Sales and Support FAQ

Question

Answer

First, some background. There are different types of clip in CatDV, in terms of what their IN and OUT timecode values refer to:

Primary clips or Source clips

These correspond to a particular media file and the IN and OUT values relate to the original media

Secondary or Sub-clips

These are very similar to primary clips but refer to a scene within a media file or tape, and the IN and OUT values define the scene boundaries

Sequence

A sequence of clips occurring on a timeline. (The IN point of a sequence can be specified arbitrarily and is often set to 1:00:00:00. For real-time, time of day sequences, it's set to the recording time of the first clip.)

Clip usage

This specifies where a clip occurs within a sequence. The IN and OUT point of the clip usage is its position in the sequence, not the timecode value of the source clip. (A clip usage also has a reference to the the source clip it refers to, and separate SOURCE IN and OUT timecode values that specify which portion of that source clip appears in the sequence).

You can mark a selection within a clip by setting IN2 and OUT2 values (for example using the I and O keyboard shortcuts while a clip is playing, or using the clip details window). You can then create a new secondary clip from that selection, or add that selection to a timeline.

You can also copy a clip out from a sequence into a regular CatDV window and it will create a new secondary clip whose IN and OUT values correspond to SOURCE IN and SOURCE OUT of the clip usage.

That's a very roundabout way of saying that if you have a sequence (perhaps imported from an EDL or a Final Cut Pro XML file) and you want to turn it into separate clips, perhaps to export them to a spreadsheet or to print them out, you can do so, as follows:

1. Create a new catalog window (if required) to hold the resulting clips
2. Double click the sequence to bring up the sequence dialog.
3. Type Ctrl/Cmd-A to select all the clips
4. In the sequence editor timeline view, drag the clips from the sequence to your catalog window

Drag and drop editing of clips within a sequence is only available in CatDV 5.0b2 and later.

5/5/06