing is no longer a Pegasus-only feature and is also available in CatDV Pro
• Improved import and display of PSD, TIFF, PICT and other still image formats on both Mac and Windows

These are in addition to the improvements provided in CatDV 10.1 and earlier releases, and those available in Pegasus. For detailed list of changes in each version, see the Version History in the Release Notes.

Legacy 32-bit version

CatDV 11 is available in both 64-bit and 32-bit versions. Some older and less commonly used features which depend on legacy QuickTime libraries are only available in the 32-bit version. These include the 'Adjust Frame Size' command, adding voice over tracks to a sequence, tape-based proxies, legacy DV-based scene detection, and adding QuickTime metadata annotations when exporting movies. If you need access to any of the above functionality then please use the optional 32-bit version of CatDV 11.

A number of features which were unavailable in earlier releases have since been migrated to the 64-bit version, including: transcoding using QuickTime codecs, the media/file information command, the ability to add a timecode track (when exporting movies and to an existing movie file), visual scene detection, the audio channel popup, rotated movie playback, audio waveform display, preserving Exif metadata when exporting stills, and the ability to play and transcode image sequences.

New features in CatDV 10.1

The following features were added since CatDV 10.0:

• Support for calculating and verifying MD5 checksums
• Support for systems integrators to extend the functionality of CatDV through use of a new server plugin API
• Improved third party archive integration
• Support for user-defined date fields
• New quick import capability for image sequences and folder metaclips to catalog files without doing full media analysis
• Improved handling of TIFF and camera raw images such as NEF
• Still metaclips to treat JPEG and RAW versions of the same image as a single asset
• Support for spanned Canon XF and CF clips
• Support for Cache-A library units
• Sequence editing with multiple video tracks
• Bulk import and export of .cdv catalog files to and from the server
• Preserve folder hierarchy when copying or moving P2, XDCAM and RED metaclips.
• Performance improvements and improved handling of Unicode characters in filenames
• Other improvements to the Reanalyse Media command, scene detection, XML batch file support, integration with Adobe Premiere CC and Final Cut Pro X, the CatDV error log viewer, and more
• New Pegasus Client application with support for RED metaclips, label printing, and AAF integration with Avid Media Composer

Some of these features are only available in certain editions or with the purchase of additional options.

CatDV 10.0 includes the following main changes since CatDV 9:

• New "Slate" look and feel
• New pluggable exporter framework to support transcoding using different media libraries
• Improved QuickTime exporter, with better control over frame size, ability to specify additional QuickTime annotations (and set these from variables), and ability to add a second audio track with different settings.
• Completely new Xuggle exporter (if the 3rd party Xuggle library is installed), giving support for additional formats (including ability to burn in text and timecode and deinterlace the video)
• Support for importing, playing, and transcoding media using DirectShow (Windows only)
• Simplified Export As Movie dialog and proxy settings in Preferences. Ensure user interface and capabilities are consistent between CatDV 10 and Worker Node 5.
• New Disk Space Tool for scanning folders and reporting files that use the most space (by file type and location, and with support for identifying duplicates)
• New Paste Thumbnails command to copy thumbails from one clip to another (similar to how Paste Metadata works)
• Support for reading metadata and thumbnails from Adobe Illustrator and InDesign files, also from Office Open XML files (.docx, .xslx, .pptx, etc.)
• Ability to create even larger thumbnail sizes (up to 512x384, from previous limit of 256x192), though these will increase the amount of memory used by the catalog
• Support for HTTP streaming proxies as an alternative to mounting proxies via the file system by entering an http: URL for the current location in Media Search Paths preferences (requires separate HTTP media server).
• You can now use JPEG stills (created in an external application for formats that CatDV can't natively play) as path-based proxy files. CatDV looks for proxies with the same name as the original file or with extension .mov, .mp4 or .jpg.
• Support for logging on to server using corporate Active Directory credentials (requires CatDV Enterprise Server 6.7 or later with LDAP support)
• Support for obtaining a client license code from the CatDV license server (requires CatDV Server 6.7 or later)
• Improved integration with Adobe Premiere Pro (new Send To Premiere CS6 command, and a Premiere CS6 plug-in search panel to search for clips on the server directly from within the Premiere application)
• Improved integration with Avid Media Composer (importing ALE files now links to the media; new context menu commands in the event markers table to copy and paste markers from Avid)
• Support for Cache-A library (requires enhanced Archiving Option) and other Cache-A improvements such as a button to eject tapes, better messages when restoring files, and improvements to the Check Archive Status command
• Support for reading metadata from DPX files, and better support for DPX image sequences if 3rd party Glue Tools codec is installed
• QuickTime fixes and enhancements, including better handling of accented and long filenames when importing and exporting movies and the ability to create 'fast start' flattened movies
• Audio scrubbing when the playhead is dragged (you can turn this on in Media Playback preferences)