what is this (sfvidcap)

kalabula wrote on 3/29/2008, 3:30 PM
I captured a few clips to my hd and afterward was prompted to save the sfvidcap (I dont know what that is). I dont remember having to do this before so I just clicked ok and saved over the old sfvidcap.

Can someone explain to me what this is and how I should navigate it?

Heres a screen shot of what it looked like:
http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h26/kalabula/?action=view&current=sonyvegas.jpg

Comments

Tom Pauncz wrote on 3/29/2008, 5:00 PM
It's the video capture file and is created for each capture session. Contains information about the clips you capture, where you capture it, etc.. You should perhaps save each one with a unique filename, so if ever the need arises, you can go back and recapture clips of that project.

I usually name mine the same as the project name and save it in the same place as the project .veg file.

HTH,
Tom
riredale wrote on 3/29/2008, 5:58 PM
The other option is to capture footage with ScenalyzerLive (DV) or HDVSplit (HDV). Both programs offer unique advantages over the Vegas utility.
johnmeyer wrote on 3/29/2008, 11:01 PM
To expand on the earlier replies, the reason for this file is to let you recapture the tapes at a future time and then be able to immediately use the results with an existing VEG. So, if you save that tiny little VEG file, imagine being able to go back several years from now, capture the same tapes, and immediately be able to open the old VEG file and have all that video appear on the timelines just like it did when you originally worked on the project.

I don't use this feature because I have large hard drives, and also because I prefer to just use the MPEG-2 files from my DVDs, using Womble to do seamless, lossless cuts from the Vegas EDL file. However, this only works because I usually don't need to do more than cuts-only rearrangement of existing video. If you need to alter the video, then this workflow wouldn't be a good idea.
kalabula wrote on 4/2/2008, 2:21 PM
So in order for this to work I would have to have the original tape, which I do not keep after transfering to my hd. So it seems that this would be useless.

I do have a couple hd's for backup so hopefully I wont have to worry about having to recapture any video.

Thanks for the info. thats exactly what I needed to know.
Chienworks wrote on 4/2/2008, 3:15 PM
Now, if only i could get VidCap to stop saying "VidCap was not properly shut down. Would you like to reload your previous project?" every stinkin' time it starts up when i haven't saved .sfvicap .... *sigh* Not only does this get tired after about the 893rd time, but, if i didn't save the project file, how can it open it?
johnmeyer wrote on 4/2/2008, 7:21 PM
Now, if only i could get VidCap to stop saying "VidCap was not properly shut down. Would you like to reload your previous project?"Well, at least for DV, I long ago realized that there was absolutely nothing about the Vegas capture that was better than Scenalyzer, and about a dozen things about Scenalyzer that absolutely blow the doors off the poor capture built into Vegas.

Here's an old post I made describing the great things about Scenalyzer:

Scenalyzer Features

Too bad Andi never decided to do an HDV capture app.
Chienworks wrote on 4/2/2008, 8:06 PM
Well, there is one thing that is better about VidCap. It's installed for free when you install Vegas.