CatDV 2.0 media/video database released

Square Box Systems Ltd. have released CatDV 2.0. It’s the latest major update to the company’s media database and video logging capabilities. It works on both Mac OS and Windows. The new version has added some features, including support for Mac OS X.

CatDV 2.0 creates thumbnail catalogs of any QuickTime-supported media files, including still images, audio files and movies. The software incorporates searching and indexing capabilities, and can present slide shows. Users can also export them as QuickTime movies or HTML pages.

If you’re familiar with CatDV 1.5, new features added since then include: slide show mode and full screen media playback; improved support for other media types (eg. MPEG, MP3, still images); add burnt-in date & time of recording when exporting movies; low resolution previews; customizable views and window appearance; customizable thumbnail size; correct handling of non-square DV pixels; compatibility with Mac OS X; sequence view; plus numerous other user interface enhancements, bug fixes, and updates for compatibility purposes.

The developers said that CatDV 2.0’s strength is that it’s been designed specifically for digital video editing. For example:

To speed up the process of logging tapes, CatDV will automatically split movie files into separate shots or scenes, and allow these to be reviewed and selections made within them.

Clips can be assembled in sequence using a thumbnail storyboard view, for presentation on screen as a rough cut movie or exporting as a batch list to form the basis of a new project.

CatDV will generate low resolution preview versions of movies and use these if the original movie is off-line.

To help manage the massive disk space taken up by DV movie files CatDV will split large files into smaller movies per clip and trim any unwanted material from them.

CatDV integrates with other applications by importing and exporting QuickTime movies, EDLs, and batch lists in many formats.

Square Box Systems Ltd. said that CatDV may be of particular interest to users of applications like Final Cut Pro, EditDV/Cinestream, Adobe Premiere or iMovie — basically, anyone who already users a Mac for video editing but needs help tracking their digital assets.

System requirements call for a PowerPC G3-equipped Mac or better; 128MB of RAM or more; Mac OS 8.6 or later (9.1 recommended); QuickTime 4 or later (5.0.2 recommended); and Mac Runtime for Java 2.2 or later (2.2.5 recommended). FireWire capability with capture software is also recommended.

You can try CatDV 2.0 for free by downloading a time-limited demo. Separate downloads exist for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Distributed as an electronic release, the software costs $69.95 to register ($59.95 until September 16, 2001). A “deluxe” CD boxed version is coming after the electronic release.