So again, what's the point of the clip bins then?

And besides, if I read you correctly, setting up folders thru Properties means that every time you want to capture to a particular folder, you need to go back and set it up in Properties (via the check boxes). That isn't very elegant.

Another alternative that I have just gotten familiar with is to use a different capture program. I really like ScenalyzerLive because it puts a date/time stamp on each avi scene (i.e. "20020817 8.14.17.avi" is the title of the clip that was shot on August 17, 2002 at 8:14am), and can thus be sorted properly into bins I've set up using Windows explorer, not VV3. It is then a simple matter to drag the clips, singly or collectively, to the timeline from the explorer window, or alternatively they can be sent to the Media Pool and perused from there.

Certain aspects of Scenalyzer are a bit sloppy, but when used in the manner described above, it's well worth the inexpensive price.

What do you find sloppy about Scenalizer Live? I have a pet peeve of my own, but just wondered what you thought.

You are right that setting up folders via the Properties setting isn't very nice, but it does work, and it's not such a big deal.
The other way we digitized stuff was to name each scene in the upper right hand window of Capture (sorry - don't have it open right now). VV then very nicely numbers the scenes for you.
So you have Carol 001, Carol 002, etc. Then you rename: David 001, David 002, etc. When all is captured, you go to the one file folder that contains everything and drag them (at the Explorer level) to individual folders, which you can then access directly from VV. I think that a lot of your discomfort is simply not being used to this way of working, but once you do it a while, it's really quite easy.
On the other hand, if SF wants to make it even better... ok by me.
Meanwhile, it still really works well, and is pretty darn quick.

>>You are right that setting up folders via the Properties setting isn't very nice, but it does work, and it's not such a big deal.
The other way we digitized stuff was to name each scene in the upper right hand window of Capture (sorry - don't have it open right now). VV then very nicely numbers the scenes for you.
So you have Carol 001, Carol 002, etc. Then you rename: David 001, David 002, etc. When all is captured, you go to the one file folder that contains everything and drag them (at the Explorer level) to individual folders, which you can then access directly from VV. I think that a lot of your discomfort is simply not being used to this way of working, but once you do it a while, it's really quite easy.
On the other hand, if SF wants to make it even better... ok by me.
Meanwhile, it still really works well, and is pretty darn quick.>>

Have you noticed that within Vidcap you can create folders (bins)? My question is: What good are the bins, if they aren't "real" within Windows Explorer? I recently captured 100's of clips sorting them as I captured into a dozen or so folders (bins) I setup in Vidcap. Unfortunately, all of that organizing is only useful within vidcap, and not really even there.

I think that the structure you setup in vidcap should be simultaneously and automatically built in Windows Explorer. Otherwise, you end up having to re-make those folders and re-sort everything (again) in Explorer! That is double work that could be avoided if the vidcap structure were created for real. I'd like to know why it isn't.

You might say that this can be done within the Properties tab, as seperate capture folders. But as already mentioned that is a messy method and way too time consuming, and, doesn't allow you to re-sort files you may have captured to the wrong folder, and if you do re-sort in Explorer, your vidcap file is useless, unless you tell vidcap the new location - which must be done one-file-at-a-time!!

Using vidcap bins makes all of this sorting "seem" easy, you can drop-n-drag the files into any folder you've created, resort, rename. BUT if you go to Windows Explorer expecting to find this nice structure you've set up, you won't, because they aren't real folders. Why not? It makes the "bins" a HUGE tease for clip organization.

And, since vidcap is the program used for tracking captures, this is the best place to do your organizing and sorting. Therefore the same structure created in vidcap should appear in Explorer, which in turn is available directly to Vegas Video for timeline use. If you need to resort or rename, vidcap would be the place to do it, which updates Explorer... this way, the vidcap application always knows where the files are meant to be stored if they need to be recaptured, without you having to manually reassign anything.

I absolutely agree, VW, and hope someone out there in SF is watching.

Meanwhile, by creating your folders in the "real" Explorer, you will avoid all of your difficulties.

And I've found that letting VV search for missing files (generally at startup) is amazing in it's speed and accuracy. If you've simply moved all your files to a new folder, you'll get an option to accept all, negating the "one at a time" problem.
It's a workaround, but give it a try, for the time being.

The problem with being a trailblazer is all those nasty bumps in the road.

wcox31:

As I mentioned, the biggest advantage of ScenalyzerLive, in my opinion, is its ability to name scene-captured video by the shooting date and time. This not only provides a unique ID for each clip, but it also means the clips can be sorted in chronological order.

But ScenalyzerLive is a little rough around the edges in other ways:

(1) If you point it to a folder containin avi files, it lists the contents with picons, fine. But the sort order is often fouled up. When you right-click and tell the program to re-sort on, say, timecode, half the time it will foul it up. Do it a couple of times and it will eventually get it right.

(2) It would be nice to point to a listed clip and play it. You have to right-click and select "play" to make it play. This is a hassle. Also, it would be nice to be able to point to any part of that clips timeline and have it play from that point.

(3) The "Tape Index" feature is potentially very nice, since you can check out the entire contents of a tape in about 5 minutes. But I would like the ability to actually "play" the captured contents, fractured though they may be. Also, the clip length data under each clip is garbage data, representing how long it took to capture the clip while in fast-forward mode. I couldn't care less how long it took to capture; what I care about is how long the clip is, and Scenalyzer could compute that answer based on clip start and end timecodes.

Still, I like the program for the unique timestamps. If I use it for nothing else, it is nonetheless a useful utility.

Since I am pretty new to a lot of this stuff, I may be missing some feature within VidCap or VV3 that can accomplish the same thing. If so, someone please let me know.

Vicmilt:
Setting up the folders first in Explorer only solves some of the problem. You still need to go into vidcap properties everytime you want to capture to a different folder. Or, capture all to one folder, then sort later. I prefer to sort as I capture, since I know where I want the files to go at that time. If I capture a few hundred clips first, sorting later isn't as simple, especially if I don't designate the folder name (or some other "marker") in the captured clip to let me know later which folder to put it in.

In vidcap, I create folders (bins) as needed, usually by scene name, then set the in and out marks for the clips and capture to the folders directly. The clip names typically look like this: TAPE A - livingroom - Bill opens letter - CU.

I know that VV is great at updating the location of media from the timeline. But vidcap is not. I guess though, that since the VV file is accurate, if any re-capturing needs to be done, VV can accomplish it to the proper location on the hard drive.

I confess that you are telling me things that I just never figured out about capturing (which is what I especially love about this forum). I will look into your methods on Monday.

Wonderul response on the ins and outs, ups and downs of Scenalizer Live. I hope to seem more comments on this fine product. By the way, beta of 27 Sept 2002 looks REAL nice.

I also like the option in vidcap to send a bin to the media pool. I just captured an hour long miniDV tape that was three different family events. I created 3 bins and organized the cips into them after capture. Then I open VV to edit the first event and use the send to media pool to load the media pool with just the clips from the first event. Yes, I know I could have done the same thing by capturing to different directories or moving them to different directories after capture but I find it just as easy using bins. I agree it would be nice if bins were real directories.