Compacting Source AVIs

2G wrote on 5/5/2004, 8:19 AM

I have a wedding ceremony that I ran 5 cams simultaneously. That means 5 hours of raw AVI. After edit, I basically "used" 1 total hour out of the 5. I need to keep the source active for a while just in case minor tweaks are requested.

What I would like to be able to do is take the full set of actual used segments from the 5 AVIs, write them to one composite AVI file (with a few second head/tail on the clips), then update all the clips on the 5 tracks to now reference the appropriate clip from the composite AVI.

This way I could discard the 5 original AVIs from my hard drive, replace with one composite AVI, and still have the ability to tweak and re-render if necessary.

I figure I could write a script to do all of this. But I don't want to reinvent the wheel if something exists.

Summary... Make an AVI that consists of only used parts of other AVIs, then change all references in the project to use the in/out points from the new AVI.

Anything exist similar to this, or am I blazing new territory?

2G

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 5/5/2004, 8:24 AM

If you don't need it to be all one file then Vegas already has a function to "save media with project". This will allow you to create a new directory and save trimmed clips as new files along with the project file. You can specify how much head & tail you wish.

Caveats:
- Clean the media pool first! This function uses the media pool instead of the timeline, so any unused clips in the media pool will be included as well.

- Trimming only works with uncompressed or DV .avi files. It won't trim other video formats. I don't think this is an issue for you though.

- Video source files will be split into separate .avi video only and .w64 audio only files. Why? we dunno. But that's the way it works.

After you've done this you can delete all the source material completely. The new directory will contain everything you need to continue working on the project.

Jsnkc wrote on 5/5/2004, 9:50 AM

Ever thought of just saving the source tapes? If you captured everything correctly you can simply pop back in the tapes and Vegas will be able to re-capture all the clips and put them back on the timeline right where you had them. All you have to do is save the .veg file and any graphics you used.

2G wrote on 5/5/2004, 11:36 AM

Thank goodness I asked.... :-) Amazing what happens when you figure out all the bells and whistles of an application.

That looks like it will definitely do the trick.

2G

2G wrote on 5/5/2004, 11:38 AM

I do save the tapes. But recapturing 5 hours of tapes is not a thrilling prospect when the customer wants 3 more seconds of a scene before a fade, etc.

2G

Jameson_Prod wrote on 5/5/2004, 11:59 AM

With the price of external hard drives, I just store on an external and keep it for the immediate future(a couple of months or so). Then blow off the hard drive and keep the tapes as long as you wish. Re-use the hard drives for another project.

Just another idea........

GaryKleiner wrote on 5/5/2004, 12:07 PM

>I do save the tapes. But recapturing 5 hours of tapes is not a thrilling prospect when the customer wants 3 more seconds of a scene before a fade, etc.<

This is anothor can of worms but...

If you are allowing your wedding client that much say in the edit, they'd better be paying you a LOT of money, or you are just offering to have too much input from the client.

I have done well over 500 weddings, and I only make changes if there is a mispelling or other obvious mistake. Anything else is charged extra for, and it is extremely rare for anyone to take this option.

Gary