For most filmmakers, downloading your footage is a nerve-wracking process. Wanting to double and triple check that you have successfully made multiple copies of the original camera card (and thus it's safe to reformat for more shooting) is an important part of the process.
There are many solutions at many price points for making this process easier to manage and to give filmmakers a better sense of safety, with one of the top end contenders being Pomfort with its Silverstack media management toolset and Livegrade color tools for DITs managing on set looks. Pomfort has now decided to release a stripped down application, Download Manage, for managing your on set downloads.
One of the biggest hurdles with professionally priced software is getting new users to learn it well enough to appreciate its power. Similar to Avid finally offering Media Composer First, its free version, this release will hopefully help Pomfort gain a foothold with students and independent productions who might not need the full power of LiveGrade and Silverstack, but can get to know the power through Download Manager. For those productions, having a secure, stable way to ensure it's monitoring their footage downloads will be a huge plus.
Offload Manager both does a checksum verified download of the camera card and also integrates the robust reporting technology that Pomfort is well known for. This way, it's easier to track precisely where and when a card was downloaded. Checksum verification ensures that not only is the file copied, but that it's a perfect duplicate of the original (down to the individual bit) which will lead to fewer corrupt shots.
Reports are valuable for when you are trying to track down a shot that might have gone missing and you need a map pointed back to where and when it was downloaded. These tools are combined in a powerful app that integrates with the full Silverstack XT if needed, and it's available as both a subscription and lifetime purchase depending on your preference.
For further information, check out the Pomfort store.
Tech Specs:
- Fully integrated with Silvestack XT
- Checksum verified copies via either MD5, SHA1, or xxhash
- Simultaneous multiple copies
- PDF, CSV, or HTML reports
- Mac OS X 10.12 or newer
- English and Chinese versions available
