Video Archiving Tool

Question

I'm collecting some video and audio files.

I need a tool to create a searchable archive from them that will be able to store video /audio path, meta data (Name, Director, description,...) and tag them.

Is there an application for this?

Answer 1

CatDV by SquareBox is a very powerful media archiving program which runs on both windows and mac. We use it at work to catalouge the 100s of video files we ingest daily.

All our editors have the program installed and they can browse the library from their own computer (connecting to a server).

The features we use the most is its ability to import sidecar files (eg .xml)that come with a lot of content providors which contain scripts and timecode markers. When you import the video, CatDv looks for a matching metadata file and imports that info.

You can also do basic edits of footage within the program and then export it to FCP.

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The downside of this software is its expensive, so not suitable for personal use.

Answer 2

Based on research I did for a client here's what I found out.

• Canto Cumulus is a desktop app that has a good rep but is relatively expensive.
• iDive is a Mac based app that is relatively cheap but may not have everything you need or want.
• Imagine Products has some good integrated solutions. I've used their ShotPut Pro software. Their customer service is very good.
• I've purchased and implemented CatDV. It is simple and has a number of automation features. Basically drag and drop.

You didn't mention platform. I'm on Apple so my solutions are Mac-centric.