OT? (or not) Help me work out a DVRack/Vegas/batch capture workflow.

BrianStanding wrote on 2/23/2005, 9:48 AM
I've been experimenting with direct to disk DV capture using my brand new copy of DV Rack. Although I'm using DV Rack specifically , I suspect these questions may be of interest to any direct-to-disk option.

I'm trying to refine my workflow so I can do the following:

1. Capture simultaneously to DV tape and to a laptop hard disk, using a firewire connection.
2. Edit and trim clips captured to hard drive in Vegas. At this point I'm doing just straight cuts, no FX.
3. Create a batch capture list, .VEG file and/or SFVIDCAP file that will let me recapture trimmed clips from the original DV tape at a later date.
4. Wipe the laptop capture hard drive and start over again with captured clips from a new shoot.
5. Once all shooting is done, I want to be able to recapture just the trimmed portions of all the clips from the original DV tapes, perhaps onto another machine.

Parts 1, 2 & 4 are pretty easy and straightforward. It's 3 & 5 I'm wondering about. Here are my questions (feel free to send me off to the DV Rack, Peachrock or other forum if it's not a Vegas issue):

Q1: Will the timecode of the clips on the DV tape match the timecode of the clips on the hard drive, if they are recorded simultaneously?

Q2: What's the best way of accomplishing step 3? I've tried PeachRock's Capture Cutter to generate offline files and a Vegas Video Capture database (SFVIDCAP file). However, I occasionally (not always!) get an error stating that the original clips were not captured with Vegas Video Capture. I'm not even sure if this will do what I want to do. Any other suggestions?

Q3: Assuming the SFVIDCAP and VEGGIE files can be generated, this should be pretty standard Vegas behavior. Any "gotchas" to look out for?

Q4: (and here's the kicker) Would this strategy work with down-converted HDV files from the Sony FX1/Z1? I'm envisioning a process where I could save HDV to tape, save SD DV to hard drive using the camera's "on-the-fly" firewire down-conversion, and then reconform the edit to HDV at a later date by recapturing trimmed clips at the higher resolution.

Is this possible, or am I whistling in the dark? Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Comments

logiquem wrote on 2/23/2005, 11:27 AM
Hi Brian,

Did you check Scenalyser?

The last version allow trimming, joining and splitting of captured clips, thus reducing greatly the hard drive space required for your cuts. And it also have all the recapture tools you need. Maybe a better solution than cutting, recapture of everything...
rcampbel wrote on 2/23/2005, 12:26 PM
Hi Brian,

I use Capture Cutter in the Veggie Toolkit to do your steps 2 and 3. I edit the long captures on the Vegas timeline and mark the parts to keep via Regions (you can use any other markers as well). Then I create new clips from the regions and import the region info to the Vegas Capture program for later recapture. The user's guide has instructions this workflow.

Randall
BrianStanding wrote on 2/23/2005, 1:03 PM
Thanks, Randall. I'll take another look at the user's guide. What about the "not captured with Vegas" errors? Any idea why I'd be getting that with some clips, but not all?
rcampbel wrote on 2/23/2005, 4:16 PM
Brian,

There are a couple of reasons why you might get this error.

1. The media for the event on the timeline must have a Tape Name and Timecode In/Out values. When Vegas Capture captures a clip, it adds the tape name, and timecode in/out values into the AVI file's metadata. Capture Cutter uses this information to create the offline media clip info for recapture. Other capture programs may not set this metadata.

2. The first event on the first track with events is used by Capture Cutter as the source media for creating the offline clips. So, you should make sure that you only have one event on the timeline (two tracks, the first video, the second audio) to make sure that the proper media is being used.

If you want to email me via the email address at the peachrock site, I can help figure out the problem by looking at some traces, etc.

Randall