Video files & iMatch

[vpv]

Hi!

Sorry if I posted it on the wrong board...

I'm using iMatch since 2003... but for photos only.
If anybody using iMatch for managing information of video files, any side effects?
Is it valuable? Any thoughts? Recommendations?

Plan to use the same DB.

Thank you!

P.S. I'm still on the 2019.8.4 due to COVID situation...

[sinus]

I cannot follow really, maybe I do not understand correctly.

IMatch is not only for photos, you can use it also for videos, documents and so on.

I use it mostly for photos, but also for videos, doc, pdf, mp3, sla, xls and a lot more.

No problems at all, IMatch does it fine. 

[Mario]

IMatch manages video files like any other file format, for many years.
It displays small animated previews in the File Window, manages metadata in XMP files etc.

[vpv]

Thank you, Mario!

[Mario]

No problem.

Note that IMatch does not "play" video files. You can open any video in your favorite player easily, though.
See Opening Files in Other Applications for details.

Unfortunately, video file formats are literally covered in software patents from many companies like Nokia, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and many others.
Even looking too hard in the direction of a video wakes patent lawyers and the MPEG group and other dark hat folks. And then they want blood.
That's not a place I want to go.

Just the amount of patents surrouding HEIC/HEIF is so ridiculous that it takes a specialized 500 US$/hour lawyer just to tell you which 1,000 US$/hour lawyer you need to hire to figure out if and which patents you may violate by playing a video file...
...and normal people entrust their life memories to these companies by recording and storing videos in patent-infested formats
Unbelievable...

[vpv]

Thank you, Markus!

I know about the feature to work with files in different formats, including videos.
Probably, my question was too broad. Looking at personal experience on how to better work with video files and do not interfere with other formats. Due to the size of video files

I have a collection of videos I shot since VHS time in digital format and involved now in some community video production and looking for a way to organize finally my resources.
All files are stored now on Synology NAS. For production, required files to be copied to External SSD connected to Macbook Pro with Wondershare Filmora, Ps...

Thank you again!

[vpv]

Re-read your message again, Mario. Yes, it is insane...
Remind me time when we have to pay a fee to SONY buying and blank CDs, even for our own archiving purpose not related to musical/video industry.

Big names trying making money on everything they can control

No problem.

Note that IMatch does not "play" video files. You can open any video in your favorite player easily, though.
See Opening Files in Other Applications for details.

Unfortunately, video file formats are literally covered in software patents from many companies like Nokia, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and many others.
Even looking too hard in the direction of a video wakes patent lawyers and the MPEG group and other dark hat folks. And then they want blood.
That's not a place I want to go.

Just the amount of patents surrouding HEIC/HEIF is so ridiculous that it takes a specialized 500 US$/hour lawyer just to tell you which 1,000 US$/hour lawyer you need to hire to figure out if and which patents you may violate by playing a video file...
...and normal people entrust their life memories to these companies by recording and storing videos in patent-infested formats
Unbelievable...

[Mario]

Remind me time when we have to pay a fee to SONY buying and blank CDs, even for our own archiving purpose not related to musical/video industry.

At least here in Europe, there is a special 'tax' on blank media like CD/DVD/BR-D and maybe even USB sticks, because there is a right for 'personal copy' in many European countries (unless you have to break encryption to make the copy). The tax money goes to the music and film companies...

Managing video files in IMatch is not a problem. Of course indexing (extracting metadata, thumbnails, visual query info, checksum) takes much longer for a 2 or 4 GB video than it takes for a 50MB RAW file. But once the data has been extracted, IMatch does not need to access the video data again. It only checks occasionally if the file still exists via the file system.
When you write back, IMatch updates only the small XMP sidecar file (unless you configure IMatch to embed the XMP in the video). So this is also very fast.

A NAS is of course extra slow, because it can be 100 to 1000 times slower than a local hard disk, depending on the NAS and the network (Gigabit cable vs. WiFi etc.).
I usually recommend to finish files on the local disk (index index in IMatch etc.) and then move/relocate them to the NAS for long-term archival/backup.

See also Configuring Process Control for Slow Media (CD-ROM, DVD, NAS, ...) which contains useful info if you run into performance issue when indexing masses of files on your NAS.

[sinus]

...
All files are stored now on Synology NAS. For production, required files to be copied to External SSD connected to Macbook Pro with Wondershare Filmora, Ps...

Thank you again!

Hey vpv
good luck with your project!

[PaulS]

... Looking at personal experience on how to better work with video files and do not interfere with other formats. Due to the size of video files ...

All files are stored now on Synology NAS. For production, required files to be copied to External SSD connected to Macbook Pro with Wondershare Filmora, Ps...

One thought based on my past experience:

Depending on the performance of your computer and your NAS/ network connection as well as the size and number of video files, it can take a long time to complete the initial indexing.

If this is an issue, it might be faster to index them while on the External SSD or your computer's hard drive/ SSD.  You can then move them to the NAS either within IMatch or if they are already on the NAS you can use the Relocate capability.  Relocating may require some creativity as it can be done either on a file or folder basis.

[vpv]

Great advice, Paul! thank you!

... Looking at personal experience on how to better work with video files and do not interfere with other formats. Due to the size of video files ...

All files are stored now on Synology NAS. For production, required files to be copied to External SSD connected to Macbook Pro with Wondershare Filmora, Ps...

One thought based on my past experience:

Depending on the performance of your computer and your NAS/ network connection as well as the size and number of video files, it can take a long time to complete the initial indexing.

If this is an issue, it might be faster to index them while on the External SSD or your computer's hard drive/ SSD.  You can then move them to the NAS either within IMatch or if they are already on the NAS you can use the Relocate capability.  Relocating may require some creativity as it can be done either on a file or folder basis.