I tried to make this work, but it says that I need t have capturedthe entire tape with vegas capture. This is what I am trying to avoid. Could you please lay down the steps, I have the latest veggie tk and the capture cutter instructions are a little over my head. Thanks. I have a list of in/out points from hy client gave me tat he wrote down from the raw tape. I just want to capture +- 1 secs. User defiable would be great..

Hi CD,

Use the Media Manager tool to import text logs -- not Capture Cutter.

Randall wrote the Media Manager tool with a lot of input from me (and others I assume) about importing text logs. Since Vidcap isn't directly scriptable he came up with a workaround. A clever workaround, but still a workaround.

Using the Media Manager tool you can open a text log and then import it to a timeline. Once the clip entries are on a timeline they appear as offline media which you can then recapture.

The Media Manager has a few settings that can make a big difference to how things go. The first and most important is to specify whether your text file has a header row -- the top row of column labels. The second important thing is to choose the right timecode format. DV25 is natively "drop frame" so that's what you ought to use. Higher end DV cameras can be set to ndf but I think even then you should use DF in the media manager. The difference would show more in tapes starting on hour 2 or 3 or higher, something you can only do with higher-end cameras anyway.

I think I'd start this process with a new blank veg file and then import all the media to it. Later you can throw it all in a bin and copy the bin to other veg files. Also, when it comes time to recapture the offline media, I'd open vidcap first to make sure you're using the vidcap file you want. Vegas is very bad about this and will normally open the last vidcap file used and throw the new media in there. Better to get in the habit of opening Vidcap first and making sure everything is configured as you want and that the right vidcap file is being used.

Media Manager checks for errors. If your timecode out point occurs before the in point it'll flag it. You can change the numbers and save as a new text file (or overwrite the original).

Media Manager will cause files to be named based on the shot description and it includes a setting to include the tape name in the file name. I find this really handy. Look out for illegal characters in the descriptions. You can't use \ / ? * : | " < > characters. Media manager doesn't catch these (I think) but they'll cause a capture to fail later on because Vidcap can't apply the name to a file.

There's a OS limit to how long a file name can be, and how long a file path can be. The limit is pretty high but you can hit it. try to just keep your tape names short and that will help. Placing media with long names into folders with long names can hurt.

There's other stuff in media manager that I don't use but which look pretty handy. It's a pretty nifty tool once you get the hang of it.

Rob Mack