Yup, use the "cookie cutter" or "border" video effect.

The sub heading for this forum is Discussing DV editing with Canopus, Matrox, Pinnacle, Premiere and more.
I've been following it for a while and I think that Vegas ought to be mentioned, seeing how often it comes up in the threads. It's always nice to have one's own tools recognised by others, but more important: a passer by with an interest in Vegas might simply do that: pass by.

Good point! I've sent it to the approriate "authorities" <g>

I suggest you get Scenalyzer (the old free one) from here (http://scenalyzer.de/scenalyzer.zip).

This might be able to convert it into a more compatible AVI file
that Vegas can read while you wait for the 4.0d update.

Dennis do you know if Grouping is going to be accesable to
scripting in 4.0d? I wrote a script to handle the Lady X episodes
we are managing and the only thing I can't do is group the
audio & video events after I added them to the project.

I know I can do this manually (which I do for now) but would
be some much better if I can do it through scripting.

Rob:

I don't know that answer to that. Please post in the Vegas scripting forum, and Paul will have an answer for you.

Sincerely,

///d@

I was thinking that same exact thing. For the amount of talk it gets on here it should have it's own forum!

After reading the posts here for the past year it is now time to buy. All the talk about Vegas Video has convinced me that the vegas 4.0 is the way to go. I've done some brief searches for turnkey systems but the range in systems seems pretty wide- as a user what would you suggest for minimum system requirements? What should I expect to pay?

Why would you shop based on minimum system requirements? If you built a system that met Vegas's minimum requirements you might be dissapointed with the results.
The things to look for are obviously processor speed, dual if possible (helps render times greatly), plus hd performance. Optimaly you'd want a RAID 0 setup, maybe a couple of 160 gig serial ATA hds. Then again I'm only running an Athlon XP 2200+, 512 DDR, 80 gig dedicated video drive...and don't have any problems with dropped frames on capture, or black frames on transitions etc.

I don't think you can even buy a machine that's below Vegas' minimum requirements today. Any computer today - straight off the shelf - should pretty well work. Having said that, I would buy as fast as I could afford. Also allow for plenty of memory (512 Meg or 1Gig of RAM) and plenty of hard drive (at least a separate 100Gig drive). I wouldn't worry about RAID as IDE is plenty fast. The only other real requirement is a firewire port.

Actually we're on the verge of culling all the Vegas threads and moving them to their own dedicated Vegas forum here on DV Info. So it hasn't gone unnoticed... Vegas is a hot topic around here and as soon as I come home from NYC this weekend, we hope to have this done. Thanks for your patience,

Ed and Glen,
Thanks for the reply. Glenn- I probably didn't phrase it right but I was seeking opinions on what YOUR minimum system requirements would be for Vegas 4.0. I want to make sure that I buy enough RAM and HD and that I have all the necessary hardware to get the job done effectively. In checking turnkey system sellers I have received all sorts of opinions. This is a great site to get some much valued, unbiased information from people who are in the know. Thanks and keep the opinions coming to this editing rookie!

Thanks Chris!

Wow thanks- that would be great. Have Trox moderate it! ;)

Well I run Vegas both on my desktop PC and laptop. It runs fine on both even despite the fact my laptop is a little aged (Pentium 1.6, 512mgs DDR, 40gig hd). The main difference I see are rendering times- a 1.6 is a bit different than 2.2 (well 1.8 I should say...with the performance of a 2.2- as AMD would say).

Ed's right though- any pre-built computer would easily be powerfull enough to run Vegas. I don't see anything slower than 2ghz nowadays. I have, however, found you can buy older/cheaper parts if you build the computer yourself. Check pricewatch.com for all the latest prices. You'd be amazed how much last-years top CPUs cost now...I paid close to $300 for my Athlon XP 2200+, it's now roughly $70-80. UGH!...it hurts to look.

If I had the money- my dream editing system would be a Nforce M.board, w/ dual Athlon 3200+, 320gig SATA raid-0, 1gig of paired DDR, Two 21" Flatscreen monitors (w/v.card that supports dual monitors), and last but not least Vegas+DVD. ;)

Ditto to what Glen said.

Nick

A dedicated Vegas forum...I agree that might be useful but...

Why not a dedicated Premiere forum?

All the best,

Ed

Well if they make a dedicated Vegas forum I suppose this would practically become a Premiere forum, if not dedicated.

True true- the only two I mainly see posts on are Vegas and Premiere. With Vegas on it's own forum this one can become "Premiere, etc". ;)

Granted I like the SoFo forums and all but it can't touch the layout of this "PHB" forum format! Love it! Thanks again guys.

What steps would I go to make sure I get the best quality footage? There are many different choices in different properties and im not sure which I should be changing and which I shouldn't

Thanks

Now if we could get Spot and friends to leave those awful dmnforums and take up residence here....Oh well.

Spot is on DMN forums? Where is DMN?

DMN Forums (http://www.dmnforums.com) - see the Sonic Foundry Vegas forum

I agree I like this forum software so much better. Though the DMN forums do have some very good groups and information.

Your first step should be to read (and possibly re-read) the Sonic Foundry 24p paper (http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/productinfo/24p.pdf)

Thanks, that helped quite a bit, but still didn't tell me how to convert Pal to 24p.
Does Magic Bullet do this?

Thanks

Conversion from 25 to 24p is nothing more than changing the frame rate and slowing down the sound 4%. You can definitely do this in premier / after effects "Interpret Footage" option but I don't know if Vegas has something like that.

Vegas should handle it fine.

Where is the option in Vegas to reinterpret the frame rate?

File - Render As - Pick your format.

I have a friend that lives overseas he wants me to edit his raw footage for him for distribution. He's going to send the footage over as DV AVI (PAL) on several DVD discs.
I'm looking to move the footage on to my hd edit in Vegas and output the project as MPG2.

To my knowledge PAL DVD players can play PAL and NTSC, but NTSC DVD players only play NTSC. Is this true?

If so is there a way to import the PAL footage into Vegas, edit it, then output it as NTSC MPG2?

What would be a good tool for a "see thru" border?

borders and cutters work well, however i havent had any success blurring out the edges to create a borderless pic in pic effect...
i can blur it black or any other colour, but to completely REMOVE the edges is what im after (bit like the canopus pic in pic defaults)

any ideas?

Peter,
Do you want to overlay the video with effect to another video? because if not you might just want to use photoshop.

you might be able to use an image mask from photoshop in vegas. It should work.


Rob:D

basically, im using the 3d fly away transition for slideshows, but im tryin to soften the edge as it flis away, basically turning into a dot as it flips....

Im also trying to cut out some edges as i run pic in pic routines within the slideshow.
Im using lots of track motions etc heavily filtered and effected...
Im really over the square look and lines.. and jsut want to fade out the edges of some faces

basically im using the same image on 2 tracks, the panoramic image, then a zoomed close up of the faces within the pic in pic thingy.. both tracks are constantly moving and changing image and it works real well, but the edges on the photos dont give it that finished polished look...

Hi folks,

Will be ordering my GL2 next week, and I am also new NLE, having been a Canon 35mm and digital SLR shooter for about 20 years.

My intention with the camera will be completely amateur, personal use. I have a couple of questions for the experienced folks here will to help a neophyte out.

I have been reading all the posts here I can find regarding NLE and getting "real time" rendering by using very high end video boards(Matrox, Canopus TRex, etc), and oodles of HD space.

I have a Dell 1.8 Ghz with 512 MB Ram and a Geforce 128mb TI4600 video card. I have about 60GB of ATA disk, and a 1394 fire wire board.

From everything I have read, it appears that Vegas is the premier(no pun intended) editing tool for both video and audio. I plan on getting the version with DVD authoring for when I eventually get a DVD burner.

My question: Am I in for a shock as to how long my rendering times are going to be? I understand Vegas works really well on "standard" off the shelf PC configs, so I think I am ok in the editing area. Just wondering if I am in for long waits and surprises in the post-editing area with my existing hardware platform.

thanks so much for an assistance.

Jeff

Other than the obvious including cpu speed, etc- editing times vary greatly depending on how large a render your doing and how complex it is effects, transitions, etc.

A 1.8 isn't the blazing fastest cpu around but it's no slouch either. I'm running an Athlon 2200+ which actually runs at a clock speed of 1.8ghz. To render a 1 hour project into MPG2 format it takes roughly 2 hours.

The cards you mentioned definitly have the advantage to show your changes in footage (ie transitions, effects) immediatly, however I still think they have to render, albiet possibly with hard-ware support which can make it much faster. Although all those cards support Premiere- in my humble opinion it's not worth working with Premiere even with the added benefit of hardware support. I stick to my slower encoding times and Vegas+DVD workflow. Besides long renders give me a chance to take a break- get and go get something to eat or stretch. Everyone knows the lock-knee feeling standing up after several hours in front of the computer editing. lol

Hopefully Sony will produce some sorta mack-daddy hw card to work with Vegas. One can only dream!

I use a P4 3.06HT and for a typical 1 hour wedding video with the effects, PIP,color correction,borders, transitions, audio enhancement, music etc,etcetc, it takes about 2 hours to render to PTT. I go do something else then, eat, say Hi to my wife, kiss my dog, or work on another machine and keep editing (which is what I do lots of now-my mid year crunch).
I really don't like the wait but I love what Vegas can do.
Don B.

The border effect should work fine. Just apply the border effect, choose the blurred preset, and adjust the size of the border.

tried that ... :(

border comes out blurred but black, and as far as i can see the colour bars dont allow have alpha... jsut solid colours... :( :(

No one knows?! C'mon guys don't let me down....

Glen,

As Vegas is software based and not hardware based importing and editing shouldn't be a problem. It's when you come to exporting that could be a problem. NLE PAL-NTSC conversions aren't the best quality available, they're OK for personal stuff but certainly not broadcastable. I've done it with Quicktime and the results weren't too bad, occasional artifacts in fast motion sequences. As for exporting as MPG2, I'd convert first as native DV then export as an MPG2 file.

So say if I transport the native PAL DV footage to my computer (from numerous DVDs) edit it in a PAL template, then I can actually export as NTSC DV AVI before encoding to MPG2. In other words it's both 1.possible and 2. advisable to export my edited PAL footage to NTSC DV AVI format before encoding for MPG2?

This is something I've never attempted- I've always kept the workflow totaly in NTSC...so I've never tried to switch format halfway through my workflow. Hopefully it'll allow it....without the "artifacting" you spoke of.

Spot is on DMN because they're paying him to be there. Do you think I should make a counter-offer? We already have so many talented folks right here who should be paid. At any rate, you asked, so you receive... welcome to DV Info's new Vegas forum. Hope this helps,

Hey.. What about Premiere?

Ed

If there's enough demand by a number of our members, and if there's someone talented enough to volunteer to moderate it, then sure, we can start a Premiere-specific forum. Or Final Cut, or Edition, or any flavor of video editing app. Hope this helps,

Actually, the borders SHOULD be alpha. Place a solid color generated media BELOW the bordered clip. You should then see that color as the border.

There's a number of different ways to convert from PAL to NTSC without spending money. The first is to export your edited PAL project as an NTSC AVI. I haven't got Vegas handy at the moment but I think there is an option to resample or something like that, make sure it is checked.

Another way is to export you project as a PAL AVI and then convert to NTSC using Quicktime PRO if you have it.

I've tried both and had success with both to various degrees, but neither of them was what I would call broadcastable.

So no matter what- when I convert PAL to NTSC I'll lose quality one way or another. I mean it makes sense- it not only runs on a different frame-rate, it has a different resolution.
So it's proabably best to stay within whatever format the source material started as, if possible. The only reason I needed to possibly convert to NTSC is because it's the only way to create DVD discs that were univeraly compatable.

How about MPG1s? If I edit the source PAL material and export as several MPG1 files is there any format incompatabilities? Do you even have to specify PAL or NTSC when encoding a simple MPG?

found an easier solution.. using the Border effect gives a solid colour.. but using the cookie cutter on the overlaid track works beautifully :)

just pic the cut away all but section, adjust the size, and voila works a charm!

You are bound to lose a little quality simply because you are going from 25fps to 30fps. Where do the extra 5 frames come from? They have to be "created".

Yes, either Border or Cookie Cutter should work well over a generated media color. Cookie Cutter will give more control as to shape, size, and position.

Edward, is what I heard true regarding PAL players handling NTSC fine? Also any definitive info regarding outputting edited PAL footage as MPG1. When dealing with MPG1 media formats don't matter in regards to PC playback...correct.