How can I edit and present a program within CatDV?

A very common task if you have recorded and captured a whole tape of material is to produce a condensed version of the edited highlights to show to people.

If you want to edit together a finished program, perhaps applying special effects, L- or J-cuts, transitions, titles, voiceovers and so on, you would of course use a fully featured non linear editing package. If all you want is a simple "cuts only" selection of the highlights, however, then you can use the capabilities built in to CatDV as a quick and effective alternative:

1. Capture the material you want to use to disk and import the media files into CatDV. (Alternatively, if disk space is limited and 'preview' quality is sufficient for your needs at this stage, use the Scan & Build Previews command in Live Capture.)
2. CatDV will automatically detect and produce a clip for each scene. (Either use Summary mode or enable the Auto-merge DV clips belonging to same shot Preference option if a scene might span across more than one movie file.)
3. Use the Clip details window to review each scene in turn. Play the clip (in the Movie or Preview tab as appropriate) and mark In and Out points around the section you want to keep.
4. If you don't want to include that scene in your highlights, select "No Good" from the Good drop down list.
5. If you want to include a scene in its entirety select "Good" from the drop down list. (If you have already made a selection you can leave the Good value blank as making a selection implies that you've reviewed the clip and want to use it.)
6. If you want to include two separate sections from the same scene you can either duplicate the clip or create a new secondary clip for the current selection from within the Clip Details dialog.
7. As an alternative to using the Clip Details dialog you can use the Media dialog to review the clips. Use the keyboard shortcuts 'I' and 'O' to mark selection in and out points as a clip is playing, 'G' or 'N' to mark the clip as good or not, and 'P' to play the selection from start to end. Use the up and down arrows to move to the next clip.
8. Once you have reviewed your clips and decided which material should be included in the highlights program, select all the clips in the catalog with Control-A (or Command-A). Notice that the status line shows how long your "good selection" is.
9. Use the Present Movie command, choosing the options "Good clips only" (as mentioned previously, by default this also includes those with a selection) and "Selection (in2/out2)", to show your edited program.
10. You can set up a filter so your view only shows the good clips (for example to display a storyboard view and rearrange the clip order by dragging and dropping clips). Press the Filter button, select Pick List field "Status", and then select the values "G" and "S" (hold down the command or control keys to select multiple items).
11. At this stage your edited program is defined by the status of each clip and can still be edited. To make it more permanent use the Select Reviewed command to select just the good clips and then do Create Sequence. This will create a new clip called a sequence that holds your program selections. You can then export this sequence as an EDL or play it in the media dialog at any time.