You have fewer channels to which you can direct your output. I didn't mean you couldn't hear the audio.

Gotcha!

The ADVC-100 took all of the frustration out of analog conversions for me.

i'm going to do a few shots for a short to shoot directly to disk..

is there any way in vegas to have the histograms and scopes work on the preview footage so that i can adjust them before i capture?

thanks

You'll have to capture the footage in order to run them through Vegas' scopes. Just capture some sample shots and run them through the scopes. Then, once satisfied, do the real thing.

First of all many thanks to Edward for the great job with the Tips, Tricks and Scripts guide!
I need to know more in order to make my choice on the hard drives usage and organization though.

What exactly is the Temporary files folder?
In Sound Forge the program makes back up copy so you can restore quickly the changes and the actual editing is on the copy. Obviously it’s better the temp folder to be on different physical disk. After you confirm the final save the original file is overwritten.
How is that implemented in Vegas?

Also what does it mean Prerendered files? I know that Vegas when told to render is actually skipping the untouched parts and rendering only the parts with effects and transitions, added text, etc. What is the relation between the raw DV data and the rendered final project?

Where the actual editing process take place? If it’s in the temp files folder than it’s better to be different from your raw video storage disk I think.

Often spelled tip says ‘keep your things not on your OS drive’. But usually main OS kernel and active programs are run from within the RAM (if you have plenty). So here there is controversy I guess.

My basic scenario will be:
1) Capture from mini DV
2) Edit (with Vegas for example)
3) Render the final project (ready for printing to tape for archiving on mini DV)
4) Encode to MPEG2 + AC3 (authoring for DVD). I would like to store this for certain time so I can make few copies later if needed.

What would be my best set up if I use only 2 drives?

Any opinions? Thanks…

P.S. You can omit my scenario – I’m really interested mainly on the physics of editing process!

The "Temporary Files Folder" is where Vegas will write any files that need to be temporarily created and then deleted when no longer needed. However, sometimes a large amount of space is needed so make sure the drive you choose has plenty of space. This CAN be your OS drive as long as the OS drive has plenty of room. Every time you render, temporary space is used.

The "Prerendered Files Folder" is where all prerenders are stored when you either manually choose to pre-render OR you do a Print To Tape. This should typically be your video drive and may also require a large amount of space.

Does anyone have a nice way to take a pile of jpg's and turn them into a montage/slideshow with transitions in a somewhat automated fashion?

Thanks!

I have Screenblast, and I am considering the reduced cost upgrade to Vegas 4, which is $459. Of course, I could upgrade to Vegas+DVD and get the additional software, for $699. Therein lies my conondrum. I understand, in general terms, what the additional software in V+DVD is for. I really do not need the AC-3 audio, but it is pretty sweet I'm sure. Other than that, what are the benefits of the additional $250? Will finished products made in Vegas look "better" when burned to DVD with the +DVD software. I read that the encoding is better (I may really screw up my terminology here) with the apps in +DVD, which result in better audio AND video quality on the final DVD copies. If this is true I may stretch my budget and get the full-meal-deal. However, if I can create projects in Vegas 4 and move them to DVD that look the same in regard to quality, but have less options for chapters, or menus & buttons etc, I would rather spend the money on something else. If it isn't painfully obvious I am a newbie to this level of editing, so I appreciate your assistance as well as your patience.

The "+DVD" adds both the AC-3 encoder AND the DVD authoring program. You need a DVD authoring program to create the proper files to burn a DVD. If you already have a different authoring program you prefer to use, then "+DVD" is not required. However, I LIKE DVD Architect and now use it for ALL of my DVDs.

Sure I do. Check out the article that talks about that in my newsletter.

http://www.jetdv.com/tts

The aid of a couple of scripts really helps speed up the process!

Thank you Edward!

So if I save my project on the video drive (with the raw data) it's clear the temp folder is better to be on different drive.

I still can't understand the difference between pre-render and render though.

Need a bit more clarification. Thanks.

So far, I've traced it to the point that the movie does not play once I've applied field blending (none: progressive) deinterlacing. The clip that does not have this process applied plays fine on all players.

I follow you. I have the authoring app, but it is low-end (Sonic MyDVD is it I think) and was curious if the higher priced +DVD software was woth it in regard to quality of the final image on DVD.

Pre-rendering is still, technically rendering, but in a different context to "real" rendering. You usually "Render" your project when you've finished it and want to write it out in whatever codec and format you need (MPG2, Sorensen, DV etc) for final distribution. "Pre render" is usually the bits of rendering you do during the editing process, prior, or PRE to the "real" render. For example.

You might want to Pre-Render when you've applied a complicated effect to a region on the timeline that you couldn't playback at full framerate. You can just select the region on the timeline and chose to Selectively Pre-render. That region of the timeline will be rendered to your Prerender directory. Now when you play the timeline that clip will playback as though it was fully rendered. It will be using the "Pre-rendered" clip you made previously.

Any changes to that area of the project though will discard the pre-rendered clip and you'll have to pre-render again.

Aaron

Best I can answer is "It depends". Generally speaking, they SHOULD both be able to give the same quality. However, it depends on where you do the rendering (in Vegas in both cases? or do you let MyDVD render?) and whether or not the program will accept the MPEG2 files without re-rendering. Lots of factors can make the answer vary.

Did you mean the pbs wizard?

Thanks for your quick response btw.

KIM

PBS is for the Ken Burns effect--read the newsletter Ed referred too.

James,
I'm a Vegas user who hasn't added DVDA. I use Movie Factory (a Ulead product) which cost me $50 and am very happy with it. I encode to the DVD template in Vegas using best quality and then import the MPEG-2 file into Movie Factory. No re-rendering. It burns with outstanding quality. If I need to, I can create some chapters but so far, I've only done one DVD with chapters. Most of my DVD's just start to play (no chapters). When I get rich enough (or Vegas 5 comes out), I'll probably upgrade but for now, I'm happy with what I have. Hope this helps.
Randy

David -

I did read it and I thought he meant the pbs wizard so obviously I don't get it.

Maybe I looked at the wrong issue?

Issue #1 In this issue:

What is Tips, Tricks, and Scripts
Vegas Preferences - Part 1
What is Scripting
Fade the Selected Event In and Out

Issue #2 In this issue:

Creating a PIP using Track Motion - Part 1
Vegas Preferences - Part 2
Finding Tracks via Scripts

Issue #3 In this issue:

Creating a PIP using Track Motion - Part 2
Vegas Preferences - Capture Utility
Automatically Generate Lower-Third Titles

Issue #4 In this issue:

Creating a PIP using Track Motion - Part 3
DVD Architect Preferences
Beginner's Corner - Where Do I Start?
Add Movement to the Lower-Third

Issue #5 In this issue:

Capturing Snapshots from Video
Beginner's Corner - Capturing Video
Single Button Snapshots

Issue #6 In this issue:

Introducing: Excalibur
Beginner's Corner - Printing To Tape (PTT)
Slideshow to Markers Script

Issue #7 In this issue:

Preparing for DVD
DVD Bitrate Chart
Beginner's Corner - Beginning Editing
Authoring a DVD in DVD Architect

Issue #8 In this issue:

Creating a Motion Slide Show with Pan/Crop
Beginner's Corner - Timeline Details
DVD Architect - Positioning Menu Items

Issue #9 In this issue:

Editing Multi-Cam Events
Beginner's Corner - Changing the Speed of a Clip
Adding and Assigning Bus Tracks

Issue #10 In this issue:

A Quick-Start Guide to Vegas Editing
Tsunami - A Wave of Editing Tools
Creating an Audio CD
Beginner’s Corner - Navigating the Timeline
Resetting Pan/Crop via a Script

Issue #11 In this issue:

Doing A Color Pass
Beginner's Corner - Changing Opacity
Add Markers At A Set Interval Via A Script

Issue #12 In this issue:

Review of Vegas 4 Editing Workshop Book
Beginner's Corner - Scope of Effects
Blurring Faces a la "Cops"
Obfuscating and Encoding Scripts

You want issue #8.

The PBS wizard can be useful for quickly adding motion to a bunch of stills. However, here's my typical workflow:

1) Scan pictures
2) Drag them to the timeline (with the proper length set in preferences AND set to NOT overlap)
3) Run the "Matchaspect.js" script to apply Match Aspect to ALL of the pictures.
4) Manually adjust the zooms for each picture using Pan/Crop. (here is where you could use the PBS Wizard if desired)
5) Use Gap Wizard in Excalibur to create the overlaps between the images.
6) Reposition the whole group as needed on the timeline. (i.e. if I want them AFTER a beginning title but allowed Gap Wizard to begin at the beginning of the timeline)
7) Render!

I know there's a flash transition in Vegas. Seen it before
but can't find it. Where?
Also, anybody know any alternate way to make similar flash-to-white transitions between clips that might be a little cooler/
more-sophisticated looking?

Dave,
Goto 'Transitions' and look for 'Flash' there you have it. You can change the diffusion and the color by using the keyframes in the transition.
Hope that helps.
Don

For an "alternate" method, add a small white generated media on the track ABOVE the video at the point of the flash. Make it about 5 frames wide and do a fade out over all 5 frames.

Also check Dissolve > Fade through White

Gary

Kim,
If you don't have Excaliber, use the following:

Scan in pictures

Number them in the folder on your hard drive in the sequence you want them to appear using a 3 position number in the file name (001,002,etc.).

Open Vegas and set your preferences by going to options > preferences > editing and change your new still image length to 8 seconds (my preference); then click the automatic overlap multiple selected media box; and change the cut to overlap length in the box just below to 2.00 seconds. Close the preferences window after applying.

Then click on your add media button (folder, music note, video tape icon above the media bin) and navigate to your folder where all of the pictures are, select them all and click add.

Then click on the first picture in your media bin and drag them all at once to your timeline. Vioala! Pictures are all loaded with a 2 second crossfade between each and about 5 seconds of still show time. All you have to do is add titles, music, special effects, pan/crop, track motion, backdrops, etc. as you wish and render. Clicking the maintain aspect ratio as Edward suggested is also good advice.

Hope this helps! Enjoy.

Randy

I've experienced this problem a couple of times between many successful print-to-tape outputs. I use all the usual default settings, DV NTSC, output format same as captured, IEEE1394 control of DV deck (canon optura 10) everytime I print-to-tape. The problem scenario starts as usual with the rendering of many small .avi files which are written to the pre-render folder. The second to the last .avi file is apparently a wav64 file, then the last render starts the DV deck and usually begins the print-to-tape. I can monitor progress on the camcorder LCD. A few times, the software takes control of the deck, initiates the record, but then does not begin the output transfer. I usually don't watch the entire activity, so when I return, I have a completely black recorded tape and Vegas is still waiting to 'render' the last file.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Can anyone explain what might be going wrong so I can prevent it?

Thanks,

Joseph

The ONLY reason I don't let Vegas automatically overlap the images is because you cannot see the beginning and end of the clip if you wish the pan/crop to zoom the entire distance. Instead of seeing the end of the clip, for instance, you only see the NEXT clip. Therefore, I add them as cuts for adjustment purposes and then add the fades at a later point in time (speeding up the process by using Excalibur)

However, It's quite possible to add the second point in the middle of the clip, get the zoom position where you desire for the end of the clip, and then move that point to the end of the clip before you exit the Pan/Crop window. For me, it's a convenience thing.

One other thing I do is leave Sync Cursor turned OFF.

First of all, let's get the steps correct. Say there are 10 steps. Steps 1-7 will be AVI's from where you changed the video. Step 8 (3rd from the last step) will be the creation of the audio W64 file. Step 9 (2nd from last step) will be the actuall print to tape. And Step 10 (last step) is what I consider "clean up".

Have you ever gotten anything sent back to the camera? Is there an option in the camera menus to specify whether the firewire is Input or Output? If you immediately do another PTT (where steps 1-8 above will NOT be repeated) does it work then?

You are absolutely correct about the chronology of events. I didn't count the clean-up since by then I already have the desired output. Yes, I have been successful in getting output to tape many times. And yes, I have had the initial attempt fail as described in my original post and then returned later and had it successfully print to tape without going through the video rendering steps. Vegas checks what needs to be rendered before blindly starting the render so that the second time through, if I haven't changed the project, all video clips are properly pre-rendered and so it begins with the wav64 render.

When the problem has occurred, I have tried cancelling the render, but Vegas doesn't release the task until I stop the DV deck recording and power off the deck. If I don't cancel the task, then Vegas continues to show 0% progress on the second to last render and the DV deck continues to record black tape. Even after the tape reaches the end, Vegas still does not show any progress on the second to last render. I'm running a ratio of about 10:1 for success to aborted print-to-tape operations.
Any clues?

Joseph

Could it be a problem of the camera going into "sleep" mode during the rendering processes?

It probably goes into sleep mode, but it certainly wakes up and records black with timecode when Vegas gets to the PTT phase.

Is there a way in Vegas to render an AVI file of the entire project and then write that back to tape? So far I have always been able to get the PTT process to work eventually for all my projects, but it might be useful to have a backup method of exporting to tape.

Thanks,

Joseph

I'm suspecting that it's taking too long to wake up. It's managing to get the record command but it's not awake when Vegas is trying to make the initial firewire connection.

What if you choose MANUAL instead of auto start? Then you get a count-down screen. When the countdown screen appears, make sure the camera is awake and then start the countdown. You'll have to manually press record on the camera.

Yes, you can also render to a full AVI. Just choose File - Render AS - and pick the appropriate options. You can then either drop this on a new project timeline for printing (which will still require the W64 step) OR you can print from the capture utility with NO further rendering of any sort.

ok, well I feel dumb asking this but coming from Premiere and now an avid Vegas user, I have yet to need this but now I do. I'm trying to do some color correction in Vegas on a short I did a while back but all I have is the finished file so I'm trying to make cuts at certain sections that can be color corrected as a group. Bringing the file into the trimmer and then choosing the sections and then dropping these sections onto a track above the master is proving to be a pain. Is there a simple CUT option that will allow me to divide my master file into sections within the project without having to delve into the trimmer? Thanks...

Put the cursor where you want the cut. Press "S". You may need to press either CTRL-A or CTRL-Shift-A to select everything or deselect everything first. (or make sure the clip is selected before positioning the cursor OR CTRL-Click the clip to select it - if it was not selected - before pressing "S")

Thanks Edward,

You've been a big help. You may be onto something with the 'too long' to wake-up idea. i'll probably try the alternative method by rendering a single AVI file and dropping it on the timeline in another project, then use the PTT.

Thanks,

Joseph

Exactly what I needed, thanks....

Edward,
Concur that can be a problem with the auto add but I think you can get around that by clicking on the "first frame of the clip" symbol in the pan/crop window (diamond with a line in front of it) which puts you on the first frame of the clip. Then I position the cursor where I want the zoom to complete and adjust the frame. Vegas adds the diamond at that point on the pan/crop timeline and to the video track for you. But hey, you know all of this much better than I. Thanks for the tutorials.
Randy
P.S. I own and use Excalibar 1 and 2 and highly recommend them!

Should I be able to capture DV video in demo mode I have the firewire card in
The computer sees it but when I go to capture it says, "no capture device" under the video tab..I would like to see if it will work on this box before I buy the software Dell 2.4 p 128 ram 30 gig hd..I can get audio from the CD player and stills via usb and work with them but no dice with DV ??

Thanks

Vince ..New to Vegas

Yes, I believe you should be able to capture. Are you trying to capture via firewire? If yes, what driver is your firewire card using and what chipset does it use? Also, sometimes it helps to have the camera turned on when booting the computer.

Are you using Win XP?

If you connect/turn on your video camera, XP should open up a window when it connects. Do you get this at least? If you don't get that, it may be your computer, not Vegas. Have you achieved a Firewire connection before using other software?

Thanks to you both. I appreciate the info, and I'll look into the Ulead apps. I had read somewhere that a fellow upgraded to Vegas for better image quality on the final product. I was not sure if he meant Vegas accomplished that, or since the final was on DVD, if the +DVD package made it a higher quality (better codecs ?)

try using the cookie cutter (eye dropper ) to get a RGB reading on your blue

applies to DV clips using a dv codec.
as other have said it is very difficult to capture a still from Video and drop it in photoshop and expect the RGB's to be the same as they are in a NLE ..

http://www.execulink.com/~impact/scopes.htm
a good example is the link that was provided and within that article is a link to SMPTE bars. i'm certain that at some point these bars were correct. but these BARS are NOT correct.
every color is OFF and it is not a each is off by the same X rgb ...
the only correct RGB's are the pluges and WHITE.

you can use the cookie cutter in Vegas to read RGB's.
note that Vegas smpte color bars have a pattern.
180 180 180 rgb (grey- white)
180 180 16 rgb (yellow)
16 180 180 rgb cyan
16 180 16 rgb green
180 16 16 rgb red
16 16 180 rgb blue
180 16 180 rgb magenta

do you see the pattern - the numbers are either 16 or 180
if these were FULL saturation BARS the numbers would be 0 or 255 ... other bars i've come across are 190 or 0 .. i've seen some others that have different #'s AND again they have a pattern like the above. note that the BARS provided in the above link have no pattern.

there is a difference between NTSC 601 mapping VS. one that supports NTSC RGB mapping. 601 mapping 100 IRE is 235RGB .. RGB mapping 255 is 100 ire ... this is WHY you see a slight difference between the Vegas codec (601 mapping) and microsofts Dv codec ( rgb mapping) .. NOTE that you could set your whites to 255 255 255 in Premiere and render out and the clip would be LEGAL as the 255 would render out to 100 ire. HOWEVER setting whites to 255 in Vegas ( 601 mapping) they would render out to 108 ire and be ILLEGAL.
always check your scopes.

601 mapping = Vegas, Avid, canopus & some others..
does not support 601 mapping = msDv codec , main concepts dv codec , matrox dv codec and some others.
the newest version of QT in FCP 4 i believe supports BOTH 601 and rgb mapping ( i don't use FCP but have been told you can set it)

if you stay in your NLE you will do not need to know/worry about 601 /rgb mapping as your NLE is set up for whatever method it uses. HOWEVER if you render with your NLE then take those clips into another app to work on -you should be aware that if the mapping is different then your NLE mapping the rendered clip will be read slightly different. the differences can be corrected. IMO render smpte color bars at head of your clip. take that into the other app- correct the color bars and use that setting for all clips in future. in Vegas use CC fx(combination of offset and gain)

I’m running w2k pro ..As to the drivers I installed the card and per Vegas website I let w2k find it and I think it did ..When I get home I will try the camera on at boot up

Thanks guys

Vince

I recently developed a problem, and now any DV-AVI file I capture using Vegas Capture crashes Windows Media Player as soon as I try and playback the file.
The file plays fine IN Vegas but kicks WMP in the BUTT!!!

Now to confuse the issue, if I use DVIO to capture, I can play back the avi file fine in Windows Media Player.

This just started happening and I don't like it.

Sounds like you've messed up some codec used by WMP somehow (probably the MSDV codec). You might want to try re-installing WMP and see if that fixes your problem. Your DVIO capture wouldn't be using the same codec.

I have a funny problem in which sometimes when I capture DV into Vegas my sound emits a high pitch whine and I have to reboot. It really sucks.

Ok, here's the VERY weird part. The tapes I am capturing where actually shot with my friends Sony TRV18. I tried capturing some footage that my camera shot and those files worked fine.

What could possibly be wrong with all his tapes? Do you guys think it is a big deal? The files seem to work fine in Vegas.

It is a little un-nerving though, since I have a big project where I have to combine footage from both cameras into the finished project.

Were you using the same camera to capture tapes recorded in BOTH cameras?

Yes, I used my TRV38 to do all the capturing.

The tapes are all Sony Premium Blue - Brand New