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Uploading

To upload files and metadata to o/DAILIES, use our o/DAILIES/MANAGER for macOS.

On the settings page, please define a watch folder where a directory structure for all your projects is created. The app runs in the background and detects new files in that folder.

Additionally, if you use Pomfort Silverstack in your workflow, o/DAILIES/MANAGER syncs your local projects to our DB.

Directory layout

After the completed setup, a folder structure will be generated for you if you are a Dailies Manager already. For every project you have access to, which has a valid subscription, a folder will be created. If the folder for newly created project is missing, please restart o/DAILIES/MANAGER. The structure may look like this:

/Users/<your_username>/Documents/odailies/
├── Project A
│   ├── _audio      # Replacement audio tracks (.m4a) for existing clips
│   ├── _bins       # Beta feature - only appears if enabled
│   ├── _done
│   ├── _error
│   ├── _graded
│   ├── _log
│   ├── _proxy
│   ├── _still
└── Project B
    ├── _audio      # Replacement audio tracks (.m4a) for existing clips
    ├── _bins       # Beta feature - only appears if enabled
    ├── _done
    ├── _error
    ├── _graded
    ├── _log
    ├── _proxy
    └── _still

Tip

For the o/DAILIES/MANAGER to create a folder structure, a project must

Local file handling

Transcode your dailies with the correct file specs directly into your project folder.

_graded

All your graded dailies clips belong in the folder _graded.

_done

The o/DAILIES/MANAGER picks up the files, uploads them and moves them to the folder _done. You are free to remove them from here, but we recommend keeping them around.

_error

If something was wrong with any file, you'll find it instead moved to the folder _error.

_log

Optionally, you can upload LOG variants of the same clips in a folder named _log. Users with the "Advanced Video options" permission are now able to switch video sources on-the-fly.

_still

Optionally, you can upload still images extracted from your clips in a folder named _still. See the Stills (Beta) page for details on this feature. This feature is currently in beta and available by request only.

_bins

The _bins folder is for uploading and organizing additional clips that don't originate from principal photography, such as content from editorial or VFX departments. This folder only appears after the Bins (Beta) feature is enabled for your project. Create subfolders within _bins to organize your content by category or department. See the Bins (Beta) page for complete details on this beta feature.

_audio

Drop a .m4a file here whose basename matches an existing clip's name to replace that clip's audio track without re-uploading the video. The replacement is processed server-side: the existing video is remuxed with the new audio, and the clip is republished at a fresh URL so caches refresh automatically.

The file must be AAC, stereo (2 channels), in an MP4 container with a .m4a extension, and its duration must match the clip's video duration exactly.

Example: to replace the audio of a clip named A001C001_260422_R3CK, drop _audio/A001C001_260422_R3CK.m4a into the project folder.

ALE files

If your project is not linked to a Silverstack library, upload an ALE file for metadata by placing it in the root project folder (inside your watch-folder project directory). To update metadata, upload a new ALE the same way.

If your project is linked to Silverstack (Silverstack Link), live metadata still comes from Silverstack while o/DAILIES/MANAGER is running. Dropping an ALE does not disable that link or replace it as the primary source. To use only ALE for metadata, the Silverstack association must be removed by support—see Using ALE instead of live Silverstack sync.

Info

After the upload, o/DAILIES automatically post-processes your footage for a better user experience.

File specs

Make sure that the files match the following criteria:

Setting Value
Video Codec H.264 or HEVC (H.265) for better compression *
Audio Codec AAC
Audio Channels 2
Container MP4 with .mp4 ending
Optimization Streaming Optimized (moov atom at start)
Resolution 1280x720 (720p) recommended but not enforced *
Bitrate 2 - 6 Mbit recommended but not enforced *

Info

* To give you full control over the encoding quality of the delivered clips we do not re-encode them. Don't push the bitrate or resolution too high as we do not create smaller versions. Your users with poor internet connections will thank you.

Info

Replacement audio uploads in _audio follow the same audio rules (AAC, 2 channels) and additionally must match the existing clip's duration exactly.

Video Codec

The video codec should be set to H.264 for optimal compatibility. HEVC (H.265) offers better compression and is now supported by all major browsers including Firefox. However, older devices may lack hardware decoding capabilities for HEVC. If you're certain all your users have modern devices, you can use HEVC for improved efficiency and smaller file sizes.

Hopefully we can switch to open codecs like AV1 in the future.

Streaming Optimized

MP4 files should be optimized for streaming (also known as "fast start" or "web optimized"). This means the MP4 container's metadata (moov atom) must be placed at the beginning of the file. Most encoding software has an option for this, often called:

  • "Fast Start" (FFmpeg)
  • "Optimize for Streaming" (Silverstack)
  • "Network Optimization" (DaVinci Resolve)

DaVinci Resolve example config

davinci1 davinci2

Silverstack example config

silverstack

Switching workstations

Files

You can upload files from multiple workstations at once. It is quite common to finish uploading from a personal MacBook at the hotel for example.

Silverstack live sync can only hold the machine lock on one Mac at a time. The Migrate Silverstack action clears that lock for a planned move to another computer; it does not by itself stop Silverstack metadata on the same machine—see Association vs machine lock.

Proxies

We are currently exploring ways to distribute proxy files to your editorial team. Please contact us at odailies@ottomatic.io if you want to participate in the private beta.