It shouldn't need to do this. Are you sure you haven't changed
anything (for example having a 60i source and having the project
set to 30p)? Everything must be set to the exact same thing
(project settings, event settings and export settings).

i didnt change anything...i just rendered a project overnight...woke up and set a PTT with options: smtp bars 10 sec...lead black 5 sec...trail black 15 secs so i can keep a copy on DV tape for backup....no file settings or any changes were made on the timeline or project settings.

I capture my footage with scene detection so that I get a new
file for each take/shot/scene instead of one or more big files.
These I then arrange into folders (one for each scene).

1) I and a lot of other people it seem don't use the trimmer at all. I basically play the footage from the explorer (space bar) and then drag it to the right place. I trim it by slicing pieces of (s key) and removing those from the timeline

3) That's normal and is indeed preferred. I try to do the same, but that's not always possible due to space reasons on my other drives

4) I basically play the footage from the explorer and when I'm done with the current clip I highlight the other and hit the space bar. This is more easy for my approach ofcourse. In your case a seperate preview track might be handy?

5) I simply change the size of the timeline (by using the scroll wheel of my mouse) then move the piece to the correct place (you might want to use ripple editing with this), position the mouse on that place and zoom back in.

I shot in 24p (dvx100A) but used a default vegas project settings (which I presume are 60i). I have already edited the footage.

How do I change the project to 24p?

Should I

A. just change project settings and rerender OR
B. Open new project and somehow re-import the old project OR
C. create a new project and do everything from scratch?
D. ?


Thanks.

-- Andre

Did you leave it on the timeline with all of the rest of the clips and stuff?

Just started running across this recently. Sometimes the footage in my explorer isn't the correct icon. For example it's usually the windows media player icon beings it's my default player for avi/mpg etc. Just tonight I opened up Vegas and the icon was the one I assigned to my desktop link for Displaymate. Now...the footage is able to be brought to the timeline ok and plays completly fine....just the oddity in the icon it's showing to represent footage?! Usually shutting down Vegas and reloading it fixes it. Anyone else ever encounter this?

Trey,
I'm curious why you're rendering a complete project to AVI then printing to tape. Unless you need the AVI for something else I find it much easier and less time consuming to finish my project and go straight to PTT. Please understand that my project might have a bunch of AVI's in it but I don't render it back out and then PTT.
What's your thinking for doing that?
Don

A. Just change the project settings.

Hold down CTRL and SHIFT while starting Vegas and all windows will be reset to their original positions.

After you render to a complete AVI, start a NEW project and add the new AVI file. Then do a PTT with only that file on the timeline. It sounds like you are trying to print with the original project on the timeline instead which would require the changed sections to be rendered because it doesn't see the new AVI file.

Q1. I believe there is a more effective way to work in trimmer. How do YOU do it?

I don't use the trimmer much, Instead I just drop the clip on the timeline and cut out the sections I don't want.

Q2. Also, I noticed that markers createdin trimmer remain in the "cut" when moved to the timeline, but for some reason I can't read their labels. How can I access that info?

You only access that through the explorer screen.

Q3. Technical tip/question: I am using a 160Gb external drive to capture and edit. Initially I would render on the same drive. This however leads to the drive reading/writing small chunks of data from and to itself. Not optimal. Next I started rendering onto another physical drive and it worked much smoother.

Any experience with this? What is your setting? 1 drive for everything or A for capturing/final storage and B for rendering_to.

Two drives will, generally, be faster but I frequently render to the same drive. Depends on your workflow and number of drives available.

Q4. I found it hard to manage alternate entries for the same cut. Say I want to see the timeline with cut A and immediately after that with cut B in order to make my mind of which one to keep. What's an effective way to do this without moving everything around? Duplicate timeline?

I would recommend either putting them at the same location in the timeline on different tracks OR put them all in the same place as takes. You may also want to take a look at Excalibur if you are really doing multi-camera edits.

Q5. How do I move a cut to a different place quickly? Insert Time? How do you do it?

Not exactly sure what you mean here. If you mean you simply placed the cut in the wrong place, a quick way would be to make a new cut at the correct place, delete the bad footage, and then extend the good clip to the new cut spot.

You may also want to look at holding down CTRL-ALT while dragging the cut point.

Don - i have been outputting to full avi so then i can convert in QT, real or WMP9. I also use the AVI for making DVDs. I know i can output directly to mpeg2 or whatnot for dvd, but it seems easier to just make the AVI for the other formats so no intermediate compression is involved (maybe my thinking on this is incorrect).

Edward - I have done that on some projects before, output full AVI and then create a new project and just pull in the complete AVI, but it was because i actually changed the music up and not the video/transitions, etc.

In any case, i am not changing anything in the files/projects/settings,etc etc etc

I think it is just because the PTT creates many small files for the video in the temp file (along with wav64 if the settings are configured that way). Maybe it has something to do with sustained data rates, etc.

i did another project today and did the PTT first, which took an hour an a half or so...then i did the AVI output for DVD and it only took 5 minutes, so it appeared to work fine. earlier i did the AVI first, then the PTT and it took over an hour for the AVI and almost an hour for PTT....strange.

I am new to Vegas and to the DVX100A so please excuse my ignorance.

I am currently shooting my footage in 24pA and editing in a 24fps timeline. I plan on using the footage personally for 24p DVD's. I realize that for prerenders I should insert 2-3-3-2 pulldown and then bring that file back into Vegas and do a final render inserting a 2-3 pulldown .

My question is can this final render file with the 2-3 pulldown be printed back to a DV tape and then used essentially as 24p "normal" footage, so that it could be sold as stock footage to companies who wanted to edit on a 29.97 fps timeline and mix my stock footage with 60i footage as well as their footage which has been shot in 24p "normal" using a DVX100A.

anyone else have any issues with DVD architect? i had it for a while, never used it and then loaded it up a couple weeks ago hoping to use it...i have only been using it to prepare the files...it either does not see the dvdwriter or it gives an error

i ahve udpated to the 1.0d version
most recent firmware update on my lite-on 411s

after i have been preparing the files i just use Nero and do the burn there, but its an extra step.

it's common on many of the newer dvd burners... DVD Arch is in despirate need of an update

Thanks Edward, I'll do that. In fact, Rob's method worked just fine, but returning to the default will be handy.

i have been outputting to full avi so then i can convert in QT, real or WMP9. I also use the AVI for making DVDs. I know i can output directly to mpeg2 or whatnot for dvd, but it seems easier to just make the AVI for the other formats so no intermediate compression is involved (maybe my thinking on this is incorrect).


i do this too.. IMO, your not wrong. as the rendering is faster.

Also with one file, its easier to segregate certain elements for later use such as promos and web stuff... and u jsut do a nice clean conversion without havnig to worr abotu actual rendering of effects etc..

thing is when i print to tape, i DONT use vegas or vidcap. Even though the capture in VidCap is faultless, im experiencing the same issue u are.. so now i use An old copy of pinnacle 7 to do this.

It PTT seemeless without having to do anything.. so long as its AVI, it will transfer anything.

U might be abel to find a free V capture/PTT app, but u can prolly find something liek pinnacle cheap now.. it doesnt have to be teh latest version..

even though i love Vegas to death (hell my business relies on it) it still has some issues.

Im still waiting for them to fix architect..

use DVDRW and you shoudlnt have a problem.. this is a known issue.. there are MANY known issues.. i just wish they'd fix the bugger... WITH AN UPDATE.. not a new program that we have to pay for again..

what Edward says hit the nail on the head, but I don't use anything like Excalibur as I really have no need for it. Once you work out your own flow, you don't need anything, just a good quality optical mouse with a built in trackball :)


Q1. I believe there is a more effective way to work in trimmer. How do YOU do it?

((don't use it.. click and drag ONE LONG AVI into the timeline (as mentioned.. ) do the split as you go along.. ))

Q2. Also, I noticed that markers created in trimmer remain in the "cut" when moved to the timeline, but for some reason I can't read their labels. How can I access that info?

((Don't use them... when playing back, hit the M key to create a marker.. these can then be used as chapter points in DVD Architect if needed))

A few more questions:

Q3. Technical tip/question: I am using a 160Gb external drive to capture and edit. Initially I would render on the same drive. This however leads to the drive reading/writing small chunks of data from and to itself. Not optimal. Next I started rendering onto another physical drive and it worked much smoother.

Any experience with this? What is your setting? 1 drive for everything or A for capturing/final storage and B for rendering_to.

((I use 2 120gb HDD for my projects. Raws on one drive (along with projects, music and additional materials.. Final render goes to the other one, which ONLY carries Mastered footage and maybe some promo stuff.. Very quick.. ))

Q4. I found it hard to manage alternate entries for the same cut. Say I want to see the timeline with cut A and immediately after that with cut B in order to make my mind of which one to keep. What's an effective way to do this without moving everything around? Duplicate timeline?

((No, create a new track, then use your mutes and solos with and without the footage in place.. when you make up your mind, just click and drag the one you want to keep ))

Q5. How do I move a cut to a different place quickly? Insert Time? How do you do it?

((err.. cut and paste bro... :) ))

Hey Trey, now I understand. I can't figure out why you're having a challenge right now but I get why you're rendering to AVI and then PTT.
Good Luck,
Don

If you do a PTT and then create a full separate AVI file, that file WILL be created much faster because all of the pre-renders used for the PTT process will be used when creating the new AVI file. So, the entire project would be a straight file copy.

If you render to the separate AVI first, you would need to create the new project with the new AVI file or the PTT will require rendering each of the sections.

I've not done any official testing but it DOES seem that rendering to MPEG2 is a lot faster from a separately create AVI file. Now, whether it's enough faster to warrant the creation of that file, you'd have to run some tests to determine.

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Jefferson : there are MANY known issues.. i just wish they'd fix the bugger... WITH AN UPDATE.. not a new program that we have to pay for again.. -->>>

Well, it works very well with a wide variety of burners. Most of the time when there is a problem, it's because of other DVD burning software being installed - particularly any packet writing type software. I would look there first.

As for "MANY known issues", I'm not sure I'd go that far. There are SOME known issues but, overall, it does what it says it will do and is very stable.

If I was a betting man, I would bet that the next version you see will be 2.0 and NOT 1.0e.

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Jefferson : what Edward says hit the nail on the head, but I don't use anything like Excalibur as I really have no need for it. -->>>

It is true that anything that Excalibur does can be done manually. However, the beauty of Excalibur is that it will automate the process so that things can be done more quickly and easily. I can tell you from experience that multi-cam editing is MUCH faster using Excalibur than by using the manual process I previously used. Are things like Excalibur needed? No. Are they helpful? Absolutely.

Just note that ALL settings will be returned to default. So, you will also reset anything changed in Options - Preferences.

I'm no beginner, so I've coverd almost every angle. But here it goes.

I want to mix 5.1 surround audio in Vegas, I have a 4.1 setup with a 5.1 simulated mode (THX Certified Altec Lansing model ADA885 speakers) I have a Santa Cruz (TurtleBeach) sound card. I've tried everything in Vegas to get the surround to work. But when I want a channel to go to the rear speakers they end up in the front speakers. When I watch DVD films I put the speaker model from 2 Speakers to SPDIF and it works great and sound even better.

So, I pretty much narrowed it down to Vegas. It works good in Windows, and great on DVD's played on my computer. But It does not work in vegas.

I went into OPTIONS -> PREFRENCES -> AUDIODEVICE.
I have 3 options, 1. Microsoft sound mapper 2. Direct sound surround mapper 3. Windows Classic Wave driver. I have mine on Windows classic, it puts the Santa Cruz name in the feilds and it works best but still no surround.

Anyone have any ideas to what this might be?

Why blend and not interpolate?

I doubt this is a Vegas issue. Either Vegas is using a shell control
which is handling the whole explorer interface [probably] or is
building it themselves asking the Windows Shell for information
on the files like which Icon to use. Windows has had a history
of sometimes messing up icons. This tend to happen more
frequently if you leave the machine long running or use things
like standby a lot on laptops for example.

Anyway, it should still load the footage correctly, only display an
"incorrect" icon.

But before you do that save the current project and make a copy
of the project file to some other location. Then change the settings
and save the new project under a DIFFERENT name (save as) so
that you can always go back if something goes wrong.

It is as easy as Edward says. Just go down to File -> Properties
and change it to 24p. Also right-click on a few events and check
their properties to make sure Vegas is seeing it as 24p footage
(it should automatically).

If you insert a 2-3 pulldown the result should be 60i footage and
thus playable on all systems.

I'm not sure what you mean by "prerenders". But if you use
a 24p project I would try to get all the footage in 24p.

There is also an official 24p White Paper out for Vegas / DVD
Architect. If you haven't seen it, please do get it here (http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/download/Step3.asp?URLID=1772&SerialNum=&EntryPoint=) and
read it.

I think the "problem" is with the added SMPTE bars and blacks.
If I understand correctly you render your project (without those
bars & blacks) to an AVI first, then start a new project, insert
the just created AVI and then add the bars + blacks. Ofcourse
those bars + blacks will required rendering although this should,
obviously, not take an hour.

Perhaps it is somehow rendering out another whole AVI file at
that point for some reason (perhaps because it wants to make
sure it doesn't interrupt the recording process when switching
from one file [SMPTE bars for example] to the pre-rendered
footage of your movie?

Would you have, by any chance "Options -> Preferences -> Video
Device tab -> Recompress edited frames" turned on?

This simply sounds like confusion as to what File - Render As actually does.

File - Render As: Create a completely new file from all events on the timeline with the specified transitions and effects. This in no way affects the timeline or current project. This simply creates a fully render version of this project.

In order to USE ths newly created file, it has to be brought back onto a timeline - either in this existing project or in an entirely new project.

Tools - Render to New Track: Nearly identical to File - Render As but will automatically add the newly created file to the timeline. You MUST be careful you your audio will be doubled.

Tools - Print to DV Tape: Will render ONLY the sections that need rendering and then print the project to tape.

I'm just delving into DVD Architect for the first time today, to lay off a wedding video I cut (want to give it to them by Valentine's Day) and IMO the themes that come with it are pretty lame. OTOH, iDVD comes with a very classy wedding theme which I've used before. So what to do? If I set up markers in Vegas so they can jump to "Best Man's Toast," etc. will those export to iDVD? Or if that doesn't work, can I import that iDVD theme into DVD Architect so the markers will "take" going from Vegas to DVD A?

Any alternative options to the above welcomed as well!

I'm sure you can't import the themes. However, you should be able to import the pieces that make up the them and/or create your own theme. There is a theme editor program available by Brian Barnes that will let you create your own themes. Or you could just simply add the proper pieces to the menu backgrounds (etc...).

I am also sure that IDVD will not read the chapter markers made by Vegas. You would have to manually set the chapter points in IDVD.

Thanks Rob, Yeah I have read the Sony paper. I know that it is best to work with all 24pA footage, which I will be doing for my own purposes. However I know for a fact that some of the companies that I may be selling footage to have to work using a 29.97 time line. I just wanted to make sure that I could for sure shoot in 24pA and still be able to cater to those companies needs at the same time, which apparently I can.

Thanks again for the help,

Joe

Hi all

I'm trying to achieve a shot where my camera is on a long zoom and I pull it back slowly and focus on the person being interviewed.

What I now want to do in vegas is to pull the zoom back at high speed and move the shot to the person's face before returning to normal speed.

This would be impossible with a camera because it or me won't be able to react properly.

Now, my problem is that Vegas will only let me do a 300% increase in speed which doesn't look fast enough to get the effect I want. Is there any way I can speed up the footage more than 300%?

Thanks for any help
Donie

You get 300% on the velocity envelope, right? Then you have 400% available on the event options menu. That makes 12 times the normal speed. If you need more than that you can render the event to avi, dump the avi on your timeline and add another 12 times increase. You could go on.

Two ways:

1) Render at 300% and then apply another velocity envelope to the rendered clip.

2) Also apply a CTRL-Drag to resize the clip smaller. CTRL-Drag will give you up to 4x. Combined with the velocity envelope you can get up to 12x. However, the CTRL-Drag method will only to a constant speed.

For more details, look at my Newsletters (http://www.jetdv.com/tts)

Okay, I confess to being an audio imbecile. What I'm trying to do is reduce the horrible traffic noise that peaked in the background during a few key clips (while something was read by a soft-spoken bride) at an outdoor wedding. I realize that while it isn't going away completely, if I had Sound Forge 7.0 with Noise Reduction I could probably bring it down to an acceptable level. However, I don't have the bucks at the moment and I can't for the life of me figure out what steps to take, not to mention which filters that come with Vegas 4.0, I should even be playing around with. (sigh) Can someone post a list of which I should try and suggested settings to start from? And any steps for the audio challenged you care to add (at the most basic "for dummies" level possible) would also be appreciated.

Noise Reduction is a totally separate product from Sound Forge. In fact, you can purchase Noise Reduction and use it in Vegas without having Sound Forge. Also, it has a 30day demo so you may want to "test" it on this footage.

Beyond that, you're going to have to try eq'ing out the troublesome frequencies. If you look at the Track EQ, there's a preset for "60Hz hum notch using 4 stacked filters". Take a look at how that works and adjust the frequencies as needed.

rather than do it in realtime zooming, can't you do this with a few keyframes and a composited frame?

edit:[ event pan/crop button]

So are you getting no surround or swapped rear & front? I've
heard of this (unrelated to vegas) once before. I forgot how
and why though. Are you going out through SPDIF when in Vegas
as well?

Thanks for all the replies.

Bill, I'm new to this stuff so can you expalin the mechanism of composited frame?

Thanks
Donie

Donie, I'm still not sure I'm picturing the effect you're looking for. Have you looked through the standard transitions too? There's several that do zooming.

Hi Edward

At the start of the shot (POINT A) the camera is zoomed away in the distance at some object.

Pull the camera back slowly (will be sped up in edit) and move to foreground subject (POINT B). By doing it slowly I'm guaranteed that I'll be in focus and have framed the person in the foreground correctly.

Now during edit I do speed up between point A and point B. At the end of point B the camera is in focus and framed correctly. If there was any focus loss just before point B the sped up footage will make it irrelevant.

The finished shot will look like a super high speed zoom from a far object to a near one in perfect sysn with no apparent loss of focus or framing.

Just a split second shot but can be quite impressive.
Donie

No, I don't know how to do that? (SPDIF out in vegas)

It could be me needing a AC3 decoder in vegas because when I render to AC3 files, load them into my dvd software player It works well, I just don't want to have to render out to AC3 and listen and change and render when I mix.

Must I leave the computer alone while rendering in order to avoid glitches? Or can I web surf? Play Winamp? Render another project by opening another instance of Vegas?

<There is a theme editor program available by Brian Barnes that will let you create your own themes.>

Edward, do you happen to know the link for this? When I did a search I got a whole lot of stuff on an athlete named Brian Barnes. Don't think it's the same, but ya never know.

p.s. Your latest newsletter is great as usual.

While rendering, you can basically do anything you want. Browse the web, edit another project in another instance of Vegas, Render multiple projects in multiple instances of Vegas, Play a game.

I took me a minute to search for it. However, you can download it from: http://www.briancbarnes.homestead.com