How to split up a 4GB clip into smaller pieces?

[Sam Renkin]

I'm running into problems editing in Vegas Pro 9e with .m2t files from my Sony CF recorder that are 4GB in size (many of my shoots are continuous programs of an hour or more). The large files are causing preview window issues (black), waveform display issues in the audio timeline, and rendering issues. I have 6GB RAM in my Core i7920 system - I'm thinking that's not enough handle 4GB files.

So, I could go buy 8, 10, or 12 GB of triple channel memory, or I could split the large clips into smaller chunks. Since this is a far cheaper option, how do I do that without bringing them into the timeline? Since they're not tape, I can't just capture a smalller piece of them. Please advise?

[Bryan Cantwell]

Have you considered using Cineform to transcode your native files? It makes editing *much* easier, even on a system like yours (and mine, same specs). Cineform Neoscene

[Sam Renkin]

Hi Bryan, I own Neoscene but I thought that would only make a larger file?

[Bryan Cantwell]

It will definitely make a larger file! But that larger converted file is much easier for the CPU to read, and using the Cineform file should free up enough processing power to make Vegas run smooth again... It's about how much the computer has to work to decode the video before it can play it, the less time/power spent decoding, the better.

[Sam Renkin]

Thanks I'll give it a shot!

[Sam Renkin]

Okay - Cineform Neoscene wasn't much help here because I recorded these clips as DV files instead of M2T. So, I used Quicktime Pro to convert them to AVI files, but Vegas won't allow me to drag them into the project folder. So then I converted them to MP4 files (much smaller, less than 1GB each. I'll see what happens when I get back in front of the project tonight.

This has been an ongoing challenge for me - the maximum file size recorded by my Sony MRC1 CF recorder is 4GB. Everytime I shoot a continuous program of 30 minutes or more, I get files at or near this size. But Vegas chokes on them in M2T or DV form. Yet, I've digitized HDV tapes with clips of much longer duration (16-18GB files) with no problem on the timeline. Any insight and/or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

[Bryan Cantwell]

You might also try Mpeg Streamclip to convert to AVI. Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows

[Adam Stanislav]

If they are in the MPEG format (which, judging by the m2t extension, they should be), you can use VideoReDo to split them into several smaller-sized files without re-encoding them, so you lose none of the quality. It even allows you to trim it to very specific clips, which you can import into Vegas separately.

Though, quite frankly, I suspect that the size of the files is not the true cause of the problems you are experiencing. After all, whether it is all in one file or in a number of smaller files, it is the same amount of data Vegas has to process. I mean it's not like it reads everything into the memory and keeps it there at all times. Of course, if you are only using portions of the file, then splitting the file into very specific clips, trimming off all unnecessary data, may help. And VideoReDo is quite good at that.

[Sam Renkin]

D'ohh! The MP4 files had no audio. I'm now converting them to MOV files (with audio). If that doesn't work I'll try MPEG Streamclip, which I use to extract video files from DVDs.

Thanks for the input guys!

Sam

[Arthur Maravelis]

Can anyone recommend a program to simply split or combine files without re-encoding? Seems like a simple thing but I haven't seen one that's mature and reliable.

[Leslie Wand]

what are your original files? dv or m2t?

you should be having NO problems with either with your system specs - and if from a cf card you should be using either the ru_utility or device import to bring them in.

[Arthur Maravelis]

Source files are mts from a Panasonic HMC40. I render in Vegas 10c to m2t, mp4, mpg. Tried TsRemux and TsSniper with some success but prefer something that handles all these formats.

I'm amazed Vegas cannot do this - import a video file, split it and resave the parts in the same format.

[Leslie Wand]

arthur,

"import a video file, split it and resave the parts in the same format."

it's called editing and from what i recall vegas does it....

am i missing something obvious?

[Arthur Maravelis]

I hope I'm not missing the obvious...

I want to split a file and save the parts WITHOUT re-rendering. From what I can see this isn't possible.

[Leslie Wand]

ah, sorry.....

don't know what files the camera puts out, but smart rendering isn't generally available afaik. dv, hdv, mxf do but others....