Multiple files for one movie: Understand & thin?

Gkc wrote on 5/16/2008, 9:50 AM
Can I get several opinions on this. Am using Sony Vegas Movie+DVD Architect (Vegas ver 6.0, DVD ver 3.0), on WinXP-pro PC. I made a test movie, then created/burned a DVD to play in home DVD player connected to TV. Vegas seemed to (in one fell swoop) create multiple files for the one movie (and DVD) itself, including:

------------------------------------
My Videos folder…
FamilyMovie.dar
FamilyMovie.mpg (maybe created in a different action like "save as mpg", right?)
FamilyMovie.mpg.sfl
FamilyMovie.sfk
FamilyMovie.vf
FamilyMovie.vf.bak
FamilyMovie.wav
------------------------------------

Questions are…

a) What are all these files for (just quick layman's terms greatly apprecaited) and do some "always go together", like in pairs? Which ones are "critical" for what? For instance, to create a DVD, I'd need ____, ____, and ____. To just play movie in Windows, would need ___.

b) Can I delete any of them and easily re-make if needed later? Will anything not work if I delete such and such?

c) There are also lots of "sfk" files now (one for every original source avi file like this… TripToFlorida.avi + TripToFlorida.avi.sfk). If I decided to toss out this whole movie out, can I ALSO go into all the avi's and erase out all the "avi.sfk" files (and leave the avi files, of course)?

Thanks,
George

Comments

Terry Esslinger wrote on 5/16/2008, 10:34 AM
The .wav, .vf, .mpg, & .dar files are keepers. The full Vegas version uses .veg files to save the information instead of the .vf file.
Chienworks wrote on 5/16/2008, 10:41 AM
.vf is the Vegas Studio project file (easier to understand when you know that Vegas Movie Studio started life as "Video Factory"). This contains all the work you did on the timeline making cuts and transitions and effects and titles, etc. This is the file that lets you go back and continue working on a video project after you've closed Vegas.

.dar is the same thing for DVD Architect.

.vf.bak is a backup of the .vf file. Vegas automatically renames the previous .vf file .vf.bak so you can go back to it in case you mess something up.

.mpg is an MPEG file.This is the video format used to produce DVDs.

.mpg.sfl contains the markers that you placed on the timeline to create chapters on the DVD.

.wav contains the rendered audio. DVDs can use either uncompressed .wav files or compressed .ac3 Dolby Digital files.

.sfk is the image of the audio waveform that you see on the timeline. Any of SONY's programs create a corresponding .sfk file every time you open a file containing audio.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/16/2008, 9:32 PM
bottomline: 1. not delete these files 2. keep them together in one folder
stewpot_47 wrote on 5/22/2008, 12:41 PM
Could I just say thanks for your posting. I am new to the forum and VMS and typical for me just went in and made a few videos of my partner showjumping, each version getting better and so i now want to tidy up and 'delete' the correct files.Your post helps.

I created folders for:
1. Raw files from my camera
2. Temp
3. Final rendered videos. Different formats

Each had a version number. I am trying to build up to HDV.

I had had success with DVDs and recipients have enjoyed them.

I have a Media centre to Toshiba LCD screen, and want to render for that High Def combination. I found the render time on my pentium 4 excessive at 10hrs. And may have to transfer the intermediate file to the media centre for rendering. That creates the next problem of multiple files multiple folders, multiple computers. In other words not a system.

So I will have to sit quietly and design how I am going to work where I am going to store things and how to clean up afterwards. Any tips would be appreciated. I know RTFM and should have done so but good software should be intuative and so I like to learn by doing rather than reading!!!

SOrry for a long post.

Stewart