File name problem inputting to Vegas 10 from SD cards

[Colin Morris]

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.

[John Rofrano]

[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

[Bob Moyer]

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

[Matt Crowley]

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…

[Paul Gregory]

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

[Dan Myers]

Thanks to all for the responses…I will try your suggestions.

Dan.

[Stephen Mann]

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