New to Vegas, AVCHD advice

ptr727 wrote on 12/21/2008, 10:40 AM
Hi, I am a software engineer, but I am new to video editing, and would like to ask some general advice.

I purchased a Canon HF11 HD camcorder, took it with me on Safari in Africa, got back and purchased Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro Pack, and now I want to get going making content.

I want to create output in various formats, and for various regions, i.e. Blu-Ray DVD (NTSC), regular DVD (NTSC and PAL), YouTube content, and YouTube HD content.

While on the trip I used 16GB SD cards to record the video, and every night I copied the card contents to my laptop. I now have a directory with several sub-directories each containing a copy of the memory card.

1. What is the difference between using the import AVCHD menu, and just copying all the MTS files?
I understand that due to the SD card being FAT32, the MTS file are maximum 2GB segments, will the import concatenate these files into one scene if a scene extended past 2GB?

2. When I use the import AVCHD menu, and I specify the output folder to be ".\Media\HF11", Vegas creates the MTS files under a ".\Media\HF11\AVCHD\PRIVATE-00000012" directory. Is there any way I can get it to use the directory I specified instead of the two other directories?

3. When I created the project I was asked to choose NTSC or PAL, is there a way to create multiple output types, e.g. a NTSC DVD and PAL DVD (I have family in NTSC and PAL regions)?

4. Can you recommend an online tutorial or a book to help me get started?

a. One complaint so far, I wish Vegas would remember directories and re-open the file and folder dialogs at the last location, this is standard Windows behavior, it is such a pain to have to navigate over and over and over.


Thank you
P.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 12/21/2008, 3:11 PM
1. The file size limit is 4 GBs, not 2 btw. When you import the files, they will stay as separate clips. As for continuing the recording to a new file immediately, it depends on your camera. I don't think there's a camera that does that yet.

2. You don't have to "import" these files with the importing function. Just drag n drop the m2ts files directly to vegas.

3. Completely ignore this brain-dead dialog that asks you what kind of project you will be exporting. You are the perfect example why this dialog should be asking you to match media instead of letting you pick a template from that stupid list. In fact, your HF11's 1920x1080 footage size doesn't even exist in that list. So, go to the Project Properties dialog, and use the yellow icon to match media with one of your m2ts files in order for Vegas to use the right project properties that will let you export in many different formats and sizes without problems.

4. I would really suggest that you first use the interactive help that comes with Vegas (on the help menu, and as a popup the first time you load vegas). The interactive help really helps understand the logic behind Vegas. Plus, Sony has WMV tutorial files on their site too. If that's not enough, then I guess you can look into buying training DVDs. But I would suggest you first exhaust the free ways.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=771
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=vegas
http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/forum/viewforum.php?f=5
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/09/19/crash-course-on-sony-vegas/
And there quite a few .vf files that you can download and "reverse engineer" to see how these projects were built.

a. They changed that behavior with version 9. I didn't like it either.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 12/21/2008, 9:12 PM
On 're-open' a folder. You can open the folder in Windows Explorer (and create a shortcut), and then simply drag your files from there into Vegas (timeline or project media).
ritsmer wrote on 12/22/2008, 12:47 AM
Yes - and if you use Ivans method, then first set up your Windows to show thumbnails for the videoclips - that makes the selections much easier.
Also remember, that you can set the sizes of the thumbnails via TweakUI. Here on my 24W-screen they are 180x180 giving a good impression of what the chips show - and you can drag such a thumbnail directly to the time line.
Probably you have taken some stills also. If you mix all stills and video in 1 folder and show the thumbnails sorted on date you really have a good base for editing such a travel-adventure video as you think of.
ptr727 wrote on 12/22/2008, 12:04 PM
Hi, thank you all for the advice.

About the 2GB file size, I understand that FAT32 can do 4GB files, but the HF11 formats the SD card FAT32, but creates file in 2GB chunks.

I have one sample clip that is about 28 minutes long, and it is represented by 2GB + 2GB + 850MB files on the SD card. When I imported these in Vegas they ended up as three files.

When I use the camera included Pixela ImageMixer 3 SE software to import the video clips from the camera, I see one clip in the UI, and the resulting import is one 4.8GB file.

I want to avoid using ImageMixer is because I cannot tell it from where to import video. I must either have the camera with AC power, don't get me started on why AC power, connected, or I must have an SD card in a reader. When I travel I copy the SD card contents to directores on my hard drive, and ImageMixer does not support being told where the source files are.

Do you think there would be a difference in rendering between the three files placed one after another and the one reconstructed file?
Eugenia wrote on 12/24/2008, 6:58 AM
It should be just fine, no dropped frames. Try it.