Blog

• Master Indexes:
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/142.aspx
  • http://community.avid.com/tags/Avid+for+Final+Cut+Pro+Users/default.aspx

• Avid Basics re Projects, Bins, Users, User-Settings
  • Notionally “Avid for Final Cut Pro Users” but generally useful introduction, complete with pragmatics.
  • Overview:
    • In this set of tutorials, it is assumed that a Shared project called “Tempest” will be edited by two people, Laura and David, one on day-shift (say) and the other on nights.  They can each select eithers’ settings (editor configs) via the Project Window’s Settings tab, under the User dropdown.  No need to log-out of Avid or indeed to switch User login sessions.  I guess a given user could create several configs e.g. default, david, david_temp
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70313/393166.aspx
    • Module 1, Lesson 1 - Creating a Project
    • Private/Shared etc., User Settings (independent of User logged-in), Film features
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70314/393171.aspx#393171
    • Module 1, Lesson 2 - Intro to Project Window - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users
    • MenuBar: [Tools > Console] brings up a text logger where progress can be recorded by users (as far as I can tell from the tutorial)
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70315/393176.aspx
    • Module 1, Lesson 3 - Where to find Avid files
    • Explains where the Avid files are stored on the computer’s hard drive, and how to take your settings from system to system.
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70317/393180.aspx
    • Module 1, Lesson 4 - Project Differences
    • Explains Avid Projects, Bins and how one can move & create stuff equivalently in Avid or in Windows Explorer (etc.)
    • Also explains some ways it differs from FCP.

• Importing Media Logs (from external apps)
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70318/393190.aspx#393190
    • Module 2, Lesson 1 - Logging and Digitizing
    • Can initially log media in Spreadsheet (e.g. Excel), Database (e.g. Access), FCP Batch Lists or Telecine Logs, then export as a tab-delimited file, then use Avid Log Exchange (application) to convert to the ALE format, which can then be imported by Avid to auto-creat and populate corresponding Bins.
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70319/393191.aspx#393191
    • Module 2, Lesson 2 - Using Excel to Log Footage
    • It works, and populates a Bin,  but the spreadsheet requires very specific formatting etc.
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70320/393193.aspx
    • Module 2, Lesson 3 - Using FileMaker Pro to Log Footage - Avid for Final Cut Pro Users
    • (I haven’t looked at that yet - domestically distracted…)
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70325/393201.aspx#393201
    • Importing Final Cut Pro Logs (into Avid, via ALE)
    • FCP: [File > Export > Batch List], then run ALE, then small manual tweaking of this (”Reel” -> “Tape”)
  • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/70326/393202.aspx#393202
    • Using Telecine Logs

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/45/868715

•  Windows’ Paragon is better than Mac’s MacDrive ?

You register and get 2GB free storage area, visible in Windows Explorer as “dropbox”, alongside the existing “downloads”.  There, you can drag files (from elsewhere) to some place such as the eisting Public folder or you can create a new folder and make it personal or sharable.  If you make it sharable, you get prompted for an email address of the sharer.  Dropbox then auto-sends an email to that address.  The email includes a probably-unique secure (https) link (incorporating a big pseudorandom number) for them to click on.   OK so it’s not just public.  Great!

A physical DVD could be played but not copied, despite attempts on multiple computers (each with own drive).  The main VOB file was corrupted.  The disk appeared to the eye to be in good condition.  Wanted to copy a repaired version of that file, maybe with gaps or truncations, whatever could be salvaged.  Workaround was to do a ‘dd’.  That’s a unix command to “convert and copy a file”.  Mac OS X is based on a variant of unix, so chose to execute it from there.  The successful command was as follows:

• dd if=/Volumes/’DVD VR’/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB of=tmp/vts_01_1.vob conv=noerror

Prior to this, naively-and-unsuccessfully tried Windows 7 PowerShell (PS) ‘cp’ command with ‘-Force’ option, but that was “barking up the wrong tree”.  An alternative suggestion, not attempted, was to use a streaming video processor such as VirtualDub. (more…)

Bought an Iomega Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device for a home network.  Here are my experiences:

• Plugged it in and (naively) looked for it on Windows Explorer (networks section) but it didn’t appear there.
• Ran its setup CD. Wary of bloatware, I selected Custom setup.  At the very least, that should list what kinds of thing could potentially be installed, then I can find out about them first.
  • Only installed the basic (non optional) software.
  • There is a backup tool, potentially useful but don’t want to dive into that just yet.
• The result: a number of extra “drives” (drive letters) appeared, each being mapped to a network drive. The IP address was the same in each case: [192.168.1.68].   Although there was only one NAS, each “Network Drive” (letter) was mapped to a different folder on it, as follows:
  • music
  • photos
  • ActiveFolders
    • The NAS config (webpage) lets you define these, e.g. a folder where you can drop a file and it will turn up at your YouTube account.
  • public
    • What’s that for?  How”public” is it?
  • movies
  • backups
• Reactions:
  • I had not expected that, just expected a single drive letter underneath which I would make my own folders, one for each user plus a shared one.
  • Presumably they are all intended to be shared among all users.
  • Maybe I can still make my own folders per-user etc.?  Maybe also can configure each user’s account to be tied to the appropriate one of these?
  • The NAS is a server, maybe it doesn’t allow access to root, only to folders?
• User Manual
  • The Setup (disk) offers to Install the User Manual. Slightly concerned over that - only really want a PDF, not (potentially) more unknown bloatware.  Went ahead anyway.
• NAS Config
  • To access the NAS Config (webpage):
    • In browser, for this particular device, can simply enter its name.
      • The default name was [Iomega-110496/], the numeric suffix being from the NAS’s MAC address.
      • One can change this name in NAS Settings, explained further below (where I indeed did so).
    • Its initially-displayed page is a demo ActiveFolder which presents a slideshow of any photos dragged into it.  So you can e.g. use your laptop as a photo-frame.  This is but one of several types of ActiveFolder.  More on these later…
    • Go to the Home page (via left-most menu)
      • Go to Remote Access tab (via upper tab-selections)
        • Ensure that Remote Access is disabled (for security).
        • Also can see the full MAC address there.
    • Go to the System page (via left-most menu)
      • Go to Date and Time tab (via upper menu)
        • Change it to the appropriate timezone.  By default was the US’s EST.  Changed it to GMT.
      • Go to Settings tab.
        • Change LED brightness down to minimum.  These gimmicks are simply annoying.
        • Change Machine Name from default
          [Iomega-110496] to memorable [magibox].
          • Test it works by entering magibox as the address in a fresh browser page.  Used Opera, which asked to put a “http://” at the front.
        • Change machine description to read “Julie’s Home Network Drive”.
    • Go to the Folders page (via left-most menu)
      • There is only one tab, “Folders”
        • Click the [+] button at lower-left (scroll-down) to add a new folder.
        • Add folders for each user- in line with my original scheme, to see if I can make that happen.
          • When create folder for self it says something like “since this is the first time you are accessing this folder, would you like to assign a password for it?
    • Go to the Active Folders page.
      • Go to Photos and Files tab
        • See the demo (slideshow) folder is there
        • Add a new folder, [Julie’s YouTube]
          • Inspected its Settings and it appeared already to have some YouTube details (username and password).
• The NAS offers other features like Bittorrent (in some way) but I haven’t investigated those yet.

Looks like I’ve evolved a hybrid system:

1. Proper backup / synch tool: SuperFlexibleFileSynchronizer (abbrev to “SuperFlex”).
2. Procedural with lower-level tools: File drag-copy combined with MD5Summer.

The idea is that normally I would use SuperFlex, but for occasions where I already have manually-created (supposed) mirrors, I can retrospectively check consistency at content (not just datetime and size) level.  Have yet to experiment with SuperFlex to see if it can verify existing copies of files (as opposed to copies that it is making).

I was looking for an app to assist in synchronizing of copies of file systems, for example main and back-up copies.  I chose a good-looking application available for both Windows and Mac:

•  Super Flexible File Synchronizer [http://www.superflexible.com]

(more…)

md5 Checksumming in Windows:

• There is no in-built checksumming tool I know of in Windows, but they are standard in linux etc.
• The best third-party md5 checksum tool I have discovered for Windows is MD5Summer (V. 1.2.0.11)  [http://www.md5summer.org/download.html].
  • When you run it, it first checks file associations and offers to set it as default for [.md5] files.  In W7 an attempt to do so may be denied (admin status required).
  • You first select a root-folder then files within it (or all, recursively).  To select files, it’s not sufficient to highlight them, you have to double-click them (or click the Add button), so that they appear in the right-hand pane.  Only then will the OK button be enabled.
  • By running it recursively from a root folder, rather than on individual folders, a single [.md5] file is created that does not pollute the subfolders (e.g. BPAV folders as recorded by XDCAM-EX).
  • Had a slight issue once where I manually copied from XP to W7 machines, then generated MD5 on source machine (XP) and verified on target machine (W7).  At first, the verifier immediately returned all mismatches.  So immediately in fact that it seems likely it was not performing any computation.  Later on it worked as expected.  Not known what changed to cause this, maybe simply the act of opening the md5 file in NotePad..

Concepts (to the best of my understanding):

• A check-sum of some data is a “fingerprint” numeric value that is probably-unique to that data.  A fingerprint is useful when it is much smaller than the data it represents yet (virtually) uniquely identifies the content of that data.  A checksum of a file reflects that file’s data-contents but is not affected by the file name etc.
• Various checksum schemes/algorithms exist, one of the most popular being md5.   An md5 fingerprint is extremely unlikely to be the same for any other file and will (for that reason) almost certainly change in value if the contents of a file is changed by even the tiniest degree.
• A typical md5 tool will take one or more specified files and generate their fingerprints as corresponding entries (each entry being a filename and a fingerprint) in a [.md5] file.  Correspondingly it will take a given [.md5] file and report whether or not the stated and (re-) computed fingerprints agree.
• An [.md5] file is a text file with one or more lines consisting of a checksum value (in hexadecimal) then a space then an asterisk then a file name, possibly preceded by a folder path (with respect to the folder containing the [.md5] file).  It can also have comment-lines, each beginning with a hash (#) character.  Example entries:
  • eb574b236133e60c989c6f472f07827b *fred.exe
  • [eb574b236133e60c989c6f472f07827b *tmp/fred.exe].
• Some download sites include [ .md5] files alongside or along with their associated  files.  Some sites just display the fingerprint itself on the webpage.  Typically the purpose is to allow the user to check whether a download was complete or was corrupted.
• The fingerprint computed by a typical checksumming application is not affected by a file’s name or read-only status etc., only by its data contents.  Thus it is not a total basis for consistency-checking of system configuration.

(more…)

Can use Wester Digital’s MyBook drive on a network featuring multiple OSs, such as Mac OS as well as Windows, provided one does not install MioNet (bundled with the drive).  My instincts were right then (I did not install it).

• http://raoulpop.com/2007/06/25/hardware-review-wd-my-book-world-edition-ii/
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t/t-300586.html (which references the above)

In my case, the drive is formatted as NTFS, on a Mac it simply appears automatically in Finder then Mac OS is able to read it (Mac OS is able to read NTFS).  In retrospect, maybe would have been better to format it as HFS+ since then Windows could use MacDrive to not only read but write to it.  Meanwhile on Windows I found it necessary to run the “Discover” application bundled with MyBook, which configures the network drive mapping (to a drive letter).

From [http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/working-with-aliases-in-mac-os-x.html] as of 2010-05-15]:

• Aliases in Mac OS are like Shortcuts in Windows but better.   Aliases usually don’t break when you move or rename the original file; shortcuts do.
• Alias feature has been on the Mac since at least OS 7 circa 1992. Shortcuts first appeared with Windows 95 in 1995.