A question for the FF gurus.
My video footage is from a S-VHS camcorder.
(I have a lot of tapes that I want to edit).
When using the av input I can only capture clips on the fly.
This leaves me with large video clips.
I then have to manually cut these huge clips into individual clips.
(very slow and tedious process)
My question is:
Is there a way in FF to do an optical scan of the video and splice it into different clips?
If not is there a cheap software program that can cut the video into individual clips.
I used to use much cheaper hardware&software that was able to do this.
Regards
Newbie
I capture using an s-vhs deck. Use the capture assistant (I think that's what it's called) module to record clips you want while you're watching it from the FF monitor. Hit record to record, and stop during the parts you dont want (you probally knew that)
MAke sure you disable "use windows sound system" when capturing analog clips or audio will be out of sync.
Once all your clips are captured, you can re-arange them in FF before exporting them to Premiere.
Good luck. It works great for me. Im not sure if I capture "on the fly". I just use whatever the default is when FF opens.
Thanks for the reply
I am doing the same thing you are.
This means a LOT of back and forward shuttling of the VCR to capture all the clips from a tape.
Each clip then needs to be trimmed again because manually pressing record/stop you never get the beginning and end of the clip.
(One only wants to do this step if the clip is to long)
Lots of programs have an optical scene detection system that allows you to capture the raw footage in one file. The software then splits the file into small video files on for each scene.
(This is not a 100% process but a really good starting point)
Then you delete the clips you don’t want and trim the ones that need trimming.
You can get a free on at www.scenalyzer.com
The problem with this one is it will not work in XP.
I have 30 tapes to edit so manual clip selection is going to take forever.
(Doing even one 45 min tape manually takes forever)
Anybody have another idea?
This may sound a bit crazy, but it it is real important, consider using an OS that Scenalyzer supports. (Make the machine dual boot.) Does Scenalyzer support W2K?
Thanks for the reply
I tried to do something similar.
I capture the video in avi format using FF then move it to a pc with Windows ME.
The footage was split into separate avi files using scenalyzer software. I reviewed the clips on the Win ME machine.
So far all ok.
The problem came when I loaded the new avi files into FF. FF crashes with a Clipper.exe error. The error is so severe that Windows XP freezes and I have to manually reboot the system.
FF imports avi files and converts them to div format fine if the avi was created using FF.
I tried various settings in scenalyzer but was unable to create an avi file that FF will load.
Any more ideas?
One thing you might think about is that Premiere (and most NLE's)are non-destructive editing. I am doing the same thing you are and what I often do is capture large clips. Then in Premiere I just use the same clip, set different in and out points, and drag it to the timeline. Sometimes this can be quicker than, as you say, starting and stopping the VCR frequently, although some of that is inevitable.