Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q3Q4)

Glen Elliott · October 6th, 2004, 12:39 PM

If I have PAL footage who's project output has to be on an NTSC DVD is this the best workflow?...

1. Edit entire project in it's native PAL format

2. Convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD

or

2. Output the edited pieces out to PAL DV-AVI

3. THEN convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD

or

2. Output the edited pieces out to NTSC DV-AVI

3. THEN convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD

I'm aware a smaller res and high frame size has to be interpolated to make the footage NTSC.
Are there any difference to the variable approaches. How much quality loss should I expect in any given scenario when going from PAL to NTSC?

Ron Guilmette · October 6th, 2004, 12:43 PM

Do the quality settings in the preview window effect the quality when rendering? Or is that only for grabbing stills?
How about while printing to tape?

No more stupid questions at this time......

Edward Troxel · October 6th, 2004, 12:45 PM

No. The render settings affect rendering. The preview settings affect previewing (and getting snapshots). PTT uses the project render settings (File - Properties).

Ron Guilmette · October 6th, 2004, 01:19 PM

Thanks Ed.

Rob Lohman · October 6th, 2004, 03:08 PM

From PAL to NTSC is the "easiest" conversion quality wise. I
would suspect your last option to be best since Vegas can take
things into account perhaps. But I doubt the difference will be
that great. Oh in your last stape I would encode straight to
NTSC MPEG2 instead of to DV-AVI first, no need to do that
unless you also want an NTSC AVI file for another reason.

Bryan Roberts · October 6th, 2004, 04:34 PM

Hey all. Well, I'm tweaking a slight effect I'm doing on my current short in Vegas 4.0 . I have a scene where there are shots of people on a drug and some of them are slowed down to 61% while others are then sped up. I have the bottom layer with just some colors curves, then I duplicated for the top layer set at 50% opacity and applied a gradient map effect. When I render out, all the shots without any slowmotion speed change work fine but on all the shots where I slowed down the footage, it has a jerk like motion to the people moving, like they were being jerked back into place or something. There is one clip where I go from 60% to 300% and this one has the issue only during the slow part and is fine once it hits 100% and beyond. I just recently reformatted and reinstalled XP so performance is not an issue (I'm on a p4 2.4 gigahertz, 1 gig of RDRAM, ATI 9700 XT card, tons of space, project files are on a seperate HD than program and operating system). What gives here? Any thoughts?

Here's a link to some of the shots (3 meg qt file)

http://www.DefiningFilms.com/prob.mov

The footage is 24p DV from a dvx

Allan Phan · October 6th, 2004, 05:41 PM

Hi Folks.

I have created couple of DVD using a still picture as a the menu background and now I would like to replace the still with a short mpeg file instead.

I have sucessfully put the video file to the background and it play great but I can't figure out how to make that video background loop and loop until the user press the play button.

Your help is greatly appreciated.
AP

Marcia Janine Galles · October 6th, 2004, 07:45 PM

Does anybody know how I can do the following?

What I have...

Opening media is silent.
Music comes up under ensuing opening menu.
Music dies if "Chapters" is selected.

What I want...

Music from previous opening menu to continue into "Chapters" submenu, playing while person X decides, as opposed to starting music over again (which would sound stupid, given the piece) or just having silence at that point.

Is there a way to pull this off?

Marcia

Edward Troxel · October 6th, 2004, 08:10 PM

Right-click the event, go to properties, and turn on "Resample". This should help. If that is not enough, you may want to try supersampling. But only try that on the small sections that really need it, render out those small sections, and then remove the supersampling.

Edward Troxel · October 6th, 2004, 08:13 PM

Which version of DVDA? Basically, look at the properties on the right hand side. In DVDA2, you change the "End Action" for the menu to "Loop". In DVDA1, you change the Looping property to true.

Edward Troxel · October 6th, 2004, 08:15 PM

Anytime you do anything on any of the menus, it will proceed to a different media file. Therefore, if a button is pressed the music will suddenly stop and then you will be taken to the next media. There's no way to get music to continue across menus.

Ron Guilmette · October 7th, 2004, 07:17 AM

Do I add the key in the keyframe time line first and then pan my video to were I want it? or move the video first?
Also when I lock to the curser, does that automatically add a key to the beginnig?

The reason I ask is that there is a half of a triangle at the head of the key frame time line and I'm not sure if I should be adding a key next to it or not.

I have read the manual but it is either not clear enough, or I'm a complete moron. (could be the later).

Edward Troxel · October 7th, 2004, 07:31 AM

At a minimum, you MUST move the CURSOR to the new position on the timeline before chaning the pan/crop settings. Basically, here's your workflow:

1) Make sure the first keyframe is selected and change the pan/crop settings to where everything should begin.

2) Move the cursor to where you want the movement to end on the timeline. Now change the pan/crop settings to where everything should end. This will automatically create the second keyframe.

If you click on the link under my name, I have all this explained in the latest issue of my newsletter.

Allan Phan · October 7th, 2004, 09:06 AM

A Ha, thank you very much

Miguel Lopez · October 7th, 2004, 10:08 AM

Hello.
RIght now i am going to start a big project. Since i will be using a lot of effects and tracks, render times are huge.

So I have two problems to fix:
- previewing
- rendering

In order to render faster, the best choice right now i think is to buy a P4 3 Ghz HT as a server and main computer, and 1 or 2 cheaper network computers.

I have two options for the network CPUS:
- I could buy TWO whole P4 Intel® Celeron® D 325 (2.53 GHz, 256 MB cache, 533 MHz FSB for just €300
- Or another Intel® Pentium® 4 with HT (3.0 GHz, 1 MB cache, 800 MHz FSB) for around €600

I´m sure the 3.0 HT will go faster than the celeron, but we are talking that we can have TWO PCs for the price of one, rendering together in the network, and having each one 512 Mb of RAM and a 80 Gb hard disc.

Since i have not use the network render in vegas, i do not know how fast things go.
That is why i am writing this, so you could give me your personal experience.

And second point, how to speed up previewing. Since i use level correction, and cropping... usually the preview screen goes too slow (around 4 or 5 fps). I do not want to mute video tracks nor to ignore video effects, becasue that is what i need to see. And if i render a preview, it takes a lot of time which i don´t like.

Is there any way to speed this up? Thanks for reading the whole post. Bye!

October 6th, 2004, 12:39 PM	#1036
Glen Elliott Wrangler Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 2,898	Is this the best workflow for producing an NTSC DVD from PAL source footage?... If I have PAL footage who's project output has to be on an NTSC DVD is this the best workflow?... 1. Edit entire project in it's native PAL format 2. Convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD or 2. Output the edited pieces out to PAL DV-AVI 3. THEN convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD or 2. Output the edited pieces out to NTSC DV-AVI 3. THEN convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD I'm aware a smaller res and high frame size has to be interpolated to make the footage NTSC. Are there any difference to the variable approaches. How much quality loss should I expect in any given scenario when going from PAL to NTSC?

October 6th, 2004, 12:43 PM	#1037
Ron Guilmette Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Hope Vally RI Posts: 30	Preview window and rendering Do the quality settings in the preview window effect the quality when rendering? Or is that only for grabbing stills? How about while printing to tape? No more stupid questions at this time......

October 6th, 2004, 12:45 PM	#1038
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	No. The render settings affect rendering. The preview settings affect previewing (and getting snapshots). PTT uses the project render settings (File - Properties). __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

October 6th, 2004, 03:08 PM	#1040
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	From PAL to NTSC is the "easiest" conversion quality wise. I would suspect your last option to be best since Vegas can take things into account perhaps. But I doubt the difference will be that great. Oh in your last stape I would encode straight to NTSC MPEG2 instead of to DV-AVI first, no need to do that unless you also want an NTSC AVI file for another reason. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

October 6th, 2004, 04:34 PM	#1041
Bryan Roberts Major Player Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 436	Problem with rendering some dual layer slomo custom effects... Hey all. Well, I'm tweaking a slight effect I'm doing on my current short in Vegas 4.0 . I have a scene where there are shots of people on a drug and some of them are slowed down to 61% while others are then sped up. I have the bottom layer with just some colors curves, then I duplicated for the top layer set at 50% opacity and applied a gradient map effect. When I render out, all the shots without any slowmotion speed change work fine but on all the shots where I slowed down the footage, it has a jerk like motion to the people moving, like they were being jerked back into place or something. There is one clip where I go from 60% to 300% and this one has the issue only during the slow part and is fine once it hits 100% and beyond. I just recently reformatted and reinstalled XP so performance is not an issue (I'm on a p4 2.4 gigahertz, 1 gig of RDRAM, ATI 9700 XT card, tons of space, project files are on a seperate HD than program and operating system). What gives here? Any thoughts? Here's a link to some of the shots (3 meg qt file) http://www.DefiningFilms.com/prob.mov The footage is 24p DV from a dvx

October 6th, 2004, 01:19 PM	#1039
Ron Guilmette Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Hope Vally RI Posts: 30	Thanks Ed.

October 6th, 2004, 05:41 PM	#1042
Allan Phan Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Alexandria, VA Posts: 95	How to make a background video loop in Architect 2 Hi Folks. I have created couple of DVD using a still picture as a the menu background and now I would like to replace the still with a short mpeg file instead. I have sucessfully put the video file to the background and it play great but I can't figure out how to make that video background loop and loop until the user press the play button. Your help is greatly appreciated. AP

October 6th, 2004, 07:45 PM	#1043
Marcia Janine Galles Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: Camarillo, CA Posts: 340	DVDA music question/carryover Does anybody know how I can do the following? What I have... Opening media is silent. Music comes up under ensuing opening menu. Music dies if "Chapters" is selected. What I want... Music from previous opening menu to continue into "Chapters" submenu, playing while person X decides, as opposed to starting music over again (which would sound stupid, given the piece) or just having silence at that point. Is there a way to pull this off? Marcia

October 6th, 2004, 08:10 PM	#1044
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Right-click the event, go to properties, and turn on "Resample". This should help. If that is not enough, you may want to try supersampling. But only try that on the small sections that really need it, render out those small sections, and then remove the supersampling. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

October 6th, 2004, 08:13 PM	#1045
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Which version of DVDA? Basically, look at the properties on the right hand side. In DVDA2, you change the "End Action" for the menu to "Loop". In DVDA1, you change the Looping property to true. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

October 6th, 2004, 08:15 PM	#1046
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Anytime you do anything on any of the menus, it will proceed to a different media file. Therefore, if a button is pressed the music will suddenly stop and then you will be taken to the next media. There's no way to get music to continue across menus. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

October 7th, 2004, 07:17 AM	#1047
Ron Guilmette Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Hope Vally RI Posts: 30	Key frame confusion Do I add the key in the keyframe time line first and then pan my video to were I want it? or move the video first? Also when I lock to the curser, does that automatically add a key to the beginnig? The reason I ask is that there is a half of a triangle at the head of the key frame time line and I'm not sure if I should be adding a key next to it or not. I have read the manual but it is either not clear enough, or I'm a complete moron. (could be the later).

October 7th, 2004, 07:31 AM	#1048
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	At a minimum, you MUST move the CURSOR to the new position on the timeline before chaning the pan/crop settings. Basically, here's your workflow: 1) Make sure the first keyframe is selected and change the pan/crop settings to where everything should begin. 2) Move the cursor to where you want the movement to end on the timeline. Now change the pan/crop settings to where everything should end. This will automatically create the second keyframe. If you click on the link under my name, I have all this explained in the latest issue of my newsletter. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

October 7th, 2004, 09:06 AM	#1049
Allan Phan Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Alexandria, VA Posts: 95	A Ha, thank you very much

October 7th, 2004, 10:08 AM	#1050
Miguel Lopez Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 187	HARDWARE: give me opinions Hello. RIght now i am going to start a big project. Since i will be using a lot of effects and tracks, render times are huge. So I have two problems to fix: - previewing - rendering In order to render faster, the best choice right now i think is to buy a P4 3 Ghz HT as a server and main computer, and 1 or 2 cheaper network computers. I have two options for the network CPUS: - I could buy TWO whole P4 Intel® Celeron® D 325 (2.53 GHz, 256 MB cache, 533 MHz FSB for just €300 - Or another Intel® Pentium® 4 with HT (3.0 GHz, 1 MB cache, 800 MHz FSB) for around €600 I´m sure the 3.0 HT will go faster than the celeron, but we are talking that we can have TWO PCs for the price of one, rendering together in the network, and having each one 512 Mb of RAM and a 80 Gb hard disc. Since i have not use the network render in vegas, i do not know how fast things go. That is why i am writing this, so you could give me your personal experience. And second point, how to speed up previewing. Since i use level correction, and cropping... usually the preview screen goes too slow (around 4 or 5 fps). I do not want to mute video tracks nor to ignore video effects, becasue that is what i need to see. And if i render a preview, it takes a lot of time which i don´t like. Is there any way to speed this up? Thanks for reading the whole post. Bye!