How to substitute Cineform for m2t clips

RoyBU wrote on 4/15/2008, 8:05 AM
Is there a way to have Vegas automatically substitute a bunch of avi files for the existing m2t files on the timeline?

I have a project in with lots of m2t clips on the timeline in each of many scenes. Now the director (my daughter) has decided she'd like the Canon HV20 clips converted to 24P. I downloaded the Cineform NEO product to try it out and realized that the conversion is a piece of cake, but substituting the Cineform avi for the m2t clips will be extremely tedious since, the file extension being different, Vegas won't make the substitution wholesale in the dialog box that normally pops up when it can't find clips on opening a project.

The basic cuts have all been done, though they are not set in stone so rendering out the scene as a single avi would be premature (besides which I'm not sure how the conversion to 24P could be done then). I thought maybe Media Manager could do this but I've never used it and haven't been able to figure anything out.

Anyone done this before or have suggestions?

Comments

RoyBU wrote on 4/15/2008, 9:36 AM
Well, I found one way, but don't especially like it. Turns out that if I just move all the original m2t clips to another folder so Vegas can't find them and then change the extension of all the Cineform files from "avi" to "m2t" then Vegas will happily load them en masse. The Cineform files seem to work fine even though the extension has been changed.

This seems very clunky and I worry I'll get confused at some future point about what type of file I'm dealing with (though the "properties" are correctly reported as a Cineform codec file), so if anyone has a more graceful way I'd appreciate hearing it.
RoyBU wrote on 4/15/2008, 9:41 AM
OK, this is weird having a conversation with myself, but I just discovered the first major problem with my method: After Effects 6.5 won't import files with the m2t extension, which means every time I go to AE I'll either have to render out a separate file or make a copy with the avi extension. (Or fork out the dough for AE CS3, which I hear does import m2t.) Rats.

Any other suggestions?
johnmeyer wrote on 4/15/2008, 9:46 AM
Right-click-drag the replacement file to the file you want replaced, in the Vegas Media pool.
RoyBU wrote on 4/15/2008, 12:15 PM
Yes, right-click-drag into the media pool is quicker than what I was doing, but it still requires an individual action for every clip to be replaced, right? That's what I was hoping to avoid, since there are hundreds that would have to be replaced.
Rosebud wrote on 4/15/2008, 12:26 PM
If your are running VP8.0b, have a look at this post.
johnmeyer wrote on 4/15/2008, 12:34 PM
Rosebud, your script requires Vegas 8, is that correct?
Rosebud wrote on 4/15/2008, 12:58 PM
Yes (Vegas 8.0b).
johnmeyer wrote on 4/15/2008, 2:08 PM
Yes (Vegas 8.0b). That's what I thought. I have 8.0b, but have not installed it due to all the problems reported.
RoyBU wrote on 4/15/2008, 4:45 PM
I also thought of another way to do this. In the project with the original m2t clips I saved it as an EDL text file. Then I opened that text file in a word processor and replaced all instances of "m2t" with "avi". Then I opened that EDL file in a new Vegas project and it loaded all the avi files with all the cuts and edits I had made so far.

I'm sure the script you point me to is easier and I will try it as soon as I get up the gumption to upgrade to 8.0b.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
johnmeyer wrote on 4/15/2008, 5:47 PM
Roy,

That is pretty darned clever. Congrats!!
Laurence wrote on 4/15/2008, 7:15 PM
That EDL solution is clever!
RoyBU wrote on 4/15/2008, 7:20 PM
Thanks. It really only is useful for a project with basic edits, though. For example, in my project I had one clip that I had speed up using the event velocity envelope and it looks like that did not get recorded in the EDL.
RoyBU wrote on 4/30/2008, 1:19 PM
Just wanted to let Rosebud know that I did upgrade to 8.0b and used his script to change hundreds of clips. It worked without a hitch and saved me vast amounts of time. Thanks so much for making this script available!