Some of these things can be done in Vegas. A lot of people also use AlamDV. Vegas is a decent compositor but it sounds like you may need more power. Soon, Boris Red will be available for Vegas and will probably do all you want. Right now, AE is a valid alternative.

Ok let me re-iterate.

2.) In other words if I open one of my captured source files in Windows media player it doesn't display it at 100% (ie 720x480). I know the dimensions of full dv on my screen simply by choosing "full quality" in the preview window in Vegas and resizing the window to fit. Well when I play a captured clip in media player it only displays it at what looks like 1/2 it's resolution or 360x240....and I even made sure my zoom level in media player was 100%.

as for 4.) I'll try to be less wordy- I think you lost be because I took too long to explain my question.
In other words... if I want to delete a captured 50 minute file. But want a few short clips from it to remain on my hd, what's the best way to go about doing it?
I could splice it up and render the sections to new avi's before deleting the large 50 minute clip but would those new sections I spliced and rendered out as new smaller clips be of any less quality than the original 50 minute clip? {Does that make any more sense?)

#2: That's a Windows Media Player thing. There's an option somewhere to use full resolution. I've also downloaded an registry entry that does the same thing from http://www.scenalyzer.com/faqs.html. Here's what the question and answer say:

Q: When I open the files captured by ScenalyzerLive, they only show in a resolution of 360x288 or 360x240 - what's wrong?
A: ScLive always writes files with the full resolution, however Type1 DV-files are normally decoded by the MS-DV Codec, which by default displays the video only in half resolution. Either capture Type2 files (for Premiere 6.0) or download and start the file http://www.scenalyzer.com/hires.reg to set the MS-DV codec to high-resolution.



#4: Render those sections to separate files.

Thanks Edward, I think I'll go with AlamDv until Boris Red comes out. Being on the low end of the learning curve, I'd rather keep it simple and stick to a familiar interface.

I'm trying to import a movie file into AlamDV
but it says the AVI file is using the wrong codec.
Any solutions or workarounds for this?

Notes:
--------
The AlamDV website says I can use the MainConcept
codec to solve the problem ... I thought the MainConcept
codec came with Vegas 4?

The Sonic Foundry codec comes with Vegas 4. People get confused because it uses the Main Concept MPEG encoder (NOT DV encoder). There ARE some other options:

1) Render to uncompressed (fine for short clips because it takes a LOT of space)

2) Try using the frameserver by Satish at http://www.debugmode.com

3) Purchase and render to the Main Concept codec

2. That's what I was talking about. I saw in the capture options somewhere a box that was checked that stated "decoder resolution based on preview window size". I'm assuming this means whatever size your preview window is while your capturing is the size media player will display (decode) the clip. So I'm assuming if I uncheck it my files will be at full res. when viewed in media player.
*not so much of a necessity, more of a curiosity regarding this dialog box in the capture options*

4. Exactly I know, but my question is are these new sections going to be any less quality after re-rendered out as smaller clips?

LOL, the internet can create a sizeable communication barrier sometimes- sometimes hard to describe things. :) Btw, I appreciate all your help Edward.

#4: If you render out segments to a separate file and NO changes were made (ie effects or whatever) the file will be COPIED so there will be NO difference.

So if the footage is untouched the rendering should be real-time or faster?

Probably faster. However, that depends on your drive speed. It is simply copying so it will require virtually NO CPU time. However, your hard drive light will be on SOLID.

I've been reading alot of buzz on the SoFo forums about gaps between multiple clips added to the timeline. I decided to double click a bunch of clips addind them all to the timeline automatically butted up against each other. I zoomed as far as could to the point where two clips meet. I didn't see a gap in the video but there sure is a gap in the audio, less than a frame in size. When I click the edge of the audio to drag it to meet the audio of the next clip the video automatically "snaps" to the lenght of the audio (which is, like I said...less than a frame wide). Odd?! Wonder why this is? Does it have anything to do with the sample rate of the audio. I did change it from the default of 44 to 48kz.

Just noticed this tonight- if I have two separate clips butted up against each other without a transition (cut) the audio stutters twice once it moves onto the next clip. In other words once the audio from the adjacent clips begins playing I hear two short pauses of silence in the first few seconds of the clip. If I set it to loop it doesn't do it the subsequent times it is replayed in a loop- only the first time the timeline cursor passes over the two clips.
Any ideas why this is happening?

Lastly it seemed the only cure was to set "Direct Sound Mapper" in Preferences. Microsoft Sound mapper, and Creative ASIO both continued to do it. Anyone have any insight regarding this?!

Just read the fixes in 4.0d (I haven't updated because I'm in the middle of a project now).
One of the updates is:
"A bug that could cause audio drop-outs during crossfades under certain circumstances has been fixed"

Although it seems to be the opposite- if I crossfade the audio clips then the stutter isn't there. It's only when I butt two clips back to back.

Was editing in Vegas tonight and it crashed twice in a row. Came up with with some "Low Memory" error then some other obscure error message. I cold-booted hoping it would fix it but it didn't. It seemed to crash anytime I drug a large clip to the timeline then tried to fast-forward while watching it. It would crash the same way ever time- the monitor window would go black and soon after the error message would pop up causing me to shut down Vegas.

I thought it might be because I'm now using Nview, a dual monitor option on my Gforce 4 card. I figured maybe it was using more ram to display an entire second monitor...I know it's a stretch. Turned off Nview and Vegas continued to crash when I tried to ff.

I finally backtracked and hit the default button under audio device which defaults to Microsoft Sound Mapper (I had switched it earlier in the day to Direct Sound Mapper to aleviate audio stuttering). Soon after went back in and "tried" to crash it but this time it ran fine. Re-enabled Nview (2nd Monitor) and back up running fine again?!

Has anyone ever encountered Vegas crashing from an "AUDIO" setting?!

Yes. Audio drivers CAN cause problems (as well as video drivers as you noted). You may want to see if there is an updated driver for your audio card. If not, leave it on the known good setting.

As long as quantize to frame is turned on, I would not worry about this. I haven't seen this gap problem but do not doubt that others have. If someone can give a step by step way to reproduce???

"quantize to frame "

this also helps with syncronisation of multiple instances of the same clip of the same (ie multicam)

you will note that difference will only be apparent depending on your clock timing (Vegas is basically a video sequencer) , audio and birtrate settings etc etc...

but the 1 frame glitch isnt noticable to the human eye.. my system runs about a quarter frame off depending on wha tim doin..
most of teh time its perfectly synced.

"Has anyone ever encountered Vegas crashing from an "AUDIO" setting?!"

yes too many times...

audio drivers dont like going backwards i guess...

if u run the latest vegas update (d) it should fix the problem... it fixed mine

HDD and Audio latency issues are dealt with in this update.
i would suggest you run it :)

if ur hdd has a buffer cashe, this update exploits it nicely

Hello DVinfo folks,

I hope this is a simple question for those of you that KNOW DVDit products, I am trying to find a solution to DVD authoring, I am close. Here is the question. DVDit PE is 399 bucks (ebay full retail version may be cheaper), has menus and AC-3, Vegas 4 comes with DVDit architect creates menus and has AC-3. Vegas 4 is around the same price, What I am looking for is an Architect vs PE explanation, I need menus and AC-3, both appear to have it. Should I just buy Vegas 4 for the extra NLE or is DVDit architect limited?

Thanks for any help.

P4 2.4
1 gig crucial
Pioneer A06
XL1S

I don't think it was the drivers for my audigy card that did it- as I switched it to "Direct sound mapper" whatever setting that does. But it was the only one that seemed to cure the audio stutter I was encountering during cuts. The odd thing is the video would go black, like I explained...I don't know how an audio setting could do that but apparently it did! I'll be sure to update as soon as I'm done this current project- is that a little too cautious?

Peter, the gap (from what I've found is with the audio- not video) and no...it isn't audible.

Edward, reproduction of this oddity is quite easy. Simply drag two clips (that have audio) butt up against each other. Move your curser to the center between the two clips and zooooom alllll the way in as far as you can (even beyond 1:1), then you'll see the audio is shorter than the video but by less than one frame (because zoomed in that close one frame takes up the entire timeline!).

I used DVDit PE for over a year before DVD Architect came out. Now, I use DVD Architect. Here are some differences:

DVD Architect allows you to have Action Menus and Action Buttons. Also, the menu creation if you want snapshots of your images is easier. Likewise with chapter creation. Plus you don't have to work around the user interface quirks and instability of the program.

However, DVDit PE will allow end actions and much better navigational control. Just no action menus or buttons.

DVD Architect has better previews.

The softening has been a success. I used Glen's method, and the footage looks much less harsh than the original footage.

Any more advice on the subject is welcome.

Thanks,
Brad

I don't have any directly captured clips available to test with on this machine. All of the "rendered" clips on the machine do not show this. I'll have to wait to test with some clips from VidCap. I've just not seen this. Of course, I almost always create dissolves anyway.

glen, i was referring to the video and audio syncronisation to each other

never underestimate the power of effects chains....

alam dv looks incredible.. taking a squiz now, but for the moment, theres nothing like this available for Vegas...

Glenn there are alot of factors revolving around audio driver stability.
Depending on your OS and soundcard config and the way it has been configured through the project settings, it's most likely that your crash issue was caused by the audio drivers, or your OS handling of them.

the video would most likely go black due to memory restrictions and GFX card buffer underruns, too many buffer drop outs and you will get a crash.

as for updating, i was getting the same issues during an important wedding i was editing, not only would it crash when rewinding with the "shuttle" tool, (this is a full 5.1 project using 2x3 stereo busses <12 channels of audio direct from DV mp3 and wav> but it would crash when i clicked undo.
I did the update and the baby flies like Sally Field.. :)

it didn't affect my project

One thing to note is the SBlive Audigy cards DO have issues with certain Motherboards and driver configs whle running multiple codecs..
Its been an issue since the first emu10k SPU came out.
My old SBLive on my other machine (when they first came out) still runs fine for audio i can't fault it, but when i try to get vegas to play a jpg on the timeline, the audio cacks itself as its looking for the right audio codec when there is none. Bang, its dead and vegas follows...

the reason vegas is so good as a SW only kit, is due to the way it handles multiple processes and codecs at once (so long as the processes and codecs do not have driver conflicts, hardware conflicts or have corrupted registries...)

your issue could be from a basic need to defrag, or it could a HW issue like an IRQ sharing issue, which Creative gear DON'T like...
Could be lots of things....

Interesting.

I had to get rid of my SB Audigy card because it would crash another video editing program I use (Visual Communicator Pro). It would crash and lock up often but only if using windows 2000.

SB Live works just fine for me now.

Thanks ED. Looks like Vegas 4 for me !!

This is really starting to frustrate me.

Capturing video in Vegas 4.0d is beginning to wear me down. Maybe I changed a setting or something because for some reason I constantly am getting communication errors and lose contact with the video camera. It's constant. However I can use another video capture program I own (Visual communicator pro) and never have a problem.

I'm using a Panasonic DVX100 with firewire. If anyone has a clue what I may be doing wrong please let me know. I never had this problem before so I'm thinking I may have messed up a setting somewhere.

Under the preferences, video device, there are two selections available. One is OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 and the other is video for windows standard. Using the video for windows standard with Main Concept DV Codec didn't work. Same results with the IEEE 1394.

I'm at the end of my rope and don't know what else to try. I'll see if I have another cable somewhere and try that.

Thanks,

Sony Vegas 90 Day Winner (Quicktime) (http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2003/08_aug/news/prato0827.htm)

Yeah. . .I thought about doing something for that competition, but my laziness took over. I couldn't have competed against that anyway. Very nice!

and the irony of it is the Adobe ad right underneath the main feature article.. LOL

I love that vid!

Odd, I can hear it but not see it. Granted I have Windows Media Player 8 but I have the WMP 9 codec pack installed. Hmmm

It plays Quicktime when I follow the link.

You may need to get the free QT Player.

It'll be worth it - it's a nice piece of work!

Anyone ever experience any issues converting AVI's from vegas in cleaner? trying to create a wmv version 7 file...it finishes the file encoding in literally 5 seconds...leaving me with a 277 KB file that plays about 20 seconds of audio only (no vid at all) the funny thing is that it worked fine on other files made in vegas on my laptop...but shes overheating when rendering and shutting off... wahhh....

I'm figuring out that good audio is a difficult thing to master. Also, I noticed on an earlier project that adjustments made to audio listening through my PC speakers was profoundly different than through headphones.

How do the veterans do manage their audio? Headphones or good speakers? Which do you think is more representive of the true sound that will be on the final project played from a TV (and perhaps suround sound system)?

Also, do many of you use Sound Forge. I understand it can fairly easily clean up background noises. Do you think for a novice it would be useful for improving the overall audio? I think I already know the answer to this next question is "no", but can it amplify a persons voice without amplifying the background noises in a situation where it wasn't possible to get the mic in as close as I should of? And if so, is it something that could be mastered in a couple hours or would it takes days to get the hang of?

Dan,

Veterans in the proaudio business use specialized monitor speakers, but also check their sound through speakers representative of their audience. "Miami Vice" series composer Jan Hammer would check his mixes on fine studio monitors and a mono TV speaker. For digital artifacts such as pops, clicks and noise reduction, I personally find that headphones are much better. This practice varies with the individual.

As for the art of noise reduction, don't expect to master this quickly. Modern computer editing and processing software has
really sped up the process, but it's still an art. SoundForge is a fine package, but you'll find that you collect particular pieces of software for their processing strengths.

As for amplifying a persons voice in the presence of ambient noise, try SoundForge noise reduction followed by a compressor.
The latter will attempt to bring the dominant signal to a constant level. Depending on your audio material, you may notice considerable noise "pumping" as the noise level rises and falls during the speech. However, most of your audience will tune this out, especially if you can remix the ambient noise, taken from an isolated section, at a lower level.

HELP! How do you do slow down or speed up clips in Vegas? There's got to be a simple way and I'm just missing it.

Go to http://www.jetdv.com/tts and read issue #9. It fully explains the two main methods to speed up or slow down a clip.

In summary, they are:

1) CTRL - Drag to resize the clip.
2) Velocity Envelope

Vegas is excellent for audio. Sound Forge goes further. Some of the FXs found in Sound Forge is not available in Vegas (like the Channels FX, that does decent pseudo stereo).

I addition to what Gints said you can remove some background noise with noisegate (both Vegas and Sound Forge). but the result can be very dramatic because it creates total silence in some spots and unlike Noise Reduction it does not try to remove noise that sits behind the sounds you want.
Generally I find that when I'm driven to use noisegate I must add some other background (like music or ambience) to cover the holes, so they don't stand out too much.
(Now I'll step back for a while and philosophize over how you can have holes standing out.)

just spent a week of hell trying to figure out why my video capture wasn't working in vegas with constant communication errors. I reinstalled software, put a fresh hard drive in and put new windows 2000 installation, bought a new firewire card, yanked a chunk of hair out and still .... the dreaded communications errors popped up when I started capturing video. I started going crazy. I used 2 different cameras in testing with the same results. Switched cables, etc.

I just woke, sitting with my cat and a cup of coffee and figured it out and thought I'd pass along this solution. My DV camera was hooked into a firewire port AND I also had my canopus AVDC-100 digital/analog converter plugged into a firewire port. The canopus was turned off so I didn't think it would conflict BUT IT DID. Once I yanked out the other firewire cables and only ran the DV camera, it worked fine. I also had an external drive (shut off) in another firewire port which I also disconnected although I think it was the canopus.

Just thought I'd pass this along if anyone else ever has this conflict.

How do I alter the credit roll speed in Vegas 3?

The only way I can think of is to apply a velocity envelope, but that seems wrong

The PROPER way to change the speed is to open the scrolling text dialog and look at the upper right hand corner. There you will find a timecode labeled "Length" which defaults to 10 seconds. Change this length to be the amount of time you want the clip to scroll. After closing the dialog, change the length of the event to be the same length.

Thanks Edward!

okies heres a thread for those who wanna give their 2 cents about what theyd like to see vegas include.

I'll go first.

1) I would like to see a default template selection, where youcan set up templates and load them up as your edit layout.
This include 5.1 assigned audio busses with appropriate EQing for different environments.
Basically something like this...
You insert your video clip, and you audio is automatically split into 5.1 and sent to its appropriate bus output. Any changes made to the master channel are duplicated within these panning/LFE tracks. Basically its a 5.1 reprocess of a stereo track.
Now i know you can do this with audio busses as well as ccopy track routines, however they arent as precise as what i am refering to. And most people probably already work with their own templates (I do) however it would be nice to be able to go into the project properties and say, alrighty, i have a stereo recording off tape, and i also want to add some music, and i want this all split into 5.1 surround. I also use a DVX, so i want to use 24p, this recording also has alot of dialogue, so i want to boost those levels so bus 1 should have "X" effect, while the rear speakers should have a lil more reverb...

Go to your project and voila, theres your project, input from 2 stereo sources, output in 5.1.

2) I want to be abot to open and work on VOB files. Not jsut the video element, but true, 5.1 encoded VOB files.
I wanna see the ac3 file split into each respective channel on a spereate track and bus and i wann be able to mess with it

3) I want a "Camera shake" compensator. Im pretty good with a camera, however i do alot of re-processing and re-editing of existing footage. They shake alot and the way i fix this is by running a track motion on the clip and manually zooming in then I adjust the movement by keyframe, setting an achor point by site.
If for example i could automatically anchor a point and adjust the compensation level it would make my work easier. Much like Pinnacle Edition Pro 5 camera shake fix.
This can probably be done with the existing track motion

4) Transitions and Alpha blends. At the moment im using Pixellan with a load of greyscale blends i picked up over time, as well as afew of the new free plugins. Pixellan effects are also very good.
However there just seems to be something missing.
More 3d stylisations such as Hollywood FX would be a welcome addition. Or suport for Hollywood effects. Hell Premiere and edition are opposed to each oter on teh market, and premiere user can use these, but Vegas user miss out.

5) Faster rendering times. Main concept upgrades should be made availbal efrom SoFo's site. Considering their main MPG plugin is Main Concept, one would like to think that updates are made to the codec all the time. Considering Vegas doesnt like MPG as much as it loves AVI i would like to see more than 20fps on my half rendered project.

6) Hardware Support. As much as i likd Premiere, it wasnt half as streamlined as Vegas is. I stopped using premiere then switched to Vegas when it first came out. I havent looked back, howevr i do feel rightly pissed that premiere not only has Matrox support, but Canopus and afew others.
HW i refer to is a realtime MPG encoder/decoder (canopus/matrox) , GFX board (like pinnacle) as well as a Realtime DV encoder/decoder which allows for realtime timline output in any format.
Vegas is good and the only thing thats holding it back is HW support.

7) A 3D Vector Titling application. Or not as big...
In a more basic sense an application which allows for 3d motion, panning and lighting.
What might work, would be Xara 5 (or Xara3d) as a plugin.
If you havent used Xara, its a small 3d text application. small and neat and exports as AVI, bitmap etc, its absolutely incredible for what it is. Do a search you wont regret it.
Its a simple and efficient titling app which i use alongside vegas. Titles are used as composites in a clip. Looks better than the standard vegas crap anyway.
Xara is lacking in afew departments, but for what it does im not complainng,
Now if SoFO took this concept and made it better by adding a 3d track motion, THAT would rock...

8) Suport for Premiere plugins (a man can wish.. LOL)

9) DV Capture dropped frames compensation. More of a perk than anything else.. basically if a frame is seen to be "dropped" it would be nice if Vegas couldgo in to it and "replace" those droped frames with some interlacing or aliasing to blend (Or basic frame blend) the drop out points together so its not as noticable. Audio well... forget it...
anotehr alternative to this would be to stop the player if a dropped frame is detected. Rewind teh tape automaticaly and restart the capture. Timecodes would obviously be used for this theyre already in use when capturing... so this is jsut a "Smart" use for them.
Then if we want we can configure it to attempt recapture 3 times then if it fails, to just keep goin. (Just like when u uncheck "stop capture on drop frames")
As for the droped frame fix insertion, vegas should be able to create a virtual track which insters this frame as per timecode without the need to re-encode teh whole file.
There are alot of file split proggies out there, runnign one internally shouldnt be hard...

This is all i can think of, and i knwo here are afew surprises coming out for vegas (Boris for one), but right now, after seeing edition pro 5 and premiere pro in action, vegas looks to be lacking in some departments.

Thers alot more i could mention but ive rambed enuff and i dont think anyones gonna read this...

I also havea shitload of Architect gripes... but ill shut up now...

what do you think Vegas could do with?

If/when they upgrade to support DX9, then third party companies could create non proprietary hardware support for graphics and capture boards. I think the vegas folks are working on that.

I would prefer that over the closed Adobe Plug-in architecture.
Adobe got strict when everybody started using it.
Worse would be a Vegas only plug-in interface. They don't have the market share.

Vegas is already on the right track with .net scripting support.

Right now I would like someone from the Vegas team to offer some info on whether or not they will support DVCPro 50 or at least generic DV50 for capture and edit and output (via firewire of course).

Well my requests are simple:

1. DVD authoring from the timeline

2. More powerful / elegant media file management

3. I'd like to be able to move the timeline to the bottom of the screen!~