File Browser
Selecting the Browser button shows a split view with a File Browser at the top and the Media Bins underneath:
The file hierarchy can be navigated using the directory listing columns or a path may be typed in by using the text entry above the directory listing columns.
Note that UNC paths are not supported, network disks must be mapped to a drive letter.
Clips are identified by scanning a directory's contents to find file names which form numbered image sequences. Additionally movie file formats such as QuickTime and RED are also supported and shown as clips in the File Browser.
Each item in the directory listing column list has an icon to show its type. These icons are:
Clips are sorted in alphabetic order based on clip name.
Click on a clip with the left mouse button to select it. Shift and Control modifiers can be used to select multiple clips.
When a single clip is selected, that clip is previewed in the window to the right of the File Browser. Information on that clip is shown at the bottom of the preview window. This includes the clip's format standard, if it can be derived from the file (e.g. through information in the file's header). If the format standard cannot be automatically derived, the Format Standard box will show Unassigned. In this case, the correct format standard can be selected from a list of candidates in the Format Standard drop box.
An icon showing file type is also displayed. A yellow ??? icon is shown if the clip is not a recommended file type. The use of these file types may cause issues for PFClean's processing, for example, a JPEG image since the compression artefacts may break dirt detection or obscure grain. These file types can still be imported into PFClean but they should be used with caution.
Moving the mouse into the clip preview window displays simple playback controls - a stop/start playback button and a timeline to show current frame. Clicking in the timeline allows you to quickly navigate through the clip.
Double-clicking on a clip will load that clip into the Cinema for viewing. Double-clicking in the Cinema unloads that clip and returns to the Media Manager. This feature is useful to quickly preview clips, but it is strictly for preview - you can not, for example, start to clean up such a clip; to do that it needs to first be imported into the application by dragging it into a Media Bin.
Clips can be dragged from the File Browser into a Media Bin.
Handling image sequences
If files in an image sequence comprise just a frame number such as:
0170.dpx
0171.dpx
0172.dpx
...
then the name of the clip is taken from the parent directory, and if this same image sequence was located elsewhere it would have a different name. Sequences like this can still be used without problem in the application, and can even be later renamed for user convenience (this renaming just alters the displayed name within the application and does not touch the files on disk).
If the sequence of file names has a break in it, e.g.
footage.001.dpx
footage.002.dpx
footage.003.dpx
footage.005.dpx
footage.006.dpx
then there is the ambiguity about whether this should be a single clip with frame number 4 missing (which will possibly exist at a later date); or two independent clips with frame ranges 1-3 and 5-6. The Split Clip Sequences at Missing Frames check box of the General section in the Preferences controls what should happen in this circumstance. By default, this check box is not ticked and such a sequence of files would be treated as a single clip with a missing frame.
Storing common paths
Dragging a directory to the Saved Directories list stores that path for quick recall. Clicking on an item in the saved directory list jumps to that directory in the File Browser. Double clicking on a item in the saved directory list allows the entry to be renamed. If the saved directory is shown in red, then the directory it references no longer exists, for example, an unmounted network drive. The icon indicates whether the saved directory is available only to the current project or to all projects. This can be toggled by the same button. The trash can button removes the currently selected saved directory.
Picking up external changes
If the contents of a directory change, e.g. new clips added or sub-directory removed, while it is being viewed in the File Browser then these changes are not automatically picked up. Press Shift-F6 to force a refresh of the Media Bins and File Browser in this circumstance to pick up any changes.
Dragging a directory into a Media Bin allows for all clips in the directory, and all sub-directories, to be imported. Dragging a directory into an empty part of the Media Bin list will create a new Bin for that directory.