Replace a bunch of dv files with m2t's at once in Vegas/AE?
 

To make editing possible we convert our hdv m2t's to dv, but when the vegas project goes to After Effects (as AAF) all the .dv's have to be replaced with the .m2t's. I can do them one by one but this is very tedious, any suggestions?

(since this is mostly vegas-oriented, maybe the thread should actually go to the vegas forum?)

AE does not allow you to replace footage for multiple items, only one at a time.

Why not just avoid having to relink files and cut a Cineform (or other HD) intermediate in Vegas, unless there is a reason you find that unacceptable?

If you have to stick with the dv proxy, you could finish the edit in Vegas with the dv proxy and then replace the footage in a copy of the Vegas project before exporting the AAF (You are still restricted to one at a time, though).

I'm just looking for a free way to do it, good intermediate formats all seem to be expensive (although maybe Gearshift is woth a look, pretty cheap).

Yeah, what you suggest is indeed probably what's best, I'd have to replace em one by one but it's not that bad.

The Cineform codec is free with Sony Vegas (you just can't render out to CFHD with other applications unless you buy a Cineform product.). You could edit in Vegas, render to CFHD, import into After Effects and render the finished footage out to a different codec.

Yes but this wouldn't solve the problem of not having fluent editing in Vegas. Post production in After Effects is done on a more powerful machine where real-time HDV editing is just tolerable so that's not really a problem.

What do you mean by "fluent editing in Vegas"?

Currently, you:
1) convert hdv M2ts to DV.
2) cut the DV footage in Sony Vegas.
3) render out an AAF from the Vegas project.
4) import the AAF into After Effects.
3) relink the AAF to the original M2Ts.

Do you actually prefer to do effects work directly on m2t files rather than an intermediate?

Wouldn't the CFHD solve your problem with relinking, allowing you to render back to M2T as a final step after effects work, if that is what you want?

That is correct, but this would require capturing to CFHD before anything else for a proper workflow, right? I guess I'll be able to do this in Vegas? If so, that would be a good option... If the old machine that is used for editing in our workflow can handle CFHD, I'll have to check it out. The effects work is done on a machine that's reasonably powerful, intermediate would be better but m2t files do work alright.


Edit: What would be ideal is that we always keep the files that are actually used in the edit on disk, for easy tweaking without having to log it all in again. I'm just now trying it out and it seems that CFHD takes about a small 20GB/hour, that's not that bad, it's not even double of normal HDV. Could this be correct or am I doing something wrong?

gearshift by vasst actually makes proxy files of dv size from mt2 files to edit than at a switch of one button they switch back to mt2 and back and fourth, its great. www.vasst2.com look for gearshift there is a free trial