View Full Version : How can I trim raw DV files without re-rendering?


Brent Marks
May 1st, 2005, 11:47 PM
I just captured a video from my cam...

Only 10 mins is actually video

but the software captured 60mins

How can I cut up that raw DV file... without having to re-render?

thanks everyone

Rob Lohman
May 2nd, 2005, 04:02 AM
1. you could just capture the 10 minute piece

2. any serious NLE (edit software) should "cut" that file instead of re-render it (as long as you don't change anything, like add cross fades or go from interlaced to progressive etc.)

Boyd Ostroff
May 2nd, 2005, 07:11 AM
However... just about all programs do "non destructive editing" which means the file you captured is not actually changed when you cut something out. So sure, you can cut out the part you don't want but it won't save you any room on your disk. That unwanted 50 minutes is going to eat up around 10GB of space on your hard drive. If that's a problem then you will probably need to manually remove the capture file at the OS level.

It's generally a good idea to "babysit" the capture process just to prevent this sort of problem, or you will soon find that your hard drive is full! The best solution at this point would most like be removing the existing file and re-capturing the 10 minute section you actually want, as Rob suggests.

Jack Smith
May 2nd, 2005, 09:28 PM
What NLE are you using? Most allow you to " trim " the source clip.

Glenn Chan
May 2nd, 2005, 10:49 PM
iMovie lets you do what you propose, but it uses the DV stream format which (I believe) allows it to happen.
In iMovie, you can split a clip anywhere and then trash that clip and actually delete it off your hard drive.

In the other editing programs I've seen, I think the quickest way is to render the footage out. This is faster than re-capturing.

In all editing programs, you should be able to make a sub-clip, delete the original media, and capture just the subclip.

Scenalyzer may speed up your workflow if you are capturing from analog (optical scene detection!!!), or want to index a tape first (at high speed) and then just capture what you want. Great program.