Occasionally it is necessary to create an asset record before the media for that asset is available. The Worker Node has new features to enable this way of working.
First, you can use a CatDV XML batch file to create new clip records without media being online. CatDV XML files can describe one or more clips including the clip name, media path, log notes, event markers, and technical metadata. (To see some example files you can export selected clips from CatDV Pro as a CatDV XML File.)
There are two distinct ways to import a CatDV XML file into the worker, batched and immediate. In both cases you define a watch folder where xml files will be placed.
In batched mode your watch action specifies that the job is triggered by a batch file and a separate task is added to the queue for each media file listed in the batch file. Batched mode is suitable if you want to build proxies for each media file but only works if the media files are online.
By contrast, in immediate mode the entire xml batch file is processed as a single task but one that can result in many clips being published to the server. Define a normal file triggered watch action but choose ‘CatDV XML File’ from the importer drop down. Ideally you should avoid doing lengthy transcodes when importing xml files in immediate mode but the advantage is that the files don’t need to exist yet. If the file doesn’t exist an offline clip is created instead, using the metadata specified in the xml file.
Secondly, the Worker Node now has the ability to reanalyse media. Just as with the Reanalyse Media command in CatDV Pro, this means analyse a media file to read technical metadata such as timecode, duration, and video format from the file as if it was being imported normally but instead of creating a new clip at that point update the metadata in an existing clip record, while preserving any user-entered metadata such as log notes.
There are two ways to reanalyse media, depending on what event you want to use to trigger the analysis.
You can define a normal watch folder so when a media file appears in that folder it is analysed and imported. On the Publish tab you can check the “Update existing” checkbox and if there is an existing offline clip in the catalog being published to whose clip name or media path matches the file being imported then that clip will be updated, otherwise a new clip will be created.
Alternatively, you can trigger the reanalysis based on a server query, possibly combined with the “Process online files only” option, by checking the new “Re-analyse Media” checkbox on the Pre-processing tab.