Pro Media Tools 1.1 Beta 3 released - QT Edit batches, better Timeline Tricks collapsing and more

Yesterday we released Pro Media Tools 1.1 Beta 3, adding many significant new features to the suite. It includes all of the big changes in the previous betas and also the following major additions:

Dynamic Paths in Auto Transfer

You can now set the destination path for transferred media according to the metadata you enter into the main window. For instance, you could setup the destination path to be Day > Camera > Reel and then enter the relevant metadata values before transferring.

The interface for customizing metadata is very similar to Post Haste.

New Batch Renamer Tasks

Several more tasks have been added to Batch Renamer including Insert Characters at Position and Replace Characters in Range. You can now also optionally Find and Replace file extensions too.

QT Edit Batch Processing

QT Edit can now perform operations on batches of files. Go to File > New Batch and select all of the files you wish to process. Select the tasks you wish to perform (you can perform more than one at a time) and when you're done, click Process.

A new window will appear asking you how you want to save the files. If you select Update existing files, the existing files on disk will be overwritten. This is a very quick process to perform. The other options create duplicates of the files, either in the same directory or in a new one.

Not every function is supported in batch mode and we're keen to hear requests for additional functions users would like to see in the batch window.

Better collapsing in Timeline Tricks

Timeline Tricks can now collapse opaque clips that are obscured by a clip on a higher track. This means that a timeline that looked like this in the previous version:

Now looks like this:

You can still collapse the old way if you prefer. Third-party transparent clips can be added to a blacklist in preferences so that they will not be collapsed.

Video Check progress bug fix

We also fixed the Video Check known issue from the previous beta where progress would happen in big lumps on Lion instead of being smooth, giving the impression that the application had hung if it was a large file. Lion is now our recommended operating system for Video Check and it is the only platform we are offering 10-bit processing support for.

The full list of changes is as follows:

• Auto Transfer - Option to only copy QuickTime movies if they exist on a volume
• Auto Transfer - Ability to set destination path from metadata
  
• Auto Transfer - Improved user interface responsiveness while copying and verifying
• Auto Transfer - Fixed an issue where you were unable to edit metadata after canceling verification
  
• Auto Transfer - Added the ability to disable checksums without disabling file size verification
• Batch Renamer - Insert Characters at Position task added
  
• Batch Renamer - Replace Characters in Range task added
• Batch Renamer - Suffixes can now be added after a frame number
• Batch Renamer - Added an option to search the file extension when performing Find and Replace
• Batch Renamer - The filename no longer appears blank when removing frame numbers from certain filenames
• Batch Renamer - Auto-recalculates when dragging items if the currently selected task is Reorder Frames
• Edit Detector - Fixed an issue where progress happens in big lumps on Lion
• Project Overview - Fixed an issue where marker colors may not display correctly
• QT Edit - Batch processing
• Render Watcher - Fixed an issue where Avid, Premiere or FCP renders may not correctly notify
• Timeline Tricks - Final Cut Pro X support
• Timeline Tricks - Uncomposited clips can now be collapsed
• Timeline Tricks - Transparent third-party filters can be added to a blacklist in preferences to prevent Timeline Tricks collapsing these clips
• Video Check - Filtering
• Video Check - Support for multi-channel audio
• Video Check - Fixed an issue where progress happens in big lumps on Lion
• Improved general stability and reliability
• Fixed an issue where Pro Media Tools may ask you to re-enter your registration information unnecessarily

This is a beta release designed for evaluation purposes. It is not intended for use in a production environment. If you require stability please use version 1.0.5 instead.

You can download the 1.1 beta here. The final release of 1.1 will be a free update for all existing customers.