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Add a "Save as" option in the editor (with an option to include destructive cuts)
Vegard Vestmo
Crackerjack
I'd really like a "Save as" option in the editor. As things work right now, if I want to split up a recording I first have to create a copy, then do the appropriate edits to each copy. Not a very convenient workflow.
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Comments
This used to be an options and they removed it. It was very convenient and it seems silly to have removed it.
You could do your edits, make a copy, then undo the edits on the first recording, but it's still not as convenient as "Save As...".
Previously, "Save as" was somehow linked to the original session. So, if you couldn't delete the original session without it affecting the "save as" session.
This is the workflow my workflow: copying the session. Hover over session - settings -> manage -> copy. Then, I edit the copied session.
This is a very common feature on other VMS systems, and it needs to be implemented. Does not make sense for teachers to copy the video before editing.
We used to be able to edit a video and save it as a new session. That was removed a couple years ago.
I don't believe there is any replacement for that functionality.
I have a faculty member who had 7 students do 5 minute presentations during one of his classes. He wants to save those presentations as individual video sessions. He needs to take a 2 1/2 hour video and save 7 sections which are 5 minutes long.
Here’s the workflow which would have been possible using Save As:
Instead, the professor now has to:
The old workflow (which is no longer possible) was much more efficient. All editing and renaming was done on the same Panopto session and within the same browser tab. There was far less clicking, waiting for pages to load or refresh, and waiting for new sessions to be created.
I think the worst thing is the resulting videos are 96.7% wasted space. We only wanted 5 minutes of video but each session actually contains all 2 1/2 hours of video. We’ve just hidden 2 hours and 25 minutes of it. Instead of a total of 35 minutes of “new” content (5 minutes x 7 students), we have 17.5 hours of “new” content (2.5 hours x 7 students). He also has to wait for the edits on the files to process before he can verify they work as expected or do any additional editing.
This shortcoming also overlaps with Panopto's "clips" functionality. For us, clips don't make sense for most of our use cases. Usually faculty want to take only part of a recording and use it within another video, but clips insert the entirety of another video. Sure, you can set the start and end points of the clip within the destination video, but it's not an intuitive experience. (You also can't remove or hide any content from the middle of a clip which feels... arbitrary?)
If I wanted to insert a 2:13 piece of video from the 58:47 long Apple presentation yesterday, I wouldn't imagine I would need to insert the entire hour long presentation, hide the first 22:10 and then hide the last 34:24. Nor would I expect the entire 58:47 video to remain in the timeline after I had applied those edits, but have 96% of it be greyed out.
It's just more intuitive to think about inserting small chunks of video than a huge video which you then need to edit down inside the destination. It would be one thing if while inserting a clip we had a nice UI with a player, the ability to zoom in on the timeline and fine grained playback controls, we could specify the exact start and end points, as well as hiding parts of the middle of the video, and then only the pieces of the video we actually wanted were inserted to the destination, but that's not the way it works.
For most our use cases, I think it would make a lot more sense and be far more efficient if sessions could be edited and saved as snippets (pieces, excerpts, fragments???). These could easily be re-used in other content. Instead of inserting a 10 minute long video, it could be edited down and saved as a short 45 second chunk which is easy to insert and may be reusable in more situations due to being more concise.
When these snippets (or clips) are inserted into a video, users could also be offered the option to insert them permanently (so they become just another piece of the destination video) or as they are now (if the source file is edited, those changes will be reflected here). Tell users the differences between the two options and then insert the content as they requested.
Currently if a clip is edited, those changes are always reflected in any videos in which the clip is inserted. I don't know if that's very intuitive or helpful to users. (I understand the theoretical utility as you can make a change once and then have those changes reflected in multiple locations, but how many people use that and do so... effectively?) Maybe that could be optional instead? After editing a clip, could it provide you with a list of videos which use that clip and prompt you to update all, some, or none of them?
And when a clip is deleted, maybe it would make sense to offer the user the option to permanently insert the clip within the destination video instead of it losing the content forever?
In short, if users are going to create and store content in Panopto, you should provide them with better ways to find and reuse that content more easily. That makes them more efficient.
Maybe a good first start would be giving users an easy way to see all the content they own? I don't believe that's possible currently and it astounds me.
I found two related requests:
https://community.panopto.com/discussion/1373/workflow-for-chopping-up-a-long-video
https://community.panopto.com/discussion/1263/add-a-save-as-option-in-the-editor
@Elba Rios as an FYI, the edited session still counts as having the same length in Panopto even if you edit a 2 hour session down to 30 seconds.
This FR should at the very least be under consideration, especially considering the new pricing model Panopto is moving to that charges for stored hours.
Yes, the "Save As" used to be a great feature, I don't why they ever got rid of it.
Vegard, yes your suggestion above seems like a good idea, good feature to have in the editor, maybe Panopto could explain why it was taken away, unusual for them to take away good functionality in my experience, anyway if this was the Eurovision Song Contest, this would get my vote, so yes I have given it my vote from the Irish University Voting Group!
Bumping this. Would be nice with clarification from Panopto if this is indeed in the works, or at least give us a reason why the feature isn't available.
Bumpty Bump! , many Teachers are asking for this. It will also help with GDPR as teachers can make a new version without parts that are only virtually edited away.
I see that an earlier Feature Request has been archived... I'll paste it below for reference because there are a lot of great ideas that could perhaps be implemented in a safe way.
There are so many ways this could be implemented in a safe and limited way, so I am hoping to open the conversation again!
Respectfully,
Bonnie P.
Destructive Editor (Archived)
Caitlin McCabe Administrator February 2020 edited February 2020
Original Post
Andrew Labuda, 3/12/2018 at 9:53 AM
My Idea is to allow an editor to remove portions of the session if wanted. Currently, edits do not remove the content but simply hide it. If you were able to mark an edit as a "final version" and remove the edited out portions of a stream, it could reduce the amount of storage needed for larger recordings that have been edited down a lot.
Response
Jon DeGroot, 3/28/2018 2:28 PM
I agree with this. The other area it effects is with captions. If you hire out captions to an external party through the Panopto integration, they caption the entire unedited video which is more expensive.
Also, if you try to use Amara.org to caption a video with edits, the timing on the .srt file is inaccurate because Panopto requires timing for the entire unedited video.
Taylor D., 5/2/2018 at 11:10 AM
We have occasionally captured things that we would like to permanently remove. I feel this option could have other uses. Maybe have it hidden in an advanced edit mode? soft edit/hard edit modes?
R. Judd, 12/10/2018 at 11:54 AM
Being able to work with a final edit version for captioning, have the clipped-out segments GONE, is really important., if we are going to allow instructors to request captioning on videos t
I agree that this is an important feature for higher ed! Please reconsider.
Is this feature under consideration?
New semester, new bump on this feature request. Come on Panopto, you can do this!
I'm surprised this hasn't gain more traction! We have users that copy videos to edit them into mulitple, shorter sessions. This is easiet for the user, but it can really drive up the number of stored hours.
It would be great if everyone could have a destructive editing subfolder in their My Folder. That could be another way to cut down on the accidental deletion of content.
Please implement (or bring back) this feature. We have faculty would would be more willing to use Panopto if they could make edits this way, but retain their original copy.