<<<-- Originally posted by Marcia Janine Galles : p.s. Your latest newsletter is great as usual. -->>>

Thanks.

I would imagine rendering two projects would cut the
rendering time in half, right? I notice my CPU
usage during rendering is 96% to 99%. Suppose this
is normal?
The reason I asked this is because I notice Vegas
drops frames while capturing when another program
starts up. But how about with printing-to-tape.
Should printing-to-tape be run by itself?

Capture and PTT should be done with no other programs or activities running. Rendering is a totally different animal. Feel free to do other things while rendering. Don't do anything else while capturing or printing.

As for rendering multiple projects at once, yes they will both take longer. However, it WILL allow you to set up multiple projects rendering, go to bed, and, hopefully, they would be all be done the next morning.

The one thing I try to do when rendering multiple projects is have different target drives for each. Otherwise, you are rendering slices of each project onto the same drive. This results if highly fragmented files.

If you have a Hyperthreading PC you will notice that you'll get better performance doing dual renders than if you had a non HT CPU and tried to do two.

Aaron

Vegas is not using AC3 internally, so you don't need an AC3
encoder. So are you saying you use analog output on the card
for Vegas and the digital SPDIF for things like games and DVD's?
If so, why not simply swap the front and read analog connections
on your card then?

I don't have an answer as to why Vegas might be doing this,
and from the lack of responses from other people nobody else
seems to. There is an official Vegas Audio forum (http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowTopics.asp?ForumID=19) over at Sony,
I suggest you post the question there as well.

And if they do have the answer, please update the thread here.

Thanks and good luck!

"I would imagine rendering two projects would cut the rendering time in half, right?"

Ehm, no? Rendering time will increase since they are both fighting
over the CPU time and other resources. But this can be handy if
you want to projects to render overnight as Edward points out.

Andreas, I've got the same soundcard and speakers as you do. It won't work via the digital output of the TB card, because Vegas can't feed it in realtime with a Dolby Digital encoded signal from the timeline (rendering is needed for that). I've tried everything and it just will not work.

The only thing that worked was finding other drivers for the TB (I had the OEM ones that came from Dell) which gives extra routing config. options for using the seperated analog outputs of the TB card. In combination with the pc-surroundspeakers and it's build in amplifier this worked, but I lost all kind of features outside Vegas (playing dvd movies on the pc). I decided to change my config. back to the original, mix on my front speakers and check my 5.1 surround mixes after rendering parts of the movie by listening to the AC3 file with Power-DVD or Windows Media Player.

The best solution is a multi-channel soundcard, which you connect with 6 outputs (3 stereo-pairs, for 5.1 surround-outputs) to an surround amplifier with 6 (5.1) multi-channel inputs.

The Sony forum has a lot of info about that.

Peter Sieben

So this has happened to you too?

This happens to me in straight Windows Explorer. I agree it's more of a Windows issue than a Vegas issue. As long as the files still import properly (and they should because the name doesn't change), I wouldn't worry about it.

If you render two projects that take 30 minutes each, the total render time to render both of them at the same time will probably be over an hour. I can't say exactly how much over an hour but each one will be slowed down. If you have a multiple CPU system, of course this could all work out differently.

Thanks, all, for the input.

i only work in 5.1, HW and SW... but im moving into using vegas for all my projects nwo and ditching all my HW encoders.

as mentioned, Vegas does not work the 5.1 via digital output. Dont really know why, as ive tried using 3 differnet cards...

heres teh easiest solution for you.

Its been said before, but i must reiterate...

"The best solution is a multi-channel soundcard, which you connect with 6 outputs (3 stereo-pairs, for 5.1 surround-outputs) to an surround amplifier with 6 (5.1) multi-channel inputs."

Ditch the Turtle Beach, go and get a Soundblaster Audigy or Audigy 2, theyre peanut$ now, but offer an incredible s/n ratio, plus (and most importantly) ASIO drivers...

this is imperative for true 5.1 surround pans, as latency is ZERO

on top of that, you can route audio effects directly to the card itself thruvirtual audio cables (a lil more advanced in the audio field) as it uses an emu 10k processor, which is found on al the high end Emu samplers.

No offense, but even if speakers are thx certified doesnt mean they are good for what u need. These days thx certified doesnt really mean much, and without a centre speaker monitor, your monitoring will not be accurate.

good luck with it

As has been said, for an HT processor, that logic doesn't stand up to empirical tests. I've seen a 10-20% time savings by rendering two projects in parallel, as compared to rendering them in series. However, I set one to low priority (in Task Manager -> Processes) so it isn't fighting as hard for resources and only uses the spare CPU cycles. With a single render you can see a fully loaded single CPU and a 10-40% "second" CPU. (I know with HT they aren't actual dual CPUs, but it gives you a good idea of the number of no-ops in the pipeline of the processor.) With two projects running, both are right at 100%. The only problem is if you have them fighting for disk access.

My typical use is setting a Vegas project to low priority to render in ithe background, while I work in Vegas or Animation:Master in the foreground. (OK, or watch a DVD or play Dr. Mario on the Nintendo Emulator, but you get my drift. :) )

Is there a way to see a source record edit dual window in vegas?

I'm trying to loop background sound and it sounds the same forwards and backwards. How would I reverse audio so I can loop it without clicks? (I don't like using crossfades and copying it over and over again since you have to manually move the copied versions so they overlap and because the background volume varies slightly so the crossfade sounds a little off)

Vegas does not reverse audio. To do that, use Sound Forge or even Microsoft Recorder.

You mean two preview windows? (i.e. one for trimmer and one for the project???) If this is what you mean then NO. However, you don't really need it anyway.

Uh! Avoid an Audigy if you want real surround. At the risk of getting apples and tomatoes thrown, you CAN'T do surround with anything that you can buy from Comp USA and expect it to have a modicum of quality. Just cannot be done, period.
The cheapest speaks I've seen that offer reasonably good surround monitoring are the LX4's from M-Audio and even then it's a little weird.
The Altecs are THX certified for LISTENING, not for authoring.
A real sound card for authoring isn't built into the machine, a nice gaming card doesn't have the response nor clean output required for doing good surround. The speaks and soundcard are only a very small part of the equation, you need the room set up correctly too. Discreet outs to all 6 speakers are required, multilexed outputs divided at the sub don't cut it.
We've got a surround VASST taking off in a month, you might find it useful. http://www.vasst.com/touragenda/surroundagenda.htm will get you more information. This tour, while being taught with Vegas, will benefit anyone using Protools, Vegas, or Audition for creating surround projects.

Well, I don't know how you can record it, but, if you grab the fast-foward-reverse symbol at the "rate:" (with the yellow triangle below) and pull it to the left, it will go reverse video and audio in the monitor, but how do you record it? Be sure you are at the "end" of the clip to start.

I thought it is really funny, sounds like they are speaking Russian or something, and the lips sync'ed.

I am using Vegas4+DVD.

Is that the term, when you have the volume set too high, it "topped out", and the speech sounds like it is in a can?

Well, I messed up. Is there any audio effects in Vegas that can at least improve it some?

Vegas does not reverse audio.
Dang, with all the other audio editing goodies you'd think Vegas would be able to do that. Oh well, I'll figure out if the open copy in audio editor thing works well.

I've only seen this happen under the normal explorer and mostly
under Windows 2000 professional I think. Can't remember ever
having seen it under Windows XP.

That's pretty much the ONE task it does NOT do.

As Law said, you *could* play in single speed reverse and record the timeline. But it's easier to just reverse it in Microsoft Sound Recorder.

There's very little you can do. There's a few tools available that will help restore the peaks but you can only do so much. You'll be better off using Sound Forge to do this.

If you invest in the Noise Reduction package from Sony, it comes with a clipped peak restoration plug-in that helps with light clipping. I've used this to fix some things that people recorded a little too hot.

Keep in mind that SPDIF (digital out) doesn't have to transport
AC3. It can just as well transport PCM (which almost all receivers
support as well) or dts for example. A good card should have no
problem routing raw 5.1 output as PCM (which is RAW) over the
SPDIF link for your receiver.

I'm a new user to DV and Vegas. I have been successful in capturing video from my TRV19 but have not been able to Print to tape or use the camera for external preview.

When I try and print to tape Vegas starts the camera and puts it in record mode, but the screen on the camera is blue with no video or audio signal recorded.

I am connecting to the camera via a built in 1394 port on a Nvidia Nforce based small form factor computer (Shuttle SN41).

I have the full version of Vegas 4 that I purchased in combination with the Canopus acedvio card. I have not yet installed the Acedvio car to see if that makes a difference or not.

Other than this small glitch I'm having a BLAST! playing with this software, I can't believe what you can accomplish on a PC and this affordable software.

Any ideas or tips?

Thanks,

Paul.

Thanks.

The clipping is slight, so just gonna have to put up with it.

I strongly suspect there's a menu setting that needs to be changed on the camera. Many cameras require that YOU tell it whether the firewire is an input or an output. Also, make sure your camera is in VTR mode.

Hello,

I have used Vegas 3.0 for a year or so and just upgraded to 4.0e

Now for some reason when I add scene transitions they are very jerky/stuttery upon preview. Usually when I encode the project this is diminished, but not as much as I would like.

I have also been doing Picture in Picture type of editing when there is a small window with video footage overlayed on another video. The problem is the clips do not play smoothly at all in preview and make it very hard to check for audio sync.

Any ideas on what might be the problem?

Here are my computer specs:

P4 - 2.4
1 GB Ram
160 GB Drive for video editing
120 GB Drive for video output
80 GB System Drive
64MB Geforce4 4200TI Video Card
Soundblaster Audigy Sound Card

I have tried making sure my drives are defragged and I have nothing running in the background.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

To smooth out previews, you have a few options:

1) Pre-render
2) Ram render
3) Reduce the "preview quality" drop down box.

For example, if you are set to "Good (Full)", you will get a much lower framerate than at "Preview (Auto)".

Thanks!

What is ram render?

Tools - Build Dynamic RAM Preview

It will render the selected section to ram so it can play back at full speed. Of course the amount you can render to ram depends on the amount of ram you have. This is where 1Gig or more can really help.

Also, go to Options, Preferences to the Video tab and change the Dynamic RAM Preview Max to a larger number (maybe even the maximum it will allow).

NOTE: Some tools (such as Boris Red and WinMorph require this to be set to ZERO to function properly)

Thank you for the quick response. I think I may have found the answer, I found an old post in response to a similiar question on another vegas forum.

I believe I was trying to PTT a MPEG 2 file instead of an AVI file. I will try it in the morning and see if that was the problem.

Thanks,

Paul.

Trying to PTT an MPEG2 file would simply cause it to render to an AVI file before starting the camera. Since the camera is actually starting, something else is going on. I still suspect camera settings.

I rendered a bunch of 24pa and 30i footage in after effects. I want to render all the clips in Vegas, but whenever I do, everything looks interlaced. How do I make the entire project progressive?

Hello all,
Just a quick question, When I have been using the Text provided in Vegas Media Generator, I have been using a Video Envelope to fade the text in and out... The Text is place in its own video track above the video i am overlaying it on.. Is this the easiest and correct way to do this ?? is there another way??

Thanks,
Mike

With your mouse you can grab an upper corner of the text event (or any event) and pull it in towards the centre. You will see a fade-like icon appearing when you hover on the corner area. Do this with audio, too.

Hello,

Thank you Tor, I was not aware of this little goody.. This is a good trick..

Thanks !!!
Mike M.

Please also see this thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20830) for a fast Vegas introduction
with what does what, keyboard shortcuts etc.

Yes, the text should be placed on a track above the video. And, as you have seen, there are a variety of ways to accomplish fading in and out. The simplest is to hover over the upper right or upper left edge of the event, get the quarter moon icon, and click and drag toward the center. There are also scripts available that will add the fades for you.

Well it's working now. The problem was the onboard 1394 port. I installed a Canopus ACEDVIO card and the Preview on Device and PTT both work fine. If I try pluging back into the onboard port, video capture works but not preview or PTT.

Thanks for the quick feedback on the file format issue.

Paul.

I am a beginner and want to know which of these systems I should settle on. Is one suited to certain tasks better than the other? Tentatively I must say I found Vegas 4 more intuitive than Premiere Pro. What are the prospects of Vegas being updated by Sony? I would hate to make a time investment on Vegas if it died at 4.0

I work with DV (software rendering) to make documentaries and short films.

First of all, which NLE are you more comforatable with? Use the one that suits YOU.

Premiere and After Effects work together quite well. However, Boris integrates directly to the Vegas timeline - you don't even have to switch applications.

Ultimately, you need to try the demos and see what matches your workflow and needs. Besides, the other combinations (Premiere + Boris and Vegas + After Effects) might be a consideration as well.

Good to hear it's working. What kind of port is the onboard port? Is it, by chance, a VIA chipset? If it is, you may be able to get it working with a driver update.

I've been doing alot of zooming a 16:9 box onto 4:3 footage to correct for framing errors made by 'Uncle Charlie' (who videotaped a friend's wedding that I was in).

Has anyone found a combination of filters to work around the pixelation that occurs when 'overzoomed'? Maybe some combination of unsharpen mask and gaussian blur?

Scott

Mike,
As a variation on the fade in/out method, try this:
Create a text event. Open pan/crop on the event.
Doubleclick the kreyframe-line at a half second after the beginning and a half second before the end. Now go to the very beginning and pull the frame to your left until the text disappears to the right of the preview window. At the very last point, pull the frame to the right, watch the text disappear to the left in the preview window. Now play the whole thing.

If you make a note of the numbers you get in the Center box when you've pulled the frame, you could just type it it next time, to get an exact repeat of the movement.

Considering the source, if you zoom in you are losing information. So, there's really very little you can do besides what you've already stated.