CatDV supports the following media 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:
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:
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.
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.
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 also have the option to import arbitrary non-media files, such as text files, Word documents, spreadsheets, project files, and so on: