Additional Importers and Exporters

The Professional Edition (and Workgroup Edition) features the following additional file formats.

Batch lists

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

It supports the following additional importers, use Import As then:

Final Cut Pro

When importing and exporting Final Cut Pro batch lists and XML files, CatDV uses the user-defined fields in particular ways: 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. The FCP Preset button in Preferences automatically sets up these definitions.

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.

XML

As well as Final Cut Pro XML files the Professional Edition supports another CatDV-specific XML 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 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.)

Finally, if you import a media file and there's an XML file with the same name alongside (eg. MyFile.mov and MyFile.xml) then CatDV will attempt to read additional metadata from the XML file and associate it with the movie.

OMF Files

The Professional Edition also adds support for importing OMF media files.


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