Hi,

Just wanted to add my 2 cents on performance. I've been sceptical to antivirus software for a long time because of the performance impact. A while ago I got Norton AV 2004 - and I must say that it is rather conservative on using resources.

You can see for yourself - open the taskmanager and go to the menu "View -> Select columns " and make sure the column "CPU Time" is marked. Now you can see how much CPU time a given process takes. NAV 2004 runs for about 4 seconds on my machine ( that is during boot and login procedure ) - after that it just idles in the background. Depending on WHAT you do on your machine the AV software will behave differently - ie. lots of file writing => much AV CPU, generally rendering video concerns a few ( 20-30 ) rather large files, and AV won't impact much at all.

I have the same box for Software developing, surfing and video rendering - never had ANY problems. I use a hardware firewall ( DLINK 804 ) and AV software + I always read the security bulletins on MS and other sites.

Happy rendering!

// Lazze

Personally, I usually use the "Master Track" approach and just move the segements I want to a top track. Then I don't have to worry about any envelopes and render time is nothing on the un-altered segments.

However, I've discussed multiple ways of doing this type of thing in the multicam article here: http://www.jetdv.com/tts.

Murphy loves me. I'm at the tail end of a long project and the deadline is now in my face. I was real happy until a few minutes ago when Vegas 5 refused to render my audio and keeps crashing no matter what I do.

I'm trying to create a DVD with the Sony DVD+ program so in Vegas, I rendered to the MPEG2 format which has no audio. Video rendered fine. However trying to render audio in Sony's PCA, Sony W64 or Microsoft wav, Vegas 5.0 crashes at about 20%.

I tried rendering to different drives (all defragged with plenty of room), I tried rebooting. I tried muting the video tracks.

In the meantime, I'll try using uncompressed .avi with the huffy codec for the DVD creation.

Any suggestions on the audio render though ? Thanks

Hi Edward and every one else.

Any reason why the free upgrade from 4 to 5 during the offer time was restricted to US residents only?

Not happy!

Andy

I'm a new user of Vegas 5.
Could anyone suggest me where could I find a demo version of Tsunami, Excalibur, Neon for Vegas 5 ?
I would be pleased to try these scripts.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dohhhh,

I should have downloaded the latest build of Vegas. I was at build 122 and installing build 134 fixed that problem.

Wheeew ! Dodged another bullet from Murphy.

Let's make this a point right now:


If you are not on 5.0a (build 134) - UPDATE!!!

The ONLY changes between 5.0 and 5.0a was bug fixes. Many bugs people are complaining about have already been fixes as long as you are using the current version.


Jim, thanks for letting us know that this is what fixed your problem.

I can see nothing that refers to "US Only" on either of these pages:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/rebates/vegas.asp
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/rebates/vegasdvd.asp

Have you contacted customer service?

I think I might know where to find them :-)


http://www.jetdv.com/tsunami
http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com

After looking, it doesn't appear the Vegas 5 versions of the demos are yet posted for Excalibur and Neon - but they DO exist. Contact me or Gary Kleiner and we'll make sure you can get access to the demos.


Demo restrictions - can only be run 15 times - so, if you start the program and hit cancel it counts as a run!!!

There must be something I accidentally hit, but while I can step through footage in the trimmer window, frame by frame, and see that it's all there, when I try to play it in the trimmer, all I get is a still from where the cursor is parked. Any suggestions? I've rooted around and am stumped. Never run into this before.

Marcia

It didn't look like anyone mentioned it yet, but if you are running XP, turn off all the pretty, theme things. This will help a little bit and it's free.

Go into the System control panel->Advanced Tab->Performance and put the dot on best performance.

Also, go into MSCONFIG and make sure that all the unneeded things are turned off on the Startup and System tabs.

I really love the Movie Magic plugin with 5.0, but it really does add to rendering time.

Which version of Vegas? Any chance you have a camera or other
device attached to the firewire port and have external monitor
enabled and it gets confused?

Version 4. I've had 5 for about a month but haven't installed it. (I'm headed into production and swamped.) And no, nothing is attached, and the external monitor isn't toggled on. The preview pane works fine if I want to view the cut edit in the timeline, but clicking on a clip in the media pool, to view in the trimmer, just brings up a still, as I said. Audio plays as usual. Don't know what it is.

I may punt and install 5. Surely it won't do the same. But I hate something going on with a program and not knowing how to get out of the situation.

Nobody has seen this?

In Vegas can I upconvert the 720x480 SD from the DVX100 to HD 1280x720, and if so, how can it be done?

Thanks

Am going to be at the Sony Media Showcase in Denver today at 2:30 hope to see some cool Vegas stuff ...have only worked in Vegas for about 2 months now but liking it more all the time

Vince

In case the unlikely event of a hardrive going down (particularly since I started working with external drives and transporting them physically with me on the weekends) would these two steps be adequate for backing up my projects?
1. Backup my .VEG file(s)
2. Backup my default capture log files

Regarding #2, doesn't Vegas create a capture log file that you can use to automate recapturing of a tape. So assuming the hardrive my media files and .VEG files resides goes down I can use the capture log file to recapture the same exact footage used in the project. Move the re-captured footage into a directory with the backed up .VEG file and recover my project again from scratch? What other aspects need to be addressed? Names of the files when recapturing?...for the .VEG file to recognize them?

Thanks in advance!

#1 can be easily done using Neon.

#2 is less needed but you can manually copy the file when you exit the capture program. As long as you have the VEG file you can specify files to be recaptured.

I have never seen this and never heard anyone else report this. However, I'm still not fully understanding what you are saying. You open a video file from the media pool into the trimmer and you only get a single frame? Or you get all of the frames but, when playing, only see the frame where you started. It seems like i've read both ways in this thread.

#2 is less needed but you can manually copy the file when you exit the capture program. As long as you have the VEG file you can specify files to be recaptured.

So say for the sake of argument I lose the drive that houses ALL my media in my project. I can go back and rebuild the project by re-capturing the exact same footage from my original tapes using the .VEG file somehow?

Edward, I apologize for the confusion. It is the second case... I load it in the trimmer and while all the frames are clearly present (I know this because when I step through frame by frame the trimmer updates with each click) but the trimmer does not play the footage as it should, being that it's video. It's like a flip book that isn't flipping. Instead of moving, it remains on the frame where it was when I hit play. I can click around, move to another frame (and it updates) but as soon as I hit play, it does nothing more (as if I'd loaded in a still photo), while audio OTOH goes on it's merry way as it should.

Clear as mud? ;-)

Yes. If you captured with the Vegas capture tool and that file is now gone, when you open the project it will tell you it is missing and one of the options is "Recapture media". A second option is "Recapture all off-line media".

Does the cursor move while playing? Does the frame count under the preview window increase while playing?

May be time to do an uninstall/reinstall.

Yes., yes, and I agree. But instead of a Vegas re-install, think it's time to load in my Vegas 5 upgrade that's been sitting on my shelf.

So you think it's "just one of those things," where something got corrupted? Here and I was beginning to think the program was acting up because it was miffed at me. See, I've been doing all my doc prep, and ignoring it. ;-)

I did this .. . five days prior to the launch of a website that I had been commissioned to make an all singing and dancing fast moving video . . . On the Saturday ther drive sound like "A BAg of SPanners" . .. it went down, BIG time . . by the end of Sunday I had it all back together again . .HAHAHAHA .. .manic larf here . . This wqas NOT a good time to be around Grazie . .I Sh££t you not!?!?!?!

Anyways ,. . it happenend .. . the corowd went wild . . I got paid . . move on . ..

. .OH YES YES YES .. I kept and keep my Veggies under tight lock an dkey now .. separate drive AND on cd back up . . "Recapture Media" . . GREAT STUFF!!!!

Grazie

Wow, never knew VEGs were that versitile. Where do you find recapture all media? Or is it an option when you load the VEG without the project media available?

Then what is the default capture file Vegas makes used for?

Thanks.

It's an option when you open a VEG file and the media is not available.

Yes I do.

For Vegas 5, did you get the CD? If yes - skip the CD and download 5.0a from the internet instead.


For a simpler quick solution, you might try a "Repair install" of Vegas 4.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dwight Flynn : In Vegas can I upconvert the 720x480 SD from the DVX100 to HD 1280x720, and if so, how can it be done?

Thanks -->>>

Select 'Render As' in the 'File' menu dropdown, then Mainconcept MPEG2 from the file type flyout then any 720 HD template from the template list that suits.

Don't go expecting that this will magically turn your SD footage into HD output in terms of clarity or display quality on WS monitors etc.
I'd be pretty certain that there's no bicubic resampling algorithm for upsampling SD sources to HD sources in the Mainconcept encoder, but I'm not certain.
I have been able to use this method to render out 1080 HD from 720 HD sources without any degredation (though the JVC-HD10 720p stream should be able to do this), so I guess you'll never know till you give it a go!!!

Thanks for the reply Edward.

Am in the process of sorting it out with customer service, hopefully they will honour the deal.

Cheers,

Andy

Part 2

Followed the links you posted, and will try online tonight. Stupidly tried snail mail to upgrade. Better get with the info age eh? :)

Thanks again for the help.

Andy

Hello everyone, first of all i´m new in vegas ( i´ve used it for about 2 months ), i liked very much his software, but i want to discuss 2 matters that i´ve stuck in.

First of all my problem is " cutting ", from all the later software that i´ve used this one is a little bit tricky, the only thing that i want to do is devide the movie in two blocks, and then insert a transition or an effect in the middle of that 2 blocks.

When i use the cut in my movie, i select from the timeline the start point to the end point that i want to move for another track.

But when i do that the selected block from the timeline goes to the clipboard , and if a make another task it vanish from it.

So what can i do to insert a transition in a middle of one block of film. Is this possible?????????

Many thanks to all.

Not sure I followed all of that. You have a single AVI file that you want to split and then dissolve between the two halves? If that's all, you simply need to put the cursor at the split point, press "S", and then move the second half so that it overlaps the first half for the length that you want the dissolve. No need to move to different tracks or copy to the clipboard.

I will give them a call again about the rebates but I was wondering if anyone else had gotten it to work or are further along in the process?

There are many benefits and perks in becoming a member of the SCVUG.

Join the SCVUG and receive a special discount offer to attend a VASST in your city.

This special offer is only valid until may 25th!


Join the SCVUG (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socalvegasusers)


Jay Mitchell

SCVUG Host

Hi Edward!

The second page of the link you gave states US residents only.

Hopefully Customer Service will come through for me.

Anyone else OS tried to get the Free Upgrade?

Cheers,

Andy

I never tried the free upgrade (mine were purchased over a year ago :-)). Consequently, I never saw the second page. Your only option is a plea to Sony customer service.

Had a great time in Denver, good groups at the free Sony event and at the VASST training day. Congrats to Scott W. who not only won the 64Bit Opteron from AMD, but the next day at the VASST training, he also took home an ADS Datatank. Whatta haul! Don, hope you love that new Vegas Bella keyboard!
Thanks to Don and Robert for staying after a bit to help Gary and I get packed so we could catch our very late flight to Chicago.
Looking forward to meeting many of you in Chicago and other cities. (and yes, we're giving away a 64bit Opteron in every city at the free Sony Software Media Showcase event, not to mention all the fun stuff from Artbeats, Pixelan, ADS, Sony, Hark Productions, ExpoDisk, Photoflex, Bella Keyboards, and VASST.

Douglas,
Will you be publishing a new "Vegas 5 Editing Workshop", or would "Vegas 4 Editing Workshop" still be useful to a totally new user of Vegas 5 + DVD ?

Thanks, Nick

I think I asked Edward this before a while back but honestly don't remember what the response was. Anyway here's what I'm seeing:

After editing for a while from time to time I see a blip in the footage. Not knowing what it was I double back and go frame by frame over the section I saw the abnormality. I come to find its a single frame from another section of the clip- totally unrelated. For example I'll be editing the vows and see a frame from the front of the chapel.
I zoom all the way in so every thumbnail equals 1 frame and it doesn't show up yet when I move the timeline marker to that frame the odd frame is definitly there.
I've found the only way to remedy this is save my project, close Vegas, then reopen it. If I do that the odd frame is gone. I'll have to test in the future and render a section that shows an odd frame to see if it picks it up.

I used to experience this in Vegas 4 and now confirmed that it exists in Vegas 5. Has anyone else experienced this? What causes this? Can this be patched by Sony? Thanks in advance!

I have seen this once in Vegas 4. Seems to be a hard bug to reproduce.

It also happened to me some times in Vegas 4. Haven't tried Vegas 5 yet.

Such "flash" frames can sometime crop up from your editing workflow. You think you've trimmed a clip at the end, when actually you've left a single frame outside your edit point. That orphan frame gets pushed and slipped around your timeline as you continue to edit, winding up at seemingly random points.

AVID has a "Find flash frame" feature, that searches your timeline for a single stray frame. Anything like that in Vegas?

The new Vegas 5.0 could generate transport files m2v. Is this format can be used for transport to write on JVC HD cameras and D-VHS.

If that were so, saving the project, shutting down Vegas- reloading Vegas and the project wouldn't fix it...which it always does.

<<<-- Originally posted by Richard Alvarez : AVID has a "Find flash frame" feature, that searches your timeline for a single stray frame. Anything like that in Vegas? -->>>


Not built-in. But it COULD be scripted!

Hi all.

I was ready to make Vegas 4 my main editor, but was disappointed at a couple of basic features that were missing. Can anyone tell me if the following items have been resolved in version 5?

First, there was no way to export frames. I found it hard to believe that you couldn't export a region of your timeline as a series of full-resolution still frames. I don't think I've ever seen a real editing app that didn't allow this.

Second, Vegas failed to display material on an external monitor when playing back material on a system with a high-quality capture board in it. I have Matrox M-JPEG material on a system containing a DigiSuite LE. Gadzooks, even the lowly (and free) Media Player automatically plays back properly on the monitor, without any fussing. My guess is that the codec handles this and the developer gets it free, which makes the Vegas situation all the more baffling. The problem led me to believe that Vegas is inadequate for anything better than DV footage, since you can't preview it.

Are users of higher-than-DV-quality hardware out of luck with Vegas?

On a positive note, I did some tests that indicated Vegas does not recompress intraframe-compressed material (like M-JPEG). Has anyone else tested this?

Also, Vegas 4's preview playback is much smoother and better than Premiere Pro's. Premiere Pro appears to be just as Scotch-taped together as ever, frequently failing to update the on-screen images at all.

Thanks!

Gavin

1) vegas did support exporting still frames, although you would
need a script to do it (which Vegas delivered with the package).
It is a slow option though. To the best of my knowledge Vegas 5
still has no frame export under file export.

2) windows media player isn't doing anything at all. The MJPEG
codec of your board is doing all the hard work. This codec is the
one that is outputting the footage through your board, not
mediaplayer or any other application.

Vegas is indeed primarely a (H)DV application. It will work with
a lot of other files but to the best of my knowledge will only
preview over firewire since this is the most common available
board.

I don't think Vegas 5 will solve your issues although you can use
a frame export script for your first point. Anyway, the best thing
you can probably do is simply check out the demo.

Hi,
I´ve been editing a lot on Vegas without much real problems (if any at all)...
For my PC specs.. Vegas flies... it´s what made me decide fot it.

BUt today I opened a project I was working on a few days ago and the Playback preview looks all stuttery like if I was watching a movie on a 56k modem... even if I put Draft mode...

Actually I just noticed that most of my captured (from vegas) video stutters on WMPlayer... but not on old already rendered and exported videos from Vegas.

Is this just a defrag issue? (it says 30% fragmented)..

I have plenty of space on the Hard Drives so that´s not an issue.

I´m doing the defrag tonite to see if this is it.. but If anyone has any other advice...

I spoke with a tech support guy at Smartsound to ask if there are any plans for making a version that works in Vegas. He had not yet heard whether or not this would happen (you would think...).

He did say that in the pro version there is a plug-in that exports to Vegas.

Does anyone here have any experience with this?

Thanks in advance.


Oh yeah, I have a 30 sec commercial running on our local TV channels and am currently working an a 70 minute big game hunt video for a prominent booking agent, big thanks to the group here for all your technical support!

Shane