I am sure that back in the days of slow computers and limited RAM there was a good reason why NKLE software locked most other functions whilst performing operations such as capturing. By other functions I mean being able for example to scroll through a Bin list, or refresh the list to see how far the batch job has progressed.
I have spent the last few weeks capturing shot-by-shot (not bulk captured and subsequently sub-clipped) from over 300 reels of Betacam SP, Digital Betacam and HDCAM. This gives a lot of moving parts to keep an overview of.
With any more than 56 clips in a bin it is not possible to view the entire bin in list view on a single 1920x1080 monitor, so following the list to make sure manual adjustments to TBC, audio and such are accomplished becomes difficult.
The capture tool does have a little windows that tells me what the proces is doing - the only issue is that on a massive job of shot clips, this display spends most of its time sa "Cleaning up", "Arming" or "Searching for preroll point", during which the vital progress information disappears. For future development I would suggest that the capture tool is modified so that the progress window has a line for the above prompts, and three windows headed "Capturing" "Skipped" "Left (remaining)" with a slightly larger font that is easily visible when working. These windows should always display the current/next clip status. Perhaps the "Capturing" text in one colour when in cleanup/arming/preroll mode and another colur when actually capturing.
At the same time some of the recent advances in computing power and multiple cores could be used to allow the user to scroll in the bin, change the bin view, sort order (but not close or edit bin entries of course) whilst the batch job is running.
These two suggestions might seem pedantic when considering all the other editing features, but for anyone working with massive amounts of clips/tapes and a big batch capture session these would be extremely welcome improvements.
I would also welcome a feature that allowed the user to quickly change the displæay font size "on the fly" (not whilst capturing of course) but without having to delve into the depths of setup menus. Most of the time, monitor real estate is best optimized using relatively small fonts, as most of the operators work is visually intuitive, but when situations arive when the screen text must be studied in detail (for instance when setting a or bin reel number, where some numbers can be confused if the text is small), it would be nice to be able to switch to a larger font (and back again) quickly. I am not suggesting a whole variety opf font options - perhaps just two user defined sizes which one could toggle between (a bit like the focus function on timeline view)
Any comments anyone? :)
(nice that the forum is back up and running - thanks Marianne!)