Trimming down Captured Media in FCP?

[jabooth]

Hey everyone,

I recently started converting all 64(!) of our old VHS-C home movies to digital.

I've imported them using FCP yet as I'm using a VHS player+miniDV camcorder to get them on I have no device control when capturing.

I've been trying to stop the capture after the tape has finished playing yet on numerous occasions I have 5-10mins of soothing yet utterly useless (and space consuming) blue screen due to me missing the end. As you can appreciate, after so many tapes this wasted space is really starting to add up - is there an easy way to trim down my raw captured .avi's to remove the useless footage?

I could fit an extra tape on my scratch drive if I could just remove this from the end of some of my captures!

Thanks,

jabooth

 

[AviationFan]

jabooth:

Yes, you can do that. Take a look at the FCP manual, Volume IV, section "Overview of the Media Manager":

Delete unused portions of media from your hard disk
You can break your media files into smaller files by using the “Delete unused media from selected items” option. This option analyzes what portions of each media file are used by your current selection, and then creates new media files that contain only the necessary media. You can use this option with the Copy or Recompress options, so only a limited amount of new media is created. If you use this option with the Move or Use Existing options, smaller media files are created and the original files are deleted.
Note: This is a good way to free up disk space or create smaller media files from subclips that originally refer to one large media file.

What you could do is create sequences with only the desirable portions of all your clips, then trim your media files as described above.
- Martin

 

[jabooth]

Martin,

I had seen this as an option yet was unsure if a simpler method was available to me.

I'll have to try a single tape and see how it goes - I'll report back!

Thanks,

James

 

[-DH]

is there an easy way to trim down my raw captured .avi's to remove the useless footage?

How are you managing to capturing with FCP in an AVI format? FCP uses QuickTime. If the files you capture have a '.av' on the end of the file name, that isn't an AVI file - it's typically indicative of capturing to a drive that hasn't been properly formatted (FAT32).

As far as being able to capture just what you need - either watch during the capture process so you can stop it at the right time; or dub the footage to DV tape then log and capture only the parts you actually intend to use; or learn to use Media Manager (which is often called Media Mangler).

-DH

 

[jabooth]

How are you managing to capturing with FCP in an AVI format? FCP uses QuickTime.

My bad, they are .av's (in my mind I stuck the 'i' on!)

As far as being able to capture just what you need...learn to use Media Manager (which is often called Media Mangler).

Herein lies the problem. I've tried the following process:

1. I split my footage into 2 subclips (using a marker at the start and one at the cut off point of my footage, then using modify, make subclip)

2. I delete the unneeded portion and open the remaining portion into Media Manager (right click media manager)

3. I set media to 'use existing' and enable 'delete unused media from selected clip'

However, my file size remains the same (hovering over the green graphs reveals I'm not altering the length of my clip either).

Could someone verify I have followed the correct process in order to use media manager to delete unneeded portions of clips? I tried the same process yet instead of creating subclips, just setting in / out points on the clip and loading it straight into media manager yet I got the same result (i.e. nothing )

A quick step-by-step would be extremely appreciated- all I want to achieve is the removal of the last 5mins of some of my clips, nothing fancy.

Thanks guys,

James

 

[LethalWolfe]

Your step #2 isn't clear to me 'cause When you make a sub-clip there's no way to "delete the unneeded portion".

Here is what I did for a quick test.

1. Opened the clip I wanted in the viewer.
2. Set my In and Out points around the footage I want to *keep* and made a subclip of that footage.
3. Select the sublcip in the browser, right click, "media manager".
4. Set Media to "copy" in the drop down menu and select "yes" for "delete unused..."
5. Set my destination, hit "okay" and a new clip is created.
6. Delete my original source clip that I now no longer need.

The reason I selected "copy" is because if FCP screws up in the middle of the process it just screws up making a copy and it doesn't screw up my source footage.


Lethal

 

[jabooth]

Lethal,

Followed your steps exactly yet still the green bars remain the same length! I've attached a screenshot showing what I see. (looking at 48-2 at its subclip)

Of note, include affiliate clips outside selection and include master clips outside selection are both ticked and grayed out - is this what is stopping the resize? If so, how to I access this option?

Thanks,

James

 

[klangfeld]

fcp mediamanager

hi there,..

did you solved the problem wih the mediamanager,.

have the same problems..

thx in advance