This was done on Vegas 5:

For the vertical flip do the following (everything will be flipped).

1. go to "track motion"

2. give "angle" under "rotation" a value of 180
(make sure "enable rotation" button is pressed)

-OR-

2. right-click in the schematic on the right and
choose "flip vertical"

I couldn't find an easy way with trackmotion to add 16:9 letter-
boxing (it was stretching the picture instead of cropping), but
if you go to my letterbox calculator you can download a mask
for 16:9 from that page. Make a new track above your current
ones and drop the mask in. Get it here:

www.visuar.com/letterbox/calc.htm

1. add the .GIF to a new track ABOVE your other tracks

2. right-click on the GIF in your timeline and go to properties. Go to the media tab and set the pixel aspect ratio to "0,9091 (NTSC DV)" or "1,0926 (PAL DV)" (whichever applies) and OK everything.

3. now change the tracks compositing mode from "source alpha" to "Multiply (Mask)"

And you are done! You can stretch the event to as long as you
need to cover your complete project length. You can also shift
footage up or down underneath these black bars.

Gary,
I was refering only to the addition of a mask and not 'reframing' the shot (Hugh got his response in while I was still writing mine...).

While I haven't actually done what you say (reframing vertically) I agree it would soften the image somewhat.

So then, if I want a pristine image, just shoot 4 x 3 and shut my hole?

If a true 16:9 camera or anamorphic convertor are out of your price range (or not really warranted for your production), you can either crop in camera, crop in post or shoot with a fake anamorphic 16:9 (or just use plain 4:3).

http://members.macconnect.com/users/...een/index.html

This site explains it all pretty well as I recall.

THANKS ROB!!!!

How do I crop in camera? I have the PD 170 and doesn't that use a crappy anamorphic squeeze?

dynamic ram preview
 

I currently run a p4 3Ghz processor with 1G of ram.
I like to do alot of previews during editing. Will increasing ram to 2G significantly improve the speed of ram renders? On the preferences menu you can alocate as much ram as you need so will doubling the ram halve the speed of ram renders or is it a law of diminishing returns?

Also what is the difference between a pre-render and a ram render? is one faster then the other or do they look different or does one use cpu power and the other just ram?

Why does the pre render disappear after you play with the time line? isnt it prerendered to a temporary file? so why doesnt vegas keep that file for later use if needed?

Shouldn't reduce the speed of them but WILL increase the possible length of them.

Ram Render renders to RAM - Pre-render renders to the hard drive.

If you change something that affects the section of the timeline to which the pre-render applied, the pre-render will be "lost" (technically the file is still on the hard drive). That's why many people prefer the "Render to New Track" option instead.

Thanks Mr Troxel.
I'm slowly working through your dvd guide which I think is very helpful.

DVDA 2 will not register
 

I have purchased the academic ver of vegas 5 + DVDA 2. Vegas registered fine DVDA acts as if it registers then say i have 14 or whatever days left. next time same thing anyone have this problem. Should i just call sony?

Call Sony Tech Support and they should be able to walk you through solving this problem.

Calling is best. If you can't get thru you may try re-registering with your firewall/antivirus disabled.

Dual Display Card
 

I need more screen real estate in vegas...I'm looking at the plethora of dual display cards out there and frankly I'm a bit overwhelmed by the choices. Would I benefit from buying a high end graphic/video card w/ dual display capibilities...or should I just buy a cheaper dual head card? Do these high end "gamer" graphics cards help out with render times for effects in Vegas? What do I need here?

NO reason to buy a high end video card. Lots of people use the Matrox duel head cards without incident.

The gamer cards don't help at all for Vegas.

Get something cheap and quiet (passive heatsink... look at pictures) and with the right outputs (DVI, VGA, etc.) and hopefully with a DVI-VGA adapter if necessary. ATI, Nvidia, and Matrox all make dual monitor cards. I recommend Nvidia since they have better drivers (you can quasi-calibrate your monitor to NTSC bars and tone) and they are cheaper than Matrox if buying new. On eBay, there's lots of old Matrox cards that'll work and those are cheap.

If buying new, go to newegg.com and check out the geforce4 series cards (or the newer but slower performing fx5200 cards).