Doing transtitions with HD

[MrA]

I'm working on a video that is about an hour long that was captured in HD. Which means, there was no time code as it was captured as MPEG-2. I have to manually go in and find the scene splits and manually make the cuts. Which is no big deal.

My problem is, I want to use the default cross-fade transition, but, as I drag one clip, the rest won't follow, unless I group them. This is kind of a pain, as there are about 30 clips, and the gap gets very big. Is there an easier way?

I haven't tried this, but, one thought was to put all the clips into the project tray, then send them to the story board, then let the story board do it?

[Alptonay]

If you want to use cross-fade transition as default transition just click "file/preferences" and then find the "default transition", click "browse" and choose "cross-fade", then click "ok". that's all..

[Ron P.]

Copy them or import the clips to the Project Tray>StoryBoard. Then right click, and select Add to Time Line. This will also give you a dialog box, where you can make some settings, including transitions.

[MrA]

No, thats not the problem. That is set to default. The problem is working with the clips themselves. HD is captured as an Mpeg-2 file. There isn't any time code. Therefore, I can not do automatic scene splitting. I have to manually find the scenes by watching the video and making a manual cut. I go through the entire video till all the scenes are cut at the proper place. Now, it's time to make those scenes tranistion. Sliding each scene over the next scene works fine, but, the scenes down the timeline do not follow, leaving a gap. The further you go, the bigger the blank gap gets.

I was looking for an easier way to do this. An hour long video took me maybe 90 minutes to cut, but, took close to two hours adjusting the clips for proper transition.

I still havn't tried it, but, it makes sense to me to do the cuts and send the clips to the project tray, then to the storyboard, then back to the timeline via the dialog box from the storyboard.

Just a lot of tedious work for something that should be automated.

[GeorgeW]

I go through the entire video till all the scenes are cut at the proper place. Now, it's time to make those scenes tranistion. Sliding each scene over the next scene works fine, but, the scenes down the timeline do not follow, leaving a gap. The further you go, the bigger the blank gap gets.

If you use Track Selection, you can select the clips to the right and shift them all to the left at the same time (so the gap doesn't grow as you drag clips to the left).

Regards,
George

[DarrenD]

@MrAmigo2121
I think you might want to try out what vidoman said if you want a standard <n> frame transition for all your clips. The transition can be the same or random. It will certainly not take 2 hours to do it.

I assume you have all your clips on the timeline, gaps between them don't matter, and that they are all on the same video track. Select the "track selection" tool then left-click the text "Video 1" on the timeline at the left (assuming clips are on Video 1). This selects all your clips. Now drag and drop to the storyboard (project tray->storyboard). From here you can then put them all back on the timeline (use another video track and then delete "Video 1" - or simply delete first then add to timeline track "Video 1"). All your gaps will be gone and all clips have the same transition duration. Very easy. Try it on a small subset of clips first to see the approach working if my explanation is not clear.

Hope that helps
Darren

[MrA]

If you use Track Selection, you can select the clips to the right and shift them all to the left at the same time (so the gap doesn't grow as you drag clips to the left).

Regards,
George

Thanks George, that is exactly what I was looking for.

[G-Davies]

Hope you don¡¦t mind me butting in and asking a question about playback to do with HD footage from a Sony HDV. I am using MSP 8 which plays the MPEG2 files in the source window very smoothly but when I switch to the preview window or go full screen the picture is very erratic, I have tried lots of different setting but still no joy any suggestions, I am using an Intel E6600 2gig ram and 512 ATI 1650 graphics.

[MrA]

Hope you don’t mind me butting in and asking a question about playback to do with HD footage from a Sony HDV. I am using MSP 8 which plays the MPEG2 files in the source window very smoothly but when I switch to the preview window or go full screen the picture is very erratic, I have tried lots of different setting but still no joy any suggestions, I am using an Intel E6600 2gig ram and 512 ATI 1650 graphics.

Naw, don't mind a bit. What I have learned is, use proxy files, EXPECT bad play back, and all will be good. Your final product is what is of concern. All my "finals" have been flawless. (with the exception of bad editing habits, that is)

Your PC is working very hard at a minimum of playback review. I have a lot of PC horsepower and it still strains on playback within MSP. I just came to terms that the playback preview and final production are extremely on the "way off" scale. Meaning, it's the final burn that makes the difference.

What I do, is make the final vid a mpeg file, then I actually use VS10 to burn the DVD, but, I burn to the hard drive, not directly to disk, then, I use another program to basically "copy" that burn to DVD.

I have max memory and big drives and dual vid cards, but, that does not gaurentee a clean burn. PC's burp. (mine needs an antacid now and then).

In summary, just because the playback in the editor is not what you expect, does not mean the final will be the same.

Burn a test copy to the harddrive, then use software that can read that burn in preview. Saves a lot of DVD's..

[G-Davies]

I¡¦ve made some interesting progress, I have turned the proxy file facility off so I¡¦m just using the computer raw power and even with video effects applied I thing I can live with the results.
If I use the proxy facility with a very low setting it only gives me the same preview results as the original hi-res files so I will work with the original hi-res mpeg files for a better editing result.

Improved means to unimproved ends?