Use CatDV

  1. From your browser, enter the CatDV URL based on the IP address for CatDV. This is configured on the CONFIGURATION > CatDV Network page of the H-Series UI:

    Example:

    Another option is to open a new browser or browser tab, and from the H-Series UI, select Cluster in the top navigation. Scroll down to the section for Controller A, and click the Launch CatDV UI icon in the CatDV VM section

    2. You will see the CatDV login page:

    (click image to enlarge)

  2. Log in to CatDV as a CatDV user:

    3. (click image to enlarge)

  3. Enter the password for the CatDV user.Click the "Remember me on this machine" checkbox to save log in credentials on your local system (optional):
  4. Click Login:

    5. You will see the CatDV home page:

Once logged in, the main CatDV interface is displayed. The initial view, and the view shown when you click Home is the clips view, which provides a view of all the clips in the CatDV database without any filtering or categorization applied. This screen is divided into a number of areas:

Item Title
1 Main menu (see Main menu)
2 Search (see Search)
3 Asset panel (see Asset panel)
4 Select, sort and view options (see Select, sort and view options)
5 Asset/user toolbar (see Use CatDV)
6 Show/hide main menu (see Show/hide main menu)

Browse options allows you to find the assets you want in a number of different ways based on how the assets are currently grouped together.

  • Catalogs – displays a list of accessible catalogs arranged hierarchically by group and path. Clicking on a catalog displays its contents in the clip list area
  • Smart Folders – displays a list of the defined Smart Folders. Clicking on a Smart Folder displays the clips that match the settings for that folder in the clips list. The Smart Folder label also allows you to create new Smart Folders or edit existing ones.
  • Filters (toggle on/off) – allows you to apply a text filter to the results shown when using the search area. display

Search allows you to search the entire CatDV database based on a simple search word or phrase (see Simple search) or by constructing a complex search query to locate assets (see Advanced search).

The center of the page displays a preview of the assets found using the search, or information about asset catalogs, smart folders or clip lists, displayed when using the Main menu. See Select, sort and view options.

Click on an item in the list to select it. Use Ctrl/Cmd + click option to select more than one item, or Shift + click options to select a range of items. To view an individual clip, click on the name.

The select, sort and view options allow you to display views for clips on the asset display area of the CatDV interface. Options:

  • Click the Select button to view the option to Select All assets for assets shown in the Clips view.
  • Click the Sort by option to
  • Click the table, grid, or list of film-strips
  • Tools – allows you to perform various functions on selected clips on the asset panel
  • User – displays the name of the currently logged in user and, when clicked, displays the menu of user actions including log out.

This toggle allows you to show or hide the main menu text descriptions. Toggling the menu text off provides more horizontal space for viewing assets or information about those assets.

The Browse/Search options provide a number of ways to find the clips that you want to work with.

The Search area of the main page provides simple key word search and advanced search features.

The simple search option allows you to find clips by entering a word or phase that appears in the name, notes or any user field associated with each clip.

web2-simple-search

To perform a simple search:

  1. Click in the search field, and enter your search term or phrase.
  2. Press Enter or click the magnifying glass icon to begin the search.

Click Advanced in the search area of the main page to bring up a dialog that allows you to build a query that specifies exactly which fields should contain which values.

web2-advanced-search

To perform an advanced search:

  1. Click the advanced button in the search section of the page.
  2. Enter field, condition and value criteria for your advanced search.
  3. Press Enter or click the magnifying glass icon to begin the search.

The Advanced Search panel lets you construct two lists of query criteria:

  • Find clips where all of the criteria are true – will only return clips where all the specified query criteria evaluate to true.
  • At least one of these criteria is true – will return clips where any of the listed criteria evaluate to true.

You can add as many criteria as you like to both lists, which will result in a search query for items that match all the items in the top list and at least one item in the bottom list.

Each criteria (in both lists) consists of three parts:

  • Field – the field (either built-in or user-defined) against which the criteria will be evaluated.
  • Condition – the condition that the field must satisfy (e.g. ‘is equal to’ or ‘contains’)
  • Value(s) – the value or values that the condition applies to (e.g. Field: ‘Name’ Condition: ‘equals’ Value: ‘Fred’). For conditions such as ‘between’ two value fields will be displayed to allow you to enter the upper and lower values. If (as in the example above) the value is a date then a date-picker will be displayed to allow you to more easily enter the correctly formatted string)

The "Ignore Case" option allows you to specify if the search should be case-sensitive or not.

The Catalogs option displays the names of all the catalogs accessible to the currently logged in user.

web2-browse-catalogs

The catalogs are displayed in sections based on which Production Group they belong to (folder they are created within on the StorNext volume) . The sections can be collapsed and expanded using the arrows. Within each section the catalogs are displayed in a tree based on treating each catalog’s name as a path name. Clicking on the name of a catalog loads the contents of that catalog into the clip list.

When you click on the name of a clip in the clip list on the home page the clip details page is displayed:

web2-view-clip

In its simplest form the view clip page displays a preview of the clip’s media on the left hand side and the clip’s metadata on the right hand side.

If the media is playable (not a still image) and a valid proxy file exists for the clip then a play icon is displayed superimposed over the preview image. Clicking play brings up the media player:

web2-player

The media player consists of tree panels – the player itself, the timeline and the controls panel.

The timeline represents to duration of the clip and includes a play head that moves, indicating the point in the whole clip of the currently displayed frame. The user can drag the play-head to view a different part of the clip.

The control panel contains a set of icons that perform the following actions:

  • Play – toggles between playing or pausing the video
  • Current Timecode / Duration – displays the timecode of the current frame and the duration of the clip. Note that, depending on how the clip is encoded, the timecode may not start at zero at the beginning of the clip.
  • Mark-in– sets the mark-in point of the current clip to the current frame.
  • Mark-out – sets the mark-out point of the current clip to the current frame.
  • Add event marker – creates an event marker at the current frame. A dialog box will open to allow details of the marker to be entered.
  • Add range marker – creates a range marker between the current mark-in and mark-out points. A dialog box will open to allow details of the marker to be entered.
  • Create sub-clip – creates a new sub-clip based on the current mark-in and mark-out points.

To the right of the player are the the metadata tabs. These tabs can (with certain constraints) be customized to display whatever selection of built-in or user-defined fields makes sense for your workflow. In the absence of any custom defined tabs a set of pre-defined tabs (Summary, Log Notes and Technical) will be displayed that display the key information about each clip.

If the currently logged in user has the relevant permissions then the user can edit the metadata displayed in these tabs. Once edited the user must click the Save button in the action panel under the metadata panel to save their changes to the server. Clicking Cancel will return the user to the home page discarding any changes they have made.

  • Timeline Markers - If the clip includes markers they are displayed below the player:

web2-event-markers

Each marker is displayed on a separate row below the clip. Each row displays the name of the marker, and the timecode(s) that define the position of marker within the timeline. If present the marker description is also displayed.

There are two types of markers:

  • Event Markers- mark an individual instant in time (a single frame) in the clip
  • Range Markers- cover a range from a start time to an end time.

Each timeline row also include two action icons – Edit (pencil icon) and Delete (trash can icon) to allow the user to edit the marker’s name/description or to remove the marker completely.

New markers can be added using the Add Event Marker and Add Range marker buttons described previously.

The web client interface provides a simple drag and drop sequence editing facility to create rough cut edits. It is not intended to be a full-featured video editor. It does not provide any of the advanced facilities that you would expect from a video editing package, such as transitions etc. It is purely intended to allow the user to compile simple shot-lists that can be sent to an editor for final editing.

To create a new sequence select the clips you want to be in the sequence in the clip list on the home page and click the Create Sequence button in the action panel. To edit an existing sequence open it by clicking its name in the clip list and then click the Edit Sequence button in the view clip page’s action panel.

The sequence editor is shown below:

web2-sequence-editor

The sequence editor is divided into three panels:

  • Player – the player panel plays either the complete sequence or the currently selected clip within the sequence.
  • Details – the details panel displays basic details for the whole sequence or the currently selected clip within the sequence.
  • Timeline – the timeline shows all the clips that make up the clip arranged in time order along the timeline.

The sequence editor operates in two distinct modes:

  • Preview Mode – allows the complete sequence to be played or scrub through by clicking the play button in the player, or by dragging the play head in either the player or the timeline.
  • Editing Mode – to edit the items within a sequence one of the clips in the timeline must be selected. When a clip is selected it is highlighted in the timeline and the player window switches to displaying the selected clip and the details panel switches to displaying the details for the selected.

The image below shows a the display of the selected clip in the timeline. Notice that the other clips are greyed out and the selected one has a highlight border.

web2-seq-clip-selected

Once in editing mode you can adjust the portion of the clip that should appear in the sequence by setting the in and out points of the selected clip using the set mark-in and set mark-out icons in the player’s control panel. The timeline is updated in real time as the in/out points are adjusted.

To return to preview mode either click to the left of the timeline (on the AV1 track title) or select the Sequence tab in the details panel

Clips can be added to the sequence by clicking the Add Item button in the action panel. This will display a clip browser panel that is essentially the same as the clip browsing facility of the home page. Simple browse by catalog or path, or enter a search, to identify the clip or clips that you want to add and then click Add.

Once editing is complete click Save to save changes to the server.

If H4000 Essential time, CatDV VM time, and the StorNext VM time are not synchronized, even when an NTP time server is used, the timezones are not set correctly. Change the time zone to UTC on the Configuration > StorNext System > TIME & DATE page, and the Configuration > Time page of the H-Series UI.

Quantum strongly encourages you to make a back up of the .catdv\proxies directory in the StorNext volume to support a rebuild of the system in the unlikely event of a Controller A failure, where CatDV runs on the H4000 Essential.

If you don't see thumbnails or proxies or your media in CatDV several minutes after media has been transferred to the StorNext volume, try these steps, in this order to restore proper CatDV operation:

  1. Stop and restart the CatDV VM from the H-Series UI
    1. From the H-Series UI, scroll down to the CatDV VM section of the page.
    2. Click the Stop/Start CatDV VM icon in the Controller A panel:
    3. Click Stop CatDV.
    4. Click STOP to confirm stopping the CatDV VM. A task to stop the CatDV VM will display and the CatDV VM will stop.
    5. Verify the CatDV VM is fully stopped. It should look like this:
    6. When the CatDV VM is in a "stopped" state, click the Stop/Start CatDV VM icon:
    7. Click Start CatDV.
    8. Click START to confirm starting the CatDV VM. A task to start the CatDV VM will display and the CatDV VM will start.
    9. Verify the CatDV is in a "Running" state once again. Make sure both items under CatDV are "Running":

    Wait a few minutes and see if you are showing thumbnails in CatDV or if proxies are being generated in the StorNext volume.

  2. If there are still no thumbnails or proxies, log in to CatDV as the Administrator account.

    1. From the H-Series UI, select Cluster in the top navigation. Scroll down to the section for Controller A, and click the Launch CatDV UI icon in the CatDV VM section:

      Another option is to open a new browser or browser tab, and enter the CatDV URL based on the IP address for CatDV. This is configured on the CONFIGURATION > CatDV Network page of the H-Series UI:

    2. From your browser, enter the CatDV URL based on the IP address for CatDV. This is configured on the CONFIGURATION > CatDV Network page of the H-Series UI:

      Example:

      Another option is to open a new browser or browser tab, and from the H-Series UI, select Cluster in the top navigation. Scroll down to the section for Controller A, and click the Launch CatDV UI icon in the CatDV VM section

      3. You will see the CatDV login page:

      (click image to enlarge)

    3. Log in to CatDV as the "Administrator" usera CatDV user:

      4. (click image to enlarge)

    4. Enter the password for the CatDV user. Use the same password you configured for the admin account in the H4000 Essential when using the Setup Wizard. Click the "Remember me on this machine" checkbox to save log in credentials on your local system (optional):

      5. (click image to enlarge)

    5. Click Login:

      6. (click image to enlarge)

      You will see the CatDV home page:

  3. Click the admin/gear button in the upper right-hand corner of the CatDV UI to open the CatDV Server Dashboard:

  4. You will see the CatDV Server Dashboard:

    5. (click image to enlarge)

  5. Click Worker in the left navigation menu:

    6. (click image to enlarge)

    If there are failed items in the Worker Tasks section of the page or red/failed tasks in the Tasks Summary in the upper-right corner of the page or there are no jobs related to media that show Running status (purple) on this page, then there may be a Worker process failure.

  6. Click on the File watcher, Server monitor, and Worker Engine checkboxes (in green below) in the Status: Built-in Worker section of the page to disable these processes:

  7. Click all three of these processes again to enable them. Wait a few minutes.

    8. Be patient, it may take a while for you to see the batch processing of files begin.