Home

4 - Codex

1. 8 Offloading files from Codex systems 8 1 Introduction to Offloading There are two principle types of storage medium which have been extensively tested for the offloading of material from Codex systems hard disk either singly or configured as a RAID and LTO4 magnetic data storage tape These two mediums require significantly different approaches and as such will be dealt with separately The Codex software has an Offloader utility built into the Codex User Interface Codex Ul which when correctly configured can connect to hard disk systems the optional LTO4 drives in the Codex Lab and Portable Transfer Station and LTO Autoloaders The purpose of the Offloader is to automate the process of archival as much as possible by using the Virtual File Systern VFS to generate file types in a structure which is specific to the requirements of a production The Offloader copies these files automatically to either hard disk or LTO tape The Offload screen of the Codex UI is divided into two halves the top half controls the Disk Offloader which interfaces with hard disk systems and the bottom half controls the Tape Offloader which interfaces with LTO drives The Disk and Tape Offloaders are driven by different parts of the Codex software and due to the nature of hard disk non linear and LTO tape linear the two parts of the Offloader operate in a slightly different way this will be covered in the sections which follow
2. Both hard disk and LTO4 tape have advantages and productions will often be required to keep an LTO4 archive for insurance purposes Data stored on LTO tape is stable for many years and the initial outlay for individual tapes is relatively low However the data does need to be unarchived before it is usable In comparison a hard disk allows fast access to material but maintaining the data on hard disks over an extended period can be more costly On balance there are good reasons for both options to be used and the requirements and restrictions of each production will determine whether one or both of these archival methods provide the best solution When a Datapack is loaded the VFS will take a short time to compile and for this reason it is advised to view the contents of the VFS via a networked computer with Explorer or Finder before commencing an offload This also enables you to confirm that the contents of the VFS for offloading matches your expectation 8 2 Transfer Rates Transfer rates for offloading to LTO4 tape are generally limited by the write speed of the tapes around 1O00MB s would normally be expected Transfer rates for offloading to hard disk are dependent upon such a wide variety of factors that it is difficult to cover every possible scenario The type of connection operating system file system storage medium and many more things can all have an impact Each system needs to be dealt with on a case by
3. lt entry x 2 y 0 prop CircleTake label Circle gt lt choice gt Yes lt choice gt lt choice gt No lt choice gt lt entry gt Each element is defined by a start tag then some properties then an end tag Notice that XML allows you to embed properties within a tag and also that there are nested elements the field has some choices predefined In fact you can see that the entire file is actually a single set of nested elements starting with the tag lt filecardlayout gt In more detail lt all tags begin with an angle bracket entry the start tag x 2 y 0 the position of the field x O y O is top left prop CircleTake the name of this metadata as stored in the database label Circle the label of the field on the card optional gt all tags finish with an angle bracket Notice that all values are surrounded by quotes this is because the tag for the element and some of its properties have been written in short form within the angle brackets this is one of the styles that XML allows The choices list has been written slightly differently in the style wnere each property has its own start and end tags 14 CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAG lt choice gt Yes lt choice gt lt choice gt No lt choice gt Because each property has its own tags there is no need for quotes in this case The choices list is nested within this entry element
4. number in each filename This is discussed further in the VFS section and there are full lists of all legal token names in an Appendix Note the rules for tokens in shot names and VFS names are slightly different Generally speaking Labels user friendly names should be used as tokens in the Shot Naming Rule and Roll Naming Rule Metadata property names should be used as tokens in the VFS setup Some single letter tokens such as f only work in the VFS as they have no meaning in the context of shot naming For a list of metadata labels and single letter tokens see the Appendix 5 3 Naming Shots The shotname conventions are defined from the SETUP tab SLATE screen The most common conventions are built in you can modify them or type in entirely new ones In the drop down list there are convenient buttons to remove existing choices a red cross or add new ones a green tick the Choices are stored in the file druiconfig xml Shot Naming Rule Scene Take Need a shot to show example name Roll Naming Rule Diskpack wo Allow Duplicate Names No Label For Parts Of Takes part D Cc L Examples Scene Take expands to 10 2 Director Test Scene expands to Altman Test 19 note the spaces As you type the shotname specification you are shown an example of what you will get If the example is empty or it doesn t make sense something is wrong check that you have a meaningful token
5. you can then switch configurations for different purposes and the VFS will rebuild the list of available files Note Codex is currently working to improve VFS performance in relation to these limitations 7 Using LUTs This section describes details of how to manage Look Up Tables LUTs Codex uses LUTs purely for output purposes viewing and export and for import of existing files source material is always recorded and stored entirely unmodified for maximum quality At present LUTs are simple one dimensional tables All LUTs are RGB and will operate fully on RGB signals For YCbCr material any LUT applied will only affect the luma brightness of the shot 7 1 LUTs for Monitoring This LUT is 10 bit to 10 bit and modifies the HD and DVI outputs during record monitoring and playback The monitoring LUT can be selected from the LUT button on the MAIN tab or DUAL tab LUTs can be applied in several ways 548 637 426 01 00 13 07 FREE 00 13 10 12 FORMAT 1080sF 24 00 10B R A2 7 1 1 Using a preset LUT or creating a new one Both of these are done by using the SETUP button on the LUT screen This pops up a form in which parameters based on source material type and monitor may be set directly Several standard presets are included for various cameras these are selected from the Quick Select field You can then if you wish modify the parameters on the form and save them for later use The exam
6. In addition to Fibre Channel RAID systems the Codex can also offload to networked systems connected via Ethernet either Gigabit Gig E or 10 Gigabit 1 O Gig Gig E comes as standard on Codex machines and a 10 Gig card is an optional extra There are certain 10 Gig cards which Codex recommend and have been tested thoroughly with the system In comparison to the direct SCSI attached USB drive or Fibre Channel RAID this type of connection uses one of several network protocols for data transfer These various protocols combined with the different hardware options available can provide significantly different transfer rates contact Codex if you need advice The Disk Offloader can be used to transfer files to a network server but this method is not optimal and therefore is recommended for when material can be drip fed across to the RAID throughout the day with the Disk Offloader in Automatic mode To improve transfer speeds over a network the use of open source network protocol rsync is recommended the set up of this is covered in Setting up rsync to copy files from the VFS to a networked RAID system First the network server must be on the same network as the Codex For information on networking to a Codex machine please see Working with Codex over a network Create an appropriate directory within mnt to mount the network server to as root type mkdir mnt network server lt enter gt Then to mount the
7. You are initially in command mode which allows movement around the file but not editing To change to insert mode for editing i Then type whatever you need to change The Backspace and Delete keys work as expected To comment out make inactive a line add a to the beginning Similarly to comment in make active a line remove the from the beginning To return to command mode Esc To exit and save changes wq lt enter gt CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 6 notice the colon which is part of the command To exit without saving changes q lt enter gt If you insist more Commands can be found at http www ss64 com bashsyntax vi Atm To view the contents of a file less lt filename gt 1 8 File locations The Codex files are in several directories on the system depending on whether they are program files logfiles configuration files or LUTs The logfiles are very useful for troubleshooting and you may need to read them or send them to Codex for diagnosis The configuration files store basic setup and project settings and other items such as the filecard layouts you can replace them with your own variations if desired he LUT files are applied for viewing and the generation of VFS files The system is shipped with several standard ones but you can add your own Programs home codex contains the executables on Studio systems usr local codex bin contains the executables on
8. for a networked RAID system 4 Set the Offloader operation mode to Automatic or Manual as required 5 If not already done load your Datapack s and give the VFS a minute to build the list of files for offloading 6 Before beginning the offload it is generally advised to browse the contents of the VFS directory you are about to offload using a networked computer This is to confirm that the contents of the VFS matches your expectation there are settings within the VFS which can effect this such as Filters for example 7 Once the contents of the VFS has been checked press START In Manual mode the operation will stop when you leave the OFFLOAD screen In Automatic mode it continues until everything is up to date Any shots already on the VFS will immediately be backed up When synchronizing the contents of the target drive to the VFS the logic of the offloader disregards any top level directories which do not match the top level directory specified in the VFS This allows for previous offloads to be maintained but does mean that if there is a matching top level directory already on the external array that is no longer on the Datapack then it will be replaced If the top level directory does match then any directories within it which do not match those in the VFS will be deleted In Automatic mode if you modify metadata for any shot already backed up it will be replaced on the external drive with the new version Any new recordings
9. so we also need to finish with an end tag for the whole element lt entry gt Notice the forward slash denoting that this is an end tag The predefined choices for fields are actually stored in filecard xml However you can change these choices directly from the UI so there is no need to edit the file just for this purpose If you enter a new choice simply open the drop down menu for the field and select the green tick next to your new choice to save it as an option which can be selected for subsequent shots Pre set choices may also be removed by selecting the red cross from the drop down box 4 2 2 Editing filecard xml The file can be edited in any text editor but you must take care to stick to the basic XML rules There are specialist programs for this or WordPad in Windows and TextEdit in OSX are both suitable as long as the XML rules are adhered to they provide no indication of mistakes If you change the location or size of a field you must also change the others to compensate or the filecard will become unreadable Similarly the filecard will be unreadable if all the space is not accounted for the easiest way to avoid this is by setting any unwanted prop and label names blank e g prop but maintaining their co ordinate values Therefore if you would like filecards that are very different from the standard we suggest you contact Codex for advice or to do it for you Here are a couple of examples of simp
10. system unintentionally which is likely to stop it working in ways that can be difficult to diagnose Therefore treat the Linux command line with care and avoid typing more than the minimum necessary to do the work The prompt always shows you which directory you are in except on the Codex Portable When you first log in and become Superuser you are in the root directory and the prompt will be something like codex codex11020 codex depending on your serial number Whenever you see this prompt followed by nothing else the system is ready for a command If there is anything else on the line you can remove it at any time by pressing CTRL C All commands are case sensitive hello is not the same as HELLO or Hello and are completed by lt enter gt All these commands have many options which are usually not needed but can be found by typing man lt command gt Alternatively add help to the command e g ls help lt enter gt To print display the directory you are in use the pwd Command pwd lt enter gt To list the contents of a directory use the 1s command ls lt enter gt To change directory use the cd commana e g cd home codex lt enter gt The root directory has the name forward slash The directory is a tree so if you are on one branch and want to move to another you have to start again at the root using the slash as in the example above Linux helps you with this navigation by providing nam
11. type wq to write changes and quit You then need to refresh the Ethernet changes See below Note if you want to quit without writing any changes type q Instead The GATEWAY entry is used to connect to other networks By default ethO is used for this purpose and both O CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 1 network connections cannot be used in this way simultaneously 3 2 3 Refresh the Ethernet changes If using port 1 type ifdown eth0 lt enter gt ifup eth0 lt enter gt If using port 2 type ifdown eth1 lt enter gt ifup ethl lt enter gt If you are connected via ssh from a networked computer typing ifdown will break the connection In this case type ifdown eth0 ifup eth0 lt enter gt This will reset the network port and you can then connect using the new network settings on the Codex Finally type exit lt enter gt to leave the root user and then logout lt enter gt to exit the Linux prompt 3 2 4 Using dynamic IP addresses DHCP We do not normally recommend this If you feel that you must contact Codex support 3 3 Network setting for other computers connected to the Codex Each computer connected to the Codex must have a compatible IP address and netmask The details of this will depend on the particular computer and network but if the Codex defaults are used you would set each machine as follows 192 168 1 xxx P address 255 255 255 0 netmask xxx is the
12. 052_128_488_1_eabc0ad3 f589 425f 81 12 e1 3e7bd2a28c You can then view them using a dpx viewer or copy them to where ever N B There is limited space on the system disk of the Codex which is where the dpx s are unarchived to so you may need to copy them off bit by by You can also search for rolls e g findtape sh v rollname 22 or timecodes findtape sh v rollname 22 v tinmecode1 14 1 7 15 09 v fos 25 or sections of timecodes findtape sh v rollname 22 v tinnecode1 14 00 00 00 v timecode1 15 00 00 00 v fos 25 Note that with timecode searching you need to specify frames per second unless its 24fps which is the default The other script getfrarmes sh is used to load tapes and untar files into the current directory Just pass in tape name and start and optional end fiemark and it will search for the tape load it and shuttle to the correct place and copy files off tape onto harddrive under the directory you run it from If you are running getframes sh on a Codex Recorder or Transfer Station then material unarchived from LTO will be stored on the system hard drive There is a partition on the system drive which is recommended for this purpose and will allow for the storage of approximately 10 minutes of dpx files an additional 1TB drive can be fitted for this purpose contact Codex for further details Follow these steps to mount the partition mount dev sda3 mnt material Then go to t
13. 1 ethO configured with a manual IP address and Port 2 as a dynamic DHCP port The original IP address for the machine would be set to 192 168 1 1xx where the xx are the last digits of the system s serial number You can tell what the serial number is by looking at the Linux prompt if it says Codex11012 then it is machine number 12 and the IP address would have been set to 192 168 1 112 Note You can use both ports but don t connect both to the same LAN 3 2 2 Edit the system s IP address To change the IP address and netmask most usually to adapt the Codex to an existing network the Linux network configuration file has to be edited This can be done on the machine itself or from any computer networked to the Codex using the standard vi editor To configure port 1 type vi etc sysconfig network scripts ifcfg eth0O lt enter gt To configure port 2 type vi etc sysconfig network scripts ifcfg ethl lt enter gt You are now in the vi editor which should be showing the contents of the file somewhat like this DEVICE eth0O ONBOOT yes IPADDR 192 168 1 101 NETMASK 255 255 255 0 S d GATEWAY 192 168 1 1 Type i to enter insert editing mode and change what you need to ONBOOT yes IPADDR whatever the IP address is to be set to NETMASK the correct netmask GATEWAY the appropriate gateway Once you ve finished editing press Esc to exit editing mode Finally
14. 8 6 Installing updating the Offloader and Tape Offloader softwa 9 Setting UP a SSH reverse tUNMEU 0 ecseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeneneeseneeseseneeeseeeeasaseeaeaseneeseeaeeseeeaseseeaeeeqeneesaseeaeseeeeeseeeaeenes 38 10 Appendices 10 1 etadata perty 10 2 Single letter tokens applicable to VFS only 10 3 Single letter tokens applicable to both VFS and Shot naming rule 104 The Datapack token for Roll Naming Rule cee 39 10D MES Case Studytn se i edulis vee tdi 39 10 5 1 DPX Virtual File Setup 41 10 5 2 WAV Virtual File Setup 10 5 3 OV Virtual File Setup 10 5 4 xF Virtual File Setup 10 6 Loading an ALE EDL from a USB stick or over a network 10 7 Updating Datapack firmware ssssssesesessiseserserierrrsisrrrisisrtrisistsrirrernerne 4 10 8 Removing a Codex Studio system from it s flightcase rack 4 10 9 Cleaning air filters in Codex SYStEMS cccccceeteeteeeeees 4 4 4 4 4 10 9 1 Cleaning the Base Unit air filters 10 9 2 Cleaning the Portable Disk Bay air filters 10 9 3 Cleaning Recorder Datapack air filters 10 10 Replacing a hard drive in a Recorder TI Latest Codex releases iiieiiissdcoccces a a scudsucesesosucersssatwauudessdssuddsudatuceovsasssesvechescuedesvecvesosecseassneseud 47 Introduction This manual is intended to provide help and information in various more technical a
15. Codex Portables There are two main programs the server and the user interface The server does the actual work of recording transcoding etc and the user interface allows you to control it This architecture allows the same user interface program to be used on remote computers as well as the Codex itself drserver the server drui the user interface Logfiles var log contains all logfiles general system logs as well as Codex specific ones The Codex logfiles are drserver 0 log the latest log file generated by the server localdb this database file can become corrupted by a power cut but can be safely deleted Note The Portable does not store logfiles after a shutdown so if a logfile is required is must be retrieved after the occurrence of a problem but before shutdown Configuration files etc codex contains all configuration files These are filecard xml the configuration file for the shot metadata filecards sysconfig config xml server configuration file DO NOT EDIT druiconfig xml user interface configuration file DO NOT EDIT LUTs etc codex luts contains all LUT files There are no other locations used directly by the Codex software Be very careful not to delete or move any program or configuration files 2 Mounting an external drive USB key Note There is no direct UI support for this and USB on Linux is not perfectly developed For non technical users transferring files between a USB de
16. Rule Tokens can optionally have a minimum and or maximum width specified for the expansion commonly used with tokens that produce numbers but work with any single letter token This is most The Datapack token can be used only for the Roll Naming Rule It refers to the Roll name on the STORAGE tab When shooting multiple sources on a single Datapack using a Codex Portable the Roll Naming Rule can be set to Datapack Source ID which ensures that shots will have unique Rolls a requirement for some editing systems particularly when working with stereoscopic material 10 5 VFS Case Study The VFS configuration can initially seem quite confusing As such the following example and explanation is provided The following example VFS configuration was designed in communication with the various end users of the files to maximise clarity for the users and minimise problems downstream when using the files in a variety of well Known software It was designed for a specific production workflow so will not be appropriate for all scenarios but should provide a good example of the way in which the VFS can be used and some important things to consider when configuring the VFS for use with your production Roll contains several Scenes and Takes Below is the VFS configuration as viewed from the Codex UI n this example the Shot Naming Rule is set to Scene Take There are 2 Rolls named 101 and 102 Each setup co
17. bit gamma nput black 64 nput white R 800 nput white G 800 nput white B 800 ok OR nput max 1023 Output black O Output white R 255 Output white G 255 Output white B 255 Output max 255 Output gamma 2 200000 LUT 3 1024 All lines prefixed by are comments and ignored except that the comment line containing the source and destination bit depth the first line here is used by the system it looks for the bit suffixes and uses the numbers after therm This format is preferred and should be straightforward to provide However in order to make it even easier to import LUTs from elsewhere if the destination bit depth is not specified it will be deduced from the maximum value present in the LUT itself There is only one header line starting with LUT and followed by two numbers The first number specifies the number of channels 3 for RGB 1 for a single channel The second number is the number of entries per channel lt e gt which should be equal to 2 to the power of the source bit depth in this case 2 10 1024 Following that are lt e gt lines containing the entries for the first channel of the LUT followed by another lt e gt lines for the second channel etc 7 6 To use an external LUT directly on the Codex You can use the Codex UI running on a remote computer to import the LUT as described above Or you can simply copy the LUT directly into the Codex using one of the
18. case basis but Codex has tested a range of Autoloaders and can provide a list of recommended makes and models CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 26 through our own testing Codex is able to give an indication of the transfer rates possible when utilising certain hardware and software combinations Please contact Codex if you want to discuss your requirements 8 3 Offloading to a hard disk 8 3 1 Outline of compatible drive types connections and offload methods Codex systems can offload to a range of drive types using different configurations and methods Device Connection USB hard drive Locally attached via USB ports on Codex front panel Network server Networked via built in Gigabit Ethernet or optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fibre Channel RAID Locally attached via optional Fibre Channel card Once the device is connected and the Codex system has been configured offloading will normally be done using the Offloader utility from the Codex UI Files can be copied from the VFS directory to an attached device using the Linux command line this is no less efficient in some cases it is more efficient but does require more advanced knowledge of the Linux operating system and commands Codex can provide advice on this An alternative option for copying files to a USB drive is to connect it to a computer which is networked to the Codex system The codexvfs directory will be visible from the networke
19. contain only shots which have certain values for their metadata For example you can have directories of only Circle Takes or from a particular Roll or Source or any combinations of these All the metadata fields can be used whether from the shot s Filecard or from the settings in the SETUP tab such as PROJECT and SOURCE settings However Note Filter strings are Case Sensitive and use Internal Metadata and Single Letter Token Names e g r S etc as per the rest of the VFS Apply filters by typing strings into the Filter field An empty field or asterisk means everything which is set by default The table below contains some example filters Filter Directories will contain Gibaeileunetice VYag only shots whose Filecard shows Yes in the Circle Field OriginalRkollj test 2 only shots with Test 2 as their Roll on Filecard Sourceld B only shots recorded with Source ID set to B Note that the metadata tokens must be in braces and token values must be in quotes You can also combine these expressions into complex statements Operators include means not equal and or not and may be surrounded by brackets For example CircleTake Yes and w 4096 or w 1920 i e only shots which have Yes in the Circle Field and whose width is 4096 or 1920 If you need any help in constructing complex filters please contact Codex Note the values for w are
20. done form the SETUP tab VFS screen 6 1 Setting up VFS Configurations The NEW CONFIG button creates a new VFS configuration which will initially be empty When creating a new VFS Configuration there are several global properties which can be set to ensure compatibility with the system which will be using the files These are Filename case Either Upper and lower or Lower only as required Illegal chars Either lt gt or lt gt S amp lt sp gt as required Replace with Either _ or as required CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 PAGE 19 The DIT CONFIG button allows you to edit the global properties of an existing configuration 6 2 Adding or editing VFS entries Each entry in the configuration defines a rule for the VFS to present files Press the ADD or EDIT button This pops up a form Virtual File Setup M File Type dpx Filename s e f 5 e Owner J Group E AIi M User codex Group codex Scaling None Filter LUT Conversion Quality High DPX Options Convert to 10 bit RGB Example files lt Shot gt lt Extension gt lt Frame gt lt Extension gt 1 1 dpx 00000 dpx 1 1 dpx 00001 dpx 1 2 dpx 00000 dpx 1 2 dpx 00001 dpx This form fully defines the file type directory and name scaling compression etc Most of this is fairly straightforward Here are brief notes on some fields 6 2 1 Filename The string in this field defines th
21. keyboard to the front of the Codex system using either of the USB ports 2 Press Ctrl AIt F1 to bring up the Linux virtual console screen to return to the Codex UI screen at any time press Ctrl AIt F7 on Studio systems or CtrlI AIt F3 on a Portable 3 For systems without a Touchscreen see Connecting to a Codex system to access the Linux command ine 4 Login as codex with default password codex 5 Type su to switch user to root the default password is codex CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 8 6 Type ifconfig A list will be generated that looks somewhat like this etho Link encap Ethernet HWaddr 00 30 48 20 DE D8 inet addr 192 168 2 3 Bcast 192 168 2 255 Mask 255 255 255 0 inet6 addr fe80 230 48ff fe20 ded8 64 Scope Link UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU 1500 Metric 1 RX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 txqueuelen 1000 RX bytes 0 0 0 b TX bytes 0 0 0 b Base address 0x2000 Memory d4400000 d4420000 There are variations and there may be much more text than this but you are interested only in blocks beginning eth0O or ethl and lines that begin with inet addr These lines show the system s current IP address es and netmask s There are two network ports ethO is port 1 on the back panel and eth1 is port 2 the ports only appear in the output of ifconfig if they are enabled and running New machines have Port
22. methods for getting files onto the machine The LUT should be placed in etc codex luts Once this is done you can LOAD the LUT from the LUT screen Note LUTs for monitoring should match the source format usually 10 bit and the video output always 10 bit 7 7 CDL LUTs All Codex recording systems can record CDL Data which is then carried with the files into post production Studio systems can apply CDL Data to files which are output through the VFS The colour correction systems currently supported by Codex systems are produced by Filmlight DP Lights and Digital Vision In order for CDL Data to be recorded a configuration file in the Codex filesystem has to have the correct option enabled depending on which colour correction system is being used Additionally the Filecard filecard xml has to have a CDL Data field added The next sections explain how to make these changes 7 7 1 Enabling the Codex machine for CDL Data recording A file named sysconfig conf controls various appended system features such as CDL support This file may therefore not exist on older machines if you need a copy of this file contact Codex support To enable this file for CDL support access the Linux command line and promote yourself to a Superuser as described previously Unload any Datapacks and stop the Codex software by typing telinit 3 lt enter gt Now type vi etc codex sysconfig conf lt enter gt To edit the file press i
23. need to be done once even if you install newer UI packages 3 4 1 2 Macintosh UI package The package will have a name such as codexui osx 1 2 2j drng Open the armg file and drag the Codex Ul application package into Applications The application is a universal binary and so will run on PowerPC and Intel Macs 3 4 2 Connecting to the Codex to access the Linux command line 3 4 2 1 From a Windows machine Download the free ssh client program putty from http www putty org Ensure that the Windows machine and the Codex are connected over a network Open the putty application and enter the IP address of the Codex in the Host Name or IP address field You will then need to log onto the Codex using the user codex and password codex For certain operations you may need to upgrade to a Superuser by typing su and the password codex 3 4 2 2 From a Macintosh machine Open the Terminal application Type ssh codex 192 168 1 120 You will then have to enter the password which is codex Then upgrade you status to Superuser as per the instructions in the previous section if required CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 11 3 4 3 Connecting to the Virtual File System VFS The VFS presents the shots as files of different types to computers connected on the network The top level directory of the VFS always has the name codexvfs and the shots appear in this directory and sub directories below it the exact l
24. network share of the RAID from the command line type mount t cifs lt ip address of RAID gt lt shared drive gt mnt network raid user lt username gt password lt password gt 0 0 lt enter gt The RAID system should now be mounted on the mnt network raid directory Now the offloader configuration file needs to be edited appropriately Type vi etc codex offloader conf lt enter gt Press I to enter Insert mode and add the lines disable mount mount point dir mnt network raid Press ESC and type wq lt enter gt to write changes and quit To unmount the networked RAID after offloading type umount mnt network raid lt enter gt 8 3 9 The hard disk offload process The Disk Offloader is designed to synchronize the contents of everything in a certain part of the VFS onto removable storage It can run automatically or manually set the mode on the SETUP OFFLOAD page In Manual mode it performs back up only when you re on the SETUP OFFLOAD page in Automatic mode it runs in the background continuously although priority is always given to recording The Operation field should normally be set to Backup It can be made to Verify as well You should set the VFS Directory field to the sub directory on the VFS that you want to back up Assuming you want to back up dpx files for each shot in the VFS Configuration add a dpx File Type witha Filename something like this offload r s s _ g 8 dpx Set VFS Dir
25. specific address of each computer they can be within the range 2 254 1 is not recommended as this is often the address of the network router but must of course all be different from each other and the Codex Once these settings have been made it should be possible to communicate with the Codex You can quickly check whether this is successful by opening a command line box on your computer and typing ping 192 168 1 120 lt enter gt or whatever the address of the Codex is Use start Run cmd lt OK gt on Windows or the Terminal application on Mac If you are connected properly this program will report something like this Pinging 192 168 1 65 with 32 bytes of data Reply from 192 168 1 65 bytes 32 time lt lms TTL 128 Reply from 192 168 1 65 bytes 32 time lt lms TTL 128 Reply from 192 168 1 65 bytes 32 time lt lms TTL 128 CODEX TECHNICAL USER Reply from 192 168 1 65 bytes 32 time lt lms TTL 128 Note Most computers have a firewall to protect from malicious attacks It is likely that this firewall will at first prevent a proper connection to the Codex and this has proved to be the most common reason for problems We recommend disabling the firewall while trying to connect for the first time once the settings have been shown to work the firewall can be switched back on If this breaks the connection it will be possible to configure options in the firewall to allow the Codex connection details of this
26. the Fibre Channel card With a Fibre Channel card fitted follow the steps below to determine the correct SCSI bus numbers and edit the configuration file 1 Access the Linux Command prompt and log in using the instructions above 2 Enter the following 3 Is proc scsi celerityfc 4 This will show the contents of the celerityfe directory which will contain two other directories called for example 3 and 4 These are the SCSI bus numbers for the Fibre Channel RAID 5 To view the configuration file enter 6 vi etc codex offloader conf 7 This will bring up the configuration file which looks like this Codex Offloader SAS configuration file target localhost port 26000 vfs mnt codexvfs mount_point_dir mnt offload first_scsi_bus 3 CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 num_scsi_buses 2 xfer chunk size 1048576 8 The num_scsi_buses line should be set to 2 if you want to offload to two drives at once mirrored or disabled by adding a at the beginning of the line if only the first bus is to be used If the configuration needs editing press I to enter Insert mode and then edit as required 9 Press ESC to exit Insert mode and type wq lt enter gt to write the changes and quit A Fibre Channel RAID can be hot mounted and unmounted using the MOUNT UNMOUNT button on the OFFLOAD screen 8 3 8 Setting up the Codex to interface with a network server via Gigabit 10 Gigabit Ethernet
27. them from the other screws in the lid These need to be removed with a 2mm hex key and the id can then be slid backwards using the recessed black plastic handle and removed Locate the two fan units situated on the left and right hand side of the system just behind the front panel Direct compressed air through the fans from the inside to expel any dust caught by the air filters Replace the unit s lid 10 9 2 Cleaning the Portable Disk Bay air filters f mounted within one remove the unit from it s flightcase rack Remove black screws from the rear and sides of the lid The lid can now be removed by lifting it from the rear and pulling it diagonally rearwards and upwards Direct compressed air through the fan on the front panel of the unit from the inside to expel any dust caught by the air filter While the lid is removed it is also advised to spray compressed air around the inside of the unit to dislodge any dust which has made it s way past the filters Replace the lid Finally use a vacuum to remove any dust caught by the filters on the narrow air inlets next to the Disk Ports 10 9 3 Cleaning Recorder Datapack air filters Although there are no air filters in a Recorder Disk Bay there are individual air filters in each Datapack To expose the Datapack air filters simply turn the Datapack over and slide back the metal cover using your fingertips This cover is spring loaded so will have to be held open whilst vacu
28. to enter Insert mode Find the line in the file which refers to the colour correction system being used and delete the symbol at the beginning this will enable the line For example a standard sysconfig conf file will contain the line DigitalVisionCDLEnabled Which should be changed to DigitalVisionCDLEnabled Only one of the lines referring to colour correction systems can be enabled at a time Press ESC to exit Insert mode and type wq lt enter gt This will exit and save the changes Now restart the Codex software by typing telinit 5 lt enter gt 7 7 2 Adding the CDL Data field to the Filecard A field named CDL Data must be added to the Filecard for the recording of CDL Data Please refer to the Filecard section of this manual for information about changing the Filecard filecard xml on Codex systems 7 7 3 Recording CDL Data To record CDL Data you must have one of the supported colour correction systems networked to the Codex machine Once this is done on the CONTROL screen specify the IP address of the colour correction system in the CDL Server field When you put the Codex machine into record mode it will gather the CDL settings from the CDL Server If there is an error this will be reported on the Status Bar Otherwise when the Filecard is viewed after a recording has completed you will see the recorded CDL values displayed in the CDL Data field of the shot Filecard
29. two drives are being used then repeat this command but change the end of the command to read nst1 8 4 2 Setting up in built LTO drives in the Portable Transfer Station or Lab The Portable Transfer Station can be purchased with one or two optional in built LTO drives If these are purchased then the machine will be configured to recognise these drives automatically Machines fitted with two LTO drives will be set for duplicate backups if you want to do a single backup follow the instructions at the beginning of the previous section on how to edit the configuration file For start up it is imperative that the lower half of the Portable Transfer Station is powered and switched on before the top half As the Codex software starts it will scan for the LTO drives and initialise thern as they are recognised 8 4 3 General Information and Important Checks for LTO offloads It is highly recommended to use LTO tapes with barcode labels Codex can supply these for a competitive price While the LTO drives in the Portable Transfer Station cannot read barcode labels the majority of LTO autoloaders can and using labelled tapes will simplify the offload process and the cataloguing and organisation of a tape archive The following information should be fully read to understand the LTO offload process the checks required and the limitations 1 Check the VFS before starting an offload The tape offloader operates on the VFS not at a per Da
30. use an external L 7 7 CDLLUTs LA Enabling the Cod 7 7 2 Adding the CDL 7 7 3 Recording CDL UT directly on the Codex ex machine for C Data recording Data field to the Filecard Offloading files from Codex systems 8 1 Introduction to Offloading 8 2 Transfer Rates 8 3 Offloading to a hard disk 8 3 1 Outline of compatible drive types connections and offload methods 8 3 2 File systems and interoperability 8 3 3 Determining the drive name for formatting and or mounting of a USB device oc ceccceeeeeeeeeteeseteeeeenens 27 8 3 4 Formatting a hard drive using Linux 8 3 5 ounting unmounting a USB device for offloading 8 3 6 Setting up the Codex to interface with a USB device 8 3 7 Setting up the Codex to interface with a Fibre Channel RAID 8 3 8 Setting up the Codex to interface with a network server via Gigabit 1O Gigabit Ethernet 30 8 3 9 The hard disk offload process 8 3 10 Setting up rsync to copy files from the VFS to a networked RAID system 8 3 11 Offloading to a network server with rsync 8 4 Offloading to LTO tape 8 4 1 Setting up the Codex to interface with an external LTO drive or Autoloader 8 4 2 Setting up in built LTO drives in the Portable Transfer Station or Lab 8 4 3 General Information and Important Checks for LTO offloads 8 4 4 The LTO Offload process 8 4 5 Format of tape offloads 8 5 Unarchiving material from LTO tapes archived on Codex
31. will start being backed up as soon as the recording finishes The status display on the OFFLOAD screen tells you roughly how long it will take to finish 8 Before switching off or disconnecting the drive make sure the Offloader has finished or use STOP to stop it Then unmount the drive either from the command line if it is a USB drive or networked server or using the UNMOUNT button if it is a Fibre Channel RAID 8 3 10 Setting up rsync to copy files from the VFS to a networked RAID system Codex machines have rsync installed as standard but in order for this protocol to work an rsync server will need to be set up on the RAID To download rsync for a Linux Unix machine visit http www samba org rsync There is a Windows version of rsync but it is not recommended due to it s poor performance he VFS should be used when copying files with rsync For ease of use this should be arranged with a configuration where all files required are contained within sub directories of a top level directory whose name is generated from the material Roll name Ihe Codex machine running the rsync server will have a configuration file which specifies a destination path This is the mount point for for the transfer This configuration file can be found at etc rsyncd conf and should be edited to look something like this backup path mnt network server read only false where raid is a short and memorable path to specif
32. 065 512 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System dev sdb1 1 123 987104 b W95 FAT32 Here you can see that a 1GB drive is attached as sdb with partition sdb1 formatted to FAT32 If there is any confusion when using the above method then type dmesg tail lt enter gt This lists the most recent system messages including devices which have been attached look for something like sdb assuming drive cache write through sdb sdbl sd 4 0 0 0 Attached scsi removable disk sdb This indicates that a drive has just been attached and that it is sdb1 i e accessible as dev sdb1 8 3 4 Formatting a hard drive using Linux USB hard drives will often come pre formatted with a particular filesystem If the filesystem is not suitable for your purposes the Codex system can be used to create a new partition and or delete the existing partition During this process the first thing to ensure is that there are no Datapacks loaded in the Codex system This being the case when a USB drive is connected it will be assigned the device name dev sdb the Codex system drive is sda and any existing partitions will be dev sdb1 dev sdb2 etc Logged into the Codex system as root once you are absolutely sure of the drive name type fdisk dev sdbl1 lt enter gt To create a new partition type n lt enter gt and then p lt enter gt Using all the disk cylinder 1 to max size beware there may be limitation in dis
33. 50b07092 73e1 4dff 968b 751fa875e9d1 e 101_2 2_7Sadf576 a129 4d7d ad4b 19 9770591b9 5 101_2 3_34f8eee5 7f74 40b5 ae6d 5b0f3a5ac3ff GH 5 101_2 4_2eeb782c a597 43ef 8214 eef6e7b4eb4d 2 O xml S O 101_1 1_9b501b1b 4c08 41d9 a3bd d2ccetecabe2 amp B 101_1 2_890aac59 5e13 4724 9dd6 1c9987c8bc04 H O 101_1 3_4d9207e7 bc5e 4972 a03f f60cb5045770 8 101_2 1_50b07092 73e1 4dff 968b 751fa875e9d1 ae 101_2 2_7Sadf576 a129 4d7d ad4b 19c9770591b9 O 101_2 3_34f8eee5 7f74 40b5 ae6d 5b0f3a5ac3ff E 101_2 4_2eeb782c a597 43ef 8214 eefbe7b4eb4d amp 102 dpx B 102_1 1_Odef277a 6c8a 4d9f 8827 Fa32ad2e1022 e3 B 102_1 2_138f4495 34ed 4daf 8d84 ddd76283b310 102_1 3_661edbac e180 48be 9246 9708b64aefb7 102_1 4_62609610 551b 4ce5 90b4 e67d3fe4ea94 5 O wav 102_1 1_0def277a 6c8a 4d9f 8827 fa32ad2e1022 it e 102_1 2_138F4495 34ed 4daf 8d84 ddd76283b310 O 102_1 3_661edbac e180 48be 9246 9708b64aeFb7 O 102_1 4_62609610 551b 4ce5 90b4 e67d3fetea94 2 O xml H 102_1 1_0def277a 6c8a 4d9f 8827 fa32ad2e1022 B 102_1 2_138f4495 34ed 4daf 8d84 ddd76283b310 102_1 3_661edbac e180 48be 9246 9708b64aefb7 H O 102_1 4_62609610 551b 4ce5 90b4 e67d3fe4ea94 O mov 101 102 mf O 101 a 102 r E As can be seen the first level of the directory tree consists of directories named 101 102 mov and mxf In this first level the directories named after Rolls contain directories of dpx wav and xml files for in
34. AGE tab and press the Spanner on the bottom left of the Datapack graphic The drives will be numbered make a note of the number for the new drive which will be marked as Free e The number will match to a device name in Linux On a Studio machine the system drive is sda and the first drive in the Datapack is sdb the second sdc etc The Portable has no system drive so the first drive in the Datapack is sda the second sdb etc e Go to the Linux command screen and type Substituting sda in this example with whatever the relevant device name is sdparm clear WCE save dev sda lt enter gt sdparm vendor sea clear JITO JIT1 JIT3 save dev sda lt enter gt 10 8 Removing a Codex Studio system from it s flightcase rack Codex Studio systems may come supplied in a flightcase rack Please note that although the Codex Studio systems are constructed from either two or three parts the units are supported by each other and so should only be removed in sequence from the top down First turn off the system and remove all video cables network cables and power cords from the rear of the system Then remove any hatches from the rear panels my unwinding the screws Disconnect any cables connecting the different sections of the machine together It is now safe to undo the screws from the corners of the section front panels and remove the sections from the flightcase starting at the top When re installing the system i
35. Codex TECHNICAL USER MANUAL v1 0 CODEX SYSTEMS TECHNICAL ASPECTS Nee OI Table of Contents ohikoe EE Bos ccs Suse es cuca EEEE EA ac EEA E TEA EE T EA EE E ETT 3 1 Using Linux on the Codex ssessiine ianen aneneen oeae aaa eaeoe oaaae a eucentectuccanueuedectdeseanuasatiedatedobersuucuedectweduuesueseucdayade 3 Logging on to Linux Restarting the Codex software without rebooting EXA EMU E ae a a aana renhet tette Taat System shutdown from the Linux prompt Filesystem consistency after sudden closedown Remote access to the Codex system disk al Remote access on Windows 2 Remote access on Macintosh Some Basic Linux commands File locations Nazor h 0 Oo Sees N Mounting an external drive USB key 1 ceeecccseceeeeeneeeeseeenseeeeeeeeeeeenseeeeaneeeeeaeeeeseeeaeeseeaeesneeeeeaseeesaseneaeneeeeeeeeeeeaseeaeeneeaeenseeeeenees Working with Codex over a network 3 1 Network settings on the Codex machines 3 2 Configuring network setting Manually 1 Check Codex s IP address and make sure it s configured correctly 2 Edit the system s IP address 3 Refresh the Ethernet changes 4 Using dynamic IP addresses DHCP 3 3 Network setting for other computers connected to the Codex 34 Conmecting to the Codex a n eaa iiaeaa ta ot Aor A ARR nian he 3 4 Controlling the Codex from a remote computer to run the Ul 3 4 Connecting to the Codex to access the L
36. For monitoring data sources an internal conversion is made from the linear Bayer pattern source material to 10 bit HD 1920x1080 RGB A Cineon log curve is used to compress the 14 bit linear dynamic range to 10 bits The monitoring LUT is applied after this conversion and converts from the log space to display garmma space The Quick Select can form the basis of a suitable LUT or one can be loaded from a file CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 23 Note the histogram is also shown in 10 bit log space and hence matches up with the selected 10 bit log black and white points During the conversion from the linear sensor data to RGB a white balance vector and a Rec 709 conversion matrix are applied 7 2 LUTs for Import Export LUTs can be applied when exporting or importing shots using the EXPORT and IMPORT pages The LUT is oaded from a file and applied only during the import or export process Most standard LUT files should work However for best results the size of the LUT should match the source shot file and the range of the LUT should match the destination shot file If the supplied LUT doesn t match it will be scaled and converted to suit this will however have some impact on the speed of the process For instance when exporting a 10 bit RGB shot to a BMP file which is 8 bit RGB an ideal LUT would consist of 3 channels each containing 1024 entries 2 10 with values ranging fro
37. X files in their own individual sub directories The reason for this is that there is one DPX file for every frame and shots need to be kept separate As with shot naming there are preset choices for the VFS filenames tailored to the file type in question and you can also construct your own Special mention should be made for Avid MXF files although not mandatory is is strongly recommended to use the following Filename structure in the VFS to prevent filenarmes exceeding 31 characters which can lead to problems in Avid editing systems r c a _ t fe The bottom of the Virtual File Setup card shows you examples of the filenames you will get including the full directory path if specified In the example above the Filetype is dpx and the Filename string is s e f 5 e which expands to lt Shot lt Type gt lt Frame gt lt Type gt CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 18 Notice the 5 in f 5 This defines the number of digits in the frammenumber in this case 5 padded with zeroes as necessary Similarly f 5 limits this number to a maximum of 5 digits while f 1000 would add 1000 to any frame number All these different options can be used at once to modify numeric values if required Another useful token is g which will insert a number value for frarmes since midnight This can be useful for creating sequences of files which are numerically continuous which is required by mos
38. a front slot on some LTO machines using the machine s menu options Alternatively after running the mtx status Command you will Know which slots contain tapes and can runa mtx load lt source gt lt destination gt command For example if slot 6 contained a tape you would type mtx load 6 0 to load the tape from slot 6 into the first drive 4 If the second drive is not empty you will need to eject the loaded tape Again you may be able to do this from the machine s menu If not type mtx unload lt destination gt lt source gt 5 ow that the status of the drives has been confirmed to make sure the drives within the LTO machine are mapped correctly to the SCSI card in the Codex type mt f dev nst0 which will display the status of the drive which is mapped to the first SCSI port on the Codex This should now contain a tape 6 To double check that the second drive is mapped correctly type mt f dev nstl1 This drive should be empty 7 If the drives are mapped the wrong way round then swap the cables within the Codex Additionally there are certain settings which should be changed on an external tape drive or Autoloader to guarantee maximum integrity for offloading With the Codex and LTO machines connected powered up and the Codex connected to the internet enter yum install sg3_ utils Then enter sg_wr_mode contents 18 06 06 00 00 00 00 00 d p18 dev nst0 This will reset the TLR bit for the first tape drive If
39. ach shot the words in braces will be replaced by the current Scene and Take value and the rest used as written If the Scene is 14 and the Take is 5 the shotname would become Test 14 5 The values don t have to be numbers of course Scene Freddy and Take t99B becomes est Freddy t99B 5 2 Rules for Token Names All of the metadata is described by internal fieldnames which are the ones used in the XML structures of the configuration files and within the database These names are ultimately what the token replacement system uses the built in ones are listed below and have to be case sensitive and without spaces in order to conform to XML rules Examples are ProductionName and CircleTake However the user doesn t normally see these fieldnames but the friendly labels or usernames on the Filecard and SETUP tab screens All the common fieldnames can be described by these usernames such as Production and Circle These names are not case sensitive and may contain spaces Note if you invent new fieldnames in your filecard xml they will not have friendly labels to match you will have to assign a label as well There are also a number of single letter tokens Some of these are conveniences for example r is the same as OriginalRol1 but they are mainly for special purposes within the setup of the VFS For example if you are generating dpx files which are one per frame can be used to put the frame
40. al disk on your machine If you want to specify the drive letter yourself replace the with the letter you want plus a colon e g Z Windows Explorer Right click the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Map Network Drive A box will appear with the next free drive letter allocated though this can be changed if you wish Using the same IP address from the previous example in the Folder field type 1 92 168 1 120 codexvfs Press the Finish button or lt enter gt In the box which appears enter the username codex and the password codex You will now be connected to the codexvfs directory 3 4 3 2 Connecting Macintosh machines to the VFS Bring up Finder and then the Connect To Server dialog box either by pressing Apple K or selecting Go and Connect to Server from the menu Enter smb 192 168 1 120 codexvfs whatever IP address the Codex is set to into the server address box and press Connect You should see a Connecting to server window appear When the SMB CIFS File System Authentication dialog appears enter codex in the Name box and in Password type codex by default Press OK A new Finder window will now open showing the VFS files on the Codex system 3 4 4 File and directory structure on the VFS The codexvfs directory you are now connected to is the root of a directory tree which presents the shots on the Codex as files of different tyoes None of these files actually exist until they a
41. and that there are proper braces around the tokens not brackets and that they match properly You will also be warned if your rule will produce duplicate shotnames Try very hard to avoid rules which produce duplicate shotnames The system continues to work because every shot has a Universally Unique Identifier UUID separate from the shotname but everyone you give the shots to will become very very confused 5 4 Naming VFS files The VES filenames are set up in the SETUP tab VFS screen from the Virtual File Setup card that pops up when you press Add or Edit There are a number of fields on this card of which the filename is only a part the complete process is described in detail in the next section Setting up the VFS CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 17 Virtual File Setup FE erame eshe Example files lt Shot gt lt Extension gt lt Frame gt lt Extension gt 1 1 dpx 00000 dpx 1 1 dpx 00001 dpx 1 2 dpx 00000 dpx 1 2 dpx 00001 dpx The VFS scripting allows you to set up not only filenames but separate named sub directories and even entire trees This is very useful for presenting the same shots in different forms for different uses Here s a simple example E B vfs om O 174 1 174 2 175 1 amp mov mf wav In this case all the shots appear together in various directories as Avid MXF files Quicktime files and so on But the shots also appear as DP
42. ayout depends on how the system has been configured see Setting up the VFS n order to connect to the VFS you must establish a connection to the Codex machine s codexvfs directory Details of how you do this depend on your operating system and there are usually several choices here are some common examples Note you cannot connect to the Codex system as more than one user at a time i e if you have already connected to the root directory as a root user you will have to disconnect before being able to connect to the codexvfs directory as a normal codex user Alternatively you could navigate to the codexvfs directory which is located in mnt However you should not remain connected as a root user longer than necessary to minimise the chance of accidental dragging and dropping of files 3 4 3 1 Connecting Windows machines to the VFS This can be done from a command line window or from Windows Explorer Command Line First determine the IP address of the Codex For this example let s say itis 192 168 1 120 At the prompt type net use 192 168 1 120 codexvfs lt enter gt You will be asked for a username type codex lt enter gt and then a password again type codex lt enter gt Be careful to observe the spaces and the direction of the backslashes This command will connect the Codex codexvfs directory as the next available disk drive letter which will be reported You can now use it as if it was a loc
43. called putty which allows you to access the Linux screen of the Base Unit from a networked computer Enter the username root and password codex 6 The USB stick will automatically be assigned with a drive letter This will depend on how many and which types of Datapack are loaded into the system For example a Rugged Datapack containing 3 hard drives would be assigned letters a b and c and the USB stick would therefore be assigned letter d To determine which letter has been assigned to the USB stick type the command fdisk l This will present a list of the loaded devices dev sda1 dev sdb1 etc of which the USB stick will be the device with the lowest number of Blocks Note which device is the USB stick 7 If for example the USB stick is dev sdd1 then type mount dev sdd1 mnt usb 8 Press CTRL ALT F7 to return to the Codex UI screen unless it is already running over a network 9 If using the CONFORM feature for example press the button and when asked to specify the Filepath enter mnt usb lt filename gt edl 10 Once you have finished using the USB stick return to the Linux screen and type umount dev sdd 1 mnt usb to unmount the USB stick before removing it CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 44 Follow these instructions to load an ALE EDL over a network 1 As standard the IP address of the first network port on the system will be related to it s serial number which
44. cate shot names within the VFS Please refer to the document Offloading Files from Codex which can be downloaded from http www codexdigital com techdocs for comprehensive information on this subject CODEX ECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 41 Virtual File Setup v File Type dpx Filename r e r _ s _ u r _ s g e Owner J Group M Al M User codex Group codex Scaling None Filter LUT Conversion Quality High DPX Options Convert to 10 bit RGB Example files 101 dpx 101_ 1 1 9b501b1b 4c08 41d9 a3bd d2cce4eca6e2 101 1 Slate None 101 dpx 101_1 1_9b501b1b 4c08 4 1d9 a3bd d2cce4eca6e2 101_ 1 101 dpx 101_1 2_890aac59 5e13 4724 9dd6 1c9987c8bc04 101_ 1 101 dpx 101_1 2_890aac59 5e13 4724 9dd6 1c9987c8bc04 101_ 1 The first thing to note with this Virtual File Setup is the Filename The last Token g gives the frames since midnight This creates dpx files which are sequential as opposed to using t which gives the SMPTE timecode at the end of the file name which is non sequential SMPTE timecode should not be used because there are two major problems with using non sequential filenames for dpx files e when loading files most editing systems require sequences of frames to be consecutively numbered If SMPTE timecode is used the sequence will break every 24 or 25 or 30 frames meaning you will either have to load 1 seconds worth of frames at a time or r
45. d computer and files can be copied to the USB drive using a drag and drop method While this is convenient due to the transfer speed it is unpractical for significant amounts of full resolution uncompressed files Similarly the drag and drop method may not be optimal for high performance RAID systems which have a write speed exceeding the possible transfer speeds of this connection 8 3 2 File systems and interoperability The table below identifies the supported file systems of the three main operating systems users will have to consider when dealing with offloads to hard disk Operating System Fully supported file systems Windows XP Vista FAT FAT16 FAT32 Linux FAT32 Ext2 Ext3 XFS Mac FAT32 HFS The suggested options along with their limiting factors are 5 FAT 32 if the drive is to be accessed in Windows and on a Mac This has a 4GB file size limit which may prevent it s use if high quality proxies are required of lengthy shots for example a DNxHD185 Avid MXF file would exceed this size if longer than 173 seconds Also if this filesystern is created in Windows there is a 32GB partition limit but you can create larger partitions under Linux that are still accessible in Windows 6 XFS if the drive is only to be accessed by Linux machines This filesystem is faster to read write than FAT32 and does not suffer from fragmentation issues Ext3 can also be used in this context except on a
46. ded on a Portable outputted in it s existing format i e original Storage Format and compression Quality will result in smaller files for archival For example a 10 bit YCbCr uncompressed dpx file is 5 27MB whereas a 10 bit YCbCr dpx file output with 4 1 wavelet compression is around 1 3MB This may be advantageous to maximise storage capacity but be aware that any compressed dpx files are not viewable by other systems due to there being no standardization for wavelet compression and need to be run through a Codex system in order to be decompressed 3 The Convert to 10 bit RGB option will uncompress any wavelet material 4 the size of uncompressed material outputted as dpx files will differ wnen using the Keep Existing Format option depending on the Storage Format used during recording as follows 8 bit YCbCr 3 95MB 10 bit YCbCr 5 27MB 8 bit RGB 5 93MB 10 bit RGB 7 91MB Once again this may be advantageous for storage reasons but ensure that the files will satisfy all the post production demands 6 3 Filter controlling contents of VFS Directories All shots can appear in more than one directory of the VFS The most usual reason for this is to present them in various formats the shot will appear in an AVI directory a DPX directory different resolutions and so on But shots can also appear in multiple directories of exactly the same type The reason why this is useful is that all directories can be filtered to
47. depend on the individual firewall but we should be able to help if necessary 3 4 Connecting to the Codex Once the network settings are correct you can connect the computer to the Codex machine and work with it either to control it directly or to copy files from the Virtual File System VFS 3 4 1 Controlling the Codex from a remote computer to run the UI The same user interface that runs on the Codex itself can be run unchanged on any other computer whether a Windows PC or a Macintosh The program packages to do this can be found along with installation instructions at http www codexdigital com software Note that there are usually several versions of these on the website you must choose the one that matches the software version on your Codex which can be quickly found by pressing thei button on the Setup tab 3 4 1 1 Windows UI package The package will have a name such as codexui win 1 2 2j zip The programs are installed by simply extracting all the files in the package into one directory and then running the program arui exe You may wish to create a shortcut to drui exe on your desktop Note the PC versions also require Intel s IPP run time library to be installed If this is not done the program will report failure to find modules such as ippcore dll The library is named ipp runtime zip is a normal Windows installation package and is found on the same page as the Codex software This installation will only
48. dex _ NEW CONFIG EDIT CONFIG COPY CONFIG wav r e r _ s _ u r _ s _ c e CodexShot xml __ r e r _ s _ u r _ s _ g e mxf mxf r r ck d _ t e movi r r _ s _ d e This configuration is designed to make the following operations easy e the backing up of material as dpx frames associated wav files and xml files containing additional metadata to either a RAID Array or LTO Tape Machine using the OFFLOAD screen e the copying of Avid MXF files to a USB Firewire hard drive via a laptop for delivery to the offline editor e the copying of mov files to USB Firewire hard drive which provides an easy access reference library of what has been shot for the Director or Cinematographer The configuration above would result in the following directory structure CO EX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAG E 40 codexvfs on Codex Samba Server 10 82 95 34 101 dpx 5 101_1 1_9b501b1b 4c08 41d9 a3bd d2ccetecabe2 ae 101_1 2_890aac59 5Se13 4724 9dd6 1c9987c8bc04 e 101_1 3_4d9207e 7 bcSe 4972 a03f f60cb5045770 B 101_2 1_50b07092 73e1 4dff 968b 751fa875e9d1 H 101_2 2_75adf576 a129 4d7d ad4b 19c9770591b9 E O 101_2 3_34f8eee5 7f74 40b5 ae6d 5b0f3a5ac3ff a6 101_2 4_2eeb782c a597 43ef 8214 eef6e7b4eb4d 3 wav 101_1 1_9bS01b1b 4c08 41d9 a3bd d2ccetecabe2 101_1 2_890aac59 5e13 4724 9dd6 1c9987c8bc04 ae 101_1 3_4d9207e7 bcSe 4972 a03F F60cb5045770 E3 e 101_2 1_
49. dividual shots This is designed to make backing up simple using the OFFLOAD page It means that when offloading to either a RAID Array or Tape Machine the Roll name can be entered into the VFS Directory field of the OFFLOAD page and the entire contents of that directory will be backed up In this case that would be all full resolution dpx frames associated wav files and xml files containing additional metadata which will be unarchived when the time comes to do the conform and online edit In terms of the day to day production process the morning s shots can be copied across to separate hard drives as Avid MXF and mov files at lunch time and the afternoon s shots immediately after shooting has finished for the day The drive containing Avid MXF files can then be sent to the offline editor Once this has been completed then the RAID Tape archive process can be started and left to run overnight It is not advised to try and create the mov Avid MXF files and the dpx wav xmI files simultaneously as this will place great demand on the processors in the Codex and drastically slow the whole process down 10 5 1 DPX Virtual File Setup The Virtual File Setup for dpx files is as follows The long series of numbers and letters is generated by the u in the VFS Filename settings for each file type It is a unique shot identifier which is not compulsory and most of the time will be ignored but rules out the possibility of having dupli
50. e any shot metadata using a remote UI for instance during an offload If any of these things occur during the offload then you will be warned and asked if you want to restart from the beginning with the new VFS setup continue with the original list of files to offload or abort 5 How to tell which tapes have been used At the end of the offload you will be told which tapes have been used during the offload The file etc codex tape offloads tape_list log contains a complete list of all tapes successfully written to when and what was archived to therm It also lists tapes that couldn t be used due to write protected or read write errors etc The Tape Offloader will not re use any tapes in this list This file can also be edited e g if you remove write protect on a tape that couldn t be used and want to re use it just remove it from the file The TOC files for each archive also contain the tape numbers and more see below for more information 6 Checks to perform when the offload is complete As an additional safety check we recommend you compare the TOC files for each archive against your original shot list BEFORE re using the Codex Datapack By networking to the Codex you can access the TOC files on the Codex system drive When connected to the codex as root please take extra care not to accidentally drag and drop any directories Each tape archive is recorded in a directory etc codex tape offloads tape archive lt nn g
51. e completion on directories and filenames if you start a path and then press Tab it will complete the name In the example above you could type cd h lt tab gt c lt tab gt lt enter gt Note that this only works if there are no other choices left after the letters you have typed if pressing Tab doesn t complete anything there are other directories which match and you will have to type more letters to disambiguate them Repeatedly pressing Tab will make the system display all the options which match what has been typed so far To make a new directory use the mkdir command For example mkdir tmp import lt enter gt This will create a directory called import in the pre existing tmp directory New directories should only be created in tmp root or home codex Note the tmp directory on the Codex Portable is stored on the system RAM i e anything in tmp will be lost when the machine is switched off To connect an external device Such as a CDROM hard drive or USB memory stick use the mount command mount mnt cdrom lt enter gt The device can only be omitted from a mount command if the mount point is specified in etc fstab For USB sticks drives the device must also be specified in order for the mount command to work With no Datapacks loaded a connected USB device will be assigned the device name sdb1 by the system this will be sdal on a Codex Portable To mount it use the command mount dev sdb1 mn
52. e getting worn or require cleaning If you experience any tape failures you should also clean the drive as normally recommended by the tape drive manufacturer Tape failures should be very rare if you have a lot of them then it probably indicates a faulty tape drive Codex can perform low level drive performance tests and advise if you are experiencing performance problems 12 Offloader configuration As previously mentioned there is a configuration file etc codex tape_offloader conf with various setup options These control things like the number of drives to use which equates to the number of copies made how to deduce tape type if not obvious from the barcodes and the number of files in each tar archive on tape We can provide assistance in initially setting up this file for your hardware configuration 8 4 4 The LTO Offload process With all of the above considered the process of archiving to tape is relatively simple With all devices configured and connected correctly on the OFFLOAD screen press MOUNT The Tape field will report either nstO or nstO and nst1 depending on if there are one or two LTO tape drives connected Specify the VFS Directory for the offload and press START If you are using a Portable Transfer Station with in built LTO drives you will be required to enter the barcodes for the LTO tapes as they are loaded If the offload will require more than one tape for each copy then you will need to be present to load subs
53. e name all the files both bad options e when archiving to tapes a non continuous sequence will cause the tape drive to pause at every break vastly increasing the time it takes to write the tape Conversion Quality should always be set to High if the files created are to be used for the final online edit The DPX Options should be set to Convert to 10 bit RGB if the final edit will be in 1920x1O080HD If source image output is a higher resolution than this e g Arri D 21 in ARRI RAW 12 bit data mode 2880x2160 then this option should be set to Keep Existing Format This means the dpx files will be left in their original Bayer pattern format which after unarchiving will normally be de Bayered by specific software before being edited 10 5 2 WAV Virtual File Setup The main option to be concerned with is Audio and whether this has been set to Mono or Stereo The number of files presented by the VFS will depend on the settings of this option and how many audio channels have been recorded For example if you have recorded 6 channels of audio and the VFS is set to present the wav files in Stereo then for each shot there will be 3 corresponding stereo audio files 10 5 3 MOV Virtual File Setup The directory named mov contains sub directories for each Roll which in turn contain individual Quicktime movie files of each shot on that Roll These Roll directories can be copied across to a local hard drive at the end of a day
54. e the right to alter the specification at any time and without prior notice Copyright Codex Digital Limited July 2010
55. e way in which the VFS shows the shot fienames and directory structure There is a drop down list of common formats which changes for each filetype or you can construct your own This is discussed in detail in the previous section Naming Conventions The common formats are different for different filetypes because some filetypes Cover entire shots e g avi while others produce one file per frame e g dpx In the latter case you would usually want separate directories for each shot to avoid confusion he Example Files field shows results for a couple of shots and warns if there will be any duplicate filenames avoid letting this happen 6 2 2 Owner User Group These fields control the Linux file permissions Unless you understand how file permissions work it is best to leave these at their defaults 6 2 3 Scaling This controls the size of the output if it is to be different from the original It may be Relative in which case you are given a list of standard scales such as 2 or 1 4 or Fixed in which case you specify the exact size yourself 6 2 4 Conversion Quality This controls whether conversions if any are optimised for speed Low or quality High If you want to stream a shot in real time over the network you need to choose Low For the best possible converted bitmap choose High Medium is usually a good choice This option mainly impacts upon the quality of Scaling 6 2 5 Compression Some filety
56. ectory field on the OFFLOAD page to offload in this case Anything in your VFS under the directory offload will be backed up so you can add mov files or other file types On your external disk the top level directory will be the roll name r It is crucial to ALWAYS have the roll name as the top level directory on the target drive as shown in this example This allows multiple rolls to be backed up onto a single external target without conflict and is important for the correct operation of automatic mode WARNING If you attempt to back up a directory with a name which already exists on the target disk the Offloader will overwrite the pre existing directory If you incorrectly specify the VFS Directory field the Offloader can delete whole directory trees or the entire contents of the target disk The best way to avoid this is to set up a share point on the network server so the Offloader only connects to the relevant part of the server thereby minimising the potential for damage caused by misconfiguration The network server should have been prepared with a compatible file system and the Codex system configured to mount the device using the information in the previous sections Once this has been done and the VFS is setup 1 Goto the SETUP tab OFFLOAD screen 2 Press the MOUNT button 3 Inthe Devices field will appear either mmnt offload O for Fibre Channel or mnt usb for USB attached devices or mnt network raid
57. equent tapes during the process If you have loaded sufficient tapes into an autoloader which reads barcodes then the process can be started and left to complete 8 4 5 Format of tape offloads Format of table of contents toc files written to tape The toc files table of contents are written as the first file on each tape of an offload They are also stored on the system drive of the machine doing the offload under var log in a unique directory of the format tape archive nn where nn is a unique number under which there is one or more subfolders for each drive an offload was made to e g for a single tape archive there might be just an nstO folder but for 2 copies of an offload there would be a nstO and nst1 folder on the machine that the tape offload was created on It is strongly advised to copy these TOC files from the Codex system drive to another storage location after each offload they can be dragged and dropped onto the hard drive of another computer if it is networked to the Codex They will be required for the location of material within your tape archive and although they can be unarchived from the tapes themselves a slow process having them in two easily accessible locations gives security in case there is a problem with the Codex system drive and if a separate system is being used for unarchival then having these files is essential These TOC files list the Filernarks on the tape and the files contained within th
58. ese Commonly dpx frames but perhaps also mov files or other low res proxies They also include the other tapes used in that offload if it spans over more than 1 tape and also indicate which tape this is the table of contents for So this should CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 35 match the barcode on the tape Everything written to tape is done wrapped in a tar file Some files e g dpx s are bundled together into larger tar files in order to keep the tape running as near its maximum speed as possible otherwise the offload would take a huge amount of time to complete Currently the best settings for writing tapes we have found is to switch compression on e g mt f dev nstO compression 1 set variable block size in hardware e g mt f dev nstO setblk O and read write with tar using a 64k block size As things are tarred up after each Filernark i e files on tape there is a list of files in that tar divided by a dash For dpx s there may be say 500 source dpx s in one file When the files are archived to the tape we include the path they were copied from e g O55 dpx 055_128 524 1_ce830679 2108 4a51 88da 8da1 2c631479 055_128 524 1_1213915 dpx The file path should be based on the following format lt rollname gt lt filetyoe gt lt rollname gt _ lt shotname gt _ lt unique shot id gt lt rollname gt _ lt shotname gt _ lt frames since midnight gt lt extension gt So that 1 if we search all o
59. f the tapes table of contents files we can find where all files for a particular roll or shot are 2 when unarchived with the unique shot id you can t overwrite a shot accidentally given the same name have a filename clash frames since midnight and rollname mean you can search for timecodes converting from frames since midnight at the correct frames per second and rolls 8 5 Unarchiving material from LTO tapes archived on Codex Note to allow maximum interoperability with the tape offloads the tar files are created with a block size of 64k when you unarchive be sure to use the b 128 option which specifies this Codex provide some useful Linux scripts for the unarchiving of material from LTO tape these can be found in the home codex directory of the Codex tapearchive sh is called by the Tape Offloader to performing copying and tar ing from disk to tape tapeverify sh is called by Tape Offloader to verify the files on tape by comparing the md5 checksum generated by reading them again with the md5 checksum created when they were written findtape sh used on command line in Linux to find which tape a shot roll timecode is on getframes sh used on command line in Linux to load tape and copy files from it These scripts could also work on a machine say in the post house accessing the frames however in order to work there ALL of the table of contents files from the tape archive nn subdirectories in etc codex would have t
60. fect Therefore if experimenting with VFS LUTs it is best to use a different filename for each variant 7 4 Local LUTs When the Codex UI is controlled from remote computers on a network each computer can also have its own variant LUTs which can be quickly used by or permanently uploaded to the Codex In this way different operators can monitor the shots in a form that suits their needs When the UI is run remotely the LUT pop ups have two extra buttons Local Server and Transfer The Local Server button toggles between viewing the LUTs available on the Codex and viewing any extra LUTs available on the remote machine The Transfer button may be used to copy the highlighted LUT to from the Codex and the remote machine running the Ul Note Local LUTs are only for monitoring they are not available for the VFS outputs these use only the central LUTs on the Codex However you may of course import as many LUTs onto the Codex as you need once they have been imported they can be applied in the VFS Therefore if different VFS users need different LUTs you can set up different directories which use the various LUTs Then each user can simply look in the appropriate directory An example of an external LUT is included in the current software releases It is named loglut and converts log material to 8 bit gamma 7 5 LUT file formats The file is in ASCII text The start will be like this LUT to convert 10 bit log to 8
61. from any given computer Therefore if you are already connected to the Virtual File System VFS you must disconnect this first The direction of slashes in filenames depends regrettably on the operating system Linux and Apple OS use forward slashes Windows usually uses backward slashes It is important to get this right 1 6 1 Remote access on Windows This can be done from the Command Line window or from Windows Explorer 1 6 1 1 Command Line First determine the IP address of the Codex if necessary see Configuring network settings manually INSERT HYPERLINK For this example let s say the IP address is 192 168 1 120 Access the command prompt by selecting start and then Run Type cmd in the box which appears and click OK At the prompt type net use 192 168 1 120 root codex user root lt enter gt CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE Be careful to observe the spaces and the direction of the backslashes This command line specifies the requested disk letter that the Codex drive will be assigned means next available the Codex address and directory to connect to the password and the Codex user to connect as It will connect the Codex root as the next available disk drive letter which will be reported and you can now use it as if it was a local disk on your machine If you want to specify the drive letter yourself replace the with the letter plus colon that you want e
62. g Z 1 6 1 2 Windows Explorer Right click the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Map Network Drive A box will appear with the next free drive letter allocated though this can be changed if you wish Using the same IP address from the previous example in the Folder field type 192 168 1 120 root Press the Finish button or lt enter gt In the box which appears enter the username root and the password codex You will now be connected to the root directory of the Codex system 1 6 2 Remote access on Macintosh Bring up Finder and then the Connect To Server dialog box either by pressing Apple K or selecting Go and Connect to Server from the menu Enter smb 192 168 1 120 root whatever IP address the Codex is set to into the server address box and press Connect You should see a Connecting to server window appear When the SMB CIFS File Systern Authentication dialog appears enter root in the Name box and in Password type codex by default Press OK A new Finder window will now open showing the files on the Codex system 1 7 Some Basic Linux commands This section is for anyone who needs to make any technical adjustments but is unfamiliar with command lines There are thousands of Linux commands but here are a few of the basic ones that will help you perform the Codex housekeeping tasks Please keep in mind that the huge number of powerful commands means that it is quite easy to change the
63. ght gt lt choice gt Day lt choice gt lt choice gt Night lt choice gt lt entry gt lt entry x 0 y 2 prop TStop gt lt entry x 1 y 2 prop Focus gt lt entry x 2 y 2 prop Lens gt lt entry x 0 y 3 prop Filter gt lt entry x 1 y 3 prop ShutterAngle gt lt default gt 180 00 lt default gt lt entry gt lt entry x 2 y 3 prop SourceDevice gt lt entry gt lt entry x 0 y 4 w 2 h 2 prop Comments text y gt CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 13 lt entry x 2 y 4 prop ProductionName gt lt entry x 2 y 5 prop ShotName gt lt tab gt lt filecardlayout gt This configuration file describes a Filecard that looks like the following Scene 1 Take 5 Circle Shot Type Int Ext Day Night T Stop Shutter Angle Lens Focus Filter Sound Roll Log Note Cam Roll Roll A Comments Name 1 5 Timecode 01 00 13 07 Duration 00 00 05 21 Created 1 Oct 07 15 27 19 Aux Timecode NONE Format 10 bit 4 4 4 RGB Roll Roll A Port A Image 1920x1080p 24 00 Aspect Ratio 16 9 Audio 2ch 48 0kHz 16 bit USE DEFAULTS SET DEFAULTS CLEAR ALL The grey area of the card is fixed and contains information that is not to be changed by the user The white fields are configurable Here is a complete XML element on the filecard describing the field name Circle
64. he mounted directory cd mnt material And run the getframes sh script in order to unarchive material Nome codex getframes sh lt tape name gt lt start filemnark gt lt optional end filernark gt Once you have finished with the material it can be deleted from mnt material using the dpxdelete sh script 8 6 Installing updating the Offloader and Tape Offloader software The latest software packages for the Disk Offloader and Tape Offloader can be downloaded from www codexdigital com software under the heading Other Codex Software Once you have downloaded the file use Explorer or Finder to access the Codex file systern and copy the package to the tmp directory As an example let s say you have downloaded the offloader O 99g sas tgz package Once it has been copied into tmp access the Linux command prompt Login as root and enter cd home codex Then enter tar zxf offloader O 99g sas tgz This will unpack the file within the directory Then enter cd offloader O 99g sas You will now be in the directory for installation fromm where you enter install The new offloader software will now be installed As a matter of course once the software is updated you should delete any unnecessary files from the install process To do this enter rm f offloader O 99g sas tgz And rm f offloader O 99g sas 9 Setting up a ssh reverse tunnel For problem solving in unusual circumstances it can be useful for a Codex engineer t
65. high performance RAID system 7 HFS if just for Mac N B NTFS formatted drives cannot be offloaded to directly as this filesystern is not fully supported under Linux However you can copy to an NTFS volume on another computer from over a network using the drag and drop method described above Additionally the limiting bandwidth when offloading to a USB hard drives will almost definitely be the USB speed unless its a very complex file type e g lots of compression colour conversion scaling etc which is around 30MB s absolute maximum 8 3 3 Determining the drive name for formatting and or mounting of a USB device Power up Codex system do not load any Datapacks and connect the USB drive Typically with no other drives attached the USB drive will be assigned the drive name dev sdb1 but if you have other drives connected here is how to determine the drive name Login as root and type fdisk 1 lt enter gt You will see all the drives and their partitions listed One drive will be your USB drive Disk dev sda 81 9 GB 81964302336 bytes 255 heads 63 sectors track 9964 cylinders Units cylinders of 16065 512 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System dev sdal 1 1993 16008741 83 Linux dev sda2 1994 2243 2008125 82 Linux swap Solaris dev sda3 2244 9964 62018932 83 Linux Disk dev sdb 1010 MB 1010826752 bytes 255 heads 63 sectors track 122 cylinders Units cylinders of 16
66. inux command line 3 4 Connecting to the Virtual File System VFS 3 4 File and directory structure on the VFS 3 4 f the VFS appears to be empty aP wN eeo SUNT CEI EETA A E E EE E E E E E eade ntact 4 1 Different Filecards for different users 4 2 The configuration of the Filecard filecard xml 2 1 The standard filecard xml 2 2 Editing filecard xml 2 3 SIC VO is labels Or fields sisser ee Lae e LULU ue RGU UL atau tla 15 4 4 4 Naming conventions for shots and VFS files DA TOKENS hna A ane nti 5 2 Rules for Token Names 5 3 Naming Shots 5 4 Naming VFS files Setting up the Virtual File System VES ccccecseseneeseenenseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeenseeeeeaeensaeeeseeeaeesaeneeeaseeasaseneaseeeeeeeeeaeesseeeeeneenense 19 6 1 Setting up VFS Configurations 6 2 Adding or editing VFS entries 6 2 1 Filename ee eeeeeseeeeneeeees 6 2 2 Owner User Group 6 2 3 ScalinGucachucniceen 6 2 4 Conversion Quality 6 2 5 Compression 62 56 LUT ashe 6 2 7 CDL 6 2 8 DPX Options ae 6 3 Filter controlling contents of VFS Directories 6 4 Limitations of the VFS Td LUTs for Monitoring 1 1 Using a preset LUT or creating a new one GAD Loading an existing LUT from a file 153 LUTs for Data mode material 7 2 LUTs for Import Export Ts for the VFS 7 6 To
67. is located on the rear of the machine For example if the machine serial number is 11009 then the IP will be 192 168 1 109 if the serial is 11010 then the IP will be 192 168 1 110 etc The IP address may have been changed to fit in with a pre existing structure in which case it should be known already 2 With a computer networked to the system connect to the root directory e g 192 168 1 110 The username is root and the password is codex Then copy your ALE EDL to the tmp directory If your file is called test edl then in the Filepath box which appears when you select CONFORM for example you would enter tmmp test edl 3 Once you have finished with the ALE EDL you should delete it from the tmp directory to preserve system memory space 10 7 Updating Datapack firmware In the Unusual Occurrence of a Datapack developing a fault it should be returned to Codex for repair Alternatively Codex can dispatch a replacement hard drive with the appropriate firmware In the rare event that a hard drive has been sourced from elsewhere the firmware will have to be set and the following information is provided for this circumstance only Additional it is only applicable for Seagate Savvio 146GB drives Ensure no other Datapacks are loaded With the hard drive fitted and the Datapack loaded e First you must determine the drive letter of the replacement drive With the Datapack loaded and the Codex software running go to the STOR
68. ith the top surface facing away from you place the right hand edge of the rubber mount into the right hand side of the Datapack opening as illustrated noting the word TOP embossed on the rubber shockmount indicating its orientation then thread the three ribbon cables and the single earthing cable through the centre hole in the shockmount Then being careful not to trap any of the cables underneath reach through the opening in the shockmount and use two fingers to push the diskcage slightly to the left you can use the vertical metal bar on the top of the diskcage to do this By nudging the diskcage to the left you should now be able to snap the right hand side of the rubber shockmount into place 12 Next repeat the same operation to snap the left hand side of the rubber shockmount into position Use your fingers to push the diskcage slightly to the right and the bottom left hand corner of the shockmount should eventually snap into place and yes it does have to fit that tightly One thing to look out for here is the top left hand corner of the rubber shockmount getting caught against the white slide rail pillar inside the Datapack body With careful manoeuvring the shockmount will snap perfectly into place but this procedure is worth practicing a few times until you get the hang of it 13 Now replace the metal reinforcing plate and reconnect the three ribbon cables and single earthing cable to the handle assembly rememberi
69. iven to shots within the Virtual File Systern VFS are generated automatically fromm the shot metadata you can of course also override any shotname manually The rules for automatic generation can be specified in as much detail as necessary using the Codex scripting conventions The key to the scripting of shot and file names is the use of Tokens which are symbols or words that represent items of metadata for shots such as Scene Take or Width These tokens are then replaced by the actual values for the particular shot The filenames in the VFS are based on the shotnames but do not have to be the same indeed it is Usually desirable to add different elements to the filename according to the type and usage of the file There are standard predefined rules for all of this available from drop down lists in the Codex UI but if you want to define your own rules or more complex variants the next sections describe how Tokens are defined and how to use them CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 15 5 1 Tokens The name of any metadata field Such as Roll Scene Take or any other field found on the Filecard or SETUP tab screens can be turned into a token by using the name of the field enclosed in braces for example Scene When the shot is named these tokens are then replaced by the current value of that field For example if you describe the rule for shotnames as follows Test Scene Take then for e
70. k size if it is a very large disk then set the filesystem by typing t lt enter gt and then 83 lt enter gt for Ext3 or b lt enter gt for FAT32 or af lt enter gt for HFS and then w lt enter gt to write this to the partition table on the disk You can delete and and or reset the type of existing partitions Once the partition has been created it needs to be formatted with the desired filesystern To do this type mkfs ext3 dev sdb1 lt enter gt for an Ext3 partition or mkfs vfat F32 dev sdbl lt enter gt for a FAT32 partition or mkfs hfsplus dev sdbl lt enter gt for an HFS partition CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 N B It may be necessary to create an HFS filesystem partition on a Mac as mkfs hfsplus is not available as a formatting option on older Codex system disks Linux RAID systems may be formatted with an XFS filesystem which is efficient for offloading this procedure requires advanced knowledge depending on the RAID in question and will therefore not be covered here The Codex Portable can be used to format USB drives to FAT32 and Ext3 file systems only Additionally if a USB drive is connected to a Portable without a Datapack loaded the USB drive name will be dev sda1 8 3 5 Mounting unmounting a USB device for offloading Use the method described previously to determine the drive letter for the USB device If the drive name was dev sdb1 then to mo
71. le changes you might make yourself To change the name of a field select the lt entry gt line for the field you want to change Change the word in quotes after prop don t forget to keep the quotes To make a field non editable select the lt entry gt line Just before the closing gt add a space then this editable No Note that metadata property names prop must themselves be valid XML tag names i e contain no spaces or other illegal characters The label attribute can contain any character For example the line lt entry x 2 y 1 prop DayNight label Day Night gt defines a property in the database named DayNight but the field on the filecard is labeled Day Night Note all of the standard metadata fields properties have English labels pre defined in the software so it isn t necessary to specify these in filecard xml they are used anyway 4 2 3 Making your own labels or fields You can override the built in labels with your own or add entirely new fields If you want alternative labels or to define new fields you will need to specify the labels For example if you wanted the Circle field to be called Print instead you would change the entry to lt entry x 2 y 0 prop CircleTake label Print gt 5 Naming conventions for shots and VFS files The Shot Naming Rule is defined on the SETUP tab SLATE screen Shot names within the Codex itself and the filenames g
72. ll must be done as a separate offload or set the VFS base directory to offload everything onto one set of tapes Using the getframes sh script to unarchive frames to disk from a tape offload can unarchive twice as much of the material as you asked for Although not a bug another thing which may affect LTO backups is discontinuous or repeating timmecodes within a shot These may result in small numbers of frames being archived into a Filernark on the tape which will slow down both the archiving and unarchiving of this material 10 Tape drive connection At the moment we only support an auto tape changer with a common set of tapes that one or two tape drives can access OR one or two single tape drives with manually inserted tapes If using two tape drives then 2 complete offload copies will be produced one per drive A single offload cannot be performed across two tape drives When connecting a multi drive tape autoloader please ensure that the first drive check your autoloader manual is connected to the first SCSI bus and the second drive to the second SCSI bus If they are daisy chained onto a single SCSI bus ensure the first drive has the lower SCSI ID 11 Drive faults cleaning You should see an average of at least 50 GOMB s on LTOS3 and 80 90MB s on LTO4 for both writing and reading If your offloads are taking substantially longer than this taking into account the verification pass the drive may b
73. m 0 255 2 8 7 3 LUTs for the VFS Each file type specified in the VFS can optionally have a separate LUT applied to it in order to optimise the quality for that type of file The rules for these LUTs are the same as described above The LUT is chosen by clicking on the LUT field in the Virtual File Setup page a pop up appears with the available choices Notes 1 For best performance and results it is important that the structure of the LUT should match the source shot and file type as described in the section above There can be a severe performance hit if the LUT is the wrong number of bits so it is strongly recommended to get this right This will normally be very straightforward and will usually only need to be done when changing camera types 2 Inthe unusual case where it is necessary to mix different types of material on a single system e g if different cammeras settings are used to record RGB and Bayer material managing VFS LUTs becomes more complex Here we advise making certain the Source Name is different for shots made with the different cameras The shots can then be put into different VFS directories by filtering of the Source ame with the correct LUT being used or each source VFS filtering is described in the VFS section 3 VFS LUTs are cached for best performance so if a LUT file is replaced with another of the same name the system will need to be restarted for the new values to take ef
74. machines are shipped with a standard fixed P address and Netmask This is based on the following range 192 168 1 xxx IP address 255 255 255 0 netmask xxx is the unique address of each Codex and as shipped is the ast two digits of the serial number 100 So machine number 20 has the address 192 168 1 120 There are two Ethernet ports on the machine either can be used but as delivered all connections are normally expected to be on Port 1 which is known in Linux terminology as ethO You can use both ports simultaneously on two networks but not on the same network the netmask dictates that the first three numbers of the IP address are the same for all machines on the network A different network would have an alternative set of three numbers at the start of the IP address followed by the individual unique addresses for machines on that network Management of the network settings on Codex is currently done directly from the Linux command line In order to be able to do this you need to log on to Linux If you want to change anything you will also have to give yourself Superuser status If necessary see Using Linux on the Codex For details of how to change the IP settings for a Codex machine see the next section 3 2 Configuring network setting Manually 3 2 1 Check Codex s IP address and make sure it s configured correctly 1 Connect to the Linux command line of the Codex system On systems with a Touchscreen connect a
75. n a new location be sure that the cables are all reconnected correctly before powering the system For details of the connections refer to the Codex Studio systems manual 10 9 Cleaning air filters in Codex systems Codex systems require occasional cleaning of the intake fan air filters to ensure that the internal temperature is being properly controlled and therefore that the system is working efficiently The following sections explain how to clean the air filters for different Codex products 10 9 1 Cleaning the Base Unit air filters 1 If mounted within one remove the unit from it s flightcase rack 2 Version 1 Base Units have 26 screws holding the lid in place These all need to be removed with a 2mm hex key and the lid can then be lifted off 3 Locate the two fan units situated on the left and right hand side of the system just behind the front panel Each fan is covered with a foam air filter inside a plastic surround Unclip each plastic cover to remove the foam filters and give each one a thorough vacuum clean to clear any dust or dirt which may have clogged the filter 4 While the lid is removed it is also advised to spray compressed air around the inside of the unit to dislodge any dust which has made it s way past the filters Then replace the filters securely back onto the fans and replace the unit s lid Version 2 Base Units have 3 rows of 3 screws holding the lid in place These are coloured black to distinguish
76. n rsyncd conf rsync can also create additional sub directories as part of this process if required Using the settings specified above if the IP address of the network server was 192 168 1 150 then the whole command would be rsync rptWv size only mnt codexvfs 101 rsyne 192 168 1 150 backup This would result in the entire contents of the top level directory being copied This can be repeated at the end of every day as a standard back up procedure The rsync process can be stopped at any time from the command line by pressing CTRL C It can then be re started when required and won t re copy things that have already been done 8 4 Offloading to LTO tape There are many LTO machines on the market as well as the option to have LTO drives fitted in a Codex Portable Transfer Station or Lab Depending on the set up being used by a production the configuration file for the Tape Offloader will need to be edited accordingly this is covered in the sections below 8 4 1 Setting up the Codex to interface with an external LTO drive or Autoloader The tape offloader configuration file needs to be edited depending on whether an external machine is being used for a single or a duplicate tape archive By default the configuration file is set for duplicate archiving To edit the configuration file from the command prompt enter vi etc codex tape_offloader conf The active drive mask line dictates how many devices will be used and theref
77. ng that the two thin ribbon cables are actually interchangeable The picture on the left shows the correct orientation for the ribbon cable connectors though they will only actually fit one way round After connecting these cables remember to replace jumper J7 removed in step 3 You haven t lost it have you Finally replace the whole handle assembly and screw the whole thing back together with the four 2 5mm hex headed screws to complete 14 Please ensure never to leave the handle assembly clipped onto the Datapack but not screwed on as it s all too easy to accidentally pick the Datapack up by the unsecured handle which would have disastrous consequences 11 Latest Codex releases The Codex Software and User Manuals are constantly being updated as the latest features are implemented into the system For the latest software updates and installation instructions please visit www codexdigital com software or contact Codex Digital The Codex Technical Manual provides information on the more technical aspects of Codex systems such as networking LUTs using the Virtual File System Offloading to RAID systems or LTO tape and maintenance To download this document please visit www codexdigital com techdocs CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAG 24 hour support line 44 O 7985 467 665 LIMITED 60 POLAND STREET DON ENGLAND W1F UK TEL 44 O 20 2 6918 CODEXDIGIT OM INFO CODEXDIGI Codex Digital Limited reserv
78. not in quotes This is because they are not strings like all the typed in values but are numeric values in this case the Width of the picture 6 4 Limitations of the VFS It is possible to overload the VFS particularly if you have a large amount of material loaded for example ina Lab or Portable Transfer Station with Datapacks and Internal Storage The limitation is the sheer number of files the VFS contains and can be reached if large numbers of shots are set to be presented as individual dpx files the approximate number of files which can create problems is around 1 5 million When this threshold is exceeded it will be indicated by instability crashes or OOM out of memory messages on a Linux screen There are three central recommendations in order to avoid this 1 Do not load multiple Datapacks and the Internal Datapack unnecessarily 2 Use Filters on the VFS such as filtering the loaded material by Roll in order that the VFS presents only files from the Roll you require 3 Keep VFS Configurations to the minimum required for a task i e do not have several different types of dpx file within the VFS at one time unless it is necessary you can always switch between different V configurations for access to different file types Additionally it is not recommended to have large amounts of different filetypes in one VFS configuration It is better to have the filetypes divided between configurations where possible
79. ns and LUTs being processed will have an impact on the speed of file generation through the VFS 6 2 7 CDL This field allows you to select from No Yes or Post LUT Codex systems can record CDL metadata from DP Lights FilmLight and Digital Vision colour correction and on set colour grading systems Once this metadata has been recorded with a shot it is always carried through the post production chain Selecting Yes means this metadata will be used to burn in a shot specific look for material output through the VFS Post LUTs can be stored on the machine and applied at this stage also but on a per VFS File Type basis CDL Data and Post LUTs might be applied to dailies and offline editing files 6 2 8 DPX Options This controls whether the files are output in their existing format or converted to 10 bit RGB dpx files This decision is dependent on various factors such as the post production workflow requirements While 1O bit RGB dpx files are a very common path for post production there are several reasons why you may want to keep the files in their existing format 1 material recorded from a camera outputting data is recorded in Bayer pattern format While Codex systems can perform de Bayering for monitoring and the output of dpx files as RGB there are also several camera specific software programs available for performing de Bayering which produce better results 2 wavelet compressed material recor
80. o be copied into etc codex on that machine too Additionally Codex recommend that the same Linux distribution is used on this machine to remove the ikelinood of problems due to compatibility By running findtape sh which uses toc awk you find on which tape s and where on that tape a shot roll timmecode section is e g at the command line either open a virtual terminal on the machine itself by typing say ALT CTRL F1 and logging on as user root password codex OR connect with a putty ssh session as user root password codex cd home codex findtape sh v shotname 128_ 488_1 Might display Results Nov 7 10 44 tape archive 98 nstO KAM1 O4L4 toc Tape KAM104L4 marks 1 4 201 235 Nov 7 10 40 tape archive 98 nst1 KAM1 O5L4 toc Tape KAM10O5L4 marks 1 4 201 235 This means the shot is on two tapes 2 backups and there is data related to that shotin file 1 2 3 and 4 and file 201 and file 235 In this case files 1 4 contain the dpxs and file 201 has the audio data and 235 contains the xml data So you could load say tape KAM104L4 into the tape changer and then use getframes sh to get all the frames from that shot e g getframes sh KAM104L4 1 4 getframes sh KAM104L4 201 getframes sh KAM104L4 235 This will then search for the tape in the tape loader and if present extract all the dox frames and place them in a directory structure underneath home codex e g Nome codex 052 dpx
81. o connect to the system over the internet a reverse tunnel facilitates this A script is installed on Codex systems to assist in setting up a reverse tunnel First make sure the Codex system is on a network which can access the internet Logon to the Linux command line and promote yourself to root Then type cd home codex lt enter gt Followed by codex_help sh port 2222 lt enter gt You will be asked for a password contact Codex for this If a problem occurs with any of these steps then contact Codex support for advice 10 Appendices 10 1 Metadata Property Names and Labels User Friendly Label Metadata Property Name Synonym Usage Production ProductionName Setup Project Production ProductionCompany Setup Project Company Unit ProductionUnit Setup Project Director Director Setup Project DoP DirectorOfPhotography Setup Project Camera Assistant CameraAssistant Setup Project Codex Operator CodexOperator Setup Project Sound Recordist SoundRecordist None by default Name ShotName s Filecard Setup Slate Naming Rule Roll OriginalRoll r Storage Filecard Scene Scene Filecard Take Take Filecard auto incremented Shot Shot None by default Slate Slate None by default Circle Take Circle Take Filecard Shot Type ShotType Filecard Interior Exterior IntExt Filecard Day Night DayNight Filecard Comments Comment
82. oid clashes but this will affect the speed at which the VFS creates the list of files In the cases where there is one file per frarme it is especially important to include something to define a different filename for each frame such as the frame number in the examples above or timecode Otherwise there would potentially be thousands of files all with the same name The system warns you if there may be duplicate filenames do not ignore this warning A full listing of token letters names and user friendly labels along with where to use them is contained in an Appendix 6 Setting up the Virtual File System VFS he VFS allows shots to be seen on a network as files of different types It is called Virtual because these files can be seen by the client computers as entries in directories but the actual contents are not created until a client asks for a file to be copied or viewed across the network This allows very easy and efficient access to the shots Most files can be generated very quickly often streamed in real time or better though of course the throughput depends on how many clients need simultaneous access The Codex can have multiple VFS Configurations and each Configuration can have multiple directories of the same or different file types Shots can appear in multiple directories so that the same shot can be made available in different simultaneous formats for different purposes All VFS setup is
83. on Codex 8 Cleaning up If you run a lot of Datapacks through a system you may end up with a lot of cached shot metadata on your system drive known as offline shots Eventually this can cause the system to become sluggish You should periodically delete all offline shots using the user interface function on the management page Note this only deletes the cached metadata it doesn t delete any actual material In the current offloader build O0 99g a lot of files are left in etc codex tape offloads tape archive lt nn gt directories This includes the TOC table of contents files for the tapes which you might want to preserve although these are also written to the tapes they are easier to access while on the Codex and the post house dealing with the tapes will appreciate these being delivered on a separate hard drive along with the tapes These can easily be copied across from the Codex using Windows Explorer or Mac Finder if they are required The other information will need to be periodically tidied up This can be done from the Codex command line if you know basic Linux commands or through Samba connected to the Codex filesystem carefully 9 Some known bugs These apply to 0 99g Time remaining display can be inaccurate particularly if lots of small files and or not a DPX file based offload There is no easy way to offload multiple rolls each onto their own set of tapes At the moment each ro
84. ore whether a single or duplicate archive will be created This is a binary mask indicated in the configuration file by the line above active _drive_mask which is commented out with a To change this for creating a single archive press l to enter Insert mode and edit the line to read active drive _mask 1 Press Esc to exit lnsert mode and type wq lt enter gt to write changes and exit Third party LTO drives and Autoloaders can be connected to a Codex via parallel SCSI which necessitates the installation of an optional parallel SCSI card in the Codex machine The optional SCSI card has two ports and when connecting to external dual drive LTO machines the specific details of which port is connected to which external device LTO drive does matter The process to ensure that the drives are connected correctly is as follows 1 Connect the machines and switch on the LTO machine first Wait until it has finished initialising before switching on the Codex This may take several minutes When the display on the LTO machine reports that it is ready then switch on the Codex 2 From the command prompt on the Codex type mtx status mtx Commands act on the robot which moves tapes within an LTO machine as opposed to mt Commands which act on the drives in the machine This will report whether the various drives and slots have any tapes loaded 3 If the first drive does not already contain a tape then load one This can be done from
85. pes allow compression currently JPEG is supported for avi files while DnxHD and JPEG can be used for Avid MXF and mov files Again if you want clients to be able to play shots in real time over the network or the files are intended for offline editing choose compression If they simply want the best possible picture for online editing or a local copy don t Uncompressed mov or avi files are not recommended due to their very large size If you want to work with uncompressed material dpx files are the best option CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 20 6 2 6 LUT This field controls whether a LUT is applied to the file Typically you would apply a LUT to filetypes used for viewing and offline editing such as compressed mov files but not to files used for VFX or DI processes Such as uncompressed dpx files A pop up card shows you the available LUTs choose from the list You can also build new LUTs or import external ones this is described in the section LUTs Note Remember to check that the LUT is the correct type e g 8 bit for AVI not 10 bit to ensure optimum quality and speed See the section LUT file formats Any type of LUT applied through the VFS will affect RGB values As such any YCbCr material to which a LUT is being applied for output will be converted into RGB for the LUT processing and then output as RGB or converted back to YCbCr depending upon the output settings The number of conversio
86. ple above is a LUT for the Viper camera and corrects its green cast When using these preset LUTs or your own parameters the adjustment arrow buttons are active These effectively change the contrast and brightness of the image by moving the black and white points The LUT graph shows the effect of these controls on the LUT and the shaded rectangle shows the pixel value range of the source material that is being shown on the monitor By changing to the Histogram view you can see how this compares to the range of pixel values present in the source There are also special one touch HIGH MID LOW and ALL buttons These provide an instant way of studying various parts of the image dynamic range The RESET button restores the LUT to the parameters last chosen on the Lookup Table Setup page undoing any adjustments and removing any LUT loaded from a file The SAVE button saves the current LUT with any adjustments to a file A new or existing filename can be used 7 1 2 Loading an existing LUT from a file LUTs that have been saved to a file can be reloaded later using the LOAD button on the LUT screen Note for loaded LUTs the adjustment controls are not currently available In this case the RESET button unloads the LUT restores the parameters specified on the Lookup Table Setup page and re activates the adjustment controls 7 1 3 LUTs for Data mode material Certain cameras produce material as data instead of or as well as video
87. re asked for only their names sizes and so on are presented this is why the system is called Virtual CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 12 The layout and names of these directories and their contents is entirely configurable to suit the user Therefore what you see once you have logged onto the VFS may be very variable depending on what shots are on the Codex and how the VFS is configured Indeed you may initially see nothing 3 4 5 If the VFS appears to be empty There are three possibilities either there are no shots nothing recorded or no Datapacks loaded there is no VFS configuration loaded or there are filters set up in the VFS and no shots satisfy the filter conditions If the Codex UI shows that there are shots loaded check the VFS configurations on the SETUP tab VFS screen Full details of the VFS and how to load or change the configurations may be found in the section Setting up the Virtual File System 4 Filecard structure The structure of the shot filecards that is the description of all the fields of metadata that can be entered but not the metadata itself is kept in the file filecard xml This is a human readable text file conforming to normal XML structures You can change the labels of the fields in the filecard and even the overall structure and layout by editing this file to suit your production we recommend consulting Codex if you want to make major changes The Code
88. representing a days work With a VFS set up with the Roll as the top level directory and with each file format in a separate subdirectory under which there is a per shot folder which also includes a unique id which all shots are allocated to prevent accidental clashes due to duplicate names Rolls or tinmecodes For instance from the VFS sub page off the control page dpx r e r_ s _ u r_ s _ g e wav r e r_ s _ u tr _ s _ c e xml r e f_ts _ u tr _ts _ g e where r rollname e extension s shotname u unique id g frames since midnight channel id This ensures a uniform structure to archives and that because the filepath is stored in the archive there is enough information in the archive to search for frames and shots matching on shot roll or timecode 3 Verification When in Backup Verify mode a tape verification pass is performed which doubles the overall time required for backups This verification checks what is read back from the tape against a precalculated checksum for each filernark So verify confirms that what was originally written to the tape is what is on the tape and that the tape is physically readable It does NOT and cannot check that what is on the tape is what you expected Hence the importance of performing additional checks as part of your archive routine 4 Do not change anything during a tape offload Please do not load or unload any Datapacks or chang
89. s Filecard T Stop Tstop Filecard Focus Focus Filecard Lens LensType Filecard Filter Filter Filecard Source Type SourceType Setup Sources Source ID Sourceld Setup Sources Source Name SourceDevice Setup Sources Filecard Serial No SourceSerial Setup Sources Shutter Angle ShutterAngle Filecard Snapshot Snapshot Set to Yes by snapshot record function 10 2 Single letter tokens applicable to VFS only s Synonym for ShotName d Date shot was recorded D Date and time shot was recorded f Frame number e Extension file type c Channel number Video and Audio t Timecode as hhmmssff string T Start timecode of shot g Timecode as framecount from midnight G Start timecode as frarmecount from midnight n Total number of frames in the shot b Userbit per frame B Start userbit for shot 10 3 Single letter tokens applicable to both VFS and Shot naming rule w Width VFS after any scaling h Height VFS after any scaling u Uuid 128 bit unique identifier of every Shot XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX r Synonym for OriginalRoll To specify a minimum width n add n after the token To specify a maximum width n add n after the token Examples f Frame number 0 99999 f 5 Frame number OOOOO 99999 r Roll A long name r 8 Roll A long n 10 4 The Datapack token for Roll Naming
90. s shooting and can be very useful for the purposes of the Director DoP For example if the Director wants to review a shot from the previous week they can do it extremely quickly and easily from their aptop The settings for the mov files are as follows The Codex does perform real time quick de Bayering for monitoring of such material but we recommend using dedicated software for a full quality de Bayer before post production editing The alternative would be to copy the material back from a RAID Array which may not be conveniently situated or to unarchive the shot from tape which is a considerably longer process CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 42 Virtual File Setup v File Type mov Filename mov r r _ s _ d e Owner E Group M Al D User codex Group codex Scaling Relative Relative Scale 1 2 Filter LUT Conversion Quality High Compression jpeg Compression Quality High Audio All Example files mov lt Roll gt lt Roll gt _ lt Shot gt _ lt Date gt lt Extension gt Slate None mov 101 101_ 1 1_20081027 mov mov 101 101_1 2_20081027 mov The Filename for the mov files is designed to allow for the easy location of a shot For example if the Director wishes to review a shot they can consult the Script Supervisor s notes and locate the Shot they wish see based on the Roll Scene Take and Date in this case remembering that the Shot or s in the Filename consis
91. s usually easiest to slip two fingers underneath as illustrated and pull it out one corner ata time Try not to snag the dangling disk cables when removing this piece You may at this point be thinking there s no way that s going back in there but it will Once the rubber shockmount has been removed it should be possible to slide the diskcage out of the Datapack body Carefully place the diskcage down flat on the table bearing in mind that the disks are now unprotected from shock and vibration The individual disks 1 10 are numbered for easy identification To replace an individual disk remove the 4 crosshead screws holding it in the cage two on each side and slide the disk out of the cage using your thumb and forefinger as shown If the disk refuses to move try slackening the screws on the adjacent drives each side of it remmembering to tighten them back up later Once the disk drive has been replaced in the diskcage and all the screws tightened up slide the diskcage back into the Datapack body noting which side of the diskcage is marked TOP until it seats correctly in the lower shockmounting At this point it may be easier to tilt the Datapack and manoeuvre the zif connector Shown left into position with your fingers through the hole at the rear of the Datapack ext replace the rubber shockmounting breathe deeply and stay calm as there is a knack to this First with the Datapack standing on end w
92. spects of Codex systems such as networking naming conventions LUTs the Virtual File System Offloading to LTO or RAID systems and software installation It can be found at htto www codexdigital com techdocs Software updates and installation instructions can be found at http www codexdigital com software 1 Using Linux on the Codex Codex machines run a customized version of Linux which is always present and available behind the normal Codex User Interface Codex Ul Many of the setup and installation procedures require direct access to Linux In order to do this you will first need to connect a keyboard which may be plugged into either USB port on the machine To switch to the Linux screen press Ctrl AIt F 1 To switch back to the Codex UI press Ctrl AIt F7 Ctri AIt F3 on the Codex Portable If your system does not have a Touchscreen or if you do not have a screen connected the Linux command line can be accessed from a remote computer see the section Connecting to the Codex to access the Linux command line 1 1 Logging on to Linux The Linux screen will initially be full of some of the startup logging information which you can usually ignore You need to enter a username and password which by default are both simply codex They can be changed if necessary but this should only be done with the help of someone familiar with Linux since you could easily lose all access if mistakes were made To log on press l
93. t where lt nn gt increments for each new archive nside that directory are subdirectories for each tape drive used in the archive nstO nst1 etc n those directories there are files called lt tapebarcode gt TOC The TOC for each tape in the archive contains the file listing for all the tapes f you load the TOC for the last tape into a text editor Wordpad in Windows or Textedit in OSX and skip to each Filermark entry there are 100 per LTO3 tape you can see which shots were included 7 Additional QA checks he checks in 6 are the bare minimum another highly recommended step is to look at some of the archived material just as you would do as a matter of course with video tape or film This is especially important if you are not keeping any other online disk copy of the material A random unarchive of a few tar files each day and a quick scan through the frames would provide confidence that everything is still set up correctly For the purposes of unarchiving material there are several scripts which are installed as standard on Codex machines These scripts are written for material archived with a particular directory structure If your production s archive directory structure differs from that mentioned in section 2 Recommended configuration then these scripts will need alteration to work correctly Details of the scripts and how they can be used are in the later section Unarchiving material from LTO tapes archived
94. t DI and VFX systems A common option to use is g 8 giving a frames since midnight value of 8 digits for all files The first example shot is named 7_7 The result is a directory named 7_17 with a sub directory named dpx containing one file per frame each named with a 5 digit frammenumber and dpx So 1_1 dpx 00000 dpx 1_1 dpx 00001 qpx and so on Here are some more filename examples ranging from very simple to more complex s e expands to lt Shotname gt lt Extension gt all shots in the codexvfs root directory e g freddy avi r s e expands to lt Roll gt lt Shotname gt lt Extension gt Separate sub directory for each Roll e g test freddy avi e r s fY 05 dpx expands to lt Extension gt lt Roll gt lt Shotname gt lt 5 digit frame number gt sub directory named dpx Roll directory one dpx file per shot e g dpx 100 freddy00012 dpx As with the shotnames if it looks wrong it is wrong check the tokens and the braces With the VFS there is one further thing to look out for if the specification is incomplete you may produce duplicate filenames which have major impacts on the performance and should be carefully avoided For example this specification r e This expands to lt Roll gt lt Extension gt for example test avi and if you used it every single shot with the same Roll would get the same filename The system will give each file a number testavi 2 etc to av
95. t Tc gt lt Extension gt Slate None mxf 101 101V120081027_14032511 mxf mxf 101 101A120081027_14032511 mxf mxf 101 101V120081027_14042222 mxf mxf 101 101A120081027_14042222 mxf The Filename is the most important thing to note in this case Itis modelled on the mxf file names created by Avid and ensures that the names of the individual mxf files will never exceed 31 characters a threshold which if exceeded is prone to causing trouble if the files are used in Avid editing systems he DnxHD Compression setting creates files of a small and manageable size whilst retaining sufficient quality for the offline edit The Compression Quality setting changes the bit rate and hence size of the file When set to Low the VFS will create DNxHD36 S6Mb s files on High it will create DnxHD185 files If you require more information or advice on setting up the VFS please contact Codex Digital using the details at the end of the manual 10 6 Loading an ALE EDL from a USB stick or over a network Follow these steps to load an ALE EDL from a USB stick 1 Copy the ALE EDL to the top level of a USB stick using a computer i e Not within a folder Insert the USB stick into one of the USB ports on the front panel of the Base Unit Plug a USB keyboard into the other USB port on the Base Unit AUN Press CTRL ALT F1 to access the Linux screen if the machine does not have a touchscreen there is a free program
96. t enter gt then type codex lt enter gt You will now see a prompt which will look like this codex codex11020 codex The digits are based on the serial number of the machine and will therefore vary This logon allows you to do various basic things on the machine but in order to make serious adjustments or install new software you have to upgrade your status to that of Superuser Type su lt enter gt When prompted for a password type codex lt enter gt You are now logged in as root the Linux name for the chief user This is the equivalent of the Administrator on a Windows systems The root user on Linux can execute any command including the deletion of vital system files so caution and certainty is necessary before performing any tasks 1 2 Restarting the Codex software without rebooting Note Eject Datapacks before doing this Logged in as root type telinit 3 lt enter gt Wait for the Linux prompt to re appear If it does not press CTRL ALT F1 Then type telinit 5 lt enter gt 1 3 Exiting Linux Logged in as root type exit lt enter gt to leave the root user then CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAG m W logout lt enter gt to exit the Linux prompt 1 4 System shutdown from the Linux prompt Logged in as root type shutdown h 0 lt enter gt 1 5 Filesystem consistency after sudden closedown Under rare circumstances following a power loss the files
97. t usb lt enter gt Note Linux is not very good at dealing with external devices automatically in the way that Windows or OSX are Instead you must mount the device as a named directory To disconnect the device use the umount command umount dev sdbl mnt usb lt enter gt This is must be done before removing a device and is akin to the Safely Remove Hardware option on Windows Unlike Windows or OSX Linux is unlikely to recognize that a device has gone and bad things can happen if this is not done To copy a file use the cp command cp lt sourcefile gt lt destination gt lt enter gt For example here s how you copy a new LUT file from a USB stick assuming the file is in the top level directory of the USB stick and you have already mounted it cp mnt usb lt lutfilename gt etc codex luts lt enter gt To edit text files Certain system configuration files may sometimes need to be edited most commonly the files that control the network settings These files can be edited from another computer connected to the Codex but it may be necessary or easier to do it directly on the machine itself The standard text editor in Linux is called by the command vi and is a throwback to the early days of computing Though it is powerful it is also very unintuitive Here are the very few commands you need to use it for this purpose To edit a file vi lt filename gt lt enter gt To move the cursor arrow keys
98. tapack level When you load a Datapack the shots are built into files on the VFS according to your VFS setup The directory structure may be influenced by metadata in the shots including Scene Take Roll etc One common situation is having more than one Roll on a single Datapack for instance when working in parallel with video tapes having a lower capacity This would not be obvious other than by looking at the VFS the Roll display on the STORAGE tab indicates the most recent roll setting When you start an offload you may well be restricting the offload to a particular subdirectory in the VFS often a top level directory named after the Roll In this case only shots with that Roll identifier will form part of the archive If for any reason there are shots on the Datapack with another Roll either intentionally or by accident you may incorrectly assume the entire Datapack has been archived when in fact only a part of it has The only way to guard against this kind of error is to visually check the VFS against your expected shot list before starting the offload In any event this is a good opportunity to run through the metadata for each shot to check it is all correct and that you have all the shots you expect 2 Recommended configuration To be more explicit about the issues mentioned above the easiest way to use the Tape Offloader is to offload a Datapack at a time with each Datapack containing a single Roll perhaps
99. ts of the Scene and Take numbers Scaling is set to Relative and 2 size This is because most computers will struggle to play full scale mov files whereas 12 scale is generally manageable and of a size which is useful for review purposes Compression is set to jpeg to reduce the mov file size and unless the laptop being used for viewing has an HD screen then the difference will not be noticeable provided the Compression Quality is set to High If Compression Quality is set to Medium or Low this will create considerably smaller files approximately V2 or 1 3 the size but you will notice some slight blurring on edges 10 5 4 MXF Virtual File Setup Similar to the mov directory the mxf directory contains sub directories for each Roll which in turn contain Avid MXF files for each shot Separate video and audio files These Roll directories would be copied across to a USB Firewire hard drive via a laptop to be delivered to the offline editor at the end of a days shooting The Virtual File Setup for Avid MXF files is as follows CODEX ECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAG m D W Virtual File Setup v File Type mxf Filename mxf r r icHd t e Owner J Group M Al D User codex Group codex Scaling None Filter LUT Conversion Quality High Compression DNxHD Compression Quality Low Audio All Example files mxf lt Roll gt lt Roll gt lt Channel gt lt Date gt _ l
100. unt the USB device type mount dev sdb1 mnt usb lt enter gt This mounts the USB device to the directory mmnt usb which has been specified as the offload target by making the changes detailed in the previous section To unmount the USB device when you have finished offloading type umount dev sdbl lt enter gt 8 3 6 Setting up the Codex to interface with a USB device The Disk Offloader is configured as standard to interface with a Fibre Channel RAID Follow these steps to reconfigure it for a USB device Logged in as root from the command line type vi etc codex offloader conf lt enter gt Press I to enter Insert mode and add the lines disable mount mount _point_dir mnt usb Press ESC and then type wq lt enter gt to write changes and quit 8 3 7 Setting up the Codex to interface with a Fibre Channel RAID The primary recommended storage when using the Disk Offloader is a Fibre Channel RAID which will result in the most efficient file transfers The Disk Offloader within the software is optimised to interface with a Fibre Channel RAID and Codex can supply a Fibre Channel card which has been thoroughly tested with the system Note the instructions below are only for configuring the Codex for use with a Celerity Fibre Channel card which is the aforementioned tested card Within the Codex file system there is a configuration file which must be set to contain the correct SCS bus numbers for
101. urmm cleaning the foam air filters 10 10 Replacing a hard drive in a Recorder Datapack First remove the four screws holding the handle assembly in place using a 2 5mm hex key Its Usually easier to stand the Datapack on its end whilst doing this ext carefully lift the front handle assembly noting the cable connections inside Before removing any of the cables from the lid make sure to remove jumper J7 located near the battery ow put it somewhere safe as it s important 10 ys Remember to replace this after all the cables have been reconnected in step 11 on page 3 as the last step before screwing the lid back on Undo the bullet connector in the earth cable This will probably require both hands so it s actually easier to turn the handle assembly through 90 and rest it back on the Datapack body whilst doing this as shown Then remove the wide ribbon cable from inside the handle assembly itself the connector should just slide off and the two thinner ribbon cables With these last two there is no need to note which cable is connected to which connector as they re interchangeable Lift out the metal reinforcement plate Again there s no need to make a note of the orientation of this plate as it s symmetrical and doesn t have a particular front back top or bottom Next pull out the rubber shockmount This is a very tight fit but can be manhandled fairly roughly to remove it It
102. vice and the Codex is more easily accomplished by networking a laptop to the Codex and plugging the USB device into that This method allows simple drag and drop copying CODE x 4 ECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAG m Log on as root see Logging on to Linux Plug the device into either USB port Wait a while until it gets mapped to a SCSI drive You might see messages come up during this process If not type dmesg tail lt enter gt This should show the device being recognised and mapped to dev sd lt n gt You can also type cat proc partitions lt enter gt to see which one it might be there should be a partition sdb1 assuming the device is formatted Then type mount o umask 0 dev sdb1 mnt usb lt enter gt The drive is then mounted in mnt usb The umask 0 ensures all users can write to a FAT32 filesystem You can then export to it or import from it in the UI or just use Cp to copy directly from the VFS When finished remember to type umount mnt usb before unplugging the device 3 Working with Codex over a network In normal operation Codex makes use of the network for two independent purposes 1 To be controlled from a remote computer 2 Acting as a server for providing files to other computers This requires certain network settings on the Codex for each purpose along with settings on the remote machines connected to it 3 1 Network settings on the Codex machines All Codex
103. x database makes no restrictions whatsoever on the types of metadata that can be stored The standard filecard structure covers the basic items that productions need but you can remove them or add others 4 1 Different Filecards for different users If you want to control the Codex from a remote computer it needs its own copy of filecard xm installed along with the UI program see nstalling the UI on remote computers Commonly all the computers on a project would have the same file but this is not mandatory for example you could leave out some of the fields or make entirely new versions to control access to the metadata by different classes of user Fields can also be set to be non editable which allows users to see those fields without being able to modify them 4 2 The configuration of the Filecard filecard xml 4 2 1 The standard filecard xml Here is the standard filecard description lt xml version 1 0 encoding UTF 8 gt lt filecardlayout gt lt tab name Main gt lt entry x 0 y 0 prop Scene gt lt entry x 1 y 0 prop Take gt lt entry x 2 y 0 prop CircleTake label Circle gt lt choice gt Yes lt choice gt lt choice gt No lt choice gt lt entry gt lt entry x 0 y 1 prop ShotType gt lt entry x 1 y 1 prop IntExt label Int Ext gt lt choice gt Interior lt choice gt lt choice gt Exterior lt choice gt lt entry gt lt entry x 2 y 1 prop DayNi
104. y for the transfer The network server will need to be mounted internally to the appropriate directory using the command mount dev lt RAID drives gt lt path specified in rsyncd conf gt Which in this case would be mount dev sdb mnt network server Note for proper security on the network there are additional commands but that is outside the scope of these instructions CODEX TECHNICAL USER MANUAL V1 0 11 10 PAGE 31 8 3 11 Offloading to a network server with rsync ewer Codex machines have an rsync server configured from the factory If you have an older machine and want to run rsync please contact Codex Digital for information The configuration file for rsync is located in etc rsyncd conf From the Codex access the Linux command prompt Locate the directory that you wish to copy from the VES this will usually be the lt rollname gt directory which will contain sub directories for audio metadata low res proxies etc but rsync will copy everything within the directory that is specified Once the rsync server is running on the network server and the machines are networked together from the command line on the Codex type the following to begin copying files rsync rptWv size only mnt codexvfs lt Roll for offload gt rsync lt destination gt The destination requires the IP address of the network server and the directory which the files will be copied to this is determined by the destination path i
105. ystem checker may detect that changes need to be made to the filesystem to make it consistent again This is quite rare as it is a journaling filesystem that normally recovers automatically If this happens the next time the machine it is started up it will not load the Codex UI screen but will instead go directly to the Linux screen You will be prompted to type the root password codex by default and then you are dropped directly to a prompt that says recover filesystem or something similar there are variations To recover filesystem consistency you now need to type the command fsck lt enter gt and answer yes to anything it asks you When the filesystem checker has completed you should type reboot lt enter gt This restarts the system which should now start normally 1 6 Remote access to the Codex system disk Commonly you may need to access share the Codex system disk from another computer in order to copy programs or other files to and from it You must of course be connected already if not first refer to Connecting to Codex over a network You will be connecting as user root with password codex this gives you full access to the machine Be extremely careful not to move or delete any files when connected in this way Details of how to set up access to a disk depend on your computer and operating system below are the most common examples Note You can only have a single logon at a time

4 - Codex

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents