New functionality includes support for the progressive scan modes (24A and 30 modes on the V1U/V1J/V1N camcorders, and 25 mode on the V1E/V1P/V1C camcorders) on the Sony HVR-V1 series HDV camcorders, and a built-in import module for the HVR-DR60 Hard Disk Recording Unit. With the 7.0c update, Vegas will properly handle the V1 series progressive scan modes automatically, without manual intervention. Users can also manually remove pulldown from native or downconverted 24p DV files.

Additional enhancements include improved color accuracy for XDCAM HD export, improved monitoring for DV, SD XDCAM, and HDV formats over SDI; improved VST support; 24p, 25p, and 30p HDV project templates; 640 x 480 export support for the Apple(R) iPod(R); and stream-compliant HD MPEG-2 templates for the Sony Blu-print(TM) professional Blu-ray(TM) authoring system.

Spot
I have Vegas 7b build? I don't have in front of me. Is that a new (today) update for Vegas. And Hello.

John

Yes, the new update is 7.0c build 169 - new as of 12/11/06.

Vegas 7.0c (http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=697) (What's new (http://sony-327.vo.llnwd.net/dspcdn/releasenotes/vegas70c_readme.htm#WhatsNew))

Can you point me to where I can get these?

andrea mosaic looks like it might do the trick

thanks

Does After Effects motion blur work with Vegas?

After converting the HVX200 HD files with RayLight and inseting the clips on the timeline which HD codec is best for rendering that won't take up Gigs and Gigs of hard drive space. Thanks

I bought a hi-def Canon and am getting my ducks in a row to update to Sony 7 in the new year. I hear many of you talk about some of the VASST tools including the Ultimate S package.

Since timing is an issue on trial versions of software I'm wondering if it's possible to get a trial version of Ultimate S working in a trial version of Vegas 7. I don't want to install the Vegas trial before I know so that I will get the most time to fiddle with the Ultimate S interface before I need to make my purchasing decision.

Thanks,
Kevin

Anyone notice when using Vegas and hitting play while being zoomed(at any level) on the timeline...the video stutters when the time line in zoomed

Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum Edition 7 vs Sony Vegas 7:

Which is better, and what are the differences between the two, if any? Thanks,

Steven

Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum Edition 7 is a "lite" version of Sony Vegas 7. If you can afford the big one (Sony Vegas 7), get the big one. The "lite" version (i.e. Movie Studio) is limited to 4 video tracks, 4 audio tracks, doesn't support scripting, and many other features found in the full version. There's a comparison chart on the Sony website.

...But, if you are looking at Vegas, but aren't sure if it is your type of style of editing, its a heck of a way to go--- it will even capture HDV, giving an inexpensive entry into that area.

Ultimate S trial works in the trial version of Vegas 7 without any issues of any kind.

The amount of stutter, or lack thereof, is determined by several factors, not the least of which are:
CPU speed
Vid card/bus
Shared resources
Anti-virus enabled
HDD throughput/swap files, etc

Zooming all the way out also causes more information to be buffered.
Double click the timeline bar at the bottom of the timeline to fit the entire project to the timeline area. If you're still seeing stutters, it's some aspect of your machine that isn't allocating resources correctly or at the proper priority.

You've already answered your own question. The Raylight codec is the best means of working with the files. Or, you could be converting to CineForm, or to the Adobe format, but since you've got Raylight, and the file size differences are negligible between the various decoders...stick with that.

Hi There.

I am new to this forum, so please be kind to me, anyway I have been battlieng with this setup and wondered if anyone has any advice.

I have a MacPro running Boot camp and XP64, connected to a fibre channel SAN. I recently purchased a Blackmagic MultiBridge Pro, so that I can run both Sony Vegas and Final Cut on the same system, with the same hardware. Anyway, the only XP64 drivers that I can install with the Mutltibridge Pro card are versions 5.6.1 or version 5.7.3, both drivers work fine in windows, and I am running a trial of PremPro 2.0 which also works well with the card using either drivers.

So my problem is that Vegas 7.0b or 7.0c will just not see the card at all, no matter what I try, in the release notes of Vegas 7.0c it implied that there was improved suport for the BlackMagic products.

Does anyone have any ideas, or recommendations on how to get Vegas to work with the MultiBridge Pro.

Thanks

Matt

This will probably be a very basic question but I've searched the threads and I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

Up to now, when preparing a DVD, I have rendered the edited file in Vegas to an mpg2 ,using the DVDA template, and the audio to Stereo WAV, both for importing into DVD Architect. This has produced satisfactory results.

However, in the threads it seems more popular to convert the audio to AC3. Is there a benefit to this other than creating more space on the disc for the visuals or does DVD Architect convert the uncompressed WAV file to AC3 anyway and it's therefore just a matter of whether this is done by Vegas or Architect ? I know the WAV file is recompressed by DVD Architect but not recompressed if AC3. If the compressed WAV file on the disc is just PCM, is this better or worse than AC3 ?

Hi Mark.

There is no real benefit to AC3 encoding apart from saving space in the disc for video.

Not that there are any rules per say, but when we author DVD's if they are music titles or heavy in music we would try to keep them PCM. If your project was a standard (thats not a good word) video project, heavy in video effects or compositing, or fine details in the video you may as well encode to ac3 to give your video encoder a bit more bitrate to play with in the complex scense of the video.

AC3 stereo in very general terms is compressed usually to 192 kbs for DVD, this is very similar in approach to MP3 encoding music. You know it sounds good, you may lose a little but unless it is music you would be hard pushed to tell.

So there is no better or worse specific answer, but I would recommend looking at the type of project and ask yourself do I need the Best Video quality or the Best Audio Quality and use that to make your decision on whihc route to go. Encoding the audio in Vegas or Architect is exactly the same. So it sounds like you are doing everything right.

I suspected that might be the answer but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Many thanks for your reply Matt.

I'll plug Excalbur on this one. Mucho time saver.

Unless you tell it otherwise, DVD Architect will take your WAV file and convert it to AC3 for you anyway. The only advantage of doing it in Vegas instead of letting DVD A do it is that you have full control over all parameters in Vegas.

This is the most bizarre thing to have happened, and I have no idea what's going on. I should say that I'm no Vegas noob; I know what I'm doing.

I'm using Using Vegas 7.0b to edit a feature-length project, and I had a problem pop up today out of the clear blue sky. The project I'm working on is a plain old NTSC interlaced project, with footage from a Canon gl1 mixed in with (mostly) 30p footage from an XL2. I went to render out about a 3-minute section from footage entirely from the XL2, shot in 30p. The resulting video displayed some very nasty interlace artifacts, which shouldn't be the case since the footage was shot in 30p. Weird.

So then I go into the media properties for a randomly chosen event. Sure enough, the field order for the clip is set to progressive, when it should obviously be set to lower field first. OK, weirder, since I didn't change anything.

I begin to look at the field order settings for each individual event. Every one of them is set to progressive. I'm beginning to pull my hair out at this point, because it just makes no sense.

I check an old clip from the GL1--an interlace-only camera, mind you--and the field order in the media properties dialogue is again set to progressive. WTF?

The weirdest part yet: I start a new project with Vegas' generic NTSC DV preset. I import a clip. Check the field order. Progressive. Arrrgh.

Up until today, everything in this project was rendering out just as it should. Somehow the field order got changed for every media file in my project. And there are about 500 or so clips in the media pool.

I didn't change any global, project, or event preferences--unless my cat stepped on the keyboard or something, but I don't think that happened.

Anybody out there have even the foggiest idea about how this happened, or about how I can fix it without manually changing the settings on over 500 events? Please? Am I retarded? What am I missing here?

Assuming there are no issues with fitting a project onto a DVD in terms of bitrates what would be the optimum settings for best quality?

At the moment I render to mpg2 using the DVDA template and author in DVD Architect. Up to now I haven't really adjusted the bitrates for the video or audio in Vegas, just leaving them at the default DVDA template settings. However, some of the projects I have burned to DVD have been 3 minute shorts for which the file sizes are nowhere near the maximum 4.7GB.

I have read that the combined bitrate for video, audio, menus etc should not exceed 10,080kbps and that the video max is about 9,000Kbps. So what settings would yield best theoretical results in these circumstances. ie CBR 8,000 - 9,000Kbps ?, VBR (what settings - max, average, min) or VBR (2-pass), and audio.

I just finished a project with DVDA4a. Somewhere along the line I lost my themes and background choices. Both windows are displayed, but with no themes or backgrounds. The only thing displayed in each window is "No Themes Available", or in the other window, "No Backgrounds Available".

I can pull up a new DVDA project or an old one and the standard themes and backgrounds are displayed.

Any suggestions? Thanks.
Dave

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know if Vegas can export clips to tape from an entire timeline with handles? We have a feature we finished up and are pleased enough with it to have a Da Vinci CC done on it. The facility is requesting footage put onto DVCPro tape from the timeline with handles of around 5 frames on both the beginning and end of each clip. Avid does it, does Vegas?

Thanks for the help!
Jeremy

I would not mess with the defaults except to turn them down to make more room on a DVD. Some DVD players choke at higher than normal bit-rates even though it's within the spec. Unless you are seeing unacceptable compression artifacts on your DVD, there is no need to turn the bit-rate up. Just use the DVD Architect templates. They work great.

~jr

This wouldn't happen to be a "single movie" project would it? Since a single movie has no menus, the themes and backgrounds will display that there are none available. This is also true in a regular DVD project if you navigate into the media (like the video file) and then go to the themes and backgrounds tab, it will tell you there are none available. You have to be viewing a menu page for those tabs to show content.

~jr

Yes. When you select File > Save there is a checkbox at the bottom of the window that says, "Copy and trim media with project. If you select this option, the next window will prompt you for the size of the "handles" (although it doesn't use that term). You can adjust it to whatever you need.

It's a good idea to select a new folder to placed the trimmed media in. Then after you process those clips, open that saved project file because it now links to the trimmed media instead of the original media.

~jr

Thanks John,

Thats a big help! One more question. Is there a way after copying out to then print all those clips to tape in batch? Or skip the copy to a new drive and just put it straight to tape like that?

Thanks for the response John. I have always been happy with the results using the DVDA templates but I thought I might be missing out on a bit of extra quality. I'll stick with the DVDA templates. Many thanks for the advice.

You could always select them all in the file system and drag them all back onto the timeline and print to tape. As long as you don't have the overlap option enabled in the preferences, they will just line up perfectly on the timeline for you.

~jr

I recently shoot a Black and White 16mm Reversal type film, but overexposed by almost one and one half (1.5) f-stops. Now, I know the photo lab can pull the exposure a bit, but I was told that overexposure blows out details, but that it's still workable. What I want to do instead of paying the extra costs of pulling at the lab, I just want to process the film normally, then transfer to a Mini DV tape, which I will then bring into Vegas 7.

In Vegas, I hope to bring down the exposure as much as possible to "good" exposure, then increase the contrast. This will work well stylistically for the story of my project I think, but how exactly do I use Vegas to pull (and push) or otherwise compensate for over (and under) exposed shots. And how do I use Vegas to increase contrast?

Thanks.

As you know, in DVland once the hihgs are gone they are gone-unlike film which you can sometimes bring back in a bit. None the less, I would start with the LEVELS FX and adjust on a production monitor not the computer screen to get the exposure where you want it. That will help a little with the contrast but get the exposure right first. Then you can adjust contrast with either the Brightness and Contrast control (start with a ZERO default and move the contrast from there - don't use one of the presets) OR you can use 2ndary color correction and use GAMMA and GAIN to get the contrast moved around a bit.
You can also use that for exposure adjustment but I prefer Levels.

Don

Boy, Vegas has always worked great for me but I'm hoping some
people can help give me some info regarding my current problem.

I've currently got a Vegas 7c project that has about 12 hours of
Cineform HDV footage captured for it. About an hour of it is on
the timeline. This is a mix of 720-30p and 1080-60i in a 720p
HDV project.

Vegas 7c is just not stable for me with this project.
Lock ups with error messages, freezing and
having to be shut down from task manager and even just
completely vanishing. I uninstalled and went back to 7b but no change.

I'm thinking Vegas is just choking on all the Cineform
files. If I click around between clips real fast Vegas just croaks. If I do the same with my DV project no problems, even if I click around with a project that only has a few mixed clips of 720p & 1080i Cineform there are no problems.

Does anyone have any experience working with around 10
hours of Cineform? Anyone think it's the mix of 720p & 1080i
that's killing me? Should I try working with this media in smaller batches?

Would appreciate hugely any experience or info, Thanks a ton.

Thanks John!

I was having one of those projects where nothing seemed to be going smoothly and I was glad to be finally done with it! Then I saw the missing themes and backgrounds and I didn't think it through.

You were right on the mark. I wasn't viewing a menu page. Duh.

Dave

Where are these tools? Levels, gamma, contrast, exposure?

look in video FX...try Sony HSL, Sony Levels, Sony Curves, Sony Contrast and Brightness

If you have overexposed your film you need to spend the extra money for the "pull processing" because once the film is processed normally the highlights are gone, they can not be brought back with Vegas (or any other NLE). The film must be processed to save that highlight detail.

Duane

I'd try uninstalling Vegas AND any version of Cineform Connect you may have installed (including codecs). Reinstall the version of Connect that you captured that footage in, then reinstall Vegas 7b. It sounds very much that it is related to changes in the Cineform codec.

-Pasty

working on a project and wanted to try a script. well it started the script but didn't finish it because it couldn't find the directory folder, or something like that. So what I need to know is there some way to undo that partially ran script? Guess I should have tried it on a test veg file because now my whole video is zoomed in. I did not save the project and tried the undo then closed it out and reopened but it was still the same. I started a fresh project transfered in all my video and it was the same as the project that got messed up. the video is zoomed in, I can go to track motion and squeeze the box and I can see the rest of the video but I really don't want to be doing that to every project I start. The script was thumbnailAtmaker. If anyone can shed some light on this I would really appreciate it.

I have the same problem with 7.0c and the new Cinaform Connect 3.3. when I have lifted 3 or 5 events from the explorer to the timeline, Vegas suddenly shuts down. No mather howe many events are on the timline. It shuts down as it starts to render the soundtrack. I can edit the events without problem. Xp is up to date, everything reinstalled. Still shut down.

Had no probems with 7.0b and Connect 3.23, so I will try to go back to older versions. Just hope I dont need to recapture 7 hours of HDV.

Do anyone have this working?

Removed Vegas 7.0c and Connect 3.3, and reinstalled Vegas 7.0b.
Opend my project, Vegas rerenderd the audiofiles, and now it works again.
Not tried to reinstall Connect 3.23 yet. Could it be an audio render problem from Connect 3.3 into Vegas 7.0c?

Thanks Arnt - that sure sounds like what I am seeing here. Moving a bunch of Cineform files into either the media manager or project media folders has caused Vegas to just go "poof". I will go back to the previous version of Cineform and see how things go. I'm wondering if it can be audio related as well - Sometimes when Vegas locks up I will get a rapidly repeating chunk of audio, sounds like a buzz and it won't stop till a kill Vegas with Task Manager.

FYI - system specs:

mobo ASUS a8n SLI-Premium (latest bios)
AMD X2 4800
2 gigs ram
Windows XP on 2 Raptor drive Raid 0
most media on 4 Raptor drive raid 0
some media on a P-ATA drive
Echo Gina sound card
2 Nvidia 6800GT video cards

I think pull processing would be the way to go here. In Vegas, you can't fix anything that's been clipped. And for other things, making too big a change will bring out noise.

2- Vegas can be useful for playing around with the look of your film though. The color curves offers the most control.

Some useful presets in the link below if I remember correctly:
http://www.glennchan.info/Proofs/forums/sony/curves-and-secondary-presets.veg

Information about levels in Vegas:
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=a7a8c403-64dc-420d-97d0-90d2f8de9fc1

Making s-shaped color curves increase contrast. If your target output is DVD, use a calibrated TV or broadcast monitor to view your work.

3- The brightness and contrast filter increase contrast by clipping; color curves is a little better here.

Based on re-reading this, I'm betting your preview is now on "Best (Full)". Change the preview mode back to "Preview (Auto)" and all will be fine again. It's one of the options above the preview screen.

Does anyone here use YouTube?

YouTube says


We recommend the MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid) format at 320x240 resolution with MP3 audio, at 30 frames per second. Resizing your video to these specifications before uploading will help your clips look better on YouTube.


But Vegas doesn't output to Divx or Xvid. Be really nice if it did... hint hint Sony. So what's the second best option?

EDIT: Mods you can delete this, I found this thread, sorry
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=77493&highlight=youtube

Hi Burk

Got mail from David Taylor at CineForm, and they will look into it.

My specs
Asus P5WD2 Premium
Intel Pentium D 3.0
2 gig ram
Updated XP on IDE
Video on sATA 2x500 Raid 0
Matrox Parhelia APVe
M-audio ext soundcard

So it should not be the hardware.

when i have short projects i usually change the min bit rate to 5,000,000 ( from 192k) and use 2 pass ...

Thanks a bunch Arnt - you really pointed me in the right direction I think!

Did an uninstall of Connect HD (including the codec)
Uninstalled Vegas 7c.
Shut down computer….wait a couple minutes…
Re-install Vegas 7c.

Open problem project and try and reproduce crash – can’t seem to get it to croak. My framerates have fallen to around the 19-20s but I can live with it. In the interest of time and to make sure I’m solid I’m going to just work with this config for a while and see how it goes. So far things look solid.

From what I understand The Cineform guys can’t reproduce the crash, I have an open support ticket with em’ and David (from Cineform) and the Sony forum admin have replied to my post on the Sony Forums. Really appreciate your help here David and Forum admin.

Thanks so much for all the help everyone!