View Full Version : Drag from player to editing timeline?


Joe Marler
February 16th, 2011, 10:26 AM
Is there a way to drag a clip from Windows Media Player, VLC, etc directly to the edit timeline of SpeedEdit2 or Premiere Pro CS5?

I have extracted AVI and AVCHD clips from the longer original files using non-encoding utilities. After reviewing the extracted clips in WMP, VLC, etc, I'd like to drag certain ones to a NLE for further editing.

It can be done with WMP but it's unwieldy: Play clip, right-click "show list", right-click "open file location", then drag from there to NLE. These steps must be repeated each time.

Is there some other player or method which allows dragging straight from the player to the NLE?

Warren Kawamoto
February 16th, 2011, 02:01 PM
Why not just review your extracted clips in your nle?

Joe Marler
February 16th, 2011, 03:42 PM
Good question. Because I have thousands of clips which I've tagged using an Excel spreadsheet. The final editor uses Excel filtering/sorting to locate clips he needs. He then clicks on a hyperlink in Excel which launches the clip in a player for review. If he wants the clip, he then drags it to his timeline.

The only problem is dragging to the timeline could be simpler. I'd like to hear any further advice or suggestions.

I guess the the player would have to support a Windows drag/drop event for export, not just import. I tried WMP 12, VLC 1.1.7, Media Player Classic 1.4.2499.0, QuickTime Pro 7.6.9, and RealPlayer 14, but apparently non of them do.

I found how to reduce a couple of clicks this way, but still can't drag straight from the player to the timeline.

- Configure VLC as default player
- In VLC select View | Playlist. The current playing file shows in a separate panel. The Playlist pane is persistent and will appear next time VLC is launched.
- In VLC playlist, right click on file and select "show containing folder". Drag from there to timeline.

System details:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Premiere Pro CS5
Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bit
Motherboard: EVGA P55 FTW (A59 BIOS)
CPU: quad-core Intel i7-860 @ 3.8Ghz, hyperthreading on, RAM: 8GB DDR3
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D14
System disk: 300GB Velociraptor, 10k rpm SATA
Data disk: 2 x 1.5TB Barracuda, 7200 rpm SATA, RAID 0
Video: EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX-275 896MB, driver: 8.17.12.5896(258.96)

Seth Bloombaum
February 16th, 2011, 05:44 PM
Perhaps the NLE could be the default player for the filetype. Then, a double-click or hotlink should open the file in the NLE.

This would be set up in windows, default programs. Haven't played with this in Win7.