Questions about effects and viewing externally...
 

So i started seeing what i could accomplish in vegas, and this had led to some more questions...

First, what are my options to remove noise? I have what looks like the dots you get from high iso in photographs - even though i know it was shot at 0 gain on the camera (xl1s). It is dark footage on stage. What are the best options for moving this? I imagine it's going to require a plugin of some type...

Also, about contrast - when i turn up the contrast, it also blows out the whites...is there a way to add more contrast, but not do this? Like, limit the range of the contrast? And what does "contrast center" or "center contrast" (i forget what its called - its not in front of me right now) do?

And speaking of overexposure, is there an effect or plugin that can tone down the overexposed parts - for example, the edge of a white hand or face that gets a little too much light on it? Something that can selectively darken just these things?

And when i added effects to a clip, it seems that i cannot go and undo them. Is this true? Am i missing something here? For example, i sharpen x%, but want to change the percent, i can't figure out how to go back in and change the percentage...i have to start over...i click on the effects button in the clip, and it lists them all again, but doesn't show what i've already added....

Finally, i got vegas to display on an external TV via firewire/camcorder. But the problem is my CPU is not fast enough to render it on the fly...it gets choppy at anything above the lowest settings, which are pretty useless anyway...so, is there a way to just get vegas to "compile" or render a 15 second or so clip that i can play at full speed on the external monitor whenever i want to check where i'm at?

Thanks in advance...

noise - Neat Video is a product that many like. There is no native noise reducer in vegas.

The color curves filter on it's default rgb setting is much more useful than the contrast filter, it will allow you to, um, turn up the mids without blowing out the whites, and similar efx.

Overexposure is harder - if the highlight is blown out, there is no detail to bring out through adjustment. Color curves would still be the primary tool.

Undo should be available for efx - it seems like there is some breakdown in your adjustment steps, but I can't tell what it is from your brief explanation, perhaps you could write more about the steps you're taking.

Other than more processor power, for which you get great rewards in vegas, you can prerender to ram any short sequences or transitions, by highlighting an area and selecting shift-b. Shift-m is similar, it prerenders to disk. You might want to read up on prerendering in the help file or manual, and give it a try.

For good preview preview performance, it's very important that your project settings match the media on the timeline.

tools>selectively prerender video or Ctrl + m

it will render your loop region and if nothing changes it will stay rendered