Thanks guys, I'll look into your suggestions!

Max

Vegas 4 really looks good from the specs and with DVD appears to be a killer NLE.

Well, Nathan, you'll find that those of us that use Vagas would agree with you 100%--it is a killer NLE. Finally, it has caught up to and surpassed every other NLE out there.

Having said that, let me also say I have not used all other NLE apps. But I have read too many posts by users of every other NLE app that have said that very thing. So I'm just repeating what've heard (read). ;o)

Definately a killer NLE--but DVD architect needs some work. However, its only version 1.0 and knowing the people over at Sonic Foundry they will fine tune it pretty soon.

AARRGH! Crappy previewing in Vegas 3
 

I had Win 98 previously, and my video previews were fine in Vegas Video 3. I'm talking previews from the computer monitor, with no effects, plain old video.

I put in Win XP Pro recently, and now my previews are very stuttery. The playhead will run smoothly across the timeline for various lengths of time (sometimes five seconds, sometimes twenty minutes) and then stop, during which period I can't do anything with the playhead, and after about ten or fifteen seconds, it will become usable again. Sometimes it tells me it was "unable to mix audio, time out," or something like that. If anyone has suggestions, I'd like to hear them. I've been doing the videoguys.com tweaks for Win XP, though I haven't done the ones where you edit the registry yet. . .maybe that's the problem.

Also, is there a way to keep Vegas from showing the actual frames of video in the timeline on the video clips? If so, might this make a difference?

You might check how much memory you have. XP likes lots more memory than Win98 does. The other thing is to check whether your system is XP compliant (are you running Pro or Home); just because you can load it does not mean it will run properly.

You might want to do a search on XP or Vegas. There are a number of posts from individuals who also had problems with XP.

Also, post some information on your system. Its a little hard to offer suggestions without system details.

Color correction on VV4
 

I just finished my first project on VV4. It is a great program and fun to use. Only one thing kept bugging me. When I would apply color correct or brightness/contrast to an event I assumed if I clicked on any point on an event in the timeline it would adjust the color for the whole event. That proved to be wrong. So I clicked on the beginning of the clip to adjust. The strange thing is it doesn't adjust the very begining of the event but quickly fades into the adjusted color. This wasn't a critical issue for this project since I used a lot of crossfades between the events, but could see how this would be too noticeable with a straight cut (without any transition). Is there an easier way of doing this. Most of the time when I have problems I find I'm just doing some simple step wrong.

Thanks

Could it be you had keyframing enabled?

Check to see that the "sync cursor" button beneath the keyframing timeline (inside the FX window) isn't selected...

Dan, your best bet for getting answers to your Vegas questions is to go to Sonic Foundry's Vegas forum: http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/default.asp. Scroll down and select "Vegas--Video Topics". You won't be sorry!

Billy Boy over at the Sonic Foundry Forum has a great tutorial on color correcting.

I'd suggest looking into your DMA settings for hard drive access, if this is coming from an IDE drive. Right click "My Computer" and pick "manage" to get to the device manager, and check the properties on your IDE controllers. You should have Ultra DMA enabled.

Depending on your chipset, you likely need updated drivers. For Intel chipsets, visit http://support.intel.com and get the latest chipset driver package (it's generic and covers all chipsets in the last few years). For Via, find the latest 4-in-one.

Drivers for what exactly? I've updated my video card, (though not the sound card--the website said not to because of problems people had had with their drivers). I have an AMD processor, not an Intel. DMA is enabled.


System Details:

AMD 1600 XP processor (approx. 1 gigahertz)
1024 MB of RAM
NVIDIA Diamond Viper 770D Video Card
Aureal Vortex 8830 Sound Card
WIN XP PRO

Sorry don't know the speed of the C drive--it's whatever came with this computer and I have no idea how to look it up

Media drive for video is a LaCIE 80GB Firewire Drive, 7200 RPM

Anything I left out? Can't think of anything else that would be pertinent.

Here is the key: "unable to mix audio, time out,"

By this, I assume the video is on a firewire drive and NOT an internal drive. Some have claimed that rebuilding the peak files will help solve this problem (F5). Others have mentioned uping the audio buffer from .35 to .40.

If all of these fail, try copying the data to an internal drive and seeing if the problem still exists. If the problem goes away on the internal drive, it is a Windows problem in communicating with the firewire device which may require any or all of the following to fix:

1) A different firewire enclusure (don't know what brand you have)
2) A different firewire card (also don't know the brand)
3) Changing the hard drive to a USB enclosure.

It sounds like you are NOT setting the FIRST keyframe to the correction values. You can make sure you get the FIRST keyframe by clicking on the box that looks like a diamond with a left arrow in it and a vertical line to the left of it. Clicking on that will guarantee you are on the first keyframe. Also, if the box with the little lock is clicked, turn it OFF. Then you can click anywhere on the clip and the keyframe timeline will not follow causing you to create additional keyframes.

A good idea. Thanks.

I seem to remember problems even without audio, i.e. if I removed the audio from the timeline. I'll try it again though.