Thanks guys- but here's one for you- when formatting my drive (it comes stock with FAT32) to NTFS it asked me what my default cluster size should be, I chose default but there are several to choose from. Any ideas?

Kim before going out and buying the Canopus ADVC-100, consider buying a cheap DV cam instead. That is if it IS indeed true that your cameras don't support pass-through. Reason being is the ADVC-100 cost $300. For that cost you can buy an inexpensive Sharp Viewcam ($299.99 @ Walmart) I don't, however see it on their site but they do have a JVC model:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?dept=3944&product_id=2598488&path=0%3A3944%3A3991%3A108619 ...$326.

That way you can have pass-through AND an extra DV cam (not that you need it...lol)

If you were planning on upgrading to a 3-chip DV cam I'd hold off on both because all higher end DV cams will indeed support pass-through.

If you have Excalibur make SURE you read the PDF. I've had to go back to it several times thinking the script was acting up but it was user error EVERY TIME. lol Here's a few tips:

-name both your tracks
-For example if you named them "A", and "B"....after you add the marker for each clip make sure you name the markers "As" and "Bs" for A sync and B sync.
-Before running the script make SURE you have the two clips highlighted as well.

That should be all. Ofcourse it is easier to just use a normal
DVD player with a projector that accepts composite or SVHS
in. Then it's just hooking up and hitting play basically. Since
DVD players can be had very cheap now-a-days this might be
a better way to proceed. -->>>

That is quite true- from the suggestion of a user over at the VideoUniversity Wedding forums (Joel) I picked up a Homestar DVD player from Radio Shack for $49. Ironicly enough my girlfriend's more expensive JVC model doesn't played burnt dvds.
The little cheap Homestar plays EVERYTHING.

Circuit city is running a web-only special on a DVD player for $29!
http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&oid=78345

I just leave it at the default cluster size.

1. I've tried fine-tuning the alignment on two audio tracks by using the 1 and 3 keys on my numberpad. They don't "nudge" the audio (amazingly, I could do that in Premiere)--they just move the cursor down the timeline. What am I doing wrong?

The 1 and 3 keys on the numpad WILL work if:
A) Num lock is on
B) The event you want to nudge is selected


2. I've got Excalibur 1.5 so tried to run Sync Wizard by following the written instructions. Nothing happens. Can someone please walk me through the process, as I must be missing steps?

Glen gave good instructions. Just follow the PDF manual and all should be fine. The step I miss most often is "Select everything to be adjusted BEFORE running Excalibur". Then I just hit undo, CTRL-A, and run it again.


3. Even with no effects, when I try to watch footage on an external monitor it's out of sync. (Runs through camera and VCR to tv.) After reading something around here I noticed that the information in the media pool shows the audio at 32,000 Hz, and the project properties shows 44,100. Is that a bad thing?

There is an adjustment in the preferences to allow you to adjust the sync point for external monitors. The defualt is "4" and works in most cases. However, since the audio is output on the computer and the video has to go through a conversion process, you may need a different setting.


4. On an earlier attempt, I switched between cameras by using a composite envelope on the top video track. Watching the finished video on tape I realized that at each dissolve the audio is out of sync. What's up with that?

When previewing, Vegas attempts to show everything in real time at the quality level you have set. If it can't keep up, it will start to drop frames giving the "appearance" of being out of sync. After rendering, is it out of sync?

To increase the frames per second during preview, you may wish to use a lower preview quality level. The default is "Preview (Auto)" and works well in most cases.

Really Edward.... you should be working for Sony.

All of the cameras I have support firewire and analog. So it must be me.

But I can't get it to work.

Maybe I should just slap an nvidea card with s out as a second monitor card.

Kim, 2 things:

-Just because your cameras support firewire and anaolog doesn't mean they support pass-through. ALL DV cams support firewire, they have to, that's what allows capture of the digital media.

-Do not, and I repeat do NOT use the S-video out on the NVidia as your external monitor. 1.IT will most likely show your TV as a second monitor. and 2.Will not give you accurate colors, as the video out on the graphics card is influenced by the video LUT (look up table). In other words if you changed the output on color settings on your video card it would directly effect the output of the video. The only way to bypass the video lut is to go via firewire...to get a true wysiwyg.

I'll have to come over and fix it- I live close enough. lol

I would highly recommend www.academicsuperstore.com for qualified academic discounts. They are taking orders for Vegas 5. I currently have Vegas 4, but I will buy Vegas 5 from them because the entire package cost as much as an upgrade.

on top of that you can buy the philips DVP642 dvd player that plays divx/mp4 files themselves!!!!

<<<-- Originally posted by Todd Metzger : This is straight from the Sony website.

...

Upgrade Vegas to Vegas + DVD
$249.00

[/b] -->>>

I could only find a $299 price for this upgrade pn the Sony site.

Could you please post a link to the page which offers the same upgrade for $249?

Thank you!

Didn't have a chance to find the exact link, but if you go to the knowledge base page of the Sony Mediasoftware site, it has been the top answer in the list. If you don't see it in the list, then search for "vegas 5.0 promotional pricing." HTH!

Really, Gentlemen....you should be considered for knighthood. Thank you so much for helping the dumb belle in distress.

I must find this PDF manual! Even after your instructions, Glen, I didn't get the wizard to work right. (It butted the audio clips to the start of the timeline and left the video clips behind. I highlighted all.) But the 1-3 alignment will do for now. Num lock--never would've guessed.

This project has been trouble from the start. Even my friend who thinks I'm too picky admitted that it appears to go in and out of sync. (Edward, I do watch in "preview/auto" for audio work.) He reset Vegas to default settings and re-imaged the computer. I haven't noticed much of an improvement. It's six hours of tape, but maybe I should recapture a portion for a test.

Off-topic, Edward, but I'm going to try your method of splitting the project into sections, rendering them separately, then compiling into a final project. Don't be surprised if you hear a cry for help in a few days, but I'll do my best to get it right on my own.

Not dumb! If you were dumb, you would have given up. Instead you came here for help.

Glen is correct, everytime I have had a problem with the sync wizard, it was my fault.

Keep beating the keys, you're doing fine.

HA! I'm not laughing at anyone but myself. I've been using Ecalibur since it 1st came out, Edward has given me personalized help via email and after going to Vegas 5 and Excalibur 2 upgrade for Vegas 5 I started a test project and for the life of me I could not get Excalibur to work right. Man, talk about being nutso! It worked fine in Vegas 4, I tried it, it worked! Not in 5. What the @#$%$#@!!!!
I'm about ready to email Edward and Gary to give them a piece of my mind (not a big piece as I don't have much left) and suddenly the lights went on. YEP! SHO'nuff! For some reason in Vegas 5 when I would go to use Excalibur I would forget to highlite the tracks, but in Vegas 4 I did! Must have something to do with a number fixation or the like, anyway I think most anytime we have a problem with most software, especially Excalibur, it is definately OPERATOR ERROR! or as my son the IT guy says, "it's a I-D-10-T Error"!
Aw man, doncha just love it.
Glad you got it squared away.
Don B.
(Now if I could only get the little wizard guy in Excalibur to vacuum the floors.... :-)

Lorinda, you should be able to access the manual by going to Start - Programs - Excalibur. The PDF file is linked in that menu. If you want to look for it directly, it is installed in the same folder that Excalibur is installed in.

Great technical help, encouragement, & some laughs--it doesn't get any better than that!

...Of course, having the little wizard doing some vacuuming would be pretty good, too. :)

We'd already have the floors in there. However, the proper API calls aren't available yet for that. :)

Hey gang, the official Sony/VASST announcement is out for the Vegas 5 VASST tour, featuring myself and Gary Kleiner. We've added a couple cities, but more importantly, added a FREE evening event sponsored by Sony, where we'll be showing quite a bit of software, and going over some of the new features and workflow of the Sony Media Software tools on the evening before the 8 hour VASST training day in each city.
Specifics, including discount information, registration links for both the free and paid events can be found at
www.vasst.com/mailers/sonyblast.htm
Don't forget to check out the Vegas 5 veg contest, some great prizes there, too.
Gary and I are looking forward to meeting you all on the road!
Check out the free Sony Media Software Showcase as well.

all upgrade prices

http://linkzip.com?metal5b

Anyone ever tried using a Wacom tablet with Vegas?

Might be useful with the new spline-based masking capability.

Scott

I have a Wacom Intuos 2 (8X6) but haven't tried it in Vegas yet. The new masking is in the Pan/Crop dialog and is only Bezier based as far as I know. Using the Wacome for bezier style masks wouldn't add any benefit...in fact it's easier to point and click with a mouse.

Can you tell us more about the Vegas 5 .VEG contest? Thanks.

HI all,



I finished my editing a week ago but my customer want to add footage from another tape.

Everytime i do so it creates a crossfade and push the rest of the timeline further. Strange because i use to do that all week end long last week and the pasted event would act as an independant entity that i could move around but debalancing the timeline.


Any ideas for a remedy.


Thx a bunch

Phil

in the preferences of DVDa u can assign the "media size"

Now does anyone know if this means that i can type in 8.5gb and it will burn on the new Sony INT DUAL-LAYER DVD BURNER DRU700A....

its teh new dual layer burner from sony...

any thoughts, ideas......??

Looks like i found my solution :


turn off auto crossfade

turn off aut ripple.


Man that was simple , but one thing remains , hope someone has the answer to that.

When i move the new event on the timeline sometimes it will be above and sometimes it will go underneath the event he is crossing.

Is there any rule that dictate that behavior?


Thx


Phil

You can type in 8.5 but I don't believe that DVDA is set up yet to record to dual layer discs. I'm sure it would be clearly stated if it did.

I create a menu based project, have several mpg2 files and drag-drop them on the menu. Now, once the DVD start to play, it displays menu, if I select first title, it plays first title only and after it's done, it returns back to menu...
What I need is like sigle moview mode(plays continiously untile end), but I have several files not a sigle avi/mpeg...what's the trick? Thanks for your post.

Set and end action on the first file to point to the second file. Add an end action on the second file to point to the third file.

This assumes you are using DVDA 2. Can't be done in DVDA1 without workarounds.

is that player out already?

<<<-- Can't be done in DVDA1 without workarounds. -->>>

Unfortunetly I am using DVDA1.. so, what's the workaround? Don't tell me I have to combine my projects into a big one...can't justify the high price of dvda2, maybe time to look at other solutions, like myDVD?...thanks.

In DVDA 1, drop your clips in as a Music Compilation, and they will play sequentially.

Gary

There are three workarounds with which I am familiar:

1) use ONE great big file
2) Create a music compilaton (which will play them sequentially but will not let you have a specially built menu)
3) Manually edit the VOB files.

Best bet is to upgrade to DVDA2. The cost ISN'T that much (about $200 for Vegas 5 AND DVDA2.

When I go to the preferences and set the preferred audio editor, it won't save in the preferences. When I close the preferences window and try to open an audio section in the audio editor, it says I don't have an audio editor specified. Is there some way I'm supposed to save the preferences after I change them?

Preferences save automatically. Are you specifying the full path to the preferred audio program???

V5 can handle pull down removal on film based projects.

you need to do the removal thru the media pool ..
find your clip in V5 media pool - right click on clip then choose FILE FORMAT Properties ... check the box to enable 3-2 removal then you must choose what frame for it to start ... read the manual ..
basically you start with 0 then you want to advance the clip frame by frame. if you see interlace artifacts ( withing 8 frames ) then 0 is NOT the starting point go back and change it to 1 repeat frame by frame ..once you see NO interlace aritfact on your computer preview then you are set .. the nice thing about removal here is that V does not use the CPU to remove it - the avi engine does the removal so in Vegas with project properties set up as 24p you will get 23.98 solid playback... if you just set up a 24p project anything you drop into Vegas TL vegas will do a auto removal pull down ( it may not hit the correct sequence but any 60i clip will playback at 23.98) BUT V must use the CPU power for removal and on my PIV2.4 i only get around 17fps ..but doing removing thru media poll i get solid 23.98

As far as I know, yes. I click browse and select the executable file. After this, the path is displayed in the text box next to where it says preferred audio editor. Once I close the preferences and try to open an audio file, it says there's no audio editor specified.

I have a Wacom Graphire 3 that I use with Vegas. I use the mouse unless I am drawing with Photoshop and it works just like any other mouse.

My point is the Wacom isn't going to make building bezier style masks easier.

I see this in the preview window when I have Vegas 4e in EXT. monitor mode and the courser is on a transition on the timeline

Note I do not see it on the NTSC Ext monitor just on the computer monitor

Thanks

Vince

You will see that any time the video frame is being affected by something (such as a dissolve). In order to display the dissolve, the frame must be "recompressed" to be shown on the external monitor. When playing straight DV with no effects at all, the "frame recompressed" message will NOT appear.

Thanks Edward Soooo much to learn..

What is the difference between simply trimming a clip (clicking the edge of an event and draging) and slip trimming (holding alt while draging an event edge).
I'm reading the manual here and can't fathom what the difference is. Thanks.

Let's say you have a sequence

ABCDEFG

if you trim it from the left two increments, it'll now be:

CDEFG

if you slip trim it from the left two increments, it'll now be:

ABCDE


in other words, slip trimming from the left is like regular trimming from the right. slip trimming from the right is like regular trimming from the left. the only difference is the clip's final position on the timeline. slip trimming helps when there are already clips before and after the clip you're editing. hope this helps

if you have a large clip that has time/date information, open it up in the trimmer and there'll be markers where each new scene begins. Using the markers, it's easy to select from one marker to another, in essence only choosing one scene out of a large file. It's almost as easy and useful as having the file actually broken down into seperate files.

Yes, just make sure when dragging and dropping the clip that the cursor is on the exact video track that you want it to be on. Otherwise it'll end up above or below. If the cursor is on the video track that already contains some footage, it'll place it there with a crossfade. hope that helps.

Hi Guys!

I have a video which I watch fairly often, which is showing signs of wear.

Now I have the equipment, I would like to transfer it to DVD to preserve it.

With VHS I have shot on a DV, I re-record it to the DV camera, then capture using Vegas. With the Commercial Video, the DV Camera (A Sony of about 3 years vintage) will not record due to protection on the Video.

How then do I get the video into Vegas? Is there a way to bypass the protection on the video?

I don't want to spend more money on a converter.

Thanks in advance

Andy

Actually, to use your example:

Trrim the in point two increments is indeed CDEFG,

but the slipped event (assuming we start with the whole length of the media) would be

CDEFGAB

In other words, the length of the event remains constant, but what you see of the media is slipped to a different point within the event.

Gary

>if you have a large clip that has time/date information, open it up in the trimmer and there'll be markers where each new scene begins<

Allen,

That's a new one on me. Please tell us where these markers are and what they look like.

Gary