File Size Reduction

DaveRo wrote on 4/6/2012, 8:10 AM

Hey all...I feel a little silly having to ask this but I need help in clip & file size reduction. I am working with much larger projects these days and need to manage/reduce overall file/project sizes when complete.

Problem 1 - How do I trim a video clips within a project permanently so that it's file size is reduced? Obviously I am committing to the edit and will not be able to "roll it back out" again. I have tried saving the project with the "trimmed copies of source media" on but it appeared not to work???

Problem 2 - I am trying to make a new project with short excerpts from other projects. Again, I do not want the whole clip, just the small edited section. So - without rendering from the original project - is there a way to do this?
Thanks in advance for your help...

Dave Ro

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 4/6/2012, 9:43 AM

Only complete-frame formats can be trimmed by Vegas. Types such as uncompressed AVI and DV are trimmable. Anything with GOP structure like MPEG or AVCHD won't be trimmed.

You can try some 3rd party programs like VideoRedo, which purport to be able to trim MPEG files without re-encoding.

You can of course trim the clip to the section you want on Vegas' timeline and render to a new file, but you can take a quality hit when doing so. Keep the bitrate high and the hit will be minimal.

Buy more hard drives! ;)

DaveRo wrote on 4/6/2012, 6:20 PM

Thanks Chienworks...I learn something new everyday!!
Do you off hand know if QuickTime Pro can trim MP4 without having to re-encode?

I did a quick search on line - there are a ton of of other applications but they all seem to encode at the end. Do you know of any other utilities that can do this without the re encoding?

ADD PLEASE...no more HARD DRIVES :) !!!

PeterDuke wrote on 4/6/2012, 7:57 PM

There are probably more apps that will smart render MPEG2 than MPEG4. I understand that even Vegas will smart render MPEG2 if it is to its liking and you have the render parameters set correctly. Vegas Pro 9 to 9c (but not later) smart renders AVCHD to a degree.

What format are the files that you want to trim?

If you want to smart trim AVCHD, here is a list to consider. I haven't tried all of them:
Cyberlink Power Director
Corel Video Studeo
VideoReDo TV Suite H.264
Smart Cutter
Nero Vision
Aunsun Final Mate
AVS Video Remaker
Ulead/Corel DVD MovieFactory Pro
Sony PMB
MultiAVCHD
H264TS Cutter
Solveig Multimedia Video Splitter
Magix Movie Edit Pro MX
Magix Video Pro

For MPEG2 there is also Womble.

Note that with inter-frame coding such as MPEG 2 and 4, if you make a cut that is not on a keyframe (i-frame) then a small amount of recoding will be performed until the next keyframe is found.

DaveRo wrote on 4/8/2012, 11:19 PM

Hi Peter,
Thanks for the response...I get a variety of formats but right now I am receiving primarily:
- Video = H264/ MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1) usually at 23.97 fps and varied resolutions (all at 16:9)
- Audio = MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a) or PCM S16 BE (twos), 48Khz, 16 bit stereo.

Sometimes they come in as ".mov" and sometimes as ".mp4".
I have QuickTime Pro as well but it did not seem to work there either.

PeterDuke wrote on 4/9/2012, 1:58 AM

For MOV and MP4 you might be limited to Quicktime, and if it doesn't smart render, end of story. Nevertheless, try other products by all means, you might get lucky.

Arthur.S wrote on 4/10/2012, 9:52 AM

"Only complete-frame formats can be trimmed by Vegas. Types such as uncompressed AVI and DV are trimmable. Anything with GOP structure like MPEG or AVCHD won't be trimmed."

I never knew that! I've just checked some of the projects that I supposedly 'saved trimmed source files' and they are all complete - one an hour long! Seems a complete nonsense as Vegas edits/trims HDV and AVCHD on the timeline, so why not here?? Right up there with being able to create m2v and DD files but not put them back on the TL.

Chienworks wrote on 4/10/2012, 10:54 AM

Well, "trimming on the timeline" doesn't affect the file in the slightest. The entire file is still there on the drive. All you've done is indicate to Vegas what portion of it should be used.

"Trim" on the timeline and "trim" in saving the project are two radically different things.