Whenever I used Vegas 5 and prior versions, I could always view my clips with their applied titles and effects sharp and clear on a 13 inch JVC monitor patched through my small Sony camcorder. Now, all of a sudden, when I apply a simple title or a simple color correction, I have such incredible resolution loss and picture degredation that I cannot help to think I knocked a setting out of whack. I always kept the dynamic ram preview at 16 MB. Then, after reading DSE's Instant Vegas 5, I changed the dynamic ram preview to it's max, 1919 MB. Well, that didn't improve the monitor image on bit.

Did I do something wrong with settings? Why is my monitor picture so degraded when apply titles and effects to clips on my timeline?

You are talking about Vegas 6? 6.0a?

Change your preview settings to "Good (Full)" and I'm sure your quality will return.

I am using 6.0a.

Can it possibly be that easy? I am not at my comp right now so I don't know what setting it is at right now. What setting do you think I have it on now? Best or worst? And you are referring to the preview screen icon, right?

Are you actually rendering to RAM or just playing the timeline?

Keep in mind that Vegas displays things at a lower resolution until you actually render. A preview render is really the only way to know how something will look.

Default is "Preview (Auto)".

Are you actually rendering to RAM or just playing the timeline?

Keep in mind that Vegas displays things at a lower resolution until you actually render. A preview render is really the only way to know how something will look.

Actually Vegas displays at the resolution setting you have set. In "Preview (Auto)", the resolution may be decreased but the framerates can be higher. With "Good (Full)" the resultion will be there but the framerates may be lower. It's all a trade-off as to what's most important to you. For me, I leave it on "Preview (Auto)" unless I specifically need to see a higher quality image (i.e. for color correction) and then I'll bump it up to "Good (Full)" but will always drop it back down when finished.

I changed it to BEST (Full) and now I have a clear picture (but the more effects/titles I use, it "stutters" on the timeline play but I guess that's the tradeoff). Thanks again.

Now you mentioned something that needs explaining: What is the difference between higher and lower *framerates* as it applies to your mention of the tradeoff between that and resolution? Also, how do I use the new full screen preview in Vegas 6.0a?

You're getting "stutters" because it is lowering the framerate to keep up the real-time preview. That's the reason for using one of the lower preview settings. At a minimum, try dropping back to "Good (Full)" which should still help. You might even try "Preview (Full)". By the way, this will NOT affect the final render and if you prerender you'll also get full framerates.

In Options - Preferences, you can select the external preview device now.

Thank's Ed.

Default is "Preview (Auto)".

Hey Ed:

I have a similar problem. When I set my preview to external monitor and my Preview Device is set to OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394/DV, I get a lot of screen flicker even when set to Preview Auto. If I select the regular monitor in Vegas 6 or the Windows Secondary Display, it works flawlessly.

When I open up the same projects in Vegas 5, they play perfectly on the IEEE Monitor?

I am using a Pinnacle Moviebox DV as my device. Is anyone else using one with V6 by any chance and NOT having any problems?

I am also curious what converters others are using? I was looking at the Canopus ADVC-300 and admiring the unit.

According to things I've seen on the Sony forum, they are looking into this issue.

Thanks Ed

:-)