Another New Boy!

[richard221]

I have just converted several old video tapes to digital (mpeg2) format and have ended up with some very large files - 1 - 8 Gig!!

 

I may be trying to do something that VP is not designed to do but it takes an age to load the file into VP, and then I can't split it. I am using a laptop running Windows 8.1. I have never edited videos before.

 

Some help would be appreciated.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

I can't speak for how VP runs on Windows 8, but even a large mpeg2 file should load into the program without too much of a problem, although the time taken may be significant (minutes) if it is very large and more importantly how fast your laptop is.

 

For comparison.....PC specs

MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit SP2

Intel Core Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20Ghz, 2.0GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS

 

VP version 3.51. mpeg2 clip ... playing time 25 mins ... size 1.1 Gb

Time to load the clip to the VP media list......1.5 mins

Time to install the clip on the VP timeline complete with all thumbnails present......9 minutes.

 

This was with an empty cache file. Once the cache file has generated, then loading time is much decreased, however you should expect that adding effects, transitions and making cuts will mean delay times simlar to these whilst VP regenerates thumbnails for the new sections.

From a personal point of view I find these times too long and editing is a pain. I much prefer to use VP 2.41 which is simpler and faster to use if your PC is not very powerful.

 

Using VP 2.41 and from a clean cache......

The same film loaded to the media list in 45 seconds and to the sequence line completely in 1 minute.

 

I'll leave you to work out what the difference is.......not the film and not the PC... 2.41 (even if you could get it now, it probably won't play in Windows 8)

 

I would suggest that you convert your video tapes to mpeg2 as smaller consecutive clips (I use a one step "Grabber" card for this) and edit these one at a time. Save the edited clip as a sequence.

 

To do this , click the + sign next to the "Sequence 1 +" prompt above left of the timeline. This will place your edited work into the media list "Sequence" bin as a complete clip and empty the timeline. Load your next clip to the media list and then drag that to the empty time line and repeat the procedure until you have edited all the mpeg2 clips and created all your sequences. With the last addition all your sequences (which will now be complete clips in their own right) will be in the sequence bin and you can then simply add them to the empty timeline just like clips to create your final edit for exporting. Obviously save your project regularly as you work.- your sequences are saved in the.vpj file. Working with shorter segments in this way may be quicker than trying to edit the whole of a long mpeg2 all at once.

 

Nat