We also tested Live Capture Plus, Square Box System’s stand alone capture software. When I want to really test a capture utility, I reach out under my desk and bring out “Old Scratchy,” a Mini DV tape full of dropouts, timecode breaks, and even PAL an NTSC footage. I was impressed by Live Capture Plus’s ability to wade through the mess, and not simply give up with error message. It managed to capture e erything. problems and all, breaking th tape into sub-reels when necessary. Liv Capture Plus is for Mac OS X only, and currently works only with DV tapes.

Building the Database
Once the clip is captured and analyzed into individual clips, CatDV Pro then d some heavy crunching, creating both thumbnail images and small preview quality movies for each. These preview movies are small enough to remain on your hard drive for archiving purposes, and stay there once you finish a project and delete your original movie files. An QuickTime codec can be specified for the preview movies, including Offline and iPod video. You then present thes clips together in a catalog, which is comprised of many clips, each havind its own customizable metadata. Most of the data entry is done in this Clip Details window. Aside from the basic clip name, tape, and notes fields, the are six user definable fields.