Video Space Hog, what should I save for translation later?

[John Rofrano]

Hi Lora, 🙂

How many hours of footage do you have that is taking up 2TB? When you say “RAW M2TS” files I assume you are just talking bout the files that come from the camera. Those you definitely need.

Translation is an audio process. There is no need to keep anything other than your final video for translation. What I would do is complete your project in English. Then once it’s complete, render that as an MP4 file to give to the translators and ask them to provide you with a WAV file of the translated dialog.

When you get the WAV file back, drop that WAV file into your original project and line it up to be in sync. Then the tedious part is creating a volume envelope on your original English dialog track and mute your dialog but keep the music demonstrations. Then finally render with the new translated audio. If you are making DVD’s you can just render the video once, and then render each translation as a separate AC3 file. These will become the audio tracks that are selectable on your DVD (but I know you were doing this on-line so you may have to make multiple copies of audio with video).

~jr

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

[Loralyn Staples]

Hi John 🙂
Thank you for your direct, concise, helpful answer! I totally understand all that you are saying, and I think I can do it.

You assumed correctly: The M2TS files are my raw files straight out of my camera. I filled up 2TB with about 40 hours of finished, Rendered HD video. I saved all stages of my editing, afraid to throw any of it away. So I have the Raw files, (those are the real hogs), MP4’s, and .flv versions, plus all my VEGAS Project files.

I’d like to get rid of the RAW files, because they are the real hogs, and I don’t know if I could even FIND what I need at this point, because I didn’t change the file names, so they are just a big ugly number.

The only issue remaining is that my videos occasionally have english “titles” pop up to emphasize a learning point. If I were to change these into another language, I would have to have the “vegas project” file with all my edits, and in order for THAT to populate my timeline, I would still have to have all the raw files, correct?

I sure hope there is another way to change titles without accessing the RAW, original file.

Again, thanks for your time, John. I’m just starting a new online course, for beginning fiddle, and I want to do it RIGHT!

–Lora

[Tyson Onaga]

[Loralyn Staples] “The only issue remaining is that my videos occasionally have english “titles” pop up to emphasize a learning point. If I were to change these into another language, I would have to have the “vegas project” file with all my edits, and in order for THAT to populate my timeline, I would still have to have all the raw files, “

If MyProject.veg contains:
Track1 – clip 1, clip 2, clip 3, clip 4, … clip N
Track2 – title 1 … title 3, title 4 … title N

Then you could render just Track 1. Insert a new track and use the rendered media. Mute the original Track 1. This should dramatically speed up re-renders.

To handle your subtitles, I would use nested projects. E.g.:

MyProject2.veg contains
Track 1 – rendered video from MyProject.veg Track 1
Track 2 – MyProject2Subtitles.veg

Now copy MyProject2Subtitles.veg; e.g.:
MyProjectSubtitles_english.veg (copy of the original, unmodified)
MyProjectSubtitles_german.veg
MyProjectSubtitles_french.veg
MyProjectSubtitles_spanish.veg

Modify each language version as necessary. If you were to execute:
copy MyProjectSubtitles_german.veg MyProject2Subtitles.veg

in a command box, the next time you open MyProject2.veg, all it’s subtitles would be in german. Alternatively, you could open MyProject2.veg and use the Replace command on the subtitle .veg object.

[John Rofrano]

[Loralyn Staples] “I’d like to get rid of the RAW files, because they are the real hogs, and I don’t know if I could even FIND what I need at this point, because I didn’t change the file names, so they are just a big ugly number. “

2TB drives are less than $99. I would never get rid of the source. Archive it to a drive and put the drive on a shelf. The “ugly numbers” are probably the date and time the file was written. It shouldn’t be too hard to tell which is which from those dates.

[Loralyn Staples] “I sure hope there is another way to change titles without accessing the RAW, original file.”

Along the lines of what Tyson suggested, you could render a copy without the popups. Then start a new project just to add the popups in different languages.

~jr

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

[Loralyn Staples]

Tyson–
I have printed your excellent suggestions so I’ll have them when I start this project. Thank you so much for the tips! –Lora

[Loralyn Staples]

John–
Thank you! You settled an ongoing argument with my brother whether or not we need to save the RAW files. (of course he wants to delete them because he didn’t have to stand in front of a camera for 200 hours!)

I will absolutely go buy another hard drive, and consider it an archive.

You are very much appreciated.
I’m sure we’ll chat again!
–Lora

[John Rofrano]

Yea, you might want to get USB drives and start a “collection”. With a tapeless workflow, you need to have multiple external hard drives for archiving.

~jr

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

[Tyson Onaga]

costco! 3 TB USB 3 Western Digital HD for $130 (-$15 coupon last weekend) … not to mention the generous costco return policy …

[Loralyn Staples]

Oh, like the Seagates with the removeable base…I’ve seen those. Will do. Thank you!

[Loralyn Staples]

Staples had a 3TB Seagate for $150….I’m not a member of Costco. Thank you thank you!