Scene detection

good2go wrote on 12/29/2003, 11:10 PM

I've recently defected from Pinnacle Studio 8, and I am really pleased with Movie Studio. However, the one feature that I really liked in Studio 8 was the scene detection when capturing video. Does anyone know if this feature exists in Movie Studio? If it does not, what is everyone doing to detect scenes so that editing is not a major task.

Thanks

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/30/2003, 5:49 AM

You could try Scenalyzer (free) or Scenalyzer Live ($39). The first one cuts up the files into scenes after the fact. (then you can delete the original file) and the second captures with scene detection. There is a free trial of Scenalyzer Live at their web site so you should try it before you buy it to make sure it works with your capture device.

~jr

mmreed wrote on 12/30/2003, 5:55 AM

Movie Studio does not have scene detection. It is one of the few (very few) things that Studio8 does that MS does not.

If youre like me (Im a former Studio user too), the trade off of getting chromakey and picture in picturewas worth it. (I wont even go into the fact MS doesnt crash or have OOS issues that Studio8 does <grin>)

If you see things that you think would be nice to have in MS, there is a features suggestions link:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/support/productsuggestion.asp

I use it often as I come across things. The more people use this, the better programmers can respond to us in future versions.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 12/30/2003, 6:23 AM

Actually, if you're bringing in digital video, MS3 does have scene detection in a sense.

When you're capturing digital video, MS3 will create a separate clip every time it detects a new shot (i.e., the camera is stopped and restarted). Makes things very manageable.

So, it's not quite as sophisticated as Studio, which will detect a scene change every time there's a major change in screen content. But, for digital batch capture, it's quite effective.

maxthepatriot wrote on 1/2/2004, 2:17 PM

I'm new at this too. I have a similar problem. Because it only detects scene breaks when the camera is turned on and off, but not when paused, some of the clips that accumulate in the media pool are large. I only need a few seconds of video from each clip. This creates a problem with too much memory occupied by mostly unused video. Have you found any solutions to this?

Steve Grisetti wrote on 1/2/2004, 2:41 PM

MS3 should break your clips every time your camera is stopped, including when it is paused (at least when you're porting in DV).

The best way to avoid getting a bunch of stuff bogging down your computer that you don't plan on using is to only capture what you intend to use.

MS3 allows you to preview your video, complete with sound. You just hit the capture button when there's something you want, then hit stop when you get to the part you don't want.

I don't know any other way to avoid capturing a lot of wasted footage in any editing program (unless you count Pinnacle's "preview capture", which has its liabilities).

maxthepatriot wrote on 1/2/2004, 3:29 PM

Thanks!! I'll try it out this weekend.

Galeng wrote on 1/2/2004, 3:45 PM

I am not a Screenblaster user (Vegas 4.0 user), but for the kind of capturing you are talking about, check and see if ScreenBlaster has batch capturing capabilities. You can first review your tape and as your review it, set in and out capture points. Once you've marked all the in and out points, you can have the program go back and do the actual capture. Of course, this only works with DV tapes, and you have to have a good time code on your tape.

But it would avoid you getting those big files on your hard drive.

Gaeln