CatDV 9.0 Reference Guide

The online help documentation is arranged in separate pages or topics. It is designed to be suitable both for reference or to be read from beginning to end.

Use the CatDV Help menu command to access online help:

The Topics button displays a table of contents, listing all the topics.
Click on the Next link to read all the topics in order.
Click on a blue link to display more information about a related topic. (Links which are underlined will launch in an external web browser.)
Use the back and forward buttons < and > to go back (or forward) through the history of pages you have visited after following a link.
Type in keywords to the search box and press Enter to display a list of matching pages.

The online help text is also available as a standalone Reference Guide which you can view or print out with your web browser.

Introduction

CatDV 9.0 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 Standard Edition
CatDV Professional Edition
CatDV Professional Edition with Workgroup Server
CatDV Enterprise Edition with Enterprise Server

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, etc.)
audio formats (MP3, AIFF, AU, AAC, WAV, 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.

CatDV 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 you can create your own subclips. You can review each clip and enter a name and keywords describing the scene, mark it as "good" or not, 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 preview movies to show the contents of clips when the original media files are off-line. You can do most of your work with the previews, then relink to the media based on file path when necessary, or generate capture logs for use with the batch capture capability of your editing application if you are using a tape-based workflow.

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 either self-contained or QuickTime reference 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 requires Java and QuickTime, both of which you can download for free if they're not already provided on your system:

Java for Windows (Sun's JRE) is available from http://www.java.com.
Java for Mac OS is pre-installed on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6, and available as a free download from the Mac App Store under Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (if required you will be prompted to install it automatically the first time you launch CatDV)
QuickTime for both platforms is available from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

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.co.uk. 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.co.uk; for technical support please contact support@squarebox.co.uk. 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 or tape, 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 preview movies to represent each clip in your catalog. Specify the location and quality settings for previews in Preferences, then use Build Preview Movies to create preview versions of all your video clips. CatDV previews are small enough to be kept permanently and are therefore available to show you the contents of your entire tape library even when the original media files are unavailble (perhaps they're on a removable 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 preview 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 tapes and 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 tape or project you are working on, or you could email a catalog to a colleague).

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 tape, or perhaps 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.

Self-contained archives

A normal catalog file doesn't include your preview movies but refers to previews in the shared Preview directory. If you prefer, you can save the catalog and tape-based preview movies together as a self-contained preview archive. Use Save As Catalog or Save As Archive to change the way the catalog is saved.

In a self-contained archive the catalog is combined with the preview files for that catalog in a single directory (Windows) or directory bundle (Mac OS X). The archive can be saved to an external drive or copied to CD/DVD and when the archive is opened the corresponding previews are immediately accessible. With self-contained archives it is not necessary to keep all the preview files in one place. Archives have the file extension .cdvp.

You can use the Manage Preview Movies command to check which preview files are contained in an archive.

Note: Self-contained preview archives only work with tape-based previews, and can result in multiple copies of your preview movies, so for most purposes normal catalog files are recommended. The Save As Archive command only appears in the menu if you enable advanced menus and tape-based previews in your Preferences.

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

Name	Name of the clip
Notes	Description or other comments you enter about the clip
Bin	Project bin or directory on disk where the clip came from; used for grouping clips
Tape	Name of the tape or reel the clip is on
Import source	The file that details of this clip were imported from (eg. a movie file, EDL, or batch list)
Source media	the media file that holds the video data the clip refers to (not necessarily the same as the Import Source)
In & Out	Timecode values for the whole clip. The Out point of a clip is the timecode of the frame after the last frame of this clip (and normally equals the In point of the following clip). (Corresponds to Media Start and End in Final Cut.)
Duration	The corresponding clip length, i.e. the difference between In and Out points.
In2 & Out2	Timecode values for a selection made within the clip (corresponds to In and Out in Final Cut).
Start & End	Current clip bounds, either In/Out or In2/Out2 depending on the Export clips based on selection Preferences option
Type	Clip type, whether still, audio or movie file, and if so whether a master clip (correspond to entire file) or a sub-clip. The icon is crossed out with a red X if the file is offline or unplayable.
Underlying Type	More detailed type information that distinguishes QuickTime, OMF and WMV movies, for example. For DV clips the icon indicates whether a definite scene change at the start or end of the clip has been identified.
Format	A summary of the format of the movie (whether DV, other QuickTime movie, still, etc.). See the list of media-related properties for more details about the media file.
Poster	Each clip has a poster thumbnail, normally the first frame of the clip but a different poster can be set from the clip details movie tab
Mark	A general purpose check box to mark clips of interest or to save a selection
Hide	Clips may be flagged as hidden so they don't normally appear unless the Show hidden menu command is used (you could use this to hide rejected clips but without deleting the clip record, or hide master clips once they have been divided into subclips.)
Big Notes	An additional comments field, capable of storing notes larger than 65,000 charactes
Event	Which event this clip is part of
Rating	A star rating from 0 to 5 stars. 0 means unreviewed, while conventionally 1 star means a rejected clip, and 2 to 5 stars means a good clip
Good	An older mechanism for marking good or bad clips, replaced by Rating
Exposure	A summary of the camera exposure details (available with some DV camcorders and digital cameras)
Record date	The original date/time of recording of the clip or image (available with some DV camcorders and digital cameras)
Date	Either the Record Date, or failing that the earliest modification time of the source media
User 1..N	General purpose user-defined text fields (in the Standard Edition you can have up to 3 user fields, in the Professional Edition you can have any number).
Clip ID	Several fields are used to uniquely identify clips in different ways
Status	A general purpose clip status field (you can define your own statuses in the Pick List section of Preferences, for example 'Approved' and 'Rejected')
History	Any changes to the Status of a clip are recorded in the history field
Transition	Available when importing EDLs (edit decision lists)
Seq. No.	Sequence number when importing more than one clip from a file, eg. an EDL or scenes within a movie
Online	Indicate whether the clip is currently online, or a preview or thumbnail is available
Used	How many sequences (in this catalog) that a clip appears in (this can indicate whether a clip is used in a project or not).

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.

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 following basic importers are available:

Import as QuickTime Media - any QuickTime-supported media type can be imported, including still images, sound clips, and movies (including AVI and MPEG). 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.
Import as JMF Media - if you installed a Java Media Framework codec such as fobs4jmf (see the CatDV release notes) then you can use JMF to import any compatible media files
Import as Xuggle Media - if you install the Xuggle library this will provide support for additional media formats
Import as Cinestream Project - you can import clips from the project window and from the program of an EditDV/Cinestream project into CatDV. Each program track (V1, etc.) appears as a separate clip sequence. Use the Preferences option to choose whether or not to import the Program bin (which contains rendered footage that may be necessary for a program but not otherwise be of interest).
Import as CMX 3600 EDL - import both source clip definitions and a sequence of program clips from an industry standard CMX edit decision list
Import Tab-Separated Text - import clips defined in a tab-separated text file, one per line, eg. if you have manually logged a tape using pencil and paper or a spreadsheet.
Import as Windows Media File - analyse WMV, ASF, or WMA files
Import as MPEG File - analyse MPEG 1 or 2 files (including transport streams)
In the case of WMV and MPEG files the duration and format are determined and any metadata is extracted from the file, but you might not be able to play the file within CatDV unless you have an appropriate codec installed
Various additional formats, such as Final Cut Pro XML files and MXF media files, are available in the Professional Edition.

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.

Live Capture

For technical reasons, the old built-in Live Capture command is no longer available (since CatDV 5). Instead, you can use the separate Live Capture Plus application, or capture a DV tape in an external application (such as your regular non-linear editing software or the free iMovie or Microsoft Movie Maker applications) then import the resulting files into CatDV to catalog them and create high-quality offline previews.

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 Cinestream Capture Log, Premiere Batch Log, Canopus Batch List - you can export batch capture logs suitable for various popular video editing applications, including EditDV/Cinestream, Adobe Premiere and Canopus Raptor.
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 preview versions if you have created them.

The Movie Format tab has options that govern the format of the exported movie(s). You can export without recompression, either as a small reference movie for each clip (which depends on the original source media remaining online) or as a flattened self-contained movie (which makes a copy of the source media). Or you can recompress the movie with a new codec (convert the movie to different settings, for example to play it on an iPod or upload to a web site). You can use any QuickTime movie exporter for this, but the most useful formats include QuickTime, MPEG-4 (or MPEG-4 Hinted Movie), DV Stream, AVI, or 3G (for playback on mobile phones). Once you have chosen the basic format you can choose a codec, resolution, frame rate and quality settings by pressing the Settings button.
Under Batch 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). You can export the whole of each clip or a selection within it. If you have gone through all your clips, reviewing them either by making a selection of the material you want to keep or marking the whole clip as good, then you can export a program containing the desired clips (similar to the Select Reviewed command).
Under the Extra Tracks tab you can add a timecode track, or a text track containing the date & time of recording (for DV material only). If you export a flattened or reference QuickTime movie without recompression these are saved as separate tracks that you can enable or disable in QuickTime Player, whereas if you recompress the movie the text is burnt in to the image. With the Professional Edition you can also add a custom text track containing specific text (such as a copyright notice), or containing one of the clip data fields, such as a title or scene number. This text can appear for a fixed duration or for the entire duration of the clip. If you choose the Event Marker field the text changes at each timecode event and you can use this to add subtitles. You can choose the size for the text and timecode tracks and whether they should have a transparent or opaque background. 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.
Under the Annotations tab you can add QuickTime annotations such as title, author or copyright to the exported movie, assuming you are exporting a QuickTime movie. (Professional Edition only)

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. There are two options:

In the simplest form, a single index page containing all the selected clips is output, to a file location that you specify.
Alternatively, you can create an HTML index specifically for tape-based preview movies. This index is written in the preview directory and allows you to access the preview movies from a web browser without requiring the CatDV application.

With both types of export 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.

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
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.)
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.

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 tabs that show the different media representations available for a clip: thumbnail images, the original movie, or a low-resolution preview 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 Preview tab is similar to the Movie tab but plays the proxy or 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 preview 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.

Timecode markers

In the Professional Edition you can create 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 User Columns section of Preferences (or on the Field Definitions page), 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: a single timecode value within the clip is flagged
Range: the marker has a start timecode and a duration and can be used to flag portions of a clip, eg. for "bad language".
Chapter: 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 Preview 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.

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.

Note that in earlier versions of CatDV markers were stored as text within the clip Notes field, whereas in CatDV 8.0.3 and Server 6.1.3 onwards they are stored in a separate markers field. If you open a catalog using an older version of CatDV it is possible therefore that the markers won't appear.

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 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 or by tape.
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 node

The Final Cut Projects node lists your recently used Final Cut Pro project files. If you have Final Cut Pro 7 you can drag and drop clips between CatDV and a Final Cut project using these project nodes.

To add an FCP project file to the list, drag it onto the Final Cut Projects node.
Double click a project to open it in Final Cut Pro and link to it.
Once opened the project is shown in bold. Clicking on it will export the clips in your browser via XML and list them in CatDV (this may take a few moments).
Drag selected clips or sequences that have come from FCP to a catalog window or the catalog node to add them to a CatDV catalog.
Conversely, if you have search results of clips you want to use for editing, or have created a rough-cut sequences within CatDV, then you can send these to Final Cut by dragging them to an open project node.
Hold down the Option key while you drag to the FCP project node to link to the preview, not the original media.

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.

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:

Plain Text: A free format plain text field. This is normally shown on a single line but but when customising the details panel layout you can select a scrolling multiline field instead.
Grouping: 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.
Checkbox: A single true/false checkbox. When giving the user-defined field a name, use a colon in the name to separate the field label from the checkbox name, eg. "Widescreen:Anamorphic".
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 hiearchy: This allows you to link two pick lists, so the values shown in one depend on the value picked in another. Use a colon character in the name to define which field it depends on. 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", with pick list values such as TeamA/Player1, TeamA/Player2, TeamB/Player3.
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 field name by using colons, for example "Colour:Red:Green:Blue".
Radio Button: Similar to a Grouping field but where the number of options is small and can be specified within the field name by using colons (as for Multi Checkbox fields).
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).
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.
Not Shown: 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.

Events

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.

Despite the similarity in their names don't confuse events (a way of grouping related clips together) with timecode event markers (a way to mark specific frames of interest within a clip).

Previews and thumbnails

A clip can have different types of media representation: small thumbnail images, the original movie or media file, and a low-resolution preview 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.
If you have timecode resets or don't give each tape a unique name you might see incorrect or jumbled up thumbnails. To avoid this, either fix the tape name or turn off the Automatically link media based on tape name option in Preferences.
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.
For example, in tape-based workflows the source media will often be deleted from disk at the end of one project to make space for the next one. (Given the tape name and timecode values you should be able to use batch capture within your NLE software to recapture the original files, without any loss of quality, if they are ever needed again.)
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.

Previews

CatDV supports the use of low-resolutions proxy or 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 Preview Movies command to build a preview movie of the selected clips.
Preview movies are stored on disk in a common preview directory and are shared between catalogs. Once created they are available even when the original source movie is deleted.
Specify the directory for previews 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 preview file.
Tape-based preview files should be treated as 'private' to CatDV but can be exported with Export As Movies if you want to use them in another application.
Use Preview Manager to see which preview files are available, rename a tape, or delete unwanted previews. (This command is only available if you enable advanced menus via Preferences.)
You can use the original tape-based preview mechanism or newer path-based previews, or both (see below)
You can have more than one preview directory. The first directory is where new previews will be created but all the directories are searched in turn when looking for a preview movie.

Locating media

CatDV can find the media for a clip in two distinct ways, by tape name or by file path.

Tape-based lookup:

If a clip originates from tape and the Tape field is correctly set then using tape-based previews another clip can automatically use that same media, even if it doesn't have a direct link to the media file. Together the tape name and timecode uniquely identify the media.
If you don't set a unique tape name (or if you have timecode resets) then you should disable tape-based media linking in Preferences otherwise you might see incorrect thumbnails or previews for a clip.

Path-based lookup (of original media or low-res previews):

For tapeless workflows, or 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 preview movies. These use the same search path mechanism to map original location to preview 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/Previews" as a path-based preview location and have a proxy file "/Volumes/Previews/Project X/Good Clips/Clip1.mp4".

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 menu command (or toolbar button) to play selected clips one at a time. (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 Present Movie command to present the selected clips combined into a single sequence that plays smoothly as a whole (this is mainly intended for video clips).
Use the Run Slide Show command to present the selected clips as a slide show of individual clips (this is mainly intended for stills and audio clips).

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.)

Space bar	play or pause a movie
Up, Down	move to previous or next clip in the catalog
Escape (or Cmd-W)	close the media dialog
F	toggle into full screen mode. Double click to return to normal mode.
Tab (or R)	start or pause slide show mode
Enter	close a slide show
+, -	increase or decrease the audio volume
[, ]	rotate image 90 degrees left or right
D	double the playback size of the movie or image
Shift-D	restore playback to normal size
Ctrl-R	refresh the display, re-centering the window on the screen
0-9	adjust speed of slide show
C	toggle showing/hiding the movie controller
J/K/L/;	jog-shuttle controls (see below)
Shift-L	toggle looping playback mode
Cmd/Ctrl-M	set the mark flag for the clip
Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-M	clear the mark flag for the clip
M	insert a timecode event marker
G/N/?	mark the clip as good/no good/maybe
I, O	set start/end of a selection (in2/out2)
P	play the selection from start to end (in2 to out2)
Shift P	Set the clip's poster thumbnail to the current frame
T, Y	move to start/end of a selection (in2/out2)
S, E	play start/end of a selection (in2/out2)
Ctrl-J (or Cmd-I)	display clip details dialog
A	Toggle audio waveform display (for QuickTime movies only)
Cmd/Ctrl +/-	Zoom in and out of the audio waveform display

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)
In jog mode 'J' and 'L' 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 Preview 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:

A / Shift A	Select All / Deselect All
B / Shift B	Bulk Edit / Search & Replace
C / Shift C	Copy Clips / Timecode Calculator
D / Shift D	Assign To Event / Import Directory
E / Shift E	Export Movie / Export Still
F / Shift F	Find Clip / Remote Query
G / Shift G	Find Next / Toggle Grouping
H / Shift H	(Reserved by Mac OS X) / (Unused)
I / Shift I	Clip Details / HTML Summary
J / Shift J	File Details / Catalog Summary
K / Shift K	Connect to Server / Server Admin
L / Shift L	Launch In Default App / New Empty Clip
M / Shift M	Mark Clip / Insert Marker
N / Shift N	New Catalog / New View
O / Shift O	Open/Import File / Programmable Import
P / Shift P	Play Media / Present Movie
Q / Shift Q	Quit / (Reserved by Mac OS X)
R / Shift R	Run Slide Show / (Unused)
S / Shift S	Save Catalog / Toggle Summary Mode
T / Shift T	Tape Details / Tape Library Management
U / Shift U	New Subclip / Toggle Subclip Limits
V / Shift V	Paste Clips / Verbatim Logger
W / Shift W	Close Window / Convert Markers to Subclips
X / Shift X	Cut Clips / Programmable Export
Z / Shift Z	Undo / Redo
- / =	Select Reviewed / Select Marked
\	Automatic Column Widths
1..4	Switch Details Tabs
Up, Down	Previous/Next Clip
[, ]	Rotate Left or Right
F5	Refresh Window
/	Help

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 the letter to jump to the appropriate section of preferences).

QuickTime player

The default playback mechanism that CatDV uses is based on the QuickTime library. This supports a wide number of file formats and codecs and supports import, transcoding, and editing functions as well as playback. It is possible to install extra QuickTime codecs and importers to support additional formats.

When the QuickTime player is being used a blue 'Q' appears in the movie controller.

Protected player

Certain media formats or codecs can occasionally cause stability problems with the built-in QuickTime player, so that playing a damaged media file could cause the CatDV application to abnormally terminate. To protect against this you can run QuickTime in a separate process by enabling 'protected player' in Preferences.

When using the protected player you may notice a slight lag when moving and resizing the window and some features may not be available, also that popup menus may sometimes appear behind the player. A green 'P' is shown in the movie controller when using the protected player process.

Java Media Framework player

Originally CatDV relied exclusively on the QuickTime API framework to provide its media support. Since CatDV 8 you can also extend CatDV's media playback capabilities by installing a JMF (Java Media Framework) media handler and codec plug-in, or the Xuggle library (see below).

One such JMF plug-in is Fobs4JMF, based on the popular open source FFmpeg library. This permits playback of MPEG 2, MPEG 4, many MXF and WMV files, HDV and AVCHD transport streams, and more. Another is the JMF Windows Performance Pack which provides access to native Windows Media codecs (on Windows only).

To activate either of these 3rd party plug-ins, first download and install the files following the relevant instructions. Then, in CatDV's preferences (under Advanced Media Handling) choose the location of the JMF extension jar file, eg. fobs4jmf.jar. (On the Mac choose the Fobs4JMF-0.4.??-JMStudio.app application bundle, which contains the relevant files inside it.). Supporting files (jmf.properties and any dll or jnilib native libraries) should be in the same location as the jar file.

Once you have successfully installed a JMF plug-in (you may need to restart the CatDV application for the change to take effect) CatDV will automatically try to open a file with JMF if QuickTime is unable to read the file. Note that some features (including transcoding media and sequence editing) are not supported via the JMF framework at this time.

A red 'J' is shown in the movie controller when using a JMF plugin for playback.

Xuggle player

Xuggle is another open source media library based on FFmpeg. It is easier to install and provides better performance than JMF and so is preferred over JMF in most cases. Xuggle provides playback of HDV and AVCHD transport streams, among other formats, though with some limitations (such as not being able to scrub or seek through MPEG and HDV files).

You can download the Xuggle library using this link.

A yellow 'X' is shown in the movie controller when using Xuggle for playback.

Other players

CatDV has built-in support for displaying common still image formats, including certain camera RAW files. It also has a built-in player for certain types of OMFI files.

Even if no player is available to play or view a file from within CatDV, you can still use CatDV to catalog and tag such files, and double click on the clip to open the file in its default application.

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:

Video	A summary of the format of the visual track, including the codec, frame size and frame rate. (If there are several video tracks the overall frame size of the movie is shown.)
Audio	A summary of the format of the audio track, including codec and sample rate.
Importer	Details of which QuickTime importer is used to read the file, ie. whether it's a QuickTime .MOV file or another format that needs to be imported into QuickTime.
Format	A concise summary of the format, based on the Importer, Video and Audio fields.
QT Tracks	A list of all the tracks in the file, as reported by QuickTime. The 4 character type and subtype codes are shown, eg. "vide/jpeg" is a JPEG video track, while "soun/musi" is a MIDI music track. The size in pixels (Width x Height), the number of samples, and the duration of the track is shown. If a track has a name or is disabled this is indicated also.
Metadata	Any QuickTime user data or Windows Media metadata, such as movie title or copyright annotations, that might be stored in the file is shown here in concatenated form. This field also shows metadata such as JPEG comments, ID3 tags from MP3 files such as artist and track, and Exif tags. (See below).
Underlying Type	The clip type icon indicates whether a clip is a DV clip, a still, an audio clip, an interactive file (eg. Flash or QuickTime VR), or other movie.
Aspect Ratio	The aspect ratio of the visual frame. In the case of DV the intended display size (4:3 or 16:9) is shown, taking into account the non-square pixel size, even though this won't match the ratio of the frame size.
Frame rate	The frame rate of the visual track, if known, or an indication if this file is a still.
Frame size	The normal display size of the movie in pixels, after any transformation matrix has been applied. (By contrast, the unscaled size of each track is shown in QT Tracks.)
Audio Rate	The audio sample rate (this is extracted from the Audio column and made available separately so it can be used for grouping).
Import Notes	If anything unusual about the file is detected, such as audio and video tracks that differ in length or don't seem to relate correctly to the number of media samples, or if there are problems with the timecode, then a warning message may be displayed here.
Duration	The duration of the media file. The timecode format used depends on the file.
In (and Out)	If the file has a timecode track then the in and out points use this timecode information, otherwise each media file is assumed to start at 0:00:00
Media path	The last known location on disk of the source media file.
Media date	The modification time of the source media file (typically the time the file was captured or digitized, as opposed to the original record date.)
Media size	The physical size of the source media file in kilobytes or MB. (This is the size of the media file as a whole, not the size for a particular scene.)
Data rate	The average data rate of the media. You can choose which units are used for displaying data rates in Preferences.

DV metadata

The following fields have special meaning for DV clips:

Aux T/C	Additional user-settable or time of day timecode supported by some cameras. (Professional Edition only)
DV T/C	The timecode value at the start of each clip as stored in the DV data itself (this may be different from the QuickTime timecode track).
Exposure	Camera exposure details recorded in the DV data at the time of recording by some camera models.
Format	A summary of the format, such as whether PAL or NTSC, widescreen or normal, and locked or unlocked audio. In the case of DV this field is based on the DV data itself, not on what QuickTime reports. For example, if a captured movie file has been conformed by rendering a new audio track then the Format field might report that the original recording was at 32kHz even though the Audio field reports that the movie has a 48kHz audio track.
Record Date	The original date and time of recording, stored in the DV data (assuming the clock on the camera was set correctly at the time of recroding).

Exif metadata

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

Exposure	A summary of the Exif exposure details (if present). The EV (exposure value) number combines the aperture and exposure times and gives an approximate indication of the overall light intensity in the scene, assuming the shot was exposed correctly and the camera has equivalent sensitivity to ISO100 film. (Typically EV0 would correspond to almost complete darkness, while EV18 might be a pure white object in very bright sunshine.)
Metadata	This lists all the Exif tags commonly recorded by a digital camera, such as camera make and model, exposure time, whether flash was used, etc. combined into one field
GPS Coordinates	If the image contains geotag information it is extracted and indicated by a blue globe icon on the Summary tab of clip details. Clicking on the icon will display the location in Google Maps.
Record Date	If the Exif data has a DateTimeOriginal or CreationDate tag then this value is extracted and stored in the Rec Date field.

Metadata columns

Depending on the files you import, all kinds of other metadata may be read and are stored in generic metadata columns. The possible field names are not predefined and new metadata columns may be added as required. They can include:

Title, Album, Artist, AlbumArtist, Genre, Track and Year for MP3 and iTunes audio files.
Name, Copyright, Producer, Software and similar annotations for QuickTime movies
Make, Model, ExposureTime, ExposureProgram, FocalLength etc. for Exif images
Title, Copyright, Information, Language for WMV or WMA files
Manufacturer, Software, Camera Serial No., UMID (unique media id) for MXF files
Additional user-defined metadata read from an XML sidecar files at the time of import

The "Metadata (media)" field shows all the QuickTime user data (and other textual annotations that's read from a file) together in concatenated form in one field. As well as displaying the metadata fields in concatenated form, you can expand each metadata field as a separate column by checking the Enable metadata columns box in Preferences. You can then choose whether particular columns are shown or not, and also whether they are used for grouping. (This only affects how the columns are displayed, not how they're stored, so these options are safe to change at any time.)

Supported file formats

CatDV supports the following media file formats:

QuickTime file formats

Natively, CatDV uses QuickTime for its media playback support. It will therefore play back and export files in any format supported by QuickTime 7, including:

QuickTime .MOV files, with various codecs (Animation, Cinepak, Sorenson Video 3, M-JPEG, OfflineRT, DV/DVCPro, H.263, amongst others).
Raw DV streams
AVI files, with certain codecs only (primarily Cinepak, JPEG, and DV)
MPEG-4 files, with various codecs (MPEG-4 Video, H.264, 3GP, etc)
MPEG-1 files (import only)
Still image formats (including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, JPEG2000 and PSD)
Audio formats (including MP3, WAV, AU, AIFF)
Other files such as Flash SWF, or PDF documents (Mac only)

Additional QuickTime codecs

The above formats are available as standard with QuickTime. It is possible to extend the formats available to QuickTime by installing additional codecs, for example:

Installing Apple Final Cut Pro adds the Apple ProRes, Apple Intermediate, and HDV codecs (Mac)
Purchasing the Apple MPEG-2 component adds support for importing MPEG-2 program streams, including region free DVDs (Mac & PC)
See the CatDV FAQ for details of other codecs, including MXF

JMF and Xuggle codecs

As well as QuickTime codecs it is also possible to install Java Media Framework (JMF) codecs to import and play media or to install the Xuggle media library. Various third party and open source codecs are available, including for AVCHD, MPEG, and WMV files. While there are some stability and performance issues with these JMF codecs at present, and functions such as sequence editing and exporting movies are not currently supported, this situation is expected to improve over the coming year. For further details please see the CatDV release notes.

OMF Files

With the Professional Edition you can use "Import As OMFI File" to import metadata from OMF media files. These files include both media and program information and may result in one or more clips and sequences being created. (In addition to the Name, Tape, Notes and Bin fields, several of the user fields are used when importing an OMF file: User 1 is set to the Project name, User 2 to the File name, User 3 to the Tracks, and User 4 to the UID identifier for the media object.)

There are two advanced Preferences options that affect how OMF files (and other files that contain sequence information) are imported: whether any sequence information is imported at all, and whether additional sequences are created for audio tracks, rather than just the main video track.

If the OMF file contains DV media (DV25) or Motion JPEG then a thumbnail image is extracted for the clip and the video can be played and exported from within CatDV.

WMV/ASF Windows Media files

CatDV will import WMV, ASF and WMA files if you use the "Import As Windows Media File" command. CatDV analyses these files and extracts metadata such as audio and video codec, author and copyright notices from the file. Under Windows, if a Thumbs.db file is present in the directory then CatDV will load a thumbnail for the clip.

Playback within CatDV is not directly supported, but double clicking a WMV file will normally launch an external application (such as Windows Media Player, VLC or MPlayer) to play the file.

If you install the Flip4Mac component, however, then you can play back WMV files within CatDV, and treat them like any other QuickTime-supported file, for example use the Export As Movie to convert them to another format. (Flip4Mac is available for Mac OS X only.)

The advanced preference option "Play WMV/ASF files" controls whether CatDV attempts to open such files in QuickTime or not.

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 MPEG, WMV, OMF, MXF and PDF files. 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, depending on what the file format supports). In most cases it is still necessary to have a QuickTime or JMF codec installed in order to play the media however.

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 the Professional Edition you have some additional formats, 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.

Preview presets

When you use the Build Preview Movies command low resolution preview movies are created from your source movies to use even when the original source media is offline.

The following compression presets are available. The approximate file size for one hour of preview footage at 160x120 resolution is shown in each case. (In the Professional Edition you also have a full frame rate Offline RT preset, and can create your own customised preview settings using any available QuickTime compressor.)

Balanced: Video: Sorenson 3, 8 fps, medium quality. Audio: Qualcomm PureVoice 22kHz. (110 MB/hr)
Speed: Video: Motion JPEG, 6 fps, low quality. Audio: IMA 4:1 11kHz. (110 MB/hr)
Quality: Video: Sorenson, 12.5 fps, medium quality. Audio: QDesign Music 22KHz. (140 MB/hr)
Speed + Quality: Video: Motion JPEG, 8 fps, medium quality. Audio: IMA 4:1 22kHz. (250 MB/hr)
File Size: Video: Sorenson, 6 fps, low quality. Audio: QDesign Music 22kHz. (30 MB/hr)
Speed + File Size: Video: Motion JPEG, 5 fps, least quality. Audio: IMA 4:1 11kHz. (80 MB/hr)
Quality + File Size: Video: Sorenson, 8 fps, medium/low quality. Audio: QDesign Music 22kHz. (75 MB/hr)
Balanced (fast): Video: Motion JPEG, 8 fps, low quality. Audio: QDesign Music 11kHz. (125 MB/hr)
MPEG-4: Full frame rate ISMA MP4 (at 550 or 300 MB/hr)

The difference in time to compress between the speed optimised and normal presets can be a factor of five or more, but with a corresponding difference in the resulting file size and quality.

Note that you should not access the preview files from the preview directory directly. They are private to CatDV - this is why they have obscure names like "25,123,4210,64x.mov". Instead, use the Export As Movie(s) command, where you can choose to export existing previews as either reference or self contained movies without recompressing them.

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 tape, 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

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 three types of summary mode, which you can access via the View menu:

Clip Summaries
Source Media View
Thumbnail 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 Clip Summaries 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 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 two 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".

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, 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.

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, previews 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 hide less commonly used menu commands or show a simplified toolbar in the main window; 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.
Previews & Thumbnails tab: What size and quality settings to use when creating preview movies (use one of the presets, or customise your own in the Professional Edition); whether to use tape- or path-based previews; whether to display a preview instead if the original movie is unavailable; 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).
Media Search Paths tab: The directory for creating tape-based previews and additional preview directories to search when locating preview movies for a tape (you can include the directory where self-contained archives are stored to search those also). Specify equivalent media directories for path-based previews and to automatically locate media files (define mappings from the path as stored in the catalog to where the files are physically located on the local machine).
User Columns tab: Specify names and types for user-defined columns or create additional columns. The FCP Preset button automatically sets user column names to match Final Cut Pro. Use the Built-in Fields button to customise the names of pre-defined attributes. You can also define Marker Categories from this tab. (Professional Edition only)
Pick Lists tab: View or edit the values that appear in drop down lists when editing grouping columns. If an attribute is extensible you can type in new values, otherwise you are restricted to values in the list.
Metadata Columns tab: Choose whether metadata fields such as copyright and author information (extracted from the original media file from QuickTime user data, Exif and ID3 tags, or WMV/ASF attributes) are displayed as normal columns. Control how individual fields are used, or press Cmd-Delete to delete a field altogether.
Customise Views & Customise Details Panel tabs: Create or modify view definitions. In the Professional Edition you can customise fields shown in the clip details panel also.
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; define whether the media or details dialog is shown when double clicking on a clip; whether to use the advanced query dialog for searches within a catalog (Professional Edition).
Advanced User Interface tab: Select the look and feel of the application; 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.
Import tab: Which importers to try when importing a media file; whether to recursively scan subdirectories when importing a directory; 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: Which media player to use; whether to start playing a movie automatically; whether to automatically double the size of small movies or images; how fast should slide shows be shown; 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 line ending character to use when exporting batch logs; 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; 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 sequences are imported from Final Cut 7 XML files (and from OMFI files). Options that relate to how clips are sent to Final Cut Pro 7, 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.

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. (If you selected a single clip you can enter a new name to rename the media file.) You can also Copy Media Files.
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 Preview File is similar but shows the location of the preview file, 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.

Previews and thumbnails

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

Use Build Preview Movies to build preview movies for selected clips from the source movies using the current settings selected in Preferences.
Use Manage Preview Movies to see which preview 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 Preview Movies command to add timecode to a preview 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 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 main window. 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.
Increase the memory allocation via Advanced preferences and restart the application (Mac only).

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 ID: This is a new general purpose clip reference field. You can choose to have clip IDs 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.
Remote Object ID: Finally, when a clip is saved to the CatDV server it is assigned a unique numeric id in the database. This number is not normally displayed on the client application but may appear if you use the Live HTML Publisher, for example.

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.

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 preview movie (see Previews 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

secondary clip

duplicate

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.

Obsolete features

A number of commands which were originally provided to cope with DV tape workflows and limited disk space are no longer relevant to modern workflows and have been removed from this edition.

If necessary, you can re-enable these commands by entering feature code 'OBS' in the advanced Preferences panel:

Use Whole Tape Capture Log to create clip definitions of equal size spanning a tape. These can be exported as a capture log to capture an entire tape unattended if your NLE editing software has batch capture but no command to capture a whole tape.
To split a large DV capture file into separate files for each scene, or to trim unwanted material from the capture files, first create clips for each scene you want and make selections within them. Then select the clips you want to keep and use Consolidate Footage. This will write a separate self contained movie file for each clip before deleting the original capture files.
Use Consolidate Footage to trim unused material from the source media by saving a self-contained (flattened) movie of the selection (in2/out2) within each clip and then deleting the original source movies. (This only applies to DV movies. The assumption is that DV footage can always be batch recaptured based on the original timecode and it is therefore safe to delete the source media.) You can achieve similar results with more control by exporting flattened movies of the clips you want to keep and then deleting the original files if required.
Use Convert To Text to concatenate all the Name and Notes fields of selected clips. Convert To Text is the "opposite" of Verbatim Logger. With this command you can convert the name, notes and timecode values of selected clips to a textual list which you can copy and paste into a word processor, for example, to create a transcript or for further editing. When you are finished in your word processor, you can copy and paste this text back into the Verbatim Logger to create separate clips again.

If you capture a tape as a series of regular sized files (using Live Capture Plus or the Whole tape capture log for example) it's very unlikely that all the file boundaries will fall on an exact scene change boundary. Some scenes will end up spanning more than one imported clip therefore. There are different ways to combine these broken clip segments and join them into a single clip for each scene:

Display a Clip Summaries summary view.
Use the Auto-join DV clips if scenes are split across files Preference option to automatically join clip segments at the time of importing a DV movie
Use the Join DV Scene Fragments tool to clean up selected DV clips by automatically merging any start & end segments that come from separate media files but are known to belong to the same scene. This command also tidies the catalog by removing the original long capture clips from the catalog (leaving just the detected scenes).
Use the Merge command to manually merge two or more contiguous clips into one.

Some of these commands only work on DV clips because DV files contain the timecode encoded in each frame and also include start and end of scene boundary information.

Professional Edition Features

The Professional Edition has several features over and above the 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 preview settings: In Preferences you can customise the size of previews 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:

Del	delete selection from sequence and shift remainder up
Shift-Del	erase selection from sequence leaving a gap
Enter	append the clip in the source window to the end of the sequence
\	insert the source clip into the sequence at the current playhead position or replacing an existing selection, shifting the remainder up
/	overwrite the sequence, replacing an existing selection with the source clip. This performs a 3-point edit, ie. if you select in and out points in the sequence to be overwritten then the appropriate amount of material from the source clip will be used.
J, K and L	control playback
I and O	make a selection by marking In and Out points
Shift-I or O	clear the corresponding In or Out pont
X	select the current clip in the sequence (based on where the playhead is), ie. set In and Out points around the clip
Shift-X	clear the selection
F	Match frames, ie. jump to the frame in the trim window that corresponds to the current frame in the sequence window
Up and Down arrow	move to previous or next interesting time (edit point)
Ctrl/Cmd P	play the selection in a new window
Ctrl/Cmd + and -	zoom in and out of the timeline
Ctrl/Cmd \	automatically scale the timeline to fit window width
Ctrl/Cmd Z	undo the last edit

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.

Voice over tracks

Once you have created a sequence you can record a voice over track using the Add Voiceover Track command. When editing a sequence with a voiceover track:

Press the VO button to display the voiceover dialog.
Press Settings to choose the directory where voiceover files will be recorded and also specify pre-roll and fade times.
Choose the computer's built-in microphone or an external audio input in Device Settings.
Check the audio sound level and then press Start Recording
Recording finishes when you press the Stop button or the predefined Out point is reached
To trim a voiceover recording you can use the Split Voiceover Clip command in the Sequence menu.

You can then export the sequence as a movie (or send it to Final Cut Pro) and the voiceover track you recorded will be included as another audio track.

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 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. You can open a catalog by double clicking its name in the list. From this window you can also delete catalogs, 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 preview locations, user-defined field names, pick list values, and customised view layouts.

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'.

Additional Importers and Exporters

The Professional Edition (and Workgroup Edition) supports a number of additional file formats to the standard importers and exporters.

Batch lists and other formats

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

Avid ALE Log File (to export an Avid ALE batch log)
dpsVelocity batch List (to export a DPS BRT file)
Final Cut Pro batch List
Final Cut Pro XML File

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

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. You may also require a 3rd party codec to play these files.

Final Cut Pro

When importing and exporting Final Cut Pro 7 batch lists and XML files, 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 User Columns tab of Preferences. For each Final Cut column choose which column in CatDV it maps to.

If possible, you should normally use FCP XML files in preference to batch lists as they have a number of advantages. Most importantly, when you use FCP XML files the media links will be preserved, but they also support the transfer of bins, subclips and sequence information to and from your browser window, and work with localized (non-English) versions of Final Cut Pro.

The Send to Final Cut Pro command provides an easy way to send clips or sequences straight to Final Cut Pro. It is similar to exporting an XML file but saves it in a temporary directory and automatically opens the file in Final Cut Pro. You can also drag sequences and clips onto a Final Cut project node in the tree navigator to send them to Final Cut using Apple Events.

Recent versions of Adobe Premiere Pro also support FCP XML files (in additon to EDLs and Premiere batch logs), so this provides another mechanism for exchanging data with Premiere.

Please note that Final Cut XML files are only supported by Final Cut Pro 6 and 7. Final Cut Pro X uses a completely different project format and doesn't currently support importing or exporting clips and sequences to other applications. It is anticipated that a future release of Final Cut Pro X will again allow import and exporting of data and when it does, CatDV will be updated to support this. In the meantime we recommend that you keep a copy of Final Cut Pro 7.0.3 available (it is possible to install both Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro X on the same machine).

CatDV XML Files

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.

The Export CatDV XML Index(es) command saves XML 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 Batch File command can be used to specify a batch of media files to be imported in one go. You can specify the media path of files to import, or create offline clips without any media, and attach metadata to the resulting clips. 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

The Professional Edition adds support for importing OMF media files. The CatDV MXF Option also supports the newer MXF media files used by Panasonic P2 cameras, Sony XDCAM, and Avid. If audio and video are stored in separate files an MXF metaclip is created so they are automatically played in synch. Note that it may be necessary to install a third party codec to play MXF media.

For improved Avid integration, the 3rd party Avid MME (multimedia metadata exchange) component may be of interest.

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.

Additional license options

CatDV 9.0 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:

Cache-A Archiving Option

If you have a Cache-A PrimeCache or ProCache archive appliance you can use the CatDV Archiving Option to enable archiving from within CatDV. The following commands will be enabled in the Tools menu:

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 device. You can optionally include a copy of CatDV's metadata in 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 the 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 previews 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)

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).

Although CatDV's Archiving Option is designed specifically to work with Cache-A devices you can also use these commands to archive to other devices (such as an external FireWire drive) by selecting the appropriate folder when you configure the option. 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 used as the tape name). Using this feature you can test the archiving functionality without having a Cache-A device.

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. 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).

In the case of AVID and P2 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.

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.

Please note that in order to play MXF clips within CatDV (or to export preview movies from them) you will also need to install a 3rd party MXF codec, such as those from MXF4Mac or Calibrated.

New features in CatDV 9.0

CatDV 9 includes the following changes:

Support for roles and permissions (requires Enterprise Server 6.6),
Other improvements to the User Admin panel, including new a permission to control whether the user is allowed to create new clips and the ability to save and edit production group settings directly from the group details panel
Support for Xuggle (based on FFmpeg) as an alternative media library, providing playback of additional formats such as AVCHD. (You can download Xuggle here.)
Ability to customise the names of built-in fields and whether they are locked or mandatory, with a new Built-In Fields button on the User Columns preference panel (this replaces the ability to customise the field labels in a details panel view)
Support for many additional user-defined field types, including hierarchy, multi-hieararchy, linked fields, number, date, time and checkbox
Support for reading Adobe XMP and IPTC metadata when importing files
Major preferences tidy up, with several new sections and many options moved to a more logical section, better greying out of disabled options, and the ability to highlight any settings which differ from their default value
New commands in the Tools menu to Export Preferences and Import Preferences to simplify setting up machines, backing up preference settings, and switching between different environments.
Support for grouping clips into events
Use star ratings instead of the old good/no good/maybe classification. (The old ratings are still available for backward compatibility: 'No good' maps to one star, 'Maybe?' to two stars and 'Good' to four stars, out of a maximum of five.)
New commands in the Tools menu to import and export preference settings to an XML file
Support for SRT subtitle files (ability to import directly, using Import As SRT command, or create event markers on an existing clip using Apply Log File)
Internationalistion support
Significant enhancements to Cache-A archiving option, including use of the Cache-A API to restore files, check the device status and query the catalog to report which tape a file is on
Ability to burn in a watermark image (from a transparent PNG or GIF file) when creating previews or exporting movies
Building previews now preserves the original movie aspect ratio
Support JPEG previews for still images and other file types (a file with extension .jpg in the preview directory can be used as a proxy, including for files that CatDV couldn't otherwise display)
Improvements to the Update Media Location command (making it easier to update multiple clips in one go)
Improvements to the Paste Metadata command
New "contains keyword" query operator that won't return spurious substring matches when querying a multi field
By default the Reset View button clears any filters or grouping that's in effect. Shift-click the button to reset the view layout to its default.
Support reading P2 geotag information
Support for P2 spanned clips (a single metaclip that contains all the P2 clips is created, and can be sent to Final Cut as a sequence)
Support for XDCAM EX and HD metaclips (treating all the files that make up a clip as one file), including the ability to play XDCAM proxies with hi-res audio (may require a 3rd party codec such as Calibrated)
FCP 7 XML improvements, including sending marker colours, updating bins, and importing filter parameters as metadata
Ability to bulk delete catalogs on the server from the Browse Database window
Improved keyboard shortcuts for movie playback control using the numeric keypad
Renamed the media path fields to make them more consistent
The plugin API now supports multiple plugins (any jar file in java.ext.dirs can be used, eg. C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\ext, C:\Windows\Sun\Java\lib\ext, /Library/Java/Extensions, ~/Library/Java/Extensions)
Ability to import an entire folder as a metaclip (from the file system tree)
Use Shift-M to reposition start or end of an event marker
Many other minor fixes and improvements

Please note that some of these features are only available in the professional or networked editions or with a bolt-on option.

New features in CatDV 8.1

As well as the features added in CatDV 8.0, the following features are new in CatDV 8.1. This is a free update for users of CatDV 8.0. Please note that some of these features are only available in the professional or networked editions.

HTML printing enhancements, including a new print settings dialog and proper page break handling
Ability to create customised HTML layouts for the clip details panel
The Export As Stills command now lets you choose which frame(s) to export, ie. the clip's poster frame, all thumbnail frames, or all event markers (or event markers of a particular category).
Fixes and improvements to the Verbatim Logger
Integrated support for archiving and restoring files to a Cache-A LTO archive appliance (requires purchase of the separate CatDV Archiving Option).
Support for importing and displaying common camera RAW formats
Improved Exif support, including reading common MakerNote formats and importing metadata from a .THM file
Support for specifying a batch of media files to import using a CatDV XML batch files
Support for burning in DV exposure information, similar to the burnt-in DV date-time display. Also, the date-time display now takes into account camera clock adjustments.
On the Mac, it's possible to perform a Spotlight search to quickly find files from the file system even if they haven't yet been imported into a catalog (right click on the folder you want to search in the tree, or select a folder and type into the quick search text box).
Ability to enter a supplementary license code in the registration panel to support purchase of additional options after initial registration
Integrated spell checking
Scrolling with a mouse wheel now scrubs through a movie
The event markers table now includes a description field, and a button to play the movie from the marker
New Reveal Preview Command
Smart folders can now be organised into folders by entering '/' in the name to separate the components of the name.
Use of colour and icons to simplify choosing fields when customising view layouts or performing queries (see making sense of property names)
A new player architecture protects against crashes that can sometimes occur, for example when QuickTime plays a damaged media file.

The following changes are specific to the server version:

The File menu displays a list of recent server queries and catalogs
User field definitions and picklist values can be saved to a field definition set which can be shared between different production groups (so settings stay in synch without having to make the same changes in each group).
Ability to lock particular user-defined fields so they can't be edited by normal users (only those with permission to edit locked fields)
Ability to mark particular fields as being mandatory, so you can't publish catalogs to the server unless those fields are filled in. Fields with missing data are shown in red.
Ability to configure the client so it 'always connects to server', so users need to log on as soon as the application is launched and always get the latest settings from the server.
Option to automatically open the last server catalog that the user was working on.
A new 'Clip Owner' field keeps track of who first created a clip. The 'Status History' field now keeps track of more changes to a clip, not just who approved or rejected a clip by changing its 'Status' field.
It is possible to give users permission to add new values to a drop-down pick list without making them an administrator who can edit group settings or create new users (though individual pick lists can be locked down so they only have a fixed list of values).
New permissions to control whether users can Delete Clips, Edit Locked Fields, Edit Picklist Values, Delete Other People's Clips/Catalogs.
Users now need to type in their user name when logging on to the server rather than picking a user id from a drop down as that is more secure. (The old behaviour can be re-enabled in Preferences if required.)

New features in CatDV 8.0

The features above are in addition to improvements that were made in CatDV 8.0:

User interface enhancements

Timecode event markers can now specify a range, not just an event, and can be assigned to a category.
The tree navigator side panel has separate areas to control what is being shown in the main window (the current catalog, clips from the server, or the contents of the scratch pad or a Final Cut project) and any filtering applied to those clips.
You can define 'Smart Folders' in the tree to quickly apply filters (to the clips in memory) or perform queries (against the server).
It is possible to combine multiple 'Group By' filter conditions by selecting multiple nodes in the tree (hold down the Cmd or Ctrl key when selecting extra grouping terms).
The tree navigator now lists individual files on the file system, not just folders. Using the right click context menu you can play files from the file system and analyse them without needing to import them into a catalog first. You can also specify which importer to use when importing them using the 'Import As' menu. Use the Reveal In Tree command to find a clip in the file system tree.
Folders in the tree are spring loaded to help you find the destination when dragging and dropping clips (for example, to move a file to a folder on the file system, to send clips to a Final Cut Pro project, to move clips to a bin or to apply other grouping value to those clips).
Verbatim Logger Plus, with ehancements such as spell checking, event macros, resizable player and more
Search improvements, including a new relative date search (eg. find all clips that were added in the past week). The simple search dialog now permits date range searches.
General tidy up of behaviour when clicking or double clicking nodes in the tree navigator (for example, clicking on the name of a remote catalog or tape will quickly view clips from the server without having to open up the catalog in a new window) and also of context menu commands when right clicking on a node.
New commands to copy and paste metadata from one clip to another, to create subclips from an existing media file by applying an ALE or tab-separated log file, to relink a sequence to source clips in the same catalog, and to navigate between a subclip and its masterclip.
Final Cut XML enhancements, including creation of merged clips and use of UUIDs and ability to configure mapping between CatDV and Final Cut fields.
Tidy up of "pro" appearance. The old "classic" appearance scheme is no longer supported.
When customising the clip details panel you can choose whether to display the new 'HTML Summary' page and/or the 'Other' list of all available fields. You can also configure fields to wrap on to multiple lines.
Ability to detach the clip details panel and move it from the top to the side of the window and also to resize the movie player independently of the details panel. The standalone clip details dialog now uses the new details panel.
More flexible film strip views definition, with a new option to display all the available thumbnails for a clip.
Improved pick list edit fields, especially keyboard driven operation
Ability to paste lists of values into the picklist editor in Preferences. You can also manually rearrange the order of pick list values by dragging and dropping items in the list.

Improved media handling

Support for additional codecs implemented by JMF (Java Media Framework). (A blue Q or red J is shown to indicate whether QuickTime or JMF is being used to play a clip.)
New built-in parsers to extract metadata when importing MPEG and PDF files
An optional module provides a parser for extracting metadata from MXF. In the case of Avid and P2 media, special MXF metaclips are created which automatically combine video and audio tracks from different files on the fly, allowing them to be played in synch without having to create a separate reference movie. (Third party QuickTime MXF codecs may be required in order to play the MXF media).
Extract camera metadata from P2, XDCAM and EX1 XML files.
New Advanced Media Handling preferences page to control whether QuickTime, JMF or both are used when importing and playing files and which of the built-in importers (OMF, ASF/WMV, MXF, MPEG, PDF) are enabled.
Ability to record a voice over track
Ability to select individual audio tracks for playback
Media dialog now displays an audio waveform when playing a clip, permitting easier identification of points of interest
A new quick view information dialog (the Media/File Information command) displays information about selected media and other files without having to import them, including QuickTime information, a quick viewer for text files and ZIP archives, a hex viewer for binary files, and so on.
Support for adding QuickTime metadata annotations when exporting files
Ability to add burnt-in subtitles from timecode event markers when exporting movies
Support for creating QuickTime chapter markers when adding a text track
Extract date-time metadata and perform scene detection when importing HDV transport stream files.

Server changes

The following improvements are available when using the CatDV Server. In many cases the Enterprise edition is required.

Added a clip 'Recycle Bin' so that deleted clips can be recovered
New server permission to control deletion of clips from the server
Optional 'tethered' mode for automatically saving and loading changes to keep windows synchronized with the server.
Improved performance when performing queries and publishing changes to the server
Shared smart folders and clip lists can be stored on the server (Enterprise edition only)
The 'Browse All Clips' node can be used to quickly browse and filter clips on the server (Enterprise edition only)
Options whether to display query results in a new window or recycle the current window
Automatic smart folders allow you to browse the server by attribute (grouping clips with similar values together)
Option to autopopulate picklists based on values currently in use on the server
Ability to broadcast messages to other users (Enterprise edition only)
Ability to create named field definition sets and share these between production groups (Enterprise edition only)

New features in CatDV 7

New pro-look appearance (dark grey background) to make prolonged working more comfortable (choose between 'classic' and 'pro' colour schemes in the User Interface tab of Preferences)
The main clip type icon now indicates whether a movie is a master or sub-clip and whether it is online or not.
The Reset View command removes filters and temporary clip views to quickly restore the view to a known state where you can see all the clips in a catalog.
A new preferences option lets you preserve pitch when playing movies at different speeds (for example using JKL jog-shuttle controls or in the new verbatim logger)
Improved sequence editing, including a new static playhead option. Sequences now respect the aspect ratio of the first clip within them. A new Match Frame command (f key) will locate the current sequence frame within the corresponding source clip. Sequences can now support multiple tracks.
Support for Image sequences and metaclips (Pro version only)
New clip ID field and Find Similar command
Tree navigator now shows a Recently Added node to quickly identify the last clips to be imported or the scenes created when you use the Detect Scenes command
Other improvements to the tree navigator, such as listing which Final Cut projects are currently open (Mac only), improved handling of file system tree nodes, ability to create new bins and customise which 'Group By' attributes are shown
A new clip Scratch Pad allows you to build up a temporary collection of clips of interest. These clips can come from different catalogs, as a result of querying the server, from browsing the file system, and so on. Simply drag clips to the Scratch Pad node in the tree navigator or use the Scratch Pad tab of the Clip Details panel to add them to the scratch pad.
It is possible to move media files across file systems by dragging them to another node in the file system tree. To copy them, hold down the Alt key while you drag.
Greater flexibility in locating preview movies (they can now be based on the full file path, as well as on tape name and timecode).
When playing a movie in the clip details panel a new movie slider lets you mark In and Out points and displays the location of any timecode event markers. A new button lets you loop movie playback.
The old Map Tape Offsets command has been renamed to Apply Timecode Offset and now adjusts internal pointers correctly so the clip continues to play normally. (This command only affects clip references within CatDV, it doesn't alter media files themselves. To adjust the timecode of a QuickTime movie use the Add Timecode Track command.)
You can now use the Bulk Edit command to rename or renumber a batch of files in one go (enable the 'Auto rename files when setting Name or Bin' preference option and edit the clip 'Name' field)
New Toggle Subclip Limits command which will turn a subclip into a master clip with a selection in it representing the original subclip (and back again).
The contents of drop down pick lists for clip fields can now be maintained explicitly via the Preferences dialog. Choose whether a field is restricted to only contain values from the list or is extensibe (ie. new values can be typed in), and, if so, whether these values are automatically remembered to populate the pick list in future.
New option to add burnt-in timecode and/or tape name when creating preview movies
Metadata fields can be made editable via an advanced Preferences option
Improved keyboard shortcuts when playing movies (for example, Home and End to move to beginning or end of the movie)
The Export As Movie command now gives access to the new high-res, multi-channel audio options available in QuickTime 7.2
Minor rearrangement of items in the Tools menu and Preferences dialog.
Live Capture Plus and the CatDV Worker Node can automatically open up and append clips to a CatDV catalog
You can import additional metadata by providing an XML file alongside a media file (with the same name but extension '.xml'). The following standard tags are supported: NAME, NOTES, BIN, TAPE, MTIME, ORIENTATION, USER1, USER2 etc. Other tags and attributes will be placed in metadata columns of the same name.
Exif metadata improvements (preserve Exif tags when exporting stills, added support for GPS geotagging of images)
Numerous bug fixes and minor enhancements, including grey squares when printing thumbnails, copy and paste keyboard shortcuts not always working, preventing multiple instances of the CatDV application running under Windows, and more.
Under Windows the location of CatDV's preference files and log files are now based on %USERPROFILE% and %APPDATA% (or %LOCALAPPDATA%).

There are a number of improvements when using the CatDV Server:

Enterprise server permission 'groups' have been renamed to 'productions', reflecting the fact that many organisations are likely to work on multiple productions concurrently.
Preference settings such as pick list values, user column names, view definitions, preview settings or file system shortcuts are now stored on the server so all users on the network will have the same settings. Group settings are stored against a particular production, so if you are a member of more than one production it will load different settings when you switch to another production. Administrators can save preference settings to the server using the Productions node in the tree navigator.
The Productions node in the tree navigator is also used to create and view group documents. Group documents relate to a particular production and can be used as a powerful communications tool in many different 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.
The Connect To Server dialog remembers a list of recent server addresses. Connecting to the server will warn you if the clocks aren't set correctly or if you are connecting in 'safe' mode (with write access disabled).
There is new option to poll the server periodically and display a message if someone else has modified a catalog which the user is working on.
Catalogs on the server can be organised into folders.
The Find Similar command has an option to search the server for duplicate clips similar to those selected.
Greatly enhanced tape library management screen, including better barcode support, additional tape fields, support for printing, and a new command to search tapes.

Some of these features, in particular group documents and network preference settings, are only available in the Enterprise edition and when using version 6 of the server.

New features in CatDV 6

HTML-based, multi-line multi-clip printing
The new tree navigator provides a convenient way to group clips in the catalog by any field. Fields like date and media path are displayed hierarchically. (The tree navigator replaces the old grouping panel and is better in almost every respect, though the old interface is still available for users who prefer it.)
With the tree navigator it is possible to open a temporary view to quickly browse directories on the file system, catalogs on the server, etc. The main window changes to show the temporary clips. Click on the All Clips node to go back to viewing your catalog. You can drag clips from a temporary view onto the catalog node to import them.
The Server node lets you quickly browse catalogs or tapes on the server, or perform saved queries, with a single click without having to open up the catalog in a new window. (Workgroup and Enterprise edition only)
Right clicking (or control-clicking on the Mac) a tree node displays options related to that node, for example to add or remove a directory as a short cut under the File System node.
The Final Cut Projects node lists known FCP projects. Double clicking a node opens the project in Final Cut Pro and shows the contents of the project in a temporary view. Dragging clips or sequences onto the node exports the clips to Final Cut using AppleEvents. (Macinosh, Professional edition only)
A new Film strip view is available that provides a visual overview or 'skim' of a clip. The number of thumbnails shown indicates the length of the clip, for example 2 thumbnails may be shown if it's just a few seconds long up to 8 or 10 thumbnails for a 5 minute clip. The new 'automatic' thumbnail preference option creates the appropriate number of thumbnails for a clip based on its duration.
The new Clip Details panel at the top of the main window (accessible via the Details toolbar button) replaces the old clip details dialog (though this is still available if required). This avoids the need for separate overlapping windows and conveniently organises all the available clip properties into different tabs. Toolbar commands from the clip details dialog are now available via the Logging menu.
It is possible to customise which fields are shown in the details panel via Preferences (Professional edition only).
The movie player in the clip details panel and when editing sequences is now resizable to any size and displays the duration of the selection as well as the current timecode value.
Greatly enhanced sequence editing. This now uses a two window (source and record) metaphor, making it easy to browse clips (via the tree navigator and main window), mark IN and OUT points in the source movie, then append or insert it to the sequence.
Support for 3-point edits using the overwrite button. Mark IN and OUT points in either the sequence or the source clip to define the duration of the edit.
Support for timecode event markers to indicate poisitions of interest within a clip without having to create subclips (Pro version only). This features is accessed via the Clip Details panel.
Drag and drop clips on to the Sequences node to create a new sequence. Double click a sequence to open it. Use 'Close Sequence Window' from the Sequences menu to close it.
Support for new timecode formats 15.0, 23.98, 59.94 and 60.0 fps (in addition to existing formats 1.0, 10.0, 24.0, 25.0, 29.97, 30.0 and 100.0 fps) so timecode is displayed correctly when using 720p60 and other field based formats.
You can edit the Aspect Ratio field for a clip to adjust its playback size.
Many other fixes and improvements, such as fixes when exporting sequences to Final Cut Pro, improved drag and drop reordering of clips, large file sizes are displayed in GB, stability improvements, able to delete items from pick list choosers, internal changes to add compatibility with QuickTime 7.2, improved OMF support, support for scrubbing audio when using JKL keys, etc.

New features in CatDV 5

New Server Shortcuts window with buttons to log on to the server and perform queries. This is intended for use as an application launch action (via Appearance tab of Preferences). Renamed the Workgroup menu to the Server menu.
The new Clip Summary dialog provides a nicely formatted view of a clip's details. Fields are colour-coded according to whether they are logging fields, technical metadata (such as codec details), or other metadata (such as Exif or ID3 annotations). This view is read-only; use the Clip Details dialog if you want to edit the clip.
When you perform a query against the server (Pro version only) or apply a quick filter then bring up the Clip Summary window all the matching keywords are automatically highlighted.
You can no longer edit cells in a list view by default unless you enable cell editing via Preferences (this prevents you from accidentally selecting the contents of a cell when you want to double click a clip).
The new Build Thumbnails command lets you create additional thumbnails for a clip, for example one every 5 seconds. The View Thumbnails command (and an associated new thumbnail summary mode) will display all the thumbnails for selected clips. Together these let you visualise a clip as a sequence of thumbnails. (This view also provides a convenient way to delete unwanted thumbnails.) Note that creating a large number of extra thumbnails will increase the size of catalogs and the time to publish and load catalogs from the server!
Improved OMF support (Pro version only), including playback of motion JPEG encoded files and better metadata extraction.
Ability to trim clips in the sequence editor. Double click a clip in the sequence to bring up the clip details where you can adjust the In and Out points.
The quick filter search field now accepts double quotes to search for an exact phrase containing spaces.
Added support for reading timecode markers from Final Cut Pro XML files (Pro version only). These appear as comments in the Notes field.
The Verbatim Logger has a new option to save entered text in the Notes field rather than always creating subclips (Pro version only).
Many bug fixes, including no longer keeping files locked after importing or playing a movie, fix occasional grey rectangles under menus (Windows), fix crash when leaving fullscreen mode (Mac), fix occasional corrupt thumbnails, fix application sometimes quitting when you use the quick filter field, fixes related to preview creation and exporting movies, etc.
Tidied movie importer so it reports frame rate more accurately and doesn't report so many "broken movie" false alarms
Zooming in the sequence editor timeline no longer loses your position
New Movie preload timeout advanced option to support playback of MXF movies using Flip4Mac (Mac only)
New advanced Preferences option to show attribute IDs alongside field names in drop down lists to disambiguate properties with similar names.
When exporting stills you can now choose the compression quality
Added Save Column Widths command to remember manually adjusted widths (which you can do by dragging column headers) in the current view definition
New option to recycle query results window to avoid explosion of new windows when performing queries against the server
Support for optional plug-in API and renaming of built-in properties (for use by OEM manufacturers and systems integrators)
Many other minor improvements, such as increasing the duration of tool tips, adding a "customise" option to the the View drop down in the toolbar, Verbatim Logger subclips include the name of the parent clip, and a new Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-S keyboard shortcut to toggle in and out of summary mode.
Ability to edit simple sequences by dragging and dropping clips in a timeline view
Universal Binary support for Intel-based Macintoshes
Online help is now searchable, with keywords highlighted in the search results
New command to Adjust Frame Size of QuickTime movies
You can now import and catalog arbitrary non-media file types, such as text documents, project files, spreadsheets, Word documents, and so on. (This feature is disabled by default and needs to be enabled via Advanced preferences.) (Professional Edition only)
New metadata columns, including FileExtension, MacType, MacCreator
Improved handling of OMF media files (better metadata extraction; DV OMF files of any length can now be played, exported or converted to previews) (Professional Edition only)
Improved importing of Final Cut Pro XML files, including support for nested sequences (Professional Edition only)
More reliable launching of Live Capture Plus from within CatDV.
Stability fixes when playing media from details dialog
The tape drop down in the clip details dialog has been disabled to prevent accidental changes (use Bulk Edit or drag and drop to correct the tape if necessary)
If a media file has moved you are prompted to locate it when you try to play it
Many other fixes, such as better handling of zero duration clips and "huge" thumbnails

Server changes

The following features are relevant to the client-server version of CatDV, in particular the new Enterprise Edition of the workgroup client:

CatDV now supports access control (when used with the Enterprise server).
There is a new Server Admin Panel with tabs for viewing status information and creating users and groups
There is a new Log In Details dialog, to support connecting to the Workgroup Server and logging on to the Enterprise Server
A new Catalog Information dialog, available via the Browse Database command, allows the group and user that a catalog belongs to to be changed
New columns Group and User, for grouping clips and when performing remote queries
You can now save sequences to the database
New Tape Details dialog
New Library Management window with view of all tapes and clips on them
Support for an optional barcode scanner
Some Server menu commands have been renamed (or moved to the Server Admin Panel) to make them clearer

For further details please read about the new Enterprise features or consult the documentation that comes with the server.

I have many tapes, how do I know what's on them?

This is the first of a series of How-To notes, describing how to perform various common logging tasks.

CatDV is designed to help you pull together all the information you have about what's on a tape to make it easier to manage your tape library and find scenes again. It will also manage low resolution previews to show you the contents of a tape even when it's not currently captured to disk.

First you need to load the information into CatDV:
- If you have previously edited any projects containing material from your tapes then you can import those projects into CatDV (perhaps via a batch list or similar intermediate file) to avoid retyping previously logged clip names.
- If you have logged your tapes by hand (or using another application) you can import text files or EDLs.
- If you have already captured the contents of your tape to disk you can simply import the media files.
- If you use DV and your tapes have not been captured or logged yet, use the Live Capture Plus application to scan a tape, detecting scenes and capturing previews in one operation (alternatively, capture the tape to disk in your editing application and import the media files).
For tape-based workflows, it's important that the correct tape identifier is entered for all your clips. Use the editing commands within CatDV to correct any mistakes or missing data. (For example, you could use the Search dialog to find all the clips from a particular project, then group by tape and drag the selected clips onto the correct tape name or use the Bulk Edit command.)
Once your clips are in a CatDV catalog there are lots of things you can do to help you browse your clips and find those of interest. For example, you could:
- group clips according to the tape they are on,
- search for a keyword in the notes field,
- print out a single page index print to file with each tape,
- display the date & time of recording of each scene,
- create preview versions of your movies to use even when the media is offline,
- share a catalog containing thumbnails with clients or friends, even if they don't have access to the original movies.
To build previews for a tape that is currently online (i.e. that has been captured to disk), select all the clips for that tape, ensuring they have the correct tape name, then use Build Preview Movies. Use the Preferences options to determine the size and quality of previews.

(If your main interest is in cataloging physical tapes on a library shelf, rather than logging media down to the clip level, then please refer to tape library management features provided by the Enterprise Server.)

How do I automatically log a tape?

Assume you are about to start editing from a tape and want to log the start and end of each recorded scene. The traditional way to do this involves wearing out your tape and deck by painstakingly logging each scene by cueing and reviewing the tape itself. Instead, a better approach is to capture the whole tape to disk first and then log the scenes from disk:

DV-format tapes

Some features in CatDV take advantage of specific features of the DV format, such as embedding the timecode and scene change markers within each frame. To log a DV tape:

Use your capture or editing application to capture your whole tape to disk. If necessary, create a temporary project to do this; you don't need to keep this project as you're only interested in the media files. Make sure you capture as DV (DV stream, DV-AVI or QuickTime DV) so the date and time and scene change information is preserved.
If your capture application splits the tape into separate clips, all well and good. If not, turn on DV-based scene detection in CatDV's import preferences, then import all the long captured movie file(s) into CatDV using either the Import as QuickTime Media or Import Directory command, or by dragging the files into a CatDV window. This will scan the movies to identify all the scenes and extract thumbnails for each clip.
Click on the first clip in CatDV and look at the clip details. View the thumbnail or play the movie and look at the record date, then give each scene a meaningful Name, or description in the Notes field. Mark the clips you want to use with the mark checkbox, or by setting them as "good".
Select all the scenes you want to use in your project, then choose the most appropriate way to export the clips depending on your editing software. For example, you can export a batch file or Final Cut XML, or use Export As Movie(s). Save normally (allowing references),if you want to keep the original capture files on disk without modifying them, or as self-contained flattened movies if you want to chop the original files into separate scenes, without recompression, and trim any unused material.
Create (or open) a project in your editing package, then import all the clips you have just generated. Start editing!

As described, this will trim hard up to each automatically detected scene boundary, giving you the maximum available material while eliminating any risk of inadvertently including rogue frames from an adjacent scene during a dissolve. You can also set In and Out points within the Clip Details window and export just the selection if you prefer.

Instead of using your editing software to capture, you could use Live Capture Plus, a companion product to CaDV, to capture the tape, build previews and create a CatDV catalog all in one go.

Other tape formats

If you want to perform automatic scene detection on material that was not originally recorded in DV format, whether digital or analogue in origin (including DigiBeta, footage captured via a DV converter, or analogue footage dubbed to DV), the steps are broadly similar but you can use CatDV's visual scene detection capability instead:

Capture the whole tape to disk, using whatever format and capture application you would normally use for editing.
Enable Visual Frame Differencing and disable the DV info based Scene analysis options in Preferences then import the captured media file(s) into CatDV.
Unlike DV-based scene analysis, the visual (image based) scene detection can never be totally frame accurate, so in addition to entering a meaningful name and comments, you will need to review and correct the scene boundaries within the Clip Details window:
Use the Play Transition command to check that two adjacent clips really are from different scenes. If the scene detection was too sensitive and both clips relate to the same scene, use Merge Into Previous to merge the two clips into one.
Conversely, if the scene detection was not sensitive enough and a clip ought to be split into two separate scenes, move the timeline (in the Movie or Preview tab) to the first frame of the new clip and press the Split clip (scissors) button.
If you have the Professional Edition you can tune the sensitivity of the scene detection. Uncheck both options at step 2 to disable scene detection at the time of import. Instead, import the file as one clip then manually apply the Detect Scenes command where you can set the sensitivity.

How do I use CatDV Pro with Final Cut Pro 7?

If you have Professional Edition you can easily use CatDV with Final Cut Pro 7.

Before you start, go to the User Columns tab in Preferences and press the FCP Mappings button to set your user-defined column names to match Final Cut Pro. By default Final Cut's fields map to the first 12 user-defined fields but you can change these if required. Also, if you want to use CatDV preview movies as OfflineRT previews in Final Cut Pro, then you should use the OfflineRT preset in Preferences to configure previews as follows: 320x240, Normal Quality, Maximum Frame Rate, Uncompressed Audio.

You can then use CatDV for logging and cataloging your clips, including features such as automatic scene detection, Verbatim Logger, and the building of previews, and export the data to Final Cut Pro for editing. If you use DV tapes you can proceed as follows:

If you have Live Capture Plus, configure this to use the Offline RT format, and to capture CatDV previews and create a CatDV catalog. Capture a DV tape, then open the CatDV catalog that's created for that tape. (If you don't want to do proxy editing, capture as Full Quality DV .mov and create standalone files, then import these into CatDV to create a catalog.)
Review each clip in CatDV Pro, entering clip names and descriptions, creating subclips using the buttons in the Clip Details window, etc.
Select the clips you want to use in your editing project and Export As Final Cut Pro XML File.
Create a Final Cut Pro project using the appropriate OfflineRT easy setup preset (PAL or NTSC). Use Import | XML File to import the log you exported in step 3 into Final Cut Pro.

Alternatively, if you're bringing clips into an existing Final Cut project you can simply drag them onto the Final Cut project node in CatDV's tree navigator at step 3.

You have now imported your CatDV clip definitions into your Final Cut Pro project, including both metadata and logging fields from CatDV and OfflineRT editing proxies. You can edit with these low-resolution proxies and then batch capture the full-resolution versions in the normal way (using the "Create offline" option in Media Manager to convert your sequence from OfflineRT to DV).

If you are ingesting formats other than DV, such as XDCAM, HDV, or Digi Beta, which are not supported in Live Capture Plus, you can do the following instead:

In Final Cut Pro, enter the tape identifier and use the Capture Now command to capture the tape to your capture scratch area.
Select the media file(s) you captured using the Finder and drag them into the CatDV window to import them.
Use CatDV's Detect Scenes command if necessary to create subclips automatically based on visual scene changes. You can review these scene changes and adjust them if required.
Continue as above, entering clip names, selecting the clips you want, and exporting an FCP XML file to transfer this information to Final Cut Pro, complete with subclips and links to the media.

The converse is also possible. If you do your logging within Final Cut Pro you can export the clips from your browser window as an XML file and import these clips into CatDV, to build up a permanent searchable database of all your tapes and clips. (An easy way to export the file to CatDV is to save the XML file on the desktop and then drag it into the CatDV window.)

Note that the Final Cut Pro "Mark Good" checkbox corresponds to the "Mark" property in CatDV Pro (not the "Good" property), and that "Log notes" maps to "Notes" in CatDV, and "Reel" to "Tape". If you use the Label field then it's down to you to make sure you only choose valid labels in CatDV, otherwise you will get errors when you export a batch list and try to load it into Final Cut Pro.

How do I use CatDV with other, unsupported applications?

CatDV will import and export clip data to a variety of non-linear video editing systems and other applications.

Many project and batch file formats are directly supported. For example, CatDV will read and write Avid ALE files, Final Cut XML files and Premiere batch capture logs (if you use Premiere Pro CS4 then you can also use FCP XML files there).

Most other NLEs can also export and import clip lists in a form that is compatible with CatDV, as both CMX EDLs and tab-separated text are fairly universal file formats. If necessary you can use a text editor to adjust the file format slightly.

Finally, you can import and export clips between CatDV and other applications in any QuickTime-supported media file format, including .MOV and .AVI files.

Tab-separated text

Use tab-separated text to exchange data with a wide variety of other applications, including spreadsheets, databases or other logging applications, or even a "pencil and paper" log that you typed in to a word processor or text editor.

To export clips:

Select a list view with the columns you want to export (use Customise Views if necessary), select the clips you want, and use Export as tab-separated text.
Alternatively, try selecting some clips from your catalog then copying and pasting them directly into an Excel spreadsheet. (Note: if you just select a single clip then its thumbnail image will be copied instead.)

When importing tab-separated text, CatDV uses a smart algorithm that tries to guess the format of the file used and extract as much information as possible:

There must be one clip entry per line, and each field must be separated by a single tab character.
A line on its own is taken to be a tape name.
The first two fields on a line that look like timecode are taken to be In and Out points respectively (unless any of the supposed "out" points are less than the in points, in which case they are all taken to mean duration instead).
Fields that do not contain timecode are interpreted as text, in the order: clip name, bin, tape name and comments. Any additional fields are ignored, as are blank lines or lines that CatDV is unable to process.
Alternatively, if the first line is a header with column names, those names are used to determine how to process the file. The following column names are recognised: NAME, IN, OUT, TAPE, BIN, IN 2, OUT 2, TYPE, NOTES, MEDIA FILENAME, VIDEO, AUDIO, GOOD, QT TRACKS, METADATA, RECORD DATE, IMPORTER, MARK, USER 1, USER 2, ... USER N.

How can I edit and present a program within CatDV?

After recording and capturing a whole tape of material you will almost certainly need to edit it to produce a program containing selected highlights or telling a particular story.

To create a proper finished program, perhaps applying effects, transitions, titles, adjusting audio levels and so on, then you would of course use fully featured video editing software. If all you want is a simple "cuts only" selection of the highlights, however, then you can use the capabilities built directly in to CatDV as a quick and effective alternative.

(Note: The tip below describes the older mechanism of using the notion of "good" and "reviewed" clips to select clips of interest to include in a sequence. Since CatDV 5 you can also edit sequences directly by dragging and dropping clips into a sequence window and rearranging their order as required.)

Capture the material you want to use to disk and import the media files into CatDV. (Alternatively, if disk space is limited and 'preview' quality is sufficient for your needs at this stage, use the Scan & Build Previews command in Live Capture.)
If you choose the scene analysis options in Preferences CatDV will automatically detect and produce a clip for each scene. Alternatively, use the Detect Scenes command (Professional Edition only).
Use the Clip details window to review each scene in turn. Play the clip (in the Movie or Preview tab as appropriate) and mark In and Out points around the section you want to keep.
If you don't want to include that scene in your highlights, select "No Good" from the Good drop down list.
If you want to include a scene in its entirety select "Good" from the drop down list. (If you have already made a selection you can leave the Good value blank as making a selection implies that you have "reviewed" the clip and want to use it.)
If you want to include two separate sections from the same scene you can either duplicate the clip or create a new secondary clip for the current selection from within the Clip Details dialog.
As an alternative to using the Clip Details dialog you can use the Media dialog to review the clips. Use the keyboard shortcuts 'I' and 'O' to mark selection in and out points as a clip is playing, 'G' or 'N' to mark the clip as good or not, and 'P' to play the selection from start to end. Use the up and down arrows to move to the next clip.
Once you have reviewed your clips and decided which material should be included in the highlights program, select all the clips in the catalog with Control-A (or Command-A). Notice that the status line shows how long your "good selection" is.
Use the Present Movie command, choosing the options "Good clips only" (as mentioned previously, by default this also includes those with a selection) and "Selection (in2/out2)", to show your edited program.
Alternatively, use Export As Movie(s) to export the clips in as a reference movie or recompressed in a form suitable for publishing on the web. Under Batch Options select "Single movie combining all clips" and "Good clips only". If you want to, you can import the reference movie into your DVD authoring software to burn it to DVD.
You can set up a filter so your view only shows the good clips (for example to display a storyboard view and rearrange the clip order by dragging and dropping clips). Press the Filter button, select Pick List field "Status", and then select the values "G" and "S" (hold down the command or control keys to select multiple items).
At this stage your edited program is defined by the status of each clip and can still be edited. To make it more permanent use the Select Reviewed command to select just the good clips and then do Create Sequence. This will create a new clip called a sequence that holds your program selections. You can then export this sequence as an EDL or play it in the media dialog at any time.

How can CatDV help me organise my digital photos?

You can use CatDV to catalog and view digital photos and other image files stored on your computer:

If the images are stored on your digital camera first copy the files to your pictures folder on your hard drive (using the Apple Finder or Windows Explorer, or your digital camera software).
In CatDV Preferences make sure that the Include sub-directories Import option is set.
Open a new or existing catalog and use Import Directory to choose your pictures folder and import all the pictures (and other media files) within that folder.
If you are have added files to an existing directory and want to update your existing catalog use the Scan For New Files command. Alternatively, you can use Import Directory and select the root picture folder again. Any files that are already in the catalog won't be added a second time.
View the catalog with a grid view so you can see thumbnails for the images you have imported.
If any images have the wrong orientation select them and use the Rotate Left or Rotate Right command. This rotates the thumbnail and sets a rotation flag but does not lose any image quality by recompressing or overwriting the original image file.
Use the regular features of CatDV (grouping and sorting, details dialog, bulk edit command, user-defined fields, etc.) to enter keywords or names as required to identify the files.
If you type in a new value for the clip Name you will have the option of renaming the file on disk as well.
Use the tree to rename folders or drag and drop clips to move them to another folder to reorganise them as required.
If you want to suppress a particular image from a catalog without deleting it permanently bring up the clip details for that image and tick the Hide checkbox.
To delete an image file permanently use the Delete Media Files command and confirm the file deletion.
To present a full screen slide show of selected images use the Run Slide Show command. You can control the speed of the show with the keys 1-9, press Escape or double click to stop the slide show, and use various other keyboard shortcuts to control the presentation.
Use the Randomize Clip Order button, if desired, to temporarily shuffle the clips prior to starting the slide show.
Some digital cameras will also record short video clips. CatDV will play these as well, and will automatically double the size during playback if the image size is small.
To share pictures with friends use the Export As Still(s) command to export selected pictures scaled down to a small enough size to email efficiently as an attachment. For convenience you can bundle up a set of images to send as a single ZIP archive.
CatDV will display any Exif or Flashpix information it finds in the image in the Metadata column. (Most digital cameras record details such as the date, or whether flash was used.) Try switching to a List view and sorting on the Exposure column to order clips according to their EV value.
You can include still images in a sequence or exported movie. Adjust the duration of still images from the default value of 3 seconds under the Export tab of Preferences.

How should I deal with timecode resets on a DV tape?

If at all possible you should try to avoid timecode resets or breaks from the outset. Timecode discontinuities arise when you play or fast forward past the end of a recording and the camcorder either picks up an incorrect timecode value from an old recording "underneath" or encounters blank tape. You should therefore get in the habit of always using your camcorder's End Search facility every time you Play or Cue a tape, unless you know you have finished and will never record any more on it.

(Ideally, you should also avoid pre-striping tapes or reusing them. While pre-striping does indeed stop the timecode resetting back to zero, it does nothing to stop timecode discontinuities. It does nothing to avoid the underlying problem and you will still get capture errors, but it makes timecode breaks much more difficult to detect.)

There are two possible strategies for dealing with timecode resets once they occur on a tape:

Leave them, and treat each segment as a separate "virtual tape".
Make a copy of the tape with new continuous timecode.

Actually, there's a third option which is to ignore timecode altogether. This is fine if all you do is play tapes from beginning to end, but will fail if you ever plan to edit, batch capture or catalog your tapes properly, as having a unique tape name and timecode value to identify each frame of video is an essential pre-requisite for any of these operations.

Copying a tape is the best solution in the long term, and is straightforward if you have two decks connected by a FireWire cable. The copy will be identical to the original except for having new clean timecode. (You can also make a copy via the computer using a single deck or camcorder, by first capturing and concatenating the segments in your editing application and then printing these to tape. The end result is the same though the process is more cumbersome.)

The other approach is to think of each timecode segment as a separate "virtual" tape and name them accordingly, for example "Tape 12 #1" and "Tape 12 #2". The fact that the timecode starts from zero in each segment does not matter in this case, because the timecode is unique within each virtual tape. During batch capture, if your editing application asks for "Tape 12 #2" you need to fast forward into the second segment of "Tape 12" and capture from there.

If you use Live Capture Plus to scan a tape and build up a catalog then if CatDV detects a timecode reset it will automatically create a new virtual tape name for each timecode segment.

Alternatively, if you have already captured a tape containing timecode resets to disk and want to import the movies to CatDV then you should proceed as follows:

Select the "Strictly base clips on captured DV media" Preference option.
Import the movie file(s).
Show hidden clips, to make sure you correct all the clips including any that are hidden automatically.
Ensure that you are not sorting the view based on Tape or In point, otherwise clips from both timecode segments will be intermingled. Instead, either sort on DV Record Date or leave the view unsorted (ie. in the order the clips were imported to the catalog).
Look at the In (and DV T/C) columns and select all those clips that occur after the timecode reset. Use the Bulk Edit command to give these a new virtual tape name to distinguish them from the first timecode segment.

It is very important that you set a new virtual tape name like this before building preview movies otherwise the previews will refer to the wrong clips.

CatDV 9.0 Reference Guide

Table of Contents

Getting started

Clips and catalogs

Basic operation

Viewing media and media metadata

Advanced operation

Miscellaneous

Professional Edition

Change History

How to...

How to use help

Other sources of help and documentation

Introduction

Cataloging

Metadata

Logging and scene detection

Proxy files

Video editing

Movie export

Tools

Networked operation

Installation and registration

System requirements

Updates

Purchasing CatDV

Quick start guide

Screen layout

Importing clips

Viewing clips

Outputting clips

Managing catalogs

Self-contained archives

Clips

Built-in clip properties

Making sense of property names

Importing clips and movies

Using a specific importer

Live Capture

Exporting clips and movies

Exporting Movies

Exporting stills

HTML Export

Views

Main window

List views

Sorting clips

Clip details panel

Viewing media

Movie controller

Viewing and editing clip details

Logging menu

Timecode markers

Defining marker categories

Creating and using timecode markers

Tree navigator

Catalog node

Smart folders

Automatic filters

Server node

File system node

Final Cut node

Temporary views

Scratch Pad

Customising views

Adjust column widths

Customise details panel

User-defined fields

Events

Assigning clips to events

Editing events

CatDV "Field Logger" iPhone app

Other features of events

Previews and thumbnails

Thumbnails

Original media

Previews

Locating media

Media dialog

Keyboard shortcuts