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Last update on Saturday, June 10, 2006 |
How to catalog a cassette with CassetteDV |
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Before start:
CassetteDV becomes most interesting if you have a number of DV cassettes, let's say at least 20. Thus, if you start to catalog your cassettes it will take some time and it will be necessary to think about a strategy that will be pursued in the long term. On the other side, it is not necessary to wait until you have a lot of cassettes to catalog. You may start with your first cassette and catalog each time when you have recorded a new one. This will be a softer effort than cataloguing a lot of cassettes at once. In this case too, it is necessary to adopt a strategy and keep the course in order to get a coherent database.
You should think about a few questions::
1) Do you need several databases or only one? You can create and use several databases named xxx.db3 where xxx is any root. If you have different types of cassettes and want to catalog them separately, it's easy to create a separate database for each type. You shall only, before each catalog operation, set in the Settings (F10) under tab Databases which files are to be considered. The important point is to indicate which database shall be marked as writable and used to catalog new cassettes. The other databases can be browsed seamlessly as if they were a single one. In the example below, there are three databases, the first one being marked as Writable.
In most cases you will work with one database only. But when it will become bigger, you will save it on a CD-Rom or later on a DVD-Rom. You can then create another database to catalog new cassettes and use the saved database as a secondary database base for archive.
2) Will you print covers as proposed by CassetteDV? If you start to do so, try to print covers for all your cassettes. It's smart to have jewel cases nicely printed, and easy to read. Here are some of my cassettes before and after labelling with CassetteDV:
The printed covers rely on the fields Title and Description of each cassette, so your duty is to write them clearly in order to identify them quickly. Here again think about a strategy. For instance, I put always a date in the field Title. My titles look like Summer 2004 or September-November 2005 if the cassette contains several sequences shot in this period. If the cassette has only one subject, for instance Holidays in Greece, I add the year of the event in order to sort the cassettes by date, namely Holidays 2005 in Greece. Or if I shot several cassettes of the same event, it could be titled Corsica 2002 (1) to indicate that it is cassette number 1 of a series.
In the field Description, I write several lines of text in order to describe each event that is captured to the tape. For example:
Visit of Simone and Fiona (Eiffel tower) Aviation meeting in Toulouse Paula's Birthday
With such short indications the cassette becomes already less anonymous.
As far as I am concerned, I do not index the scenes. Since version 3.0, CassetteDV can use search criteria based on keywords attached to scenes. So if you put keywords in the fields Title or Description, you will be able to find very quickly the scenes having at least one keyword from a list of words. I prefer to select only the cassettes with keywords, and select the scenes by datecode. In one cassette you may have an average of 300 scenes. It seems to me boring to index each scene, and it's in fact to avoid this boring task that I have created CassetteDV. But it could be reasonable to index some scenes of special interest. For example all scenes where your sons and daughters appear. It would then be easy to collect all the scenes for one family member with a keyword.
3) What strategy will you implement to archive your video? CassetteDV can capture to the hard disk a video file in real-time during the catalog operation. The capture can be DV type 1 or DV type 2, and Divx or Xvid, with audio in mp3 or uncompressed PCM. Capturing is not compulsory, its only an option added to the main objective that is to catalog in a database. But it's very handy and time saving: while reading the entire tape for cataloguing, you can get also a DV file or a Divx file or even both at the same time! This video file on the hard disk can be used by CassetteDV to play the video and change the thumbnails if you want to.
Some possible strategies: if you want your cassettes to be archived on DVDs (let's say with studio from Pinnacle or equivalent), you will capture the tape to a DV type 2 file and create in the same time a scn file to accelerate the opening in Studio. After burning the DVD, you will of course delete the huge file. If you want to make a CD-Rom from each of your cassettes, in order to help browsing in the scenes and verify if the scene is worth to be recaptured for a project, then ask for a Divx file with mp3. If you have a big hard disk (maybe an external one), and not so much cassettes, you may even keep the Divx videos on the hard disk. For example 40 cassettes, in files of 650 Mbytes each, will only take 26 Gbytes which is quite reasonable for disks that have often a capacity of several hundred Gbytes. So you can keep 'on line' all your videos and use them to facilitate searches.
Capturing in Divx here is meant with low bitrate (I use 770Kb/s) to take not much space, and gives videos with relative poor quality. They are not intended for display or for video editing, but only as a complementary means to know what's inside your cassettes. The best solution for showing or editing the scenes is to recapture the designated scenes to a clip, directly from the original tape. This is made very easy and comfortable by CassetteDV.
When you have adopted a strategy, you should verify the settings used by CassetteDV to catalog. Click on the button of Settings or type F10 in order to display the settings panel. All changes made in the settings will be kept in the registry if the first checkbox in the Preferences panel is checked. Be sure that it is checked, or you will have to redo the same verifications at each launch.
Under the tab Preferences check also the root used to make the name of video files. By default, it's Cassette and the video filename will be Cassette_nn_DV.avi or Cassette_nn_divx.avi, depending on the format.
Another parameter has a great impact on the catalog proceeding. It's the maximum duration for a scene. In principle, CassetteDV records one thumbnail for each scene into the database, a scene being delimited by gaps in the datecode. Some cassettes may have very long scenes, or long sequences without datecode. In these case having just one thumbnail is not sufficient to know what's on the tape. You may therefore ask to have at least one thumbnail every X seconds, even if there is no datecode or no datecode gap. By default this parameter is set to 30 seconds, that guarantees to have at least 180 thumbnails for a 90 minutes long cassette. If you want more, decrease this duration, but not less than 10 seconds. If you want only pure scenes, without adding intermediate thumbnails, put this parameter to 0.
When you later browse the scenes or drag them to the selection panel, you will notice that CassetteDV considers all added thumbnails as belonging to only one scene, and proceeds them altogether. This gives much coherence to all the process. But if you want to consider each segment - let's say of 30 seconds - as a scene by itself, it's also possible by unchecking the checkbox Link the scenes.
Under the tab Capture DV you have to set the parameters for capturing in DV mode. Choose first the type DV type 1 or 2. If you hesitate, select type 2, more widely compatible with video editing software. If you have chosen type 2, you can choose an audio frequency. This is useful if your cassette contains different video sequences recorded at different frequencies mixing 32000 and 48000 Hz. As it will create an unique video file DV of type 2, this file will generally not be correctly read by some multimedia players, and you will meet the famous issue of the vanishing audio in the middle of the video. To avoid this problem, CassetteDV will convert the whole audio to a common frequency. Generally you may leave this parameter set to native, the frequency of the first scene will then determine that of the whole video. But if your first scene is note relevant, or if you want to keep the frequency of a particularly important scene, for instance a concert recorded in 48000 Hz, you can indicate here the frequency to use for the captured DV video file.
Finally indicate the folder where to save the DV videos and if you want a scn file to be created in the same folder. Let me remind you that 60 or 90 minutes of DV video will create a huge file of 13 or 20 Gbytes. It will need also a very high bitrate. So the capture is only sure with a big and fast hard disk. Your biggest and fastest hard disk should be reserved for DV capture, and Divx capture as well as the database could be on another disk less efficient. As far as the scn file is concerned, it's a short file listing all the scenes of the video file (only the pure scenes and not the added thumbnails) and it is useful when opening the file in some software like Pinnacle Studio, but also in my program DVdate which can browse from scene to scene if such a file is present.
Under the tab Divx Capture indicate in the same manner the folder in which the Divx video files will be saved and if you want a scn file to be created in the same folder. In the combobox choose one of the Divx or Xvid encoder codecs that CassetteDV has found on your system. If none is found, you should install one if you want to capture in Divx. Be sure to take an encoder codec (and not a decoder only codec like ffdshow). To function with CassetteDV it must be compatible with directshow, that is generally true. The button Version displays the version of the selected codec, and the button Properties let's you configure the codec with some settings like the bitrate. Be sure to choose always a configuration in one pass, because it's real-time compression and the frames are only processed once. If you need a high quality in two passes, capture from tape to DV type 2 and then convert the file later to Divx from your hard disk.
Next, you should choose the size of the image for the Divx file. You may keep native, but in that case the image will be in 360x288 if your tape is Pal and 360x240 if it is NTSC, that is the half size (in each dimension) of the original frame. It's usually better to choose 4x3 or 16x9 to give your video the correct proportion, depending if it is normal or widescreen. It will be 320x240 or 320x180 whatever is the original frame or the video standard. You will remark that the image is always some kind of half format: that is my solution to avoid interlacing issues, and I think it is acceptable for Divx files only created in order to recognize scenes on a file and not to be shown on TV or to be used for editing. Remember that compressing to Divx in real time needs a powerful processor (I think at least 2 GHz), but needs not a fast disk because it is recorded with a low bitrate. This is in fact a good news: if your system is able to capture separately to DV (fast disk but no processor power) and to Divx (fast processor, but no heavy charge on the disk), it will generally be able to capture both at the same time.
Finally you will have to configure the audio. I have only one positive experience with real-time audio compressing in mp3, and it's with the codec MPEG Layer III Audio Encoder of Elecard. That's why CassetteDV does only accept this encoder. You can download it for free on the freeware download page from Elecard under the title MPEG Layer III Audio Encoder. If you do not know how to install the file lame.ax, download this little zip and follow the instructions of its readme file.
Try to find a convenient configuration with the button Advanced. Do not make too sophisticated settings. I use generally a Constant bit rate. When you have got a setting with the Advanced button, you may keep it for the future, and only change when necessary the bitrate parameter in a specialized combobox. For example I capture in Divx in order to burn a CD with the content of my cassette. With the Xvid codec at 770 kbits/s and the mp3 codec at 96 Kbits/s it gives me a file shorter then 650 Mb, even for a cassette of 90 mn in LP mode. The quality is not top level, but sufficient to play a scene in order to find what exactly is recorded on it and to verify if it is worth to be recaptured for a video editing project.
If you do not want a capture in mp3, uncheck the box Compression mp3. The Divx file will then get a audio stream in PCM not compressed. Many software like VirtualDub can then be used in post-production to make a quality compression in some mp3 or other codec.
Under the tab Advanced of the settings panel, there are some technical parameters that you should not modify unless to make some unusual things with CassetteDV. You should just check if the box Automatic drive is checked. It's compulsory if you want to benefit from that exceptional facility brought to you by CassetteDV.
Now it's time to catalog your cassette.
Catalog a cassette
Click on the button Catalog or type F3. You will enter in the mode "catalog". if a digital DV camcorder is plugged on a firewire link, is turned on and in VCR mode with a tape inside, then the button Go! in the middle of the upper toolbar will become active and the video window will be displayed. If it's not the case, a panel will tell you to plug a camcorder and put it in VCR mode. CassetteDV waits until this is done and will detect automatically the camcorder.
Depending on the settings (see above), CassetteDV will propose to capture into a DV and a Divx file. The proposal is in yellow at the right of the window. Check or uncheck the proposed files: either in DV (type 1 or type 2 as indicated in the settings), either Divx or Xvid with mp3 or PCM, either both simultaneously, either none (only a cataloguing operation will be processed). Check if you have enough free space on your disk for the files, specially if you want a DV file that needs much space. Here is a trick: when you click on a yellow filename, it opens the folder where the file will be captured. It's useful if you need to delete some files (from previous capture) in order to free some disk space.
When you are done, click on Go! The cataloguing will be processed automatically. You have only to wait and avoid to create some issues by accessing to the hard disk (if you capture in DV) or requiring the processor (if you capture in Divx). As far as I am concerned, I do not disable the antivirus that works in the background, but I verify that it will not start to scan the hard disk while capturing. My version of Microsoft Office 97 launches also an indexing routine Findfast.exe that scans the hard disks. I shut it down with CTRL+Shift+Del before cataloguing. On the other hand, I can surf on the web while cataloguing in the background. Of course, while cataloguing, do not modify any option of CassetteDV.
The program starts to rewind the cassette. Then it enters Read mode, and displays at the bottom of the screen a thumbnail for each new scene read. If after a delay indicated in Maximum duration for a scene no new scene has been found, then CassetteDV adds an intermediate thumbnail belonging to the same scene (See above). Data is also listed for each scene in a log file displayed at the right of the screen.
During the catalog operation, the panel at the right side displays data about the camcorder and the video on the tape: the date of capture (or datecode) in red - it may be N/A if there is none -, the format of the video (Pal or NTSC, 4x3 or 16x9) and the format of audio (48000 Hz in 16 bits or 32000 Hz in 12 bits), the timecode (ie the position of the frame on the tape), and also a number specific to CassetteDV, called the section. If there are hazards on the tape, like gaps in the timecode, then CassetteDV considers the cassette to be composed of different sections, each one designated by a number. This number of section will be used to locate precisely a scene on the tape, even if its timecode is recorded twice on the tape at different places. This is a great feature of CassetteDV. It can proceed whole cassettes even if they have gaps in timecode, or blank segments on the tape. The only drawback is that it cannot identify the current section without rewinding first the whole cassette. Each time when the program is started or when a new tape is inserted in the camcorder, the section will be undetermined and the automatic driving will start by rewinding the tape. Finally, you will notice that the panel displays also an icon showing the state of the camcorder in VCR mode: Play, Stop, Fast Forward or Rewind.
When the end of the tape is reached, the catalog operation will automatically stop. You may save to a text file the log data in the listbox at left of the window. Click right on it and click on Save as... in the popup menu.
During the cataloguing, the button Go! has been transformed to a button Stop!. If you click on it, the operation breaks. You keep all that has been catalogued and captured, but it may not represent the complete cassette. To remind you that it has been interrupted, the last scene (which is only partly recorded) is shown with some "tears".
Two situations can push you to cancel the operation:
- You have started to catalog a cassette, but you realize that some settings are not correct, for instance the capture is in DV and you prefer a capture in Divx. The Stop! button stops the operation, let's you fix the settings, delete the partial catalogued cassette (go to Browse mode and click on the command Delete from the menu Cassettes, or type CTRL+del). Then you can restart the operation. You could also experience a lost frame issue, if your system has been overloaded by different tasks, and either the disk cannot save fast enough the video or your processor cannot calculate fast enough the compressed frames of Divx or record to the database. In that case, blue thumbnails are displayed with a duration on it. If the duration is 0mn 0s, it is almost surely such a problem. If there are a several of them, you may try to stop the catalog operation, close some applications (specially applications that scan the disk), or remove the command to capture to a DV or Divx file, and then start again. But be warned that in other cases the blue thumbnails are normal, specially if a duration different from 0mn 0s is printed on them. They indicate a blank section on the tape.
- You catalog a cassette that you know having only video in the first part of it. For example the tape is 60 minutes long, but only 10 minutes of video have been recorded on it. When the 10 first minutes have been catalogued, CassetteDV does not stop, because it will search until the end of tape if there are other video parts recorded to it. You can stop the operation manually, if you don't want to wait 50 more minutes. The last blue thumbnail will then be recorded with tears. I recommend nevertheless, if you have time, to let the tape play until the end, in order to be sure to have catalogued a complete cassette, and also to know how many time remains blank at the end of the tape.
After cataloguing:
When you are done cataloguing, come back to the Browse mode by clicking on the button called Browse (or type F2). The catalogued cassette will be selected, and its scenes will be displayed on the bottom of the window. If you don't see them, it's perhaps because the Settings panel hides them. Click F10 to remove it.
At the right of the window, there is a panel showing details about the selected cassette. Its timecode, datecode, duration (in hours:minutes:seconds:thousands of seconds), its title (by default Cassette n° XX - followed by the date of cataloguing), and its description, by default empty, also its format, and the associated video files, if any. If the video file exists, then a icon Play is active. If you click on it, the video will start playing, and allows to browse through the video.
I recommend to write immediately after the cataloguing a title and a description for the cassette, having in mind that they will be used to print the cover. Write a unique and explicit title, it will be used later by CassetteDV to ask for a cassette, and you will have to find it easily. It's therefore interesting to print the cover with CassetteDV in order to print exactly the same title that the one in the database. When you have entered a text, type on the button Ok in order to save the modifications to the database and then on the button Cover to get a preview. The font size will become very small if your text is too long. So be concise, and dispatch your text on several lines
When done, print the cover by clicking on the little button Print located on the preview. I print on paper sheets of 10x15 cm, like large visitor cards, that give excellent results if you mark the fold with a sharp tool, like a screwdriver. You may also print it any time later, because the data is saved in the database and can be recalled at any time by selecting the cassette, clicking on the cover button, and then on print.
When you have catalogued a number of cassettes, don't forget to save periodically the database xxx.db3. Home - CassetteDV - Catalog - Clips
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Think about a strategy
