I noticed the MainConcept H.264/AVC codec is for sale now ($499 ouch!). Since Vegas uses the MainConcept MPEG-2 codec, so I'm guessing the next upgrade will be with the same company.

What do you think Sony will charge for the upgrade to H.264?

Do you think it will have to wait until Vegas 7.0 or is this something that might happen in Vegas 6.1?

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/shopping/item.asp?PID=336&disp=1

Don't Know
Don't Know
And I bet you don't see a 6.1. With a current version of 6.0b you can bet a new interim update would be 6.0c.

It's always fun to speculate/wish, though! :-)

I wonder if it would not be more appropriate to roll any special HDV into the regular Vegas forum (and the rest to their own). I would think that 70% of the questions would benefit from the SD folks and also help the SD folks prepare to move forward. IMHO.

But hey, I am a Liquid orphan... ;) (along with Mr. Noe).

Chris

I think a dedicated forum as you propose is a great idea. I’m a Vegas user and HDV is where I’m at. This is set to grow hugely, IMHO, and the opportunities and challenges, workflow particularly, are somewhat unique. There will be more and more to share and discuss that is quite specific to Vegas and HDV.

Absolutely a great idea.

Cheers

John

Render them then start a new project with that one clip.

Vegas really should have some sort of "flatten events" option.

So I down loaded it, and I think it works well...

Here is the question, I want to go 60i to 30p (or 24p). I have a 60i clip that I import into Vegas. Do I set the project for interlace or progressive? When done, which do I render? 60i or 30p?

Also, does the filter use it's own code, or does it funtion as a script type thing that just uses Vegas' deinterlace options? I really am just trying to get a higher quality deinterlace here.

Thanks.

well the crash deinterlacer is taken from virtual dub, but there are a couple of things you shoudl consider.

DONT use it as a project output plug.. it will crash.. well it crashed on mine..
instead, use it as a track fx on your main video track, so when importing stills or working with media generators youre not overkilling the deinterlacing.

in the project settings, set it to whatever format and frame rate you need, then turn on progressive, BUT turn OFF deinterlacing (blend/interpolate/none choose none)

and thats about it.. when rendering, render out as progressive.

the plugin will do all the deinterlacing.

I find that this plugin gives a shrper image.. sometimes a little too sharp (ie home videoish sharp) also it doesnt really affect your rendering time that much, so its very efficient.

best to experiment however. I have set my settings to
Frame and field differencing (on)
Compare colour channels (instead of luma) (on)
Use cubic for interpolation (on)
Motion Map denoising (on)
Motion threshold set to 5 (instead of 15) This gets rid of alot of motion blur
Scene change threshold set to 5 (instead of 15)

and everythgin else is set to off...

Thanks Gents! Your suggestions helped.

I have editing a short video, and am trying to render it. The video is about 3 minutes, and done in HDV. I have tried to render it to avi and to wmv, but neither work. It just stops after 2 seconds and tells me the render is complete. When I click to play the files, it pops up an error message about downloading a codec. I just installed Vegas 6, and updated to 6b.

Am I missing something?

in the render window, you wouldn't have 'render loop region only' checked would you?

sorry if you already thought of that

Hello everybody!
I want to find a little answer about PAL VCD format. So, after rendering out in svcd pal or dvd pal, everything is ok on the TV set. But everytime after choosing pal vcd, then it has strobes on the TV set, especially if there is a camera motion scenes. During the time of rendering I see: "Project: 25,000p", i.e. progressive, right? In SVCD and DVD format I see: "Project: 25,000i", i.e. interlaced. So, my question is: is it possible to get VCD PAL 25,000i ??? If yes, how to do that? Our TV set standart is interlaced pal. So, any help, suggestions and corrections???

Bill just so you know, I tried what has been suggested (change deinterlace from None to Blend or Interpolate, video seet to lower field in project, reduce flicker).
I don't have an option that I saw to set the event to blend in the properties. I tried right clicking and selecting properties, and only see lower field selecting (set to lower), playback speed both at 1, and frame rate I believe is the last one, I am not in front of my computer right now.

As I said earlier, I read a post on Sony's forum that someone mentioned that Pan Crop works differently than Track Motion and Pan Crop is best used for Pics and Track motion for Video. That may be true as Track Motion works fine with the video but now Pan Crop. BTW, when I make the picture larger in Pan Crop it looks more like interlace lines, but when I reduce the size, the lines look more pronounced and wavy.

Who knows whats going on. At least Track Motion works in my case.

Michael
LVProductions

Yeah, that is correct.
You might need to double click on the loop region bar so that the loop thing can capture all your work because if it captures a small portion of your work, that is the only portion that will get rendered.

Or probably you might need to uninstal Vegas 6 and re-install.

I am new to the art of color correction, and need a little bump start.

Here is a screen shot from 2 camera's a GL2 & VX2100 (can you pick which is which?)

www.logiconn.com/ct/1.jpg
www.logiconn.com/ct/2.jpg

I would love to make them look a little more similar to one another, but simply have NO IDEA where to start. I farted around with a few filters, but just cannot get it to where I want it. Can anyone offer some advice or give it a whirl and offer appropriate setting details? (I use Vegas 5)

Much appreciated.

Others will probably chime in with suggestions but here are 2 links to sites to hopefully get you started. I'm not certain if the info is repeated on both sites as it's the same guy who did both.

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~wvg/tutorial-menu.htm
http://bb-video.net/

Mike

Is the second shot the GL2?

A little info at:
http://www.glennchan.info/matching/matching.htm

#2 is a little cyan... white balance it. Use the color corrector. Take the eyedropper for the right wheel, drag-select over an area on the bride's dress where it's bright. Do the same for #1.

Use color curves and try to match the B/W part.

Then adjust saturation.

Then go in with secondary color correction and match key colors- the greenery and flesh tones.

That should get you close enough.

Can someone please help me?! I'm trying to burn my movie from Vegas 5 to DVD Architect 2, but Architect says that the event is bigger than the 4.7 Gigs on the DVD (around 6 Gigs.) Thing is, the film is 90 minutes long and I know that 4.7 Gig DVD's can hold a two-hour movie, so it's not the length. My film was shot with the Panasonic DVX 100A in 24P Widescreen Anamorphic, so it has a lot of pixels. What can I do to get it on DVD? Thank you in advance. Ruby

I thought in the "prepare" part of the burning process, it recompresses everything so that it fits.

Have you rendered from Vegas 5 to a DVD Architect mpeg? And if so, how big is the file you are importing into DVDA?

Yes, I rendered from Vegas as an mpeg2, as they instruct, but it's still too big (5.7 gigs.) Any ideas on what to do?

You rendered it using the default bitrate of 8.0 which if using the PCM/WAV audio will make it too big. Plus the DVD won't actually hold 4.7 gigs PLUS DVDA is conservative in stating file size-so you're fighting 3 fronts BUT there is hope :-)

When you prepare the DVD there are messages that appear telling you if all is OK OR if there are certain things that you need to be aware of including the actually size of the mpeg you are trying to burn
For what its worth the first thing you might want to do is go back to vegas and render the AUDIO only as AC3. Be sure to use the same name for it as the name of the mpeg you rendered that way DVDA will see it and bring it in with the mpeg. AC3 is quite a bit smaller than the mpeg or PCM/WAV audio and that alone may bring it down to the right size. I do quite a number of projects that run well over 90 minutes and have no problem. I do 2 hours with the same ease using AC3 audio and the right bit rate. Remember the more you have the less the bitrate.
If you're not sure about bit rates then use the AC3 audio you rendered in Vegas and let DVDA render the mpeg and it will optimize it to fit the disc at the same time.
DVDA is a great program once you get the hang of it.
Check for Edward Troxels newsletter. Hes got a ton of info on using DVDA as well as a bit rate chart.

HTHs
Don

The newsletter Don is referring to is Vol 1 #7. You need to make sure your bitrate is proper for the length of the video when creating the MPEG2 file. There's a bitrate chart in that newsletter.

I have editing a short video, and am trying to render it. The video is about 3 minutes, and done in HDV. I have tried to render it to avi and to wmv, but neither work. It just stops after 2 seconds and tells me the render is complete. When I click to play the files, it pops up an error message about downloading a codec. I just installed Vegas 6, and updated to 6b.

Am I missing something?

Yep... For WMV9 HD you need to download the WMV9 codec pack from Microsoft, and no doubt for the AVI you're missing the Cineform CFHD codec. You will probably need to go and get the Cineform ConnectHD demo...

I could explain some other work-arounds, but it'd take quite a while... and getting the correct codecs loaded will be easier for you.

Ok, just played around with it. Better steps:

A- White balance. Pick white-ish, grey, and black areas on the image to match to. In this case, the highlight on the bride's dress, the shadow lower part of her dress, and the groom's pant leg.

B- In video output FX, add the B+W filter or the color corrector filter so you just look at brightness. In this case the two images are pretty matched.

C- Match saturation. It may help to copy one clip onto the clipboard, and then wipe between the two angles by dragging on the video preview window.

D- Match key colors with the secondary color correct.
1- Figure out which colors are key. In this case, I thought the flesh tones, green trees in background, and the bridemaids?'s dresses were important.
2- Add the secondary CC. Click-drag the eyedropper on an important area.
3- Check the mask by clicking show mask. It may help to disable the split screen view and/or change its mode.
4- Clean up the mask by dragging the smoothness sliders higher, and adjusting the parameters as necessary. If you toggle each limit lum/sat/hue, you can see which part need tweaking.
5- Once you've got the mask nice, turn off "show mask".
6- Use the split screen view, and drag-select an area of the other image which contains the key color.
7- Toggle the split screen view and look at the vectorscope. The vectorscope (under video scopes) plots color based on color. saturation is % and higher saturation get nearer the outer circles. Angle is hue angle.
8- In the secondary CC, the color wheel will affect color. Drag it around so that the moving blob on the vectorscope goes where it should. Then use the gain setting to get the color right (you can also use gamma, or offset which is less useful).
9- Rinse and repeat.

E- (optional) blur the higher resolution camera to match the lower resolution camera. In this case the camera are pretty close in resolution. I have a hard time telling.

http://s51.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2OV7OZJMRH7SC1709T04K2UX5J
Download my .veg there

It doesn't look perfect, but you can shoot with two cameras and even they won't look perfectly matched if the iris is different (you can't really color correct it right [at least, I've never figured it out]).

1.jpg came from the GL2, which surprised me when I looked at the pics individually. It was much farther away, down the center isle, taking advantage of its zoom ability.

Thanks to all for the help! The tutorials kept me busy with fresh ideas, and pleanty of techniques to fool around with. Hours later, as I am sure everyone suspects, they still dont look the same, but certainly MUCH closer.

Thank you both, Don and Ed, I'll go try it later today. Ruby

Hello,

I am dumping some footage that was dubbed onto miniDV from betacam.. And in Vegas i am only seeing one side of the stereo signal..(the other side is flatlined) But when i play the tape out of my FX1, and monitor in the headphones..I hear sound in both earpieces, and when i look at the audio bars on the FX 1, (using the status button) i see bars jumping up and down for both L and R.. ?/ Anyone have any ideas here??

Thanks,
mike moncrief

Is it possible that it's one of those tapes that had the left on stereo 1 and the right on stereo 2? What happens if you capture in Scenalyzer Live and tell it to capture the secondary audio into a separate WAV file. Does that give you the other audio?

Hey Edward,

I do not have Scenealyzer.. maybe there is a demo version i can try ??
it is really strange thet i hear both sides in the headphones, and both audio meters have bar activity. yet Vegas is only showing one side..


Thanks,
Mike Moncrief

I edited a feature shot with the DVX-100A in 24P Anamorphic, but one scene in the middle of the film was shot, with the same camera, but on the straight video setting (not 24P.) So when I render the whole timeline the straight video scene comes out fuzzy.
Can I still render the whole project as one piece, by making some adjustment, or do I have to render it as three sections? And if it's the latter, how do I then import all three sections into DVD Architect as one continuous timeline with no breaks? Thank you.

You might try just rendering the 30fps one on its own to an AVI tweek the settings and see how it comes out, then replace the original on the timeline with the fixed version. Are you using progressive in your mpeg2 render?

I had rendered the 30fps by itself and it comes out fine, it's when I render it together with the 24P that it comes out fuzzy. I did use progressive for my render.
On the timeline (of the rendered mpegs, not the original vegas files), the Frame Rate is "30fps" and Field Order is "Lower Field First", while on the 24P the Frame Rate is 24 and the Field Order is "Progressive", and the "Format" on the 24P is "mpeg2"but on the 30fps it's "DV." What do you think?

Hey everyone, is their a way to get your chapters to play continuosly instead of returning to the main "menu"? I'm sure their is, it is just eluding me at this moment..any help would be great. thanks

I assume you are using several separate video files, as 1 single video clip with chapters set should play all the way through.

Double click the video file in the left disc explorer menu, then in the right media property menu, change the End Action 'Destination' from 'Most recent menu' to the next file you want to play.

Should work out for you.

Hi all,

Mostly an aesthetic question here.

I have a number of scripts that I use in Vegas (5.0b) and they're on my toolbar. However they all look the same. I would like to create my own icons. Possible?

I've checked properties and there is no option for icon change that I can see.

Am I stuck with similar icons for scripts on my Vegas toolbar?

Thanks for listening.

ian

I have some out of focus footage that I need to use.

The Sony Sharpen Plug-in works well to sharpen the face of the individual out of focus.

However, if I set the sharpen value high enough (.639) to eliminate the out of focus condition, I get white video noise in major portions of the rest of the frame.

To overcome this, I am using a Bezier Mask to select just the area that I want to sharpen. This works well. The rest of the frame is not subject to the sharpen filter, so I do not get the white noise.

So far so good.

The problem is that I see a narrow white line in my rendered video where I created the Bezier mask. What should I do to get rid of the white line?

Thank you in advance for any assistance that you can provide.

Yes, it is very possible. Here's how you do it:

Create a new image that is 16 wide by 32 tall.

In the top 16x16, make the image you wish to appear on the toolbar

In the bottom 16x16, make the image you wish to appear when you hover the mouse over the image.

If you have a script named: MyScript.js then save the image as MyScript.js.png

If you do the above, the image will automatically be found and used when that script is added to the toolbar.

Use the FEATHER option of the Bezier mask so that it gradually fades out around the edge of the mask.

Sounds like you need to "end action" from one to the other. However, there WILL be a slight pause between clips when done this way. I always render to a single file for the entire video. Then it will easily play straight through with no pauses.

Yes, just download it and try it in demo mode. Use the option to capture the secondary audio channel to a separate wave file. See if the other half is there.

It's why I am beginning to LOVE you.

ED! Thanks a bunch.

sincerely,

ian

Thanks Edward, i will give that a try..

Mike Moncrief

Dear Edward,

Thank you for the correct answer, as always.

I used the feather option and it works great.

Thanks again.

Edward, can you throw in the artistic talent to make that 16x16 pixel image look like something other than a blob? Knowledge is only half the battle here, what page do I find 'artistic talent' on?

I have a scene in Vegas that keeps going in and out from sharp to fuzzy. The original footage was fine, as was the timeline edit. But now, for some reason, when I view both the timeline edit and original footage, it's sharp for a few seconds, then fuzzy, then sharp, back and forth. I must have changed some setting somewhere in Vegas, but I can't find where. Can someone please help me? Thank you.

That's perfect. I know exactly what to do..Thanks again for your help. Not sure what I would do without this forum.
Cheers :)

Hey all...can I import clips that were captured in iMovie into vegas? I mean, it isn't working as I'm trying it, but I'm thinking there's a codec.

Thanks,

DJ

iMovie uses the DV stream format, which doesn't even work well in Final Cut Pro (no timecode or user bits, and audio is formatted differently).
You should be able to read DV stream with QUicktime Pro on PC, and you could use that to convert. Vegas may also be able to read the DV stream format.

2- Have you tried adding a .mov extension to those files?

16x16 is REAL tough to be creative in. I know from EXPERIENCE creating all the little icons for Excalibur.