Vegas Video discussions from 2005 (Q1Q2)

Ken Plotin · March 3rd, 2005, 11:55 AM

I'm also using DVDA1.
The area I'm referring to is under "Media Properties"; the blue film like icon.
Ken

Kevin Kimmell · March 3rd, 2005, 03:55 PM

I've been rendering quite a bit lately as we prepare our final screenings and am wondering at what point it's best to deal with the MPEG Encoding.

Initially I was rendering to uncompressed AVI in Vegas and letting DVDA handle the compression. Now it seems that Rendering to MPEG from within Vegas would be the better option since I can customize the render more.

How do some of you handle this? If I have several segments in different VEG files that I will end up putting together for a final render, should I render them all as MPEG and then do the final render as MPEG as well? If so, does it even bother re-encoding?

Thanks,
Kevin

Edward Troxel · March 3rd, 2005, 04:07 PM

The basic answer to your question is: Rendering to MPEG2 comes LAST.

Generally speaking, here's how I handle it:

I will build my project in pieces. As each piece is built, I render to DV-AVI. Once all the pieces are completed, I'll create a "final" project assembling all the rendered pieces. Then I'll render that to MPEG2.

I do the rendering to MPEG2 in Vegas since, as you said, you have more control over the various settings.

If you wish to use Uncompressed AVI instead of DV-AVI, you'll have slightly less loss on the colors. You may or may not be able to notice the difference. I'd try both to see which you prefer.

Jan van den Hemel · March 3rd, 2005, 08:48 PM

Is there a way of deleting the empty space between two clips in Vegas? I mean, like the "ripple delete" function in Premiere and Final Cut.

Edward Troxel · March 3rd, 2005, 09:05 PM

Double-click the blank area. Press the DEL key. If the area does not close automatically, press "F" (Post - Ripple Edit)

To make sure it DOES close automatically, turn on Ripple Editing. However, I leave Ripple Editing off and use Post Ripple Editing instead.

Jan van den Hemel · March 4th, 2005, 04:46 AM

That's excellent, thanks a lot!

Hugh DiMauro · March 4th, 2005, 10:49 AM

Can I capture tapeless location footage via firewire onto a laptop hard drive using Vegas Capture in the same way one uses DV Rack?

Shannon Rawls · March 4th, 2005, 11:58 AM

Yes, you sure can. However, it will not slave to the camera as DV Rack does.

DV Rack is excellent for the "Slaving" function and gives you excellent results for sync timecode and 'no worries' type shooting. Also, you get all those other great functions in DV Rack as well.

- ShannonRawls.com

Edward Troxel · March 4th, 2005, 12:36 PM

Yes you can. The Vegas Capture utility will do this but will require that you manually start and stop it. Besides the alternative of DVRack, you might also look at Scenalyzer Live.

Jon Omiatek · March 4th, 2005, 01:16 PM

I currently use Vegas 5.0 with a dell workstation p4 3.4g 1gb ram and I network render sometimes with another pc with the same specs. It just takes so long to render 2 hours of footage.

Does anyone use Adobe Prem Pro, that has tried vegas as well. Before I make the investment in Adobe's product with hardware I was wanting to find out how they compared.

I edit just started editing in HDV, so both products will work with HDV. My question is really more about SD editing. Considering my HDV work is about 3% of my total editing time, SD being the largest part. Although, I bet that will change eventually. :)

Thanks,

Jon

John Hudson · March 4th, 2005, 02:25 PM

And I learn another cool thing from Edward.

I too rarely use Ripple but have to trun it on from time to time; this will save me some!

Thanks again!

Edward Troxel · March 4th, 2005, 02:32 PM

All three modes of ripple editing can be performed with variations of the "F" key. Just do a search for "Post Ripple" in the help file.

James Binder · March 5th, 2005, 01:02 PM

I need to export rather large sections of video into aftereffects for image stabilization...

Why can't I export as DV instead of uncompressed AVI? Am I losing resolution by doing so? DV is what they are now -- so why can't I just keep it that way?

The reason I ask is that the files are huge as uncompressed AVI.

If not DV, is there another alternative that will save some space?

Thanks --

Edward Troxel · March 5th, 2005, 03:05 PM

The short answer is no. However, uncompressed is probably your best option. And, yes, uncompressed is huge. You could try other codecs - including some of the DV ones, but the results will not be as good. You might also look at some others such as quicktime.

Another thing you could do is frameserve from Vegas to AE but you'll still have to render from AE into something to import back into Vegas. You'd only have ONE uncompressed file that way instead of TWO.

Kim Kinser · March 5th, 2005, 06:11 PM

what about huffyuv?

March 3rd, 2005, 03:55 PM	#782
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	When it comes to rendering... I've been rendering quite a bit lately as we prepare our final screenings and am wondering at what point it's best to deal with the MPEG Encoding. Initially I was rendering to uncompressed AVI in Vegas and letting DVDA handle the compression. Now it seems that Rendering to MPEG from within Vegas would be the better option since I can customize the render more. How do some of you handle this? If I have several segments in different VEG files that I will end up putting together for a final render, should I render them all as MPEG and then do the final render as MPEG as well? If so, does it even bother re-encoding? Thanks, Kevin

March 3rd, 2005, 04:07 PM	#783
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	The basic answer to your question is: Rendering to MPEG2 comes LAST. Generally speaking, here's how I handle it: I will build my project in pieces. As each piece is built, I render to DV-AVI. Once all the pieces are completed, I'll create a "final" project assembling all the rendered pieces. Then I'll render that to MPEG2. I do the rendering to MPEG2 in Vegas since, as you said, you have more control over the various settings. If you wish to use Uncompressed AVI instead of DV-AVI, you'll have slightly less loss on the colors. You may or may not be able to notice the difference. I'd try both to see which you prefer. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 3rd, 2005, 08:48 PM	#784
Jan van den Hemel Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: PAL land Posts: 87	Ripple delete? Is there a way of deleting the empty space between two clips in Vegas? I mean, like the "ripple delete" function in Premiere and Final Cut. __________________ J.

March 3rd, 2005, 09:05 PM	#785
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Double-click the blank area. Press the DEL key. If the area does not close automatically, press "F" (Post - Ripple Edit) To make sure it DOES close automatically, turn on Ripple Editing. However, I leave Ripple Editing off and use Post Ripple Editing instead. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 4th, 2005, 04:46 AM	#786
Jan van den Hemel Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: PAL land Posts: 87	That's excellent, thanks a lot! __________________ J.

March 3rd, 2005, 11:55 AM	#781
Ken Plotin Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 254	I'm also using DVDA1. The area I'm referring to is under "Media Properties"; the blue film like icon. Ken

March 4th, 2005, 10:49 AM	#787
Hugh DiMauro Trustee Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,205	Can I Use Vegas 5 as a Hard Drive Capture Application? Can I capture tapeless location footage via firewire onto a laptop hard drive using Vegas Capture in the same way one uses DV Rack? __________________ Interesting, if true. And interesting anyway.

March 4th, 2005, 11:58 AM	#788
Shannon Rawls Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 853	Yes, you sure can. However, it will not slave to the camera as DV Rack does. DV Rack is excellent for the "Slaving" function and gives you excellent results for sync timecode and 'no worries' type shooting. Also, you get all those other great functions in DV Rack as well. - ShannonRawls.com

March 4th, 2005, 12:36 PM	#789
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Yes you can. The Vegas Capture utility will do this but will require that you manually start and stop it. Besides the alternative of DVRack, you might also look at Scenalyzer Live. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 4th, 2005, 01:16 PM	#790
Jon Omiatek Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 755	Adobe Prem Pro w/ Matrox Hardware Question I currently use Vegas 5.0 with a dell workstation p4 3.4g 1gb ram and I network render sometimes with another pc with the same specs. It just takes so long to render 2 hours of footage. Does anyone use Adobe Prem Pro, that has tried vegas as well. Before I make the investment in Adobe's product with hardware I was wanting to find out how they compared. I edit just started editing in HDV, so both products will work with HDV. My question is really more about SD editing. Considering my HDV work is about 3% of my total editing time, SD being the largest part. Although, I bet that will change eventually. :) Thanks, Jon

March 4th, 2005, 02:25 PM	#791
John Hudson Major Player Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: 32° 44' N 117° 10' W Posts: 820	And I learn another cool thing from Edward. I too rarely use Ripple but have to trun it on from time to time; this will save me some! Thanks again!

March 4th, 2005, 02:32 PM	#792
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	All three modes of ripple editing can be performed with variations of the "F" key. Just do a search for "Post Ripple" in the help file. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 5th, 2005, 01:02 PM	#793
James Binder Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: NY, NYC Posts: 367	Question: Do I have to export as uncompressed AVI? I need to export rather large sections of video into aftereffects for image stabilization... Why can't I export as DV instead of uncompressed AVI? Am I losing resolution by doing so? DV is what they are now -- so why can't I just keep it that way? The reason I ask is that the files are huge as uncompressed AVI. If not DV, is there another alternative that will save some space? Thanks --

March 5th, 2005, 03:05 PM	#794
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	The short answer is no. However, uncompressed is probably your best option. And, yes, uncompressed is huge. You could try other codecs - including some of the DV ones, but the results will not be as good. You might also look at some others such as quicktime. Another thing you could do is frameserve from Vegas to AE but you'll still have to render from AE into something to import back into Vegas. You'd only have ONE uncompressed file that way instead of TWO. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 5th, 2005, 06:11 PM	#795
Kim Kinser Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Voorhees, NJ Posts: 82	what about huffyuv?