View Full Version : Vegas Video discussions from 2005 (Q3Q4)


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Ty Chu
December 22nd, 2005, 10:58 AM
Thanks Gary, will have to configure my box then.

Good Day !!!

Ty

Adam Woodworth
December 22nd, 2005, 11:33 AM
Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've updated the plugin a lot since the last post was made here. It now has a *MUCH* faster and better edge detection algorithm, and supports color edge output. Also, the plugin is now packaged in a very easy to use installer, just like any other Windows software.

www.mirkwood.com/vegas

Let me know if you end up using the plugin on any projects! You can contact me via: www.mirkwood.com/mail.shtml

Thanks,
Adam Woodworth

Colin Rayner
December 22nd, 2005, 01:21 PM
Thanks Ed,
I want to get it sorted out, so I am going to give it a go. That's what I thought maybe easier to work backwards.
Cheers for that.

Colin Rayner
December 22nd, 2005, 01:59 PM
OK Ed,
I got the last two lines off ok, but I am getting all the text moving down at the keyframe for the third line off working backwards. I have double checked and have in the placement window all at top left plus all in editing window margined to the left. I am copying and pasteing then removing the last line only.
I just can't understand why the text is moving, the y number of the text placement is different at the third line key frame, tried changing it to the same as all the rest, and it moves me to free-form and there is still movement (back upwards).
Have I missed something?

Paul Kepen
December 22nd, 2005, 03:30 PM
Hi Peter, just wondering what your saying. I think your saying Vegas encoding is superior to Adobe? Or is it the other way. I would think Adobe Premiere with its big reputation would have to have good rendering/encoding, but maybe not?

" there's no quality difference if yu use premiere rather than vegas"

actually there is, vegas aliasing (or lack of) is far cleaner, not to mention the codecs within vegas pretty much poo on anything (apart from the main concept codec, which is pretty ugly... )

Edward Troxel
December 22nd, 2005, 04:31 PM
Can you send me your VEG file and let me look at it? Or send me your e-mail address and I'll send you an example (which I'll have to make).

Takis Takop
December 23rd, 2005, 12:28 AM
Hi Paul, i am new at video editing and i thought that after effects could only work with premiere but from the posts i can see that there is no difference, i can use it with vegas too

Zdravko Jancevski
December 23rd, 2005, 01:06 AM
How can I find out what field is my AVI captured file, Top Field A or Bottom Field B.Regards.

Glenn Chan
December 23rd, 2005, 02:59 AM
This is usually determined by the format you used to record.

DV is lower field first.

If you're not sure you can playback on a CRT TV and see if the interlacing looks right.

Matt Brabender
December 23rd, 2005, 07:09 AM
yep, After Effects is a stand alone program that runs independantly of premiere.
As long as whatever file format you're using is supported, then you're good to go.

DJ Kinney
December 23rd, 2005, 01:06 PM
Hi all!

I have 137 individual clips. I need to apply the same few effects to them (deinterlace, color curves, etc) and render them, but I would like to render them out to individual clips. So I would end up with 137 corrected clips.

Easy way to do this in Vegas 6?

Thanks,

DJ

Glenn Chan
December 23rd, 2005, 02:12 PM
1- Add the video FX to the track or video preview level.

2- Save the effect as presets. Hit F11 to toggle the big bottom thing on. Click on the video FX tab.

You can highlight all the clips in the timeline, and add filters to all of them at once. Hold the CRTL modifier if you dont want that window to pop up.

3- You can right click a clip and copy, and then paste attributes to other clips. However, it'll paste other stuff like pan/crop... so this can be dangerous.

4- Batch render: There might be a script for that. I'd probably look on the VASST website.

(EDIT: Sorry, I just realized I probably didn't answer your question.)

Edward Troxel
December 23rd, 2005, 02:15 PM
Scripting! You can easily do this with scripts. For example, just add all the events on the timeline, apply the effects as needed, and then use a script to render as you desire.

Using Excalibur (http://www.jetdv.com/excalibur), I would have Excalibur put regions around each clip on the timeline named for the clip and then use the DVD Asset Collector tool to render each region based on the region name. Two steps and you're done.

You might also look at the Veggie Toolkit (http://www.peachrock.com/software/veggie-toolkit.html) which is probably the best batch rendering program out there today.

DJ Kinney
December 23rd, 2005, 02:18 PM
Thanks Guys. I have never been good at scripting. I never really figured out how to do it. I guess I'll have to figure it out here in a minute or two. Any easy script you can think of? I'll take a look at those sites, Ed.

Thanks so much.

DJ

EDIT: Whoah! I just realized that there is already a "Batch Render" script in the scripts menu. I don't know if this is what I'm looking for or not. I will have to get back to you on this.

Edward Troxel
December 23rd, 2005, 02:23 PM
There's also a batch render script included with Vegas. It also will render regions but you'd have to manually create those regions. Just go to Tools - Scripting - Batch Render to see it.

Troy Haines
December 23rd, 2005, 02:47 PM
Thanks for all the input guys.

I'm just a hobbyist so looking at just plugging a mic into the pc. Was hoping I could use my current soundcard input to record the VO. I have a high end ASUS motherboard which has a built in soundcard - Nforce4

How do i record voice in vegas and where can I buy something like a USB mic??


Thanks again guys, your all very help and I appreciate your help. Merry Christmas to all !!

Tony Rockliff
December 23rd, 2005, 04:44 PM
I frameserve to Procoder Express and very occasionally to TMPGenc, both excellent encoders and both of which give me better looking results than encoding in Vegas, no matter the MainConcept settings. MainConcept also has a problem encoding fast motion during a fade-in from black.

With TMPGenc you have to remember to use the correct 601 black level setting, with Procoder and MainConcept you don't. I find MainConcept fine for quick draft encodes, though.

Tony

Dan Euritt
December 24th, 2005, 12:08 AM
i made a pop stopper out of an old metal wire clothes hanger hoop with some panty hose strung across it, lol... i've been telling myself that i "graduated" when i got a studio projects c1 mic, recording thru an old mackie 1202 into a dv deck, then massaged gently with waves software.

i have a lot to learn about audio :-/ the problem with recording into computers is cheap noisy sound cards and noisy fans, so look to have the computer behind a closed door while recording into it.

i happen to have a pretty good voice, but it's totally untrained, which makes it unuseable for serious work... voice-over people are worth every penny, because they are actors as well.

Steve House
December 24th, 2005, 02:22 PM
Thanks for all the input guys.

I'm just a hobbyist so looking at just plugging a mic into the pc. Was hoping I could use my current soundcard input to record the VO. I have a high end ASUS motherboard which has a built in soundcard - Nforce4

How do i record voice in vegas and where can I buy something like a USB mic??


Thanks again guys, your all very help and I appreciate your help. Merry Christmas to all !!

Here's one USB mic that's on the market and inexpensive ...
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1810&brandID=2
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home;jsessionid=DtvpRzlfGS!-831935231?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=378038&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Tony Conesa
December 25th, 2005, 01:25 PM
Hello everyone,

I am having a problem rendering on my computer.

Everytime I try to render, the computer freezes.
This happens everytime around 14 to 16 percent into the render process. No matter what the render specifications are, this happens.

I am using Vegas 4.0 and windows XP.

Here are the specifications on my computer-
my computer was made by my dad, so it is not a name brand. the motherboard is a Soyo dragon, and i am using windows XP and Vegas 4.0.

on my c drive, I have 31.2 gigs open and 83.2 gigs used (total-114.48gb)

My memory is 512 MB

VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model: P4X400-8235
BIOS Version: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Version: x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7
Speed: 2393 MHz

Edward Troxel
December 25th, 2005, 04:38 PM
Could be a heat issue. How hot is the CPU getting?

Could be a bad piece of media on the timeline.

Are you rendering a bunch of high resolution images?

You might also try pre-rendering over the area where it's dying to rule out the bad media option.

Curt Coggns
December 26th, 2005, 09:34 AM
Vegas 6 and Connect HD should be in the mail tomorrow. I am very much looking forward to learning and editing with it in HD. Having had no experience with Vegas, and knowing that for HDV editing a 2.8ghz processor is the minimum required, I am curious as to whether bumping up to a 3.4ghz processor for $270 would give an appreciable improvement in editing speed/performance. If not, I'll just save up for a major upgrade when prices drop on the dual setups. Currently for editing my system is an Asus P4C800 2.8ghz 2g DDR 400 RAM and NVIDIA 5700 ultra video card, Seagate Cheetahs 3 x 74 g and one 300gb 10,000 rpm drives.
Curt

Glenn Chan
December 26th, 2005, 10:51 AM
Curt, a quick rule of thumb is this:

Divide the processor speeds and multiply the increase by 90%.

This works decently for applications that are highly dependent on the CPU, such as video editing. In the case of Vegas, benchmarks show that you don't need to multiply by 90%.

3.4/2.8 = 21.4% speed increase.

If the processor versions are different, you may see an additional 6% increase from the "C" version of a Pentium to "E" AKA Prescott (the Prescott tends to be slower at non-video editing tasks though).

Check that the socket type is the same.

2- In my opinion, hold off for dual core. 21.4% speed increase is not worth it.

Curt Coggns
December 26th, 2005, 12:49 PM
Thanks for the input. I suppose there really isn't a function within Vegas that will be significantly enhanced by such a small increase in performance. Looks like delayed gratification wins again.
Curt

Tony Conesa
December 26th, 2005, 05:36 PM
I am rendering video and audio together. Not still pictures.

is there a program out there where I can check to see if the computer is getting overheated?

Bryon Akerman
December 26th, 2005, 06:03 PM
When your computer goes to boot up, hit DEl to enter into your Setup screen. If you scroll through your options, (I'm not sure of which one it is...I have since moved to a MAC) you will get an operating temp on your CPU

BRyon <><

Steve Crisdale
December 26th, 2005, 06:56 PM
Thanks for the input. I suppose there really isn't a function within Vegas that will be significantly enhanced by such a small increase in performance. Looks like delayed gratification wins again.
Curt

Don't forget that "minimum specifications" is a little misleading as a term.

They'd upset and offend too many folks if they said "the fail-safe, if you try anything less than this you're on your own, because if you have any problems we told you not to use anything slower than this and we can't be held responsible for your wanting to go ahead anyway"...

It's like "default" settings in software etc. What they really mean is "outrageously conservative approach that should work for every circumstance with average just barely acceptable results that only the discerning would want to improve upon"

Fortunately, Vegas has not only Defaults that should give pleasant results from HDV, but also easy to find "Custom" options on nearly everything in the interface!! A few other NLE's make their "Custom" options a treasure hunt devised by some fiendish and perverted sadist.

Bottom line: your machine as it stands will work fine with HDV, as long as you remember that using the m2t as captured from the camera, will be devilishly slow on any system... but that's what ConnectHD is for.

You can capture straight to Vegas if you desire, but I prefer to capture using ConnectHD's HD Link utility. Hit the "Prefs" button to set the capture directory on a nice fast drive or RAID array, set the capture to m2t... and after it's captured, go to the "Convert" tab and select the m2ts just captured, and convert to CFHD AVI. (You could select the option to capture both m2t and CFHD AVI, but I've just found doing the conversion after the m2t capture works 'smoother')

I guess you could also capture using Vegas - which'll give you the m2t clips, and then use HD Link to convert to CFHD AVI. Reason being that ConnectHD has the latest CFHD enhacements, while the Vegas CFHD intermediate template makes use of the earlier CFHD iteration. It'll work, but there's a few extra tricks up ConnectHD's sleeve (just check the frame rate conversion list in the HD Link capture prefs for instance), and Cineform is constantly improving their codec and applications.

Good luck; and ENJOY!!!

Curt Coggns
December 26th, 2005, 09:40 PM
Thanks. I'm going to see if the 2.8 ghz works out and if it is for some reason too sluggish, I'll look at changes. Time will tell. Your encouragement, helpful suggestions and reassurance are greatly appreciated.
Curt

Jack Smith
December 26th, 2005, 10:32 PM
As Edward said a bad clip on the timeline may cause this.Take a look at the timeline at what clip it is failing on.Then as a test create a duplicate veg file and change that clip to a different clip.Then try rerendering to see if it gets by.If heat was an issue it would likely fail in different locations.

DJ Kinney
December 27th, 2005, 03:36 AM
A little update... the batch render in Vegas has some issues. The main thing is I can't set clip names or anything. They don't respond to the region names. Just a 0 through infinity numbering scheme.

Any further ideas on using the batch render tool?

Thanks,

DJ

Edward Troxel
December 27th, 2005, 08:23 AM
Well... you could either change the code in the included batch script to name the files as YOU desire or you could use one of the other options available such as the Veggie Toolkit which I mentioned. The DVD Asset Collector in Excalibur will also render regions and allow using the region name as the file name.

Reid Bailey
December 27th, 2005, 10:50 AM
I have to tracks of video that I want to transition from one to the other.
I want to "drag" the new track in with a graphic element which then continues off screen.

I've been able to pretty closely match the graphic elements (a skull) speed ( on it's own track) with the new track pushing in by using track motion for both and just tweaking.

Is there a way to exactly match their speed? The skull (with a transparent bg) pushes in on the first track and when it's halfway down it drags in the second layer of video and the skull continues offscreen hopefully at the same speed both it and the second vid track came in on.

I've also tried the parent track motion tool, but that didn't work since the track with the skull keeps moving off screen.

Again, I can make it look "good enough" by dorking with it, but I'm certain I'm overlooking a very basic device to match the speed on these two transitions.

Edward Troxel
December 27th, 2005, 10:54 AM
First thing, make sure the "Smoothness" setting on ALL keyframes is set to ZERO (the default is ONE). This should go a long way in helping you make the speeds equal.

RJ Hythloday
December 27th, 2005, 01:30 PM
new to vegas 6 wondering if anyone has any tips for time synching 2 sources for matrix audio, sbd/aud

would also be the same to synch new audio to a dvd, ie mattman_video grateful dead dvds

Jack Smith
December 27th, 2005, 11:16 PM
Are you talking about a "slide" transition maybe?

Tony Conesa
December 28th, 2005, 02:17 AM
well,

I had someone go through and help me do a serious clean up on the computer and get rid of a lot of unnecessary stuff that I didn't need taking up way too much room.
in the end, it was space issue. there wasn't enough space for the all the render processing.
i got my PF Usage on my computer way down, and the render worked wonderfully.

Declan Smith
December 28th, 2005, 06:43 AM
Hi

If I import a clip into vegas and then delete the audio track, is there anyway to get that audio back without having to re-import the original clip ?

This may be a workflow thing, but I prefer to edit the images first then work on the audio and find that the audio clutters up the timeline. When I have arranged video clips, sure I could click on them and move the audio to separate tracks, but invariably the video track moves a little.

Also, if I have a long clip that I want to chop into smaller ones, what;s the best way to do this ? I did use the trimmer at first to make subclips, but this also trims the audio & video so I can't extend it when editing, so what I have been doing is splitting events in the timeline, very timeconsuming.

Am I missing something about the workflow ?

Don Bloom
December 28th, 2005, 07:23 AM
First, forget the TRIMMER when editing. Place the CURSOR where you want to cut-press "S" and its done. 2nd-as for bringing back the audio after editing-I'm curious-well let me say this first-the audio and video ars linked unless you unlink them so you'd need to bring the clip back in and SYNCH the audio back to the video but now my curious question-why are you editing the video without the audio unless you plan on doing voiceover stuff otherwise you're adding an extra and sometimes difficult step of cutting the auido to exactly the same as the video and then SYNCHing everything up. Perhaps I'm missing something but when I edit if I'm using native audio I'll always edit the A&V together.

Don

Declan Smith
December 28th, 2005, 07:55 AM
This is all probably just part of my Vegas learning curve (having come from MSP Pro). I am editing a dialogue sequence that has the same thing shot from 3 angles. I am not finding it easy to split the clips up and arrange them quickly. I want to use the two shot as a guide to the sequence and drop in the various closeups and use the associated sound.

I was trying to work with all three 'long' takes of the same scene (two shot & two reverse angles) and split them as I went along, but the timeline just gets cluttered. So my thinking was that if I split them all into shots, and say have them available in the project media window, I would be able to just drag them in as required and adjust the length to get the video & audio as I need.

The only reason I wanted to get rid of the audio initially was to free some clutter on the timeline. The visuals are easy to see what goes where, but the audio is not as clear, especially where one video clip is put on top of another (i.e. I was putting a close up clip over the top of the 2 shot to get timing for the edit points).

Edward Troxel
December 28th, 2005, 08:08 AM
The EASIEST way is via scripting. For example, the "Restore Missing A/V" tool in Excalibur will return missing audio for the selected video clip or restore missing video for the selected audio clip. Ultimate S will also restore missing audio for selected video.

Edward Troxel
December 28th, 2005, 08:12 AM
Definitely the first step anyone should do after loading Vegas the first time is to go to both File - Properties and Options - Preferences and change all of the temporary and other folders AWAY from the "C" drive. Glad to hear you found the problem.

Reid Bailey
December 28th, 2005, 08:45 AM
A slide or a push would have worked equally as well. What was getting me was matching the third layer to the layer that was sliding in and keeping the speed of the third layer as it moved OS and the B layer remined full screen.

Using Edwards idea (Thanks Edward) I was able to get the events painfully close, and then I realized that I didn't like the look of it <sigh> It looked funny to have the two layers come in together, have the B layer stop, and then the C layer keep going.
It looks much better to fly the C layer across the B layer as it pushes or slides in.

I'm slowly learning to take the same tactics with editing as with shooting. Plan everything out ahead of time and even doing mini-storyboards. There will still be trial and error but hopefully less of the shotgun "hey, let's try this approach"

Edward Troxel
December 28th, 2005, 08:34 PM
If you're near the St. Louis area, a meeting is being planned for Jan. 28, 2005. If you're interested in attending, please send me an e-mail and I'll keep you informed as details are finalized.

Colin Rayner
December 29th, 2005, 01:45 PM
Just an enquiry, when I use a audio FX preset at track level and save the project, the next time I go back in the Audio fx chain, the preset has reset to "Untitled", has this really happened or is it that it is set as default to open as "untitled".
Or is it that I don't have something enabled.
I'm not using any automation at all.
Regards
Colin Rayner

Edward Troxel
December 29th, 2005, 02:49 PM
This is normal. Basically the presets are just that - a group of settings that are premade. Once you've picked the preset, Vegas doesn't have to know a preset name - just what settings were chosen.

It might be nice if it did remember the name (as you could easily go back to see which preset you had chosen). However, as soon as you change any setting, the preset name is no longer valid.

Colin Rayner
December 29th, 2005, 03:12 PM
Thanks Ed,
Again...................

Zdravko Jancevski
December 30th, 2005, 06:35 AM
I wonder if it's possible work with scroll weel on mouse , for frame by frame editing the timeline. With simple drag the edit line, it's not so easy to find desired frame to cut.
Regards.

Don Bloom
December 30th, 2005, 06:59 AM
By enlarging the timeline you will be able to get to frame by frame-you can use the mouse wheel to enlarge the timeline or use the + sign on the right side of the timeline to do the same
Don

Colin Rayner
December 30th, 2005, 01:33 PM
Just checking, having rendered my project into 2 files, Mpeg2 for the video stream and AC-3 for the audio stream, I import the two into Architect, do nothing more to the audio file, create a button for the Mpeg2 file and all is well?
Every resource that I have checked is quite vague on what to do with your AC-3 file once you add it to your project in DVD Arch.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
December 30th, 2005, 01:39 PM
Just checking, having rendered my project into 2 files, Mpeg2 for the video stream and AC-3 for the audio stream, I import the two into Architect, do nothing more to the audio file, create a button for the Mpeg2 file and all is well?
Every resource that I have checked is quite vague on what to do with your AC-3 file once you add it to your project in DVD Arch.

There is nothing more to do, or that can be done with the AC3 file. If it's the same name as the MPEG, and in the same folder, DVDA should automatically marry the two together. If for some reason it doesn't, double click the mpeg to load it into the Timeline, and drag the AC3 file to the audio track in the timeline.
That's all you need to do.