How to change the file naming convention

[Jeff Harper]

I batch rename (takes all of several seconds to do) all clips from a camera and do this for four cameras each wedding. I've been doing it for years. I use windows.

It is really the only sane way to keep track of clips, IMO. I name them SmithCam1 (001) Smith Cam1 (002), etc. I do it on the card before downloading.

This way you know what you are dealing with at all times and will avoid any and all issues.

Of course if you use FCP or a program that needs the file structure it might be trickier. Happily for me I use Vegas which only needs the raw clips, which is all I download from the card.

[Rob Cantwell]

on the Sony PMW 200 theres a wonderful option where you can define the names of files prior to shoots etc. For some of my other cams I also use Play Memories Home to ingest and manage files, it's not the greatest program i've ever used but does the job, if i have a big number of files, I import them into a named folder which PMH allows you to do and then i use a program called 'Better File Rename' to manage them in the folde rand give them descriptive names, I've noticed that once PMH has imported the files into the computer it marks them with the date/time they were created in the PC and not the date/time they were shot.

[Charles W. Hull]

Originally Posted by Mike Buckhout

For any Mac-users, the Automator.app program can make batch renaming of any files quite easy.

OS X Yosemite has file rename built in, so you don't need third party software. Select the files in Finder, right click, and select Rename. The 'Format' option is probably the best.

[Ron Evans]

Yes I agree that there are ways of managing file naming with good housekeeping but seems silly that Sony have a very good naming process for AVCHD with their transfer software but seem incapable of transferring this to XAVC(S) I think the issue maybe data code which still is not working for XAVC and I suspect this is used in some way by PMB , Playmemories or Content Management Utility. The newer Sony Pro transfer software do not have this feature and in fact Content Browser will not join AVCHD files together either hardly a replacement for Content Management Utility !!!

Ron Evans

[David Barnett]

Bumping an old thread here, but it's relatable. Is there a way to change the file naming convention? I have 2 Sony's which use the 0000, 0001, 0002 etc clip naming. Gets awkward in Premiere having 2 clips of the same name. Is there a workaround for this?

Otherwise does anyone typically batch rename in Premiere or Windows? Or do you just edit as-is with 2 clips of the same name. (I know Premiere CAN edit them as seperate files, it's just annoying occasionally going back to the clip & unsure which one it is).

[Sauro Scroglieri]

quick and dirty method using Windows Explorer (windows file manager):

put in the same folder the files you want to rename.
open that folder as 'detail view'.
click the top bar of the columns to sort the files the way you like.
select all the files you want to rename.
right-click the first file and select 'rename' (check that all the files are still selected)
type the base-name you like (e.g. Gino and Lucia Wedding) and press enter.
Windows Explorer renames all the selected files as "base-name-you-like + a number
Gino and Lucia Wedding (1); Gino and Lucia Wedding (2).....

hope it helps

[David Barnett]

Thanks, it should. I suppose I'll call cam 1 footage a...; cam 2 b etc.

Thanks much, it worked on some old footage I was done with, so I see what you mean.

[Roland Achini]

My experience is (with Sony X70 XAVCHD): Clips which are batch-renamed in Windows cannot be linked to media (and therefore cannot be transcoded). When trying to link to media, a message says "The media is unsupported".

I use a small program "XAVCREN", developed by a group of german videographers, which allows to set a preset (e.g. the date yymmdd) in front of the clip Name. By this way the clips will be batch-renamed to yymmddClip0001, yymmddClip0002, etc.