Deleting the end part of a clip
 

Final Cut Pro does this through a Media Manager, how is this done in Premiere? Does it re-compress the entire clip? I'm capturing Hi8 tapes and sometimes there is only 1/2 hr of footage but since its analog it captures the entire tape. I want to delete the blank video at the end of the clip.

You can create in and out points in the "Source" window or drag the clip to the timeline and trim it there. What format is your video? If the original his Hi8, you had to digitize to some computer literate format. Whatever you've used, make sure the project settings are the same.

If you've captured as DV (such as using a DV camera pass through), as long as you stay there there'll be no recompression. Any damage was already done when you went to DV.

If it's not DV, it can get dodgier in Premier. If avi, then VirtualDub can help. There are several tools that can do this for both PC and Mac.

I don't thing you're understanding me. This is Hi8 footage passed through the camera and captured as dv. The old 8mm tapes can hold up to 2hrs. Since it's analog you can't log the capture, so if you leave it will capture the entire 2hrs of tape no matter how little footage has been filmed.

Ok so you double click on the source clip set the in and out and drop it into the timeline. Sure I did that but the only way I can see of cropping it is to export which re-compresses all the footage.

Again the question is does Premiere allow you to crop the source clip without re-compressing it?

I'll give it a shot.... with your project open, on the Premier screen you will find on the
top left side the Project (has the file names there)... just to the right, top middle you
have the source window. Click on the file name and drag it over to the source window.

On the source window you should now see your footage... there are at least three
buttons and or sliders at the bottom of the source window that allow you to play, shuttle or jog the footage in time.... again, on the source window to the left of the play, shuttle and jog controls you will see several buttons... mouse over them and they will reveal the names of the buttons... for now identify the far left " { " button... its called set in point

and also identify the next button just to the right.. " } " .... its called set out point

Ok... now hit the play button... the one in the middle of the source screen... your footage will start to play back... look for the blue timer marker that is creeping from left to right that is showing you the time of the footage... with your mouse click the blue timer marker and drag it to the part you want to take out of your footage and let go of the blue timer marker... now with your arrow keys on your keyboard (left and right) adjust the footage by fine tunning where you want the footage to end....

now, remember where you found the " set out point button " } " , click it...

now take your mouse and put the curser right in the middle of the source screen and click, hold and then drag the footage down to the time line and put the footage on the
line that says " video 1 " you can also drag the footage from left to right on the time
line... drag the footage this time to the far left...

So far this has answered your original question....

now just for practice... go back to the source screen... mouse click on the source screen, hit the home button on your keyboard... notice you are now at time zero.... hit the right
arrow key on the keyboard until you see the timer go to around 10 .... now hit the "set in point " button.... now hit the right arrow key again and stop when the timer is around 20... now hit the "set out point ".... now with the mouse click in the middle of the
source screen and hold, drag the footage to the timeline..... put this footage at the end
of the footage we cut first....

now you can play it back by clicking in the timeline area, hit the space bar on your keyboard... see its all the way you cut the footage and the source is still up in the source
window...

this is simple editing...

now click on that last small piece of footage we put on the timeline, and hit the delete
button on your keyboard...

play around a little and you can cut the footage anyway you like....

Pete.... also as I understand it.... when you ingest the footage from tape...

start the ingest, watch the footage, when the footage is complete just stop the ingest..
you don't have to ingest the entire 2 hours of footage/black... most of the time I let
scene detect see the black and the ingest stops there.... that is unless you have let
the tape record the black on purpose... like stripping the tape...

Pete, Premiere has Project manager too. Be aware though that it cannot trim MPEG sources, like HDV. If you work with DV, no, it won't recompress the whole clip. Basically you would cut the portions to any timeline you want, it doesn't mater where for this purpose. Only thing that matters is that you select the portions you want to keep. Then go to Project - Project Manager and work your way there, it's almost the same as in FCP.

But for your very purpose, I would recommend using the freeware MPEG Streamclip. That app works wonders, allows you to trim, compress, convert almost every video file to whatever else.

Thx Jiri this was what I wanted to know.

Your welcome...

PremPro capture has a setting "stop capture on dropped frames".

When enabled, the capture will stop the moment your video on the tape ended.

It doesn`t work with analogue sources :)

It should work
 

It might depend on the particular setup - works fine at my place. I am right now capturing VHS tapes. VHS player is connected to a Sony Z1, firewire to PC. With the mentioned box checked, capture stops when there is no more video on the VHS tape - I think what PremPro is looking for is the sync signal, when that stops, it triggers dropped frames, so capture stops.
Hi8 tapes can be captured two ways: either in a D8 camcorder or in a Hi8 + a digital camera. I am not sure how it would work with a D8 camcorder, but with the first setup it should work just like it does with my setup. Come to think, it might just work the same way with a D8 camcorder which would also loose sync if there is no video recorded onto the analog tape.

Drop frames might work but it introduces another problem. If it encounters any drop frames anywhere during capture it will stop. I don't want that either. I wouldn't want to come back 2hrs later only to discover 10 minutes in it hit a drop frame and stopped. When I capture using FCP I have drop frames unchecked for the same reason.

Thanks anyway good to know. Using the Project Manager to crop end off is working out for me.

Ray: While you were trying to be helpful you misunderstood what I was asking. I know how to edit, I needed to know how to trim the source clip in Premiere because the client wants the unedited source files.

I think y'all are in violent agreement. Project Manager is a good way to go. Or,if you just set IN and OUT points, you'll create another file (eg a "render") but the frames in the new file will be unchanged in any way as long as you haven't applied any effects, etc. to the sequence. PM and IN/OUT are basically two ways of accomplishing the same thing: best quality file without blank footage.

Lol

Exporting seems to take less time then the Project Manager route but I was afraid of loosing quality if it was re-compressing all the frames again. Good to know that isn't the case.

Btw, the client received the first batch of files and he was complaining about that small horizontal line Hi8 creates at the bottom of the screen. I told him on the old crt TVs it wouldn't be visible because you don't see the entire screen, but today's flat screens you see everything. I'm going to have to charge him extra if he wants me to crop that out because its going to take forever to do that to 80 hrs of footage.

I think you should test that first (flat LCDs displaying this overscan line) - I highly doubt even these high end flat screens display the whole picture like broadcast monitors do. And for this exact reason - even hi-end HD camcorders often store VITC into picture, which IS visible as a single horizontal line on broadcast minitors, but not on consumer sets.