Did a short piece for a friend using the Soy A1u .m2t footage in the timeline. Recall I do not own Cineform codec, except as included with vegas.

Did the editing thingie and later rendered to "standard AVI" NTSC widescreen mode using the included cineform codec. A few beers later, Vegas spat out a 2.3gig avi just fine.

Brought it into DVDA and didn't bother with menus, as it's only one 3 min piece. Let DVDA have it's way with the AVI and it works on the wife's DVD player... Significant--> if it works there it works anywhere... since it's a crappy tv/vcr/dvd combo that is picky about homemade dvd's. Looks good, the water in the picture is not blocky.

Video capture is still a little touchy, however, I sense it is my impatience. When I hit stop, I expect instant gratification (of course!)... I need to be more patient and realize Vegas is busy converting the camera stream to an .m2t. Once I slowed down on that part a bit, we're getting along just fine now.

PS I've learned to judge the quality of DVD software by looking at video of rippling water, it seems it really doesn't get handled very well by cheap codecs, gets all "blocky."

Jim--> uninstall/reinstall of dotnet 2.0
Simple, it's under "add/remove". uninstall it. I believe Sony uses v2.0 (not certain). If you have 1.1 already, you should be functional. Be sure to install .net 1.1 Service Pack1 though. Get 2.0 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en

What is .net?
http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1296&p_created=1122911856&p_sid=WrEOQCji&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTgmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnB fY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD0ubmV0&p_li=&p_topview=1

This may be of interest: HDV camcorder or deck not recognized
http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1332&p_created=1130267002&p_sid=WrEOQCji&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTgmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnB fY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD0ubmV0&p_li=&p_topview=1

As a network manager, that's normal for me... I never install out of the box.
What's sorta amazing is this was released what 9/26 and the package is obselete 12 days later! Must be a record.

What you’re not taking into account is that the CD’s were probably sent to the duplicator a month earlier so it really wasn’t 12 days later. More like a month and a half.

~jr

You are correct. Vegas cannot do this and Womble does an excellent job at this. They have dropped their prices so Womble MPEG Video Wizard is only $69 USD now. I was going to buy MPEG-VCR (which is now only $35 USD) but when I saw how inexpensive and better MPEG Video Wizard is I bought that instead. Excellent tool to have in your kit.

~jr

Can someone confirm please if I am correct?
I cannot trim an M2t in Vegas 7a and reduce the file size, right?

Example - I have a 400M .m2t, only 100M is useful after FF past poor framing/focus, etc to the "good part". There is no way in Vegas 7 to copy to a new file the 100M "good part" and later delete the original file to save disk space, right?

To do this I would need Womble MPEG-VCR (or similar).
I am planning on licensing womble if this is correct.
Thanks in advance.

Thats what's called editing, I think....

So you put the m2t on the timeline, you trim off what you don't want, then render it to a new file .m2t file. You can do that in Vegas. When you render you select .mpg2 file, then tell it to render HDV 1080i, or whatever you want...

Am I missing something in your question.

Try it without captured footage via ConnectHD. Are you just trying to used the BM card for viewing the footage or outputing with deck control ?

Am I missing something in your question.
Yes, you are missing the fact that he said COPY and you said RENDER. He wants to copy the clips to a new file like Vegas does with DV to DV. Vegas does NOT do this with M2T. It re-renders the file even when going M2T to M2T with no changes thus loosing quality. Womble will copy the clips at full quality.

~jr

Hi all,
I would like to do some slow motion,
I read that the right way to go is to convert the 60i into 60 full frames, using some dedicated apps.
Question is, Can I do that in vegas ?
thx Sassi

Okay, I understand now.

So how much degradation can we expect in the "rerendered" portion. If I added nothing to clip, no correction, no resizing, nothing whatsoever-- can't we depend that Vegas will be true to the original, at least to a reasonably safe extent. And if we preserve a second leader on either side of the clip, aren't we pretty much assured the same "GOP" treatment would be given to the footage. (Please excuse non "tech-speak" nature of the question.) Otherwise, won't our edited projects suffer a similar horrible end? I haven't done a lot with the Vegas HDV editing features.

And of course Vegas 7 now has scene detector. Is that a way to resolve this issue, assuming James wasn't shooting non-stop.

So how much degradation can we expect in the "rerendered" portion.
I don’t think that it is noticeable but you wouldn’t want to do it more than once. The data rate is fairly high (25Mbps) so it’s not like recompressing a DVD quality 8Mbps file. Go to the CineForm Quality Analysis ( http://www.cineform.com/technology/HDVQualityAnalysis051011/HDVQualityAnalysis051011.htm) page and see for yourself. They have a 10 generation M2T vs 10 generation CineForm AVI and you can see the difference.

If I added nothing to clip, no correction, no resizing, nothing whatsoever-- can't we depend that Vegas will be true to the original, at least to a reasonably safe extent.
No, Vegas will ALWAYS recompress M2T files. So even if nothing is done to the clip, it recompresses it just as if you had done color correcting or other FX.

And if we preserve a second leader on either side of the clip, aren't we pretty much assured the same "GOP" treatment would be given to the footage.
Leaving “leader” and hoping for a GOP match is also fruitless. Vegas pays no attention to the GOP and recompresses the clip (i.e., it does not preserve the GOP). That’s what Womble does. That why I recommended using it. If you want to cut up any kind of MPEG file Womble will preserve the GOP and just copy the data unaltered (lossless).

Otherwise, won't our edited projects suffer a similar horrible end?
Yup. The same thing happens to your final project. When you print it back to tape Vegas recompresses the whole thing again even the parts that are unchanged. This is why people recommend that you work with intermediaries. The CineForm or Sony YUV codec can stand up to many more recompresses (like the Sony DV codec) without showing significant signs of loss.

~jr

So does anybody know the difference between Vegas 7.0, 7.0a, 7.0b, and 7.0c? (If there is one)

Steven

7.0 is what got shipped while 7.0a is what's on the download page.
There's a pile of fixes in 7.0a that you can read about at http://dspcdn.sonymediasoftware.com/releasenotes/vegas70a_readme.htm
No 7.0b or 7.0c yet.

Thanks John, that was very instructive. That's why I love this forum !!

Along these same lines, I notice that when I use scene detect on with Vegas's HDV capture, there seems to be a couple of frames from the prior or subsequent scene included in the scene. In HDVSplit, it would have a broken up frame or two, quite often unviewable. Is Vegas doing it this way to protect the integrity of the clip ?

Ok, thanks.

Is this possible to do in Vegas 7? If it is, then how? What are the Pros/Cons of both formats?

Any help/guidance would be appreciated.


Steven

Here is the latest

Loaded SD clips - rendered fine, loaded m2t's - rendered fine, load cineform avi's - not so good(crash).

Uninstalled all apps that were not necessary, got down to 21 processes running. Uninstalled Blackmagic drivers/hardware, uninstall SqlManager, media manager and was sure to uncheck the use media manager box in preferences. Same results as above.

Spent an hour on the phone with Sony and ended up FTPing them a file. They got it now. I might just check with cineform...

Jim

Yes, you can render as progressive with a frame rate of 59.94.

Not sure you need to just for slo-mo, though.

....Vegas 6d ..... from other forum I have the suggestion to try frameserving (debugmode.com) and encode to HD using WindowsMedia Encoder (download free) ..... maybe this will work....

Enrique

Do you have the latest update from Cineform? Version 3.20 I believe. I had been wrestling with renders for a week now and finally narrowed to the Cineform avi file(s). The update fixed all that.

Buenos suerte

Jim

well... I just upgraded to Connect HD 3.20 ..... but the clips were captured using previous version .... do you think just upgrading solves the problem ? ....

thanks

It worked for me.

Jim

I am seeing rendering times (for instance to mpg2) in V7a to be about 30% longer than inV6, however, they are not dependent on the RAM Preview setting. Anyone else have rendering results?

V6 seemed very dependent on RAM Preview settings. With a certain setting I could render from the time line to DVD Architect mpeg2 in 1X time, or a little shorter. With V7a this seems to take 1.3X regardless of the RAM Preview setting. Going from m2t to Cineform Intermediate seems to take 13X, and Cineform Intermediate back to m2t is 3.5X. These tests were with the same veg project. Any data from other V7a users would be appreciated.

Buddy

i downloaded the 30 day trial of vegas 6 and was recently playing around in it, but whenever i go to open a video and it has the loading bar at the bottom that says "building peaks" it stops at about half way and tells me that there has been an error while opening one of the codecs. what do i have to do to fix this??

From where were the files acquired? If you've got an obtuse codec that isn't loaded on your machine with a reader, Vegas likely can't enumerate it.

there just like 2 minute videos that were taking with a little camera and copied on to the computer. so i cant really do anything to make the video play?

Not until you download an MJPEG codec, which is what most small still cameras use. By "little camera" I'm assuming that means you're referring to a still camera that captures audio and video to a flash or static source, such as a Cybershot or similar. Those camcorders use an MJPEG codec.
There are a few free MJPEG readers around the web. Install one and Vegas will read your movies.

It appears that the Vegas 7.0(b) update is now available here: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=697

The DVDA 4(a) update is available here: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=694

Heya's

Just wondering if people have been experience limits on how many m2t's you can have in your project file in Vegas 7 like what was experienced by users of Vegas 6.

While it's really a bug that Sony were aware of (I've seen a response from Sony support to an user) and should of been fixed for version 6, I'd bite the bullet and upgrade to 7 if it meant not having to worry about the limit of clips you can have in a project. I know some people say it's relevent to your hardware, but i think it's obviously a memory management issue when you add just one clip over the limit and the memory usage skyrockets and crashes or corrupts.

So yeah, anyone experience clip amount limits in Vegas 7 (platimum version as well)?

Lee

People have been using hundreds of m2t clips on the timeline in Vegas 7. The issue in Vegas 6 is gone in Vegas 7.

thanks for the info

Nice update. Thks.

No problems in VMS or Vegas. Just finished a project with over 2000 m2t clips that was started in Vegas 6 using proxies, anticipating a repair in Vegas 7, and it was indeed cleaned up.

Vegas 7b fixes

Notable Fixes/Changes in Version 7.0b

* The Insert Generated Music command now ignores the Import Audio at Project Tempo setting so Cinescore compositions are imported at actual length.
* The Lock Envelopes to Events feature no longer includes envelope points after the last event. Previously, moving an event to another track could cause other envelope points to be removed.
* For the Sony MXF format, a Progressive field order setting has been added for DVCAM and IMX rendering (via the Custom Template dialog for the MXF format). Also added 25p/30p detection when reading these files.
* The MXF reader now supports source files larger than 4 GB.
* Two-channel Broadcast Wave Format files are now imported to a single stereo track. In Vegas 7.0 and 7.0a, these files were imported to two tracks.
* Added support for the Zoom slider on some Microsoft keyboards.
* Event start times are now properly quantized if you drag media to the timeline when Options > Quantize to Frames is selected.
* Fixed a problem that could cause gapping when adding certain audio plug-ins to a plug-in chain.
* Fixed a problem that could occur when using the numeric keypad to move events across tracks.
* Fixed a problem generating audio peaks for some HDV source files.
* Implemented various HDV improvements, including stream-length matching, improved speed on non-SSE2 computers, and better handling of some HDV variants.
* Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when using Copy and trim media with project with a project that contained uncompressed AVI files without audio.
* Fixed a bug that prevented the Use color management feature (Preferences > Preview Device) from working correctly when using a Windows Secondary Display.
* Fixed a problem that prevented multichannel/multistream files from creating multiple tracks when dropping files on the ruler.
* Fixed a problem that prevented the Remove from project and delete files(s) command from working when right-clicking a file in the Project Media window.
* Fixed a bug that prevented certain Targa (TGA) files from opening.
* Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when accessing CD or DVD drives on computers with Blu-ray drives.
* Fixed a problem that could cause a freeze under certain conditions when building peak files.
* Fixed a problem that could cause a frame stutter when reading some Windows Media Video files.
* Fixed a problem that prevented the rendered file from being added to a new track when using Render to New Track with HDV files.
* Fixed a problem that could cause the application to stall when reading large MPEG-2 or OMA files.
* Fixed a problem that caused Export Video to XDCAM Disc to fail if clips had been deleted from the disc.
* Fixed a problem that caused user-supplied disc names to be ignored when importing XDCAM clips.
* Fixed problems with loading and saving projects containing XDCAM information while the XDCAM Explorer was not enabled (Preferences > General > Enable XDCAM Explorer).
* Fixed a problem that prevented markers from being saved when rendering MXF files.
* Fixed a problem that prevented aspect ratio metadata from being saved when rendering MXF files.
* Fixed a bug that prevented the left/right surround and LFE channels from being rendered when rendering 5.1 surround projects to AC-3 or ATRAC formats.
* Fixed a problem with automating the Track EQ and Chorus plug-ins.
* Fixed a problem with printing 24p video to a DV device.

DVD Architectur 4a fixes:

Notable Fixes/Changes in Version 4.0a

* DVD Architect can now detect MPEG-2 files with an .mpv extension.
* Resolved an issue with the Button Overlap colors not resetting when the Default All button button was clicked.
* Resolved an issue with scene selection menus improperly inheriting the keyframe transformation information from the parent menu.
* Resolved an issue in the Crop and Adjust dialog where adding a keyframe at the end of the timeline would clear the Crop and Adjust Properties.
* Resolved an issue with scene selection menus where the first chapter name was not displayed properly.
* Resolved an issue where inserting a keyframe via the shortcut menu did not properly update the cursor position.
* Resolved an issue with thumbnail images not displaying properly in scene selection menus when using certain themes.
* Resolved an issue where altering the order of assets within the Project Overview would cause the Button Order functionality to behave unpredictably.
* Resolved an issue with Pioneer BD-101 drives not appearing as a selectable drive within the drive list.
* Resolved an issue with the sample rate of Cinescore-authored audio.
* Resolved a crash that occurred if the DVD Architect detected certain Matsushita Blu-Ray drives.

While trying to update to 7.0b, I get error message CRC Mismatch, and the files won't install. Same with the update of the DVD Architect.

Anyone know what that is about ?

Madison Media is incredibly good at issuing updates. I have not even had a chance to evaluate version 7 yet and they are on their second revision!

Chris, you have a bad download. Download it again.

Chris, you have a bad download. Download it again.
Thanks, Ed. Will try again...

Pretty much as the subject, just wondering if its possible to display the currents clips name (eg testavi0001.avi) as an onscreen graphic.
I want to show some test clips to people and have them pick from them, makes it easier for me if they refered to them by the filename!

The Quick Label tool in Excalibur will do that. You can do it in DVD Architect, though. Just create a slide show there and you can turn on displaying the file name.

I use PAL DV Cam 25fps interlaced, so I use PAL DV project in Vegas. The result is ok, but I really want to avoid the typical clear&smooth movement of the video taken from any DV cam. That's why I used so many options and projects, also Framerate Converter HQ so that to change the framerate, then to put it on Vegas and then to render again to 25fps interlaced. I just tried to do analogy with 29.97fps -> 23,976fps (filmlook). That's why I converted my raw footage to 30fps, then on Vegas render to 25fps. Anyway, whatever I do, the result is flickering & stuttering rendered video file. Ok, I see on TV so many movies and clips that are in progressive and they have visible flickering, but it is very little, while on my videos the flickering is too much visible. SO, what is the best so that to make the footage look like progressive but with weak flickering? I hope you understand what I mean.

I'd leave it at 25fps and simply add a mild motion blur.

I'd leave it at 25fps and simply add a mild motion blur.
How??? Please give some examples, I'd appreciate it.

Have you tried just deinterlacing it?
I have good results with Mike Crash's Deinterlace Filter for Vegas - I haven't found the flickering to be excessive, but that's me.

Kyle

I currently have Vegas 6, and am trying to decide whether or not to upgrade to Vegas 7. Are both of them compatible with Windows Vista?

Have you tried just deinterlacing it?
I have good results with Mike Crash's Deinterlace Filter for Vegas - I haven't found the flickering to be excessive, but that's me.

Kyle
Oh, I have that filter but I dont use it bcoz whatever I do it is still the same. Also I cant undestand about deinterlacing: why do I need to deinterlace if I use interlace TV??? Would you explain more about that?

Thanks for the replies... The cuts and dissolves only option would have worked in hindsight, but I actually wound up just dowloading the Vegas 6 trial, which works full featured for 30 days (longer than I need it), at the editor's suggestion.

On another note, I decided I much prefer version 5.

You don't have to. If your output is going to be an interlaced TV then the main reason you would deinterlace is to give the video the look and feel of progressive (and filmish sort of cadence...).

What is your footage of - is it fast pans and high action? progressive at 25fps will probably look stuttery then, whereas the original interlaced footage will be smooth.

It sounds like you want a sort of middle ground between smooth and stuttery, is that right?

You could try some of the avisynth filters, although I can't recommend any particular ones. A quick search should find numerous ones you could try.

Kyle

2000 clips sounds good to me. Still feel a patch would of been nice for vegas 6 users to solve this. I've got VMS Platinum 6 currently, might consider the ull version of 7 in the future seeing its the same price to upgrade to VMS7 from movie studio or platinum despite platinum costing more.

Thanks for the info doug

On another note, I decided I much prefer version 5.

Really? Why?

They're both basically the same (workflow wise) except Vegas 6 has more features.