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File name problem inputting to Vegas 10 from SD cards
Hi all,
Any tricks for batch renaming footage from multiple cards into one Vegas 10 project. On my first project, loaded the first card, and when I went to load the second, the file names were the same and would have replaced the first card footage. I then had to manually change each file name form the first card before I proceeded.
Any way to avoid the manual changing of what could be 100+ files?
Dan.
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7 Replies
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On some cameras you can reset the file names internally, or with a small software program that comes with the camera. I sort them by the time stamp in win explorer. For complex projects I still do a manual rename before bringing the clips into Vegas. If a multicam shoot then I put each cameras clips in its own folder, then sort and rename.
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[Dan Myers] “Any way to avoid the manual changing of what could be 100+ files?”
In general, dragging and dropping the files to your hard drive is not a good workflow. You should be using the View | Device Explorer (Ctrl+Alt+7) within Vegas Pro. That is the correct way to work with SD media and will give each file a guaranteed unique filename on import and you won’t have this problem. It will also stitch any split files together because of the 4GB file size limit on SD media.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
If it is any help, there is a ‘free’ utility – Bulk Rename Utility by TGRMN Software that will do this. I have used it before and it has proven a great timesaver.
Bob
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I’ve also used Bulk Rename Utility when I ended up with files from multiple cards and duplicate names. I renamed them according to file date.
The best workflow is like John says – use Vegas Device Explorer to import, or use whatever software came with your camera (Panasonic HD Writer in my case), because that will rename the files, usually by date/time of shooting. Make sure your camera clock is correct!
There’s no way to avoid duplicate filenames on AVCHD cameras because they capture to a Bluray file/folder structure so you’ll always have files like 00001.MTS, 00002.MTS…
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I recently tried a long way round to get my latest download of clips from the camera so that I could have meaningful names for each clip. By meaningful I mean names that reflect where the shots were taken.
I have a Sony camera that comes with a program called PMB which isn’t much use except for one thing. The program lets you preview all of your work & do some preliminary preparation.
As I look at each clip I can keep it as is or if I don’t like anything in the clip I delete it then & there. Sometimes I find that longer clips only have a portion that I would want to keep. The program allows for a new trimmed copy of original. I can also easily save screen shots for possible usage in the same project.
As for renaming the clips the program only allows for doing one at a time which is hopelessly slow & never done.
Once I have reviewed everything both Video & JPEG’s I imported the file into Adobe Photoshop Elements. I knew that this would create thumbnails for the video clips as well as the stills.
I can then select a range of thumbnails of either video or JPEG’s Or a combination of both & then do a multi rename. Once the video files are renamed I delete the video clips from the Photoshop Elements catalog.
I found that this was a much easier way to find clips that I wanted to use in Vegas since the clips all have descriptions. This approach helped when starting a project about our last holiday which visited many places. I can’t imaging doing the same thing if I was just updating files of the grand kids.
Thanks in advance
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Thanks to all for the responses…I will try your suggestions.
Dan.
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Some cameras allow you to preset a prefix in order to keep unique filenames in multi-camera shoots. So camera 1 would record “100001.mts” and camera two would start with “200001.mts”, etc. Check your camera manual.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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