Livegrade supports the “Colorfront Film” transform of the Colorfront Engine with an optional module. From Colorfront’s document “Using the Human Perceptual Model for Multiple Display Mastering”:

“The Colorfront Engine is a state-of-the-art parametric color processing pipeline mapping various input formats, including camera original (scene-referred) and graded (display-referred) images, to a wide range of SDR and HDR output formats at user definable brightness levels and gamuts while maintaining the creative intent.”

Using Colorfront Film with AJA FS-HDR

The Colorfront Engine implemented in AJA FS-HDR device can be controlled by Livegrade. Setting up AJA FS-HDR for details on how to connect to FS-HDR.

The Colorfront Film Grading Mode

Livegrade comes with a grading mode supporting all parameters of the Colorfront Film color processing pipeline.

The controls of the Colorfront Film grading mode

The controls are grouped into three sections:

CFE In: This section includes the input transform (for matching the incoming signal color space), scene-referred parameters (e.g. exposure and color temperature), and the grading color space.

CDL: This is a creative grading mode compatible with ASC-CDL. The ASC-CDL is applied in the color space selected as “Grading Colorspace”. 

Although the Colorfront Film color processing pipeline only supports one set of ASC-CDL, you can have more than one CDL nodes in the grading mode. All CDL nodes are combined into one set of CDL nodes when transferring look metadata for the Colorfront Film color processing pipeline.

Click “Edit” in the header bar of the grade controls to add additional CDL nodes or remove nodes.

CFE Look: In this section you can set additional creative parameters such as two independent looks (selection of a set of predefined looks), a blend factor between these looks, and an HDR amount.

CFE Out: This section holds all controls that define the output, such as output range and colorspace, a SDR preview and PQ output nit level for HDR output transforms.

The order of the mentioned sections cannot be changed.

Resetting Looks

When clicking “Reset Colors” in the bottom bar of the main window, or choosing “Reset Color Nodes Only” from the Grade menu, the following parameters are reset:

• Exposure, Color Temp, Tint
• All CDL and saturation nodes
• Look selection and look blend
• HDR amount

All other parameters stay untouched.

When clicking “Neutral” in the bottom bar of the main window, or choosing “Reset All Nodes To Neutral” from the Grade menu, all parameters are reset and the color processing pipeline set to Rec.709 input and output.

Transferring Look Metadata

Looks stored in the application’s shot and look library can be exported as CFE files for further processing in products capable of processing images in the Colorfront Film color processing pipeline.

See Exporting Look Metadata for more information on exporting CFE files.

Limitations

Using the proprietary Colorfront Film color processing pipeline has a few consequences for other features in the application. 

As the processing is happening in the FS-HDR, the application is currently only communicating and storing parameters for the color processing pipeline, but has no information about the actual color transforms.

This means that the following features are not working the same way as with non-proprietary color processing pipelines (such as LUT and CDL or ASCES):

• Processing of frame grabs and recorded clips in the viewer
• Display of scopes of a captured live signal, frame grabs, and recorded clips
• Exporting processed still images

You can work around a few limitations by capturing a pre-graded image (capturing the output of FS-HDR) in Livegrade. See HD-SDI Signal Recording and Frame Grabs  for information about capturing “LUT box output (graded)”.

The post Using the Colorfront Film Grading Mode appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

You can move projects and settings from LiveGrade Pro v4 to Livegrade Pro v5 and Livegrade Studio v5.

When starting a v5 application for the first time, the software asks if projects should be migrated, or if you want to start with an empty library.

If you have already been working with an application of version v5 and haven’t migrated your projects yet, you can also migrate projects and settings later manually. The necessary steps are described below.

Migrating Projects Manually

As the project format is different between v4 and v5, you need to trigger the migration in the software. This can be done by temporarily moving the existing v5 projects away ,letting the software migrate all old projects and move any data created with the v5 application back:

• Quit all versions of Livegrade.
• Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Pomfort/ in your home directory (To navigate there in Finder, choose “Library” in the “Go” menu of Finder – this option is only visible with the “Alt” key pressed).
• Rename the folder for the software of version 5: Depending on which application you are using, rename the Livegrade5 or LivegradeStudio5 folder, e.g. by adding “_original” to the folder name.
• Start Livegrade Pro v5 or Livegrade Studio v5
• The migration dialog is shown, choose “Copy existing projects”.
• A new folder (Livegrade5 or LivegradeStudio5) is created and the projects from LiveGrade Pro v4 are migrate there.
• Quit all versions of Livegrade again.
• If you need to restore projects already created with the v5 application, navigate to the renamed folder (see above), and move all project folders (with the name “Project-xxx...“, e.g. Project-E266CBFCA731), the License folder, the MIDI Mappings folder and the Scripts folder in the new v5 folder with the migrated projects.
• Open your v5 application again. You should now see all  projects.

 Migrating Keyboard Shortcuts and Video Routing Configurations Manually

Settings for keyboard shortcuts, video routing configurations, and automations are stored in the user preferences. We created a script that let’s you extract such settings and move them from the LiveGrade Pro v4 preferences to Livegrade Pro v5 or Livegrade Studio v5. The necessary steps are described below.

• Download the script migrate-to-lg5.py.
• Open the Terminal application and navigate to the folder with the downloaded script.
• Make the script executable: $ chmod +x migrate-to-lg5.py
• Quit all versions of Livegrade.
• Run the script migrate-to-lg5.py (see below).
• Open your v5 application. You should now see all  migrated settings.

Usage of the migrate-to-lg5.py Script

The script has two options to choose which settings to migrate:

• --keyboard-shortcuts : Migrate keyboard shortcuts
• --video-routings : Migrate video routings

The script migrates to Livegrade Pro v5 by default, if you want to migrate your settings to Livegrade Studio v5, please use the additional --studio option.

Examples:

$ ./migrate-to-lg5.py --video-routings
Migrate video routings from LiveGrade Pro v4 to Livegrade Pro v5

$ ./migrate-to-lg5.py --keyboard-shortcuts --video-routings --studio
Migrate keyboard shortcuts and video routings from LiveGrade Pro v4 to Livegrade Studio v5

The post Manually Migrating Projects and Settings from LiveGrade Pro v4 to Livegrade Pro v5 and Livegrade Studio v5 appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Silverstack Lab allows to directly transfer a project to the Drylab Creator application for further use with Drylab’s services.

Transfer of Clips and Metadata

The direct transfer allows you to take over metadata to the Drylab Creator application and attach transcoded proxy clips from Silverstack Lab. The following information can be transferred:

• Slate Information (Scene, Shot, Take, Camera,…)
• Timecode Information (TC Start, TC End, Reel, …)
• User Information (Circled Takes, Custom 1 2 3, Tags, …)
• Camera Information (Camera Name, Camera Serial, Camera ID,…)
• Settings (ISO, Whitebalance, Shutter,…)
• Production Information (Director, Producer,…)
• Format Information (Codex, File Type, Resolution,…)

You can learn more about Silverstack Lab’s transcoding features in the article Transcoding in Silverstack Lab.

How to Export to Drylab Creator

To export to Drylab Creator go to the “Export” menu in the toolbar and select “Drylab Creator (XML)…” from the menu.

You can choose to directly open the project or export an XML file that can be opened in Drylab Creator.

You can find more information including a video that walks you through the process from Silverstack Lab to Drylab Creator and Viewer in Drylab’s documentation following this link.

The post Transferring a Project to Drylab Creator from Silverstack Lab appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The Silverstack Cloud is a cloud service and web application to share and access production metadata online.
The Silverstack Cloud is currently still under development and is available as public beta.

Registration and Account

During the public beta of Silverstack Cloud, everyone with a Pomfort Account can sign in and use the Silverstack Cloud with no further restrictions. With end of the Beta period, we will offer both a free and a paid cloud plan.

If you already have a Pomfort Account, you can sign in using the same credentials to the Silverstack Cloud at https://cloud.pomfort.com.

If you don’t have a Pomfort Account yet, you first need to create one for free at https://account.pomfort.com.

Changing your Password

In order to change the password of your Pomfort Account, please visit https://account.pomfort.com, sign out and use the password reset form to set a new password.

The post Registering for Silverstack Cloud appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The post Connecting to Silverstack Cloud appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The production information stored in the Pomfort Cloud can be accessed through a web application. See the article Registering for Silverstack Cloud on how to sign in or create a new account.

Cloud Projects

All production information in the Pomfort Cloud belongs to a cloud project. New projects are created and the production information (e.g. clip metadata) is uploaded to the Pomfort Cloud with Pomfort’s desktop applications Silverstack or Silverstack Lab (version 7.0 or newer).

The Silverstack Cloud always displays information from one current project. A cloud project can contain information uploaded from several computers that will be displayed in their respective library folders.

Main User Interface

The general layout of the user interface of the Silverstack Cloud is similar to Pomfort’s desktop applications and consists of a header bar and three main parts.

The Silverstack Cloud Main UI

Header Bar

The header bar consists of all top-level elements to navigate the Pomfort Cloud. On the left you see the currently selected project and can access the project chooser to switch to other projects. On the right you find buttons to export clip metadata and to manage your account.

Main UI Parts (from left to right)

The main UI parts show the folders, bins, and clips contained by a project.

• The project outline shows the library outline of all libraries from the applications that upload to the Pomfort Cloud.
• The content view shows either statistics or a list of clips/files that are part of the selected item in the library outline.
• The info panel shows metadata and details about storage locations of the selected item in the item list.

Project Outline:
The selection of an item in the project outline influences the display of the other parts. The selection is recursive, so the content will show all items in the selected folder and all the contained sub folders.

Statistics:
You can switch between statistics and list view by using the left buttons in the toolbar. The statistic shows a summary of the items contained in the folder selected in the library outline.

List View:
The list view shows a metadata table containing all clips and files contained in the selected folder and it’s sub folders or bins. Using the settings icon in the toolbar you can manage the metadata columns to display and if only clips should be shown in the list or clips and all other files. The search allows to enter a search term that is used to filter the items shown in the list.

Info Panel:
The info panel consists of two tabs that can be switched with the tab buttons in the toolbar. They either show all the item’s metadata or the file locations the item is stored on. The whole info panel can be collapsed using the right most button in the toolbar.

Project Members

The information of a Silverstack Cloud project can be shared among several users. Each project member has one role in the project.

Project Roles

• Admin: The user that created the project has the admin role. The admin can view and upload metadata, invite further project members, and manage the project. There is only one admin per project.
• Contributor: A contributor can view the project and all its metadata. He can also upload metadata from Silverstack projects.
• Viewer: A viewer can only view the project and all its metadata, he is not able to upload metadata from Silverstack.

In addition to the user role, additional permissions can be given to a project member. For example the admin of the project can decide if a certain project member should be able to see the uploaded clip thumbnails or not.

The project configuration screen showing project members

Inviting Project Members

New project members can be invited from the project configuration screen that is accessible via the “i” button in the header bar.

In the project configuration click “Invite User”. You then need to enter the user’s email address and choose the desired role and permissions for that user. You can also enter an invitation message that gets included in the email to the users.

The invited user will receive an email about the invitation with a link to accept it. If the user doesn’t have a Pomfort Account yet, the user will create one as part of the invitation accept process. The invitation will show up as pending in the list of project members until the invited user accepted it.
Once the invited user accepts the invitation, he will be able to see the project in his project list and use it according to his role.

Managing Project Members

The project configuration screen contains shows a list of all project members. As admin user you can remove users or edit their role by clicking the manage icon at the end of their  row. While the invitation is still pending you can instead resend the email or cancel the invitation.

Managing Projects

As admin you can archive projects that are not active anymore to keep them available online. Archived projects don’t count against your number of active projects. When a project is archived all project members can still access it but no new members can be invited and no new metadata can be uploaded. If needed the archived project can be unarchived at any time.

Admins also can delete projects to have them removed from the Silverstack Cloud completely. Once a project is deleted all project members including the admin can’t access the project anymore. Deleting a project can’t be undone.

Pomfort Cloud REST API

The production information stored in the Pomfort Cloud can be accessed through a REST API. If you are interested in accessing the Pomfort Cloud REST API, please contact contact@pomfort.com for further details and to obtain an application key.

The post The Silverstack Cloud Web Application appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

This article describes a procedure for investigating a technical issue with video signals for Pomfort support.

You can use the following instructions to create a raw SDI capture which can be used by our support team to debug problems with the metadata in the SDI signal:

First, make sure that the camera does output a HUD with as much metadata as possible.

Then activate the SDI Capture by running the following command in the Terminal app:

defaults write com.pomfort.LiveGradeStudio5 showDeveloperTools -bool YES

After restarting Livegrade, a new “Developer Tools” menu will appear in the top bar:

You can then click on the “Capture SDI Signal of current Slot…” menu item.

This will first open a save dialog where you can choose a location where the capture will be stored. Note that you need to store it on a fast disk with enough free space (typically at least 3 GB).

After clicking ‘Save’ the capture will start and a window will open where you can stop the capture.

This will only record the last 450 frames, so if your SDI signal has 30 fps, this means that it will only keep the last 15 seconds.

Therefore, if you want to record changes in the record flag, you will have to, after starting the capture, start and stop the recording on the camera and press press stop capture in Livegrade within 15 seconds. Make sure that the camera does output an image where we can see the record status of the camera.

After stopping the capture, please compress the directory created by the capture process and send it to us by uploading the ZIP to a file share service like https://transfer.pcloud.com/ or https://wetransfer.com/, or ask the Pomfort support for an FTP or Dropbox destination.

The post Recording the HD-SDI video data stream for debugging appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

This article describes a procedure for investigating a technical issue with network connectivity for Pomfort support.

To investigate issues with the connection to your LUT box, you can record the network traffic between your LUT box and Livegrade

On the command line, you will have to use the following command:

sudo tcpdump $FILTER -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/network.pcap

Replace $FILTER with the appropriate filter for your LUT box:

• BoxIO: port 18181 (e.g. sudo tcpdump port 18181 -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/network.pcap)
• Teradek Color: port 54440
• AJA FS-HDR: port 8 and host $IPADDRESS – replace $IPADDRESS with the IP address of the AJA FS-HDR,
• (e.g. sudo tcpdump port 8 and host 192.168.10.15 -B 524288 -w ~/Desktop/network.pcap)
• Cobalt: port 9002
• ARRI cameras: port 5055
• Canon monitor: port 5000
• RED cameras: port 1111
• Sony F65: port 8888
• Varicam: port 49152

Please make sure that only the affect device is connected while capturing the network traffic.

You can stop the network Capture by pressing  Ctrl+C. After the network capture has stopped you can send the file network.pcap on your desktop to support.

The post Recording the network traffic for debugging appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Pomfort currently develops an update for Livegrade – Livegrade Pro 5.1. All members of the Pomfort beta program as well as selected customers now have the chance to preview and test the latest beta version of Livegrade Pro 5.1.

Usability

Download the latest beta of Livegrade here

Click here to download the beta 

The beta is available until the official release. Beta versions are not suitable for productions. A valid Livegrade license is needed.

We are happy for any feedback! Please send an e-mail to:  support@pomfort.com

System Requirements

Intel Mac with macOS 10.13 or higher.

The post appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Pomfort currently develops an update for Livegrade – Livegrade Studio 5.1. All members of the Pomfort beta program as well as selected customers now have the chance to preview and test the latest beta version of Livegrade Studio 5.1.

Usability

Download the latest beta of Livegrade here

Click here to download the beta 

The beta is available until the official release. Beta versions are not suitable for productions. A valid Livegrade license is needed.

We are happy for any feedback! Please send an e-mail to:  support@pomfort.com

System Requirements

Intel Mac with macOS 10.13 or higher.

The post appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

MIDI controllers offer an easy possibility of mapping application features to physical buttons (besides configuring custom keyboard shortcuts).

To inspect the list of available actions and controls for mapping to MIDI controllers go to “MIDI Controller Mapping” in the application menu. This will open the MIDI Controller Mapping window (figure 1).

Listing and Searching MIDI Mappings

The MIDI Controller Mapping window shows a table with a list of all actions in the main menu as well as additional controls with their currently set MIDI mappings for a certain MIDI device. 

Choose the MIDI device in the pop-up button. You will only see mapped events for that events in the table below.

You can search the list by typing into the search bar on top of the table.

Edit MIDI Mappings for Main Menu Actions

To set or edit a MIDI mapping for a menu item in the main menu:

1. Choose “Button” as control type.
2. Select “Map Controls” to allow changes on the key mapping list.
3. Choose the command row.
4. To set or modify a MIDI mapping press the button on your MIDI controller.

The MIDI channel and MIDI note will appear in the control row.

To remove the associated MIDI mapping press ⌫ (delete / backspace) button.

Close the MIDI Controller Mapping window when you are done.

Edit MIDI Mappings for Grade Controls

To set or edit a MIDI mapping for a grade control:

1. Choose “Encoder” as control type.
2. Select “Map Controls” to allow changes on the key mapping list.
3. Choose the control row.
4. To set or modify a MIDI mapping turn the knob or encoder on your MIDI controller.

The MIDI channel and control number will appear in the control row.

The application supports absolute and relative / endless encoders. You can set the behavior with the checkbox “Encoders are relative”.

When using absolute encoders the application simulates relative encoders: 

• In the middle position the mapped control is not changed.
• As long as the encoder is right / higher than the middle position, the mapped control will be increasing.
• As long as the encoder is left / lower than the middle position, the mapped control will be decreasing.
• Return the encoder to the middle position to stop any changes of the mapped control.

To remove the associated MIDI mapping press ⌫ (delete / backspace) button.

Close the MIDI Controller Mapping window when you are done.

Reset Mappings

You can remove all MIDI mappings by clicking “Clear All Mappings…”.

The post Setting up MIDI Controllers appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Livegrade can provide look metadata to QTake systems. Therefore the application treats the QTake system similar to a LUT device and sends updated look metadata to the QTake system whenever the user applies or manipulates a look in Livegrade.

QTake supports one ASC-CDL and one 3D LUT (in that order or operation). So Livegrade will send ASC-CDL as well as LUT information to QTake (e.g. when being used in the CDL and LUT grading mode). In QTake the look metadata shows up in a “LOOK” effect. For information about setup and use in QTake, please see the QTake manual.

For general information about setting up LiveGrade with HD-SDI devices please refer to the article HD-SDI Setup for LiveGrade.

Adding QTake as a Device

In order to receive look information from Livegrade, the computers running Livegrade and QTake need to have a working network connection.

Once network is set up, launch Livegrade and you can proceed to add the QTake system as a device in device manager. In order to do that, you can choose “Slots” in the main menu and then “Add Device”. Alternatively, you can add the device through the Device Manager.

After that, a configuration window opens. By hitting “Refresh” you can search for QTake systems connected to your network. All QTake systems found will show up in the table view. Select the intended device and click “Add Device” to add the box to the selected slot.

You can also specify a custom IP address.

Setup in QTake

Here are a few starting points for the setup in the QTake system:

• Make sure “QTAKE LUT server” is enabled in the QTake preferences.

Once a connection is made:

• Load a “Look VFX” filter with the right channel.
• Assign the “QTAKE LUT server” to the grading controls.

Please refer to the QTake documentation for further details.

Working with the QTake connection

In the main window, the connected QTake system is now displayed in the corresponding grading slot as a device icon.

After selecting the correct grading slot you will be able to adjust the look that is sent to the QTake system.

Checking Connection Status in the Device Manager

To learn more about the connection state of the QTake system, you can open the Device Manager by clicking on “Devices” above the Grading Slots view.

If connected properly the QTake system will show up as a “Device” row in the Device Manager with a green indicator confirming a positive connection status.

The post Setting up QTake Interaction appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The Silverstack playback view allows to play movie clips back. Please refer to the “Playback” menu in Silverstack for a list of available functionality and shortcuts.

Playback Modes

Silverstack has two playback modes that can be permanently set in the “Playback” menu:

• Absolute Time Playback: Real time playback -> Audio enabled
  • Description: This playback mode attempts to play the clip in real time (1s in the clip will be displayed in 1s realtime). This might lead to frame drops if performance of the machine or I/O might not allow real time playback. Playing back in real time is necessary to enable audio playback.
• Every Frame Playback: Play every frame -> Audio disabled
  • Description: This playback mode makes sure that every frame of the clip will be displayed. This might lead to a non real time display and therefore audio playback is not possible in this playback mode.

When using JKL playback controls Silverstack automatically enables Every Frame Playback and therefore disables audio.

Playback Controls

Playback HUD

The playback HUD (Head Up Display)

The playback HUD enables the following functionality:

• Zoom: Select a zoom setting for the current clip
• Loop: Enable loop playback for the selected clips in a timeline
• Display with Look: Allows to toggle between display of the clip with look or with original color
• Display Options: Select decoding resolution for playback (and debayer options for certain formats)
• In/Out: Makes playback respect in and out points
• Set In-Point: Set in point at current playhead position
• Frame backward: Step one frame backward
• Frame forward: Step one frame forward
• Play: Play the clip back
• Jump to Clip Start and Previous Clip: Moves playhead to the first frame of the clip and if playhead is on the first frame to the previous clip
• Jump to Middle of Clip: Sets playhead to the middle of the clip
• Jump to Clip End: Sets playhead to the last frame of the clip
• Export Still Image: Exports a still image, see also in main menu “Clip > Export Still Image”
• File Playback Info: Shows the current location of the clip used for playback

JKL Controls

Playback can be controlled with J, K and L keys in a manner typical to many for example editing applications. It allows for faster playback, slower playback, reverse playback and frame stepping also known as Playback, Shuttle and Jog:

• Playback : Press L to play forward, K to stop and J to play reverse (“Play Reverse (Faster)”; “Play Forward (Faster)”; “Stop”)
• Shuttle Play: Pressing the keys L or J two or multiple times increases the playback speed by factors 2x up to 64x
• Jog: Holding K and pressing L or J allows users to frame-step through a clip forwards (L) and backwards (J) (“Next frame”, “Previous frame”)

The following more specific functionality is available in conjunction with JKL:

• Fast Reverse: Plays in reverse with same speed as currently playing forward
• Fast Forward: Plays forward with same speed as currently playing backward
• Play Slower: Slows down playback below 1x speed

Frame Stepping

Additionally to JKL, frame stepping is also available with the arrow keys. There are additional option keys to enable larger steps:

• Step 5 frames: Shift + ->/<-
• Step 2 seconds: Shift + Ctrl + ->/<-

Playback Indicators

Player Toolbar

The player toolbar contains different elements to inform about the current status of the clip.

Player Toolbar

The following indicators are displayed in the toolbar (from left to right, top to bottom):

• AT/EF: Playback Mode, Absolute Time (AT) or Every Frame (EF) playback
• Audio Enabled/Disabled: Speaker symbol indicates if audio playback is currently enabled or disabled
• Playback direction and speed: The play symbol indicated the playback direction, the number (1x / 2x / …/64x) indicates the playback speed
• Full / ½ / etc. : Indicates current decoding resolution
• Camera Original / Look: Indicates if camera original color is displayed or look is applied
• FPS: Show the current playback speed in frames per second
• Timecode: Current timecode of clip

The following controls are available in the popover:

• Display Look: Allows to toggle between display of the clip with look or with original color (see also playback HUD)
• Decoding Resolution: Select decoding resolution for playback (and debayer options for certain formats; see also playback HUD)
• Playback Mode: Switch between Absolute Time and Every Frame Playback Mode; more details see above please

The post Playback appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The jobs summary in Silverstack can be opened by clicking on the element located bottom right in the lower toolbar.

It provides an overview of all types of finished jobs in Silverstack directly in the main window, without the need to go to the full jobs view (accessible bottom left through “Jobs”).

It is intended to help the user to keep a condensed overview of all jobs he is taking care of.

The view is grouped by the state of finished jobs and each job state has its delimited element showing the number of such jobs:

• Failed Jobs (red)
• Cancelled Jobs (grey)
• Complete Jobs (green)

The jobs summary accessible in the Silverstack main window.

Mark as Read/Unread

Jobs in the jobs summary can be marked as read, which will hide them from the jobs summary. This is intended to have a simple and clear overview for the user about the general status of the jobs he is taking care of and for which jobs he still might have to take action.

All details about the jobs are still accessible in the jobs view. Jobs can be marked as unread again in the context menu (right click) of a job in the jobs view, which will show them again in the jobs summary.

More actions include:

• Mark as Read:
  • Completed: Marks all successfully completed (ok) jobs as read and hides them from the summary
  • All: Marks all jobs (independent of their state) as read and hides them from the summary
• Reveal: The icon besides the job name (>) allows to reveal the job in the jobs summary

Additionally, you can execute actions for the jobs directly from the jobs summary. Please see the article Managing Jobs in the Jobs View for more general information about actions for jobs.

Unread Failed Jobs Warnings and Reminders

Silverstack by default reminds you of unread failed jobs (jobs with errors that didn’t complete successfully and show in the jobs summary) on every new offload, not to miss taking care of jobs that failed successful completion. This behavior can be turned off in the “General” tab of the preferences by unchecking:

• “Warn me about unread failed jobs on every new offload”

Unread failed jobs warnings and reminders in the “General” preferences.

Additionally, you can set a reminder notification that reappears within a certain time interval to remind you about unread failed jobs:

• “Remind me about unread failed jobs every:”
  • 10 min
  • 20 min
  • 30 min
  • 1 h
  • 2 h

The post Jobs Summary appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

In case the file locations of an offloaded card have been modified after the offload, Silverstack displays a ‘missing resource’ warning for affected clips in the “File” tab of the right bar. In order to point Silverstack to the correct new file paths, you can use the Relink feature.

Select the bin or folder with the files you want to relink new file locations with, in the library outline. Select “Relink” from the Media menu:

Relink menu selection

Once in the Relink wizard, you have to locate the new file location through the ‘Choose Folder…’ button.

The Relink wizard

Providing that the files match, Silverstack is going to list them in the relink wizard as shown in the image above.

Options

Under ‘Matching Criteria’ there’s the option to include a number of folder names above the file. This allows you to expand the matching to include the specified number of folder names before the file name in the resource path.

The additional options are:

• Replace any missing file resources from the Library for the selected items: This setting can be useful when the file have been move between physical locations. The effect of adding and removing resources can be monitored in the “Files” tab of the right bar, where resources for files are displayed.
• Verify files after relink. When the checkbox is selected, Silverstack is going to run a verification process to ensure the data integrity of the relinked files against the checksums stored in the Library for those resources.
• Input Device. Lets users manually select the recording format of the files.

The post Relink To New File Locations appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Silverstack supports a secure, multi-destination backup process of any digital file format. The security is guaranteed by industry standard hash formats like for example MD5 and xxHash.

Flexible configuration of backup paths with file metadata, backup templates and a flexible management of verification behavior and job queues, among other features help you with your on-set backup tasks.

See Offload Clips and Backup Clips for more information on copying.

Silverstack can backup to any HDD, SSD and also to LTO via LTFS (XT only, LTFS Backup).

Media Formats with Advanced Camera Support

Generally, Silverstack can handle any file format for secure offload and backup. However, Silverstack provides advanced features for many camera formats to maximize the efficiency of relevant on-set tasks such as quality check, playback and metadata management.

This specific support for a broad range of camera formats is referred to as Advanced Camera Support.

Silverstack detects Broadcast Wave files automatically as audio and brings associated audio files together to create audio clips.

For a detailed list of the supported formats, please take a look at the article Assets in Silverstack. Some advanced RAW formats like e.g. Sony X-OCN are only supported in Silverstack XT.

Further Reading

• Offload Clips
• Backup Clips
• Cascading Copy
• LTFS Backup
• Assets in Silverstack.
• Use of Path Wildcards
• Factors for Data Transfer Performance
• Analyzing and Improving Data Transfer Performance

The post Offload and Backup appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

The Silverstack clip library in the left bar gives you the possibility to organize your ingested assets. Clips are grouped together in Bins (usually one bin per camera card), which can be organized inside folders.

Select a folder or bin and all its files display in the list view in the UI center.

The library outline can be sorted in custom order with drag & drop, or you can have it automatically sorted by name or date.

Select in the “View” Menu if you only want to see files that have been detected as clips or also all other files/documents (see “Show Clips Only” / “Show Clips and Documents”).

Metadata columns can be added and removed to/from the clips list one-by-one. You can also save and manage custom column layouts.

Metadata can be edited for many metadata fields that allow so by double clicking in the clips list table. Multi edit of the same column for multiple clips is possible via the General Info tab of the right bar.

Exchange Libraries

You can export Silverstack Library Archives that can be used to transfer Silverstack libraries between two machines running Silverstack.

For more information see Library Metadata Exchange.

Working with Library Assets

The “Media” menu button in the toolbar allows to work with media in the library e.g. for backup or verification.

Export

You can export the information in the library in optimized formats for third party applications via the Export menu in the toolbar.

Transfer of Metadata:

• Avid Media Composer
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Apple Final Cut Pro X (FCPX)
• Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve

Import

You can import certain file formats to enrich the Silverstack library with more information via the Import menu in the toolbar.

Further Reading

• The Clip Library: Bins, Folders, Smart Folders and Volumes
• The Information Panel
• Library Metadata Exchange
• Metadata Handling
• Tips & Tricks: Quick metadata editing
• Audio Clips in Silverstack

The post Clip Library appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Certain processes in Silverstack run in jobs. In a Silverstack context the word “job” refers to processes that Silverstack controls. Those processes are:

• Offload
• Backup
• Verification
• Transcoding
• Relink

You can trigger all of these processes from the Silverstack main window, however after scheduling them they are:

• accessible for monitoring and management in the jobs view.
• running in the background while the app is still usable.

The jobs view is accessible from the button in the lower left corner. You can access all kinds of information for jobs including an ETA (estimated time of arrival), a state (whether they are waiting for execution, are running, finished successfully or failed) and more metadata in the jobs view.

Multiple job queues are available (e.g. for copy and transcoding) that enable a parallel execution of multiple jobs and job types. Job settings can be configured in the “Copy&Jobs” tab of the application preferences.

You can reorder waiting jobs with drag&drop to optimize the order of execution.

If jobs finish they move to the lower part of the jobs view and the right bar reveals details about the job. This can include information about why a job might have failed and also offer actions like e.g. to retry.

Further Reading

• Managing Jobs in the Jobs View
• Relink to New File Locations
• Transcoding in Silverstack and XT

The post Jobs appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

Silverstack can export advanced, customizable camera reports that can serve as a proof or log of all data that has been handled and provide information about metadata.

• Creating Reports

The following types of reports are available:

• Shooting Day Report
• Clips Report
• Thumbnails Report
• Contact Print Report
• Volume Report

Reports can be exported in PDF and HTML format.

Further Reading

• Creating Reports

The post Camera Reports appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.

You can open the player tab in the center of the main window to display the playback view and play clips back. Playback control is possible with common JKL controls, but you can also scrub through clips, zoom in and out, alter the display resolution for RAW clips and more.

• Playback

Silverstack XT comes with HD-SDI output to play out clips in best quality on an HD-SDI monitor. The current clip in the player gets mirrored to the HD-SDI output showing the image in full-screen and 10 bit color depth.

• HD-SDI Output in Silverstack

Functionalities provided within the “Visual Controls” panel help to check the colors, focus and overall quality of your video clip.

You can also configure overlay frame lines over the clips in the playback window, as well as for the SDI output.

• Visual Control Functionalities in Playback Mode

Silverstack offers audio playback of audio data embedded in video clips for preview and quality check.

• Multichannel Audio in Silverstack

You can de-squeeze clips recorded with anamorphic lenses, crop clips as well as flip and rotate clips in the “Processing” section of the General Info (right bar).

• Image transformation

Further Reading

• Playback
• Visual Control Functionalities in Playback Mode
• Frame Lines in the Playback View
• Image transformation
• HD-SDI Output in Silverstack
• Multichannel Audio in Silverstack
• Crop Clips

The post Playback (Quality Check) appeared first on Pomfort Knowledge Base.