Hello Team
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere at another time.
My stock library is getting a little too big for managing by filename only.
I've searched a few software review/download sites for an application that can catalogue/sort/find clip files but haven't found anything suitable so far.
I appreciate Adobe Bridge and Sony Media Manager are designed to help track media including clips but I'd prefer to use a standalone Windows application - my trialling of a certain NLE of Japanese origin is going well.

cheers
Simon

I have Sony Media Manager along with my Vegas and I have thousands of clips in my archives but to be honest I just use Windows folders and filenames for organising.

My folders are generally structured by the family/species of the marine life, and the filename includes an abbreviation for the dive site. For example a clip of a school of mottled fusilier at Black Rock might be:

E:/fusilier/fusilier-mottled-Dipterygonatus balteatus/BLRfusilier-mottled5b.avi

I use a Windows Explorer replacement program called Directory Opus to help manage my files and do all sorts of other tasks like synchronizing drives. You can make "collections" in it which are sets of files not necessarily in the same folder, but then I've heard MS Vista has that feature too.

If you want to search clips by various "tags" you've given to clips then Sony Media Manager would do it. If I was starting from scratch I would probably use it. However if you go with ED**S then you won't have it.

Thanks Nick
I am more or less doing now what you are doing, although I haven't gone all latin with it too. Though I do include Dive Site names.

As my stock of good clips continues to grow I have shots of the same species but with different lighting and angles or in different conditions or interacting with other species.
So I find I am wasting a fair amount of time re-watching clips to find the ones I want for a project.

I was hoping that with all the Windows property tags and meta tags that some smart people would have come up with a stand alone application to let us use them all.

I'll have a look at Directory Opus.

cheers
Simon

i write general descriptions on the tape and throw em in a box...

I have something i am working on that could be a great little trick for managing clips. I'll post once my test is done.
shawn

You might want to look at some of the solutions available to still photographers, i think programs such as iview can be used to database video files using descriptions and keywords

Im like Mike but each tape is logged in a book.

However we are slowly sucking in every single tape to harddrive storage and will build a disk tower.

uh oh, now a proliferation of Simons to add to the proliferation of Nicks.

Simon aitchtuoh, Directory Opus took me ages and ages to configure how I want it, but now it's invaluable to me. It's almost like an integral part of the OS. It's brilliant for all sorts of file management tasks. But you can't do "tagging" as such in it, just "collections".

Was just chatting to a videographer who uses "Portfolio" software for tagging both his stills and video so that may be worth a look.

Apologies for the common name - I blame my parents!

So there I was thinking I needed to be all professional and hi-tech when all I really need is a cardboard box.

Thanks for the suggestions, Shawn I look forward to you being a smart person with your project.

Back to the cataloguing crusade..

BTW Nick do you dive South of Phuket often?

I was filming on Anemone Reef 2 days ago and it is covered by a ridiculous number of intermediate Barracuda and Fusiliers. I'll post a few clips on Aquaplanet...

Not as much as the Similans or Burma but I occasionally do a liveaboard to Hin Daeng/Hin Muang and Koh Ha and usually we dive Anemone Reef on the way back. You're right, shed-loads of fish there and last time I had an eagle ray too.

At the bottom of my Phuket scuba diving videos page is an old Anemone Reef video from my day trip days (but actually not including many schooling fish).

I recently purchased Filemaker's Bento database program for another application. While playing with it, I thought it might work for my video clips. Anyone have experience with Bento? If so, how did you set up your Library?

Hi Nick, I see that you have Sony Vegas , would that be Pro 8?
I also just bought this softwear, to use with my new Sony HDR-SR12E, I need some help .
Having problem with :

1. After shooting footage , how do you get the footage ready for Sony Vages softwear, I see that it captures High Definition footage in the AVCHD format?
2. How do you get it ready for editing?

I have other question , but would like help with these 1st!

Thanks in advance.

A few years ago a company in Florida made me an offer I couldn't refuse and bought my entire library of SD footage. However, I had to go back and recapture 100s of tapes worth of clips and separate them into folders on 2 externals they sent me. Each folder represented a separate species or behavior. It took many months and much boredom to complete the task. However, since then, after log and capturing of new footage, I then make copies of the capture scratch folders by dragging the clips into my archiving hard drives according to species. This assures me of at least 3 back ups and a hell of a lot of organization for when a client wants something specific.
Steve