How to find out (edited) clip length

bitman wrote on 2/17/2017, 3:17 AM

Something I am struggling with is that I so far have not found an easy way to find out how long an edited clip is on the timeline (when not being the first clip). Say I insert a clip after 10 clips on the timeline, I edit the this new clip 11 so it is shorter in duration. How to find out the new length of clip 11 in a fast and easy way. (I could drag that clip to the beginning in an empty track and read from timeline the total length of that clip, but that is cumbersome). I could also draw a loop region around that clip and subtract end from start, but that involves math...

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Red Prince wrote on 2/18/2017, 2:29 PM

2000 was the first year of this century, 2001 the second.

That would be logical, alas 2000 was the last year of the 20th Century, 2001 was the first year of the 21st Century. This is because there was no year 0, so the 1st Century started with the year 1 and ended with the year 100, the Second Century started at 100 and ended 200, etc (and the 1st century BCE started with the year 100 BCE and ended with the year 1 BCE).

As for the time code, it makes perfect sense it starts at 00:00:00:00 because it tells how much time has already passed since the beginning of the video/audio/clip. Just as it would make sense for a century to start at xx00, except the ancient European astronomers (or astrologers, actually) had no concept of zero until sometime in the Middle Ages (while the rest of the world had that concept long before, the Greeks insisted that nothing could not be something), so they started each century at xx01 and we continue to do so to stay backwards compatible.

Former user wrote on 2/18/2017, 3:04 PM

2001 was the first year of the 21st century. 2000 was the end of the 20th Century. Timecode starts at zero, if you don't understand why then realize that the timecode of 1:00:00 is the first frame of the 1minute timecode. 1 hour starts at 1:00:00:00. 00:00:00 is the first frame of timecode starting at 0.

If you really want to be confused, learn about drop-frame vs. non-drop frame timecode.

3POINT wrote on 2/18/2017, 3:12 PM

The main reason I am still using SVP13 is the "ShowEvenfLength" extension that someone developed a while ago; I wish that same someone would make it available for VP14 or somebody else would make a new one. It provides a dock able window that show the event length of an event the cursor is sitting on and is continuously updated when one changes the event length.

Where can I find/download that script?

Marco. wrote on 2/18/2017, 3:18 PM

"2001 was the first year of the 21st century."

You are right, of course. This was a bad example of mine.

"So why is than that the extensions are showing it differently?"

They don't. In the screenshot you're showing further above both extensions show a length of 4:04. What differs it the timecode value of the Event and this is because it is not a length, but the number of that frame while first frame had frame number 0.

Red Prince wrote on 2/18/2017, 3:28 PM

"2001 was the first year of the 21st century."

You are right, of course. This was a bad example of mine.

A good example would be one’s age. Someone born in 2000 turned one in 2001.

Peter_P wrote on 2/19/2017, 4:19 AM

You can find the Show Event Length for Vp14 now here.

bitman wrote on 2/19/2017, 7:21 AM

You can find the Show Event Length for Vp14 now here.

Thanks a lot for this great tool, works fine. Just one remark I had to place it on another location than you have indicated in your pdf on my windows 10.

I had to place it in: C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\VEGAS Pro\Application Extensions

you may want to unhide AppData folder (if not already done).

Also reboot your pc and/or close/start up vegas a couple of times if it does not appear in your extension selection (I suppose it depends how much and/or what of Vegas is currently cashed in your pc's memory).

Peter_P wrote on 2/19/2017, 7:35 AM

Sorry, um fortunately I also left the wrong path in the *.pdf for Show Event Lenght.

It should be : C:\ProgramData\VEGAS Pro\Application Extensions\

But it may also work on other locations.

OldSmoke wrote on 2/19/2017, 10:37 AM

"2001 was the first year of the 21st century."

You are right, of course. This was a bad example of mine.

A good example would be one’s age. Someone born in 2000 turned one in 2001.

I don't think there is any good example. You not only age by years but also by seconds and even smaller units. As such, to call the first frame of a one second event 0 is where I am not in agreement, I do accept it however. The conclusion would then be that timecode differs from event length by one frame?

Marco. wrote on 2/19/2017, 10:45 AM

Length is counting the frames. Timecode is labelling the frames.

Marco. wrote on 2/19/2017, 11:19 AM

Or according to the screenshot shown below - the length of the three timeline events are 3:00 each. Now look at the timecode label.

OldSmoke wrote on 2/19/2017, 11:34 AM

Timecode is labelling the frames.

I think my confusion came from the fact that when I set Vegas to show "timecode" on the clip in the picture, I didn't zoom in sufficiently and assumed the label shown at the end is the end of the clip, but it isn't. The label at the end is at the beginning of the last frame hence the difference to what the extension shows.

Steve wrote on 2/20/2017, 8:26 AM

There are no clips on the timeline. Everything on the timeline is an event.

OldSmoke wrote on 2/20/2017, 8:41 AM

There are no clips on the timeline. Everything on the timeline is an event.

Wow! Aren't you smart!

NickHope wrote on 2/25/2017, 3:42 AM

also, if it is something you need to monitor , you can open VIEW> EDIT DETAILS and select EVENTS. Set your columns to see IN OUT and DURATION. This screen updates the events as you edit. It is bit busy, but keeps all of that information available instantly.

And you can show the length column. Before the ShowEventLength extension was created, I used to have this above my timeline:

It would be handy, when while shortening an event, that you have an option to show the new event length above the cursor instead of showing now the time that the event is shortened.

I'd like to see both. The event length reading could be shown above the middle of the event, or even on the event itself, like this:

This type of functionality has been asked for so many times over the years and it's probably not difficult to introduce.