Eclipse 5 and DropBox - Realtime Scoping

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Anyone used the E5 w/DropBox with your scopist?  Wondering how it works.  I guess you cannot have the audio send if you are not on version 5.  Good reason to upgrade.  I have been a bit reluctant because I had heard of problems, but I do so many dailies, this would really be nice to have my scopist start the job 30 minutes after I start instead of four hours.

 

I was just wondering if anyone has used this and how it works.  Any comments or feedback before I make the plunge??

 

 

 

[Judy]

Kelli,

I saw you question yesterday and avoided answering because I was fairly sure somebody had more info than I, but since you haven't received a response I'll tell you what I know.

First, I heard from somebody -- can't for the life of me remember who -- that the audio portion of division intervals (DI) on v5 didn't work yet. I just got up and running recently on v5 and haven't had time to send files using DropBox during a depo yet.

That being said, I used to use v4 with DI and scopists. 

First you need to open a file under DropBox for your scopist and then invite them to become a user of that folder.  Very easy to do.  Let me know if you need help.

Then, go into Eclipse, Production, User Setting, Advanced, and under Network change that to your scopist's DropBox folder.

Make sure you have your DI set to whatever you want -- you mentioned 30 minutes.  But remember that you're going to be writing along and every 30 minutes your scopist is going to get another file.  At the end of a long day she's going to have LOTS of 30 minute files.  Sometimes it's best to do it in 60 minute chunks to cut down on the number of files that need to be put back together.  You can change the length of your ecl file under the Realtime tab and the length of your wav file under the Edit (Timed Auto-Backup) tab.

And under v4 I did send audio.  It wasn't Eclipse's wav file, but I found (actually Dorothy did) a way to get audio to the scopist using a program running on your computer called Total Recorder.  Using TC you can record another audio file and tell that to save wherever you like (your scopist's DropBox file).  But before I go into the specifics of that, I'd love to see if you can get v5 to work with the audio.

And now that I've typed all of this, I finally remembered to look where all my v5 files are being stored (haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet, sorry).  Since it copied my v4 files over, it's set to dump my backup files in my DropBox file.  Just looked at my DropBox file and, yes, all of my v5 ecl and wav files are there!  Although my wav files are just one file for each job, not 60 minute dumps like my ecl files.  Maybe somebody else knows how to fix that.

I had issues with the free version of DropBox.  It dumped a certain amount of files, reached my limit, then froze up my computer... during a depo.  One of the parties to the case was in the depo room, EXTREMELY computer-literate man, and we were discussing why it froze while I was rebooting.  He said he was fairly sure it was b/c of the free version of DropBox.  After that I purchased the 9.99/mo version (and I back up EVERYTHING to my DropBox folder now) and haven't had a problem since.

 

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Thanks so much, Judy.  I was told by my scopist who looked into this that on V5 the audio does go over with the ecl in chunks and that it does not work in Total Eclipse with the audio going over in chunks.   Maybe it is not a sophisticated as they might lead us to believe.

 

I am going to copy and paste your comments to my scopist so she can read what you have said.  Doesn't sound like it's altogether where it needs to be yet.  I also agree on the 30 minute intervals; that is way, way too many files.  60 mins would be much better.

[Judy]

You're welcome.  If you have any other questions, you know how to reach me :)