I was playing with the old movie filter on Vegas 6 and was unable to turn OFF the scratch film effect. I only want selected filters like "Hair" and "Jitter", not the scratched effect. Is there a way to use the other old film effects without being stuck with the scratched film filter?

I'd say there still is a need for Cineform - for me there is, at least. I'm editing in HD (from the JVC GY-HD101, so it's 720 25p), but in order to see whether the shot I'd like to select for the cut, I need to see whether it's completely in focus. Therefor the preview window is running in full resolution (1280x720), but at quality preview (that only affect effects and transitions, so that's fine).

Problem is that even with v7, HD at full 1280x720 doesn't run quite so smooth as it should (on a 3,2 GHz AMD64 with 1Gb RAM and 256 Mb videocard)...

With Cineform it's a little better (not even there yet, but perhaps that's because of the enormous file sizes?

There's a problem I'm dealing with quite some time. When I slow down video, I usually go to properties and set the speed to 0,500 , instead of 1,000, just to make sure the speed is exactly half and the results are optimal (instead of using the CTRL and drag to expand the clip, because then I won't know how much it's slowed, and it's immpossible to get it at exacly half speed). With this I have 2 issues:

1) If I made a trim, put it on the timeline and change the speed to 0,500 (as I always do), I loose my outpoint, because the clip is slowed down, but holds it's original lenght, instead of doubling. It is somewhat un-logic - and all the other NLE's seem to double the lenght. Can it be set somewhere that the original in and out points of the trimmer should be respected?

2) And this is the toughest: The audio doesn't stretch with the video - it stays at normal speed. You have to set it apart from the video. You can't set the speed to half, but you can set the duration to double, so that is okay, but it is really a drag to have to do that in 2 steps. No easier solution here?

Grouping them doesn't work (and obviously so, because they're normally always grouped to start with)...

Any suggestions?

Hi all, I love these forums. I have a quick question regarding best rendering options as I prepare wedding videos.
I use Vegas-6 and DVDA. In order to produce the best quality DVD, should I render AVI or MPEG-2 out of Vegas.. then into DVDA. I noticed that DVDA's prep work is much faster with MPEG-2.

Your expert optinions please. Thanks

I render to MPEG in Vegas, as it gives you more options (variable bit rates, 2 pass etc) than you get in DVDA.

Any suggestions?

Use a script! Write yourself a script that will set the playback rate to .5 (on ALL selected events - just make sure you select both the video and audio first) and then sets the length to 1/2 what it previously was.

I know Excalibur will do this task for you. Ultimate S may as well.

Keyframe the Scratches so that they are off.

Remember that, if your final project is longer than 70 minutes, you'll need to use a bitrate calculator like th eone at http://www.videohelp.com/calc to determine the proper settings for it to fit.

Ultimate S may as well.Yup, Ultimate S will do both in one step. Go to the Visual Effects tab and select Adjust Playback Rate and there is an optional check box Adjust Length to Match and you're done.

~jr

Thanks for the confirmation, John.

!!!Final Reminder!!!

See you all there!

Mark your calendars!

The next Washington Baltimore Vegas User Group (WBVUG) meeting will be held on Saturday, September 16th 2006, from 1:00pm - 3:00pm at the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library. The Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library is located 1 1/2 blocks south of Chevy Chase Circle at the Maryland state line in Washington DC, NW near McKinley Street and Connecticut Avenue. We currently have reserved a meeting room that seats 50 people so there is plenty of room for everyone. There is no charge for attending the meeting but come prepared to share "Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learned" while working with Sony Vegas.

So come on out and meet your fellow Sony Vegas video editors located in the Washington, Baltimore and Northern Virginia area!

Thanks and we hope to see you there.

If you have any questions, please contact Mickey Grackin at www.oicproductions.net/wbvug.html.

Tentative Agenda:


1:00 - 1:20 Meet & Greet/Networking
1:20 - 1:40 Introductions/Past & Present Projects
1:40 - 2:20 Presentation? Show and Tell?
2:20 - 3:00 Closing Discussion

Trying to install my Vegas 6 it says directx 9.0c is missing.

So I downloaded the directx 9.0c and installed it. Trying to install Vegas still it stops telling me that directx 9.0c is missing, although I already installed it, even restarted the PC.

What to do?

I am at the end of my wits but need Vegas to be installed NOW!
How can I get Vegas installed?
Anybody please?

edit: checked and found that directx 9.0b is installed. When I try to install directx 9.0c the message 'installation complete' comes instantly, but the version 9.0b stays the only one being installed.

Have you tried going into your control panal and removing all previous copies and them reinstalling? You may also try to email Douglas Spotted Eagle. Bob

Hey can anyone tell me how to get a frame or picture out of the timeline?
I want a still of something and be able to email it. Thanks!

Just click Copy Snapshot to Clipboard on the Video Preview pane.

The other option is to click on the "Save Snapshot to File" button which will create an actual file instead of simply copying it to the clipboard. As stated, both buttons are just above the preview screen. Also, the Preview Quality controls the size and quality of the image. You might want to change the preview mode to "Best (Full)" before taking the snapshot.

ED, where is that?

The "Save Snapshot" button is just above the video preview display - looks like a floppy disk.

I am trying to figure out the best way to edit my HDV footage as 4.2.2 SD to take advantage of the extra colour info gained from the 1080 HD downconvert. I gather downconverting to the Sony YUV codec in SD is the only solution in Vegas 6d? The problem here is that SD Sony YUV files are 4x bigger than DV files, and are slow to edit.

DSE mentioned on another thread that a DVCPRO 50 codec is available at Matrox.com. But I've looked and cannot find it there.

Also Vegas 6d is supposed to be able to handle IMX 50. But why can't I find this codec Vegas to downconvert HDV to 4.2.2 SD.

Any thoughts would be most helpful...

Try http://www.matrox.com/video/support/ds/software/codec/home.cfm for the DVCPRO 50 codec. It's free but there's a form to fill out before you can download it.
MainConcept also has one but it's $350 U.S.

directx cannot be uninstalled.

Problem solved by reinstalling SP2 which comes with directx 9.0c
( however there might be different versions of SP2 out since the system already had SP2 installed, but only with drectx 9.0b which was not upgradeable with downloaded directx 9.0c )

Vegas is up and running.

Now that I have a new Behringer BCF2000 running, creating volume envelopes via the faders (very cool for multitrack audio mixing!) I find that I'm creating an enormous number of envelope points.

Anyone know of a script that would remove all envelope points in a selection area on a selected track? Right-clicking each one is too much... cause with automation you can create them so dang fast.

I just happened to stumble across the answer to this the other day.
No script is necessary. On the toolbar, switch from Normal Edit Tool to Envelope Edit Tool. Now drag across the timeline to highlight the points you want to delete. You'll see the blue squares change to white with a blue outline. Select delete and the points are gone (reset to 0 db).

Got it - works great!

Thanks Mike.

This is excellent. Thanks Mike.

The DVCPRO 50 really works great on my Vegas. Pity I can't find the promised IMX 50 on 6d.

The performance in previewing en rendering in Vegas is letting me down since I'm starting to use High Definition (from the JVC) - even in version 7...

I was wondering if upgrading to Windows XP Professional x64 edition (the 64-bit OS, since I have an Athlon 64) would do me any good IN vegas. It'll probably speed up things outside Vegas, but does vegas itself support the 64-bit processing and will it take advantage?

Vegas does not officially support 64bit windows. Some people are successfully running it there - others have had problems. Proceed at your own risk.

I've had one of these for a few years and, to be honest, it's had little use during that time. I don't really want to use my shiny new XL2 as a passthrough device to my external monitor so I thought I'd dust off the Hollywood DV Bridge and give it another whirl, especially as we can now enjoy simultaneous displays on a secondary and an external monitor.

All the painful memories came flooding back to me and I remember now why I stopped using it. It is SO temperamental!

This morning I was using it fine, passing a signal from Vegas 7 to a JVC monitor and also to a small w/s TV. This evening, however, it doesn't want to play at all. In fact it hangs Vegas until I remove the firewire cable!

I've done all the resetting under the sun, trawled various other forums, searched for support pages, all to no avail.

So my question is: is there ANYONE actually using one of these devices successfully with Vegas? Does anyone have any hints or tips as to how to get the damned thing up and running?

Any help appreciated, cos I'm stumped!

Ian . . .

Hmmm. This is the longest project I have done at 47 minutes, and I want to output to DVD. The file is about 10 gig. Of course I can't fit that on a DVD. But if I use .wmv 3Mbps, I get a file that is 1 gig.

Is there a setting I could use to max rez while still fitting on a disc???

Thanks.

Here are two discussion threads about it from the Sony forum:

Improved Render Times in Vegas 6 (http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=4&MessageID=465956)

Installation Woes on Vegas 7 (but it does work) (http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=4&MessageID=481298)

I assume you're talking about your compressed file being 10gb. DVD Architect will optimize the file and lower the bitrate to completely fit on a DVD5 or, for the least compression and the best quality, a DVD9 (double layer)...
Converting to a wmv file doesn't sound like a good option here, since you are looking to maintain as much quality as possible.

Thanks Vincent,

The 10gb file is .avi. I'll try rendering it to DVD architect and then optimize the settings (actually I didn't know I could do this). I just assumed that the 10gb file wasn't going to fit.

You don't say what program you edit with but if you happen to edit with Vegas then render to MPEG2 in Vegas render the audio to AC3 in Vegas and you'll have far more control over the render and bitrate for the render. If you don't use Vegas then bring the file into DVDa and let it OPTIMIZE to FIT DISC- it's going to take a while to render it to MPEG in either case but whatever you do do not go to WMV for DVD use.

Don

Ken, take a look at Vol 4 #1 and Vol 1 #7 of my newsletters. (http://www.jetdv.com) Bottom line: DVD = MPEG2. However you have two options:
1) Render to MPEG2 (and AC3) from Vegas and give those to DVD A.
2) Render to DV-AVI and let DVD A take care of converting it to MPEG2 and AC3 for you.

The articles describe both methods and the advantages of each.

I know the Canopus ADVC series and ADS Pyro convertors work well.

This thread got me to sign up for DVInfo, so I'll try and lay out what's happening here to the best of my understanding.

Windows XP sees 4GB of physical address space that it can map parts of to virtual address space on a per-process (application) basis. Before XP service pack 2, one could use the /PAE (Physical Address Extension) switch to push device address reservation (for PCI, AGP, PCIe, and system devices to have a physical address space to call home) above 4GB.

Using the PAE switch caused the kernel to use an additional table for memory allocation, leading to a tiny performance penalty, which is why it was optional before. With XP SP2 came No Execute support (in both hardware and software), but this called for the use of the PAE kernel. Now everyone pays the tiny penalty.

So, you might expect to see a full 4GB of memory show up under SP2, but another thing happened at the same time. Drivers are supposed to be able to handle addresses above 4GB. It turns out that quite a few of them can't. Microsoft decided to err on the side of stability, so all device address reservation now sits below the 4GB boundary. The rest of your phyiscal memory (RAM) goes above this, and the consumer versions (even XP Pro) of the OS won't use this physical memory.

This has nothing to do with your pagefile, and there's not much you can do to fix it. You can decrease your AGP aperture and disable on-board devices to cut your losses (in your BIOS). On my machine, under XP SP2, I see 3.18 GB. Under XP x64, I see the full 8GB.

Vegas 6.0d and 7.0 use an API in windows that allows for allocations that don't always have to take up virtual memory. They only take up virtual memory when Vegas needs the data. This means that Vegas can take some advantage of systems with greater than 2GB of physical memory in select cases. Windows also looks at the amount of physical memory when deciding on the process working set (how much actual RAM gets used by an application). More RAM in a machine will mean more optimistic RAM behavior from Windows. Don't go nuts on this, though. There's not a lot to be gained beyond 2GB at present, unless you're running multiple instances of the application.

How do you remove the letter box from a frame grab? Can you do it in Vegas? Or do you have to chop it out in Photoshop?

Also, if your footage is 720p converted to cineform, how do you ensure the frame grabs are hd? Mine seem like SD.

If you start out with HDV720p, convert to cineform IC, put it on your timeline, do all your cool little filters and titling stuff and then go to render it, should you select "ntsc dv widescreen" if you intend to go to DVD? (sd)

Ah, the 10gb file was your uncompressed avi! No sweat, size-wise. Your best bet is to read Ed's newsletters to familiarize yourself with the dvd authoring process. They are clear, to the point, and will have you burning your settop compatible dvd in no time (not to mention FREE-thanks Ed).
The basic process to creating the dvd:
1. Capture your footage as an uncompressed avi (with Vegas or other cap util)
2. Edit the avi with Vegas or other NLE.
3. Either render the project right to mpeg2 with Vegas or (my pref) render out as avi and let DVD Arch convert to mpeg2 for you. Some prefer to render the video and audio streams separately.
4. Bring your rendered files into DVDA, create your menu(s) and other aspects for your completed dvd.
5. Let DVDA author your project into a settop compatible DVD.
With the relatively small size of your current project, you'll be able to maintain a high bitrate and have excellent quality footage.
Sorry if I just repeated most of the points from Ed and Don. Now get to those newsletters!

Tie a hundred feet of nylon line on it, it makes an okay anchor.
(Canopus or Ads if you want a pass through box)

I have no problem burning my work from DVDA to DVD+R disks. But when I try to burn to DVD-R disks, DVDA will not close out the disk. I thought maybe I was impatient, so I left it running yesterday, and came back 12 hours later and it still did not finish. The process stalls out in the "Burning Lead-out" ... almost done!

I've been able to use Nero and Pinnacle to copy or burn original DVD-R, so I don't think I have a driver problem.

Is there a setting I am missing, or should look at to specify which type of disk (+R or -R) to burn?

Thanks

Fantastic reply and really clears the air on this matter for me! I have decided to go with 2Gb for now and assume this will be enough for me to get by. :)

Thanks again VERY much for taking the time to register and post

Jon

Welcome Matthew. Nice to see you here. Thanks for the great info.

Your framegrab will be whatever you see in the Preview Window. If you change your project settings to remove the letter box, the framegrab shouldn't have it either.

Multiple people have had problems burning from DVD A in a variety of situations. Here's my philosophy: If DVD A will burn what you want, great - let it (it does for me and I let it). If it won't, then PREPARE in DVD A and then use Nero or Record Now (or whatever) to do the actual burning.

Yes - or if you are using DVDA, use "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream".

Matthew hit the issue in the head (great discussion!). A few more details about it (and comparison of 32-bit vs. 64-bit)...

The 32-bit application has a 2GB address space to make use of, which can be shared and swapped between physical RAM and virtual memory on the hard drive swapfile. Some apps, if developed with particular compiler options, can use a bit more than this. Photoshop CS2 is one example. Vegas 6 is not.

Since Vegas is a 32-bit app, can it actually run faster on 64-bit XP? The answer is YES. And it boils down to more efficient memory management. As I said, the 32-bit app gets 2GB of address space. Unfortunately, the 32-bit OS takes some of this address space away from the application for its own use. Mostly this happens with shared dll code that both the OS and the application use. And some other stuff. In contrast, XP x64 differs in that it does NOT encroach on the application's address space.

Most applications don't even come close to using 2GB of address space and don't care. But a really demanding project render can go to that level in Vegas. Anyone who's had a render fail with an "out of memory" error has seen it happen. Vegas ran out of address space, even though you had loads of HD for swapfile and perhaps RAM available too.

This is why in XP x64 you can sometimes see a demanding render succeed where in 32-bit XP it would have failed. Because more of the full 2GB address space is available to Vegas, and the render needed it.

Also you can see speed increases on those highly demanding renders. With more of the full 2GB address space available for Vegas to use, it can rely more on RAM and less on the slower, HD-base virtual (swapfile) addresses.

I've done enough testing to bear this out. But back to the original question, no I don't think you'll benefit too much from having 4GB of RAM, since Vegas can't use it. But if you run multiple apps at the same time (like PhotoShop & Vegas, or multiple instances of Vegas), then you might see some benefit. But personally I think you'll get a lot more "bang for the buck" by getting HD Connect from Cineform.

Funny thing. I downconverted some jpgs from HDV, into dvcpro 50, Sony YUV and plain old DV.

The DV appeared much sharper than either DV50 or YUV. Now why is this? It's almost like the arguments as to why the HVX 2000 looks less sharp than HDV cameras.

Maybe it has to do with ones perception, and the DV frames only appear sharper in JPG because they have less colour info and are somewhat more blocky.

Both the Panasonic and Sony YUV codecs were equally less sharp than the DV frames.

Very strange.

Thanks Guys,

I will read the newsletters but last night I did take the 10gb .avi into DVDA and it did produce a masterful DVD. It did take over 2 1/2 hours to render it, but no biggy. I left it alone to do it's wonderful thing.

I had mistakenly thought that I was smarter than DVDA and it would need me to feed it a correct size file before rendering. I should have known better. Now that I am enlightened (me=dumb / Vegas=smart), I can go back to doing what I like to do.

I love Vegas.

I've posted some files comparing a couple of techniques for emulating Technicolor 2-strip and 3-strip processes in Vegas.

They're not super-polished (I just threw them together), but there was some interest in whether or not this was possible in Vegas. It certainly is. I'll put the projects up shortly, but the videos comparing these are already there.

http://matthew.chaboud.com/vegas5/

For 3-strip, a simple channel blend is all it really takes to do this. You can use levels to linearize the color-space for a slightly more punchy effect. If anyone uses edge detection or spatial filters to do a technicolor look, they're doing it wrong. Technicolor is purely a color process.

2-strip is a bit harder in Vegas, as it requires isolation of blue-green and red masks, but I think that I might be able to bake it down in to a couple of tracks with filters. For this mock-up, I used six.