Replacing media files

PigsDad wrote on 6/28/2004, 8:05 AM
I have a project I am working on, and I would like to work on it on my laptop while on vacation for a couple of weeks. The problem is that the laptop does not have a lot of disk space, and my raw DV footage for this project is 72GB.

Can I render the raw footage to a more compressed format, bring it to the laptop to do my editing while on vacation, and then bring the .veg file back to my main Vegas machine after vacation, replacing the media files with the original DV files? Will this work? Any gotchas? Also, any suggestions on what format I should compress the original DV files down to? (I probably need to get it to 4-5GB.)

Thanks!
Kurt

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 6/28/2004, 9:10 AM
I've done exactly this before and it worked very well.

I used the Cinepak codec and created new 160x120 15fps .avi files at a very high compression level. The resulting files were a tiny fraction of the size ot the original DV files (maybe 1/25 or so). They were good enough to make all the rough cut editing decisions and check color correction, timing, effects, etc.

The reason i chose .avi is so that the small files could be exactly the same name as the original files. That way when i started up Vegas on the "small" computer it simply used the smaller files with no questions asked. After copying the finished .veg file back to the "large" computer, it once again used the original DV files with no hiccups. I only had to make a few tiny timing adustments due to the frame rate difference and then was able to render.
PigsDad wrote on 6/28/2004, 9:52 AM
Thanks for the comments. It sounds like it should work without a hitch.
logiquem wrote on 6/28/2004, 11:20 AM
You could also try mpeg (just rename your files extension to "avi" with an utility like Ckrename) or H263 for better comression efficiency.
mrs_smiths_lad wrote on 6/28/2004, 2:52 PM
When I even suggest taking a Laptop on vacation to do some work my wife slaps me sensless... :<
PigsDad wrote on 6/28/2004, 6:01 PM
Well, the "vacation" is actually visiting the relatics, so it doesn't really count. :-)

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I ended up rendering the files as .avi, using the DivX encoder. I found I could render them 320x240 @29.xxx fps with pretty decent quality, and still reduce the filesize to 1/27 of the original. When I get back from vacation, I should just be able to replace the DivX .avi files with the original DV .avi files.