You might be able to use THIS control in Vegas. I believe that WAX adds the ability to use some AVISynth tools directly in Vegas.

A friend is going to make a watermark from my logo to use on some video. Can someone tell me what file format to use to carry the alpha to Vegas? (forgive me if I worded this wrong!) Thanks, Jeff

I made my "bug" in Photoshop on a transparent background and the saved as a PNG.


Don

I am wondering if anyone knows if this is possible. I use vegas 6.0 and do a lot of batch encoding so if someone knows a way to encode a wm video 9 file with wm8 audio or mp3 please let me know!

The reason for this is I am aware that a lot of websurfers dont have the 9.1+ codec installed and popup for codec = bad...

Thanks a lot everyone.

Or...If you have the .gif or .jpg image available, you can place it in the video and lower the opacity of the image.

If you have high contrast scenes where the highlights are near to washed out (compressed) and you need to keep the details in these areas, then you probably need local adaptive processing. Almost in all other situations gamma correction is the way to go for brighten up the dark parts while keeping the whites.

My questions must be getting boring... :)

I've done a little test - I burned a master using DVDA 2 and then I burned one by dragging the VIDEO_TS folder that DVDA created into a Nero DVD_Video compilation.

They both play in my DVD player but the writing on the DVDA disc looks different. The Nero burned DVD looks like a solid color change throughout the whole burn while the DVDA disc seems to have a couple of different gradients of color change.

Can anyone chime in on whether or not this is a good indicator that the DVDA2 disc will be in one of the DDP or CMF formats?

Thanks,
Kevin

Thanks guys. I'll try this tonight. - Jeff

The only problem with that is that although you will lower the opacity of the background you will also lower the opacity of the actual image as well.

You could make you bug in whatever format you desire and use the chromakey to pull out the background - it's an extra step but it will work.

Don

I'm thinking that the standard burned (and playable) disc will be in a format they can use.

Like Don, I found the easiest way is to save as PNG in Photoshop. Make your logo on a new layer and delete the background layer (so it becomes transparent). Then save as PNG.

So I have had Vegas 5 for a couple weeks now (love the program) and have been converting 60i to 24p. Looks great to me (could be a little sharper though) but the workflow is killing me. I read the 24p article on the VASST site and it seems I should be able to replace the 60i files in the project with the rendered 24p ones, but I don't really understand how this is done. So far I have been rendering out clips in one big file (I have been doing short <1 min flicks) and cutting it up again in a 24p timeline. Obviously this will not work on anything much longer then 2/3 minutes.

If you ask, "Why don't you just edit the whole thing the way you want and not cut it up at all?", I will tell you that I like to have a little leeway (+/- 2 seconds) on either side of my clips for music syncing purposes, and for just being able to play with the feel once I get everything added in and done.

So, what is the best way to work around this?

Any luck with your problem? I wonder if you are having a problem similar to mine. My processor tops out at 100% when rendering also but that is not the problem. As I start to render I watch my "available Physical Memory" disappear.

I have 1.5 Gig of memory and it usually shows 1110000 k free initially. If I render a 6-7 minute clip I can watch that number drop to 4500! The PC struggles along.

Lately as I work on wedding ceremony with 7 soundtracks and 4 camera tracks it just starts to choke quickly. Just tonight I noticed if I have the Video Preview setting at "draft auto" I can get throug without losing all that available memory but if I just click it to "draft full" I can just watch the memory disappear or at least dwindle down even if I am not actively doing work on the timeline.

Anyway I wonder if you looked in Tast Manager to see any anomalies. I see my Page File is 1.74 GIG, that seems huge but I don't understand what is happening.

Let me know if your pc is acting similarly in Task Manager?

Here's a tip that might help for situations where your music has a consistent beat throughout. First, use the "M" key to place five or so markers at consecutive beats anywhere in the music track. Estimate the time between the beats you will transition on. Using Ultimate S, lay down your photos using the estimated time as the length for each photo, and an appropriate transition time. It will help if you add a couple extra photos so the line of photos extends beyond the endpoints of the audio. Now, group all the photos, and use ctrl/drag to shrink or grow the entire clip until your photo transition centers align perfectly with the beat marks you made. Now ungroup and adjust the photos on either end to concide with the start/end of the audio.

Oh poop.

I was hoping that Photo Montage would adjust my video clips to start and stop on the beat of the music.

I knew it was to good to be true. Are there any solutions out there to mark an audio timeline/sample/clip with beats, for those of us musically handicapped?

Jim

The Excalibur 4.2 update can be found at:
http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com/excalibur4_sony_vegas_plugin.html

http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com/download/excalibur4_2.exe

If you are using 4.0, it is recommended that you uninstall 4.0 before installing 4.2. If you are using 4.1, it should be fine to simply install 4.2 over 4.1.

The following changes were made in this version:

Version 4.2
1. Added Alpha Channel options to the Video Properties tool.
2. Storyboard Wizard can now save snapshots as JPG or PNG.
3. Storyboard Wizard can now use the marker labels as the base file name.
4. Storyboard Wizard can now append the timecode to the file name.
5. PBS Wizard can now apply Match Aspect instead of needing a separate step.
6. PBS Wizard can now automatically pan the images.
7. PBS Wizard can now turn on Reduce Interlace Flicker.
8. Velocity Wizard can now apply the specified velocity or freeze frame on all selected events under the cursor at the cursor location.
9. Fixed Multi-Cam dissolves to not cause out of sync events on the Master track in Vegas 6.0a.
10. The Excalibur.dll file can now be executed directly in Vegas 6.

#1. The alpha channel can now be specified for one or more selected events. This will allow quickly changing a bunch of events to the proper alpha channel.

#2-4. With these changes, you can now save as PNG or JPG and have much more flexibility in the naming of the resultant images. You can optionally use whatever label was entered for the marker and append the timeline timecode.

#5-7. PBS Wizard has seen some great improvements. Now you just drop the images on the timeline, select them, and run PBS Wizard. It will automatically "Match Aspect" and "Reduce Interlace Flicker" if desired. However, the biggest change is the ability to PAN the images. This is especially noticable on tall/narrow images. To see these differences, look at these illustrative clips. There were NO changes made after running PBS Wizard to any of these.

I ran a quick example using about 15 images from a montage. Here's how Excalibur 4.0 works to automate motion:

http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/PMExcalibur4-0.wmv

With the new additions to PBS Wizard, here's how it now works in version 4.2 to automate motion:

http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/PMExcalibur4-2.wmv


#8. This will allow you to set a specific velocity on the selected event(s) at the cursor location. So if you want to freeze the current event at the cursor location, just run Excalibur, choose "Freeze Frame" and specify to "Change at Cursor Location" and the velocity will drop to 0% at the cursor.

#9. Sony changed how one of the script functions works which causes the dissolves in Multi-Cam to create a Master track that is out of sync in Vegas 6. This update works around their change. Each event will be in sync after being added to the master track.

#10. The DLL can now be run directly from Vegas 6. This is especially important to those whose toolbar icon keeps getting switched from the .js file to the .dll file. Now in Vegas 6, either will work interchangably to start the Excalibur GUI.

Hey everyone,

I just started using the Magic Bullet plug in with vegas 5 and it is taking about 8 to 9 hours to render a 7 minute clip with one filter on it.

I currently have a 1.4 Ghz PIII processor with 1 gig of ram and vegas is taking a pretty long time to render clips also - no where near the time of magic bullet though...does this sound normal?

Hello, I am currently using Vegas to capture dv.

I would like to know if it makes sense to use another app that offers more options (if there is any). And if it does..what application?

I'm not looking for something to edit video with but just capture dv.

I tried scenalyzer but I didn't like the unusual interface.

Thanks in advance

I have a Pentium 2.6C and the rendering ratio for me is about 30:1 with magic bullet editors (depends on settings though). Extrapolating... your render should take about 6.5 hours.

That sounds kind of normal to me.

just FYI:

my p4 2.8HT w/ 1G ram took 1h40min yesterday for a 5 minute clip.

Hmmmm,

Thanks Glenn.

I guess I need to start saving for a faster processor or just leave my computer be for a few days while it does its thing.

There is always Windows Movie Maker. Its free (installed with Windows XP), it has a childishly simple interface, and it will capture DV from most miniDV cams.

Perhaps if you told us what you DON'T like about Vegas Vidcap.

I also use Scenalyzer for some of my capturing but use Vegas' capture for the rest.

A new computer would be at least twice as fast. (With Pentiums, dividing the clock speed is a fairly good aproximation of speed.)

Even if you had a faster machine though, you would still need to wait on rendering... so productivity-wise, you may not gain too much.

Hi,

New Sony FX1, all excited and I connect camera to system via firewire, fire up Vegas 6.. And go to capture panel.. and so far it looks like Vegas does not see the camera.. tried to power up and down..restart vegas.. Something i am not doing in preferences..??

mike m.

Hello,

Well this was a surprise to me.. I dug deeper and found in the help file, how i had to go into the new capture panel, and preferences..(looks a lot different) and under the device tab,I select IEEE 1394?MPEG2 -TS-Device.. OK, but the directions say there should be a drop down list of devices.. so far I see the area where it should be, but it does not appear to be active.. Any help here??
Is there something i have to download??

Mike M.

Im going to be importing some music being mixed in a studio into vegas 5 to overlay over my video Iv been editing of the live show. Im getting it in both 48 and 44.1 just incase. Is there anything tricky I should know about in trying to match it up. We used four cameras that I sinked up visualy and have been mixing with the audio from my cam on sticks.

Whats the best way to import it?

Is it just a matter up matching up the waveforms as close as possible?

Should I then convert to ac3 for dvd? And does vegas have a plugin that will do this well?

Thanks!

Hello,

So far this s#%$ !1 OK I learned a little more, but i am not where i want to be yet.. I put the camera into the DV mode, and went into Vegas and turned on the external controller.. went into capture, and Vegas does see and control the camera.. but when i turn off the external controller and then go into the capture prefs(HDV capture).. my device type is set to IEEE/MPEG2-TS Device.. but there are still no devices listed and no device properties..Its frustrating, because i am dealing with all Sony products..You think it would be able to see a Sony Camera.. Looks like one hand is not washing the other hand..
Any suggestions..??

Mike Moncrief

Whats the best way to import it? Just click the 'Extract Audio from CD' button (CD with down pointing green arrow).

Is it just a matter up matching up the waveforms as close as possible? Yes, if you need to, try 'Normalize' in the EDIT\SWITCHES\NORMALIZE menu.

Should I then convert to ac3 for dvd? And does vegas have a plugin that will do this well? Vegas will render an AC3 for the DVD, select it in the Render options

Thanks!

You can render the AC3 separately, or tell Vegas to render the video and audio streams both in the render options.

Thanks for the answers.. lol..what I don't like of vegas vidcap?!

It's not a matter of what I don't like in Vegas, but maybe someone more experienced (that's why I made this post) can suggest me an app with more functionality, easier to use, more productive, faster..I don't know.

Maybe there isn't. Maybe there is... u tell me

About movie maker I have it, but has less functionalities than Vegas vidcap, so of course it's not something I would like to transit to.

Thanks again

No (DV) capture application can do this:

- capture faster
- capture with less "quality loss"

Basically the Vegas capture does almost everything you will need.

However, if you are interested in other ways to "capture", look at this:

- a direct-to-disk recorder. This is a harddisk based device you hookup to your camera. This allows you to capture on set directly to harddisk. Saves you time when editing since you don't have to capture anything

- a cheaper approach is to use a program called "DV Rack". It's a Windows program that does the same as a direct-to-disk recorder with advantages like seeing the signal fullscreen on your computer/laptop and lots of other stuff (check it out). The downside is you need to lug a computer around the set

I hope this has given you some more insights.

How about starting a 60i project. Editing the footage. Then when you are
done change the project settings to 24p and render out to 24p?

Thanks for the answer.

I will check both the hardware sountions u suggested. I was actually interested in a software solution.

So I kind of understand that all softwares have the same options when it comes to DV capture?

Sounds strange cause for example Scenalyzer is very different from vidcap interface on Vegas and offers different options.

Yes Rob, this is what I would like to do but...

I have heard a bunch of people say that it is better to CC, add effects, titles, overlays, etc.. in a 24p project when the output will be 24p. So if I do everything in a 60i timeline and then change the project to 24p and render as 24p, the footage will not loose any more quality then if I had rendered to 24p before CC, effects, etc?

I do the same as Edward, certain things get done in Scenaylaizer but virtually all my wedding footage gets captured in Vegas. Since I'm capturing the entire tape at one time, it seems to make sense to me. I've used it for quite a while and haven't had any problems with the interface or how it captures or logs the clips.
As stated, there are no capture programs that will work faster at least none that I know of.

If you could state what it is that you're looking for in a capture utility perhaps we can be of more assistance but frankly between Vegas and Sceneayalizer, you should pretty well be covered.

Don

1- If you right click video preview, and turn "simulate device aspect ratio" off your previews will go a little faster.

You can also double click the window at the top to resize it intelligently. The smaller mode also goes faster.

2- You can loop a section of video (mark in out by hitting "i" and "o" or by dragging a selection in the timeline; hit q to loop, or click the icon). As it loops, Vegas will save rendered chunks into RAM. If the loop is not real-time, it will eventually become real-time as Vegas renders everything into RAM.

Not sure how useful that actually is, although you could loop something while you tweak filter settings.

The gene pool could use some chorine...

Mr. Hahn,

Is your tag-line trying to tell us we all need more chorus girls in our life? Or did you mean to say chlorine instead of chorine?

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

chorine

SYLLABICATION: cho·rine
PRONUNCIATION: kôrn, kr-
NOUN: A chorus girl.
ETYMOLOGY: chor(us) + –ine.

I use #2 a lot. It is interesting to watch the frame rate numbers as it loops. Even if they start low, they will slowly increase until you get to full framerate. Of course it is limited by the same limitations as RAM Render - the more ram specified, the larger the area that can get to full framerate as it loops.

one thing to note though is that simulate device aspect DOES add stepping to what yo usee and can be potentially dangerous if yo forget to turn it off during rendering..

ive had a 22 hr render killed coz i forgot to turn it off..

i guess coz were seeing square pixels, its tryin to elongate them to fit DV/HDV hence teh distortion..

Vegas 5 with DVD, I believe, was something 220 USD for students. Anyone knows how much Vegas 6 for students?

Radek

Is your tag-line trying to tell us we all need more chorus girls in our life? Or did you mean to say chlorine instead of chorine?

Ha ha! Actually, either is fine with me...

Good catch though ;)

http://adobe.ccvsoftware.com/c/@d1HX3hXgd2q4c/Pages/product.html?record@CDSF118 shows about $190 for Vegas 6 only.

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketlist.html?PHPSESSID=dcbd065b663187101a7a0c25acacb8ea&qk_srch=sony+vegas&qs_platform= shows abour $190 for Vegas 6 and about $300 for Vegas 6 + DVD

Might have to take a few graduate courses just to buy another copy! ;)

From the PD1 Manual:

HI-RES:
Allows you to record on a tape in MPEG2 format (576p). The camcorder records signals in the progressive scan mode (525 scanning lines at 1/25th of a second for recording and 1/50th of a second for playback at one time).

The cam can't output 25p - only 50p. This despite the fact that it's key shooting mode is 25p! Sam's right, the bundled software is the only one won't get confused...

There's no loss of data, so if we can teach software, it won't matter..

OK, guys, I found the answer. On the Vegas support site, I discovered some info that indicated that you have to have the channel set to F-1 of you're trying to print to tape via firewire back to the JVC deck. I tried it and it worked perfectly the first time!!!!

I read that it now has support for setting CSS and MacroVision protection. Does it mean that I can now protect DVDs I created from being copied?

Currently I don't have DVD Architect when I bought Vegas 5 (last year) and now contemplating of buying Vegas 6 +DVD. Can I sell my Vegas 5 legally? I can get a full version of Vegas 6+DVD $40 cheaper than the upgrade through academic purchase. I think full version is better than upgrade, is that correct assumption?

Sorry for the ignorance.

DVD-A 3 has those protection options but it looks like they just set flags for replication facilities. I suggest you download manual for DVD-A 3, there should be exact information what those things do.

But you must realize that if somebody WANTS to make a copy, they'll be able to do it since all those protection schemes have been broken long time ago.

There currently is NO copy protection for burned DVDs. These flags only work for replicated discs (no matter WHAT your authoring system).

Can I apply the plethora of HD film look plugins that come gratis with Vegas 6 with my SD clips?

Mike,

I get exactly the same problem with vegas 5 and my panasonic PV-GS400.
Did you solve this?

Etienne

hello,

no , never did get it resolved.. But now i have Vegas 6, but i did not try it yet..

Mike