Need Some Sample Deva IV or V files

[cmgoodin]

I need a couple of short 2 or 4 track DEVA Files that were mirrored using the latest firmware that supports iXML.

The files can be 5 to 10 seconds long. I would like to have files that have a Note, & or tracks named in the Deva. 

I  am working on examining all the different meta-data flavors on all the recorders.  Howy has not posted any sample files that contain an iXML chunk.

----Courtney

[old school]

Hey Courtney, I have plenty of files you can use, I'm running 2.28, are you looking for newer versions? As far as I know, this is the last upgrade Zaxcom is offering at this point on there site. Give me a call if this is of any help.

CrewC

[cmgoodin]

Hi, Crew.

Yes could you upload a couple of short files (I just need to look at the metadata) They should be BWF files 2 or 4 tracks 24bit 48k with any metadata turned on. If you could name a couple of the tracks with unique names and perhaps add a note if there is such a thing. Record about 5 seconds and mirror to a DVD-RAM or any other media that will allow you to send them via Internet. You can go to my www.ProPrompt.com website and use the UPLOAD SCRIPTS button to upload your audio files to my ftp site.  Or if they are short enough (< 5MB) you could attach them to an email and send them off to me. If you have some takes that are 10-20 MB use the upload on the website.

Thanks... I am updating BWF-Widget Pro and trying to make some sense out of the mess that is iXML.   

----Courtney

[cmgoodin]

Crew,

Got the files thanks...

As I expected, DEVA is using yet another flavor of iXML No 2 versions alike.....

---Courtney

[Jim Rillie]

Yes, Courtney,

There is a v1.5 of iXML. Just last week put a "required" firmware update on the Cantar to be compliant with v1.5 iXML.

Could that be the issue?

Jim Rillie

[cmgoodin]

Yes, Courtney,

There is a v1.5 of iXML. Just last week put a "required" firmware update on the Cantar to be compliant with v1.5 iXML.

Could that be the issue?

Jim Rillie

No Jim, the sample Cantar files I have are from version 1.68 Firmware and uses iXML 1.5.   The problems come from the fact that the iXML structure is not prescribed and by definition, there are no requirements to include any field and the fields can be in any order.  That coupled with the fact that each manufacturer seems to use a different way of ending a field.  Cantar uses a line-feed and some spaces, Deva uses a single carriage return, Metacorder uses Carriage return & Line feed followed by Tabs,(which makes the most readable display).  SD uses CR&LF and no Tabs, etc.  Plus some Mfg, like Fostex fill note fields with a string of blanks, (that's a no-no), and leave no slack space at the end of the chunk to allow for editing or additions. Also, there are 2 <Note> tags that can appear in 1.5 one is a general note and one is a speed related note.   The tags should have different names to speed up parsing so you don't have to determine what the note is by looking at it's surrounding data.

Manufacturers are free to make up new tags for their specific needs, so making standard software that interprets the iXML data is a daunting task.  Sure you can easily display all the data for a file in an INFO screen, but parsing the data and interpreting it for including in a database is much more complex than it needs to be.  A simple flat file (non-hierarchical) list of tags and their values that are standardized would have been a better choice.  (like that in the bext chunk).

I now have a version of BWF-Widget PRo that scours both the iXML and bext chunk for the fields it supports, but it is a bit daunting to offer editing and updating of data when there is no prescribed standard between machines. And since there can be duplicate fields in both bext and iXML and differing data. It creates a paradoxical problem in interpreting which field may have the correct data.  In other words it's a big mess.  Ad to this the push for MXF file structure (yet another wrapper with more duplication of metadata) and it makes stability and accuracy of metadata a tenuous goal.

---Courtney

[Jeff Wexler]

The problems come from the fact that the iXML structure is not prescribed and by definition, there are no requirements to include any field and the fields can be in any order.  That coupled with the fact that each manufacturer seems to use a different way of ending a field.  Cantar uses a line-feed and some spaces, Deva uses a single carriage return, Metacorder uses Carriage return & Line feed followed by Tabs,(which makes the most readable display).  SD uses CR&LF and no Tabs, etc.  Plus some Mfg, like Fostex fill note fields with a string of blanks

---Courtney

I am amazed at your patience and persistance, Courtney, on this complex issue --- what a mess! The whole metadata thing REALLY needs some standardization. How it got so out of control I will never know but it seems to be a fact of modern tech/computer life that everyone seems satisfied, sort of, if THEIR system functions, with the underlying hope that others will follow with similar "standards" even though there are few if any real standards out there.

Keep up the good work (and when you really get BWF Widget doing everything for everyone, let's get a Mac programmer to do a Mac version...  I know, it will never happen, Active X and all...  talk about standards.

-  Jeff Wexler