Vegas Video discussions from 2005 (Q3Q4)

[Declan Smith]

Thanks for all those comments.

in response to:

Originally Posted by Peter Jefferson

1. ((Ive never used it, so id be lying if i tried to work through it.. personally if i need to record more than 2 channels, id be using a mp3 or minidisc recorder.. better quality, and none of this 12bit 32k garbage.. sorry but it sucks... ))

2. ((Batch capture in advanced capture tools within vidcap.. why youd want to index a capture before the capture is beyond me.. but its there.. i usualy just hit capture tape and let Vidcap do the work.

Just to clarify, I used 4 ch sound on a wedding (front stereo mic for atmos & general) and a radio mic on Ch3). 12 bit 32Khz is perfectly fine for this. Let's face it, 32Khz sampling will easily reproduce 15Khz signals (nyquist), and with 4095 discrete volume sampling points, only the purist would be able to tell, especially when played back through a tele! Yes it's not as good as 48Khz 16-bit, but it depends on what you are capturing. For dialogue 32Khz is more than enough in most situations (in my opinion), obviously not for everyone.

As for indexing the tapes, I find it essential. Each tape is labelled with only a number reference. The indexing not only means I have a graphical list of clips, but also in-out points, whether it is 16:9, interlaced or progressive etc etc. My workflow is, take tape out of camera, lock it & index it. When I then come to edit I can glance through the index file, pick the clips that I need (or candidate clips) and only capture those onto the harddisk without having to capture & store all unwanted clips. Also for stock footage I can search a database of tapes and pick out the exact clip * timecodes etc. Most handy. I got fed up of continually playing tapes looking for a particular clip that I wanted. I just spent a day indexing the whole lot once (only takes 5 mins per tape). Job done, no more searching. Big time saver.

At least I know now the limitations of Vegas for both Audio & indexing and as the "capturing" doesn't introduce re-running through a codec, I will stick to Scenalyzer. (unless there's a better way!!)

Thanks all for your input.

[Edward Troxel]

#1 - Is there an option to determine how often autosave...autosaves?

Every 5 minutes


#2 - I have my .veg files saved by name and number... ie: show001.veg
Is there a "shortcut" so that I can just hit, say, F12, and it will automatically save the .veg file as the next in the series?

Excalibur has the "Save Emergency VEG" tool which will save the project in multiple locations appending the date/time at the push of a button (just push that button instead of the standard save button). I believe the new version of Ultimate S may have a similar feature.


#3...oops. OK, THREE questions. Is there an option to set the "fade offset" to a specific fade (angled, straight line) AND duration (say, 10 frames) at each cut?

First of all, go to Options - Preferences - Editing tab and set the options there however you desire. You can also using scripting to adjust the lengths of fades and the types of fades.

[Jeremy Rochefort]

Gents, living in PAL land, I need to make up DVD's for some folks in NTSC land.

Would Sorenson be a tool which can be used for this?

These are training DVD's and are meant for 4:3 viewing mostly.

Any other suggestions welcome.

Cheers

[Boyd Ostroff]

http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/

I have used this going from NTSC to PAL and was pleased. It's a small standalone program that can process batches in the background, works on Macs and PC's

http://www.nattress.com/standardsConversion.htm

People say good things about Graeme's package also (he's a member here), but it only works on the Mac with FCP.

[Mark Errante]

Ok from my previous thread I learned that multi drives are possible and not a problum. Step 1. Now I have done some research about RAID setups from other threads but I am still left with the lingering question.

Which is preferable:

1 400gb hard drive

or

2 hard drives (possible 200/250) hooked up in a RAID 0.

My motherboard is an asus p4p800-e and has:

Promise 20378 raid controller for raid 1/0.

It seems cost wise I can get either 1 400 or 2 200s for about the same.

Also, when Im pricing hardives I see Ultra ATA and serial ATA which should I be looking for? Thanks!

[Mike Teutsch]

Two drives or more. One for programs, (C drive) and one for video and Audio files. If you have three, then seperate for programs, video, and audio. No raid 0, unless you are very brave. Two 200 drives better than one. It is faster.

Mike

[Mark Errante]

Thanks for the respoce. Sorry for stating this first. I have a drive im using for my c: now and want to add more space for video. were dumping documentary footage on and it is way way more then my 150 gb im using for vid now can handle.

So your saying that you would use two 200gb over one 400, and that you would NOT Raid 0 them? I will only be storing video on them and will have the logs and project files backed up, so worse comes to worse I could always online them again.

thanks!

[Dan Euritt]

if you are on a pc, be sure and evaluate procoder.

[Glenn Chan]

The 1 400GB hard drive is preferable. However, you may also want to consider rebate deals on hard drives. Some of them are pretty good. See hot deals sites for your country. You may not necessarily be able to grab a 400GB drive in a deal like that (although it would be preferable).

2- To make life simple for yourself, I wouldn't mess around with RAID 0. It's marginally faster at best (in some cases can be slower), and it does use your time setting it up. And it doubles your data loss. You're probably more productive not RAIDing.

3-

Also, when Im pricing hardives I see Ultra ATA and serial ATA which should I be looking for? Thanks!

Whichever you have hard drive controllers left for. The P4P800-e should have 3-4 PATA channels (so that's 6-8 PATA devices, including optical/CD/DVD drives) and 2 or more SATA controllers. Check the manual or website though.

SATA may need a specific power cable, which your PSU may not have. You may need an adapter.
a SATA drive also needs SATA cables- your motherboard should have come with one.

[Brent Marks]

How do I render back to an m2t file in Vegas?


HDV file format?


thanks

[Mike Teutsch]

Originally Posted by Glenn Chan

The 1 400GB hard drive is preferable.

I am curious as to why you would say one 400 over two 200s. If he is obviously looking for a speed improvement as well as capacity, (asking about raid 0), then it would seem one for video and one for audio would be best, and what is reccommended by software manufactures.

Would like to know why you say one big drive? Is it just for more video room?

Thanks ahead of time----Mike

[John Rofrano]

1. File > Render As...
2. Save as type: MainConcept MPEG-2 (*.mpg)
3. Template: HDV 1080-60i (for NTSC or 50i if you are PAL).

Ignore the fact that the filename has .mpg in the name. When it renders the filename will be changed to .m2t.

~jr

[John Rofrano]

The DVD specification requires that you render to MPEG-2. Most DVD players also have a compatibility mode for MPEG-1 but the quality is much lower. (In fact it may even be part of the spec but you wouldn’t want to use it) WMV9 is not part of the DVD specification. (caveat: although some newer DVD players are beginning to support WMV, you would be hard pressed to find one so unless you own one, and you only make DVD’s for yourself that no one else can use, don’t even consider WMV)

In Vegas your should:

1. File > Render As...
2. Save as type: MainConcept MPEG-2 (*.mpg)
3. Template: DVD Architect NTSC video stream (for NTSC or PAL video stream if you are working in PAL).

That will render your video only. Then to render the audio choose:

1. File > Render As...
2. Save as type: Dolby Digital AC-3 (*.ac3)
3. Template: Stereo DVD (or 5.1 Surround DVD if your project has surround sound)

The reason you want to process these separately is to avoid your audio being compressed twice, once to MPEG and then to AC3.

You can automate this process by using the Batch Render script. Go into Tools > Scripting > Batch Render and select the same two options as above for video and audio. It will process one after the other.

Note: Keep you filenames the same e.g., MyProject.mpg and MyProject.ac3. Then when you drop them in DVD Architect, it will know that the AC3 file is for the MPG file and load them both. Otherwise you will have to manually assign the video and audio.

~jr

[Bennis Hahn]

So I was editing a short a few weeks ago and it was my first time really pushing for the highest quality I could go for. I am curious, however, as to the improvement of working with uncompressed SD footage after it has been dumped to the hard drive. Here is what I did:

Tape (DV) > Hard Drive (DV) > 60i to 24p (DV) > edited at 24p (DV) and rendered as 24p uncompressed avi > CC and grading (uncompressed) > compressed back to DV for audio work.

Now, to my eye, the uncompressed CC and grading doesn't add any sort of "blocks" (assuming this is compression?) to the footage when doing the same with DV footage. The only thing is, how can this be if the footage originated as DV?

Can anyone tell me if I am just seeing things, or if this really makes a difference? The only drawback I see is the large file size, which is significant for me as I don't have unlimited storage.

[Edward Troxel]

Harlow, take a look at Vol 1 #7 of my newsletter where I discuss the entire DVD process including a bitrate chart so your rendered video can be the proper size to fit on the disc.