Harvesting short clip from longer .avi video and then save

[R. Bastian]

Hello. I am a new VideoStudio user who wants to take raw .avi video sequences and harvest very short pieces, save as a new file, and then save to a flash drive or DVD.

I make medical videos, but want to lift out the relevant few seconds from a much longer video in order to -- for example -- embed it in a Powerpoint presentation. When I mark the in and out points, and then copy what I think is the shortened clip to save in a different file folder, the entire clip is copied, not just the brief marked portion. I might start with a 1.5 GB .avi file; I might mark 80MB as being of interest, but when I try to save just the 80MB to a new folder, I instead get the entire 1.5 GB.

I think you can see I am not interested (yet) in making movies, I just want to harvest brief clips from a large number of too-long videos . . .

[Black Lab]

That is because the "clip" you are editing is not an actual clip, but a virtual one. In VS the real clip is never touched. To make a clip from your edits you will have to use the Save Trimmed Video command.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

Use the scissors to cut your clip into sections.
Select your clip in the timeline.

From the Top Menu¡XClip¡XSave Trimmed Video

This will create a new video file saved to the ¡¥working folder¡¦

[R. Bastian]

Hello Trevor Andrew and Black Lab. It is wonderful to receive the generosity of persons I do not know. I really appreciate it. You gave me something else to try. Unfortunately, when I have tried in a variety of ways to do what you suggested, I continually get the message: "The AVI codec ID cannot be trimmed." I'm not sure what to try next. I understand that there are a zillion compression/decompression schemes, and though the original video was saved just as .avi, I may have an unfamiliar one . . .

[Black Lab]

Please right click on a clip in your library and copy down all the info here.

[R. Bastian]

Hello again,

The properties are

FILE Format Microsoft AVI files
Size 1,350,063 KB
Frame rate: 30.000 frames/sec
Duration 148.000 sec
Data rate 9120.63 kbps
VIDEO compression: AVI decompressor
Attributes: 16 bits, 640 x 480
Total Frames: 4,400 frames
AUDIO compression: PCM
Attributes: 22.050 kHz, 16 bit, mono
Total samples: 3,267,840 samples

Let me know if I missed anything!

[Ron P.]

The Frame size of 640 x 480 certainly is not a traditional DV(avi), and the properties showing it to be MS avi and not DivX or Xvid would lead me to believe it might be an older codec.

Try converting to DV, Type-1 and see if then you have better results with editing it.

With the video clip in the timeline, do not try to edit it, go straight to Share>Create Video File. Select Custom from the menu choices. In the Save As dialog make sure that MicroSoft AVI files (*.avi) is selected, then press the Options button.

In the Options dialog go to the AVI tab, and from the Compression drop-down menu select DV Video Encoder-Type1. **NOTE** With DV-Type1 you are limited in Frame Sizes, which are larger than your source clip.

On the AVI tab and in the Compression menu, see if you have the Codec MicroSoft Video 1. This might also be the codec your source clip uses. You could try creating a video file (ie converting) using this codec.

If you need the audio parts of the source clips, try to match the audio properties found on the AVI tab as well.

Once you have done the above, and returned to the Save-As dialog, provide a name and Save. VS should render a new video file. Then start a new project and try inserting and editing this new video file.

You could also try using a third-party free program called SUPER. It can convert about any file format to about any other format.

[R. Bastian]

The generosity on this site is remarkable. I will try what you suggested, probably tomorrow, as I have a long car trip today. I hope this works!
Bless you!

[Ron P.]

If it does not, post back and we'll keep trying until we figure it out... Have a safe trip..

[R. Bastian]

Your suggested steps worked! (You guys are remarkably knowledgeable.) I fear I may just be working with too old an AVI codec, however, in that after conversion it is displayed with a large black border around it, making the video window smaller. The point of my videos is to demonstrate new technology--a special full screen videoscope, so this defeats that purpose. I may try the third party option. If that does the same thing, then I may have to cast around for another program, or even try Final Cut Express on an Apple computer??

[alanball]

Have you tried putting it into the overlay track and resizing to suit window?