Vegas Video discussions from 2005 (Q3Q4)

Glenn Chan · November 17th, 2005, 01:09 AM

What they are:
If you just do a s-shaped gamma curve in Vegas, that can actually push colors below and above digital black levels, causing clipping and loss of image detail in highlights and shadows. That isn't film-like at all. To get things right, you need to get color curves with points at digital black and white level.

Download them off of:
http://www.glennchan.info/Proofs/dvi...lor-curves.veg

You can read the text if you want. But if you're lazy, open up the first and last clips and save those as presets.

2- Note: You should be using the Sony DV codec (this is the default in Vegas5 and V6), and targetting DV or MPEG2 via DVD architect.
If you are targetting other formats, it may be "computer RGB" color space and these curves are kinda inappropriate. Apply the color corrector filter with "convert studio RGB to computer RGB" or the levels filter.

Enjoy!

Glenn Chan · November 17th, 2005, 01:24 AM

I don't really use MBE but was wondering how you'd get proper levels using it. A lot of the time you want to work with studio RGB within Vegas (16-235 instead of 0-255). MBE always pushes values towards 0-255, which is not what you want.

The following would work, but is kind of a waste of rendering time and MBE's floating point processing:
Use the color corrector, "studio RGB to computer RGB" preset
MBE
Use the color corrector, "computer RGB to studio RGB" preset

The downside is the extra rendering and banding you might pickup along the way.

Joshua Provost · November 17th, 2005, 09:25 AM

Glenn,

A little over or under won't hurt anyone. Particularly, super-whites up to 110% IRE (255) tend to work just fine. Plus, you're going to run everything through a Broadcast Safe plug-in prior to broadcast, right?

Josh

Giuseppe Palumbo · November 17th, 2005, 10:28 AM

Im cant seem to find out how to feather edges on video. for example if im matting someone in another shot but the edges are still a little rough cause of a slight light difference, i just wanna fade the video out onto the other layer. Can anyone help me?

Dale Nicholson · November 17th, 2005, 11:28 AM

Gary,

What's the "Maximum Number of Rendering Threads" I should be using for my machine using Vegas 6? Should I keep it at the default, which is "4" ?

I'm using a Pentium 4 at 3.20 Ghz, hyperthreading, 2GB dual channel DDR SDRAM at 400 Mhz.

--Dale

P.S. I really am learning a lot from your five dvd tutorial. Do you have a learning dvd on Acid 5 or can you suggest one?

Edward Troxel · November 17th, 2005, 11:35 AM

Leave it on the default of 4.

If, for some reason, you want it to behave more like Vegas 5, you can reduce it down to 1.

Edward Troxel · November 17th, 2005, 11:38 AM

Add a border FX using the "Soft Edge" preset (adjust as needed). At the bottom of the FX box is a timeline with the word "border" to the left. To the left of that word is a small triangle. You'll need to click on that triangle so that the effect will apply to the resized image instead of the entire screen.

Giuseppe Palumbo · November 17th, 2005, 12:38 PM

thanks a ton, ill try it in a little bit to see how it goes, thanks again.

Glenn Chan · November 17th, 2005, 12:53 PM

The broadcast safe filter will just clip off values about 235 (if you use the 7.5IRE setup presets). For DVD, you don't really need to use it other than seeing how your video will look like on DVD players that clip illegal colors (illegal as in not in the 16-235 range; many DVD players do this).

The point is... those curves can help you avoid clipping important image detail.

John Rofrano · November 17th, 2005, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurence Kingston

I'm guessing that this is a Centrino (Pentium M processor) system, in which case the 1.6 processor speed as efficient as a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz system so processor speed wise he's probably going to be fine.

I am not seeing this in my testing. I have a Pentium M 1.8Ghz laptop and a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz desktop and the VASST render test takes almost twice as long on the Pentium M 1.8 when compared with the Pentium 4 3.0. So a PM 1.6 is no where near a P4 3.2! I would definitely avoid Pentium M’s for video work and get a laptop that has a real Pentium 4 or AMD.

Here is what I observed using the original VASST render test on the PC’s I have used Vegas on:

Pentium 4 1.7Ghz = 3:21
Pentium M 1.8Ghz = 2:48 (33 seconds faster than P4 1.7)
Pentium 4 3.0Ghz = 1:35 (73 seconds faster than Pentium M 1.8)

So while the Pentium M 1.8 is faster than a P4 1.7, it is not even close to a P4 3.0

~jr

Jon Omiatek · November 17th, 2005, 03:56 PM

For example.

I have a three camera edit, with three associated audio tracks. I deleted one of the audio tracks. What would be the best way in vegas to re-connect the audio.

Any ideas?
I have tried just bringing in the avi and moving the audio to match but it doesn't work very well. I have cut out sections and it doesn't sync up?

Thanks,

Jon

Edward Troxel · November 17th, 2005, 04:27 PM

The easiest option is via scripting. For example, if you delete the audio - select the video and Excalibur can bring back the audio. If you delete the video, select the audio and Excalibur can bring back the video. Ultimate S can also return the missing audio for a video event.

To do it manually, you can double-click the event, open it in the trimmer (which will have that section selected) and then return the audio.

Mike Kujbida · November 17th, 2005, 04:37 PM

This month's issue of eventDV has Jan's final article,
Battle of the Software NLEs, Part 4: Slideshows, Rendering, and Conclusions at
http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/Read...rticleID=10771.

Final scores are as follows:
Premiere Pro - 18
Final Cut Pro - 21.5
Xpress Pro - 14.5
Liquid Edition - 17.5
Vegas - 23.5

There are several comments he made over the course of the series that I'd disagree with him on (such as no batch render capabilities in Vegas 6) but at least he's finally seen the light :-)

Mike

Neil Camero · November 17th, 2005, 05:21 PM

good read. what nle preference did he have before?

Kevin Richard · November 17th, 2005, 09:57 PM

I assume it's just DV as I tried renaming it to .avi and it plays but no luck as it is still out of sync... it doesn't "go out of sync" it just IS out of sync in vegas... I render a small part in the middle and it's off. I am working on a 2.4ghz celeron with 1gig of ram. It was captured and edited on a 1ghz G4 and there were NO sync problems what so ever on his system. and playing the 2gig file in media player 6.4 also has no problems all the way to the end.

Just checked and it's out of sync in dvda 3 also :-/

November 17th, 2005, 01:09 AM	#1126
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Film-like color curves with legal levels What they are: If you just do a s-shaped gamma curve in Vegas, that can actually push colors below and above digital black levels, causing clipping and loss of image detail in highlights and shadows. That isn't film-like at all. To get things right, you need to get color curves with points at digital black and white level. Download them off of: http://www.glennchan.info/Proofs/dvi...lor-curves.veg You can read the text if you want. But if you're lazy, open up the first and last clips and save those as presets. 2- Note: You should be using the Sony DV codec (this is the default in Vegas5 and V6), and targetting DV or MPEG2 via DVD architect. If you are targetting other formats, it may be "computer RGB" color space and these curves are kinda inappropriate. Apply the color corrector filter with "convert studio RGB to computer RGB" or the levels filter. Enjoy!

November 17th, 2005, 01:24 AM	#1127
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Magic Bullet Editor's / Wrong Levels I don't really use MBE but was wondering how you'd get proper levels using it. A lot of the time you want to work with studio RGB within Vegas (16-235 instead of 0-255). MBE always pushes values towards 0-255, which is not what you want. The following would work, but is kind of a waste of rendering time and MBE's floating point processing: Use the color corrector, "studio RGB to computer RGB" preset MBE Use the color corrector, "computer RGB to studio RGB" preset The downside is the extra rendering and banding you might pickup along the way.

November 17th, 2005, 09:25 AM	#1128
Joshua Provost Major Player Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 493	Glenn, A little over or under won't hurt anyone. Particularly, super-whites up to 110% IRE (255) tend to work just fine. Plus, you're going to run everything through a Broadcast Safe plug-in prior to broadcast, right? Josh __________________ Owner/Operator, 727 Records Co-Founder, Matter of Chance Productions Blogger, Try Avoidance

November 17th, 2005, 10:28 AM	#1129
Giuseppe Palumbo Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 199 Images: 7	Feathering video edges Im cant seem to find out how to feather edges on video. for example if im matting someone in another shot but the edges are still a little rough cause of a slight light difference, i just wanna fade the video out onto the other layer. Can anyone help me? __________________ AIM - N film B www.nbfilms.us

November 17th, 2005, 11:35 AM	#1131
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Leave it on the default of 4. If, for some reason, you want it to behave more like Vegas 5, you can reduce it down to 1. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

November 17th, 2005, 11:28 AM	#1130
Dale Nicholson Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 133	Gary, What's the "Maximum Number of Rendering Threads" I should be using for my machine using Vegas 6? Should I keep it at the default, which is "4" ? I'm using a Pentium 4 at 3.20 Ghz, hyperthreading, 2GB dual channel DDR SDRAM at 400 Mhz. --Dale P.S. I really am learning a lot from your five dvd tutorial. Do you have a learning dvd on Acid 5 or can you suggest one?

November 17th, 2005, 11:38 AM	#1132
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Add a border FX using the "Soft Edge" preset (adjust as needed). At the bottom of the FX box is a timeline with the word "border" to the left. To the left of that word is a small triangle. You'll need to click on that triangle so that the effect will apply to the resized image instead of the entire screen. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

November 17th, 2005, 12:38 PM	#1133
Giuseppe Palumbo Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 199 Images: 7	thanks a ton, ill try it in a little bit to see how it goes, thanks again. __________________ AIM - N film B www.nbfilms.us

November 17th, 2005, 12:53 PM	#1134
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	The broadcast safe filter will just clip off values about 235 (if you use the 7.5IRE setup presets). For DVD, you don't really need to use it other than seeing how your video will look like on DVD players that clip illegal colors (illegal as in not in the 16-235 range; many DVD players do this). The point is... those curves can help you avoid clipping important image detail.

November 17th, 2005, 03:56 PM	#1136
Jon Omiatek Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 755	Audio problem, deleted track, need best way to recover For example. I have a three camera edit, with three associated audio tracks. I deleted one of the audio tracks. What would be the best way in vegas to re-connect the audio. Any ideas? I have tried just bringing in the avi and moving the audio to match but it doesn't work very well. I have cut out sections and it doesn't sync up? Thanks, Jon

November 17th, 2005, 04:27 PM	#1137
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	The easiest option is via scripting. For example, if you delete the audio - select the video and Excalibur can bring back the audio. If you delete the video, select the audio and Excalibur can bring back the video. Ultimate S can also return the missing audio for a video event. To do it manually, you can double-click the event, open it in the trimmer (which will have that section selected) and then return the audio. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

November 17th, 2005, 04:37 PM	#1138
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Jan Ozer says the winner is - Vegas!!! This month's issue of eventDV has Jan's final article, Battle of the Software NLEs, Part 4: Slideshows, Rendering, and Conclusions at http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/Read...rticleID=10771. Final scores are as follows: Premiere Pro - 18 Final Cut Pro - 21.5 Xpress Pro - 14.5 Liquid Edition - 17.5 Vegas - 23.5 There are several comments he made over the course of the series that I'd disagree with him on (such as no batch render capabilities in Vegas 6) but at least he's finally seen the light :-) Mike

November 17th, 2005, 05:21 PM	#1139
Neil Camero Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 27	good read. what nle preference did he have before?

November 17th, 2005, 09:57 PM	#1140
Kevin Richard Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lafayette, LA Posts: 270	I assume it's just DV as I tried renaming it to .avi and it plays but no luck as it is still out of sync... it doesn't "go out of sync" it just IS out of sync in vegas... I render a small part in the middle and it's off. I am working on a 2.4ghz celeron with 1gig of ram. It was captured and edited on a 1ghz G4 and there were NO sync problems what so ever on his system. and playing the 2gig file in media player 6.4 also has no problems all the way to the end. Just checked and it's out of sync in dvda 3 also :-/