cutting with videostudio 7?

[commedimus]

First, let me state that I have videostudio 7 SE which came with my dvd recorder (so maybe that accounts for my troubles). What I have been wanting to do is cut a few seconds of blue screen from the beginning of an analog capture I did from vcr to advc 100 to computer. I may also want to cut a little off of the end of the capture as well. Simple stuff, yet I can't seem to get the job done with this program. I have read the help manual a few times and it shows how to use either the yellow bars to mark in & out points, I have also done this by marking the very beginning with a mark in point and using the time code to move to my next point and marking the mark out point. My problem is what to do once these points are marked? I should be able to press something to cut the material between these two points shouldn't I? The manual really doesn't appear to make it clear how to actually cut the material. I have tried going to extract video after marking these points but I only seem able to play back the material between these two points. There is an "X" that appears to be for cuting this material but nothing seems to happen when I press it. I know I am likely making some rookie simple mistake, I just haven't been able to find it. Any help is appreciated.

[Tommyknocker]

Interesting. Try again, but this time, do not use the gold bar. Use the "time code" to move to your mark in point. The Reset and Apply buttons should now appear. Select Mark in, move to the mark out point, and select Mark out. Now select Apply. The program now knows which points to begin and end your video clip at. You render here, or drag and drop the clip to the side, if you want to keep the original capture in tact.

[commedimus]

I am still not having any luck as there isn't anything coming up that says "Apply" or "Reset". I will explain how I have done it up till now. I captured with this proram so once I was finshed with the capture it was saved as a generic uvs avi file. I would drag this into the preview window. Because I wanted to cut the first 3 secs of the video I would right away press the mark in button. I would then click through the timecode window (which is just below the preview screen at the bottom right) until I got to 00:00:03.13, I would then hit the mark out button. This represents the material I want to cut. At this point I don't know what to do as there doesn't seem to be any "apply" button etc that comes up. I even wondered if I was having a problem because I didn't save the file as a VSP so I saved it as a VSP with a title, opened it back up and tried the same procedure but no luck. I tried the yellow bar thing as well, but that was harder to work. Am I making a mistake and using the timecode window when I should be using the duration window (to set my mark in/out points)? I find it frustrating as the manual doesn't mention an actual "apply" button or any other way to actually do the cut, it only tells how to set the mark in and mark out points.

[Gees]

Unless the SE version is drastically different from any other, there are at least 3 different ways to trim video in VS7.

Easiest for your purposes (removing a portion from beginning and end) is to set Mark in and Mark out in the Preview Window and on the left side click "Save Trimmed Video".

Hope that helps.

[commedimus]

Unfortunately, when I do that, all that seems to happen is that it actually does save a file of the apparant trimmed portion. But it doesn't seem to apply the trim to the actual file.

[commedimus]

Actually, scratch that. If I mark in and out points, it seems to apply the cut as I can hit the home button and it will take the clip back to my new start point. So, that seems to work but perhaps my problem is in how I save it or render, as that seems to be a rather glossed over aspect of the manual as well.

[Gees]

So, that seems to work but perhaps my problem is in how I save it or render, as that seems to be a rather glossed over aspect of the manual as well.

That is exactly what "Save Trimmed Video" does.

[commedimus]

There might be a missunderstanding. When I clicked on save trimmed portion, it acutally saved the 3.14 seconds I wanted to get rid of in it's own file. The main file otherwise stays as it was (ie. without any cuts). I seem to be able to make the cut and can play it back but if I go into file and try to save (ie. click on "save as"), when I try to open the new file I just get a black screen, it won't play anything. Under file I went back and changed the properties to match the original file , redid the cut, and saved it. The new VSP file comes up as black screen and nothing plays.

[Spicuzza]

You can also use the F3 key to mark-in and the F4 key to mark-out.

When you're in timeline mode press F3 at the beginning of where you want to start the clip, a red line will appear above the video timeline, then press F4 where you want the clip to end, the red line will stop at that point. This makes for a good visual because you can see the position of the red line to the entire video.

This has no effect on your original video, you must render the clip and make sure you check "Preview range" under the option tab.