I purchased Vegas 7 and Boris Gaffiti Ltd came with it as most of you know. The Ltd version is severly limited but was hoping to at least see wonderfull sharp text at least. So... I did all my keyframing and effects in the stand alone "keyframer" then... because Ltd, have to "Export" as avi file. All settings are at Highest, 720x480 with Alpha Strait. Bring this file into Vegas, right click it, properties, media, Alpha Channel Strait and makes the background transparent. Now... everything seems to be going ok... but when exporting (even on highest settings) The text is HORRIBLE... regular Vegas Text is MUCH better and even graphic text I have made. It jitters, it combs, it loses shape when it moves... What is the deal? Am I doing somthing wrong or is this the maximum capability of the LTD > have to export version?

Hi - simple question that is confusing me!

If I shoot with camera set in 16:9 mode, should I be renderin the subsequent .avi and .mpg files in normal PAL or PAL Widescreen for them to display correctly on a widescreen TV?

Thanks!

I installed Vegas 7.0b and Excalibur as the admistrator on a computer at my school. When other users log on to that computer they can use Vegas but get a list of unaccessible resources when they try to run Excalibur. Is this a known issue?

Is this a known issue?

No.


Does it say what resources aren't available? Do other scripts run?


Send me an e-mail and we'll see about figuring out what the issue might be.

If Vegas only reads, what 2 gig of ram on rendering a mpeg/avi/etc file, does that same principle apply to rendering veg files? I'm at two gig now, wondering if I should bump up to 4 gig.

The OS controls memory allocation. 1/2 of physical RAM is dedicated to the OS, regardless of need. That is just hard coded behavior. I have found that a render of Vegas cannot use any more than 900MB of ram. THe limiting factor has always been CPU. OF course I am rendering on a 2.5GB system so given the 1.2 rule of windows, I "only" have 1.25GB to play with for all the apps running at one time.

jason

I had heard that too, about the limitted use of ram, but I thought it was more than 1 gig.

I was just wondering if vegas limitations on rendering actual video files is the same when rendering veg files, such as those updated and then rerendered in a master project.

I had heard that too, about the limitted use of ram, but I thought it was more than 1 gig.

I was just wondering if vegas limitations on rendering actual video files is the same when rendering veg files, such as those updated and then rerendered in a master project.

I have no reason to guess that the limitation would be different if rendering nested veg files or working on only one. DSE may have more info on that.

jason

Hi - simple question that is confusing me!

If I shoot with camera set in 16:9 mode, should I be renderin the subsequent .avi and .mpg files in normal PAL or PAL Widescreen for them to display correctly on a widescreen TV?

Thanks!

Since the source is widescreen, the render should be as well, unless you are also making a pan / scan version for 4:3. Then include the 16:9 project into a 4:3 project and use the "crop" to focus on where the attention is.

jason

Thanks Ed. I created a new local computer user account and put it in the power users group. That works, but I have to really trust the users, and we're talking high school students. It would be nicer if it would work with their network logon (on just that computer, of course). So I'll try to capture the error message tomorrow and email it to you.

Fred, please let me know what your eventual solution is as I have similar issues with Vegas.
I'm running 3 student Vegas suites at the college I work for and I've found out that, under student profile (XP SP2), a number of things do not work properly. For example, scripts and the ability to import an audio track from CD are my two main concerns.
I'm asssuming it's a Windows issue but I'm not certain nor do I know wher eto begin looking.
Also, like you, I have no desire to swtch them to a power user profile :-(

Mike, do ALL scripts cause a problem in this situation?

Fred, please let me know what your eventual solution is as I have similar issues with Vegas.
I'm running 3 student Vegas suites at the college I work for and I've found out that, under student profile (XP SP2), a number of things do not work properly. For example, scripts and the ability to import an audio track from CD are my two main concerns.
I'm asssuming it's a Windows issue but I'm not certain nor do I know wher eto begin looking.
Also, like you, I have no desire to swtch them to a power user profile :-(

This is indeed a windows issue. Restricted users on WinXP do not have access to some of hte same features as power users. Unfortunately, it sounds like the Vegas install application (NOTE: I worked for Hewlett-Packard's software installer division for several years) does NOT correctly support the NT user / group permissions. A correctly installed application would ask if the install should be made available to all users or just the current user.

There may be another way called the "Set Program Access & Defaults" which you can use to grant access to certain programs to users.

jason

Thanks for the tip Jason. I'll look into that after the semester is over and I have some free time.

Edward, as I recall, it affects all scripts as well as the "extract CD" option. I haven't been able to get near a computer yet today to confirm this though. The end of the semester is fast approaching and this means deadlines have to be met which translates to panicking students :-)

I'm using a Canon XH A1 and am planning to do a shoot (school holiday show really) in widescreen SD. Since the camera's new, I've been doing a few tests all the way through encode / create DVD to confirm the workflow and also see a few samples.

I did one test, 30F (progressive), and when I encoded and played on both an interlaced monitor and progressive display (high def TV), I noticed a flickering which shouldn't be there. Checking the encoding settings, I had told it to encode interlaced, but the source was progressive, which I thought was my problem.

Change the encode on 30F to field order progressive only, and I still get the flicker (which I thought should be gone).

If I tape in 60i, and encode in interlaced (field order as defaults), it looks fine..no flicker, as I would think should happen.

I think I've got the source of the problem identified (field order vs. source material interlaced vs progressive), but for some reason, changing the encoding on the 30F didn't seem to change anything.

Has anyone come across this and/or figured out what's happening here?

That slowness is a general problem of doing anything HD on a PC or MAC unless you have one of those add-in cards like a Canopus Edius or Matrox RTX2. Not that I am ready to go back to using one, but I have to work around this slowness by rendering my HD files over a weekend.

It'll get better if you get into the dual core rigs. I have an AMD Dual 3800+ that is pretty good, and I know the Core Duos from Intel are supposed to smoke..... I can also tell you that I get quicker rendering on Premeire Pro 2.0 of the HDV native edits I have done. I don't know why Vegas is as slow as it is....

Hello

How does one go about correcting white balance in underwater footage. In Pinnacle it is a simple procedure. But Adobe and Sony seem to make it more difficult. Footage here in Ontario ends up a bit green. Searching in the help ends me up in a colur correction screen but it wants a black area, a white area and a gray area. Thankyou in advance.

Chris

My PAL Panasonic GS400 had problems when I was on holiday in the States and I had to buy an NTSC camcorder.

I have edited the NTSC footage in Sony Vegas 5 and saved as a PAL DV-AVi file.
I then imported this Avi file into the edited PAL footage to make one PAL edit. This was then deinterlaced and exported to DVD. When this DVD was watched on a normal PAL TV the PAL footage played fine but the NTSC to PAL footage showed the typical interlace jaggies. I then played it in the DVD drive of the computer and again jaggies were evident on the NTSC to PAL footage, particularly in scenes with motion (as expected).

Any ideas what has gone wrong and how I may rectify it ?

I was just watching a video from a recent dive on the Gunilda over the weekend so I know exactly what you're talking about.
Unfortunately there's no magic button to automatically correct for this.
I'd suggest going through the colour correction tutorials on BillyBoy's site at http://www.wideopenwest.com/~wvg/tutorial-menu.htm
Once you understand what the various tools do, it becomes easier.

Maybe it's me, (I was up late)

I was working on my first HDV project in Vegas (6d). All went well untill I tried to find a high rez render setting that would preserve the 16x9. I ended up saving as an .avi, which was predictably HUGE.

Any advice?

All of the widescreen templates will preserve the format, but if you're wanting to print back to tape, you need to use mpeg. Unfortunately, that costs you resolution. Are you wanting to archive or print back to tape? Those would be two different formats, IMO. I use CineForm to archive, or 4:2:2 YUV to archive, and of course, mpeg to print to HDV tape.

Thanks Spot for the quick reply,

In Tools there is a setting 'print to HDV tape', I tried this, and had an issue with my H1 ' Check HDV/DV input'. I had it set to HDV. Do I need to set it to DV or Auto?

Also, I'm just trying to get the highest rez out via tape or DVD. It's only 8 minutes. DVDA will only render it as about 563 megs.

Is there something I could be doing to increase output quality?

Thanks Again Spot.

Just for anyone interested, I must say I was very pleased upgrading from 6.0 to 7.0b.

My 2.28 mghz machine with a gig of ram now handles HDV capture and editing with ease. The preview quit stuttering in Preview/auto mode completely. It does still stutter somewhat in Good or Best mode a little yet.

7.0b adds HDV scene splits which has been mentioned here previously.

All of my created render modes, FX presets, and other customized stuff appeared to migrate with the install as well, much to my surprise after reading other posts.

I couldn't figure out what to do with 6.0d after the installation, so I just unistalled it through XP add/remove programs. It completely uninstalled with no hassle, and 7.0b and my presets were all still fine.

What little rendering I've done so far has been as timely or better than 6.

These things applied to the DVD Architect upgrade as well.

3.0 mghz processor and 256 mb graphics card on the way...just cause I can.

One very satisfied customer here.
_______________________________________

I do have one question.

In going through the manual or help (I can't remember right now) it was mentioned that "while one instance of Vegas is rendering, you can edit in another".

I took this as meaning the program will operate in 2 separate "windows", ie... start the program from the icon or start menu, minimize it, and start another session from the icon or start menu. I know windows allows this and have done it many times with other programs such as CAD.

Has anyone actually tried this, rendering in one and working in another session?

Jamie

Spot,

I changed my project settings. I was WAY wide at 1920. So when I went to render, the only WAY wide setting was .avi. I switched to .mpg2 and checked 'stretch to fill'. So far so good.

I thought I read an HDV workflow from you somewhere on here.

I'm aiming to get the best result to output to DVD. I'm only rendering an 8-minute piece here. Can I set my bitrates WAY high to max rez?

This is maddening since I have seven video/audio tracks in the project. The video files and the .veg are stored on an Acomdata 7200 RPM USB 2.0 external drive. Every time I log on it takes 10-15 minutes to rebuild the audio peak files. Is there anything I can do to stop this? TIA

If you're rendering to DVD, why are you messing with 1920 or 1440 at all? 720 is your max width.
Use the DVD widescreen settings, set your render to "Best" and then tick the "Stretch to fill screen"

Disclaimer - I've not done exactly this.

I think you've got to deinterlace before rescaling the video to PAL. Seems to me you're just asking for interlace artifacts any time you deinterlace something that has been converted from its native resolution.

So, you'd deinterlace in NTSC before conversion to pal.

See the thread below "Deinterlacing Secrets?" for a good referral to a deinterlace plugin from mikecrash.com. Lengthy render, but worth it. I deinterlaced before rescaling to several lower resolutions.

Glenn, Michael, thanks for the suggestions.

I did end up going with the Mike Crash plugin (now at mikecrash.com), and it worked very well, if somewhat slow on the render.

Michael, your page had great background info that helped my understanding of how vegas displays & renders interlaced footage.

See the Whirling Dervishes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S45OJnQp6mI

I have Vegas on order. Would Connect HD help the problem you're talking about?

Yes, I do occasionally run two sessions. I may render a composite super in one window while editing in the other. I try to limit the editing to roughcuts or other non-demanding work.

While I have 2 gig RAM, it does consume most of it while this is going on. Performance takes a hit. I am editing m2t's at HDV res though, so my expectations are adjusted accordingly.

I'm running with the connect HD demo now, and it's *really good*, at least in terms of performance ... even on my 2ghz machine, it makes the HD passable... very nicely done, and using the software to capture into their codec is definitely better than rendering into their codec from the vegas timeline (e.g. the no additional cost method).

Hmmm... That explains a lot.

Thanks Spot.

I mistakenly thought that because the project was short (8 mins), I could get higher rez on a DVD.

Right now I've got a beautiful looking 7gb avi that drops to a 500mb mpeg2.

The output is for a short film fest, so they will be projecting, and I am trying for the the highest possible rez. Any suggestions? I was going to print to tape, but you mentioned that this would also be mpeg2, so I'm assuming it would be nearly the same file size.

I've been using "trough" tracks as well to dump the clips I want to insert later on. However I wish there were a way to drop them into the media bins (of course it doesn't work when you try that) where I could organize and name them, ie. "green hat next to vase", "cat on a chair", etc.

My clip pooling tracks can contain as many as 50 small clips, and I waste a lot of time digging through this trough track to find the 1 sec clip that I trimmed and tossed in there an hour ago.

Is there a better way of organizing clips than this?

tia!

You can make subclips in the Trimmer and they will appear in your media pool. You can rename them anything you want.

I think I've gone as far as having 8 instances of Vegas 7 open, but I'm running with 8GB of RAM. To be fair, I was only rendering on a few of them.

If you're marginally brave, you can change the process priority of the background-rendering Vegas instances in the Task Manager to make your live-edit instance a bit more responsive on over-taxed hardware.

Is it possible to export markers in Vegas 7? I have just upgraded from Vegas6. Vegas isn't my normal editing program ( Edius Pro3) but I thought I would take the time and see how Vegas 7 and Architect work together ( I normally use DVDLab Pro 2). I hit the same frustation level I usually hit with Vegas!!! I exported a 39 min video with 56 markers I had set. To see how this all worked with markers as chapters in Architect. Imported into Architect, file properties show the marker being present but Architect does not see them. In fact I can't seem to set architect up to place markers at all!!!. So I thought I would just export the markers. Searching under Help for export markers in Vegas gave a large list none of which covered exporting markers!!!.
Any help on either topic would be useful!!

Ron Evans

When you render the file, there's an "Include Markers" checkbox. Was that checked? If not, they weren't saved with the file. There is a script (somewhere) that will save the markers to the proper file which could then be imported into DVD Architect.

Yes I did export correctly and I have eventually managed to get the markers to appear. I started a new project as single file. I originally started a project of menu based, which is what I really want of course, but with starting that way I am unable to set any markers and they do not show on the timeline. I like most people, I am sure, want to make a DVD that starts with a title screen that has a play button and a menu button , so that one has the option of starting at the beginning and watching the whole DVD or selecting the particular scene for viewing. An obvious aid is using the markers to create the menus. In DVDLab PRo this can be done automatically or manually, with complete control over backround image etc. Either I am missing something or this is not possible in Architect. This is clearly not an obvious choice for the designers of Architect!!! They seem to have included incredible capability that I don't need and missed most of what I want.
I thought I might export the locations of the markers so that I could still use DVDLab PRo by importing the markers. Clearly this is not possible in Vegas 7 either.
I love Vegas for its audio capability and upgraded to Vegas7 because it was a good deal. But I think I will stay with my present approach of using Edius for video, Vegas for audio mixing and DVDLab Pro for DVD creation.

Ron Evans

Well I figured it out. I can now get Architect to do most of what I want. Maybe after a bit more experimenting myself I will have a better opinion of it. I think life would be a lot better if both Vegas and Architect help files were rewriten by someone else!!!

Ron Evans

The Vegas help files are definitely not all that helpful.
Having DVDLab, and having used it a lot in the past, I think with a little help and tutoring, asking questions, whatever....you'll find you love DVD Architect 4. It is the first DVD authoring app that has allowed me to completely walk away from DVD Studio Pro for many projects. It's fat, powerful, and chock-full of semi-hidden features.

Ron,
There is a script that will export markers for use as chapter points in DVDA. I don't remember where to get it, but you can probably find reference to it on the Sony Vegas forum: http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowTopics.asp?ForumID=4

Search for Export markers.

Regards,
Jerry

A slightly different version may be found at this link. (http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=ec69bfca-3e4b-410f-8cb9-3ba67e306985)

I am sure just like Vegas, Architect has more hidden features than meet the eye. Vegas 7 is definately faster than Vegas 6 so I will work at it as it is my favourite program for audio for many years though for video it has frustrated me by how slow it has been compared to Edius etc. Certainly I just managed to complete this test video of a dance excercise with 58 excercises ( 42 mins long)and that is why I wanted very accurate markers and menus, not something that is that easy with Edius/DVDLab because of needing iFrames at marker/chapter placement. For a first attempt it worked but I need to work on the menu design as I know how to do this well in DVDLab but this first attempt in Architect looks like my first DVD's using DAZZLE DVD many years ago!!!!!!!!
For the sort of project I just tested I need to find out how to create all text menus using the marker names in column form.

Ron Evans

Thank you.

I never used the Trimmer before. In fact I never used the Project Media pane before either. It's much easier doing it this way!

If I have slowed down the framerate of my movie to 23.976 in filmmaker but now need some "filler" audio from the original file... do I slow this audio down exactly by 4% ? (or is it 4.12843234... some silly number?) and, how can I do this easily in Vegas?

The easiest way is to "stretch" the audio to fit the video. Before changing the video rate, make sure that the audio and video segments have the exact same start and end points. Change the speed of the video, then hold the Ctrl key when dragging the ends of the audio segment to stretch it and match the video duration as needed.

One nit that I have with Vegas is that some of the numerical entry forms have too few decimal places, or don't allow direct entry. There are times when you want things to be exact, and it's frustrating when the best you can do with the tool is to mess with a slider.

Anyway, if you "snap" the audio to have the exact same duration as the video, you should be golden.

Can vegas 7 handle the Panasonic P2 cards? Is there a tutorial available?

http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=f176d261-c15c-451a-bdfa-d07e5bbc018f has a tutorial.
Serious Magic, CineForm, and DVFilmmaker all have conversion utilities. This tutorial deals with the Raylight app from DVfilmmaker. I've used it extensively, and use the Serious Magic (now Adobe) as well. No real experience with the CineForm.
HTH

The Trimmer is very helpful for big projects.

In going through the manual or help (I can't remember right now) it was mentioned that "while one instance of Vegas is rendering, you can edit in another".

I took this as meaning the program will operate in 2 separate "windows", ie... start the program from the icon or start menu, minimize it, and start another session from the icon or start menu. I know windows allows this and have done it many times with other programs such as CAD.

Has anyone actually tried this, rendering in one and working in another session?

Jamie

I do this all the time, but mostly when my second render machine is not available (away from home office). That way I can kick off a quick "how is that going to look" render, while I continue to work. Note that trying 2 renders at once won't do anything special other than make each render slow and take possibly longer because the two processes are swapping for CPU . HD / RAM access. The only advantage is kicking off two different project renders so you can come back in 6-7 hours and have them both finished. If you need two different renders of the same project (ie wmv and mov) then you can just batch them up. Be careful not to give the quicktime render a file name longer than 4 characters because it will get confused and error out (just kidding on 4 characters, but it does have an insanely shot character limitation that NO OTHER render format has).

jason