Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 I remember a thread on what the Deva Sound Report looks like. I could not find the original thread and I also remember it became a debate over the 'quality' of the report written to disk between the Cantar and Deva? I've attached the file that is written to the folder of the Deva for observation purposes. It is a .CSV file which will open in Excel. You could create a specific Excel template file that you open it in, which could also include the show name, etc. etc. The information in the 'native' file has the necessary information that the sound editors would find useful. I 'write' the report on each DVD-RAM I mirror, as well as on my external archive FW drive that also holds all the 'folders'. Cheers, RL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 It opened fine (and automatically) in "Numbers", the cheapo Mac spreadsheet pgm. Philip Perkins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Just to add a little something to this thread: with either the Cantar or the Deva, the sound report form put on the disk which is delivered, will still always have to have a host computer and some software to display it. This is not a problem in a telecine or edit suite where this text file can be pulled off the disk and read/displayed by a computer. If this file is a .pdf it will open in whatever software you have designated should open .pdf (portable document format) files. On the Mac this would be generally Preview (which is display software utility that is on all Macs) and on Windows I am sure there is some equivalent whether it be from Microsoft or Adobe. If the file is a .cvs format, as is with the Deva, this file will open on any computer, again using whatever piece of software you have designated to open and display such a file. Below is displayed Richard Lightstone's posted sound report (in part) opened and displayed in Numbers (spreadsheet program for the Mac). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fernando Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 It looks good! Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 After seeing a recent discussion on the Deva Yahoo group, I've put together a little Filemaker program designed to create sound reports from the CSV files from a Deva, based on Richard Lightstone's CSV file above. Both printed and PDF reports can be created with only a couple of button clicks, on any Mac running OSX 10.3 or later. This version will work with up to 8 tracks, but I'll eventually create alternate templates that will just print 2 tracks, 4 tracks, or 6 tracks. (If somebody really wants a 10-track or 16-track version, I could theoretically do it, but the track info will have to be teeny-tiny to fit the page.) At the moment, I only have a Mac version, but once I get the bugs out of it, I'll convert it all to Windows and will post an XP-compatible version. Be sure to read the Read Me file provided. As a disclaimer, this is something I threw together in a few hours, so there will most likely be a few bugs here and there. I'm giving it away for free, if only because I'd like to see Deva users have the same capability as Cantar users with PDF sound reports. You can download the file from my mac.com account (aka MobileMe): http://idisk.mac.com/Mwielage-Public?view=web Highlight the Sound Report file, and click the arrow on the far right to download it. (It's about 30MB, so it's too big to post here as an attachment on this group.) Let me know here or via email if you guys run into any problems with it. So far, I think the error trapping is pretty good. The slickest thing I did was to eliminate a bunch of "empty entries" that the Deva slips into the CSV file. Only takes with valid timecode (over 00:00:00:00) will get printed. I think it looks a lot better than just using Excel, though I don't doubt it would be theoretically possible to create an Excel template that would clean things up quite a bit. At least this is self-contained and, like Belushi said in Animal House, "it don't cost nothin'." --Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 And in case MobileMe is screwed up, here's a backup version on YouSendIt: https://rcpt.yousendit.com/594936653/fd825c569561c dfc65d3b084b014b7c9 I've also attached a PDF so you can see how Richard's CSV looks formatted. --Marc Sound_Report_8-4-2008.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 And in case MobileMe is screwed up, here's a backup version on YouSendIt: --Marc Thanks for putting that up (and the MobileMe storage/download page worked just fine). - Jeff Wexler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Marc, Thanks for making the template. I'll put it through some testing on set today. Hey - it premiered here first -- before the deva user group! Regards, RL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Barnts Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted August 12, 2008 Report Share Posted August 12, 2008 Just finished an update -- due to popular demand, I've added a space for the Boom Op's name, as well as making reports available in 2-track, 4-track, and 6-track formats. The 2-track and 4-track reports will take up less space, since you can get more take information on a single page. The new version is .3B, available at the same download link: http://idisk.mac.com/Mwielage-Public?view=web This was a little tricky, since the 8-track and 6-track reports are landscape (wide), and the 4-track and 2-track reports are portrait (regular 8-1/2" x 11"). So far, I think it works. Check it out and let me know if there's any bugs. I've attached a sample of the 2-track report. I will eventually come up with a way to sort the information by timecode, by scene/take, or just in the original order in which the takes were recorded. --Marc W. 2-track_Sound_Report.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 well done... is there anyway to include the filename in one of the column? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 Technically, I could cram in another column with the filename, but honestly, it's not something we generally need in post. My intent was to stick with the same sound report form people have been using for the last 10-15 years. What we really could use is a utility that would rename the file as "Scene-Take," as in: 108A-2.BWF 32-1.BWF A28A-6.BWF something like that. I believe there's some intrinsic reason why the Deva can't easily name the files with the scene and take number (especially if you change the metadata after the file was recorded), but I think dialog editors and post people would probably appreciate this naming convention, since they could locate the files instantly -- as opposed to consulting a list or looking at metadata. I'll check in with Courtney Goodin and see if this is something he could do with BWF-Widget. --Marc W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted September 8, 2008 Report Share Posted September 8, 2008 wow thats fast reply... If can have both will be good... editor in my part of the world are kind of lazy... so if the column is possible will be great for me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted September 9, 2008 Report Share Posted September 9, 2008 Courtney Goodin advises that his excellent program BWF-Widget Pro can rename BWF files with metadata, and can also print sound reports with the filenames, even slice up polyphonic files to mono files, etc. This is an extraordinarily useful program, and it's saved our butts on many occasion in post. I consider it an indispensable utility on anybody's soundcart. It's Windows only, but BWF-Widget is so good, it justifies running Windows in the background on the Mac. You can get more info on Courtney's site: http://www.bwfwidget.com Highly recommended! --Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted September 9, 2008 Report Share Posted September 9, 2008 Hi... thanks for the bwf widget pro link... but i do not have window... I would really look forward if you would kindly help to add the filename column on your nice layout... I do not mean if i sound a bit rude... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted September 9, 2008 Report Share Posted September 9, 2008 Ah, no Windows. Well, if I have time between now and the weekend, I'll see if I can figure out a way to cram another column for filenames in for you. --Marc W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted September 10, 2008 Report Share Posted September 10, 2008 cool... Thanks... that will be great... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbrisett Posted September 10, 2008 Report Share Posted September 10, 2008 This is an extraordinarily useful program, and it's saved our butts on many occasion in post. I consider it an indispensable utility on anybody's soundcart. It's Windows only, but BWF-Widget is so good, it justifies running Windows in the background on the Mac. I agree. In fact, this was one of the reasons I lugged my MacBook Pro around with me on shoots (until some slime bag stole it on a shoot two months ago). It was very handy being able to put in a DVD-RAM disc and change file names, metadata, etc. after the fact. Plus it really does produce some very nice sound reports. Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I was just alerted by a user who discovered a problem with the exported CSV files from the Deva. It seems these files repeat the information from the very last take and stick in a duplicate at the beginning of the list, for reasons unknown. I've had no answer from Zaxcom on this yet. I'll try to build in a workaround on my program, which will temporarily delete this duplicate take, so the list will be more accurate. With luck, I might be able to get it finished by this weekend. --Marc W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 i too had that problem... Am still hopping for a column for filename, if it is possible... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenn Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 I was not aware of this bug and will make sure it gets fixed quickly. Glenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Lightstone, CAS Posted September 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Jeff showed my original Deva CSV report -- and you can see that the last segment gets repeated at the top of the form. Here's Jeff's post: http://www.jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=2676.msg18273#msg18273 RL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Jeff showed my original Deva CSV report -- and you can see that the last segment gets repeated at the top of the form. Here's Jeff's post: http://www.jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=2676.msg18273#msg18273 RL I don't doubt your report of the duplicate but I don't see it on the screen shot I posted (and you linked to) but maybe I am just missing it. Either way, Glenn says he will be looking into it so that's a good thing. - JW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted September 22, 2008 Report Share Posted September 22, 2008 Glenn... y dun you write us a program? that we can have sound log and also mateldate editing? something like the wave agent the sound devices have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfatjames Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 so no upgrade or new program from zaxcom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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