I understand that I can have Gearshift make proxies if I use the "Browse" function on the left. What I don't understand is why Gearshift can't do the same thing if I use the "Timeline" function. It won't do it if you have the HD Media template set to "none."

Why?

For item 1: I had requested the same thing in the Gearshift support forum, see this thread for the explanation as to why it doesn't (and can't) do it.

Gearshift Timeline Proxy thread

Mark

Let me address your two wishes: (I feel like a genie) ;-)

Wish #1:

Thanks Mark for the pointer to the discussion we already had on this. I’ll repeat it here just to document it:

First you must understand that the GearShift “ShiftGears” function does not touch events on the timeline. It works purely on the media pool alone simply swapping the HD media for proxy media and back again. For this to work, there MUST be a 1-to-1 mapping. You can’t go from one to many because there is no way to get from the many back to the one. (or the few... (little StarTrek joke) ;-) )

Let me give you the example I gave in the other post so you can fully appreciate the problem. Let’s say you place one M2T file on the timelime (foo.m2t) and edit out the parts you don’t want leaving two events from the one media file.

Media Status:
One Event is associated with: foo.m2t
The Other Event is associated with: foo.m2t
The Media Pool now contains: foo.m2t

You run GearShift and it finds that you trimmed the file into two events so it renders GSP_foo-001.avi and associates it with the first event, and GSP_foo-002.avi and associates it with the second event.

Media Status:
One Event is now associated with: GSP_foo-001.avi
The Other Event is now associated with: GSP_foo-002.avi
The Media Pool now contains: GSP_foo-001.avi, GSP_foo-002.avi

You edit with proxies and then are ready to render so you tell GearShift to swap files. GearShift correctly identifies that GSP_foo-001.avi comes from foo.m2t and swaps it. GearShift also correctly identifies that GSP_foo-002.avi comes from foo.m2t and swaps it.

Media Status:
One Event is now associated with: foo.m2t
The Other Event is now associated with: foo.m2t
The Media Pool now contains: foo.m2t

Great! You are now back to the original media and all is well. But Wait! Now you want to swap back. But the media pool only contains one media file! (foo.m2t) How does GearShift swap back? Both events are now associated with foo.m2t. How does GearShift know which event to assign GSP_foo-001.avi to? You see, there is no way to uniquely identify the event anymore. In your editing you may have moved that event to a different place on the time line. So timeline placement cannot be used. There simply is no way to reattach the proxy files.

I’m sorry but I don’t believe there is any way to implement the workflow you want. I agree it would be the best way to work, but there is just no way to keep track of the media assignments in Vegas.

What is needed is some kind of identifier to uniquely identify and event regardless of where it may have been moved on the timeline, but no such identifier is available to the Script API.

Wish #2

A detailed status dialog is an EXCELLENT idea. I have been meaning to do this too. I will definitely get this into the next version of GearShift. I would even add a Search for Media option if the media is not found just like Sony does for projects. (your wish has been granted)

Wish #3

You didn’t have a 3rd wish but traditional genies grant three wishes so I just thought I’d let you know you have a credit for 1 wish. And don’t wish for 3 more wishes! That’s a meta-wish. I don’t do meta-wishes. :-D

~jr

[Edit] Didn’t see your last edit. Yes you can stop the render quite easily. It’s just not obvious because it's a Windows focus problem (don't you just love Windows?). Click on the GearShift icon down at the bottom of your Windows docking bar to give GearShift the focus. Then press ESC to cancel the renders. I have found that no amount of clicking on the actual windows works. You have to do down to the task bar and click to give focus. The ESC works. (so you still have 1 wish credit) ;-)

Thanks.

So I still have one wish left. Is there a time limit on this wish, or can I just bank it for now?

Since I already have all the money and hot women one could possibly hope for, I'll have to give this some thought...


EDIT:
I looked over your response to request #1 and I'm still confused. I understand that if the user trims a particular clip and splits it then Gearshift could see an unworkable situation.

But what I'm talking about here is simpler. Here's my theoretical workflow:

(a) shoot video

(b) import the raw video into the PC using HDVsplit (there are now dozens of m2t clips, each named after the time and date of shooting

(c) throw all those m2t clips on the timeline

(d) do a quick culling of those clips that won't be useful (note: no trimming of individual clips involved, just an accept/delete decision)

(e) tell Gearshift to create proxies for all the remaining clips on the timeline

(f) Gearshift into the proxy clips and have at it.


So there should be no confusion to Gearshift regarding individual clips. If a clip is on the timeline, make a proxy for it; if not, don't.

I dunno, maybe this counts as that third wish, but not really, since it's just further explanation of the first wish.

You can already do your workflow. In effect, you are simply using the timeline to eliminate clips you don’t need. When you are done doing this, go to the media pool and press the SWEEP button to sweep it clean of the media you didn’t use on the timeline. All the media you need will be left in the media pool. Now create a new media bin and select all the media and drag it into this new bin. Now just use the media bin option in GearShift and only make the proxies.

Perhaps in a future version I can add a scan to the timeline option to see if any two events use the same media and give a warning. This will allow you to actually trim the events also. As long as you don’t split them it will work fine.

~jr

Okay, I've had a chance to play a bit further with rendering from a media bucket and rendering from the timeline.

I don't understand why Gearshift requires one to create not only the desired widescreen DV proxy but also an HD intermediate in order to render directly from the timeline. In order to cut down on the double render time, I created a new "HD " format consisting of just a rendering of the audio channel. Sure enough, Gearshift allowed such an HD render, and of course did it in a fraction of a second, then went on to do the intended DV proxy render. At the end it swapped the m2t for the proxy, as intended. Great! Except--

I notice that all the Gearshift DV proxies have numbers appended to their names, for example, "GSProxy-xxxxxxxxx(0).avi", "GSProxy-xxxxxxxxxx(1).avi", and so forth. Where are these numbers coming from? Also, since Gearshift has made all these extra "dummy" intermediates, now I need to go into the folder and delete all the unnecessary intermediate files.

At this point it looks like the only foolproof way to working with Gearshift (for my workflow anyway) is to just manually collect all the new m2t files and dump them into Gearshift, then once the DV proxies are made, manually drag the proxies up to the timeline. Which is fine, by the way, but not as elegant as having Gearshift just look at what's on the timeline and make proxies and automatically swap them in.

GearShift *does* look at the timeline and swap those out. In fact, my workflow is to capture the full hour/tape, put it all on the timeline, mark regions around what I wish to keep, and then run GearShift. It will even ripple the completed segments if you want it to.

> I don't understand why Gearshift requires one to create not only the desired widescreen DV proxy but also an HD intermediate in order to render directly from the timeline

Because there is the potential for customers to edit the files on the timeline and split them into multiple events and move them around and… and… and then call us to tell us that GearShift can’t swap the proxies back in! So we restrict its use in that scenario to protect them from making that mistake.

> I notice that all the Gearshift DV proxies have numbers appended to their names, for example, "GSProxy-xxxxxxxxx(0).avi", "GSProxy-xxxxxxxxxx(1).avi", and so forth. Where are these numbers coming from?

This only happens with Timeline rendering because you can split events which will generate multiple events from a single source file. GearShift must make the new proxy names unique for each event so it appends a sequential number to them. This does not happen if you simply render from the file system or media pool.

> Which is fine, by the way, but not as elegant as having Gearshift just look at what's on the timeline and make proxies and automatically swap them in.

I realize that you are just placing the files on the timeline and not splitting them or editing them and that it doesn’t make sense to you for GearShift to not allow a straight proxy render. (since that scenario should work). I believe I can detect this and I will try and allow this for the next release. I can warn customers who have split files and force them to render the HD intermediary but still allow the straight DV Proxy rendering for those who don’t.

Sound fair?

~jr