How to add small media files to Vegas Pro 11 independently of their excessively large parent files

[Paul Beller]

there are few pro formats which you can import into vegas, chop them the way you like and render only those little fragments that you want to use later without recompression.
i assume your large files are not pro files (e.g. mxf) and all you can do is do the chopping and render with high bitrate so that you would be unable to find any distinctive differencies after re-rendering.
but you intend to use those output files to produce another videos, so it is not perfect solution as you would be producing third generation videos – the quality will descend.
so it seems the better way is to find an outside application in which you can chop your files and save only fragments you need without recompression. virtual dub may help, mpg2cut2, dvdshrink for dvds… it really depends what is your input format.

[John Rofrano]

[Paul Belter] “…but you intend to use those output files to produce another videos, so it is not perfect solution as you would be producing third generation videos – the quality will descend.”

Not if you use a digital intermediary format like CineForm or Avid DNxHD. These formats are meant to be rendered over, and over, and over, again with almost no visual quality loss so I agree with your solution.

Here is the workflow that I would suggest: Use the trimmer to make subclips of just the clips you want to keep. Drop all of those subclips on the timeline and create named regions around them. Then render the regions with a digital intermediary codec or even Sony MXF HD422 50Mbps which holds up well to multiple renders. Finally start a new project and edit with the smaller rendered files.

You can use VASST MarkerMaker to quickly create the regions with the name of the active take and VASST Render Assiststant to render those regions using the region names as filenames. Or you can do it manually.

Note: In the interest of “full disclosure” I am the author of MarkerMaker and Render Assistant 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Paul Beller]

yeah, instead of my bla bla bla i should just say what i would do. and it would be exactly what john said. i would go for mxf 50 mbps 422 on the output. if you need to re-render once or even twice you don’t really need lossless intermediates. the client or even you will not be able to point differences between master and the rerendered file.

[Lee Honrad]

Thank you, John and Paul, for your prompt and extremely helpful reply posts.

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome. As Paul said, you and your customer will not be able to see any degradation in quality with just a few renders of Sony MXF.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com