How can I receive Growl notifications when my transcodes finish/fail?

[Willem Grobler]

Hi everyone

Please advise me on this - we're in the last week of preprod before we start on a feature, and I'm just doing some tests... Our schedule requires that some transcoding to be done overnight, and instead of sitting in the edit suite and watching the clock tick, I'd like to enable Growl to inform me of successful/failed transcodes so that I can use Teamviewer to restart the process in case I run into an error...

I've already got growl set up, but I can't make it work, so ANY advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Willem

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

How are you trying to set it up?

For REDCINE-X notifications, you can only choose to have it notify on transcode error or on export completion, not both, which is totally stupid... But let's say you set it to output on error (which is default) and probably best.

Do you have Growl on the REDCINE-X system set to forward notifications to other computers?

Do you have your monitoring system actively running Growl and also set to listen for incoming notifications? You should be able to see the monitoring system in the forward to list of other computers.

Make sure you don't have any firewall blocking you, if you're on the same LAN, the most likely culprit is going to be a localized software firewall on one or both of the systems.

 

[Willem Grobler]

Hi Jeff

It's set to output on error.

Growl is installed on the REDCINE-X system, actively running and set to listen for incoming notifications from REDCINE-X (as far as I'm concerned), but the problem I have is I don't know how to forward notifications to other computers...

Let me get this right - I obviously need to install Growl on another system in order for Growl on the RECINE-X system to push notifications to said systems, but I thought the notification would come up on the REDCINE-X system too?

Number one prize for me would be to receive notifications on my iPhone (I've looked into Howl and Prowl, any suggestions?) or on my MacBook Pro at home... Would it be possible to do this?

Thanks!

EDIT:

Ps. Even an email would be perfect - is there a way to set it to push emails?

 

[Steve Freebairn]

Also check out Prowl on the iPad/iPhone/iPod it lets you monitor things when you're not even around.

 

[Willem Grobler]

Thanks Steve - yes I've checked out Prowl, but there's a newer app called Howl... Undecided between the two - Prowl as the higher rating, but hasn't been updated in over a year, while Howl has a lower rating, yet it's newer and is apparently seeing more activity from the developer...

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Growl notifications should come up on the local REDCINE-X system. Be sure that Growl is running -- it does not automatically start or load up unless you tell it to do so. You can set Growl to start itself at login from its preferences panel. By default, notifications show up and disappear fast -- you can review a list of all notifications and you can change their display style, duration, location, etc..

I have not looked into the iPhone solutions here, so can't comment. I probably should look into it, those would be useful! On first glance it looks like Prowl is the better of the two.

To forward notifications to other computers, you do this from the Network tab in the Growl preferences panel. It can be accessed from the OSX System Preferences panel or you may have Growl (the paw print icon) displayed on your taskbar left of the clock, near volume, BT, WiFi, etc..

To forward to a system off-site like a Macbook Pro at home, the most straight forward way would be to have it connected through a VPN connection. Otherwise we get into more complicated network routing issues that need to be worked out before even thinking of connecting Growl.

You might want to check the Growl forum and go from there. Mostly I just use Growl here to monitor status on Lightwave and Maya renders from my small farm to my workstations.

 

[David Ibbitson]

For REDCINE-X notifications, you can only choose to have it notify on transcode error or on export completion, not both, which is totally stupid...

Hi Jeff,

Can you elaborate on this? I have no trouble setting it up to notify on error and completion.

David

 

[Willem Grobler]

UPDATE:

Ok, I managed to get Prowl up and running on my iPhone - you basically need to register on Prowl's website, install the app on your iPhone and then activate it through the Growl prefpane. Details are here on the website:

http://prowl.weks.net/installation.php

Now, the weird thing:

I get NO Growl notifications on my REDCINE-X system, or on the edit suite system right next to it (on which I just installed Growl - and managed to make the two systems 'see' each other), likely because I've had no export errors, BUT, my iPhone gets a notification every single time an export is finished in REDCINE, despite the fact that notifications should be sent only in the event of export error... What gives?

 

[David Ibbitson]

It looks like if you set Prowl to be your display style for a particular notification it will only go to Prowl, and not the desktop. However, this needs more testing.

Also, it looks like Prowl has a known issue with Growl 1.2.1, which is what we use, so beware.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Hi Jeff,

Can you elaborate on this? I have no trouble setting it up to notify on error and completion.

David

Umm... Never mind, just me being stupid. I went back into the Growl prefs to look at the settings and they're both there.

 

[David Ibbitson]

Thanks Jeff, no worries.

 

[Willem Grobler]

Ok... Think I've figured it out... Growl's prefpane is a bit of a messy ballache... Well until you figure it out that is! Basically you can configure it to do whatever you want it to do when it FINISHES a transcode or when there's an ERROR.

At present, every time it finishes an export, a notification is displayed on the REDCINE-X system, and pushed to the editing system over the network... In the event of an error, it'll push a notification to my iPhone. Since I have not had an error yet, I can't confirm that it works 100% - so I might have to FORCE an error today... Any suggestions from anyone on how to accomplish this?

As an aside, I mistakenly had Growl push notifications to my iPhone every time it finished an export last night, so I got continuous annoying messages, but it totally beat sitting in the editing suite and waiting it out!

Thanks for all the posts so far guys...

 

[Martin Weiss]

I would try starting a transcode, and then moving/deleting the R3D file — that should trigger an error.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Good thread!

 

[Willem Grobler]

I would try starting a transcode, and then moving/deleting the R3D file — that should trigger an error.

Unbelievably, REDCINE doesn't crash, even if I move it to my trash, and if I try to empty trash while the transcode is in progress, it holds onto the R3D file... Maybe force delete?

*on way to figure out how to force delete a file*

 

[Martin Weiss]

Have the R3D on an external drive, and just pull it out.

Just don't do it on production footage or a disk that contains anything important.

 

[Willem Grobler]

Have the R3D on an external drive, and just pull it out.

Just don't do it on production footage or a disk that contains anything important.

Haha, yes that's precisely what I was thinking... I could afford to scrap a Rugged (in a worst case scenario)... Will try that out tomorrow...

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

When you move a file, even to the trash, OSX maintains a linked reference to it in case apps are using it. If you manage to get the file into your trash can, right click on it and then hold down the option key when you click on Empty Trash. That will force delete what's in there.

Anyway, So far, the only way I have been able to cause REDCINE-X to error on export actually crashes the program, so getting a successful error notification is hit or miss.

A quick one to test, which usually crashes the program is to load a clip into your viewer. Then move that clip to your trash. Hey, check it out, you can still play the clip! Set up an export and start it. RC-X will most likely crash out.

Note to David and other RC-X team people: This is something the app should not do... It would be nice to fail with an error here because what if we're in the middle of a transcode and a network volume or embedded mount point (which looks like a folder on our system) decides to disconnect itself? Wouldn't it be better to error out with a nice error message, perhaps even continue on to the next queued operation, instead of self-destructing? Files do go AWOL at times...