P2: How do I get MXF files in order onto timeline?

Paul Anderegg wrote on 1/7/2013, 12:08 AM

I just bought Vegas Pro 12 because my Movie Studio 12 software cannot recognize P2 MXF files. All seems well, except for one horrible problem that renders any P2's benefits useless. I can import the MXF files into the Projects Media box in Vegas just fine, but this is where my problem starts. P2 generates RANDOM file names, so each time I press the record button on my camera for each shot, it gets a new random file name. After importing the P2 clips, I attempted to drag them onto the timeline, which worked fine. What did not work fine was that they were all out of order, seemingly randomly placed.

I removed them from the timeline, then selected views in the Project Media box and chose details. I then clicked above modified box, until the clips were arranged in the Projects Media view in the proper order they were shot. I then dragged them onto the timeline, but they still show up all jumbled. I shoot TV news, so shots of the victim going into the ambulance being the first shot, and the paramedics doing CPR on him at the end of the video, is just wrong.

So, I am new to P2, and hoping someone has the solution. Al I want to do is plug in my P2 camera, import the selected clips for the story I want based on the date/time, and place them onto the timeline in the order they were shot/created. I render the raw story footage into three separate files in the order the clips were shot, and manually rearranging a dozen or more clips per story renders any speed advantage of P2 worthless. It will be faster to use firewire and simply use the real time playback ingest tool to get a real single simple AVI file to work with.....except this means I just wasted $600 on Vegas Pro 12 for MXF comparability. :-(

Please help!

Paul

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 1/7/2013, 6:28 AM

Sounds like the problem is with the camera, not with Vegas. While i do admit it would be nice if Vegas recognized the modified sort order while importing instead of always using file name order, it's hardly Vegas' fault that the camera is generating random file names.

How many files do you typically have from a shoot? If it's not a huge number, you can simply double-click on them one at a time while they are sorted by date and Vegas adds them to the timeline in the order you double-click them. A few dozen files should only take a few seconds this way.

Try looking for some of the free file renaming programs available out there. Most of them can rename the files by date order.

ddm wrote on 1/7/2013, 11:41 AM

I just sorted my "contents\video" folder by "date last modified" and clicked and dragged all of the mxf's onto the timeline and they were all in order, and that included the camera's breaks for file size and camera stops and starts. It was an hour long concert that spanned 2 p2 cards so I brought in the second card's "contents\video" folder right behind it and that was in proper order as well.