Can I save my veg files and remove the video files from my hard drive? Would I be able to recreate my project if needed at a later time? Could I recapture the tapes and reconstruct?

Any files that were captured in Vegas Capture can be recaptured (recommend you also save the "sfvidcap" file). To recreate your project, you will need the original tapes, the VEG file, and any "additional media" used in the project such as WAV files, pictures, etc...

Thanks Edward - I though I could. I saw so much in the class here in Atlanta - but didn't have Vegas yet . I hope you guys make it back here next summer so I can put two and two together!

Glad I had an opportunity to make it down that day. It was great to meet Spot in person and get together with Gary and Tim again. All the Sony guys were great too.

You mention capturing in Vegas and saving the sfvidcap. Does it make a difference if I capture using scenealyzer? I have a wireless mic going to the 2nd channel.

Although this is possible I have to point out it may be a dangerous
thing to do. Yes you should be able to recapture exactly what you
captured the first round, but what if your not able to. What if you
are a few frames off or some tape etc. is missing.

Personally I much rather make an extra backup on DVD's or
another harddisk (fairly cheap to buy these days and a big one
can store multiple projects usually) to make sure I can easily
go back and have another copy somewhere.....

I wouldn't mind making a backup - but at 20 gig's a game, I couldn't afford the time to burn, the disks or hard drive space. I'll just have to let the mpg be my backup and not worry about recreating my veg file.

Capturing with Scenalyzer is fine AS LONG AS you can capture an exact copy. For example, if you just capture a tape, the first segment may start at a slightly different point UNLESS you have taped a short piece on the front so it can split based on date/time.

For example, suppose the first segment on the tape is 40 minutes long. If you don't have, say, a 30 second header on the front for it to find the beginning of the first segment, the rewinding may cause capturing to start at a slightly different point.

I always make sure I have date/time scene detection on when using Scenalyzer. If I could enter batch ranges in Scenalyzer, I could consider using it full time instead of Vegas capture. Right now I use Vegas capture for everything except my 4-channel audio segments.

One thing you CAN do with scenalyzer is take a series of clips and have it record to tape. It can then bring it back in with file names intact.

pardon the ignorance, but what is the sfvidcap file for?

It's the file that saves the information from the Capture program. You can have different sets of files with different sets of tape names for each of your projects. It make recapturing much easier.

much thanks for the answer Edward :)

Is'nt there a way to save the whole project with the video that was already captured?
Then save it out to dvd as a data file?

There's no reason why you couldn't store the actual video files on external media. However, remember DV-AVI is 13Gig per hour meaning you would need 4 DVDs to hold ONE hour of footage. I'd rather just keep the master tapes.

Gotcha!

You can save the VEG file and select "Copy and trim media" button in the "Save As" dialog box. This will save only your veg file and the pieces of the media files you actually used. It will cut the remainder of the unused video files.

Thanks. Thats just what I needed. I'm only doing 30-60 second spots so it should fit on a dvd.

But there ARE some disadvantages to this "Save with trimmed media" method:

1) you can't get back the "unused" sections without a recapture anyway.

2) The audio is separated from the video - they will be in two separate files!

3) Not ALL media types will be trimmed.

"The audio is separated from the video - they will be in two separate files!"

Does this matter if all the 'trimmed' materal is stored in the same folder?

"Not ALL media types will be trimmed"

What media will not be trimmed, and will it still be moved to the designated folder?

Does this matter if all the 'trimmed' materal is stored in the same folder?

It does if you expect to be able to drag the AVI file to the timeline and get both audio and video.


What media will not be trimmed, and will it still be moved to the designated folder?

Formats like MPEG. DV-AVI will trim fine but many other formats will not. You could test it out with the formats you're likely to use. I don't know of an actual list anywhere.

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel : Any files that were captured in Vegas Capture can be recaptured (recommend you also save the "sfvidcap" file). To recreate your project, you will need the original tapes, the VEG file, and any "additional media" used in the project such as WAV files, pictures, etc... -->>>

Edward- where's the default save location for the "sfvidcap" file?