Say I have a 20 minute bit of footage, and I know I only want to keep 2 minutes of it permanently deleting the rest. I've not ever used the trimmer, is that something it can do? Or would I render the section I want to a new track with a lossless codec?
Any other thoughts on what is best?
I am sure you will a lot of opinions and ideas. I do a couple of things. Sometimes I will use the trimmer to slice out what I want to keep and place that on the timeline. Other times I will insert two video tracks. I will put the whole video on the lower track and separate the keeper parts and slide that up to the upper track and start a basic assembly. I will delete the lower track when I feel I have harvested the best.
I'm not sure if I was clear regarding deletion, but I'm mean not just from the project but also gone from the hard drive except for the bit I want to keep.
If you're using Vegas 16, Storyboard mode will trim your clips up nicely (or just hover scrubbing with your mouse in the project media window and pressing "i" and "o" to set in and out points before dragging the clip onto the timeline). However, the only way to remove the unused video is to render a new video file after you have trimmed out the stuff you do not want, and delete the source video clips you started from after (be sure you test out your rendered clip first to make sure it is free of errors!).
Depending on the type of media, For a usage of 10%, as you proposed, I would use the utility provided by many camera manufacturers that losslessly cut on an I-frame. I use a Sony provided app with my RX10-IV and used a Canon app before that.
What is that Sony App? I Have 3 Sony cameras. AX 100 CX900 and CX760V
I never delete anything from the harddrive until the project is long finished and approved. Even then, I back it all up. Even family projects. I find that sometimes that outtake for now becomes sentiment for later.
I totally get that, but there is a time and place for everything, and sometimes it's the trash can.
Here is the Sony support page for my RX10. They offer PlayMemories software for managing files, etc., but I only use it for trimming XAVC-S files. I set the directory to the one that I'm working on at the moment so the software doesn't take over my machine.
I would think the AX100, or CX900 would offer that version or something similar if you're forced to change models to qualify for the download.
Since I have Sony cameras, I also use the Sony PlayMemories program to permanently trim my own videos when necessary - for instance when a camera has been drastically jolted off direction in the middle of a timelapse. On the other hand, I only permanently trim and delete such footage after careful examination. Sometimes the soundtrack may provide useful room noise or ambient noise, or the video may provide useful bokehs for later mixing.
I rarely trim family videos, but when I shoot sports, after I start rolling, there are sometimes false starts of unknown duration. I usually just shoot through them so I don’t miss any action and trim later to save disk space.
I sometimes shoot through multiple heats and split them later to sort by swimmer. Splitting them wastes some disk space since I leave a little leader on each of the split files.
Thank you. It looks like it's a free app available for anyone. http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/www/disoft/int/download/playmemories-home/win/en/index.html
One thing I sometimes do is shoot live bands, 3 or more cameras for 3 hours footage plus multitrack audio adds up to a lot of space. Believe me often there is very little in there I ever want to see or hear again lol.
Avidemux is a free and easy program which can cut on I frame as well.
It's also possibke with ffmpeg but you need to write commqnd line.
Cool, Just tried Avidemux on a 20 minute guitar lesson mp4 I have, and selected the 5 minutes I'm interested in. It made the new mp4 very quickly! Quite handy to have this. Thank you!